Timeline, September 3rd

[David]

PREBELLUM:
September 2, 1945 (Year of the Rooster [At Dau]): A large official procession through Saigon is held, organized by the Southern Provisional Executive Committee (`Uy-ban hanh chanh lam-thoi Nambo"), with the newly armed militia opening the march in uniform and with tens of thousands of participants, including allegedly "fifteen well-armed, bare-chested bandits carrying a large banner declaring 'Binh Xuyen Assassination Committee'." In the afternoon some shots are fired in the cathedral square, from where no one knows for sure, and this provokes a riot, with mobs attacking French houses. The troubles end late at night with a number of Vietnamese and French dead and wounded.

September 2, 1945 (Year of the Rooster [At Dau]): In Laos, Colonel Imfeld (the French Commissioner) with a group of recently freed French military arrive in Luang Prabang and have an audience with the King. They demand that Viceroy Chao Phetsarat be dismissed, and that the state return to French protectorship. The King agrees, at which point Phetsarat and the Lao Issara (the "Free Lao") depose him for his collaboration with the French, and the Viceroy is declared head of state.

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR ? OTHER:
September 1949 (Year of the Ox [Ky Suu]): The Soviet Union explodes its first nuclear device.

FIRST INDOCHINA WAR:
September 1950 (Year of the Tiger [Canh Dan]): Operation Gregoire is conducted in the Bamboo Canal Region.

September 1950 (Year of the Tiger [Canh Dan]): Dinassaut 2 conducts Operation Gamma in the Mocay Region.

September 1951 (Year of the Hare [Tan Mao]): Dinassaut 6 conducts Operation Croisade in the Badong Region.

September 1951 (Year of the Hare [Tan Mao]): Dinassaut 12 conducts Operation Citron in the Bamboo Canal Region.

September 1952 (Year of the Dragon [Nham Thin]): Dinassaut 2 conducts Operation Jupiter in the Go Quao Region.

September 1953 (Year of the Snake [Quy Ti]): Dinassaut 12 conducts Operations Brochet and Mouette.

SECOND INDOCHINA WAR:
September 1957 (Year of the Rooster [Dinh Dau]): Ngo Dinh Diem wins the general election in South Vietnam.

September 1959 (Year of the Boar [Ky Hoi]): The US Seventh Fleet deploys a multiship carrier task force into the South China Sea in the first of what will be three major shows of force over the next year and a half intended to deter further Communist guerrilla attacks on pro-American forces in Laos and to reassure friendly governments in the area. The Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese supporting forces withdraw.

September 1 and 2, 1961 (Year of the Ox [Tan Suu]): A three-battalion Viet Cong force estimated at 1000 men attacks defense posts and reinforcing ARVN units north of Kontum.

September 3, 1965 (Year of the Snake [At Ti]) (US Defense): 1 RAR conducts Operation 10/65, another artillery raid in which the guns of 161 Forward Battery (NZ) and Battery C 1/7th Artillery (US), established in a temporary advanced gun position forward of the TAOR on the eastern flank, engage elements of the VC All Main Force Regiment. The AO protecting the gun position is 46 square kilometers of undulating terrain, covered mainly in jungle, rice, and clear forest in north central Bien Hoa province, 14 kilometer east of Bien Hoa air base. There is no evidence of VC casualties from the operation and one suspected VC is captured.

September 3, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): General Nguyen Van Thieu is elected President of South Vietnam and Nguyen Cao Ky is elected Vice President. With 80% of the eligible electorate turning out, the pair win 35% of the vote.

September 3, 1967 (Year of the Goat [Dinh Mui]) (US Counteroffensive Phase III): The Marine base at Dong Ha is hit by enemy artillery.

September 3, 1969 (Year of the Rooster [Ky Dau]) (US Summer-Fall 1969): Ho Chi Minh dies of a heart attack. He is succeeded by Le Duan.

THIRD INDOCHINA WAR:
September 1977 (Year of the Snake [Dinh Ti]): An increasingly active anti-Communist resistance movement based just south of the Plain of Jars in Laos leads to an agreement between Vientane and Hanoi for PAVN to help turn the Lao People's Liberation Army into a regular conventional force.

September 1989 (Year of the Snake [Ky Ti]): All four Cambodian factors agree to accept a unified government.