The Today in History Thread
The Today in History Thread
Would this be an interesting thread to start?
On March 15/16, 1969, President Nixon approved the mission to bomb North Vietnamese targets in Cambodia- formally designated Operation Breakfast–at a meeting of the National Security Council. This mission and subsequent B-52 strikes inside Cambodia became known as the “Menu” bombings. On 16 March, Nixon at a meeting at the White House summoned Kissinger, Laird, Rogers and Wheeler to announce that he decided that bombing Cambodia was the “only way” to make North Vietnam compromise because he felt he had “to do something on the military front…something they will understand”.
On March 15 1992, Yasushi Akashi (of Japan) became Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Chief of Mission of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). UNTAC became operational on March 15 and deployed 1,500 civilians, 16,000 military staff and 3,600 police in addition to several thousands of Cambodian staff. The UNTAC mission began on March 16.
On March 15/16, 1969, President Nixon approved the mission to bomb North Vietnamese targets in Cambodia- formally designated Operation Breakfast–at a meeting of the National Security Council. This mission and subsequent B-52 strikes inside Cambodia became known as the “Menu” bombings. On 16 March, Nixon at a meeting at the White House summoned Kissinger, Laird, Rogers and Wheeler to announce that he decided that bombing Cambodia was the “only way” to make North Vietnam compromise because he felt he had “to do something on the military front…something they will understand”.
On March 15 1992, Yasushi Akashi (of Japan) became Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Chief of Mission of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). UNTAC became operational on March 15 and deployed 1,500 civilians, 16,000 military staff and 3,600 police in addition to several thousands of Cambodian staff. The UNTAC mission began on March 16.
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On this day in 1968 the horrific My Lai or Pinkville massacre occurred in Vietnam.
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam- ... massacre-1
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam- ... massacre-1
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
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The outcomes of the trials afterwards are just as shocking. Perpetrators were given lesser sentences and/or presidential pardons/commutations on the grounds that they were just following orders, whilst at the same time the superiors who gave the orders got off entirely scot-free.Phnom Penh Trader wrote: ↑Thu Mar 16, 2023 1:58 pmOn this day in 1968 the horrific My Lai or Pinkville massacre occurred in Vietnam.
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam- ... massacre-1
Fast forward 50 years and US Presidents are still giving out pardons to convicted war criminals as a handy way to sidestep the Geneva Conventions.
Topic of the thread was "The Today in History Thread" so my post is on topic. Yours isn't dh.
"Goodness me! Now STD free..."
March 17:
1921: British activist Marie Stopes and her husband opened the first birth control clinic in England—a London facility called the Mothers' Clinic for Constructive Birth Control. There are currently 8 Marie Stopes Clinics in Cambodia.
On March 17, 1970: Sirik Matak finally swayed Lon Nol to remove Sihanouk from the government. Lon Nol, who until that point may have been merely hoping that Sihanouk would end his relations with North Vietnam, showed some reluctance to take action against the Head of State: to convince him, Sirik Matak allegedly played him a tape-recorded press conference from Paris, in which Sihanouk threatened to execute them both on his return to Phnom Penh. However, the Prime Minister remained uncertain, with the result that Sirik Matak, accompanied by three army officers, finally compelled a weeping Lon Nol to sign the necessary documents at gunpoint.
1921: British activist Marie Stopes and her husband opened the first birth control clinic in England—a London facility called the Mothers' Clinic for Constructive Birth Control. There are currently 8 Marie Stopes Clinics in Cambodia.
On March 17, 1970: Sirik Matak finally swayed Lon Nol to remove Sihanouk from the government. Lon Nol, who until that point may have been merely hoping that Sihanouk would end his relations with North Vietnam, showed some reluctance to take action against the Head of State: to convince him, Sirik Matak allegedly played him a tape-recorded press conference from Paris, in which Sihanouk threatened to execute them both on his return to Phnom Penh. However, the Prime Minister remained uncertain, with the result that Sirik Matak, accompanied by three army officers, finally compelled a weeping Lon Nol to sign the necessary documents at gunpoint.
