Blog - LOST IN HISTORY

Both Germany and the Allies used Chemical Weapons in World War I

**British troops with gas masks in the World War I trenches of France, 1916**

The horrors that man is capable of unleashing upon his enemy during warfare reached a pinnacle during World War I, when BOTH slides used Poison Gas against the other’s army. World War I was the first conflict to devolve into stagnant trench warfare. This happened when the front line between the equally matched armies of Britain & France vs. Germany & Austro-Hungary stopped moving. They dug thousands of miles of trenches between them. In the middle lay a “No Man’s Land,” snaked with razor sharp barbed wire and obliterated by heavy artillery. After numerous, high-casualty battles that did nothing to move the front, both the Germany and Allies looked for any way to win battles.

New poison gas technology appeared to be the answer to their prayers.

Chlorine gas was first deployed by the German military at the Second Battle of Ypres on 22 April 1915. French, British and Canadian troops lined a 10 mile long front against the German army. At 17.00 hours, the day’s shelling ceased, and winds favorably blew toward the enemy in the west. German troops opened pressurized tanks of chlorine gas hidden at the front line trenches.

French sentries first noticed a strange, greenish-yellow cloud drifting towards them. Thinking it was a smoke screen to cover a German advance, all troops were ordered to the ladders of their trenches. The gas’s impact was immediate and horrifying. Chlorine gas destroyed a man’s ability to breath in a matter of seconds. causing death by asphyxiation. The surviving French troops retreated in terror. Even the Germans were so shocked by the deadly effect of their gas, they never followed through with a full assault.

Germany’s use of poison gas provoked immediate and widespread condemnation around the globe. Nevertheless, the poison gas cat was out of the bag, so to speak. Its use escalated for the remainder of “The Great War to End all Wars,” by Both Sides.

The first of the Allies to respond was Britain in 25 September 1915. Newly formed Special Gas Divisions attacked German lines at Loos, France around 5 o’clock AM with their new “Accessory.” They were forbidden, to use the word Poison Gas, else they be as guilty as the ‘Jerries.’ Unfortunately, along parts of the British front lines, the wind changed direction unexpectedly! The chlorine gas was blown back onto the British troops, causing over 2,000 casualties, more than inflicted on the Germans.

**A better means of delivery was needed, so both sides began firing poison gas in artillery shells.**

After chlorine, came phosgene, a gas that induced less coughing, so more would be inhaled by the enemy, increasing the kill rate. But what was the average trench soldier to do in response? At first, they were instructed to hold a urine soaked kerchief over their face to protect against the effects! Needless to say, this failed miserably. Gas mask production lagged behind gas production. It took several ineffective versions before the troops were finally provided with a reliable full face model. Uncomfortable masks with round goggles and a single filter cartridge were effective if applied fast enough.

**German chemists were a step ahead of the Allies and switched to Mustard Gas in 1917.**

Made of sulphur dichloride, the oily, brown liquid gave off what survivors described as a garlic, horseradish or mustard stench. Mustard gas was nearly invisible, and rather than immediately choking the victim, it caused large, severe and painful blisters, both in the mouth, lungs, and on the skin. Temporary blindness and pulmonary edema were induced. Mustard gas also remained potent in clothing and the soil for weeks, making infected trenches impossible to live in.

To the thousands of souls fighting in Flanders, Belgium, it was hard to imagine how the hell of trench warfare could get any worse. On 12 July 1917, German gunners fired more than 50,000 artillery shells of poison gas into the British and Canadian lines. Hospital tents up and down the front were soon bursting with more than 2,000 Allied victims, suffering from excruciating blisters across their bodies. Most were blinded, others slowly suffocating, leaving the rest disfigured and writhing in agony.

Despite the outrage, the Allies immediately engineered their own stockpiles of mustard gas.

By autumn, mustard gas was in use up and down the Western Front from Belgium to Switzerland, once again by both sides. By year’s end, the British were dropping poison gas shells onto German trenches as well. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, America’s Dow Chemical manufactured the chemical weapons for the troops.

**British soldier with gas mask for poison gas in World War I**, **1917**

Mustard gas terrified soldiers because unlike phosgene, victims were initially unaware they were being gassed. Gas masks only protected the lungs; everything else burned and blistered, even skin beneath clothing. Since it was heavier than air, clouds would settle into bomb craters and trenches, remaining there for hours, if there was no breeze.

The Germany military continued to develop a deadly array of delivery methods including artillery shells, mortar rounds, free falling bombs from bi-wing airplanes, and even in land mines. The British army alone suffered 20,000 mustard gas casualties in just the last year of the war.

The use of Mustard Gas continued right up until the Paris Armistice at 11 pm on 11 November 1918.

Although the use of poison gas was banned by the 1925 Geneva Convention, armies around the world continued to use it up through the 1930s. For example, the Japanese Empire gassed both Chinese armies and Chinese civilians in its invasion of Manchuria before WWII. During World War II, the Allies stockpiled millions of tons of mustard gas behind frontlines just in case the Nazis and Japanese decided to use it first.

In modern times, mustard gas was used most recently in the 1980’s Iran-Iraq War. Saddam Hussein ordered its use against the Iranian army, and even against Iraq’s own Kurdish population, where more than 5,000 civilians died from exposure. The legacy of those chemical weapons in Iraq later became the so-called “weapons of mass destruction” a decade later.

Today, advanced post-Cold War militaries have much more modern Nerve Agent Gases, like VX, Novichok and Sarin. They remain largely unused and stockpiled -once again by both sides (this time the U.S. and Russia). They are kept as a deterrent only, of course. Or until our military enemies, extremists, or terrorists, decide to use them against us first. Then, the deadly cycle of escalation seen during World War I, might just begin again in our modern times.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

The Cuban Missile Crisis – the Day Russia Blinked

Kennedy, Castro and Khrushchev — **President John F. Kennedy, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev**, **1962**

For 13 nerve-wracking days in October 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the Earth closer to a nuclear WORLD WAR III than ever before. It was a direct confrontation between two major superpowers, the United States and the USSR (Soviet Union) during the so-called Cold War. It was the worst confrontation since the construction of the Berlin Wall a year earlier in 1961.

The U.S. Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961 spectacularly failed to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. So in 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with Castro. The Soviets would place nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island to deter any future U.S. invasion. The Soviet Union’s Kremlin also disliked the number of nuclear weapons pointing at them from Western Europe’s NATO allies. They saw missiles in Cuba as a way to level the playing field.

So the secret construction of Soviet missile sites on Cuba began.

In September, President John F. Kennedy issued a public warning against the introduction of any offensive Soviet weapons into Cuba. Despite this, in October, a U–2 spy plane flew over and took aerial photos. It clearly showing construction of a medium-range ballistic nuclear missile site in Cuba. The Pentagon rushed these images to the White House on October 16th, beginning what would be called the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba was a mere 90 miles from Key West, Florida. The range of these missiles included New York and Washington DC!

Kennedy quickly summoned his security advisers to the West Wing, a group called the Ex Com (Executive Committee) to consider options and a course of action. The Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for an immediate air strike on the sites, followed by a U.S. invasion of Cuba! Non-military advisers recommended only stern warnings and sanctions to the Soviet Union. Kennedy and the ExCom all agreed that the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba was unacceptable. The challenge was to get them removed without triggering a nuclear world war.

In tense deliberations that stretched for nearly a week, they came up with a variety of options to end the Cuban Missile Crisis, including diplomacy, a bombing attack, and a full-scale U.S. invasion of Cuba. In the end, President Kennedy decided upon a middle-of-the-road course. On Monday, October 22nd, he ordered a U.S. Naval “Quarantine” of Cuba. Calling it a “quarantine” technically meant this was not a “blockade,” which assumed a State of War existed between the superpowers.

That same day, President Kennedy sent a strongly worded letter to Premier Khrushchev.

