Gerboise Bleue – French Nuclear Test

Gerboise Bleue – French Nuclear Test

https://youtu.be/V_vt3c34z3U?t=4 In February 1960, during the Algerian War (1954-62) France detonated an atomic bomb in the middle of the Algerian Sahara desert. Gerboise is the French word for  a desert rodent found in the Sahara. The color Bleue came from the first...

read more
De Gaulle Returns to Power

De Gaulle Returns to Power

In May 1958  during the turmoil of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) Charles de Gaulle returned to power after a twelve-year absence. De Gaulle's newly formed cabinet was approved by the National Assembly by 329 votes against 224,...

read more
Suez Canal Crisis

Suez Canal Crisis

In June 1956 the 74-year British occupation of the Suez Canal ended. In July 1956 the Egyptian president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, nationalized the Suez Canal. In October 1956 Israeli brigades invaded Egypt and advanced toward the canal, routing Egyptian forces....

read more
War for Algerian Independence

War for Algerian Independence

https://youtu.be/10gK2Gbfbp4 The Algerian War was fought between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) from 1954 to 1962 with Algeria ultimately winning independence. The war was characterized by guerrilla...

read more
Pakistan and Tunisia Granted Independence

Pakistan and Tunisia Granted Independence

https://youtu.be/Usy9TpxQ5tY In 1947 British India was divided into the independent sovereign states of India and Pakistan. From 1947 to 1956 Pakistan was a monarchy within the United Kingdom and the other Dominions in the...

read more
Big Four Meeting in Geneva Reduces International Tension

Big Four Meeting in Geneva Reduces International Tension

https://youtu.be/1KURFzVpqm4 The stated mission of the November 1955 Geneva summit was to reduce international tensions between the leaders of "Big Four" nations France, Great Britain, USA and USSR. The world leaders discussed issues on security,...

read more
Fall of French Indochina

Fall of French Indochina

https://youtu.be/ZMPNY9w8OmQ In May 1954 communist Viet Minh forces won a decisive victory over the French colonial army in the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ. The war ended shortly afterward with signing of the 1954 Geneva Accords in which France agreed to withdraw its...

read more
First Indochina War – 1947-1954

First Indochina War – 1947-1954

https://youtu.be/8kgcUFU5_eA After WWII, the decolonization of French Indochina left the region divided into four independent states: North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. In September 1945, a provisional government in Hanoi...

read more
Battle of Hoa Binh – French Indochina War

Battle of Hoa Binh – French Indochina War

https://youtu.be/pl-0uqJhi3o From 1887 to the mid-1900s, French Indochina was the collective name for the French colonial regions of Southeast Asia composed of Cochin-China, Annam, Cambodia, Tonkin, Kwangchowan and Laos....

read more
United Nations Forces in the Korean War

United Nations Forces in the Korean War

https://youtu.be/LYE0nfqnqc0   Sixteen UN nations supplied fighting units and five sent military hospitals and field ambulances. Australia was one of the very first to contribute military personnel from all three services. The single largest UN contributor was the...

read more
French Communism 1950

French Communism 1950

https://youtu.be/V3dHS3xirhU The French Communist Party (Parti Communiste Français- PCF) was banned in 1939 at the outbreak of WWII when it opposed the war. Since the USSR and Nazi Germany had a neutrality pact, the PCF may have actually sabotaged arms...

read more
Cold War ~ Polish Movie

Cold War ~ Polish Movie

Cold War is a Polish film directed by Pawel Pawlikowski that stars Joanna Kulig and Tomasz Kot. The plot follows the passionate and fateful romance of a couple from the ruins of post-war Poland through Cold War East Berlin, Yugoslavia and Paris. Shaped by politics,...

read more
Vietnam Uprising

Vietnam Uprising

https://youtu.be/pl-0uqJhi3o In October 1950, led by Võ Nguyên Giáp, Communist troops in the northern region of the French colony of Vietnam began a series of attacks on French colonial fortresses along the border with China. 10,000 French troops. isolated in...

read more
Bảo Đại

Bảo Đại

https://youtu.be/rfzHg9wEXV0 Bảo Đại, the last of the Nguyễn dynasty, was the Emperor of Annam (a protectorate within French Indochina) from 1926 to 1945. After the Japanese ousted the Vichy-French administration in March 1945 Bảo Đại was named ruler. He soon renamed...

read more
Haiphong Incident

Haiphong Incident

On November 23, 1946 the French navy bombarded the Vietnamese coastal city of Haiphong, killing 6,000 Vietnamese people overnight. The Haiphong shelling was the first in a series of armed clashes leading to the December Battle of Hanoi and the outbreak of the First...

read more
Bikini Bathing Suit

Bikini Bathing Suit

  In the 1930s, European women wore two-piece bathing suits consisting of a halter top and shorts with some midriff visible -- the navel was always hidden.   On Jul 5,1946  the bikini bathing suit, created by former civil engineer Louis Reard, made its debut...

read more
Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival

Although originally scheduled to be held in Cannes in 1939, the outbreak of WWII delayed the opening of the first International Film Festival until September 1946 when twenty-one countries presented their films. Held on the French Riviera, the festival was designed to...

read more
 Ho Chi Minh

 Ho Chi Minh

Ho Chi Minh, born in 1880 into the family of a poor country scholar as Nguyen Sinh Cung (also called Nguyen Tat Thanh or Nguyen Ai Quoc) attended grammar school in Hue, taught school in Phan Thiet, and was apprenticed at a technical institute in Saigon.   In 1911...

read more
Vietnam After WWII

Vietnam After WWII

French Indochina was formed in the late 19th century by combining three Vietnamese regions (Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina) with Cambodia, Laos and Guangzhouwan. With the fall of France in 1940, the control of the colony shifted to the Vichy French who allowed military...

read more
Dunkirk

Dunkirk

After seeing the new movie DUNKIRK directed by Christopher Nolan last night, I wanted to recommend it to you readers. Like the top film critics, I found this film technically flawless and emotionally extremely powerful. The film's soundtrack by Hans Zimmer kept...

read more
Execution of Pvt. Slovik

Execution of Pvt. Slovik

This haunting  scene from the 1963 film The Victors depicts the Christmas Eve execution of a GI deserter modeled after Private Eddie Slovik. Private Eddie Slovik was the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for...

read more
Liberation of Paris

Liberation of Paris

After a one month blitzkrieg by the Wehrmacht, Paris fell to Nazi Germany on June 14, 1940. An armistice with Germany subsequently established a French puppet government with its capital at Vichy. The Nazi occupation of Paris lasted four years until the city was...

read more
D-Day

D-Day

On June 6, 1944, >5,000 Allied ships, supported by 13,000 airplanes performed the largest amphibious landing in the history of warfare. Code-named Operation Overlord, the invasion of ~50 miles of beach in Normandy France signaled the beginning of the tough campaign...

read more

Comments, contributions, corrections, and suggestions are always welcome:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *