Timeline, August 5th

[David]

PREBELLUM:
August 1942-1944 (Years of the Horse, Goat, and Monkey [Nham Ngo, Quy Mui, Giap Than]): Ho Chi Minh, while on a trip to southern China to meet with Chinese Communist Party officials, is arrested and imprisoned for two years by the Kuomintang, who have set up the Vietnam Revolutionary League (Dong Minh Hoi) as an anti-Communist counter to the Viet Minh. However, the Dong Minh Hoi leaders prove ineffectual and, by August 1944, Ho has managed to convince the Kuomintang that he is himself a nationalist first and a Communist second, his efforts aimed as much against China's enemy, Japan, as against the French. Ho is released in August 1944 and returns to Vietnam in command of the Dong Minh Hoi, where he continues to advance the Viet Minh cause with help from Chinese Communists, the Kuomintang, the Americans and the British.

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
August 1950 (Year of the Tiger [Canh Dan]): French intelligence reports that Viet Minh students are training with 15 light tanks at the Sino-Viet tank school near Canton; however, the Viet Minh won't use armor during the First Indochina War.

INTERBELLUM ? OTHER:
August 5, 1954 (Year of the Horse [Giap Ngo]): The first Boeing B-52A makes a 78-minute maiden flight.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
August 1956 (Year of the Monkey [Binh Than]): In Laos, Souvanna Phouma and the Communist Prince Souphanouvong agree to a coalition government.

August 5, 1960 (Year of the Rat [Canh Ty]): Captain Kong Le's 600 Royal Army paratroopers seize Vientiane, the administrative capital of Laos. Kong Le accuses the US of colonialism and demands the formation of a neutral government under Souvanna Phouma.

August 5, 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): President Kennedy tells President Diem that, among other things, the US will provide equipment and assistance in training as needed for an increase in the South Vietnamese armed forces from 170,000 to 200,000 men, with further increases possible in 1962 depending on what the situation is then.

August 5, 1964 (Year of the Dragon [Giap Thin]) (US Defense): Operation Pierce Arrow is conducted. In retaliation for the attacks on American destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf, 16 aircraft from the Ticonderoga strike North Vietnam's chief petroleum storage complex near Vinh at 1320, destroying 90% of the POL stored there. Other Ticonderoga flights attack enemy Swatow gunboats and P-4 PT boats at Quang Khe, where five boats are damaged and one is sunk, and at Ben Thuy naval base, where three craft are sunk. Douglas A-l Skyraiders and A-4 Skyhawks from the Constellation's Carrier Air Wing 14 then bomb and strafe North Vietnamese naval craft near their bases at Hon Gai and in the Lach Chao Estuary. Under intense antiaircraft fire, the Skyraiders and Skyhawks sink or disable six Swatows and P-4s in Hon Gai's inner harbor. Other Constellation attack aircraft en route the Lach Chao Estuary sink or damage five enemy craft near Hon Me. Two US planes are shot down during the entire attack. Lieutenant Richard C. Sather goes down with his crippled aircraft, the first naval aviator to lose his life during this conflict, while Lieutenant Everett Alvarez, Jr., survives his crash to become the first naval pilot interned in North Vietnamese prisons, where he will spend the next eight and a half years. At home, President Johnson asks Congress for a resolution "expressing the support of the Congress for all necessary action to protect our Armed Forces and to assist nations covered by the SEATO Treaty."

August 5, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Evansville begins in III Corps.

August 5, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Coronado III begins in the Rung Sat Special Zone.