In it, he declared the U.S. would NOT permit offensive weapons of any kind in Cuba. He demanded the Soviets dismantle the missile bases under construction, AND return all offensive weapons to the Soviet Union. President Kennedy then went on national TV that night and informed American citizens, and the world, of the threat to national security these Cuban missiles represented. He explained the naval quarantine he had ordered, and the global military consequences if the crisis escalated. His stern message was clear:

“It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba anywhere in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.”
President John F. Kennedy, 1962

The Joint Chiefs of Staff moved the USA to DEFCON 3 as naval ships began to surround Cuba, preparing for a possible military strike. People around the globe nervously worried and waited. WHAT WOULD THE SOVIET RESPONSE BE? Many feared the Earth was finally at the brink of nuclear annihilation and looked for the location of the nearest bomb shelter.

cuban missile crisis headline 1962 — **Cuban Missile Crisis Headline, October 1962**

Americans began hoarding food and gas in their basements.

In schools around the country, teachers ran daily Duck and Cover drills in their classrooms. In Duck and Cover, students drop quickly to the floor and scramble under their desks. Then they lie curled up in a ball, face down, and cover their head with their hands. The goal being to protect against a nuclear blast where the force of the explosion could shatter glass windows and create an immense blast of heat.

On Wednesday, October 24th, Khrushchev responded with his own statement. He said the U.S. “Blockade” was an “Act of Aggression” and that Soviet ships would proceed to Cuba. The crisis had reached a superpower stalemate. A crucial moment arrived later that day, when Soviet ships neared the line of U.S. Navy vessels enforcing the quarantine outside Havana, Cuba. Any attempt to breach the blockade would spark a military confrontation that could escalate to a nuclear exchange and World War III. But the Soviet ships stopped short of the blockade!

Meanwhile, U.S. spy planes showed the Soviet missile sites were nearly operational and ready to fire. The Pentagon placed military forces at DEFCON 2—meaning war was imminent. President Kennedy and the ExCom huddled at the White House and prepared for an attack on Cuba. On October 26th, Kennedy told his advisers it appeared that only a U.S. attack on Cuba would end the Cuban Missile Crisis, but he insisted on giving diplomacy … one last chance.

“I thought it was the last day I would ever see.”
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, 1962

That afternoon, the crisis took a strange turn. ABC News told the White House they’d been approached by a Russian agent. He suggested the Soviet Union would remove their missiles from Cuba, IF the U.S. would not to invade the island. While the Pentagon scrambled to validate this “back-channel” offer, Nikita Khrushchev sent Kennedy a communication in the middle of the night, October 26th. It was an emotional message raising the specter of nuclear holocaust, and proposed a resolution that matched what ABC had heard!

“If there is no intention to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.”
Kremlin message to the White House, 1962

The next day, Saturday, October 27th, Khrushchev sent a second message, indicating that any proposed deal must include the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. That same day, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba. 35-year-old pilot Major Rudy Anderson was killed in the crash. President Kennedy decided to ignore the 2nd message and respond only to the 1st. That night, he sent a communication to Khrushchev proposing the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba under supervision of the United Nations, and a guarantee that the U.S. would NOT invade Cuba.

It was a risky to ignore the 2nd Khrushchev message. So Attorney General Robert Kennedy (the president’s younger brother) met with Soviet Ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin, in Washington. He said the U.S. was planning to remove the missiles from Turkey anyway, and that it would do so soon, but this could NOT be part of any public statement. The next morning, October 28th, Nikita Khrushchev issued a statement that Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba!!

The planet and its anxious population took a collective sigh of relief.

By the end of November 1962, the U.S. was satisfied with the complete removal of Soviet missiles and ended its naval quarantine of Cuba. The U.S. also quietly removed their Jupiter missiles from Turkey the next year, in 1963. The resolution of Missile Crisis strengthened President John F. Kennedy’s image both in the U.S. and internationally. It also helped turn the negative world opinion surrounding his failed Bay of Pigs Invasion a year earlier.

In an effort to prevent this type of confrontation from ever happening again, a direct telephone link between the White House and Moscow’s Kremlin was established in 1963, known as the famous “HOTLINE” (though never red) phone. So a direct verbal conversation could now take place between the U.S. President and Soviet Premier when needed, and avert a World War III.

**Countries with Nuclear Weapons, 2026**

The tense Cold War between the East and West was far from over though. It would last another 29 YEARS, until the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Of course, the world’s nuclear arsenals, though greatly diminished by subsequent arms reduction treaties, still contains tens of thousands of nuclear warheads. They remain under the control of the U.S., Russia Federation, Britain, France and many other countries, including China, North Korea, Israel, India and Pakistan. Let us hope another such nuclear crisis does not evolve between any of those players.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

Mother Jones, the Mother of Labor Unions

You may know the name Mother Jones from the progressive news magazine & website. But its namesake, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones however, was a fearless fighter for the working class and a tireless labor activist. Her wealthy opponents in industry and congress labeled her “The most dangerous woman in America!” Mary Jones combined radical organizing methods and energetic speeches to mobilize thousands of lower-class workers into unions between 1872 and 1924. She literally shaped the way civil disobedience could be used to fight for economic and social justice.

The fiery Mary Harris Jones actually started her life quite humbly. She was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1837. Her family was one of the starving thousands that fled the Irish Potato Famine and emigrated across the Atlantic. They landed first in Canada, where her father worked laying railroad tracks, and eventually settled in the United States. She went to school in Toronto, then moved to the U.S. to begin a career as a simple dressmaker in Tennessee.

Young Mary Harris experienced far too many tragedies in her early life. In Memphis, she married George Jones in 1861, an iron worker and active member of the Iron Molders’ Union. He fought for worker’s rights at a time when unions were still in their infancy. In rapid succession, they had four young children together. But a devastating yellow fever epidemic in 1867 killed her husband and ALL FOUR children. She was only 30 by the time the tragedy was complete.

“One by one, my four little children sickened and died. . . I sat alone through nights of grief. No one came to help me.” – Mary Harris Jones

In shock and heart-broken, Mary moved to Chicago and opened a seamstress shop, sewing clothes for the wealthy residents of the North Side. It has here, watching workers slave away in textile factories, that Mary’s resentment for economic inequality began to bubble. But then suddenly, tragedy struck again. She lost both her home and shop in The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (see related post).

With all her possessions in ashes, Mary sought shelter with a union, the Knights of Labor. There, she slowly began to see the labor movement as her new family, and started working as an activist. She would commit the rest of her life to the struggle for humane blue collar wages and working conditions.

Mary found her voice and began giving inspirational speeches to encourage workers to unionize. She traveled to numerous strikes, helping coal miners in Pennsylvania in 1873 and railroad workers in 1877. From 1880 onward, Jones participated in hundreds of strikes across the country. The way in which she genuinely cared for any and all workers earned her the well-deserved nickname “Mother” Jones.

They also called her “The Miner’s Angel,” but she rejected that label, saying bluntly, “I’m no Angel.” Mother Jones became an active campaigner for the United Mine Workers Union in West Virginia. In the 1890s, she mobilized miners’ wives to march with brooms and mops in order to block company strikebreakers from entering the mines.

She once proudly said of herself, “I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell-raiser!”

Her workers rights movement assisted both the United Mine Workers and the American Railway Unions. They launched major strikes for living wages in 1894, a concept still relevant today. For Mary Jones, it was about more than just a fair union contract. She argued that miners should be able to collectively direct their own economic destinies, a radical idea at the time.

Mother Jones even encouraged militant action when warranted. While the workers militias and the strikes were often brutally crushed, they helped perfect Jones’ methods for mobilizing struggling communities. She emerged from these skirmishes undeterred, inspired by the new labor and socialist movement.

She was considered by the authorities (both corporate and political) to be a dangerous radical. Only five-feet tall, now with snow-white hair, and in her typical all-black dress, Jones was indeed a confrontational presence. She was mocked by factory and mine owners as the “Grandmother of all Agitators.”

Mother Jones replied that she would someday be known as “the Great-grandmother of all Agitators!”

She believed in organizing at the community level. to demonstrate to workers their capacity to manage their own destiny. Wherever she went, Mother Jones entered into the lives of the common workers and truly became a part of them. She put women and children at the center of struggles, making it a family-based movement.

One of Jones’ key contributions was building unions that bridged racial and ethnic divides. She believed that unskilled immigrants and blacks should be included as well. She condemned white supremacy groups and argued that black and immigrant workers were some of the best, most loyal union members.

