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Sixty years ago this week, in the region around Hanoi in Vietnam, an important, but long forgotten, battle was being waged
It was March 23-28, 1951 in Tonkin, Indochina…
In the second attack of his general counter-offensive, Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap targets a French outpost near Haiphong in what becomes known as the Battle of Mao Khe…. More>>
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On this date:
March 18 – 20, 1970 – Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia is deposed by General Lon Nol.
Sihanouk, who had been out of the country at the time of the coup, had been walking a fine line for years between the Americans and the North Vietnamese– he allowed the U.S. to conduct strategic bombing against NVA targets inside Cambodia while at the same time he was the one who granted those same NVA troops sanctuary within his borders. Sihanouk was desperate to keep his country out of the fighting war so he played both ends against the middle, and was remarkably successful at it. In the end it was his inability, or lack of effort, to stop supplies destined for the NVA and Viet Cong from traversing his ports and countryside that finally led the US to support his removal… More>>
Posted in Asia, Essays, History, Sunday Almanac, US Military, Vietnam, War
Tagged Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, Lon Nol, Norodom Sihanouk, Polpot, Richard Nixon, Vietnam War
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March 13, 1954 – Outnumbering the French nearly five-to-one, 50,000 Viet Minh under Gen. Giap begin their assault against the fortified hills protecting the Dien Bien Phu air base….. More>>
Posted in Asia, History, Sunday Almanac, Vietnam, War
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