World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Ellsworth Bunker
Ellsworth F. Bunker was diplomat, he is best known for being a hawk on the war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. As of 2018, Bunker is one of two people to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice. Born the eldest of three children of Jeanie Polhemus, whose family descended from early Dutch settlers including the Evertson family and the Schuyler family, George Raymond Bunker in Yonkers, New York, his father was one of the founders and chairman of the board of National Sugar Refining Company. His younger brother, Arthur Hugh Bunker, was a noted businessman, chairman of the executive committee of the War Production Board during World War II, president and board chairman of American Metal Climax. Ellsworth Bunker studied to be a lawyer, graduated from Yale University with the class of 1916. During World War II he served as chairman of the War Production Board's cane sugar advisory committee. Bunker first worked in his father's company, National Sugar Refining Company becoming the company's president, succeeding Horace Havemeyer Sr. in 1942.
He purchased a 600-acre dairy farm in Putney, Vermont. He remained a member of the board of National Sugar until 1966, he moved to government during the Harry S. Truman administration, when Truman appointed him ambassador to Argentina in April 1951. Next he was ambassador to Italy in February 1952. From November 1953 until November 1956 he was president of the American Red Cross. In November 1956 he was appointed ambassador to India and Nepal by Dwight D. Eisenhower, sworn in December 1956, where he played a crucial role in the covert alliance between the two powers against China, he was replaced by John Kenneth Galbraith in 1961. During 1962 he acted as U. S. mediator in the New York Agreement over Western New Guinea. After a period back in Washington, D. C. he was made U. S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, 1964–1966. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him U. S. Ambassador to South Vietnam, 1967–1973. Once in Saigon, he supported the war efforts of Presidents Johnson and Richard Nixon, applauded US incursions into Laos and Cambodia.
Following the conclusion of the Vietnam War, Bunker headed the US team involved in the drawing up of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction twice—the first time by John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the second time by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, he is one of only two persons who received the award twice, the only person to receive it both times with distinction. He married a neighbor, Harriet Allen Butler, daughter of Ellen Mudge and George Prentiss Butler, in Yonkers, New York on April 24, 1920. Harriet had made friends with Bunkers' sister Katherine when the two girls attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, they had three children, John Birkbeck, Samuel Emmet, Ellen Mudge. She died in 1964. On January 3, 1967 he married fellow ambassador Caroline Clendening "Carol" Laise in Katmandu, Nepal, she died in 1991. Ambassador Laise was a friend of the first Mrs. Bunker. Bunker died on his dairy farm in Vermont; the funeral was attended by his good friend and neighbor former senator George Aiken and former president Richard M. Nixon, Aiken died two months later.
His middle child, John Birkbeck Bunker, a first lieutenant in World War II, died of cancer at his home in Wheatland, Wyoming at age 79. In a 1977 Doonesbury cartoon, one of the supposed terms of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties was that "We get to keep Ellsworth Bunker." Bunker is mentioned in Allen Ginsberg's poem "September on Jessore Road", which includes the line "Where is Ambassador Bunker today? Are his Helios machine gunning children at play?" Oral History Interviews with Ellsworth Bunker, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Ellsworth Bunker at Find a Grave "Ambassador Bunker meeting the press. S. officials: Barry Zorthian, Jack Steward, Porter Calhoun", photograph. Zorthian was press media advisor to the ambassador
VMM-165
Marine Medium Tilt Rotor Squadron 165 is a United States Marine Corps Tilt-rotor squadron consisting of MV-22B Osprey transport aircraft. The squadron, known as the "White Knights", is based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and fall under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 16 and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. Provide assault support transport of combat troops and equipment during expeditionary, joint or combined operations. Be prepared for short-notice, worldwide employment in support of Marine Air-Ground Task Force operations. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 165 was activated on July 1, 1965 at Marine Corps Air Station Santa Ana, California as part of Marine Aircraft Group 36, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. During August 1965, the White Knights were reassigned to Marine Wing Service Group 37. In September 1966, the White Knights deployed to the Republic of Vietnam, where they were assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. From October 1966 to August 1969, the squadron operated from Kỳ Hà, Hue/Phu Bai, the USS Valley Forge, the USS Tripoli, Marble Mountain area near Da Nang, from the USS Tarawa.
On June 6, 1968, HMM-165 had two of their CH-46As shot down in the vicinity of Khe Sanh. There were no deaths on the first incident but the second crash which occurred at LZ Loon, southeast of Khe Sanh, resulted in the death of 12 of the 23 Marines on board. In August 1969, the squadron redeployed to Okinawa where it was reassigned to Marine Aircraft Group 15 of the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade. In December 1969, the squadron again became part of Marine Aircraft Group 36. During the early 1970s, HMM-165 participated as part of the Special Landing Force in support of activities in the Republic of Vietnam. During July and August 1972, the White Knights took part in Philippine flood relief operations, flying in food and supplies to local populations. At the end of April 1975, helicopters of HMM-165 played a key role in the evacuation of Saigon, Operation Frequent Wind. At 0500 on 30 April 1975, under direct orders from President Gerald Ford, the crew of Lady Ace 09 evacuated U. S. Ambassador Graham Martin from the US Embassy, prior to the Fall of Saigon.