Oddly, Mother Jones opposed Women’s Suffrage. She worried that focusing on the vote was diverting working-class women from more important economic justice. She saw the Suffrage movement as only a richer women’s distraction. “You don’t need a Vote to raise Hell!” she proclaimed.

A political progressive, she was a founder of the Social Democratic Party in 1898. Jones also helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, and published numerous articles in national newspapers and the International Socialist Review.

When asked where she lived, Mother Jones replied that her home was “Wherever there was a fight.”

Jones insisted that the national and state governments address social injustice as well. Demanding child labor laws, she organized children textile workers to march on President Theodore Roosevelt’s Oyster Bay home in 1903. In 1914, the Colorado militia massacred 20 women and children in a miners tent colony. Jones persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to intervene and negotiate a truce between the workers and the state.

Mother Jones with President Calvin Coolidge, 1924 — **Mother Jones with President Calvin Coolidge**, **1924**

At other times, the authorities were not so tolerant of Mother Jones. When violence broke out during a 1912 miners strike in West Virginia, the court convicted her, at age 82. The judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. Nationwide rallies and protests led the governor to quickly commute her sentence. Undeterred, she returned to organizing workers. Nothing it seemed could dissuade Mother Jones from her work for workers.

Mary was also a global organizer, who believed in a world-wide labor revolution. By 1910, she was fighting for Mexican labor rights against the country’s dictatorship and its U.S. supporters. When she finally traveled to Mexico City in 1921, workers showered her with red carnations and blue violets, calling her “Madre Juanita.”

Newspapers of the day called her a “Folk Hero” and “the most well-known woman in America.”

Mother Jones lived her last years with friends in Silver Spring, MD. In 1930, her life was celebrated with special labor events across the country. She even gave her last speech for an Edison moving picture camera. She died in November, 1930 at age 93. A friend of laborers to the end, she asked to be buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in Illinois, next to victims of an 1898 mine riot. Her funeral was attended by ten of thousands of mourners.

Mother Jones was truly an inspirational folk hero to generations of American laborers for over six decades. Many of her dreams were not realized in her lifetime, but they did come to pass after World War II, when the GI solders returned home. The men took jobs in countless factories, mills and mines scattered across the U.S. and, yes, joined countless established labor unions. These unions ensured fare wages, health benefits, and pensions to millions of Americans of the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers, a fine legacy of Mother Jones.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

The Rise and Fall of the Germany’s Infamous Berlin Wall

For the Audio Podcast? [Click Here]

THE RISE – 1961

The fortified Berlin Wall and No Man's Land — The fortified Berlin Wall and “No Man’s Land” in East Berlin, 1962

By 1961, the Cold War raged between the U.S. and USSR. The fortified ‘Iron Curtain‘ border had been raised; national borders dividing Western & Eastern Europe. ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) with nuclear warheads were pointed at Moscow, Washington and nearly every major city by either side. Germany was split into communist East and democratic West Germany at the end of WWII. Berlin, however, though divided as well, still allowed free movement of its citizens between the East and West halves. The Berlin Wall would soon change all that.

Berlin therefore provided an “escape route” via which suffering East Germans could defect to the booming West, in pursuit of freedom and a better way of life. Since the end of World War II, 2.5 million people had fled to the West, reducing East Germany’s population by more than 15%. The country was rapidly losing its most skilled workers and educated professionals. During the summer of 1961, the East German exodus reached record, critical levels. In July alone, some 30,000 people fled East Germany through West Berlin!

So on a fateful summer weekend, the Communist Party in Moscow’s Kremlin decided upon the unthinkable -plug the leak and completely seal off West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany. Communist First Secretary, Walter Ulbricht, gave the order. Just past midnight on Saturday 12 August 1961, hundreds of trucks crowded with soldiers and construction workers rumbled through the dark streets of East Berlin. They worked quickly and quietly, stringing up a 100 mile long barbed wire fence, completely surrounding West Berlin. While most Berliners were happily sleeping, the crews then began tearing up the streets that entered into the West.

Just before dawn, East Germany cut the East Berlin telephone wires to the West.

When they woke Sunday morning, Berliners on both sides were stunned by the shocking sight in their city. No longer could East Berliners freely cross the border for plays or soccer matches. No longer could the 60,000 commuters head to work in West Berlin for better-paying jobs. No longer could families and friends cross the border to hug their relatives and loved ones. Whichever side of the border one went to sleep on August 12th, they were stuck on that side for the next 3 decades. East German armed patrols, under shoot-to-kill orders, made sure of that. The few East Berliners that attempted to charge the fence were shot dead on the spot. Sunday, August 13th, became forever known as Stacheldrahtsonntag Barbed Wire Sunday.

In just two weeks, the East German military and an army of construction workers replaced the simple wire fence with a 12 foot high concrete block wall, topped with more barbed wire AND 186 guard towers. Roads, subways, canals and bridges were all cut off from West Berlin. That half of the city was basically a democratic island in Communist East Germany. The Soviet Politburo dubbed it the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart” though it would be known as the Berlin Wall or the Wall of Shame to the rest of the world. Checkpoint Charlie, near the Brandenburg gate, became the most famous of the heavily armed border crossings.

Over the years, East Germany strengthened the wall and widened the zone on the East Berlin side. It became a heavily fortified, perpetually guarded, and booby-trapped barrier, dividing the city in two. Entire city blocks on the East side were demolished to create a carefully guarded NO MAN’S LAND in front of the wall. President John F. Kennedy denounced the Berlin Wall ,and visited West Berlin in 1963 to give his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, standing before the wall and the Brandenburg Gate. Over the next 28 years, hundreds of escape attempts, either over or under the wall, would be made by daring, desperate East Berliners. A few succeeded, but most ended fatally.

THE FALL – 1989

Ironically, the fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. There had been signs that the Communist bloc of nations was weakening. But the East German Communist Party insisted their country just needed modernization rather than any drastic revolution. Communism began to give way to democracies in early 1989 in countries like Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. This opened new border exodus points to East Germans who still wanted to finally flee to the West. East Germany responded by closing the borders to those once Communist nations. East German citizens did not agree and for the first time in decades began to mount demonstrations in East Berlin’s plazas chanting:

Wir wollen Raus! Wir wollen Raus! (We want out!)

In October 1989, the long-time East German president abruptly resigned. The new leader, Egon Krenz, appeared to be more in step with his neighbors and tolerant of round trip travel between countries. Would the borders finally be re-opened to allow this? people wondered. German citizens on both sides held their breath. Then suddenly, on the evening of November 9th, 1989, around 7 o’clock pm, a Politburo spokesman announced at a press conference broadcast on Berlin TV and radio:

“Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany).”
Gunter Schabowski, Politburo spokesperson

When asked by reporters if this included Berlin, he shrugged and said, “Yes.” The official blundered however when asked “WHEN?” Since the order he was given failed to mention the timing, he hesitated for a second and said “Immediately.” If fact, it was suppose to take effect late the next day, which would have allowed orders to reach the surprised border guards.

People on both sides of the Berlin Wall heard the news on television and were in shock. Were the borders really open? Hundreds of East Germans left their homes and marched to the 6 checkpoint border crossings, demanding to be allowed to cross. “Tor Auf! (Open the Gate)!” they shouted. No officer among the overwhelmed guards was willing to give a kill order to maintain order, so instead, … they allowed people to cross to the West, with little to no identity check.

Very quickly, thousands inundated the Berlin Wall from both sides. West Berliners greeted East Berliners with flowers and champagne. There were huge impromptu celebrations, with people hugging, kissing, cheering, dancing, and crying. Many began climbing to the top of the wall, chipping away at it with hammers and chisels. More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that unbelievable weekend. One journalist called it, “The greatest street party in the history of the world!”

Fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989 — Fall of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, November 9, 1989

Over the next few weeks, the Checkpoints remained open. Berliners slowly chipped away at the Berlin border Wall and cut it into smaller slabs, and removed chunks by bulldozers and cranes. By the end of its destruction, it produced 1.7 million tons of rubble. Crowds around the world cheered every single moment of it. Some of the larger pieces of the Berlin Wall toured the world and have become museum pieces and even collectibles.

