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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Aug 9, 2022 20:14:15 GMT
True, and unlike OTL, we might not see Soviet/Russian troops in the Philippines unless Tadiar does something monumentally stupid, like raiding the Russian Far East through piracy. The Philippine Navy in the 1980s isn't ocean going to begin with. Remember the largest ship at this period was a WWII LST and the flagship is the BRP Rajah Humabon, which is a WWII Cannon-class destroyer escort. It would make more sense if the PN terrorized the South China Sea, also clashing with other stateless pirates in the region. No, but they might be deployed in TTL’s Second Korean War. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Aug 26, 2022 4:38:15 GMT
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE FILIPINO CIVIL WAR PART SIX
PROTESTS ERUPT IN ILOCOS NORTE CAPITAL OF LAOAG IN RESPONSE TO RISE IN FOOD PRICES, MARCOS REGIME LOYALIST FORCES DEPLOYED TO QUELL 'RIOTS' IN RESPONSE
Manila Times
September 22, 1986
(Laoag, ILOCOS NORTE) - In what is an unsurprising turn of events, residents of Ilocos Norte's provincial capital of Laoag had taken to the streets in response to the rise in food prices, as well as prices in other commodities as well. The protests come at a time when economic activity in parts of the Philippines under the control of former Marcos regime loyalist forces have been paralyzed by the exodus of civilians wishing to leave their homes in not only Ilocos Norte, but areas of Luzon that have recently been placed under the control of said regime loyalist troops. The decline in economic activity has also affected parts of the Philippines under control of the Aquino government, and territories under the control of the Tadiar-aligned renegade troops. Although the uprising in Laoag is seen as a promising trend that could put an end to the Marcos regime in his home province, skeptics had pointed out that General Fabian Ver, who has taken over the Vice Presidency from former Kilusang Bagong Lipunan member and former Vice Presidential candidate Arturo Tolentino, is willing to use lethal force to disperse the protests, citing Artemio Tadiar's own suppression of the EDSA Revolution that triggered his infamy.
"My biggest mistake was that I believed that I can show mercy to my opponents when they dared to protest against my victory in the last snap election," comments former President Marcos, during a rally attended by a few remaining die hard supporters. "It seems that Artemio Tadiar, despite my order to not shoot at civilians, has shown that sometimes we must show no mercy to our enemies. That does not excuse his treason against our nation."
In response to the protests, General Ver has imposed a 22 hour curfew, where civilians are not allowed to roam around the streets of Laoag, with a 2 hour limit where they are allowed to leave their homes, only to receive their rationed food and fuel. Moreover, the acting Vice President has also ordered all schools within the area of the Philippines under the control of former Marcos regime loyalists to be closed, for the duration of the civil war. Needless to say, the teachers were outraged by the order, and joined the protesting civilians on the streets. As tensions continue to rise between the former dictator and the citizens of northern Luzon, the news of the declining popularity has been seen as a welcoming development for Marcos's opponents. In addition, the New People's Army had also hatched a plan to trigger a left wing revolt against the pro-Marcos forces in northern Luzon, as an attempt to force their opponents to expend their energy into putting down the revolts, as a diversion from their real intentions.
"I would not be surprised if former President Marcos decided to impose a brutal crackdown on the citizens of the territory that he still controls. Ironically, he learned to become merciless from the renegade officer who disobeyed his orders at Ortigas Avenue," says Lorenzo Tanada, a prominent left-wing official within the Aquino government, who has refused to defect to the New People's Army. "However, I fear that Marcos might do something insane in response to the growing discontent among his own supporters by taking the Ilocos region and seceding from the Philippines. I suppose he might have learned that from his communist enemies as well."
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KENTUCKY IN AN UPROAR AS LOCAL ACTOR JOHNNY DEPP IS REVEALED TO HAVE DIED IN THE PHILIPPINES, UNDER THE CUSTODY OF MARCOS REGIME LOYALISTS
New York Times
October 18, 1986
(Owensboro, KENTUCKY) - The quiet town of Owensboro had awoken to a tragic and dreadful morning upon learning that its cherished resident, rising actor in Johnny Depp, had been revealed to have died of neglect, while kept as a prisoner of war by the former Marcos regime loyalist forces in the Philippines. Depp, who was also revealed to have volunteered as a foreign fighter as a part of the International Legion of National Liberation for the Philippines, was in the country, while shooting the film, Platoon. The news of Depp's fate had been revealed by fellow actor Martin Kove, who also disclosed the abuses that captured pro-Aquino government forces had endured at the hands of their political rivals. The revelation of Depp's involvement in the Filipino Civil War has struck a blow at the Reagan administration's official policy of non-intervention in the ongoing internal conflict in the Philippines. As a result, furious residents in other parts of Kentucky have started to hold anti-Reagan rallies around the state.
"Our president has demonstrated his capacity for lying through his teeth when he said that we're not involved in the Filipino Civil War! We lost a cherished citizen of the state of Kentucky as a result of President Reagan's inability to enforce that moronic policy!" says an unnamed protester, during a rally in Frankfort. "Has the Republican Party abandoned its principles when they turned a blind eye to the number of Americans that have decided to 'volunteer' as 'humanitarian workers' in the Philippines?"
A recent poll had been taken a few days prior to the announcement of Depp's death, in which residents of Kentucky were asked whom they will vote for in the upcoming 1986 Mid-term elections. The results were stunning; over 53% of the residents of Kentucky said that they would vote either Democrat or Independent, if they were given the choice to do so. Since the announcement of Depp's death, there has been more clamoring for support towards the Democratic Party, albeit this is actually done out of opposition to President Reagan, rather than out of opposition towards the Republican Party. At the same time however, increased reports of more American 'volunteers' being kept as prisoners of war under Marcos regime loyalist forces' custody has resulted in serious questions being asked about the failed attempts by the Reagan administration to close the loop holes.
"I remember my cousin who went to the Philippines a few days before Marcos was ousted, but ended up with the so-called International Legion when the civil war broke out. I guess President Reagan didn't take that into account about other Americans already being in the Philippines, prior to the uprising," says Janet Pauker, when asked about the loop hole that President Reagan failed to close. "Now my family and I find out that my cousin has died of starvation in one of those POW camps held by the former dictator's goons."
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Op-Ed: The Philippines and its Nuclear Flirtation
by: Milan Krivodolac
Polit-Blog, released April 17, 2018
The entire world has never been so nervous about the status of Southeast Asia in the nuclear age, despite being given the status of a nuclear free zone. Indeed, several SE Asian nations had built nuclear reactors for civilian purposes, including the Philippines. It was not until 1989 that they clarified that SE Asia was a nuclear weapons free zone, and not a nuclear energy free zone. The military dictatorship of Artemio Tadiar was seen as one of the most terrifying military dictatorships in the world, surpassing even that of Chile's dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, prior to his sidelining and usurpation by Alvaro Corbalan in 1999. It was so terrifying, mostly because of its willingness to militarize the entire country, just so it could stand a chance in a war with China. Indeed, during the Chinese aerial bombardment against the Philippines, international observers noticed that the People's Liberation Army Air Force had taken steps to avoid bombing the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (which was reactivated by the Tadiar regime in 1989), in order to avoid creating a fallout that would have added the body count to the already increased number of civilian deaths in the Philippines. Yet, hardline military figures within the Chinese PLA had criticized their fellow officers in the PLAAF for not targeting the nuclear power plant, stating that Tadiar would have been swamped by a large humanitarian crisis that it would result in his earlier downfall, and China would come in to help rebuild the Philippines. However, moderate voices within the Chinese government pointed out that destroying the nuclear power plant in the Philippines would not only render the entirety of northern Luzon as uninhabitable, but the sheer disaster and mass deaths would result in the international community declaring China as a "global aggressor state" that is responsible for "nuclear genocide". Yet, it did not stop the Tadiar regime from cultivating a dangerous and sinister desire to possess certain weapons of mass destruction. In 1996, following the shocking downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, various former Ba'athist Party officials and ex-Iraqi military officers had fled to the Philippines while carrying the surviving chemical weapons arsenal, which the Tadiar regime had acquired for its own research. However, it was an incident that was kept a secret from 1995, until 2005, that horrified the world.
You see, the Philippines' first foray in its flirtation with the idea of acquiring nuclear weapons was not by chance. Artemio Tadiar himself saw the benefits of enriching uranium for additional energy production, as well as potentially creating a crude nuclear bomb that could target anywhere in the world, and the nation that he wanted to get revenge on was obviously China. Moreover, what ultimately helped the Philippines advance its knowledge and learning of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons in question was the rise of a nationalist regime in the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine. The revived Ukrainian National Republic, under the acting junta led by Ihor Tenyukh, had been in a race against the Soviet forces inside Ukrainian territory for the repossession of the Soviet nuclear arsenal that was stationed in that territory, during the Second Russian Civil War. Most of the former 43rd Rocket Army that was stationed in Ukraine had been divided along political lines, with only the 37th Guards Rocket Division and the 50th Rocket Division siding with Ukrainian pro-independence forces, while the rest of the Rocket Divisions either defected to the rump Soviet Union (then changed to the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics), or joined the pro-Soviet Lukyanovite breakaway state in Eastern Ukraine that called itself the Ukrainian Soviet Sovereign Republic, claiming themselves as the successor to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Second Ukrainian War of Independence had a huge effect on the Ukrainian nation as a whole, and Ukraine's economic condition made it impossible to maintain the financial requirements to keep its nuclear arsenal, despite possessing mostly the nuclear bomber squadrons (as the UR-100N ICBMs and RT-23 Molodets missiles were the first ones to be taken by either pro-Soviet loyalist forces, or the UkSSR-aligned rebel forces). However, Ukraine was not short of nuclear scientists, as demonstrated by a few desperate nuclear scientists who were seduced by financial bonuses offered by the Tadiar regime. It was not by accident that on August 23, 1995, the Tadiar regime recognized Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, although the Philippines' diplomatic isolation imposed upon itself after the disastrous Spratly Islands conflict meant that the Philippines was limited in its diplomatic dealings. However, only four nations in the world still kept its diplomatic ties to the Philippines, despite its diplomatic isolation: Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and Chile. However, in 1997, Vietnam and Ukraine would later be added to the list of nations that had limited diplomatic dealings with the Philippines. The ties with Ukraine was most crucial for Artemio Tadiar's regime, as its expertise in nuclear technology was needed for the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant's maintenance. Starting in late 1997, a few Philippine military officers and scientists had been sent to Ukraine to study nuclear science, although various attempts by said officers to defect had been foiled by both NICA agents attached to the foreign exchange officer students, and the Ukrainian SBU.
Unfortunately, it was not China that would raise the alarm on the Philippines' attempt at fulfilling its ambitions of acquiring the technical expertise for the creation of a nuclear bomb, but Russia (as the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics would eventually be expelled from the UN for its brutality during the Second Russian Civil War, and re-admitted as the Russian National Federation), as one of the defectors, a certain Colonel Cirilito Sobejana, had managed to elude his NICA minders and made his way from his temporary residence in Odessa to Yevpatoriya in Crimea. His defection in 1999 was kept secret by Soviet (later Russian) intelligence, because they were skeptical at the idea of a third world country like the Philippines acquiring nuclear weapons. However, another defection, this time consisting of four Filipino nuclear scientists trained and educated in Lviv, had confirmed former Colonel Sobejana's claims that the Tadiar regime wanted to develop its own nuclear weaponry, potentially destroying the status of a nuclear weapons free zone in SE Asia as a whole, and that defection took place, prior to Tadiar's death in 2007. His successor, Hector Tarrazona, decided to keep the nuclear weapons program a secret, but by then, that program was already known in an secret reconnaissance and infiltration mission, codenamed Project Pineapple. Project Pineapple was a joint mission conducted by Russia and China, in response to the defections made by former Tadiar regime officials. It alerted the entire world to the danger of a nuclear-armed military junta leading the Philippines, and it nearly derailed the Philippines' attempt at ending its diplomatic isolation. Furthermore, the Russian government under President Dmitry Rogozin had also consulted with top military and intelligence leaders on a possible joint Russo-Chinese "Special Military Operation" as early as 2010, but it was his successor in President Alexey Zhuravlyov who had began to form the plans that would potentially lead to that dreaded SMO, in which they would 'De-nuclearize" the Philippines and restoring the status of the nuclear weapons free zone for all of SE Asia. However, the Tadiar-backed nuclear weapons ambitions had also encouraged other SE Asian nations to pursue such programs as well. Vietnam after the Spratlys conflict, had considered breaking the taboo on nuclear weapons in SE Asia, and had in fact, approached the Soviet Union (the Sovereign Republic one, not the Socialist Republic one) for help with its nuclear program, only to be rejected for fear of destabilizing SE Asia by their nuclear ambitions. Luckily, while Tadiar was still alive, he sent his Ukrainian-trained nuclear scientists to teach their Vietnamese and Indonesian apprentices on the wonders of nuclear technology. However, by the time Tarrazona succeeded Tadiar as the new military dictator of the Philippines, several significant reforms had taken place, mostly in the educational sector, where emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics was stressed, as a way of emulating Israel's cultivation of its educated elites.
Yet, even Ukraine had to warn the Philippines against developing its nuclear weapons, because if the world had learned of its role in allowing the Philippines to learn how to build certain weapons of mass destruction, it would have painted a tempting target on its back and would have given Russia a justification to increase its aggression on Ukraine. Indeed, the establishment of the Intermarium Community back in 1998 in Krakow, Poland, had been beneficial for the Eastern European nations that wanted to retain their independence from the rump Soviet Union (and later, Russia). It was the Intermarium Community that allowed Eastern Europe to forge closer economic, diplomatic, political, and military ties that made it easier for them to be admitted into both the European Continental Association and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Indeed, the diplomatic clout that the Intermarium Community had exercised during the Second Korean War was enough to deter Philippine forces from doing something completely idiotic, like invading the Russian Far East to eliminate a group of renegade North Korean military mutineers that have taken shelter within the RFE, after a power struggle that failed to overthrow Kim Jong Il. At the same time however, the gradual easing of the Philippines' diplomatic isolation also meant that the Intermarium Community would also send their citizens to help the Tadiar regime with the semi-modernization of the Philippine economy, but it was not until Tadiar's death in 2007 that the Intermarium Community would expand their cooperation to include areas of nuclear science. However, the announcement that the Philippines had reached a capability to build a nuclear bomb by Hector Tarrazona in 2009 had accelerated the plans made by Russia and China for that de-nuclearized "Special Military Operation". Indeed, it was only after the Seventh Philippine Republic was established, with Grace Poe as its first post-junta President, that there were talks of gradual climb down from building nuclear bombs to using the nuclear missile technology, and reorient it towards civilian purposes between the Poe administration and the international community.