In November 1977, the White Knights moved to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii where they were reassigned to Marine Aircraft Group 24, the air combat element of the 1st Marine Brigade. At this time the name of the squadron was changed from White Knights to Hawaiian Warriors; the logo on the tail of the aircraft was changed from a traditional knight to that of a profile of a Hawaiian king that resembled the logo of Primo Beer, causing the squadron enlisted to affectionately refer to themselves as, The Primo Warriors. In December 1979 at a time of high international tension arising from the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, HMM-165 deployed to the Arabian Sea with the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit on board the USS Okinawa, their mission was to deter Soviet Aggression under the orders of President Jimmy Carter. This policy would be named the Carter Doctrine. At the same time, the squadron served in a minor support role for the Hostage Rescue Attempt in Iran. Upon returning to Hawaii in June 1980, the following winter produced a severe storm that damaged electrical lines crossing Oahu and HMM-165 assisted local officials in replacing these downed lines.
In 1981, HMM-165 was again deployed to the Western Pacific and Arabian Sea with the 31st MAU on board the USS Belleau Wood. Their name changed back to The White Knights and replaced the tail insignia with a traditional White Knight helmet. HMM-165 performed humanitarian work assisting the government of Sri Lanka in delivering television transmitters to a remote site providing the people of Sri Lanka full national coverage of their television station for the first time. During April 1983 HMM-165 became the Air Combat Element of the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit; the squadron was reinforced with 2 UH-1s, 4 AH-1s, 4 CH-53s, 6 AV-8s in addition to its 12 CH-46s and was redesignated as HMMRein-165. The squadron deployed to the western Pacific and Indian Oceans and completed contingency operations in the Okinawa, Thailand, Malaysia and Somalia; the reinforced squadron was diverted to Beirut, where they conducted contingency operations in Lebanon and Israel from the deck of the USS Tarawa. The squadron returned to Kaneohe Bay in time for Christmas.
In December 1989, the White Knights supported American interests, to include reinforcement of the American Embassy, in the Republic of the Philippines during that country's coupe attempt. In August 1990, the squadron was sent to Saudi Arabia to participate in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm; the White Knights returned home from Saudi Arabia in March 1991. HMM-165 was the "last squadron in the Philippine Islands" when they supported the special purpose MAGTF from July to November 1992. From September to October 1992 a detachment was sent to Cambodia to participate in Joint Task Force Full Accounting; the squadron aided the task force in the search for remains of MIA's from the war in Vietnam. In March 1993, another detachment from HMM-165 was sent to Cambodia to participate in Joint Task Force Full Accounting; as a result of the Base Realignment And Closure Committee's actions HMM-165 was reassigned from the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing Aviation Support Element, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, to Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California on May 15, 1996.
HMM-165 moved to MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California in November 1998 as the result of additional BRAC requirements. In D
Fall of Saigon
The Fall of Saigon, or the Liberation of Saigon, was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong on 30 April 1975. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; the PAVN, under the command of General Văn Tiến Dũng, began their final attack on Saigon on April 29, 1975, with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam forces commanded by General Nguyễn Văn Toàn suffering a heavy artillery bombardment. This bombardment at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport killed the last two American servicemen killed in combat in Vietnam, Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge. By the afternoon of the next day, the PAVN had occupied the important points of the city and raised their flag over the South Vietnamese presidential palace; the city was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City, after the late North Vietnamese President Hồ Chí Minh. The capture of the city was preceded by Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of all the American civilian and military personnel in Saigon, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese civilians, associated with the southern regime.
The evacuation was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. In addition to the flight of refugees, the end of the war and the institution of new rules by the communists contributed to a decline in the city's population. Various names have been applied to these events; the Vietnamese government calls it the "Day of liberating the South for national reunification" or "Liberation Day", but the term "Fall of Saigon" is used in Western accounts. It is called the "Ngày mất nước", "Tháng Tư Đen", "National Day of Shame" or "National Day of Resentment". by many Overseas Vietnamese who were refugees from communism. The rapidity with which the South Vietnamese position collapsed in 1975 was surprising to most American and South Vietnamese observers, to the North Vietnamese and their allies as well. For instance, a memo prepared by the Central Intelligence Agency and U. S. Army Intelligence and published on March 5 indicated that South Vietnam could hold out through the current dry season—i.e. At least until 1976.