It would take 3 years to completely removed all of the hated border wall. German national reunification of East and West was officially complete less than a year later in October 3rd, 1990 after 45 years of separation. Over the decades since, the property once covered with the Berlin Wall has been redeveloped into housing and businesses. All that remains of the infamous Checkpoint Charlie is nothing more than a small shack in the middle of a street. A simple row of cobblestones remains in the streets, snaking its way across Berlin, marking the Walls once foreboding presence.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

LOST IN HISTORY

Bhopal India – the World’s Worst Industrial Disaster

Union Carbide plant, Bhopal, India after explosion — **Union Carbide plant, Bhopal, India after the 1984 explosion**

Over 40 years ago, on the night of December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released 30 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the air. It went primarily into the poor slums surrounding the factory, exposing more than half a million souls to the deadly cloud.

The thick, heavy gas stayed low to the ground, causing victims throats and eyes to burn, inducing vomiting, internal bleeding, and death. Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3,800 in the early days to as many as 16,000.

How could this disaster have happened in today’s modern age?

In the 1970s, the Indian government lured Union Carbide (UC) to build a pesticide plant in Bhopal in central India. The government itself would keep a 22% stake in the company’s Indian subsidiary, Union Carbide India Limited. The plant produced the pesticide carbaryl using methyl isocyanate (MIC). The densely populated Bhopal site was unfortunately not zoned for such a hazardous industry.

In 1984, the factory operated with safety equipment and procedures far below the standards found in its sister plant in the United State’s West Virginia. The local government was aware of the safety issues. But they were unwilling to burden the owners with pollution regulations for fear of the economic impact and the loss of such a large regional employer.

At 11 o’clock pm on 2 December 1984, a million Bhopal resident slept in the nearby slums. An operator at Plant C noticed a leak of methyl isocyanate gas and growing pressure inside storage tank #610. A faulty valve allowed water meant for cleaning pipes to mix with 40 tons of MIC. The vent-gas scrubber, which neutralized toxic emissions, had been turned off 3 weeks earlier. A refrigeration unit that cooled the storage tank had been drained of coolant for use elsewhere. The gas flare tower was out of action for 3 months. Pressure and heat from the MIC + water exothermic reaction continued to build for 2 hours.

Finally, at 1 am, December 3, a loud explosion rumbled through the plant as a safety valve blew away, sending a plume of methyl isocyanate gas into the night air. Within minutes, a toxic gas cloud flooded the surrounding streets of Bhopal. Within hours, those same streets were littered with human corpses and the carcasses of cows, dogs and birds. An estimated 3,800 people died immediately that night, mostly in the poor slums adjacent to the plant. As a cool morning breeze picked up, it carried the poisonous yellow gas to the rest of the city, killing even more.

The Union Carbide plant’s alarm system was not triggered for hours. The factory managers raised NO alarm to the city. Suddenly, thousands of people awoke choking. Those that could, started running to Bhopal’s 2 local hospitals. They were soon overwhelmed, a crisis exacerbated since doctors didn’t know what gas was causing the odd symptoms they were seeing. Victims were coughing up blood, unable to breathe, fainting from dizziness, suffered blistering skin rashes, and sudden blindness. Bhopal’s doctors had no experience in dealing with an industrial disaster.

“I woke up suffocating! It felt like someone had thrown hot coals in my eyes.”
Quote from Bhopal victim

Victims of the Bhopal Disaster in India, 1984

In the neighborhoods closest to the plant, the gas caused internal hemorrhaging, pneumonia and death, leaving bodies in the streets as they tried to flee their homes. The government later estimated over 3,000 people died within a few hours. The two hospitals treated over 50,000 patients in the first 2 days.

Methyl isocyanate is extremely toxic and, if its air concentration reaches 21ppm (parts per million), it causes death within minutes. Near the Bhopal plant, the level was several fold higher! Bhopal had a population of about 8,500,000 souls that night. Approximately a half a million people were immediately exposed.

Overwhelmed with the dead, mass burials and cremations began within days.

Officially, the government stated the gas leak was contained in 8 hours. It’s estimated that about 40 tons of methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide factory. Estimates of the dead in the first few days run as high as 10,000, with 20,000 premature deaths reported in the subsequent 20 years.

Immediately after the disaster, Union Carbide began to distance itself from responsibility, shifting blame to its Indian subsidiary. It also spread sabotage theories that it was perpetuated by Sikh extremists, but no evidence existed to substantiate that. At every turn, Union Carbide attempted to manipulate and withhold data. To this date, the company has never stated exactly what was in the deadly cloud that enveloped the city that December night.

The toxic plume had barely cleared when the first multi-billion dollar lawsuit was filed in a U.S. court. This was the beginning of years of litigation in which the affects of the tragedy on Bhopal’s poor were largely ignored.

The Indian government sued Union Carbide in a civil case.

In a 1989 settlement agreed by the Indian Supreme Court, UC finally agreed to pay $470 million to the Indian government, to be distributed to Bhopal victims as a final settlement. The figure was based on the disputed claim that only 3,000 people died and 100,000 suffered permanent disabilities. The Indian government, notorious for its corruption, has yet to distribute all of the settlement. Had compensation in Bhopal been paid at the same rate that victims were awarded in U.S,. the liability would have been greater than $10 billion!

By 2003, over 500,000 people were awarded compensation. The average amount to families of the victims was between only $550 to $2,200, which could not pay for the chronic lung ailments, life-long eye problems, and birth defects survivors developed.

Victims Wall in Bhopal, India, 1984 — Victims Wall Of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, 1984

As a final insult, Union Carbide closed its Bhopal plant and failed to completely clean up what was now a hazardous waste site. Today, the rusting, deserted complex continues to leak toxic chemicals and heavy metals into the soil and aquifers of Bhopal. Thousands of tons of hazardous waste remain buried underground. In 1999, Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide for $9 billion in stock. In 2009, the Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment monitoring lab reported that pesticide groundwater contamination was still detectable 3 km from the factory.

As its legacy, the Bhopal tragedy became the worst chemical catastrophe in global history to date. The name ‘Union Carbide‘ is today synonymous with industrial mismanagement, disaster, and death. In 2023, Netflix released a mini-series on the heroes of the Bhopal Disaster entitled, “The Railway Men.“

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History Menu

The Santiago Church Fire – the Deadliest in History

La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, Santiago, Chile, 1863 — **La Iglesia de la Compan**ia de Jesus fire, Santiago, Chile, 1863

The deadliest fire disaster ever recorded is not where you might think. Not the Great London Fire, not the Great Chicago Fire, not in New York City. It occurred at The Church of the Company of Jesus in Santiago, Chile on 18 December 1863. The horrible Santiago Church Fire consumed the large cathedral during a Catholic Mass for the Virgin Mary, killing over 2,500 people, mostly women and their families.

La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesús was a huge Jesuit cathedral that stood in downtown Santiago. The terrible fire occurred during the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception no less. The congregation celebrated this popular Catholic Holy Day by decorating the church’s interior with hundreds of flowers, candles, oil lamps and ornate, cloth wall coverings. A statue of the Virgin Mary was moved to the main altar, surrounded by a half-moon shaped candelabra.

It was Santiago’s custom to celebrate this Holy Day with great pomp and passion.

The congregation’s curate had begun a ladies religious society, known as Las Hijas de Maria (the Daughters of Mary) who organized the annual celebration. It always ended with a grand illumination of the Church’s interior for a mass on Tuesday evening, December 8th.

That fateful year, determined to outdo all prior celebrations, the women adorned the interior with long garlands of flowers and an unprecedented number of candles and paraffin oil lamps. The ladies had spent the year weaving ornate cloth tapestries with images of the life of the Virgin Mother. The Archbishop expressed concern over the extravagance, but reluctantly gave his consent to the ladies.

Towards dusk, a stream of mostly women, both old and young, garbed in their best dresses and gowns, poured into the church until every seat and aisle was packed. Attendants closed the side doors, except for the main entrance, so the sound of the hymns and prayers could be heard in the courtyard outside. At a little before seven o’clock, the attendants began lighting up the church. It was truly an amazing site to see – the cathedral’s dark interior aglow with thousands of flames and hundreds of intricate tapestries.