The Philippines' flirtation with nuclear technology was born out of a necessity that was shaped by its conflict with its neighbor to the north, China. Moreover, the chronic power outages that the entire population suffered from the 1990s onwards had been a source of irritation for the Tadiar dictatorship, which explained why Artemio Tadiar himself paid attention to the maintenance of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. However, the announcement made by the Poe administration to launch a construction of an earthquake-proof nuclear power plant was met with protests in 2013, when the residents of Tanauan, Leyte Prefecture, had organized a rally aimed at shutting down the proposed project, fearing that the construction of another nuclear plant would have a detrimental effect on their health. Even after the death of Tadiar and the fall of the Tarrazona junta, the Philippines' continued flirtation with nuclear technology had divided the nation. Its flirtation with nuclear technology had also resulted in an unintentional consequence geopolitically, as a nuclear-armed Philippines was something that both Russia and China were adamantly opposed to. It is no wonder that the planned de-Nuclearized "Special Military Operation" was going to be called Operation: L.
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AQUINO GOVERNMENT URGED BY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO EVACUATE FROM MANILA AS MARCOS REGIME LOYALISTS FORCES EDGE TOWARDS CAPITAL
Vancouver Sun
September 30, 1986
(Manila, PHILIPPINES) - The international community has urged the Aquino administration in the Philippines to relocate its seat of government to a more secure area, while the forces loyal to former President Ferdinand Marcos are bearing closer towards the Philippine capital. To no one's surprise, President Corazon Aquino has refused to accept controversial Philippine Marine Corps officer Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar's offer of hosting the legitimate Philippine government in Kabankalan, preferring to establish an interim seat of power in Sorsogon City, which is located in southeastern Luzon. President Aquino's choice of the interim seat of power however, places her within direct range of the New People's Army, whose militants had made progress in their eastward expansion throughout the province of Camarines Norte. At the same time though, various troops from what's left of the Philippine military that remained loyal to the embattled President had gathered around the Philippine capital, awaiting a battle that is expected to be the heaviest urban battle to take place in the Philippines since the urban combat that took place in Cabanatuan City, a few months prior to the current Marcos regime loyalist offensive. As a result of the evacuation of the government to Sorsogon City, President Aquino has appointed newly promoted Brigadier General Gregorio Honasan as the commander of the Manila Garrison and the acting Mayor of Manila, with the previous Mayor of Manila, Gemiliano Lopez, who was recently killed in an airstrike carried out by the 3rd Fighter Wing (the only Philippine Air Force squadron that sided with the Marcos regime loyalists, while other PAF squadrons either sided with President Aquino, or Brigadier General Tadiar) two days before the government's relocation to Sorsogon City.
"It is expected that Manila will witness some heavy fighting in the coming days. As a result, we have taken precautions to evacuate the entire civilian population of the capital to other parts of the Philippines. As it pains me to say this, we had to approach Brigadier General Tadiar for help with hosting some of the civilian refugees that we evacuated from Manila," says BGen. Honasan, during a press conference in Pasay City. "In return, BGen. Tadiar has offered to send three platoons of Marines to help defend Manila, and to carry out guerrilla attacks on Marcos regime loyalist positions."
The news of BGen. Artemio Tadiar's assistance in the defense of the Philippine capital was met with skepticism by the Aquino camp, who still saw the Butcher of Ortigas Avenue in a negative light. It was from within the Marcos camp however, that gave out their loudest outrage, as Acting Vice President Fabian Ver had criticized BGen. Honasan's plea to Tadiar to host the displaced civilians from Manila.
"Has BGen. Honasan forgotten about the role that renegade butcher played in Ortigas Avenue? The very same man whom our President has explicitly ordered to not open fire on civilians in Ortigas, is now helping the Aquino government defend the capital?" says Acting Vice President Ver sarcastically. "If this isn't a definition of irony, then I don't know what is."
Military experts from both sides of the Cold War expect that the first town that the former Marcos regime loyalists will capture is the town of Norzagaray. Situated on the river that bore the same name as the town, it is also well defended by both the Philippine Constabulary forces and regular Philippine Army forces that were deployed to that region. In addition, the famous Marine Special Operations Group, which was originally called the Marine Force Recon Battalion, was deployed to nearby towns surrounding Norzagaray, to scout and lay traps for the Marcos regime loyalist forces. However, opposing the defenders of Norzagaray are the veterans of the northern Luzon campaign that swelled the ranks of the Marcos loyalist forces, although frequent mutinies and desertions had weakened much of their fighting force, as increased reports of former President Marcos's corruption and graft had spread among the regime loyalist troops. Indeed, both Acting Vice President Ver and President Aquino had confirmed that around 15 Marcos loyalist troops had surrendered to Major Edgardo Doromal's forces in the nearby town of Angat, citing the disillusionment that has taken hold of the former regime loyalists that gave up the fight.
"If we can continue with the propaganda war against the Marcos regime loyalist forces, we can easily win the Battle for Manila, with less casualties than needed," says President Aquino, while addressing government officials in Sorsogon City. "Sapping the enemy's morale is just as important as decisively defeating them in battle as well."
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WIFE OF EXILED FILIPINO-CHINESE OLIGARCH LOUIS COSON KILLED BY A CAR BOMB AIMED ORIGINALLY FOR COSON IN MACAU, ASSASSIN EVADED AUTHORITIES AND RETURNED HOME
The Korea Times
April 10, 2012
(Macau, MACAU SAR, CHINA) - In what is essentially the biggest incident to take place in the Asian continent in the post-Filipino junta period, the wife of exiled Filipino-Chinese oligarch Louis Coson, was killed with a car bomb. The car bomb, which had originally aimed to kill Louis Coson himself, was instead planted on a different car that was used by Teresita Sy-Coson. The car blew up while Teresita Sy-Coson was driving along Almeida Ribeiro Avenue, past the famous ruins of St. Paul's Church, and additionally, several other civilians were injured and/or killed in the incident as well. Although no one has identified the assassin who was responsible for this kind of heinous terrorist attack, it is suspected that the assassin may have been aided by NICA agents that still held ties and loyalty to the old Tadiar dictatorship. However, a photograph of an assassin was revealed by Chinese state television, in an effort to learn the identity of that assassin in question. It is not sure what was the motive for the planned assassination of Louis Coson, but the Chinese government suspected that leftover Tadiar loyalist diehards that still retained their positions within the Grace Poe administration had planned the assassination.
"There is no doubt in my mind that former Tadiar loyalists wanted me dead for one thing only: because I blew the whistle on their activities, and the scam that they pulled, when they tricked us into investing in a business opportunity that turned out to be fake," says Coson, during an interview with Russia Today. "I was among the victims of the infamous Next Millenium Macau Business Project Scam that was orchestrated by the former Tadiar regime and its partners in organized crime, namely the Taiwanese Bamboo Gang and the Japanese Yakuza."
The claims of a Japanese underworld connection to the murder of Teresita Sy-Coson has not yet been refuted, although newly rising Japanese Diet politician and founder of the Japanese National Syndicalist People's Party, Taro Yamamoto, has confirmed Mr. Coson's claims of Yakuza connection to the murder attempt. Moreover, the shocking murder of Ms. Sy-Coson comes at a time when the Philippines is struggling to move on from the dark years of the Tadiar and Tarrazona dictatorships, on top of a failed chance at building a new democratic Philippines after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship. Furthermore, the political, ideological, and racial radicalization that has taken hold of the Philippines after the rise of unsavory politicians like Larry Gadon, Elly Pamatong, and Nicanor Faeldon (often dubbed as the Filipino Triumvirate) back in 1996. In addition to claims of a Yakuza connection to the murder of Ms. Sy-Coson, the Chinese government also claimed that the Tadiar diehards had hired Uyghur mercenaries to carry out the deed.
"It wouldn't be surprising if we learned about the role of the Uyghur terrorists in this dastardly attack on Madame Sy-Coson, given that the former Tadiar dictatorship had trained the Uyghur separatists in the Philippines for the purpose of instigating an ethnic uprising in Xinjiang," says Li Minqi, a professor at Beijing University. "In fact, someone claimed that they found a forged passport of an Uyghur man with a Filipino first name, and a Japanese surname. I mean, what kind of an Uyghur Muslim man would call himself Pedro Toguchi?"
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"Diomidean Eurasianism is a different strain of the wider Eurasianist ideology that is rooted in traditionalism, fascism, Nazism, and Japanese style Statism, as opposed to the Duginean branch of Eurasianism that is founded in National Bolshevism. Diomideanism, which came from the controversial head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Diomid I, was seen as a more acceptable branch of Eurasianism that the Russian far-right could accept. Let us not forget that Diomidean Eurasianism had advocated that the Eurasian supercontinent should have five pillars: Europe, the Russian and Central Asian heartland, the Middle East, and the Greater East Asia-Pacific region. Europe, which will serve as the western shield for Russia, would have far-right regimes that have a Strasserite streak in them, while the Asia-Pacific region will serve as Russia's eastern shield, and would have the same kind of far-right regimes installed in it. Unlike Duginean Eurasianism, which wanted to cut China down to size, Diomidean Eurasianism advocated for China to remain a strictly land based power with a significant naval presence in the wider Pacific Rim. Diomidean Eurasianism also wanted peaceful co-existence with the Anglo-American establishment, as long as they wouldn't intrude on each other's spheres of influence, but was also aware that they would not be able to co-exist with the Anglo-Americans. All the same, Diomidean Eurasianism is far more dangerous, because its ties to the Russian Imperial Movement had made it hostile to Western values. Above all else, Diomidean Eurasianism is extremely anti-Semitic, in that their declaration to the world that 'Globalism is a Jewish Acid', has garnered outrage in Israel, where much of Russian Jews had migrated to. Within Russia however, Diomidean Eurasianism is a building block for Russian irredentism, where they want to forcibly reincorporate the lands of the former Tsarist Empire, except for Alaska. Most importantly, Diomidean Eurasianism is also guided by anti-Catholicism of the worst Byzantine-esque kind, as Patriarch Diomid has often called for the abolition of the Papacy, and the restoration of the title of 'Patriarch of the West', something that wasn't held by the Pope in a very long time. Their desire to destroy the power of Papal Catholicism has resulted in their hare-brained schemes to forcibly sever the communion between the Western Catholic Churches in Europe, Latin America, and the Philippines on one hand, and the Holy See on the other, and forcing them to enter into a communion with the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, but allowing them to keep their Western Rites." Siaimon Domash, during a speech in the Belarusian Rada, June 16, 2014.
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AQUINO GOVERNMENT FORCES CAUGHT BY SURPRISE AS MARCOS REGIME LOYALIST TROOPS ADVANCE CLOSER TOWARDS BATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
Manila Times
October 7, 1986
(Bataan Nuclear Power Plant) - In what was a major deception pulled by Marcos regime loyalist forces, the defenders of the town of Norzagaray were expecting a major offensive to come their way, but were stunned to see that not a single force was coming closer towards the town. Instead, the Marcos regime loyalists had turned westwards, towards the city of San Fernando, Pampanga (from their occupied portion of Baliuag, Bulacan), where the city is defended by stragglers from the Philippine Army that were left behind in the retreat from Cabanatuan City. Within several hours, the city of San Fernando had fallen to Marcos regime loyalist forces, forcing the defenders to make their way towards Bataan Province, especially the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. In yet another stunning move, most of the Marcos regime loyalists began their southward advance towards Zambales and Bataan Provinces, capturing town after town, as many civilians had started to flee from their homes to avoid being ruled by former President Marcos once again. However, in a twist of fate, much of the Marcos regime loyalist forces were now being subjected to ambushes and pot shots by Philippine Marine Corps soldiers fighting under the command of Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar. Yet, the Tadiar-aligned Marine Corps only sent thirty troops to Luzon, while keeping the rest of the Marines in Visayas and Mindanao to continue the fight against the New People's Army.
"Our objective is to not defeat the Marcos regime loyalist forces bearing down on the Bataan Peninsula, but rather to slow them down. We have to buy time for our erstwhile 'allies' to reorganize their forces elsewhere," comments BGen. Tadiar, when asked by local journalists on his decision to deploy a few number of soldiers to Bataan Province. "We are already stretched too thin on multiple fronts, and the larger presence of the communists in southeastern Luzon and eastern Mindanao require our expertise in hunting them down and eliminating them."
The news of the Marcos regime loyalist offensive in Bataan raised fears once again that the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant might be damaged from the inevitable heavy fighting, and while the joint Soviet-Vietnamese navies had returned to their base in Cam Ranh Bay, the US 7th Fleet subsequently deployed a few of their forward vessels to join the USS Enterprise inside Philippine waters: the USS Blue Ridge, which was the flag ship of the 7th Fleet and was known for helping with the evacuation of Vietnamese civilians fleeing from the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, and the USS Rodney M. Davis, which was sent to join the other ships operating in Philippine waters. Moreover, the growing American naval presence in SE Asia has resulted in a small deployment of Type 8154 naval trawlers by the People's Liberation Army Navy, just several hundred miles off the coast of northern Luzon, as well as the deployment of all 5 Turya-class torpoedo boats by the Vietnamese Navy, just within the waters of the disputed Spratly Island chain.
"We fear that this civil war in the Philippines is attracting unwanted attention from our adversaries, and we call on the navies of China and Vietnam to pull their vessels away from our territorial waters," urges President Corazon Aquino, during a live broadcast in Sorsogon City. "As the US Navy's 7th Fleet is there to keep us safe, we do not need to contribute to the outbreak of World War Three by presiding over a shooting conflict between our American ally and our enemies to the west and the north."
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gillan1220
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Post by gillan1220 on Aug 26, 2022 12:31:18 GMT
PROTESTS ERUPT IN ILOCOS NORTE CAPITAL OF LAOAG IN RESPONSE TO RISE IN FOOD PRICES, MARCOS REGIME LOYALIST FORCES DEPLOYED TO QUELL 'RIOTS' IN RESPONSE Manila Times September 22, 1986 The eerie thing is that this is happening right now in OTL. Sugar and onion shortage, softdrink shortage, increased food prices, and increased fuel prices. KENTUCKY IN AN UPROAR AS LOCAL ACTOR JOHNNY DEPP IS REVEALED TO HAVE DIED IN THE PHILIPPINES, UNDER THE CUSTODY OF MARCOS REGIME LOYALISTS New York Times October 18, 1986 That butterflies Depp being in the equivalent of Pirates of the Caribbean for TTL. AQUINO GOVERNMENT URGED BY INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO EVACUATE FROM MANILA AS MARCOS REGIME LOYALISTS FORCES EDGE TOWARDS CAPITAL Vancouver Sun September 30, 1986 Maybe more ideal would be Cebu because that's where Cory hid in a monastery during the snap election. "We fear that this civil war in the Philippines is attracting unwanted attention from our adversaries, and we call on the navies of China and Vietnam to pull their vessels away from our territorial waters," urges President Corazon Aquino, during a live broadcast in Sorsogon City. "As the US Navy's 7th Fleet is there to keep us safe, we do not need to contribute to the outbreak of World War Three by presiding over a shooting conflict between our American ally and our enemies to the west and the north." China and the U.S. weren't enemies yet at this period. In OTL, the PRC was redesignated as the threat in 1992. China is also a diplomatic ally for Cory Aquino due to her Chinese roots in Fujian while Vietnam was more or less neutral with Philippine affairs. There were still Vietnamese refugees residing in the Philippines at this time since the last ones left the country in 1995 IOTL. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Aug 26, 2022 17:17:35 GMT
Well, in the case of Cory, she had to appear like an anti-communist because she’s already accused of stacking her cabinet with leftists ITTL. And even Tadiar would be collaborating with Vietnam as well.