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Well, it is in the Cambodian History section…
Probably both threads could be interesting but for different reasons.
Would be good to keep this as on this day in Cambodia (or nearby)
18 March 1970: Forces from the army took up positions around Phnom Penh, and a debate was held within the National Assembly under In Tam's direction. One member of the Assembly (Kim Phon, later to be killed by pro-Sihanouk demonstrators in Kampong Cham) walked out of the proceedings in protest, though was not harmed at the time. The rest of the assembly voted unanimously to invoke Article 122 of the Cambodian constitution, which withdrew confidence in Sihanouk.
Lon Nol took over the powers of the Head of State on an emergency basis, while the position itself was taken by the President of the General Assembly, Cheng Heng. In Tam was confirmed as President of the Sangkum. The removal of Sihanouk had, therefore, followed essentially constitutional forms rather than being a blatant military takeover (so not technically the ' coup' later claimed). These events marked the foundation of the Khmer Republic.
Queen Kossamak was forced to leave the royal palace by the new government. She was held in house arrest in a suburban villa before being allowed to join her son in Beijing for health reasons in 1973, and died there two years later.
Lon Nol took over the powers of the Head of State on an emergency basis, while the position itself was taken by the President of the General Assembly, Cheng Heng. In Tam was confirmed as President of the Sangkum. The removal of Sihanouk had, therefore, followed essentially constitutional forms rather than being a blatant military takeover (so not technically the ' coup' later claimed). These events marked the foundation of the Khmer Republic.
Queen Kossamak was forced to leave the royal palace by the new government. She was held in house arrest in a suburban villa before being allowed to join her son in Beijing for health reasons in 1973, and died there two years later.
March 19 - a busy day
19 March 1956, a Immigration Act law was passed stipulating that ‘foreign nationals’ would be prohibited from entering 18 specified occupations, ranging from various civil service functions to hairdressers and salt dealers.
On March 19, 1964, the ‘Chantrea Incident’ occurred on the South Vietnamese-Cambodian border:
Phnom Penh Embassy reported that our Military Attaché accompanied the Canadian representative of the International Control Commission in Cambodia to the village of Chantrea, where they saw fifteen corpses of villagers killed by shrapnel, burns from napalm bombs and gunfire. They took testimony from the villagers that twelve amphibious personnel carriers accompanied by three American officers entered the village and questioned some of the inhabitants after the attack. The villagers also testified that an American light observer plane was shot down, crashing on the South Vietnamese side of the border.
The story from Saigon has been slow in coming, and the information is still very sketchy. We now know only that an operation was carried out on March 19 near the Cambodian border. An L–19 observation plane covering this operation was shot down, apparently by two Cambodian fighters. Its American pilot was wounded. Three columns of ARVN troops conducted clearing operations near the Cambodian border, but as yet we have no evidence from Saigon that any of these units actually crossed the border. At least three American officers participated in these operations, but we have a report of only one of them at the moment. In a matter of hours we should have the report of the other two. So far there has been no confirmation from Saigon that any Cambodian village was attacked. Four 500 lb. cans of napalm were used during the clearing operations in “open areas”.
Later, Time Magazine reported: Pursuing some Communist Viet Cong guerrillas who had fled across the ill-patrolled and ill-marked border, South Vietnamese T-28s had bombed the village of Chantrea, four miles inside Cambodia; the planes were followed on the ground by South Viet Nam troops accompanied by U.S. observers. Seventeen Cambodians were killed. Both the U.S. and South Viet Nam apologized for the unfortunate incident, a part of the even more unfortunate, long and deadly war in Viet Nam. But Sihanouk plastered horror pictures on every available wall and took to the radio in his terrier’s tenor, accusing the U.S. of masterminding the attack. The Prince demanded that Washington pay reparations, including “one bulldozer or a powerful tractor for each of our dead.”