The Santiago Church Fire started in the middle of Mass, a few minutes before 7 o’clock pm.

One of many oil lamps on the main altar ignited one of the cloth wall hangings behind it. An attendant jumped up and attempted to smother the flames with another wall cloth. He knocked over the lamp, spilling its flammable oil. This caused the fire to jump to the flanking wall hangings. From there, flames curled up the garlands of flowers to the church’s wooden roof! All this happened rapidly in a few shocking minutes.

The first few moments were filled with the shock and shrieks of the attendees at the destruction of their beloved altar. They quickly changed to thousands of screams as the flames shot up the walls to the wooden roof. It was clearly time to run for your life! The crowds rushed to the closed side doors only to find they swung inward and were impossible open with the crush of bodies pressing forward. Attendants had closed the doors in order to create more space for extra worshipers to stand. Loud screams of horror burst from the panicked masses.

The crowd of mostly women, rosary beads still clutched in their hands, rushed next for the main exit, a single set of doors. Chilean women of 1863, like those in Europe, wore large hoop skirts. These dresses contributed to the crush of people in the aisles, and the tripping and trampling that ensued as the throng rushed to escape the fire behind them. Soon the main doors too became blocked by a growing mass of bodies, trapping all the poor souls behind them.

The great wooden dome over the altar caught fire next.

Interior of the Santiago Church of the Company of Jesus fire, 1863 — **Interior of the Santiago Church Fire, Chile, 1863**

Traveling along the dry ceiling, the flames ran like hissing serpents down the length of the church roof. The lamps suspended from the roof by ropes, snapped and dropped, exploding among the mass of women beneath. Burning embers and firebrands rained down on the compacted crowd. Clothing soon caught fire. Smoke quickly filled the cathedral, making it harder and harder to breathe.

Those out in the plaza stood paralyzed by the horrible sight. The lurid glow inside illuminated the thousands of struggling women, some with faces elevated in prayer, others with hands stretched out towards the door. The scorched and injured sank to the floor, while the stronger battled over them, climbing in desperation. Mothers clasping their little children close, shielding them from the flames, already blistering their own skin. Children clung back in fear.

Outside the church, men desperately tried to chop down the thick side doors. Rescuers at the main doors were seized by dozens of outstretched hands. Imagine seeing those fearful faces and hearing the screams of thousands behind them. They continued to drag out hundreds of the burnt living, until falling roof timbers halted any hope of saving more. The entire floor of the church was now a sea of fire. Thousands of women, from the white-haired to hairless infants, madres, abuelas, hermanas, and hijas began to die.

Gradually, the terrible screams from within grew fainter and fainter.

Soon an awful silence filled the plaza, with only the angry roar of the hellish furnace, that just minutes before been their beloved iglesia. The two bell towers followed the roof within the hour. The belfry fell to earth with an awful crash, burying the scorched bodies and ending their suffering. Many in the plaza knelt silently to pray.

The plaza was filled with the rescued, spread out on the ground. Hundreds of husbands and fathers rushed about, calling the names of loved ones. All the physicians of the city rushed to the plaza, ministering to the burned survivors. Rescuers took hundreds to Santiago hospitals. Many of those only lived a few hours however, due to their severe burns.

In hindsight, even the most common-sense precautions had not been taken. The absence of any fire brigade at that time contributed to the devastation. Santiago, a city of a hundred thousand, possessed only 3 three steamer engines, all out of order that night. Of the 3,000 persons within the church, only five hundred escaped, and most of them wounded or severely burned.

By midnight, 5 hours later, the flames finally began to subside.

At dawn, the church had been reduced to a smoldering heap of black rubble, surrounded by 4 scorched stone walls. By the light of day, the spectacle was indescribably horrible. 2,500 corpses, in every stage of combustion, lay in agonizing mounds inside around the exit doors. The layers of the bodies were disfigured beyond recognition.

All the officiating priests escaped through the vestry door with the holy relics in hand. The vestry door was then closed to keep the Santiago Church Fire from spreading to the rectory mansion next door. No doubt hundreds of victims could have found safety through that door. Vocal outrage fumed in the press and public at the near criminal indifference of the priests to the safety of their largely female congregation.

Around 2,500 perished in La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesús fire, about 2 to 3 percent of Santiago’s entire population of 100,000 at the time. Entire families were killed. Santiago was a city of mourning with the entire Chilean Republic joining in their grief. Clean up of all the burnt or suffocated victims took 10 gruesome days. Most bodies were so badly burned they could not be identified. The city buried those poor souls in a mass grave at the Cemetario General de Santiago.

Virgin Mary statue at the site of la Iglesia de la Compana de Jesus — Virgin Mary statue at the former site of la Iglesia de la Compana de Jesus, Santiago, Chile.

The city eventually destroyed the remains of The Church of the Company of Jesus the next year. A garden was planted in its place, which is now a part of the grounds of the Ex Congreso Nacional (former National Congress) on the Calle Compania de Jesus. A white statue of the Virgin Mary was erected where the main altar had once stood.

The Santiago Church Fire remains deadliest fire disaster ever recorded. The garden and statue still exist today. Should you visit Santiago, Chile, take time to pause a moment at its base. Ponder the tragic loss of life during the Santiago Church Fire and say a prayer for the fallen women and children.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

Countess Emilia Plater – Poland’s Joan of Arc

Countess Emilia Plater was a Polish–Lithuanian noblewoman and revolutionary who played a critical role in the Poland’s 1830 “November Uprising” against the Russian Empire. She is a national heroine in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, then part of the Polish Commonwealth.

While the stories of warrior men are quite common, those of warrior women are far less so. Joan d’Arc tried to liberate France from English occupation. The samurai Nakano Takeko fought in the 19th century’s Japanese Civil War, and Countess Plater participated in the Polish uprising against Tsarist Russia. Today, she is called the Polish Joan d’Arc. How did Plater become the heroine of the 1830 Uprising?

Emilia Broel-Plater was born in 1806 in Vilnius, Lithuania to a noble Polish–Lithuanian family of the Grand Duchy. In 1795, Poland had been partitioned three ways by the Russian Empire, Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia. Those monarchies had simply erased it off the map of Europe. Poles left behind had two choices: become loyal citizens to their new kings, or flee their homeland.

Emilia’s parents Count Franciszek Ksawery Plater and Countess Anna von der Mohle divorced when she was just nine years old. She was raised in the home of a distant cousin and her childhood was mostly spent in Latvia. Emilia remained in contact with her mother, but not her father who remarried. She was raised with a strong sense of patriotism and honor to her Polish ancestry, history, and culture. Emilia received an extensive education, read many works of philosophy,and even wrote her own poetry. And, counter to the acceptable behaviors of aristocratic ladies, along with her male cousins, became a skilled equestrian, fencer and marksman.

Emilia Plater was a bright student and fascinated with Polish history.

Her role model was Joan of Arc, and she never tired of reading of her life. Plater also admired Bouboulina, a woman who became one of the icons of the Greek uprising against the Ottomans. As a teenager, when she was not engaged in fencing, shooting or hunting, Emilia took long rides in the countryside.

On these rides, she often stopped at the huts of peasants, and always brought them gifts. She spoke to them in kind words, and was idolized by the local people. At eighteen, she received a proposal of marriage from a wealthy, influential Russian nobleman. She rejected him, saying simply, “No, I am Polish.”

A year earlier, Imperial Russian Army forced her cousin to enlist, as punishment for participating in the annual Polish Constitution celebration. Life under Imperial Russia was not easy for those who were used to a commonwealth democracy. Celebrating their history or culture was illegal, and viewed as acts of treason against the Tsar.

Nevertheless, movements of towards democracy and liberty were spreading throughout the world. The Americans had achieved independence by ousting British rule. France was in the early stages of its own violent revolution against the French monarchy. European states, however, failed to do anything to prevent the partitioning of Poland.

The common view among Poles was that it was up to them to get Poland back. Since the partition, Poles had been committing small acts in defiance against their Russian leaders. Most were small skirmishes that ended in no gains. Tragedy then struck Emilia. She lost both her mother and father in 1830, and soon after, war erupted with Russia.