I didn’t realize that TTL’s protests in Ilocos Norte was based on what’s happening right now, but I did insert another real life based event in the recent update as well.
And yes, Pirates of the Caribbean will not be a thing.
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gillan1220
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Post by gillan1220 on Aug 26, 2022 21:50:16 GMT
Well, in the case of Cory, she had to appear like an anti-communist because she’s already accused of stacking her cabinet with leftists ITTL. And even Tadiar would be collaborating with Vietnam as well. I didn’t realize that TTL’s protests in Ilocos Norte was based on what’s happening right now, but I did insert another real life based event in the recent update as well. And yes, Pirates of the Caribbean will not be a thing. Cory in OTL did release Sison from prison and tried to mediate with the NPA. China at this period stopped supporting the NPA since 1976. Beijing knew better to deal with Manila via economic and diplomatic interests rather than supporting Maoists rebels who in turn despited China for adapting state capitalism. Deng Xiaoping saw them as a liability because the NPAs would attack businesses and kidnap Chinese businessmen. One thing worth to note is that China was one of the first countries to recognize Cory Aquino as the legitimate president in the 1986 snap elections. Sometimes, things get ripped from the headlines as we speak. The sugar, onion, and soft drinks crises is just one of them. That's sad that Jack Sparrow is butterflied away, but perhaps another comedian like Robert Downey Jr. can be the funny pirate equivalent for TTL's version of a pirate movie. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Aug 27, 2022 1:50:15 GMT
Cory in OTL did release Sison from prison and tried to mediate with the NPA. China at this period stopped supporting the NPA since 1976. Beijing knew better to deal with Manila via economic and diplomatic interests rather than supporting Maoists rebels who in turn despited China for adapting state capitalism. Deng Xiaoping saw them as a liability because the NPAs would attack businesses and kidnap Chinese businessmen. One thing worth to note is that China was one of the first countries to recognize Cory Aquino as the legitimate president in the 1986 snap elections. Sometimes, things get ripped from the headlines as we speak. The sugar, onion, and soft drinks crises is just one of them. That's sad that Jack Sparrow is butterflied away, but perhaps another comedian like Robert Downey Jr. can be the funny pirate equivalent for TTL's version of a pirate movie. In the original version, Ralph Macchio is starring at an alternate movie that serves as a replacement for Pirates of the Caribbean. I remember all too well the power outages that we often had when I was a kid, so that was why ITTL the Philippines developing a love for nuclear energy is a bold undertaking. |
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gillan1220
Fleet admiral
I've been depressed recently. Slow replies coming in the next few days.
Posts: 12,609
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Post by gillan1220 on Aug 28, 2022 14:24:20 GMT
Cory in OTL did release Sison from prison and tried to mediate with the NPA. China at this period stopped supporting the NPA since 1976. Beijing knew better to deal with Manila via economic and diplomatic interests rather than supporting Maoists rebels who in turn despited China for adapting state capitalism. Deng Xiaoping saw them as a liability because the NPAs would attack businesses and kidnap Chinese businessmen. One thing worth to note is that China was one of the first countries to recognize Cory Aquino as the legitimate president in the 1986 snap elections. Sometimes, things get ripped from the headlines as we speak. The sugar, onion, and soft drinks crises is just one of them. That's sad that Jack Sparrow is butterflied away, but perhaps another comedian like Robert Downey Jr. can be the funny pirate equivalent for TTL's version of a pirate movie. In the original version, Ralph Macchio is starring at an alternate movie that serves as a replacement for Pirates of the Caribbean. I remember all too well the power outages that we often had when I was a kid, so that was why ITTL the Philippines developing a love for nuclear energy is a bold undertaking. If the Philippines gets nuclear power, it needs to make sure how to safeguard the plant from earthquakes. |
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Aug 28, 2022 17:55:53 GMT
That is true, which is why I wonder if the Bataan Nuclear Plant is actually safe from earthquakes IOTL. Though, given the typhoon seasons that also occurred seasonally, I think that the nuclear reactors also have to be protected against typhoons as well.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Sept 3, 2022 6:57:27 GMT
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE FILIPINO CIVIL WAR PART SEVEN
BOTH AMERICAN AND SOVIET LEADERS ARRIVE IN ICELAND FOR REYKJAVIK SUMMIT AS NUCLEAR ARMS TREATY, CONFLICTS IN AFGHANISTAN AND PHILIPPINES, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE BECOMES CRITICAL KEY POINTS OF SAID SUMMIT
The West Australian
October 22, 1986
 US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev discuss their intended issues during the summit in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.(Reykjavik, ICELAND) - The much awaited US-Soviet summit in Iceland's capital of Reykjavik, has kicked off with both US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arriving at the site of the summit. The summit in Reykjavik comes at a time when there's much talk about the reduction of nuclear arms by both superpowers, as well as the ongoing civil war in the Philippines. For the next couple of days, both leaders will address the issues surrounding the nuclear arms race, as well as the sensitive issue of human rights in the Soviet Union, and most importantly, the Soviet military conflict in Afghanistan as well. However, the summit also occurs at a time when the two leaders of their respective countries are facing domestic political issues of their own, with President Reagan and the Republican Party at a center of a scandal when news of American 'humanitarian volunteers' have been revealed to have taken part in the Filipino Civil War as front line combat troops, albeit on the side of Philippine President Corazon Aquino, and that one of the 'volunteers' named Johnny Depp was revealed to have died while being a prisoner of war under the custody of Philippine troops loyal to former President and deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos. On the other hand, Soviet leader Gorbachev is also facing a political crisis of his own, when the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi, was gravely injured in a car crash, during a routine drive in Kyiv's Obolynskyi district, along with three other CPU officials that were with him.
"Domestic issues aside, this summit is meant to help pave the way to peace and the de-escalation of the tensions that threaten to lead to nuclear war," says President Reagan, while making his speech inside Iceland's parliament. "Although the Soviets have recognized our refusal to accept their proposal for the UN peacekeeping force that will be deployed in the Philippines, they're also willing to work with us on hastening the end of the civil war in that country as well."
Likewise, Soviet leader Gorbachev has also addressed the Icelandic parliamentary delegates as well, mentioning his side of the issues that will be covered in the summit.
"As we're dealing with the recent incident back in Kiev, we're also paying close attention to how far are we willing to decommission some of our ballistic missiles as well. Moreover, we're also willing to allow Soviet Jews to leave the USSR, if they wish," says Gorbachev, during the same session. "However, it is also essential for us to continue with our stated goals of glasnost and perestroika, as we are taking steps at addressing the issues that plagued our nation as well."
In light of the recent incident in Philippine waters where a Soviet naval vessel was watching the USS Enterprise, both the US and Soviet delegates have also addressed the need for a joint monitoring of the situation unfolding in the war-torn country. Additionally, the recent Soviet-Vietnamese naval drills was addressed by Gorbachev himself as a necessity, given that one of the nuclear power plants within the Soviet Union, located at a Ukrainian town of Chernobyl, nearly suffered a meltdown, until nuclear engineers took precautions to shut down the nuclear power plant. Consequently, three more nuclear reactors were slated to be decommissioned as a result of the near accident in Chernobyl, including one reactor in Zaporizhzhiya Oblast, at a town of Enerhodar. The fear of a nuclear meltdown happening in the Philippines was one of the reasons for the recent naval drills taking place. However, both Reagan and Gorbachev also addressed one unexpected issue that arose from the naval drills.
"I have been notified by our Chinese comrades of their displeasure at the naval drills that we have launched, and my response to them was that a nuclear fallout emitting from the Philippines could have a detrimental effect on other parts of SE Asia, and may also negatively affect the southern coastlines of the Chinese mainland," says Gorbachev. "We have assured Premier Hu that the naval drills were meant to contain a potential nuclear meltdown, and to be prepared for the evacuation of civilians that are also suffering from the ongoing conflict as well."
--- Excerpts from "A Nation in Mourning"
By: Arturo Tolentino
Atlas Publishing, published 2002
Chapter Nine: A Potential Nuclear Hell
By the time Brigadier General Tadiar returned to Kabankalan from one of his outings on the field, he looked a bit stressed and exhausted at the same time. I don't remember when was the last time that Tadiar slept, because when he arrived at the office that I'm using for my position as the civilian figurehead of what is essentially an emerging military junta, he was blinking rapidly and yawned loudly. I can take a guess as to what has stressed him so much: the fact that Macoy's troops was advancing towards the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is not only a horrific move on part of the former President, but that the battle inside the nuclear power plant would become a catastrophic incident if that power plant blew up. Moreover, I constantly read reports of increasing rates of food and fuel riots throughout the Philippines, and from time to time, I'd read a tidbit on a few Marcos regime loyalist troops surrendering or deserting their posts, mostly because they were now exposed to the decadent lifestyle that the Marcos family had enjoyed, at the expense of the Filipino people. Even as Cory Aquino is trying to fix the mess that Macoy had created, her administration was not without problems of its own. The presence of Filemon Lagman as the Minister of Labor was something that angered the other officials within the Aquino administration, to the point where I'm now conversing with three former Aquino administration officials who have now defected to the Tadiar camp.
"It was a mistake to appoint that filthy communist thug to a position that I'm more qualified for, and for what? To appease Gregorio Rosal and his communist thugs that have taken over most of Quezon Province and are in the process of conquering Camarines Norte?" asked Augusto Sanchez angrily after putting the newspaper down. "Don't get me wrong; I know that President Aquino wanted to balance her cabinet with people from diverse political factions, but appointing leftists to key posts? That would only piss off the Americans, and our own people as well."
Someone named Solita Monsod angrily spoke as well: "And what does Antonio Zumel know about economic planning? I was passed over in favor of that moron as well, and the only economic theory he knows is a command economy. Our economy is in shambles because of that fool Marcos. At least Artemio Tadiar recognizes the need to employ and entice those officials within President Aquino's cabinet that disagree with her flirtation with the communists to defect to his side."
"I agree, and I'm also surprised that Brigadier General Tadiar wanted to appoint me as Minister of Foreign Affairs within his parallel cabinet, like I haven't held that title before," I said sarcastically, to which everyone nodded.
Speaking of which, Tadiar himself stood up and sighed heavily as he looked around the room and saw us discussing what was happening.
"Bataan is being defended by troops under my command, but even the Marines don't know how to handle a nuclear meltdown," Tadiar confessed. His expression remained grim, however. "General Ver is now employing the same tactics that Macoy has accused me of doing back in Ortigas Avenue, by putting down the food riots with lethal force."
"We've heard about that, and unlike you, General Ver relishes at the sight of murdered protesters," said Monsod. She showed us the photos that she received from a Philippine Navy sailor who has defected to the Tadiar camp in central Visayas. "These bodies of murdered protesters were photographed in Tacloban. The food riots have also reached Visayas and Mindanao as well."
We winced at the photos of those murdered civilians, and I also noticed that among the dead victims, there were also a disturbing number of women and children that were found as well. The photos of the murdered civilians in Tacloban, along with additional pictures of pro-Marcos loyalist forces opening fire on protesters in Laoag, of all places, had been a huge propaganda bonanza for the anti-Marcos factions, since it showed just how incapable Macoy is handling the fact that his dictatorship has fallen to pieces. We got the pictures taken in Laoag from a man who defected to us from the Marcos cabinet, by the name of Blas Ople. Tadiar was weary of Mr. Ople, since he was a left-wing nationalist in his younger years, but realized his potential as a future leader of a unified ministry that will merge the Ministries of Trade, Trade and Industry, Public Works, Transportation, and Communications, Public HIghways, and the Director General of the National Economic and Development Authority, into what we now call the Ministry of National Development, which covers the economic, social and infrastructural development of the Philippines. That being said, a knock was heard and Tadiar himself opened the door to reveal none other than Blas Ople himself.
"Hello, everyone. I bring terrible news from Bataan," Ople started as some of us started to shake, assuming the worst scenario that is playing in our minds.
"What is it?" Tadiar asked fearfully.
Ople gulped. "Macoy's troops have started to engage the defending forces guarding the Bataan Solar Plant. They're using heavy weapons against us in there."
"Heavy weapons? Like what?" Tadiar asked angrily.
"Those M41 Walker Bulldog tanks that they got. They're using them, along with several artillery pieces to bombard the vicinity of the solar plant," Ople answered back.
"And the nuclear plant?" I asked suddenly.
"Still guarded by several warships that are fighting under the Aquino administration," Ople replied back.
Tadiar sighed in relief. "At least that idiotic housewife still has her own uses, even if the Philippine Constabulary troops that are supposed to fight for her, have defected to us in all but name."
The topic of the Bataan Nuclear Plant remained the main talking point that we discussed throughout the days when the world was paying attention to the summit in Iceland between President Reagan and Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Of course, both leaders addressed the issue of the civil war in our country, and I was stunned to hear that the Soviets had launched a naval drill recently with the Vietnamese Navy, close to our territorial waters. Cory didn't mind about this sensitive issue at all, because she was also relieved that Great Britain and China have started to show their diplomatic support to her administration, and to our surprise, Australia has agreed to recognize the Aquino government as the sole representative of the Philippines. Unfortunately, there was also the danger of the communists expanding their 'conquests' of other parts of the Philippines, and they're taking advantage of the food and fuel riots to recruit disaffected civilians into their organization. From what I heard of the testimonies of the people who fled from Quezon province, routine executions of political enemies were common, but the New People's Army remained a bit jumpy from that counter-offensive that dealt a psychological blow to their morale, courtesy of those bayong-wearing deserters. I get that they wanted to ambush them, but wearing a bayong to cover their faces? Not only is it not practical, but it gives off bad vibes from the war and occupation of our country. Yes, they made it look like the Makapili have risen from the grave and have started to fight the communists.
Oh, and the Americans' uproar over what has happened with the death of that minor actor who was in the Philippines for the filming of the Platoon movie is something that I had to pay attention, because this kind of scandal is something that could destroy the Reagan presidency.
"What will we do if President Reagan suffers a humiliating defeat in the 1986 Mid-Terms?" Ople asked us all. "It's not like the Democrats are willing to extend their hand to help us."
Ten minutes later, Tadiar had summoned most of the military officers who have sided with him to the same room that we've been sitting in. From what I can tell, some of the junior officers had the same weary look as the man that called for the meeting. If I learned anything from my stay in the Tadiar camp, whenever Tadiar would gather some of his followers, bad news will follow. And I was right too.
"Fighting in the nuclear and solar plants are now happening right now. We're stuck between helping our troops that are defending the nuclear plant, and fighting the communists everywhere. At the very least, we can use the Marines as amphibious guerrilla forces that can harass the Marcos loyalist forces, but other than that, if the nuclear reactor suffers from certain levels of damage, we may have to help with the potential evacuation of the civilians in the areas close to the reactor," Tadiar explained.
"Hold on, what about the offensive launched by the Aquino faction in Bulacan?" Sanchez asked curiously. "Norzagaray was supposed to be the target of the Marcos regime forces, but they swung towards Bataan instead."