These predictions proved to be grievously in error. As that memo was being released, General Dũng was preparing a major offensive in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, which began on 10 March and led to the capture of Buôn Ma Thuột; the ARVN began a disorderly and costly retreat, hoping to redeploy its forces and hold the southern part of South Vietnam an enclave south of the 13th parallel. Supported by artillery and armor, the PAVN continued to march towards Saigon, capturing the major cities of northern South Vietnam at the end of March—Huế on the 25th and Đà Nẵng on the 28th. Along the way, disorderly South Vietnamese retreats and the flight of refugees—there were more than 300,000 in Đà Nẵng—damaged South Vietnamese prospects for a turnaround. After the loss of Đà Nẵng, those prospects had been dismissed as nonexistent by American CIA officers in Vietnam, who believed that nothing short of B-52 strikes against Hanoi could stop the North Vietnamese. By April 8, the North Vietnamese Politburo, which in March had recommended caution to Dũng, cabled him to demand "unremitting vigor in the attack all the way to the heart of Saigon."
On April 14, they renamed the campaign the "Hồ Chí Minh campaign", after revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh, in hopes of wrapping it up before his birthday on May 19. Meanwhile, South Vietnam failed to garner any significant increase in military aid from the United States, snuffing out President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu’s hopes for renewed American support. On April 9, PAVN forces reached Xuân Lộc, the last line of defense before Saigon, where the ARVN 18th Division made a last stand and held the city through fierce fighting for 11 days; the PAVN overran Xuân Lộc on April 20 despite heavy losses, on April 21 President Thiệu resigned in a tearful televised announcement in which he denounced the United States for failing to come to the aid of the South. The North Vietnamese front line was now just 26 miles from downtown Saigon; the victory at Xuân Lộc, which had drawn many South Vietnamese troops away from the Mekong Delta area, opened the way for PAVN to encircle Saigon, they soon did so, moving 100,000 troops in position around the city by April 27.
With the ARVN having few defenders, the fate of the city was sealed. The ARVN III Corps commander, General Toàn, had organized five centers of resistance to defend the city; these fronts were so connected as to form an arc enveloping the entire area west and east of the capital. The Cu Chi front, to the northwest, was defended by the 25th Division. South Vietnamese defensive forces around Saigon totaled 60,000 troops. However, as the exodus made it into Saigon, along with them were many ARVN soldiers, which swelled the "men under arms" in the city to over 250,000; these units were battered and leaderless, which threw the city into further anarchy. The rapid PAVN advances of March and early April led to increased concern in Saigon that the city, peaceful throughout the war and wh
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. He had served as the 36th vice president of the United States from 1953 to 1961, prior to that as both a U. S. representative and senator from California. Nixon was born in California. After completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law, he and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. He subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950, his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as Vice President, becoming the second-youngest vice president in history at age 40.
He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, lost a race for governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected, defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, ended the military draft. Nixon's visit to China in 1972 led to diplomatic relations between the two nations and he initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union the same year, his administration transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states. He imposed wage and price controls for ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools, established the Environmental Protection Agency and began the War on Cancer. Nixon presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race, he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972 when he defeated George McGovern.
In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses in the Yom Kippur War, resulting in the restart of the Middle East peace process and an oil crisis at home. The Nixon administration supported a coup in Chile that ousted the government of Salvador Allende and propelled Augusto Pinochet to power. By late 1973, the Watergate scandal escalated. On August 9, 1974, he resigned in the face of certain impeachment and removal from office—the only time a U. S. president has done so. After his resignation, he was issued a controversial pardon by Gerald Ford. In 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote nine books and undertook many foreign trips, helping to rehabilitate his image into that of an elder statesman, he suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994 and died four days at the age of 81. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, in a house, built by his father, his parents were Francis A. Nixon, his mother was a Quaker, his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith.
Nixon was a descendant of the early American settler, Thomas Cornell, an ancestor of Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University, as well as of Jimmy Carter and Bill Gates. Nixon's upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol and swearing. Nixon had four brothers: Harold, Donald and Edward. Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in legendary Britain. Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood: "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it"; the Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, the family moved to Whittier, California. In an area with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened a grocery gas station. Richard's younger brother. At the age of twelve, a spot was found on Richard's lung, with a family history of tuberculosis, he was forbidden to play sports; the spot was found to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia. Young Richard attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he was president of his eighth-grade class.