The Polish November Uprising

On 29 November 1830, a group of young conspirators failed in an assassination attempt of Governor Grand Duke Constantine at his Warsaw palace. Though a failure, it sparked a popular uprising against Imperial Russia. Commoners and nobility alike took up arms against the powerful and better-equipped Russian Army. The Polish “November Uprising” became a fight against a European system that supported monarchies and inequality. The uprising quickly spread beyond Warsaw. Many in the countryside supported the abolition of serfdom, which gave nobles the right to control peasants as if they were slaves.

When the revolution began, the lands where Emilia lived were still unaffected by the fighting and no anti-Tsarist units yet existed. For Emilia Plater, the November Uprising became a chance to fight for Poland. She decided to form a partisan unit herself. Plater even went so far as to cut her hair short and adopted a male uniform.

Emilia, then just twenty-five, armed herself and rode quickly to her cousin Cezary Plater. On 29 March 1831, together with her adjutant Marija Prušinskaitė, they rode to the town of Dusiaty. There, she gave a fiery, anti-Russian/pro-Poland speech in the church. She announced the bold aims of the uprising, to free Poland from Russian rule and establish a Commonwealth again.

The men of the region were carried away on a wave of patriotism. She raised the Polish flag in the town square and assembled a platoon. As a noblewoman, no man could force her to stand down; as a revolutionary, she proved a valuable recruiter.

Emilia explained her motivation in her diary: ‘I hereby testify that no one coerced me into the steps I have taken today. The love of the Motherland led me. From my early childhood, I lived with the idea that I would one day go to war, I accepted it as my destiny. Because, for all my life, this thought, unusual for a young girl, has accompanied me.’

Emilia Plater organized her first detachment under the commission of Lieutenant.

She became part of a unit of 280 infantry, 60 cavalry, and 700 hundred peasants, armed primarily with war scythes. Together, they marched south towards Lithuania and managed to overcome some Russian divisions in Latvia.

In April 1831, her army crossed the border from Latvia into Russian-controlled Lithuania, where her unit seized the town of Zarasai. Her efforts there earned her a promotion to the rank of Captain in the Polish insurgent forces. She later joined with other Polish units to take part in the Battles of Prastavoniai and Maišiagala.

**Emilia Plater leading Polish forces in the November Uprising**

The Countess always rode at the head of her troops, leading them in the thick of battle. Her fearless leadership was an inspiration, not only to her men, but to all the other Poles fighting for the freedom of their country. In recognition of her valor, she received on the field of battle, the rank of Colonel. She was made the commander of 1st Company of the Polish 1st Lithuanian Infantry Regiment.

Although the Countess took part in many successful battles against the Russian Army, not all the rebels supported her. Some thought that a woman had no place in war. Chief Lithuanian rebel, Count Karolis Zaluskis, advised Plater to protect her feminine health and return to her home in Latvia. The Countess did not follow this advice.

As the Uprising continued, Plater became critical of decisions made by the revolution’s leadership.

The Polish plan was to wait for an opportune time to take Poland back, rather than be on the offensive. In May, Plater encountered Polish supreme commander General Dezydery Chłapowski. He too was unimpressed with the 25 year old Countess and told to go home. She refused adamantly, insisting she would fight until Poland was free.

By July, due to heavy Polish losses, General Chłapowski ordered a retreat of the their forces and seek refuge in Prussia. Emilia was stunned at the decision, vehemently disagreed, and refused to follow it. While the main forces chose to end the fight, she remained committed to continuing. After the defeat of insurgent troops near Vilnius, Plater decided to travel to Warsaw to continue the fight there. In defiance of orders, Emilia, along with Cezary and Marija, left their unit and attempted to reach Warsaw.

Plater hoped to continue the fight with Polish forces in the city. She never made it. At this point, Emilia suffered from exhaustion and became seriously ill with pneumonia. Ignotas Ablamavičius sheltered the sick countess in his manor. In September, Warsaw fell to Russian forces. The last of the Polish forces gave up and retreated into Prussia in October. Broken in health and in despair that the uprising had been in vain, she died in Justinianov on 23 December 1831.

She was buried in a cemetery in nearby Kopciów (now Kapciamiastis in Lithuania). Emilia Plater’s estate was confiscated by the Imperial Russian Tzar. The November Uprising was a failure … but not the memory of Countess Emilia Plater.

Emilia Plater is viewed today as a true Polish hero. She symbolizes the sacrifices Poles were willing to make in the name of Poland. During the Partition, citizens were forced to adhere to the culture of either the Russians, Austrians, or Prussians. Emilia Plater’s story symbolized the fight for Polish nationalism. If a noblewoman could fight for Poland, then so could everyone else. Her story as the Polish Joan of Arc continues to inspire to this day.

Although she died at but 25, the memory of her life survived. Serfdom was abolished in 1861, exactly thirty years after Plater’s death. Her favorite poet, Mickiewicz, immortalized her in his poem, Śmierć pułkownika (Death of a Colonel). After World War I, the Allies reconstituted Poland in the Treaty of Versailles. In 1939, during World War II, a Polish unit was named Emilia Plater 1st Independent Women’s Battalion. Its former members later founded a village (Platerówka) in Silesia. In 1959, a Polish Oceanic Lines ship was named M/S Emilia Plater in her honor. Emilia Plater’s face was on the Second Polish Republic’s note of 20 zloty.

At the site of her burial in Kapciamiestis, Lithuania, a monument was raised honoring her sacrifice. Emilia Plater since been immortalized in literary works, paintings, poems, statues, and street names.

She is celebrated as a national heroine in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, symbolizing the dedication of women in the pursuit of their nation’s causes. Her symbol of The Fighting Girl became widespread in Poland, Lithuania and abroad. She became a role-model for other Polish and Lithuanian girls. She showed the world that a woman can be influential in the political and military life of a country as well as any man.

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LOST IN HISTORY

Peace in the Middle East- the Camp David Accords

Egypt's Anwar Sadat, America's Jimmy Carter and Israel's Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords 1978 — Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, America’s Jimmy Carter and Israel’s Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords in 1978

Peace in the Middle East seems like a utopian fantasy. But there are true examples of lasting success. The best by far is the Camp David Accords. They were signed at the White House in 1978 by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, and U.S. President Jimmy Carter. It laid the groundwork, after 3 long decades of wars, for a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt that lasts to this day. The largely forgotten accords, were fleshed out during 13 days of intensive negotiations, lead by President Carter, at the Camp David Presidential Retreat in Maryland. The final peace agreement – the first ever between Israel and an Arab neighbor – was then signed at the White House.

This seems unimaginable today given the powder keg that continues in the Middle East. A state of war had basically existed between Israel and Egypt since Israel’s formation in 1948. Jews had achieved an independent homeland, but the Arab world surrounding it claimed that same land for a Palestinian state. Three wars followed – the 1948 Arab Israeli War, the 1967 Six Day War, and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In them, Israel successfully defended itself and in fact expanded its territory by occupying the Sinai Peninsula.

By the late 1970’s, Anwar Sadat had enough of wars. He wanted to finally make peace AND recover the Sinai. But after Israel’s victories in the wars, they had little reason to include Sinai in any peace terms. Menachem Begin, the new conservative Israeli Prime Minister, appeared immovable on the very idea of exchanging land for peace.

By 1977, Sadat, frustrated by the lack of movement made a dramatic announcement. He said that he would be willing to go to Jerusalem! Begin complied, inviting Sadat to visit Israel. There Sadat historically spoke before the Israeli Knesset – the 1^st time ever for an Arab leader! Sadat then invited Begin to Egypt, who reciprocated with a trip to Cairo. These 2 visits led to direct talks, but unfortunately, much like today, not much came of them.

Then along came U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

From the start of his presidency, Carter pursued intensive negotiations with both Israel and Egypt to achieve peace once and for all. During the summer of 1978, Carter attempted to find common ground. He realized that without direct U.S. mediation, the two sides would simply go on arguing, blaming each, or worse still, fighting. Carter ignored party advice to stay out of the Middle East and chose instead to commit the U.S. to trilateral negotiations.