Tadiar frowned and closed his eyes. "The offensive launched by BGen. Roland Pattugalan from Norzagaray only went as far as San Miguel, before General Ver realized that his gambled had backfired, and are sending some of the troops meant for Bataan to blunt Pattugalan's offensive. As a result, the 2nd Infantry Division is in shambles and are now retreating towards Sorsogon City."
"That bad?" Ople asked shockingly. "I'm sure there must be some good news out of this."
"Other than the forces attacking the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant have been weakened by the need to blunt the counter-offensive, some of them are now heading towards Mariveles. Our top priority remains: to combat the communist New People's Army, and defeat them at all costs," Tadiar growled. He sighed and waved them all to dismiss us.
--- "Once the Soviet military leadership realized that Pakistan was being used as a conduit for American military aid to the Afghan Mujahedeen, the KGB and the GRU had begun to create a plan for the covert destabilization of Pakistan, with the Baloch separatist movement being used as its proxy to trigger another insurgency. While Soviet Defense Minister Sergey Sokolov agreed with the idea of sending covert aid to the Baloch rebels operating in southern Pakistan, other Soviet leaders disagreed, fearing that another Baloch uprising would invite a possible American intervention in Pakistan, at a time when both Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan were discussing the reduction of nuclear weapons, Soviet human rights, and the civil war in the Philippines. Luckily for the Soviets, another crisis would come to Pakistan where they didn't have to play a decisive role. The ongoing border crisis between Pakistan and India had been a source of tensions between the two countries, and while India had been a major backer of Baloch separatists operating in Pakistani Balochistan, Pakistan was covertly backing a small group of Sikh separatists in an attempt to incite a Sikh revolt against India. Starting on October 31, 1986, seven Sikh separatists have launched a cross border raid from their frontier base in the border town of Bhanu Chak, targeting Indian border security forces. While the attack was successful, the extremists were ambushed by another group of Indian border security officials, who saw what was going on, and decided to intervene. Yet, in one of the most controversial decisions made by one Colonel Bikram Singh, who commanded the Sikh Light Infantry regiment at the time of the Bhanu Chak Incident, he ordered his troops to cross the border to Pakistan, and eliminate the extremists that caused the border raids in the first place. Pakistan's government reacted with outrage at the apparent violation of its national sovereignty, but Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has accused Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo of turning a blind eye to Sikh separatists operating out of Pakistani territory. The accusations traded between the two governments had spiralled out of control, and on November 7, 1986, the first shots were fired in the Punjab region between Indian and Pakistani troops, leading to many historians now call the Indo-Pakistani War of 1986, also known as the Cross-Punjab Conflict. Suddenly, Pakistan was at a loss as to whether or not they should take the weapons that the Americans are shipping to the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan for their own use, or to continue the flow of weapons, even knowing that they might not be sufficiently armed to the teeth against their better equipped Indian counterparts. On November 8, the Sikh Light Infantry forces crossed the border and besieged Bhanu Chak, while the 2nd Lancers Regiment had launched an attack on another border town called Maqbulpur. It is also worth noting that most of India's Mechanized Infantry Regiment had also been deployed to the Punjab front, while the Ladakh Scouts and the 11th Gorkha Rifles were mostly sent to reinforce their positions in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. It made sense, as the Mechanized and Armored formations of the Indian Army would be better used on flatter ground, while light infantry forces can fight on higher terrain. In response to the Indian advance to Bhanu Chak, Pakistan has deployed the II Corps to defend most of its portion of Punjab province from Indian advances. The Cross Punjab Offensive raged on for a couple of weeks, while India has also deployed the 5th Armored Regiment to push from its new forward base in the city of Jammu towards its first target: Sialkot. As Pakistan's military forces continue to bear the brunt of the Indian offensive, it became clear what India's intentions are: the annexation of parts of Pakistani Punjab, up to the Jhelum River, from which they could easily control the occupied territories for the purpose of defeating the Pakistani-backed Sikh separatists." From the documentary "Indo-Soviet Machinations and the Collapse of Pakistan", released by ABC Journeyman Documentaries.
--- INDIA DONATES TEN VIJAYANTA TANKS TO THE PHILIPPINES, WHILE PRIME MINISTER GANDHI RECOGNIZES AQUINO PRESIDENCY AS SOLE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PHILIPPINE STATE
Sydney Herald
November 10, 1986(New Delhi, INDIA) - Amidst the conflict that had broken out between India and Pakistan, the Indian government under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has announced that it is recognizing Corazon Aquino as the legitimate President of the Philippines, and that India is willing to send limited military aid to the Philippine military, which is involved in a brutal civil war of its own. The recognition comes at a time when Indian forces are bogged down in Pakistan, and the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan continues on. Upon hearing the war that broke out between India and Pakistan, the Soviet Union has offered to send its surplus stock of T-62s and T-64s to India, as well as several self-propelled artillery vehicles and unnamed cargo trucks. So far, the Indian government has not yet responded to Soviet offers of military aid, although the offer might not be fulfilled, due to the current offensives in Afghanistan. However, it is not yet known if the Soviet military would expand on their military operations in Afghanistan with a planned offensive of their own, as talks of Soviet military plans are often kept secret. What is known however, is that both the Soviet and Indian military leadership view the Pakistani portion of the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, known as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, as a critical strategic point that should be captured by the Indian military, as control of that region by India, along with a larger Soviet offensive that would result in much of northeastern Afghanistan falling under their control, as a means of establishing a safe corridor, from which they could safely ship military aid to the Indian state.
"The Soviet offers of military aid to us would be practical, as we could simultaneously ship out our older surplus stocks of military equipment that we are not using anymore," says Prime Minister Gandhi, during a session in the Indian parliament. "Any aid would be most welcome for us, as we are also in need of aid in quelling the Sikh separatist movement that threatens to destabilize all of India."
The United States, however, has sharply criticized the Indian military invasion of Pakistan, and has promised to impose economic sanctions on them. Yet, the Reagan administration has hesitated to carry out that promise, mostly because of a larger fear of an increased Indian offensive that could destabilize Pakistan to the point where they could no longer serve as a conduit for American military aid going to the Afghan Mujahedeen. Moreover, the recent US Mid-Term elections have revealed that the Republican Party had lost several seats in the US House of Representatives and the Senate. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives are more weary of alienating India, mostly because of their geographic position in the wider Eurasian continent, and also because they needed India to contain China as well. Still, the Reagan administration has expressed its displeasure at the apparent Indian military aggression.
"While we understand India's security issues because of the separatist movements that have sprung up, with the support of Pakistan, we do not condone this naked aggression conducted by the Indian military against Pakistan. As far as we are concerned, the United States has considered India to be on the same side as the Soviet Union in its war in Afghanistan," Reagan said, during an emergency session in Congress. "Therefore, we will review any agreements that our government has with India, to see if we can suspend them, or at the very least, put an end to them. However, I must also commend them for showing support for the Philippine government as well."
Though the Vijayanta tanks would be used by the Aquino government forces, they would most likely to be deployed in Norzagaray, to support a counteroffensive that is being launched there, even as Marcos regime loyalists are bearing down on the Bataan Solar and Nuclear Power Plants. Additionally, the Reagan administration has also decided to steadily increase the amount of humanitarian aid to the Philippines, on the condition that they send their foreign humanitarian volunteers back to the country of origin, including the undisclosed amount of Americans that are currently in the Philippines. Furthermore, Prime Minister Gandhi has also offered to send around 2,000 Sterling submachine guns to the Philippines, as a means of clearing their inventory to make way for the increased imports of Uzis, MP5s and and Sterling SAF 2A1s. However, because of the ongoing conflict in the Punjab region, Gandhi has retracted his offer of sending those subnachine guns, prioritizing the need to increase the amount of military supplies that should be sent to various light infantry regiments stationed in Kashmir.
--- 1986 United States Mid-Term Elections:
Gubernatorial Elections Changes:
ALASKA:
Arliss Sturgulewski (Republican) - 49.4%
Steve Cowper (Democratic) - 40.8%
Joe Vogler (Alaska Independence) - 7.1%
Mary Jane O'Brannon (Libertarian) - 2.7%
ARIZONA:
Carolyn Warner (Democratic) - 41.6%
Evan Mecham (Republican) - 32.2%
Bill Schulz (Independent) - 26.2%
IDAHO:
David H. Leroy (Republican) - 51.7%
Cecil Andrus (Democratic) - 48.3%
KANSAS:
Thomas R. Docking (Democratic) - 50.8%
Mike Hayden (Republican) - 49.2%
MAINE:
James Tierney (Democratic) - 40.6%
John R. McKernan Jr. (Republican) - 31.5%
Sherry Huber (Independent) - 18.9%
John Menario (Independent) - 9%
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Lars Herseth (Democratic) - 50.7%
George S. Mickelson (Republican) - 49.3%
House of Representatives Election Changes:
CALIFORNIA 38:
Richard H. Robinson (Democratic) - 51.4%
Bob Dornan (Republican) - 41.9%
Lee Connelly (Libertarian) - 6.7%
ILLINOIS 4:
Shawn Collins (Democratic) - 52.2%
Jack Davis (Republican) - 47.8%
ILLINOIS 14:
Mary Lou Kearns (Democratic) - 51.1%
Dennis Hastert (Republican) - 48.9%
INDIANA 3:
Thomas W. Ward (Democratic) - 51.7%
John P. Hiler (Republican) - 48.3%
MICHIGAN 10:
Donald J. Albosta (Democratic) - 50.8%
Bill Schuette (Republican) - 49.2%
KENTUCKY 4:
Terry L. Mann (Democratic) - 62.8%
Jim Bunning (Republican) - 31.3%
W. Ed Parker (American) - 5.9%
KENTUCKY 6:
Jerry Hammond (Democratic) - 69.2%
Larry J. Hopkins (Republican) - 30.8%
MINNESOTA 2:
Dave Johnson (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) - 52.7%
Vin Weber (Republican) - 47.3%
NEW YORK 20:
Bella Abzug (Democratic) - 51.4%
Joe DioGuardi (Republican) - 41.8%
Florence T. O'Grady (Right to Life) - 6.8%
SOUTH CAROLINA 1:
Jimmy Stuckey (Democratic) - 51.0%
Arthur Ravenel Jr. (Republican) - 49.0%
WASHINGTON 1:
Reese M. Lindquist (Democratic) - 57.6%
John Miller (Republican) - 42.4%
Senate Election Changes:
CALIFORNIA:
Ed Zschau (Republican) - 50.6%
Alan Cranston (Democratic) - 47.1%
Breck McKinley (Libertarian) - 1.2%
Edward B. Vallen (American Independent) - 0.6%
Andrew R. Kangas (Peace and Freedom) - 0.5%
IDAHO:
John V. Evans (Democratic) - 50.4%
Steve Symms (Republicans) - 49.6%
PENNSYLVANIA:
Robert W. Edgar (Democratic) - 52.3%
Arlen Specter (Republican) - 47.7%
WISCONSCIN:
Ed Garvey (Democratic) - 52.7%
Bob Kasten (Republican) - 47.3%
--- SOVIET ARMY LAUNCHES FRESH OFFENSIVES IN NORTHERN AND EASTERN AFGHANISTAN AS AIR CAMPAIGN INTENSIFIES
The Sun
November 11, 1986
 Soviet armored columns are heading towards the town of Toqoz Darak from their starting position in Ymam Nazar, in time for a major offensive that is aimed at securing the border regions in the area where the borders between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan meet.(Toqoz Darak, AFGHANISTAN) - Following the Indian invasion of Pakistan as a result of the intensified border clashes, the Soviet military has increased the number of troops that are being sent to Afghanistan, with the 41st Combined Arms Army and the 114th Guards Airborne Division being among the formations being deployed. In addition to those Soviet Army formations, the 18th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment has also been relocated from its base in Galenky airbase in Primorskiy Krai to the airfield in Chirchik-Andizhan, in the Uzbek SSR. The additional deployment of various bombers, such as the Tupolev Tu-22M and Tu-95 bombers, to said airbase in the Uzbek SSR, is also an indication of the severity of the situation in Afghanistan, as increased number of foreign fighters flooding into the country from overseas have been reported by Soviet military leaders. The offensives were aimed at taking the border towns in northern Afghanistan that border the Soviet Union itself, as to ensure that no Mujahideen fighters would be able to infiltrate the southern borders, thereby preventing a possible destabilization in Central Asia. In addition to the Soviet forces that are in Afghanistan, several regiments from Warsaw Pact member states, such as East Germany, have also been reported to have deployed to the front lines, such as the East German 19th Heavy Mortar Detachment. Although the recent summit in Reykjavik has stressed the necessity of de-escalating the conflict inside Afghanistan, an undisclosed report that was leaked by a Soviet diplomat who has recently defected to Finland, reveals that certain political and military forces that have risen to oppose much of Mikhail Gorbachev's policies, have decided to ignore their leader's pleas to draw down the number of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, in order to secure for themselves a much more secure southern border. The anti-Gorbachev opposition, led by a rising politician who is a former Gorbachev loyalist that became disillusioned by his policies of glasnost and perestroika, has adopted a hawkish position on the current conflict at hand.
"The summit in Iceland accomplishes nothing of note, and that the stability of Afghanistan is the critical goal of the Soviet Union today. Not only do we have a duty to aid our Afghan comrades in establishing peace and order in the country, but we also have a responsibility to prevent any terrorist coming from outside Afghanistan to cause trouble in our Central Asian republics," says Soviet politician Anatoly Lukyanov. "In addition, we are seeing certain troublemakers that are taking advantage of Comrade Gorbachev's policies to voice out opinions that would have landed them in re-education camps only a couple of decades ago."
Lukyanov's troublemaker comment is an allusion to the recent illegal gatherings that were reported by the KGB, and they were mostly taking place in the Baltic republics, and most troubling, in the Ukrainian SSR, where the recent traffic accident has resulted in the Ukrainian Communist Party leader Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi landing in hospital, as he suffered from grievous wounds sustained from the accident. It is feared that Mr. Shcherbytskyi might suffer the same fate as his late Belarusian counterpart in Pyotr Masherov, who was killed in a car accident as well, and already there are two camps that are already established to see which faction would take power in the Ukrainian SSR. Furthermore, while several military units from the Ukrainian SSR are deployed to Afghanistan, they were only deployed for mop up operations, as the Soviet military leadership feared that the military experience gained by Ukrainian conscripts within the Soviet Army might be used in any future rebellions against the Soviet government.
"We're keeping constant reports on the condition of Comrade Shcherbytskyi as he is resting in the hospital in Kiev, and we're hoping for him to have a well needed recovery," says Gorbachev, during a briefing with other Soviet officials. "It is essential that the Ukrainian SSR has stable leadership, for it is fast becoming a place where a major potential rebellion could break out."
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gillan1220
Fleet admiral
I've been depressed recently. Slow replies coming in the next few days.
Posts: 12,609
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Post by gillan1220 on Sept 5, 2022 5:03:10 GMT
Now the situation in Asia is complicated. India is a member of the NAM but has friendly relations with the USSR and cordial relations with the United States. China at this period was a quasi-ally/partner to contain the USSR.
