Timeline, October 12th

[David]

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
October 12, 1945 (Year of the Rooster [At Dau]): In Saigon, French troops, supported by Gurkhas, launch a general attack towards the northeast in an attempt to break the insurgents' encirclement of the city and gain control. Villages are burned from Thi Nghe to Tan Binh. Bay Vien, the leader of the Binh Xuyen, separates from the Viet Minh; WG says the Viet Minh intentionally leave him behind as military commander of the Saigon-Cholon area, but the Trotskyites say that he refuses to help the Viet Minh destroy rival Vietnamese groups and instead proclaims his independence from them. They also say that, around this time, the Viet Minh arrest the militants of their group and intern them and about 30 other Vietnamese at Ben Sue in the province of Thu Dau Mot, where they are all shot at the approach of the French troops. It is at around this time that the southern Viet Minh flee Saigon into the countryside (Viet Minh troops from the north are still in transit at this point). Bay Vien, whatever his motives in parting from the Viet Minh, only has 100 men, and so promptly forms an alliance with Lai Van Sang's two thousand man student group in Saigon, the Avant-Garde Youth. Together with a number of Japanese deserters, they engage the French and British forces. The only other major armed resistance group in the area, the Go Vap Tramway worker militia, opens a way to the Plaine des Joncs after the fight begins, engaging the Gurkhas and the French along the way at Loc Giang, Thot Not and My Hanh.

In Laos, Prince Phetsarat declares Laos to be independent under a new government, the Lao Issara ("Free Lao" - sometimes given as Lao Itsala), and establishes a provisional government under Khammao Vilay, prefect of Vientiane. Prince Souphanouvong is made Defense Minister. The Lao Issara government is composed of nationalists across the political spectrum and among its first acts are the declaration of all treaties with France to be null and void, and the adoption of a new national anthem as well as a flag which will become first the Pathet Lao flag and then the official Laos flag after the Communist take-over in 1975.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
October 12, 1959 (Year of the Boar [Ky Hoi]): Although North Vietnam is prohibited from forming a navy, it expands its Coastal Defense Bureau into the Navy Directorate and Coastal Defense force this date; to get around the prohibition, this naval force remains a "branch" of the North Vietnamese Army and has no representation at the ministerial level. By the time of the Tonkin Gulf incidents in 1964, it will have grown to some 2500 men.

October 12, 1963 (Year of the Hare [Quy Mao]) (US Advisory): The ARVN 3/3/6 is ambushed near Tam Ky and sustains 1 KIA and 1 WIA. They capture two VC and one MAS-36.

October 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): The US destroyer, Ozbourn, fires on an attacking Viet Cong force in the Rung Sat.

October 12, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): A Company, 1st Aviation Battalion supports the ARVN 47th Regiment during a rice harvest operation in Tuy Hoa Valley.

October 12, 1965 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): The first group of men commissioned into the US Navy Nurse Corps report for one-month indoctrination to Naval Service.

October 12, 1966 (Year of the Horse [Binh Ngo]) (US Counteroffensive Phase II): Operation Kailua begins in Hau Nghia Province.

October 12, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): Operation Macarthur begins; Operation Greeley will be combined with it within two days.

October 12, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): During Operation Medina, in Quang Tri Province, Company C, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines becomes engaged in heavy combat with an estimated two to three NVA companies.

October 12, 1968 (Year of the Monkey [Mau Than]) (US Counteroffensive Phase V): Operation Windsor ends and 3 RAR deploys to AO Garran on Operation Capital.

October 12-13, 1969 (Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Summer-Fall 1969): 1st Platoon, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, a rifle platoon, makes contact with the enemy in the Hieu Thien District of Tay Ninh Province.

October 12, 1972 (Year of the Rat [Nham Ty]) (US Cease-Fire): Nguyen Hue/Easter Offensive: ARVN forces finally evacuate the Ben Het camp, the last one under ARVN control left in Kontum Province.