Jimmy Carter decided the solution was to call for a Summit with the two leaders, but not just any summit. He invited Begin and Sadat to the Presidential Retreat at Camp David. This meeting would bring Sadat, Begin, and Carter together at the secluded retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. They both agreed!

It was a huge risk and daring act for Carter to stick himself into the hornet’s nest of the Middle East. He placed both his presidential capital and political future on the line for a summit that most likely would fail. Carter decided it would be best, win or lose, to go all out, in an all-or-nothing high stakes gamble on peace.

So in September 1978, Jimmy Carter welcomed Sadat and Begin to the forested retreat in the middle of nowhere, away from the public’s and press’s eyes. Here, peace accords would be hammered out under the direction of President Carter himself. He preferred informal diplomacy and felt it best to shield them all from public and media scrutiny. Camp David allowed for a more relaxed atmosphere for negotiations.

The Camp David Summit, lasted 13 days from September 5–17th, 1978.

Rarely had a U.S. President devoted as much attention to a single foreign policy issue as Jimmy Carter did. The core issues centered around Egypt demanding the Sinai back and the creation of an independent Palestinian homeland on the West Bank. In turn, Israel insisted Egypt remove its troops from its border and allow for Israeli access to the Suez Canal.

As the first 3 days ran on, the talks melted down, especially when both leaders sat in the same room. The debates were often heated between Begin and Sadat. They broke down into shouting matches and fist shaking while Carter played the role of mediator. It turned out the two leaders did not like each other on a personal level, let alone a political one.

So instead, Carter and his Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, decided to meet with each delegation separately over the course of the next 10 days, acting as go-betweens. This was exhausting, but Carter was tireless, and with his perpetual smile and optimism, shuttled back and forth between the 2 delegations. He often rode a bicycle between the cabins of the 2 heads of state.

Each Middle East leader threatened to walk out on numerous occasions.

President Carter played the role of strategist, mediator, ally, and even therapist. He effectively used the promise of American aid to both sides as leverage to induce flexibility AND accept concessions. For 13 days, Carter did something unprecedented, he set aside his other presidential duties to work exclusively on Middle East peace. And it worked!

Carter wisely separated the Sinai issue from the Palestinian issue, resulting in 2 agreements. The first was ‘A Framework for Peace in the Middle East Agreed at Camp David.’ It stated that Israel would evacuate the Sinai in exchange for full access to the Suez Canal. In exchange, Egypt would greatly reduce its military activities on the southern Israeli border.

The second agreement was the ‘Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel.’ This one was to discuss the future of the West Bank and Gaza, and the creation of a future Palestinian state. The CAMP DAVID ACCORDS were signed in the East Room of the White House on national TV on September 17, 1978.

Sadat, Carter and Begin sign the Egypt-Israeli Middle East Peace Treaty, 1978 — Sadat, Carter and Begin shake hands during Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty, 1978

The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty was formally signed 6 months later on March 1979 on the South Lawn of the White House . Sadat and Begin shared the Nobel Peace Prize that same year. The treaty ended the state of war between the two countries and established full diplomatic and commercial relations that lasts to this day!

Peace between Egypt and Israel was a truly historic accomplishment that wouldn’t have been achieved without the tireless efforts of U.S. President Carter, Jimmy Carter. He accomplished something that had eluded the Middle East diplomats for 3 decades and the 4 decades since. He himself received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. The sustainable Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty has remained unmatched by subsequent administrations around the world ever since.

Sadly, there has not been similar Middle East peace ever since. Wars routinely erupt in the decades since between Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Yemen and various Islamic extremist groups. That includes the Iran, Afghanistan, and two Iraqi wars with the U.S. Ceasefires, but not lasting peace, end the conflicts. Hatred and hostilities linger, sometimes across generations, until war inevitably breaks out again. Add to that the complexity of global oil and gas supplies in the Middle East, and the impacts of war are felt worldwide.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

The 1920 Wall Street Bombing -America’s 1st Terrorist Attack

New York City Wall Street Bombing, 1920 — Aftermath of the New York City Wall Street Bombing of 1920

As clocks struck Noon, and the bells of Trinity Church rang out on September 16th, 1920, a man ran from a wagon on Wall Street. A massive bomb exploded, tearing through New York City’s Financial District. The Wall Street bombing killed 38 people and injured hundreds more.

The corner of Wall & Broad Streets was the epicenter of Manhattan’s Financial District. It was dominated by the headquarters of J.P. Morgan and Co., the most influential bank on the planet, and the very symbol of American capitalism. Just a few steps down Wall Street is the New York Stock Exchange.

Just like today, 1920 Wall Street at lunchtime was a busy hive of activity. Bank clerks and stockbrokers swarmed the sidewalks, and the street was clogged with Studebakers and delivery trucks. A battered, red horse-drawn wagon sat across from the bank at 23 Wall Street. At Noon, the capped driver dropped the reigns and suddenly ran off down the lane.

Inside the wagon were 500 pounds of cast iron bolts packed around 100 pounds of TNT.

At 12:00 PM, the dynamite detonated with an ear-splitting roar. A wall of flames enveloped the entire width of Wall Street. The explosion derailed a streetcar two blocks away. It sent shrapnel flying as high as the 34th floor of surrounding skyscrapers. Bloodied chunks of the wagon’s horse landed over a hundred yards away. Young stockbroker Joseph Kennedy, father of future President Kennedy, was lifted off his feet by the shock wave and knocked to the ground.

Those unlucky to be near the wagon were consumed in flames or cut to pieces by iron shrapnel. A rain of shattered glass windows from the floors above, cut into survivors running on the streets below. Once the smoke lifted, dozens had been killed instantly, their bodies lying in the street. Others ran about with their clothes afire. The J.P. Morgan Bank was raked by debris, blasting through the windows and injuring clerks seated at their desks inside.

Thirty people died instantly from the Wall Street Bombing. Another 8 died from sustained injuries.

Hundreds more were wounded. Much like the French battlefields of World War I, Wall Street had become a war zone of charred bodies and severed limbs. Witnesses said the dead lay “flattened like tenpins” in the gutters. Those still breathing did not live for long. Trading at the NY Stock Exchange stopped as New York City policemen and nurses swarmed down to Wall Street.

Surprisingly, no-one person or group claimed responsibility for the attack. There seemed to be no objective, except to generate public terror. This led many to think the villains were Communist infiltrators from Russia’s recent Bolshevik Revolution. Investigators had no clue as to who had carried it out, or why. The obvious target was the Morgan bank, but J.P. Morgan himself had been in Europe, thousands of miles away.

That evening, thousands of New Yorkers descended on Wall Street and sang patriotic songs like the National Anthem and America the Beautiful. Looming behind them was the Morgan bank’s soot covered walls, pock-marked by fist-deep holes from the shrapnel blast.

The blood of the victims still stained Wall Street beneath their feet.

**New York banker and financier J.P. Morgan**

The New York Stock Exchange reopened the day after the Wall Street bombing. J.P. Morgan quickly returned and was determined to show the world that American business would not be intimidated. All signs of the blast were hastily collected off Wall Street and debris swept away. This including crucial evidence from the wagon that might have helped in the investigation.

Suspicions grew the next day when a postal worker found 5 copies of a flier stuffed in a Financial District mailbox. Printed by hand and riddled with spelling errors, the note read:

“Rimember, We will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death is all of you.”
signed: American Anarchist fighters

Rumors swirled, with political fingers pointing at anarchists, unionists, or socialists – anyone who might not want to see America’s wealthy capitalist empire succeed. Some even blamed Russia’s Communist leader Vladimir Lenin. The national Bureau of Investigation, precursor to the FBI, were quick to find scapegoats in stereotypical, dark-bearded foreigners. This included a new, young division head in Washington, soon to become the famous J. Edgar Hoover.

At least 25 suspects were arrested, but all were released, and none ever charged.

The mysterious fliers were the closest it came to anyone claiming responsibility for the Wall Street Bombing. Investigators pointed at an Italian anarchist Mario Buda as the most likely culprit. They claimed he sought revenge for his compatriots held in prison. Buda managed to flee to Italy, but he too was never charged.