Sig MPXs weren't available in 1986. They were only produced in 2019 OTL.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Sept 5, 2022 7:48:11 GMT
Thanks for catching the typo. I meant to say SAF Carbine 2A1
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Sept 9, 2022 3:43:17 GMT
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE FILIPINO CIVIL WAR PART EIGHT
BATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FALLS TO PRO-MARCOS REGIME LOYALIST FORCES AS SURVIVING DEFENDERS OPT FOR SUICIDAL LAST DITCH INFANTRY CHARGE
Manila Times
November 22, 1986
(Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, BATAAN) - In a repeat of the tragic end of the defense of Cabanatuan City, the defenders of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant had perished in the last ditch infantry charge as they fought the advancing Marcos regime loyalist forces to death, mainly by close quarters combat. Consequently, the deaths of the defenders of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant had resulted in the full capture of the nuclear plant by former Marcos regime loyalist forces, even as numerous desertions had been reported by both pro-Marcos and anti-Marcos factions. What is even more interesting at the same time though, was that out of 800 troops that defended the power plant, only 170 troops came from the Philippine Marines that are aligned with controversial officer in Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar. The shocking defeat at the hands of the Marcos regime loyalist forces had now ensured that the clear path towards the town of Mariveles would be open, as well as Mount Mariveles, which the Marcos regime loyalist forces viewed as a critical strategic point, would also be open to capture. It is also becoming clear that in addition to Mariveles, Corregidor Island would also be a crucial target as well. By capturing Mariveles and Corregidor Island, the capital city of Manila and parts of southern Luzon would be subjected to a naval blockade, but it is unsure as to how many naval vessels that are fighting under each of the three factions that are fighting in the Filipino Civil War. The fall of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant has also damaged the credibility of the Corazon Aquino administration, as it demonstrated her complete inability to stand up to her widely despised predecessor. At the same time, much of the military officers that have aligned with Brigadier General Tadiar had criticized their de facto commander in chief for the needless loss of Marines in the futile defense of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, to which Tadiar hit back, defending his actions.
"What do you want me to do? To do nothing while Marcos succeeds in getting his Presidency back? He's dying, for God's sakes!" Tadiar shouts while addressing his junior officers. "We swore to fight our enemies, within and external, and the Marcos loyalists and communists are our enemies right now!"
The debacle in Bataan has only benefited one additional faction so far: the communists under the command of the New People's Army have used the distractions to expand their control of southeastern Luzon, as evident by the recent capture of De Galego, in the province of Camarines Norte. Since the Norzagaray Offensive, the Aquino government forces had failed to notice a large group of NPA forces that have managed to launch a new offensive into the Bicol region, and buoyed by the recent atrocities committed against the civilian population in areas that are under the control of Marcos regime loyalist forces in northern Luzon, and in eastern Visayas, where pro-Tadiar paramilitary forces called Alsa Masa had massacred the protesters in response to the growing number of food and fuel riots breaking out. The news of the massacres had only fueled the civilians' anger towards all three factions, which contributed to the mass recruitment drive that benefited the New People's Army. In the quasi-state of the so-called Tayabas People's Republic, vengeful farmers and unemployed workers had started to collaborate with New People's Army militias in hunting down the remaining business owners who still operated within the breakaway state, often looting their properties and killing the owners they've captured. In what has emerged as the biggest mass protest in the Philippines since the EDSA Revolution of February of 1986, many people have started to hold anti-Aquino rallies throughout the areas of the Philippines not under either communist, Marcos regime loyalist, or Tadiar-aligned factions. The protests were aimed at the Aquino government's failure to solve the issues that plagued her government since the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos.
"I cannot believe what I'm about to say, but Artemio Tadiar is right when he says that Corazon Aquino is an incompetent asshole who doesn't have any political experience in dealing with the problems we're facing!" says an unnamed female protester who also took part in the EDSA Revolution, ironically in favor of the President she now protests against. "Corazon Aquino is a disgrace to the Philippines, and Ferdinand Marcos is a despised has-been. It's time for us to embrace radical solutions to address the problem at hand."
---
REVOLUTION IN INDONESIA! MILITARY COUP LAUNCHED BY MILITARY OFFICERS RESIGNING FROM THEIR POST OVER SUHARTO'S INABILITY TO HANDLE INSTABILITY AS A RESULT OF SALIM GROUP FOUNDER'S DEATH
The Jakarta Post
November 22, 1986
(Jakarta, SPECIAL CAPITAL REGION) - As fresh protests continue to erupt throughout Indonesia, a troubling pattern has emerged from within the Suharto regime: hundreds of military officers from all branches of Indonesia's armed forces have resigned or deserted from their posts in frustration at their commander in chief's inability to respond to the growing anger that was directed at them from an outraged public over the gruesome murder of Sudono Salim and his son Albert Salim by vigilantes, during one of the race riots in the capital city of Jakarta. In addition, one of the military officers that resigned from his post, a certain Prabowo Subianto, has called for Suharto to be impeached for various crimes related to graft, cronyism, and many other various charges, up to and including a conspiracy to commit murder, referencing the rumors of Suharto's hand in the deaths of the Salims. The calls for impeachment emerged after those disaffected military officers that resigned, had launched a coup, effectively deposing Suharto from his seat of power. Both Subianto and Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had declared the formation of a Transitionary Council that will help transition Indonesia from authoritarian rule to a full fledged democracy. Unlike neighboring Philippines, which saw its attempt to transition into democracy from its own episode of authoritarian rule blunder into a civil war, much of Indonesia's rank and file personnel within its armed forces had supported the coup, and officers and regular soldiers who still maintained their loyalty to the recently deposed dictator were promptly arrested and incarcerated, as to prevent any counter-revolutionary reaction to the coup. Throughout various cities within Indonesia, many civilians waved Indonesian flags and sang patriotic songs while celebrating the downfall of Suharto.
"I've waited for this moment since 1965. I believe that the authoritarian rule of Suharto has made our country a lot worse in terms of how the wealth gap has widened," says Musa Hidayat, during a rally in the city of Balikpapan, in the Indonesian half of Borneo, which the Indonesians call Kalimantan. "We have a lot of work to do to improve our country, before we're ready to regain our place in the world, and cleaning up the country of Suharto's corruption is the first step."
The last months of Suharto's regime was notorious for its increased rate of racially-motivated persecutions against Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority, as the riots and pogroms had resulted in a small exodus of Chinese Indonesians towards Singapore. The Singaporean government has not only opened its doors to Chinese Indonesian refugees fleeing from the ethnic violence, but has also stream lined the process for any Chinese in other parts of SE Asia that wanted to move to Singapore, making it easier for them to immigrate. In response to the pogroms, the Taiwanese government has sharply condemned the brutal pogroms launched by unidentified hooligans that were rumored to have been connected to the Suharto regime. Likewise, both Great Britain and Portugal, which controlled the cities of Hong Kong and Macau respectively, has issued their own stern warnings towards the Indonesian government during the last few months of Suharto's regime. Now that the coup was launched, the international community is awaiting news of a new government that will replace the one formerly led by Suharto.
"As of right now, we are currently deciding as to who will serve in the Transitionary Council, so that we can stop any politician who served Suharto from joining. We had to resort to such strict measures, so we would stop anyone from subverting the revolution that we launched against Suharto," says Try Sutrisno, one of the military officers who joined Prabowo Subianto and B. J. Habibie in the Transitionary Council. "The number of politicians who were aligned with Suharto are quite large, so essentially we have to start from scratch."
Much of the members of the Transitionary Council consisted of former activists who were forced into the underground by the Suharto regime, as well as military officers that resigned from their posts had joined the military wing of the Transitionary Council, called the Officers for the Liberation of Indonesia. As much of the military had been purged of pro-Suharto loyalists, with not a single officer being able to defect to neighboring Philippines, it is widely believed that the Indonesian public would not have to fear from the military, as a majority of them supported the downfall of Suharto. Moreover, there were more announcements made by the Transitionary Council, regarding the plans for a new election that will be held sometime in 1987.
"While the Transitionary Council remains in charge of Indonesia's government, we cannot suddenly announce for new elections right away, until we've succeeded in eliminating the possibility of pro-Suharto candidates from ever gaining power," says Subianto, during a rally in Jakarta while addressing the protesters that came out to demonstrate against Suharto. "Your support was crucial in triggering the collapse of Suharto's dictatorship, and we will continue to rely on your wholehearted support for the transition to a new, democratic government."
---
(This segment replaces the Interview with Serikbolsyn Abdildin due to continuity issues. Will post the revised version under a new OMAKE)
"The events in the Philippines had a major effect on the rest of SE Asia. You must understand that the brutal crackdown on the protesters in Manila during the 1986 EDSA Uprising, albeit unintentional, had shaped our approach to how we had to deal with our own protests. We just stood and waited while the students were chanting pro-democracy slogans and calling for the liberalization of our government. I advised former Premier Li Peng on the hands off approach to see how the students will react. We got lucky, as the student organizations had began to fight amongst themselves as to who will become the nominal head of the entire group, while the workers' group that sided with the student protesters were furious at the idea of allowing the students to lead the pro-democracy movement. In the end, my approach had worked, as the student leaders spent more time arguing with each other than marching around Tiananmen Square, chanting slogans. The PLA were also at loggerheads with each other and with the government on how to deal with the student protesters, but my strict advice to Premier Li had stuck, and the PLA soldiers remained on guard. The students did win some significant concessions from us, as well as the workers. For instance, we carefully slowed down Comrade Deng's economic reforms so that it could become more flexible. Something we did learn and taught our Soviet comrades, and especially necessary, as the Soviet Union had also been in the grip of the same kind of pro-democracy craze. Yet, the bloody collapse of the Soviet Union along nationalist lines had also shaped our foreign policy, as we feared that the instability within the Central Asian republics of the USSR would negatively affect the events in Xinjiang." Ye Fei, during a speech in Pyongyang, North Korea, 1994.
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CHAKHOTHI UNDER SIEGE AS INDIAN ARMY LAUNCHES OFFENSIVE INTO AZAD KASHMIR PROVINCE, PAKISTANI FORCES RUSHED TO RELIEVE BESIEGED CITY
Sydney Herald
November 28, 1986
(Chakhothi, PAKISTAN) - While the world is slowly turning away from the ongoing civil war in the Philippines, the Indian military has launched an offensive as the 62nd Cavalry Regiment arrived at the Jhelum and Chakhothi Rivers to besiege the city. Accompanying the 62nd Cavalry Regiment were the 66th Armored Regiment (which arrived at the opposite side of the Jhelum River), the 166th Medium Regiment (an artillery regiment that would play a major role in stopping any Pakistani attempt at reinforcing the besieged city), and the Rajputana Rifles (which would be used to help with the Indian advance into the city). Opposing the Indian forces besieging the city of Chakhothi were the bulk of the I Corps, which were stationed in Azad Kashmir itself. The offensive into Chakhothi was meant to serve as the main focus of the campaign, while other Indian forces concentrated their efforts in Pakistan's own portion of the Punjab region, as well as the disputed regions of Jammu and Kashmir. Many military experts predicted that the Indian offensive into Azad Kashmir may end up being a long campaign, with much of the terrain favoring the defenders. However, Pakistan's growing internal instability as a result of a renewed Baloch rebellion that was triggered by a successful Indian thrust into Pakistan's Punjab province, and an ongoing joint Soviet-Afghan offensive in northern Afghanistan against the Mujahideen. In fact, the Indian military leadership had made it clear that the capture of the entirety of Pakistan's controlled territory in the Jammu and Kashmir region was necessary, in order for any future military aid coming to India from the Soviet Union, as evident by the Soviet government's offer of military aid to the Indian government. So far, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has not yet responded, but Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo has come out to denounce the Indian invasion of Pakistan.
"The world now sees India for what they are: a brutal, militaristic state that will not hesitate to mutilate our territorial integrity," says Prime Minister Junejo, during a speech in Pakistan's Majlis-e-Shura, or the Pakistani parliament. "However, I think that the Soviet Union has a hand in India's invasion of our nation, or they would not have escalated their conflict in Afghanistan without India's support. We know that India has also sided with the Soviets in the conflict just across the border from us, and the jihad against the atheistic infidels have not yet collapsed. I therefore, call upon the wider Muslim community to send aid to us in our hour of need."
The escalated conflict has made American weapons delivery to the Mujahideen a bit more difficult, given that Pakistan's own military needs have replaced it as the top priority for the military supplies that are being sent to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Reagan administration's proposal to send military aid to Pakistan in an attempt to help them repel the Indian invasion of that country has been mired in a deadlock, with an increasingly Democrat-dominated lower and upper house skeptical and reluctant to give more military aid to Pakistan. Likewise, China under Premier Hu Yaobang has also condemned the Indian invasion, and has started to send troops to the southern border, while Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has called the Indian government out for their naked aggression against a sovereign country.
"We stand in solidarity with Pakistan, who's facing a full scale invasion from India, as a result of a border skirmish gone wrong. We call upon the Indian government to cease their military adventurism in Pakistan, and withdraw their troops at once, or we will have to send troops to intervene in this conflict," Thatcher warns, during a news conference in London, while meeting with Pakistani diplomats to discuss the conflict in the Punjab region.
However, Thatcher's warning to India was swiftly dismissed by Prime Minister Gandhi, who gave a harsh rebuke to his British counterpart.
"Who was it that was responsible for the convoluted mess that we have today in the subcontinent? We're still dealing with the aftermath of the Partition, and on top of that, your government still behaves like an imperial power towards us. Ms. Thatcher, you are dealing with the Republic of India, not the British Raj!" Gandhi shouted during a heated session in the Indian parliament. "This kind of behavior is inappropriate for such a country that still has imperial pretensions."
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"We, the people of India, and the Indian government, do hereby withdraw our membership from the Commonwealth of Nations, as a result of Britain's snobbish behavior towards our nation as a whole. They convieniently forgot that they played a role in the partition of our nation, and they still haven't apologized for the Bengali Famine of 1943. Britain has a lot of blood on its hands, and a lot of blood has come from dead Indians that suffered under British colonial rule. We swore to move on from the nightmarish episode of the British Raj, and we have succeeded in doing so, building up a Republic that we're proud to live in. As of today, December 5, 1986, the Republic of India is no longer a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and we call upon other nations around the world that have suffered from British colonialism to withdraw as well. We don't need Britain to boss us anymore. We, the people of India, will decide on our own actions and our own destinies." Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, on the announcement of India's withdrawal of its membership from the Commonwealth of Nations.
