Timeline, September 22nd

[David]

PREBELLUM:
September 22, 1940 (Year of the Dragon [Canh Thin]): The Japanese occupation of Indochina begins with a successful attack on Lan-son and Dongdang.

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR: THE BEGINNING
September 22-23, 1945 (Year of the Rooster [At Dau]): The British rearm some 1,500 French soldiers who had been shut up by the Japanese in the barracks of the Second Indochinese Regiment outside of Saigon. During the night of September 22-23, the French, assisted by the Gurkhas, reoccupy the Saigon police stations, the political police headquarters, the Tax Office and the Post Office, meeting no immediate resistance. They also enter the Town Hall and arrest members of the Provisional Executive Committee there (most escape). What is left of the Committee leaves town and withdraws to Cholon, and the French tricolor is hoisted over the Town Hall.

In Saigon, insurrection begins to break out as the news spreads. In all the outlying suburbs trees are cut down, cars and trucks overturned, and primitive furniture is piled up in the streets as elementary barricades to prevent the passage of French and Gurkha patrols. The center of Saigon rapidly falls under the control of the French and Japanese troops, supported by Gurkhas. The suburbs of Khanh Hoi, Cau Kho, Ban Co, Phu Nhuan, Tan Dinh and Thi Nghe remain firmly in the hands of the rebels.

There are massacres on both sides from the 22nd to the 24th, and it's hard to get an objective idea from the few online sources available to me now of exactly what happened. The History Place says that "1400 French soldiers released by the British from former Japanese internment camps enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage," aided by some of the 20,000 French civilians still living in Saigon, "attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children." The Trotskyite eyewitnesses say that "[i]n areas where the popular forces were in control Frenchmen were shot: the cruellest functionaries of the old regime, the hated policemen, known by the population to have participated in torture, were sought out, killed and thrown in the canals. Racialism, fed by 80 years of imperialist domination, and by the contempt of the white man for the yellow man, left its imprint on the violence of the masses, which erupted at moments like these. The massacre of a hundred French civilians in the Heraud Estate, at Tan Dinh, was a painful reminder of this fact. The threats of certain French colons to `skin the Annamites alive to make leather sandals' rebounded back against all whites." The History Place reports that the Binh Xuyen murdered some 150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children, in a Saigon suburb on the 24th. I'm not sure if this is the same as the event at the Heraud Estate or another tragedy. Whatever the exact truth, the First Indochina War began in a city turned overnight into hell on earth for everyone in it, that's for sure...and it eventually ended with "hell in a very small place."

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
September-October 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): NVA assistance enables COSVN to raise its first two regular battalions. Both Hanoi and the NLF publicly claim that these are not under NVA control, but rather are part of the Viet Cong, but Hanoi drops this fiction immediately after the war's end.

September 22, 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): A joint US State-Defense telegram notifies the Embassy in Saigon "...that deterioration Laos, end rainy season, scale September VC attacks which took such heavy toll of CG and SDC and probable effect on GVN morale require US take certain emergency actions within 30 days..."

September 22, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): The Korean Capital Division begins Operation Haeng Ho 6 in Binh Dinh Province.

September 22, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Prairie update: A US Marine battalion begins the fight to take the Nui Cai Tre ridge line, also known as "Mutter's Ridge," near The Rockpile.

September 22, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): An SAS patrol of 28 men deploys to an enemy installation found by a previous patrol and locates 13 recent graves, possibly from the battle at Long Tan.

September 22, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): The 155th AHC moves to the Hue-Phu Bai area of Thua Thien Province to support US Special Forces.

September 22, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase V): Operation Cochise Green/Dan Sinh update: Battle of the Soui Ca Valley. Elements from the 41st ARVN Regiment and the 1/503rd Airborne engage the 7th and 8th battalions, 18th NVA Regiment in the Soui Ca Valley, approximately 20 miles south of Bong Son. Casualties: U.S. unknown; ARVN unknown; enemy 197 KIA.