Police and the BOI spent 3 years trying to identify the wagon’s mysterious driver with a cap, but the trail ultimately went cold. What started as an investigation transformed into a cover-up of sorts, after the lack of arrests became a nationwide public embarrassment. The newspapers were encouraged by the government not to “egg on the radicals” by publicizing their causes in print.

1920 Wall Street Bombing scars visible today — 1920 Wall Street Bombing scars still visible today on J.P. Morgan Bank.

The scars of the 1920 Wall Street bombing are still visible today, if one looks close at building walls – the lone reminder of the bombing attack. Unlike the 9/11 Memorial just down the street, no plaque or historical marker exists of the attack. New York would rather just forget it ever occurred.

The Bombing of Wall Street remained the deadliest U.S. terror attack until the Oklahoma City bombing, 75 years later in 1995. While the incident may seem antiquated today, it foretold of a future of terror attacks that would be easily committed by rogue groups upon unknowing cities around the world. It was a fact of life that sadly continued in the U.S – with the 2001 9/11 World Trade Center attack, and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

Lost in History

Iraq and Iran did not exist prior to World War I

For all their revolutions and wars over the last five decades, you must remember that Iraq and Iran are relatively new nations on the world scene. Neither existed as we know them today prior to World Wars I and II. Since then, these 2 very different Muslim nations, with similar sounding names, have had a long history of dynasties, revolutions, republics and Islamic state. Let us take a look at them one at a time.

IRAQ

Prior to World War I, the Iraqi region was the eastern part of the vast Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Turks for five centuries after they conquered the region from the Persian Empire in 1534. Baghdad was key due to its rich cultural history and central location on the Tigris River. But it was ruled with an iron fist by the Ottoman Sultans, who kept all the warring tribes under strict control. Except for an 80 year period in the 18th century, when the region was controlled by Georgian Mamluks, the region was part of the Ottoman Empire.

In World War I, the Turks of the Ottoman Empire sided with Germany and Austro-Hungary against Britain, France and Russia. The end of that war in 1918 marked the end of the Ottoman Empire. Britain and France won control over ALL their Middle East territory. They left the Turks with the footprint of modern Turkey.

A British/French plan called the ‘Sykes-Picot Agreement’ essentially carved up the Middle East between the two winning nations. In 1920, the Iraqi region became a ‘British Mandate’ under the League of Nations, formally called the “State of Mesopotamia,” with the modern straight-line borders we know today. Britain brought in a Sunni king from Arabia to rule over the new constitutional monarchy, which included both Shiite Muslim and northern Kurdish tribes.

In 1927, an event happened which would change the region forever, Britain discovered oil in Iraq.

In 1932, “IRAQ” gained independence as a constitutional monarchy, with a British-appointed King Faisal I. From the 1930s to the 1950s, pro-Western prime ministers dominated Iraqi politics. The governments began drilling for more oil and slowly modernizing the country. The Hashemite family ruled until 1958, when King Faisal II was assassinated (along with the entire royal family) in a bloody coup led by General Abdul Qasim. This marked the beginning of a military-dominated Iraqi republic.

General Qasim ruled for 5 years, before being overthrown himself and murdered by Colonel Abdul Arif in 1963. Five years later, he too was deposed by a Ba’ath Party coup in 1968. The Ba’ath Party was remarkably dominated by minority Sunni Muslims in a predominately Shiite nation. Iraq’s government used its abundant oil revenues to develop the economy, build schools, roads and hospitals, but also substantially grow its military. The Ba’ath leaders were then pushed out of power by a familiar name, General Saddam Hussein.

Hussein seized power as president in 1979. The following year, he launched an invasion of neighboring Iran that led to the bloody Iran-Iraq War. Iraq was heavily backed with aid by the U.S., Europe and Saudi Arabia. Iran was backed by Communist Soviet Union and China. It ended with a stalemate after 8 long and bloody years.

In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded its neighbor Kuwait. This set off a US-lead counter invasion by the 1st President George Bush, beginning the First Iraqi War. This was of course followed by the 2nd President George W. Bush and the Second Iraqi War in 2003. This finally led to the fall of the Ba’ath regime. Hussein was ultimately captured and hanging in 2006. Iraq has since been a parliamentary republic once again, ruled by a Prime Minister, but still subject to extremist influence, either military or religious.

Sunnis & Shiites briefly explained

Sunnis and Shiites are both Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad wrote the Quran and founded Islam and the first Islamic state in Arabia in 622. The dispute and difference comes over who was Muhammad’s rightful successor. The Sunnis believes that the first four Caliphs–Muhammad’s successors—are the rightful leaders of Islam. Shiites believe that only the heirs of the fourth Caliph Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, are the legitimate successors. The split in Islamic leadership and religion has remained for centuries ever since. Shiites are concentrated in Iraq and Iran. Sunnis dominate 85% of all Muslims (1.5 billion worldwide) in North Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Southeast Asia.

IRAN

Prior to World War I, the Iranian region was the center of the vast Persian Empire, ruled by the Qajar Dynasty since 1792. Discontent boiled over into revolution. In 1906, the last Qajar shah, Muzaffar al-Din was forced to introduce a parliament, the Majlis, and a constitution, in what is known as the Constitutional Revolution. However, the next shah, Mohammad Ali, did not care for the Majlis and attacked parliament with his artillery in 1908, introducing Martial Law. This led to another uprising in 1909 and Shah Ali was forced to abdicate in favor of his son.

In 1921, a British-backed Iranian officer Reza Khan seized control of the government in a yet another coup. He ousted the last Qajar ruler and named himself Shah. This began what would be Iran’s final royal dynasty – the Pahlavis. Britain, the U.S. and Soviet Union in the meantime ALL became increasingly interested in Iran following World War II, due to the discovery of its vast oil reserves.

Reza Shah tried to both modernize and westernize Iran. But after 15 years, Britain and Soviet Russia forced him out as well by and into exile because of his ties to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, took the throne in 1941. In 1943, at the Tehran Conference, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin signed the Tehran Declaration, accepting an independent “IRAN,” under the young Shah Reza.

British Petroleum (BP) in the meantime was making millions in Iran and Iraq. The next ruler, Mohammed Mosaddeq, fought to nationalize the oil industry and repatriate the wealth. Needless to say, that did not go over well with the western powers. In 1953, the U.S. CIA and Britain orchestrated a coup to oust Prime Minister Mosaddeq, bringing the pro-western Shah Pahlavi back to power in the so called White (bloodless) Revolution.

In following years, Iran forged closer and closer ties with Washington D.C., receiving huge amounts of military and economic aid, until the late 1970s. Iran began ramping up its military and became one of the region’s strongest military powers. The country also saw more westernization, including greater freedom for women. This came much to the dismay of the strict Muslim clerics, who denounced western influences on Islamic culture.

By 1964, Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as the leading opposition in Iran to the Shah.

Khomeini claimed the shah had reduced the Iranian people to “American dogs.” The Shah responded by banishing Khomeini from Iran. The Shah ruled until 1979, when he too was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution, by a coalition of military generals and Muslim clerics opposed to his despotic rule. The Shiite Clergy took control, under the leadership of none other than Ayatollah Khomeini, who returned from exile, forcing the Shah out of the country.

Khomeini declared Iran a theocracy with himself as the Supreme Leader, and a ‘President’ with lesser powers. Iran entered the aforementioned Iran-Iraq War, when Saddam Hussein invaded western Iran. That ended in a stalemate 8 years later. Khomeini ruled the country until his death in 1989. He was succeeded by the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who continued his predecessor’s policies, including the development of nuclear capabilities. Khamenei was assassinated by the U.S. military in 2026 and replaced by his son.

So, the nations of Iraq and Iran are relatively new, but very critical, entries into the global scene. The bubbling hot pots of Iraq and Iran, plus their neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been stirred and supplemented for decades by European, Soviet, Russian, American, tribal and Muslim sects. Each has attempted parliamentary democracies, only to fall back into military or religious dictatorships. Historically, one regime is a trusted ally and supported by the U.S. and Western Europe, the next one is deemed a dangerous enemy and taken to war. What lies in the future for the volatile region? You have only to look at the past.

For more by historical writer Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.

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