Modern American History

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1971 - Army drops charges of My Lai cover-up: The Army drops charges of an alleged cover-up in the My Lai massacre against four officers. After the charges were dropped, a total of 11 people had been cleared of responsibility during the My Lai trials. The trials were a result of action that occurred in March 1968. During the incident, 1st Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader in the 23rd (Americal) Division, allegedly led his men to massacre innocent Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, in a cluster of hamlets in Son Tinh District in the coastal south of Chu Lai. By 1971, charges were pending only against Lt. Calley, Capt. Ernest Medina, and Capt. Eugene Kotouc. On March 29, 1971, a Fort Benning court-martial jury found Calley guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 South Vietnamese civilians and sentenced him to life in prison. Kotouc was cleared by a court-martial on April 29, and Medina was acquitted on September 22. On May 19, the Army disciplined two generals for failing to conduct an adequate investigation of My Lai, demoting Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Koster from two-star to one-star rank. At the same time, both Koster and Brig. Gen. George W. Young Jr., his assistant divisional commander at the time of the massacre, were stripped of their Distinguished Service Medals, and letters of censure were placed in their personnel files. The trials ended on December 17, when Col. Oren K. Henderson was acquitted of cover-up charges. He was the highest-ranking officer to be tried. Of those originally charged, only Calley was convicted. Many believed that Calley was a scapegoat, and the widespread public outcry against his life sentence moved President Nixon to intervene on April 3, 1971. He had Calley removed from the Fort Benning stockade and ordered him confined to quarters pending review of his case. On August 20, Calley's life term was reduced to 20 years. In November 1974, a Federal Court judge ruled that Calley was convicted unjustly, citing "prejudicial publicity." Although the Army disputed this ruling, Calley was paroled for good behavior after serving 40 months, 35 of which were spent in his own home.

1975 - Phuoc Binh falls to the North Vietnamese: Phuoc Binh, the capital of Phuoc Long Province, about 60 miles north of Saigon, falls to the North Vietnamese. Phuoc Binh was the first provincial capital taken by the communists since the fall of Quang Tri on May 1, 1972. Two days later, the North Vietnamese took the last of the South Vietnamese positions in the region, gaining control of the entire province. The South Vietnamese Air Force lost 20 planes defending the province. Presidents Nixon and Ford had promised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the United States would come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive in violation of the Paris Peace Accords. However, the United States did nothing when Phuoc Binh fell to the communists. In fact, the passive response of the United States convinced North Vietnam that the Americans would not soon return to Vietnam, and encouraged the Politburo in Hanoi to launch a new attack in the hopes of creating ripe conditions for a general uprising in South Vietnam by 1976. When the North Vietnamese launched the new offensive in early 1975, the South Vietnamese forces, demoralized by the failure of the United States to come to their aid, were defeated in just 55 days. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace on April 30 and South Vietnam surrendered fully to the communists.

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More Military History Tid Bits you May not have known ...

1904 - Japanese railway authorities in Korea refuse to transport Russian troops.

1921 - The U.S. Navy orders the sale of 125 flying boats to encourage commercial aviation.

1942 - Roosevelt commits to biggest arms buildup in U.S. history: On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces to Congress that he is authorizing the largest armaments production in the history of the United States.

1945 - Boeing B-29 bombers in the Pacific strike new blows on Tokyo and Nanking.

1958 - Soviet Union announces troop reduction: The Soviet Union announces plans to cut the size of its standing army by 300,000 troops in the coming year.

1967 - Over 16,000 U.S. and 14,000 Vietnamese troops start their biggest attack on the Iron Triangle, northwest of Saigon.

 

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Continued ...

1558 - The French, under the Duke of Guise, finally take the port of Calais from the English.

1718 - Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War hero, is born.

1807 - Responding to Napoleon Bonaparte's attempted blockade of the British Isles, the British blockade Continental Europe.

1865 - Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attack Julesburg, Colo., in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre.

1918 - The Germans move 75,000 troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front.

1944 - The U.S. Air Force announces the production of the first jet-fighter, Bell P-59 Airacomet.

1945 - U.S. air ace Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. is killed in the Pacific.