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stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,832
Likes: 13,222
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Post by stevep on Sept 9, 2022 11:03:41 GMT
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE FILIPINO CIVIL WAR PART EIGHTBATAAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FALLS TO PRO-MARCOS REGIME LOYALIST FORCES AS SURVIVING DEFENDERS OPT FOR SUICIDAL LAST DITCH INFANTRY CHARGE
Manila Times
November 22, 1986(Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, BATAAN) - In a repeat of the tragic end of the defense of Cabanatuan City, the defenders of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant had perished in the last ditch infantry charge as they fought the advancing Marcos regime loyalist forces to death, mainly by close quarters combat. Consequently, the deaths of the defenders of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant had resulted in the full capture of the nuclear plant by former Marcos regime loyalist forces, even as numerous desertions had been reported by both pro-Marcos and anti-Marcos factions. What is even more interesting at the same time though, was that out of 800 troops that defended the power plant, only 170 troops came from the Philippine Marines that are aligned with controversial officer in Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar. The shocking defeat at the hands of the Marcos regime loyalist forces had now ensured that the clear path towards the town of Mariveles would be open, as well as Mount Mariveles, which the Marcos regime loyalist forces viewed as a critical strategic point, would also be open to capture. It is also becoming clear that in addition to Mariveles, Corregidor Island would also be a crucial target as well. By capturing Mariveles and Corregidor Island, the capital city of Manila and parts of southern Luzon would be subjected to a naval blockade, but it is unsure as to how many naval vessels that are fighting under each of the three factions that are fighting in the Filipino Civil War. The fall of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant has also damaged the credibility of the Corazon Aquino administration, as it demonstrated her complete inability to stand up to her widely despised predecessor. At the same time, much of the military officers that have aligned with Brigadier General Tadiar had criticized their de facto commander in chief for the needless loss of Marines in the futile defense of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, to which Tadiar hit back, defending his actions.
"What do you want me to do? To do nothing while Marcos succeeds in getting his Presidency back? He's dying, for God's sakes!" Tadiar shouts while addressing his junior officers. "We swore to fight our enemies, within and external, and the Marcos loyalists and communists are our enemies right now!"
The debacle in Bataan has only benefited one additional faction so far: the communists under the command of the New People's Army have used the distractions to expand their control of southeastern Luzon, as evident by the recent capture of De Galego, in the province of Camarines Norte. Since the Norzagaray Offensive, the Aquino government forces had failed to notice a large group of NPA forces that have managed to launch a new offensive into the Bicol region, and buoyed by the recent atrocities committed against the civilian population in areas that are under the control of Marcos regime loyalist forces in northern Luzon, and in eastern Visayas, where pro-Tadiar paramilitary forces called Alsa Masa had massacred the protesters in response to the growing number of food and fuel riots breaking out. The news of the massacres had only fueled the civilians' anger towards all three factions, which contributed to the mass recruitment drive that benefited the New People's Army. In the quasi-state of the so-called Tayabas People's Republic, vengeful farmers and unemployed workers had started to collaborate with New People's Army militias in hunting down the remaining business owners who still operated within the breakaway state, often looting their properties and killing the owners they've captured. In what has emerged as the biggest mass protest in the Philippines since the EDSA Revolution of February of 1986, many people have started to hold anti-Aquino rallies throughout the areas of the Philippines not under either communist, Marcos regime loyalist, or Tadiar-aligned factions. The protests were aimed at the Aquino government's failure to solve the issues that plagued her government since the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos.
"I cannot believe what I'm about to say, but Artemio Tadiar is right when he says that Corazon Aquino is an incompetent asshole who doesn't have any political experience in dealing with the problems we're facing!" says an unnamed female protester who also took part in the EDSA Revolution, ironically in favor of the President she now protests against. "Corazon Aquino is a disgrace to the Philippines, and Ferdinand Marcos is a despised has-been. It's time for us to embrace radical solutions to address the problem at hand."--- REVOLUTION IN INDONESIA! MILITARY COUP LAUNCHED BY MILITARY OFFICERS RESIGNING FROM THEIR POST OVER SUHARTO'S INABILITY TO HANDLE INSTABILITY AS A RESULT OF SALIM GROUP FOUNDER'S DEATH
The Jakarta Post
November 22, 1986(Jakarta, SPECIAL CAPITAL REGION) - As fresh protests continue to erupt throughout Indonesia, a troubling pattern has emerged from within the Suharto regime: hundreds of military officers from all branches of Indonesia's armed forces have resigned or deserted from their posts in frustration at their commander in chief's inability to respond to the growing anger that was directed at them from an outraged public over the gruesome murder of Sudono Salim and his son Albert Salim by vigilantes, during one of the race riots in the capital city of Jakarta. In addition, one of the military officers that resigned from his post, a certain Prabowo Subianto, has called for Suharto to be impeached for various crimes related to graft, cronyism, and many other various charges, up to and including a conspiracy to commit murder, referencing the rumors of Suharto's hand in the deaths of the Salims. The calls for impeachment emerged after those disaffected military officers that resigned, had launched a coup, effectively deposing Suharto from his seat of power. Both Subianto and Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie had declared the formation of a Transitionary Council that will help transition Indonesia from authoritarian rule to a full fledged democracy. Unlike neighboring Philippines, which saw its attempt to transition into democracy from its own episode of authoritarian rule blunder into a civil war, much of Indonesia's rank and file personnel within its armed forces had supported the coup, and officers and regular soldiers who still maintained their loyalty to the recently deposed dictator were promptly arrested and incarcerated, as to prevent any counter-revolutionary reaction to the coup. Throughout various cities within Indonesia, many civilians waved Indonesian flags and sang patriotic songs while celebrating the downfall of Suharto.
"I've waited for this moment since 1965. I believe that the authoritarian rule of Suharto has made our country a lot worse in terms of how the wealth gap has widened," says Musa Hidayat, during a rally in the city of Balikpapan, in the Indonesian half of Borneo, which the Indonesians call Kalimantan. "We have a lot of work to do to improve our country, before we're ready to regain our place in the world, and cleaning up the country of Suharto's corruption is the first step."
The last months of Suharto's regime was notorious for its increased rate of racially-motivated persecutions against Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority, as the riots and pogroms had resulted in a small exodus of Chinese Indonesians towards Singapore. The Singaporean government has not only opened its doors to Chinese Indonesian refugees fleeing from the ethnic violence, but has also stream lined the process for any Chinese in other parts of SE Asia that wanted to move to Singapore, making it easier for them to immigrate. In response to the pogroms, the Taiwanese government has sharply condemned the brutal pogroms launched by unidentified hooligans that were rumored to have been connected to the Suharto regime. Likewise, both Great Britain and Portugal, which controlled the cities of Hong Kong and Macau respectively, has issued their own stern warnings towards the Indonesian government during the last few months of Suharto's regime. Now that the coup was launched, the international community is awaiting news of a new government that will replace the one formerly led by Suharto.
"As of right now, we are currently deciding as to who will serve in the Transitionary Council, so that we can stop any politician who served Suharto from joining. We had to resort to such strict measures, so we would stop anyone from subverting the revolution that we launched against Suharto," says Try Sutrisno, one of the military officers who joined Prabowo Subianto and B. J. Habibie in the Transitionary Council. "The number of politicians who were aligned with Suharto are quite large, so essentially we have to start from scratch."
Much of the members of the Transitionary Council consisted of former activists who were forced into the underground by the Suharto regime, as well as military officers that resigned from their posts had joined the military wing of the Transitionary Council, called the Officers for the Liberation of Indonesia. As much of the military had been purged of pro-Suharto loyalists, with not a single officer being able to defect to neighboring Philippines, it is widely believed that the Indonesian public would not have to fear from the military, as a majority of them supported the downfall of Suharto. Moreover, there were more announcements made by the Transitionary Council, regarding the plans for a new election that will be held sometime in 1987.
"While the Transitionary Council remains in charge of Indonesia's government, we cannot suddenly announce for new elections right away, until we've succeeded in eliminating the possibility of pro-Suharto candidates from ever gaining power," says Subianto, during a rally in Jakarta while addressing the protesters that came out to demonstrate against Suharto. "Your support was crucial in triggering the collapse of Suharto's dictatorship, and we will continue to rely on your wholehearted support for the transition to a new, democratic government."--- Portions from the Interview with Former Communist Party of Kazakhstan Leader Serikbolsyn Abdildin
Qazaqstan, released on December 8, 2018Recalling the Power Struggle within the Kazakh Communist Party and the Origin of the December Coup of 1986
Interviewer: We thank you for your service to our nation, and for your steadfast work in building the new Kazakhstan today, Mr. Abdildin. How are you tonight, sir?
Abdildin: I'm good. I am rather excited to tell my story though.
Interviewer: That's the reason why we're here today. Anyways, I was surprised to hear that you were not the first choice to replace Dinmukhamed Konayev. In fact, the first candidate that Mr. Gorbachev had selected was an outsider named Gennady Kolbin, only for him to flatly reject the offer to take over the Kazakh Communist Party. Needless to say, Mr. Kolbin has our respect today for stepping aside and allowing a Kazakh to lead the Communist Party of Kazakhstan. What was your reaction to Gorbachev's initial choice of Mr. Kolbin?
Abdildin: My initial reaction was that of shock. We were furious that Mr. Gorbachev would select a non-Kazakh to lead the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, until Mr. Kolbin told him off for practicing Great Russian Chauvinism. Of course, Mr. Kolbin did suggest my predecessor, Kenes Aukhadiyev, as the next candidate, after Mr. Gorbachev refused to allow Nursultan Nazarbayev to take the coveted position. Needless to say, I was also against the appointment of Nazarbayev, mostly because he had higher ambitions than to become a mere socialist satrap.
Interviewer: What was Mr. Nazarbayev's ambition, if I may ask?
Abdildin: I would say that Mr. Nazarbayev wanted to become the leader of the entire Soviet Union. In fact, Gorbachev's snubbing of Nazarbayev actually led him to defect to what is becoming a secret faction that opposed Gorbachev's reforms. While Nazarbayev initially supported the policies of glasnost and perestroika, he feared that if those reforms went out of control, the Soviet Union would experience a kind of destabilization that will lead to its eventual collapse. Of course, that also led to Nazarbayev siding with Anatoly Lukyanov, who was the de facto leader of the Control Group, which was the unofficial name of the anti-Gorbachev faction.
Interviewer: Did Mr. Nazarbayev eventually got his wish though? It seems that there's been a power struggle within the Soviet Union as to who may eventually replace Gorbachev, and the incident where Boris Yeltsin showed up at a Party meeting, completely drunk and under stress, was used as a justification by another rival anti-Gorbachev faction to call for his ouster. Who else opposed Gorbachev?
Abdildin: Oleg Baklanov, who was also hostile to Lukyanov, wanted to completely reverse Gorbachev's reforms, but could not openly state his hostility to Gorbachev, without any blowback. Fearing Baklanov's potential rise as an opponent to Gorbachev, said Premier would send him to Afghanistan as an advisor to Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah. He made a mistake though, as sidelining Baklanov left him exposed to whatever machinations that Lukyanov have for him.
Interviewer: How was sidelining Baklanov beneficial to Lukyanov?
Abdildin: Initially, Lukyanov was Gorbachev's ally too, and he supported the reforms that were needed. However, he saw the potential of those reforms going out of control as something that would backfire badly, and thus he began to cavort with those politicians who were afraid of glasnost and perestroika. However, Baklanov was also his rival for the top position within the Soviet Union, and indeed, there were many others that gravitated to Lukyanov, including Nazarbayev, Aleksander Lukashenko, and myself.
Interviewer: All right then. Let's talk about the December Coup of 1986. Most historians and former CPSU officials who now serve their successor states have agreed that the December Coup of 1986 had its roots in the Reykjavik Summit, although the real cause of it was a series of gatherings that took place throughout the former Soviet Union. Indeed, between November 14 and December 5, the most amount of unsanctioned gatherings took place in the Ukrainian SSR, followed by the Baltic republics, and most surprisingly, the Belarusian SSR. Did you think that Lukyanov's caution had worked out to his advantage?
Abdildin: Yes, and no. Lukyanov was able to point the unsanctioned gatherings as proof that glasnost and perestroika were ticking time bombs waiting to go off, but it was the gathering at Ukraine's Holosiivska Square on December 4th that brought in Interior Ministry troops that led to a brutal suppression of the unsanctioned gatherings in Kiev. Keep in mind that the gathering at Holosiivska Square was made by a group of Ukrainian cultural activists that wanted to bring to attention the fact that the Soviet Union was suppressing various national cultures, including Ukrainian culture. Soon after, the December Coup of 1986 followed, when Gorbachev wanted to travel to India for a state visit, but the Cross-Punjab conflict was ongoing, and so he had to settle for an earlier visit to Mongolia. There, he was promoting his reforms, which Mongolia's leadership had taken note and was going to emulate, but when Gorbachev was about to return to Moscow, his plane suddenly made an emergency landing in Ulan-Ude, where a group of KGB agents notified him that he was being relocated to a secure location because there was a plot to assassinate him.
Interviewer: Wasn't the assassination plot a lie to get him under house arrest?
Abdildin: Yes, but even he didn't realize the true extent of his house arrest, until December 19, when he was told that he was no longer the leader of the Soviet Union, and that they were going to keep him in Ulan-Ude, for an indefinite period. That was when Lukyanov began to seize power, in which he had the 'support' of the military and the KGB. The unsanctioned gatherings had genuinely irritated the KGB leadership, since they were overwhelmed by the bold actions that Soviet citizens took in holding these unsanctioned rallies. While Lukyanov was able to successfully sell his version of the December Coup of 1986 within the Russian SFSR and the Central Asian republics, the Caucasian republics were mixed on their reactions, and the Baltic republics showed their disapproval. In the Belarusian SSR, they too were mixed, but a small split was emerging between those who were pro-Gorbachev and those who supported Lukyanov, with Lukashenko in the latter. However, it was in the Ukrainian SSR that the split was far more pronounced and bloody, as you now have three factions that are engaged in a power struggle.
Interviewer: Is that also the reason why the Second Ukrainian War of Independence broke out as well?
Abdildin: Yes. You have to keep in mind that the Communist Party of Ukraine had irredeemably split after Volodymyr Shcherbytskyi had died on the same day of the coup from his injuries sustained in that car accident, and it was now contested between the pro-Gorbachev candidate in Vladimir Ivashko, Valentyna Shevchenko, who represented the pro-Lukyanov faction, and the third was a faction that favored total Ukrainian separation from the USSR. This faction was being led by the son of Roman Shukhevych, in Yuriy Shukhevych, and they were the most vocal in cultivating hostility towards the Soviet government.
Interviewer: As I understand it, the Second War of Ukrainian Independence didn't officially break out until 1990, but these unsanctioned gatherings had an effect on Ukrainian nationalism, as they were able to spread its message towards the citizens of the Ukrainian SSR. Did these unsanctioned gatherings had consequences beyond their borders?
Abdildin: Unfortunately, the growth of ethnic nationalism within the USSR had also spread throughout the other republics, and it didn't reach the Russian SFSR, until 1987, when we had a man who was an unknown at that time, calling for Russians to reclaim their destiny from the 'shackles of Soviet chains'. That man was Dmitry Rogozin, and he had some bizarre thoughts on Russian nationalism, which we viewed it as his brand of Great Russian Chauvinism. Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who was also seen as a radical nationalist, had a notorious prejudice towards Caucasians and Muslims in general. It is also worth noting that Diomid Dzyuban, who was still a student at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, had been arrested by the KGB, on suspicion of being tied to underground Russian nationalist organizations, but the naked aggression in which the KGB displayed in Diomid's arrest had an electrifying effect on the emerging opposition within the Russian SFSR that Lukyanov himself would personally give the order for Diomid's release from incarceration.