His parents believed that attending Whittier High School had caused Richard's older brother Harold to live a dissolute lifestyle before he fell ill of tuberculosis, so they sent Richard to the larger Fullerton Union High School. He had to ride a school bus for an hour each way during his freshman year, he received excellent grades, he lived with an aunt in Fullerton during the week. He played junior varsity football, missed a practice though he was used in games, he had greater success as a debater, winning a number of championships and taking his only formal tutelage in public speaking from Fullerton's Head of English, H. Lynn Sheller. Nixon remembered Sheller's words, "Remember, speaking is conversation... don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them." Nixon stated. At the start of his junior year beginning in September 1928, Richard's parents permitted him to transfer to Whittier High School. At Whittier High, Nixon suffered his first electoral defeat, for student body president, he rose at 4 a.m. to drive the family truck into Los Angeles and purchase vegetables at the market.
He drove to the store to wash and display them, befo
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977. Before his accession to the presidency, Ford served as the 40th vice president of the United States from December 1973 to August 1974. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the United States Electoral College. Born in Omaha and raised in Grand Rapids, Ford attended the University of Michigan and Yale Law School. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve, serving from 1942 to 1946. Ford began his political career in 1949 as the U. S. representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district. He served in this capacity for the final nine of them as the House Minority Leader. In December 1973, two months after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment by President Richard Nixon.
After the subsequent resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford assumed the presidency. His 895 day-long presidency is the shortest in U. S. history for any president who did not die in office. As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords. With the collapse of South Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U. S. involvement in Vietnam ended. Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. During Ford's presidency, foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, by the corresponding curb on the powers of the President. In the Republican presidential primary campaign of 1976, Ford defeated former California Governor Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, he narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic challenger, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party. His moderate views on various social issues put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died at home on December 26, 2006. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. He was Leslie Lynch King Sr. a wool trader. His father was a son of Martha Alicia King. Gardner separated from King just sixteen days after her son's birth, she took her son with her to Oak Park, home of her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law, Clarence Haskins James. From there, she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gardner and King divorced in December 1913, she gained full custody of her son. Ford's paternal grandfather Charles Henry King paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.
Ford said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. In a biography of Ford, James M. Cannon, a member of the Ford administration, wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents were sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, his infant son, Ford's nursemaid. Ford told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she smiled at another man during their honeymoon. After living with her parents for two-and-a-half years, Gardner married Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1916. Gerald was a salesman in a family-owned varnish company, they now called her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. The future president was never formally adopted and did not change his name until December 3, 1935, he was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford, Richard Addison "Dick" Ford, James Francis "Jim" Ford. Ford had three half-siblings from the second marriage of Leslie King Sr. his biological father: Marjorie King, Leslie Henry King, Patricia Jane King.
They never saw one another as children, he did not know them at all until 1960. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth; that year his biological father, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King Sr.'s death in 1941. Ford said, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."Ford was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He is the only Eagle Scout to have ascended to the U. S. Presidency. Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School, where he was a star athlete and captain of the football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League.
He attracted the attention of college recruiters. Ford attended the University of Michigan, he washed dishes at his f
Lê Minh Đảo
Lê Minh Đảo is a former South Vietnamese major general who led the 18th Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, nicknamed "The Super Men", at Xuân Lộc, the last major battle of the Vietnam War. He lives in the United States. Brigadier General Đảo became the ground commander during the last Battle for Saigon. By April 1975, North Vietnamese forces were in full advance and most ARVN resistance had collapsed. Đảo's 18th Division, made a significant defence at the Battle of Xuân Lộc, 38 miles from Saigon. The fierce fighting raged for two weeks; the 18th Division, facing People's Army of Vietnam forces, managed to hold on for three weeks, but was overwhelmed by 21 April 1975. Saigon fell nine days later. Đảo was famous for his emotional battlefield interview, broadcast around the world during the fighting in which he stated that, "The communists could throw their entire Army at Xuân Lộc, the 18th will stand fast". When pressed during the battle by Peter Arnett of the Associated Press about the hopeless situation, Đảo stated "Please tell the Americans you have seen how the 18th Division can fight and die.
Now, please go!" According to Dirck Halstead, by the afternoon of April 21 he knew the battle was lost and expected to die before it was over. Aside from Brigadier General Trần Quang Khôi, who commanded the III Corps Armored Task Force, Đảo was the only ARVN commander who stood and fought to save Saigon, before the city fell on 30 April 1975. Lê Minh Đảo withdrew from Xuân Lộc and wanted to continue fighting further south, but President Dương Văn Minh surrendered. Đảo was captured and sent by the new communist regime to spend 17 years in a "re-education camp". After his release in May 1992, Đảo received political asylum in the United States and settled there in April 1993, where he worked as restaurant manager before retiring. Conversation with Brigadier General Le Minh Dao Welcome Back to the Paris of the Orient The End of the Tunnel, PBS Pham Ngoc Dinh, "S. Viet Generals'Reeducated' by New Red Regime", Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1976
United States
United States Army Air Forces
Republic of Vietnam
Socialist Republic of Vietnam