On March 19, 1970, The National Assembly grants “full power” to Premier Lon Nol, who declares a state of emergency, and suspends four articles of the constitution, permitting arbitrary arrest and banning public assembly. Lon Nol and First Deputy Premier Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak had conducted a bloodless coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk the day before and proclaimed the establishment of the Khmer Republic.
On March 19, 1974, FANK concede that Communist forces captured Phsar Oudong, the former royal capital 24 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, the day before. It was the first major town to fall to the Communists in more than three years.
Government defenders destroyed their artillery pieces in the town’s market to prevent their ‘use by the enemy, and then retreated half a mile to the north, “where they are reorganizing,” a spokesman said. The same day a battalion of President Lon Nol’s palace guards was airlifted to Kampot in an attempt to break the siege of the town that had continued since January.
On March 19, 1980, Chinese Foreign Minister Huang Hua expressed support for the Khmer Rouge.
By 19 March, 1993, 330,000 Cambodian refugees had been repatriated under UN supervision. A cash inducement had been added as incentive ($50/adults and $25 for children), and this rapidly accelerated the process. Roughly 87% had taken the cash option, nearly one–third going to Phnom Penh; 80–85% of the returnees chose areas under Phnom Penh government (Hun Sen) control (about 85% of the country’s territory); 10% chose areas controlled by the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front; 2% chose zones controlled by forces loyal to Prince Sihanouk; and 1% chose Khmer Rouge areas.
On 19 March, 1994, government forces captured Pailin, official headquarters of the Khmer Rouge, but the Khmer Rouge retook it one month later.
19 March 1956, a Immigration Act law was passed stipulating that ‘foreign nationals’ would be prohibited from entering 18 specified occupations, ranging from various civil service functions to hairdressers and salt dealers.
On March 19, 1964, the ‘Chantrea Incident’ occurred on the South Vietnamese-Cambodian border:
Phnom Penh Embassy reported that our Military Attaché accompanied the Canadian representative of the International Control Commission in Cambodia to the village of Chantrea, where they saw fifteen corpses of villagers killed by shrapnel, burns from napalm bombs and gunfire. They took testimony from the villagers that twelve amphibious personnel carriers accompanied by three American officers entered the village and questioned some of the inhabitants after the attack. The villagers also testified that an American light observer plane was shot down, crashing on the South Vietnamese side of the border.
The story from Saigon has been slow in coming, and the information is still very sketchy. We now know only that an operation was carried out on March 19 near the Cambodian border. An L–19 observation plane covering this operation was shot down, apparently by two Cambodian fighters. Its American pilot was wounded. Three columns of ARVN troops conducted clearing operations near the Cambodian border, but as yet we have no evidence from Saigon that any of these units actually crossed the border. At least three American officers participated in these operations, but we have a report of only one of them at the moment. In a matter of hours we should have the report of the other two. So far there has been no confirmation from Saigon that any Cambodian village was attacked. Four 500 lb. cans of napalm were used during the clearing operations in “open areas”.
Later, Time Magazine reported: Pursuing some Communist Viet Cong guerrillas who had fled across the ill-patrolled and ill-marked border, South Vietnamese T-28s had bombed the village of Chantrea, four miles inside Cambodia; the planes were followed on the ground by South Viet Nam troops accompanied by U.S. observers. Seventeen Cambodians were killed. Both the U.S. and South Viet Nam apologized for the unfortunate incident, a part of the even more unfortunate, long and deadly war in Viet Nam. But Sihanouk plastered horror pictures on every available wall and took to the radio in his terrier’s tenor, accusing the U.S. of masterminding the attack. The Prince demanded that Washington pay reparations, including “one bulldozer or a powerful tractor for each of our dead.”
On March 19, 1970, The National Assembly grants “full power” to Premier Lon Nol, who declares a state of emergency, and suspends four articles of the constitution, permitting arbitrary arrest and banning public assembly. Lon Nol and First Deputy Premier Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak had conducted a bloodless coup against Prince Norodom Sihanouk the day before and proclaimed the establishment of the Khmer Republic.