Interviewer: That must have been embarassing for Lukyanov, having a minor religious nobody arrested, and then facing the wrath of the international community for doing so. It is not by accident that this Diomid eventually became the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, right?
Abdildin: Yes, and his brief stay in the Black Dolphin prison had an effect on him. Since his stay there, Diomid had to read books that were available to him in passing the time.
Interviewer: Ok. Going back to the December Coup of 1986, did you think that things could have gone differently if Gorbachev didn't come under house arrest?
Abdildin: I doubt it, since powerful figures within the Soviet government had grown to view him in a rather negative light. Even when the Soviet army was launching new offensives in Northern Afghanistan to secure the border that we share with them, Gorbachev was fearful of losing more Soviet troops to the Mujahideen, which was understandable. You also have to understand that people like Aman Tuleyev, who embraced Diomidean Eurasianism, and Alexander Lebed, who was basically seen as the Russian SFSR's real man behind the throne, had their political baptism by fire in the late 1980s. Lukyanov would eventually preside over the plans to form the Reformed Union Pact, which reorganized the USSR into a Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics. However, because of the incident in the Ukrainian SSR, the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics would become the face of what the West called Soviet/Russian aggression of the 1990s, in which the break up of the Soviet Union was rather bloody.
--- CHAKHOTHI UNDER SIEGE AS INDIAN ARMY LAUNCHES OFFENSIVE INTO AZAD KASHMIR PROVINCE, PAKISTANI FORCES RUSHED TO RELIEVE BESIEGED CITY
Sydney Herald
November 28, 1986(Chakhothi, PAKISTAN) - While the world is slowly turning away from the ongoing civil war in the Philippines, the Indian military has launched an offensive as the 62nd Cavalry Regiment arrived at the Jhelum and Chakhothi Rivers to besiege the city. Accompanying the 62nd Cavalry Regiment were the 66th Armored Regiment (which arrived at the opposite side of the Jhelum River), the 166th Medium Regiment (an artillery regiment that would play a major role in stopping any Pakistani attempt at reinforcing the besieged city), and the Rajputana Rifles (which would be used to help with the Indian advance into the city). Opposing the Indian forces besieging the city of Chakhothi were the bulk of the I Corps, which were stationed in Azad Kashmir itself. The offensive into Chakhothi was meant to serve as the main focus of the campaign, while other Indian forces concentrated their efforts in Pakistan's own portion of the Punjab region, as well as the disputed regions of Jammu and Kashmir. Many military experts predicted that the Indian offensive into Azad Kashmir may end up being a long campaign, with much of the terrain favoring the defenders. However, Pakistan's growing internal instability as a result of a renewed Baloch rebellion that was triggered by a successful Indian thrust into Pakistan's Punjab province, and an ongoing joint Soviet-Afghan offensive in northern Afghanistan against the Mujahideen. In fact, the Indian military leadership had made it clear that the capture of the entirety of Pakistan's controlled territory in the Jammu and Kashmir region was necessary, in order for any future military aid coming to India from the Soviet Union, as evident by the Soviet government's offer of military aid to the Indian government. So far, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has not yet responded, but Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Khan Junejo has come out to denounce the Indian invasion of Pakistan.
"The world now sees India for what they are: a brutal, militaristic state that will not hesitate to mutilate our territorial integrity," says Prime Minister Junejo, during a speech in Pakistan's Majlis-e-Shura, or the Pakistani parliament. "However, I think that the Soviet Union has a hand in India's invasion of our nation, or they would not have escalated their conflict in Afghanistan without India's support. We know that India has also sided with the Soviets in the conflict just across the border from us, and the jihad against the atheistic infidels have not yet collapsed. I therefore, call upon the wider Muslim community to send aid to us in our hour of need."
The escalated conflict has made American weapons delivery to the Mujahideen a bit more difficult, given that Pakistan's own military needs have replaced it as the top priority for the military supplies that are being sent to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Furthermore, the Reagan administration's proposal to send military aid to Pakistan in an attempt to help them repel the Indian invasion of that country has been mired in a deadlock, with an increasingly Democrat-dominated lower and upper house skeptical and reluctant to give more military aid to Pakistan. Likewise, China under Premier Hu Yaobang has also condemned the Indian invasion, and has started to send troops to the southern border, while Britain under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has called the Indian government out for their naked aggression against a sovereign country.
"We stand in solidarity with Pakistan, who's facing a full scale invasion from India, as a result of a border skirmish gone wrong. We call upon the Indian government to cease their military adventurism in Pakistan, and withdraw their troops at once, or we will have to send troops to intervene in this conflict," Thatcher warns, during a news conference in London, while meeting with Pakistani diplomats to discuss the conflict in the Punjab region.
However, Thatcher's warning to India was swiftly dismissed by Prime Minister Gandhi, who gave a harsh rebuke to his British counterpart.
"Who was it that was responsible for the convoluted mess that we have today in the subcontinent? We're still dealing with the aftermath of the Partition, and on top of that, your government still behaves like an imperial power towards us. Ms. Thatcher, you are dealing with the Republic of India, not the British Raj!" Gandhi shouted during a heated session in the Indian parliament. "This kind of behavior is inappropriate for such a country that still has imperial pretensions."--- "We, the people of India, and the Indian government, do hereby withdraw our membership from the Commonwealth of Nations, as a result of Britain's snobbish behavior towards our nation as a whole. They convieniently forgot that they played a role in the partition of our nation, and they still haven't apologized for the Bengali Famine of 1943. Britain has a lot of blood on its hands, and a lot of blood has come from dead Indians that suffered under British colonial rule. We swore to move on from the nightmarish episode of the British Raj, and we have succeeded in doing so, building up a Republic that we're proud to live in. As of today, December 5, 1986, the Republic of India is no longer a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and we call upon other nations around the world that have suffered from British colonialism to withdraw as well. We don't need Britain to boss us anymore. We, the people of India, will decide on our own actions and our own destinies." Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, on the announcement of India's withdrawal of its membership from the Commonwealth of Nations.
Haven't been replying or really reading the new version of the thread as been rather busy with other things. However just noticed this last bit. Thatcher was an idiot and a parasite but I can't see her making such a threat of sending troops, which she would realise was empty. She didn't want to defend the Falklands against Argentina so no way would she suggest an intervention in Pakistan against India. Even at her most delusional in her final days in power.
Steve
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Sept 9, 2022 20:00:41 GMT
Not that much, but I would have thought that a more aggressive Indian military adventurism would have jeopardized the war effort to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan, and thus Britain might be more pressured to join the Americans in protecting the conduit for military supplies. Keep in mind that Britain at this time period has a slightly growing Pakistani diaspora within its borders, and they could be more influential than their local Indian diaspora counterparts.
And given the main reason for the rewrite was because of current political events, this timeline has now become a massive reboot. Plus given yet another recent event that has happened, I might create a scenario where an alternate Scottish independence movement goes on the same trajectory as the OTL Quebec independence referendum. We might also see a slightly stronger or weaker republican movements in the Commonwealth nations as a result of India’s withdrawal of its membership ITTL.
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Post by TheRomanSlayer on Sept 15, 2022 5:27:11 GMT
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE FILIPINO CIVIL WAR PART NINE
REVOLT BREAKS OUT IN SAMAR AS NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY RECRUITS STAGE AN UPRISING AGAINST PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT, TADIAR-ALIGNED TROOPS DEPLOYED TO QUELL REVOLT
Manila Times
November 27, 1986
(Catarman, SAMAR ISLAND) - Another communist inspired revolt has broken out in central Philippines, this time at the province of Samar. As a result of a recent massacre that took place in the town of Catarman, where food riots had broken out in areas that are being administered by a paramilitary organization that is nominally tied to the Aquino government, but is actually allied to Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar. Known as Alsa Masa, members of this paramilitary group had attempted to use tear gas to bring down the riots, but a heated exchange between an enraged civilian and a paramilitary member resulted in fistfights, leading to the rest of the Alsa Masa paramilitary units using live ammunition on the crowds. Not content with simply suppressing the riots, Alsa Masa proceeded to gun down more civilians who also fought back with rocks and other crude weapons, creating a hostile environment that justified the intervention of the Philippine Marines, who then proceeded to beat back the rioters, but not before deploying amphibious vehicles that later helped with the suppression of the riots, at a great cost. The incident at Catarman was later exploited for propaganda purposes by the Communist Party of the Philippines, which also saw a slight increase in the number of applications for membership from within the increasingly unemployed workers throughout eastern Visayas. It didn't take long until the New People's Army launched an offensive to capture the entirety of Catarman, and as evident of the bold moves made by the CPP-NPA-NDF, much of Alsa Masa's forces were forced to withdraw to the nearby town of Lope de Vega.
"The blood of innocent people who demanded for bread is on the hands of the reactionary forces today, of which the Butcher of Ortigas Avenue is primarily responsible for. It is not an accident that these food and fuel riots broke out because they were being requisitioned by all three sides of this conflict for their own use, while we would pay for them with either our own money, or we'd barter for those supplies as well," says Gregorio Rosal, during a rally in the capital of the quasi-breakaway state of the self-proclaimed Tayabas People's Republic. "Thanks to the overreach of the reactionaries, our movement has become much stronger than ever, and soon we will drown this country in the blood of the oppressive classes!"
Unlike the situation in southeastern Luzon, where communist forces managed to keep the Aquino government forces at bay, communist forces in eastern Visayas were bearing the brunt of the fighting against Philippine troops under the command of Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar. In addition to the Philippine Marines, who were deployed to the entire Visayas region, the Philippine Army's 3rd Infantry Division has also deployed to this region to back Tadiar's fight against the communist forces. In addition, the 1st Infantry Division has constantly fought both the communists and Nur Misuari's Islamist rebel forces in Mindanao. Currently, the 1st Infantry Division has battled the communists in another breakaway self-proclaimed state of the so-called Surigao People's Republic. However, the Tadiar-aligned military forces were stretching their own supply lines in combating most of the communist forces in the VisMin area, as evident by the amount of supply convoys being raided by communist guerrillas, and the dwindling amount of supplies that managed to reach the Tadiar camp. Yet, back in October of 1986, the Reagan administration had announced a significant amount of military aid to be given to the Philippine government, which would include a large amount of heavy weaponry, such as machine guns, artillery pieces, and most importantly, M41 Walker Bulldog and M551 Sheridan tanks. In addition, President Reagan and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger had also discussed sharing crucial intelligence with their Philippine counterparts as to better coordinate the maneuvers that the Aquino government has launched.
"To be honest, while we're confident that President Aquino will prevail, her biggest problem is that her forces are heavily demoralized by their string of defeats on the battlefield. As such, I sent a proposal to President Reagan and Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke to bring in 5,000 Philippine Army soldiers for additional training in either the United States or Australia. We would train those troops for four months, and then bring in another 5,000, while the first batch would return to the Philippines and take part in front line operations," says Defense Secretary Weinberger, during a briefing in the Pentagon. "This would also include members of the Philippine Constabulary that didn't desert from their posts, although the question of applying the same concept towards the training of 5,000 Philippine Marines is up in the air, given their commander is Artemio Tadiar."
---
Portions from the Interview with Retired Major General Ricardo Morales
Sky News AU, released on March 9, 2015
Discussing the Fate of the Marcos Family
Interviewer: You've emerged into the public scene back in 1986 as the man who was suspected of launching a coup against former President Ferdinand Marcos. Yet, you've also stated that you were made a scapegoat by the Marcos regime as a means of deflecting from the fact that the late dictator was dying. However, I'm rather surprised as to why you've switched your allegiance from President Marcos to Artemio Tadiar. Can you please explain?
Morales: I didn't want to serve Corazon Aquino, mostly because she was busy hiding in a monastery before the Revolution broke out. In fact, before she made her way to Manila, she held rallies in Cebu, calling on her supporters to bring down the old dictator. At that time, I was kicked out of the late Imelda Marcos's security detail, but when those rioters stormed into Malacanang Palace, and started to loot and burn everything that was connected to the Marcos family, I realized that I didn't want anything to do with such anarchy. Yet, I didn't pledge my allegiance to Artemio Tadiar, until he appointed me as commander of an Alsa Masa formation in Negros Province, that I quickly explained to him about what happened in Malacanang.
Interviewer: As I recall, there were three maids that testified in the most infamous trial against Ferdinand Marcos, and they gave a vivid detail of what really happened inside. Can you elaborate on that a bit further?
Morales: Well, the maids told me that the late Imee Marcos ordered them to rip her mother's yellow dress to make yellow headbands to disguise themselves as Aquino supporters. I also saw one of those maids swim across the Pasig river, and it was only on my command that I rescued her, after she finished explaining to me what happened inside. Out of the entire household that served the Marcos family, only the maids themselves chose to seek employment elsewhere, while the others had remained employed in Malacanang, albeit as households serving the entire military junta. In fact, Tadiar himself wanted to rehire those maids that served the Marcos family, but they insisted on remaining loyal to the Marcoses. As such, Tadiar had them arrested, and sent to one of those infamous concentration camps in Visayas. The last time I heard about Manang Lucy, Yaya Santa, and Biday, all three of them were executed while attempting to escape from Polillo Island in 1997. By then, Polillo Island was discovered to have a certain amount of coal deposit, which led to it being developed as a coal mining center in all of Selurong Prefecture.
Interviewer: Wait, how did those three maids ended up in Polillo Island when the more notorious concentration camps were located in remote areas of the Philippines?
Morales: They were not originally sent there, but they first ended up on Calusa Island. I suggested to Brigadier General Tadiar back then that they should at least end up on Mataraway Island, where they could make things a bit easier for the young Bongbong Marcos, but Tadiar was insistent on Calusa Island. The maids, along with the other members of the former Malacanang household that served the Marcos family were incarcerated in Calusa Island, and then shipped to Polillo Island. I believed that it was because Tadiar changed his mind on what he wanted to do with Calusa Island.
Interviewer: What did he want to do with it?
Morales: I think Tadiar wanted to create a secret laboratory, where he would commission the entire health industry to conduct dangerous experiments on captured political prisoners, as well as foreign citizens with a certain mental and physical disability. That was why Julie Bishop had presided over the now famous Martin Bryant Act in Australia: to prevent Australians with disabilities from being duped by shady characters with ties to the Tadiar regime.
Interviewer: So you mean that Tadiar wanted to conduct inhumane experiments on live human beings?
Morales: Yeah. As for the Marcoses, I knew that Macoy had died in 1987, from complications related to his disease, and Imelda Marcos's death became a center of conspiracy theories in the Philippines. Many of the junior officers who were aligned with Tadiar wanted to throw away her collection of 1,000 pairs of shoes, as well as her large collection of clothes, but he decided to auction them in the international market. So far, various buyers from Latin America, Africa, and South Asia constituted the majority of the buyers that purchased most of Imelda's shoe collection. As for Imelda's dresses, Tadiar auctioned them off as well, and it was mostly buyers from Turkey that were interested in them.