1945 - Monty holds a press conference: On this day, British Gen. Bernard Montgomery gives a press conference in which he all but claims complete credit for saving the Allied cause in the Battle of the Bulge.

1952 - French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi.

1971 - Laird visits Saigon: Accompanied by Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird arrives in South Vietnam to assess the military situation. The purpose of Laird's visit was to check on the progress of the "Vietnamization" effort. In the summer of 1969, President Richard Nixon ordered that measures be taken to "Vietnamize" the war--he hoped to increase the capabilities of South Vietnamese forces so U.S. troops could eventually be withdrawn and the South Vietnamese could assume more responsibility for the war. This effort included a rapid modernization of South Vietnamese forces with new equipment and weapons, and a renewed emphasis on the American advisory effort. American troop withdrawals began in the fall of 1969 and continued on a regular basis. At the completion of his visit, Laird announced that the preponderance of U.S. "combat responsibility" would end by mid-summer. Upon his return to the United States, however, he warned President Nixon and his cabinet of "some tough days ahead." Admiral Moorer, who also had made a side trip to Phnom Penh, reported that the Cambodian situation was "deteriorating" as Premier Lon Nol's forces were being threatened by the communist Khmer Rouge forces and their North Vietnamese allies.

1975 - Vietnamese troops take Phuoc Binh in new full-scale offensive.

1985 - Vietnam seizes the Khmer National Liberation Front headquarters near the Thai border.

 

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1681 - The Treaty of Radzin ends a five year war between the Turks and the allied countries of Russia and Poland.

1815 - A rag-tag army under Andrew Jackson defeats the British on the fields of Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans.

1821 - Confederate General James Longstreet born: Confederate General James Longstreet is born near Edgefield, South Carolina.

1871 - Prussian troops begin to bombard Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.

1887 - Crazy Horse fights his final battle: Outnumbered, low on ammunition, and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves, Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.

1900 - The Boers attack the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but are turned back.

1916 - Allies retreat from Gallipoli: On January 8, 1916, Allied forces stage a full retreat from the shores of the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, ending a disastrous invasion of the Ottoman Empire.

1940 - Mussolini questions Hitler's plans: On this day, a message from Benito Mussolini is forwarded to Adolf Hitler. In the missive, the Duce cautions the Fuhrer against waging war against Britain. Mussolini asked if it was truly necessary "to risk all-including the regime-and to sacrifice the flower of German generations."

1967 - Operation Cedar Falls is launched: About 16,000 U.S. soldiers from the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, 173rd Airborne Brigade and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment join 14,000 South Vietnamese troops to mount Operation Cedar Falls. This offensive, the largest of the war to date, was designed to disrupt insurgent operations near Saigon, and had as its primary targets the Thanh Dien Forest Preserve and the Iron Triangle, a 60-square-mile area of jungle believed to contain communist base camps and supply dumps. During the course of the operations, U.S. infantrymen discovered and destroyed a massive tunnel complex in the Iron Triangle, apparently a headquarters for guerrilla raids and terrorist attacks on Saigon. The operation ended with 711 of the enemy reported killed and 488 captured. Allied losses were 83 killed and 345 wounded. The operation lasted for 18 days.

 

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NEW YORK (Recent Reuters' article) - Jane Fonda regrets her visit to a North Vietnamese gun site in 1972, the actress and fitness guru said in an interview with CBS television show "60 Minutes" to be aired on Sunday.


The actress defended her trip to Vietnam in 1972, which won her the nickname "Hanoi Jane." But she said her visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site used to shoot down U.S. pilots was a "betrayal" of the U.S. military.


"The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda's daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal," she said, calling the act, "The largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine."


But she said she did not regret visiting Hanoi, or being photographed with American prisoners of war there.


"There are hundreds of American delegations that had met with the POWs," she said. "Both sides were using the POWs for propaganda. ... It's not something that I will apologize for."


Three decades on, Vietnam continues to be a divisive issue for Americans. During last year's election campaign, some Republican supporters of President Bush called his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, "Hanoi John" for protesting the Vietnam War after fighting in it and receiving five medals for combat duty.