On March 19, 1974, FANK concede that Communist forces captured Phsar Oudong, the former royal capital 24 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, the day before. It was the first major town to fall to the Communists in more than three years.
Government defenders destroyed their artillery pieces in the town’s market to prevent their ‘use by the enemy, and then retreated half a mile to the north, “where they are reorganizing,” a spokesman said. The same day a battalion of President Lon Nol’s palace guards was airlifted to Kampot in an attempt to break the siege of the town that had continued since January.
On March 19, 1980, Chinese Foreign Minister Huang Hua expressed support for the Khmer Rouge.
By 19 March, 1993, 330,000 Cambodian refugees had been repatriated under UN supervision. A cash inducement had been added as incentive ($50/adults and $25 for children), and this rapidly accelerated the process. Roughly 87% had taken the cash option, nearly one–third going to Phnom Penh; 80–85% of the returnees chose areas under Phnom Penh government (Hun Sen) control (about 85% of the country’s territory); 10% chose areas controlled by the Khmer People’s National Liberation Front; 2% chose zones controlled by forces loyal to Prince Sihanouk; and 1% chose Khmer Rouge areas.
On 19 March, 1994, government forces captured Pailin, official headquarters of the Khmer Rouge, but the Khmer Rouge retook it one month later.
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March 20, 1954: Viet Minh radio broadcast a “declaration of the Foreign Minister of the Khmer Resistance Government” protesting US aid to the French in Indochina. Signed by one Keomani, the declaration asserted: “The Khmer people … recognize only the Khmer Resistance Government as the Government which represents all the Nation and people of Khmer.” This was the first known Communist reference to a “Resistance Government” of Khmer, or Cambodia. A March 24 commentary by the Ho radio on the above “Declaration” used the term “Khmer Resistance Government” four times and left no doubt of the Viet Minh intention to advertise the “existence” of a Communist “government” in Cambodia.
As recently as February 14, the Viet Minh arm in Cambodia was still referred to as the “Cambodian Committee of National Liberation.” Son Ngoc Minh, identified in the March 20 DRV broadcast as “President” of the “Khmer Resistance Government,” was formerly identified as chairman of the “Committee of National Liberation.” Keomani (possibly known also as Keo Mas), here designated as “Foreign Minister” of the “Resistance Government,” a prominent Cambodian Communist who served as Cambodian delegate to the Vienna Peace Congress in December 1952.
March 20, 1970, The United States recognized Lon Nol’s new regime. France continued diplomatic relations with Phnom Penh.
March 20, 1972, North Vietnamese mortar and recoilless rifle rounds, accompanied by 122mm rockets, hit the provincial capital of Prey Veng. They were followed by ground actions to the south along Route 15 and in the rice flats to the west. Sixteen miles away, at the key Route 1 ferry-crossing town of Neak Luong, 122mm rockets turned a fuel and ammunition depot into a ball of fire. By the time things quieted down, 18 Cambodians were reported dead, 60 wounded and 10 missing, to the enemy’s 33 fatalities. The assault both insulated the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from Cambodian interference and undercut a possible FANK linkup with an ARVN operation probing for the NVA in the Parrot’s Beak 30 miles to the east.
March 20, 1976, the first general elections in Democratic Kampuchea were held for a new 250-member People’s Assembly.
March 20, 1993, A U.N. helicopter carrying 23 people, most of them foreign journalists, crashed near Siem Reap, northwest Cambodia Saturday, injuring six people in the third such accident in less than three months.
Most of the 23 people on board, including 15 international journalists invited to Cambodia by UNTAC, were forced to roll or crawl out of the wreckage with their clothes soaked in gasoline.
Six people were hospitalized in Phnom Penh, including a Japanese UNTAC employee who suffered serious spinal injuries when she was thrown out of the helicopter on impact, and an American freelance photographer, who suffered a broken foot.
