Thursday, September 13, 1945. Start of the 1945–1946 War in Southern Vietnam,

The 1945–1946 War in Southern Vietnam began with the arrival of Major General Douglas Gracey in command if Indian troops.  He arrived to take the Japanese surrendered but immediately apprised the situation as being nearly out of control.

One of his first acts was to arm liberated French POWs.  His Indian Forces and the rearmed French soon evicted the Việt Minh from Saigon.

Gen. Leclerc of the French Army reviewing British Indian troops, Gen. Gracey in the background.

One of the really astounding elements of this is that the British not only won the Malayan Emergency, but arguably won their own portion of the Vietnam War. 

The Japanese surrendered at Rangoon, save for their commander who would not surrender until October.  The Japanese 18th Army surrendered in New Guinea.

The Chinese Communist prevailed in the Battle of Dazhongji while the Wudi Campaign (无棣战役) began.

British military authorities publish a  Gestapo "death list" of 2300 British and Allied notables, including Churchill and the leaders of the French, Polish and Czechoslovak governments in exile.

Spain abolished the Falangist salute.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 11, 1945. The arrest of Tojo.

Labels: 1940s, 1941, 1944, 1945, China, French Indochina, Hideki Tojo, Japan, Nationalist Chinese Army, Pearl Harbor Hawaii, Personalities, Russo Japanese War, Vietnam, Vietnam (Hanoi), War Crimes, World War Two

Monday, August 20, 1945. Wainwright liberated.

Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival, and the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, Mr. van Starkenborch Stachouwer. were rescued from being Prisoners of War by a special American parachute detail at Mukden.  The goal was to free the POWs before the area was overrun by the Red Army.

The occupation of Mukden, as well as Harbin, in fact occurred on this day.

Anti Semitic riots broke out in Cracow, Poland.

The US War Production Board removed most of its controls over manufacturing activity, setting the stage for a post war economic boom.

The US standard of living had actually increased during the war, which is not entirely surprising given that the US economy had effectively stagnated in 1929, and the US was the only major industrial power other than Canada whose industrial base hadn't been severely damaged during the war.  Ever since the war, Americans have been proud of the economics of the post war era, failing to appreciate that if every major city on two continents is bombed or otherwise destroyed, and yours aren't, your going to succeed.

Having said that, the Truman Administration's rapid normalization of the economy was very smart.  The British failed to do that to their detriment.

British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin condemned Soviet policy in Eastern Europe as "one kind of totalitarianism replaced by another."

The trial of Vidkun Quisling began in Oslo.

The Việt Minh consolidated their control of Hanoi.

Seventeen year old Tommy Brown became the youngest player in Major League Baseball to hit a home run.  Brown had joined the Dodgers at age 16.

Brown provides a good glimpse into mid 20th Century America.  Nobody would think it a good thing for a 16 year old to become a professional baseball player now.  Moreover, the next year, when Brown was 18, he was conscripted into the Army, something that likely wouldn't happen now even if conscription existed.  He returned to professional baseball after his service, and played until 1953 and thereafter worked in a Ford plant until he retired, dying this year at age 97.  Clearly baseball, which was America's biggest sport at the time, didn't pay the sort of huge sums it does now.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 19, 1945. Bataan I and Bataan 2.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Aircraft, Battle of Sakhalin, Battle of Yongjiazhen (雍家镇战斗), Chinese Civil War, Chinese Warlord Era, Japan, Manchuria, Nationalist Chinese Army, People's Liberation Army, Philippines, Red Army

Tuesday, April 22, 1975. Proposing negotiations.

The new President of South Vietnam, Trần Văn Hương, proposed a ceasefire in the fighting and negotiations, a really delusional proposition given that the NVA was about to take Saigon.

Huong was a politician who had been into a family so poor, that his parents had given him away to be raised by foster parents.  He initially was a teacher.  He had been a member of the Việt Minh but left when Communist domination became too strong in the organization.  Unlike many of his fellows, he remained in Vietnam, even after he was imprisoned following the war.

The Department of Justice made plans to admit 130,000 Vietnamese refugees into the US.

Last edition:

April 21, 1975. The end at Xuân Lộc.

Labels: 1960s, 1963, 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Battle of Xuân Lộc, Catholic, Christianity, Ngô Đình Diệm, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, Personalities, religion, South Vietnam, Việt Minh, Vietnam War

April 21, 1975. The end at Xuân Lộc.

The ARVN, which had fought hard at Xuân Lộc, finally abandoned the city and retreated toward Saigon.

Thiệu in 1968.

President Thiệu resigned, leaving the government in the hands of Vice President Trần Văn Hương.

He was a career army officer who interestingly started off in the Việt Minh, in which he rose to be a district chief.  He left them, however when it became obvious they were Communist and were committing atrocities.  He enrolled in the French controlled Vietnamese governments Merchant Marine Academy but rejected a position on a ship when he discovered that the French owners were going to pay him less than his French colleagues.  He thereafter  transferred to the National Military Academy in Đà Lạt, graduating in 1949.  He was part of the junta that overthrew Ngô Đình Diệm in 1963, after having prevented a coup a few years earlier.  He was elected President in 1967 after the US insisted on democratic elections.  He was reelected in 1971, as the only candidate running, as opponents believed the polls would be rigged.  His resignation speech was a whopping two hours long, but did include the memorable lines,"I resign, but I do not desert."

He was a convert to Catholicism.

He died on September 29, 2001, in Boston.  In Hawaii to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Mai Anh, the September 11 attacks impacted him psychology and contributed to his death which occurred after his return to his home in Boston.

Kissinger bizarrely believed that his resignation would lead to a negotiation to save Saigon, which is something that apparently his successor, Dương Văn Minh, also believed would occur.

The last New Zealanders at their embassy in South Vietnam were evacuated from the country.

Last edition:

Saturday, April 19, 1975. The ARVN withdraws from Xuân Lộc.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Battle of Xuân Lộc, Cambodia, Khemr Rouge, Marriage, North Vietnamese Army, South Korean Army, Vietnam, Vietnam War