Experts blamed technical problems for the crash of the Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter in the northwestern provincial capital of Siem Reap at about 8:30 a.m., said the spokesman for the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).
As recently as February 14, the Viet Minh arm in Cambodia was still referred to as the “Cambodian Committee of National Liberation.” Son Ngoc Minh, identified in the March 20 DRV broadcast as “President” of the “Khmer Resistance Government,” was formerly identified as chairman of the “Committee of National Liberation.” Keomani (possibly known also as Keo Mas), here designated as “Foreign Minister” of the “Resistance Government,” a prominent Cambodian Communist who served as Cambodian delegate to the Vienna Peace Congress in December 1952.
March 20, 1970, The United States recognized Lon Nol’s new regime. France continued diplomatic relations with Phnom Penh.
March 20, 1972, North Vietnamese mortar and recoilless rifle rounds, accompanied by 122mm rockets, hit the provincial capital of Prey Veng. They were followed by ground actions to the south along Route 15 and in the rice flats to the west. Sixteen miles away, at the key Route 1 ferry-crossing town of Neak Luong, 122mm rockets turned a fuel and ammunition depot into a ball of fire. By the time things quieted down, 18 Cambodians were reported dead, 60 wounded and 10 missing, to the enemy’s 33 fatalities. The assault both insulated the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from Cambodian interference and undercut a possible FANK linkup with an ARVN operation probing for the NVA in the Parrot’s Beak 30 miles to the east.
March 20, 1976, the first general elections in Democratic Kampuchea were held for a new 250-member People’s Assembly.
March 20, 1993, A U.N. helicopter carrying 23 people, most of them foreign journalists, crashed near Siem Reap, northwest Cambodia Saturday, injuring six people in the third such accident in less than three months.
Most of the 23 people on board, including 15 international journalists invited to Cambodia by UNTAC, were forced to roll or crawl out of the wreckage with their clothes soaked in gasoline.
Six people were hospitalized in Phnom Penh, including a Japanese UNTAC employee who suffered serious spinal injuries when she was thrown out of the helicopter on impact, and an American freelance photographer, who suffered a broken foot.
Experts blamed technical problems for the crash of the Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter in the northwestern provincial capital of Siem Reap at about 8:30 a.m., said the spokesman for the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).
Sorry off topic,..I thought this website was history when A threw in the towel.
K440 has a cheakered history. Interesting owners over 3 decades. We all know their names.They all got hammered by posters,
What I have noticed much more traffic here since Gatekeeper/Caretaker has the keys.
Very refreshing and no nasty stuff now.
Massive Respect Mr. Gatekeeper.
K440 has a cheakered history. Interesting owners over 3 decades. We all know their names.They all got hammered by posters,
What I have noticed much more traffic here since Gatekeeper/Caretaker has the keys.
Very refreshing and no nasty stuff now.
Massive Respect Mr. Gatekeeper.
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On March 21, 1804, the Napoleonic Code was adopted in France, stressing clearly written and accessible law. This would largely be adopted in French Indochina, and still strongly influences the modern laws of Cambodia.
On March 21, 1970, Pham Van Dong, the North Vietnamese Prime Minister, secretly traveled to Beijing to pledge Hanoi’s support to Sihanouk. Both he and Sihanouk meet with Zhou Enlai.
On March 21, 1970, Cheng Heng was appointed as Chief-of-State- a largely ceremonial role, as Lon Nol had assumed most of the Head of State’s political powers on an emergency basis. Sihanouk, in exile, dismissed Heng as an “insignificant puppet”
On March 21, 1970, Pham Van Dong, the North Vietnamese Prime Minister, secretly traveled to Beijing to pledge Hanoi’s support to Sihanouk. Both he and Sihanouk meet with Zhou Enlai.
On March 21, 1970, Cheng Heng was appointed as Chief-of-State- a largely ceremonial role, as Lon Nol had assumed most of the Head of State’s political powers on an emergency basis. Sihanouk, in exile, dismissed Heng as an “insignificant puppet”
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