Interviewer: And what happened to the profits made from those sales of Imelda's extravagant collection?
Morales: Tadiar had them secured in an undisclosed account, but he didn't spend even a peso on himself from the sales of Imelda's collections. He invested them in the reconstruction efforts that took place after China nearly destroyed our country. Keep in mind that even the most diehard Marcos loyalist eventually knew of the truth about their precious leader, once Tadiar revealed to them the extent of Marcos's struggles with his disease. I kept hearing from Imee Marcos, shortly before my defection that Marcos was rather.....too nice.
Interviewer: Too nice?
Morales: He placed far too much trust in Enrile and Ramos, according to her. However, once his closest allies had deserted him, and Tadiar did his thing in Ortigas Avenue, it became a matter of time before most of his hardcore supporters turned on him for not being brutal enough against the rioters. That is also why I first swore my allegiance to Arturo Tolentino, and then Artemio Tadiar. It also explained why during the Filipino Civil War much of Cory Aquino's political inexperience came back to haunt her, as her inability to tackle the food prices and cost of fuel had alienated even her closest supporters to the point where they were willing to accept the total cost of their freedom to bring stability back to the Philippines, and that is where they tragically came to accept a different kind of dictatorship. You know the saying, "Marcos stole millions, but Tadiar killed millions"? Tadiar's dictatorship was rather more brutal and bloody than even his predecessor. It's a sad tragedy that all of the Marcos and Romualdez families were slaughtered by vigilantes that were incited by Artemio Tadiar, and to a lesser extent, Saulito Aromin and Edgardo Doromal. I myself carried out the orders that led to the execution of Irene Marcos and Gregorio Maria Araneta III, to my ever lasting horror.
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ANTI-MARCOS GUERRILLAS CONDUCT DARING RAID AGAINST MILITARY OUTPOST IN CABIAO AS MARCOS LOYALIST OFFENSIVE IN BATAAN STALLS
Vancouver Sun
November 30, 1986
(Cabiao, PHILIPPINES) - The ongoing offensive launched by Marcos regime loyalist forces had been stalled as numerous supply convoys meant for the front lines in southern Bataan have been struck by guerrilla raids in the provincial town of Cabiao, in central Luzon. These guerrillas consisted of former civilian volunteers who fought alongside the late Marcelo Blando and the 7th Infantry Division in the defense of Cabanatuan City, before that city fell to forces led by General Fabian Ver. As a result of the fall of Cabanatuan City, many civilian volunteers fled into the forests and mountains, from where they started to engage in guerrilla warfare against Marcos regime loyalist forces. The result of this is that the Marcos regime loyalist forces lost around 7% of their troops to guerrilla attacks, while hundreds of pounds of military supplies and equipment were captured and used by the guerrillas themselves, or traded to Aquino government forces in exchange for medical equipment. In addition, the guerrillas themselves also provided crucial intelligence to President Aquino on the ongoing food riots in areas of the Philippines under the control of former President Ferdinand Marcos. In response, General Ver has organized a special anti-guerrilla task force, consisted of the most battle hardened troops with the most amount of political loyalty to former President Marcos. Though the anti-guerrilla task force may be more skilled than the ex-deserters who succeeded in blunting the NPA offensive into the province of Batangas, they made up for it with being well equipped.
"There are approximately 600 bandits that have hidden in the jungle around the entirety of northern and central Luzon. Most of them had fought in the defense of Cabanatuan City, so we expect some heavy fighting in the forested areas," says General Fabian Ver, when asked about the guerrilla presence in strategically important areas of northern and central Luzon. "The pacification campaign will take a while to complete, but hopefully we could rein in those bandits that threaten to stabilize the country that was stolen from us by the idiotic housewife and her erstwhile renegade butcher."
Sources within the Aquino government had confirmed the report given to them by former aide-de-camp to disgraced First Lady Marcos in Colonel Ricardo Morales, that contained the positions of Marcos regime loyalist forces around the provinces of Zambales, Bataan, and Pampanga. This crucial information given by Colonel Morales allowed the guerrillas to strike isolated posts with minimal casualties, though it certainly slowed down the advance made by other Marcos regime loyalist forces towards Mariveles, and Corregidor. At the same time, President Aquino has also ordered the reopening of Corregidor Island's Kindley Field and the deployment of the 17th Infantry Battalion (one of the few Philippine Army formations that remained loyal to President Aquino) to Corregidor Island, with additional orders to ship much needed weapons, ammunition, and medical supplies to Malinta Tunnel. Although renegade Brigadier General Artemio Tadiar has planned to send much of the Marines to Corregidor, the recent uprising in Samar has forced him to invest much of the Marine Corps to combat the growing threat of the New People's Army. In addition, a few ships of the Philippine Navy have begun to patrol the waters surrounding Corregidor Island, hoping to catch a few enemy troops off guard.
"The fight for our revived democracy begins in Corregidor Island, and it will be the tomb of Ferdinand Marcos's ambitions to regain his lost power. I promise you all, people of the Philippines, that this will be the final resting place for Marcos's declining dictatorship!" President Aquino says to her supporters in Sorsogon City. "Because of this significant symbolism of our struggle, Brigadier General Gregorio Honasan will be appointed as the commander of all forces in the National Capital Region. We wish you good luck, Brigadier General Honasan, and come back to us victorious."
---
"Although Philippine forces loyal to disgraced former dictator Ferdinand Marcos managed to capture all of Bataan Province by December 23rd of 1986, the real battle would begin in Corregidor Island, as much of their troops had to undertake a long preparation for an amphibious invasion of the island. Virtually none of the Philippine Marines had fought for former President Marcos, having seen what Artemio Tadiar had done in Ortigas Avenue on that fateful day. At the same time though, the inevitable clash in the Philippine capital would start with the retreat of the Aquino government forces from their attempted offensive in Bulacan province, towards the capital, once reinforcements from the Bataan front arrived in Bulacan to stop them. The retreat from the towns of Malolos, Bocaue, Marilao, and Meycauayan towards the strongholds of Caloocan, Valenzuela, and Novaliches would become the first phase of what was to become the Battle for Manila. The much hyped battle would start on New Year's Day in 1987, as Marcos regime loyalist forces bombarded Caloocan from their position in Tungkong Mangga. They brought with them captured artillery pieces that were taken from their Aquino government counterparts when a few of them surrendered in Norzagaray a few weeks prior to the offensive. Much of the artillery pieces consisted of 3 M101s, and 2 M102s, while a couple of M114s remained in the service of pro-Aquino forces. In addition, the pro-Marcos forces still retained their M41 Walker Bulldogs, but the pro-Aquino forces were given enough M40 recoilless rifle by the Reagan administration to hold off enemy armored units. The artillery bombardment would last for three weeks, in which much of the defenders were subjected to heavy shelling and psychological attacks. By the time infantry units within the Marcos regime loyalist forces advanced into Caloocan, heavy urban combat broke out, as snipers would often take pot shots, killing infantry units along the way. On January 6th, pro-Marcos forces stormed into the center of Caloocan, taking control of several buildings from which they pinpointed the targets for their artillery to take out. As the Marcos regime loyalist forces reached the Zabarte Town Center, the Aquino government forces noticed that a bulge was emerging while their enemies were attempting to storm through Caloocan. However, Brigadier General Honasan ordered his troops to continue letting the Marcos regime loyalist forces through Caloocan, until they reach Novaliches. On January 13, as enemy troops finally reached Barangay Kaligayahan, they were suddenly ambushed by Aquino government forces. Zabarte Road was hotly contested between the two opposing forces, as well as Quirino Highway. In fact, control of Quirino Highway was also crucial for transporting materiel between the front lines, and it was fiercely defended by members of the International Legion of National Liberation for the Philippines. Their skills learned in basic training they received for the filming of the movie Platoon came in handy, as their knowledge of jungle warfare became useful in hindering advances of enemy armored columns. Furthermore, control of the strategic Tawiran Bridge was also necessary for logistical purposes, as well as Barangay Tawiran. Holding these crucial points would allow the Aquino government forces to hold off the Marcos regime loyalist advance long enough for reinforcements from southern Luzon. The Battle for Manila would become the center of various studies for various foreign militaries on examples of what and what not to do during an offensive and urban warfare. In fact, the Siege of Caloocan was the template that the Indian Army used for the Siege of Sialkot, and the subsequent thrust into the town of Kingra Mor and the city of Zafarwal." From 'The Filipino Civil War: Escalation', by CNA Documentaries, released on July 13, 2017.
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PROTESTS BREAK OUT OVERSEAS OVER SCREENING OF NOTORIOUS FILIPINO TV SERIES THAT RETELLS THE LAST DAYS OF TADIAR DICTATORSHIP AS ETHNIC RIOTS ALSO EXPLODE
Herald Sun
June 24, 2018
(Melbourne, VICTORIA) - For the seventh day in a row, the entire Filipino community in Australia has protested against their own country's screening of a new television series that they say whitewashes the blood soaked legacy of Artemio Tadiar's military dictatorship. The television series, titled 'The Last Lakan', has portrayed the last years of the Tadiar military dictatorship in a tone that many critics say that glorifies the more notorious incidents that marred the military junta, from the 2002-2004 Second Korean War, to the resumption of the Sino-Philippine conflict that was triggered by the conflict in the Korean peninsula. Much of the anger that the Filipino exile community has displayed was mostly aimed at rising young filmmaker, Antonio Mancenon, whose background was a former Goyo Academy graduate and ex-Tadiar Youth member. His connections to the Tadiar regime, along with generous donations given to him for his film project from various Japanese philanthropists and Latin American socialites, had made 'The Last Lakan', and the film production company that helped create it, Silangan Cinema, possible to complete. 'The Last Lakan' was launched as a short film project that Mancenon had created with his fellow former Tadiar Youth friends, as an attempt to get into the film industry. The creation of the film was a response to a rival project that seeks to rehabilitate the controversial Marcos family, whose fate was not known until 2002, when Artemio Tadiar had announced the fate of each Marcos family member, as well as the three maids that remained loyal to them until their incarceration in one of the Tadiar regime's concentration camps.
"We've done a lot of research on the events that happened during the last few years of the Tadiar government, and we cannot shy away from telling the story of what happened to Major General Tadiar before his death," Mancenon explained, during a press conference in Kabankalan, Philippines. "As it stands, the film industry in the Philippines had a lot to learn from its Japanese and Latin American counterparts, on how to make better TV shows, and films too. There's also bias against Major General Tadiar, and that mainly comes from the diaspora, who didn't do anything when China was busy trying to exterminate us in 1995."
However, Mancenon's defense of Artemio Tadiar resulted in a flurry of angry messages sent to him by relatives of people who were killed by the Tadiar dictatorship, including former Marcos loyalists, Aquino supporters, and the exiled Filipino Chinese diaspora, who were most affected by Tadiar's anti-Chinese rhetoric and policies that effectively impoverished them through the notorious Macau Business Scam that saw much of their wealth stolen by the Tadiar regime, through its intermediaries in the Taiwanese and Japanese underworld. In addition, a small group of Marcos loyalists who were exiled from the Philippines to Australia after Tadiar's rise to power had clashed with Aquino supporters and oddly enough Tadiar apologists who moved overseas as economic migrants, during a rally in Karkarook Park. The inter-exile fights between the two or three political factions from the Filipino Civil War had been a constant source of irritation from within the exile community leadership, and they never hid their hostility towards the hotheads that were causing trouble for the entire exile community.
"I can understand the anger behind Mr. Mancenon's idiotic apologism for Artemio Tadiar, but the era of the Tadiar dictatorship is over. We now have two successful Presidents that worked hard to rebuild our democracy after those lost decades of dictatorships," says Carmencita Ojales, one of the leaders of the Melbourne branch of the Filipino Political Exiles Association, during a meeting with fellow branch leaders. "Grace Poe and Loren Legarda have done their best to ensure that there would never be a repeat of the Tadiar dictatorship. Sadly, there is always the threat of a coup by Nicanor Faeldon, and the bombastic Hitler-esque behavior of Larry Gadon is not helping the Philippines at all with its international relations."
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"From my perspective, the Indian thrust into Sialkot was done in a rather slow manner, as the Indian military leadership was aware of Pakistan's military advantage in the region of Azad Kashmir. That explained why more Indian armored formations were sent to the Punjab region, while the Gilgit-Baltistan Offensive was carried out mostly by mountain infantry formations. In addition, the campaign in the mountains of the Himalayan range is rather notorious for losing more soldiers to the cold, mountainous temperatures than to enemy gunfire, which was why the Sikh Light Infantry and the Gurkha infantry formations were mostly employed to capture strategic positions around the crucial Kargil-Skardu Road. You've also seen a lot of engineers deployed to the Kashmir front to help build new roads that would connect the bordertown of Hardas to Gilgit, and eventually to Afghanistan, where the Soviets would use the constructed road to send military aid to the Indian government. However, Prime Minister Gandhi was hesitant to accept military aid from the USSR, mostly because of his fear of American retaliations against his government. That was understandable, but at the same time, the hardline officials within the Gandhi government had strongly advised him that a Pakistan that acts as the haven for terrorists would eventually become a dangerous dagger pointed at the heart of India. That was exactly why the Border Roads Organization and the sappers had played a huge role in constructing a road that would become the Ladakh-Wakhan Road, in a similar manner to the Burma Road that was constructed by the Allies during WWII. Like the Burma Road, the Ladakh-Wakhan Road was designed to ease up on the logistics in the inhospitable terrain of the entire Kashmir region, as well as to bypass the rest of Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan. The construction of the Ladakh-Wakhan Road was a testament to India's growing pains in the area of military engineering, as they had to adapt their skills to an environment that is fundamentally different from the environment that they were used to. It was not only the roads themselves that had to be constructed. Tunnels, bridges, and even pit stops where vehicles could stop to pause for a bit, while the traffic continues to flow. The most difficult part of this, is that they had a timetable to complete, and that timetable was not kind to them. During construction, the sappers were guarded by anti-air and anti-tank units that were positioned on the side of the road, to deter Pakistani commandos from launching surprise attacks on them, but as it turned out, the Pakistanis were formidable warriors that fought their Indian enemies viciously. We've heard of casualty reports that indicate that the Indian military had lost over 700 engineers during the entire conflict, and that is on top of the 1,400 light infantry troops that were lost in the Kashmir front alone. In the Punjab front though, that has a different story, as the armored columns were often used as spearheads in the Indian offensives around Sialkot. What is most important in the Punjab War, or the Indo-Pakistani War of 1986 was that both militaries relied on the existing roadways to transport their troops on the ground. In the air though, the Indian Air Force enjoyed aerial superiority, while there wasn't that much to see on the naval front, as the Indian government wanted to focus strictly on Punjab and the disputed regions of Kashmir. The Siege of Sialkot was long, and brutal, and while the Indian military was successful in seizing the towns that are connected to Sialkot, the Pakistanis could simply resupply the besieged city from Daska, Zafarwal, and Gujranwala. At the same time, you have the famous Mahar Regiment accompanying the Jat Regiment, the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment, the 1812 Rocket Regiment, and the 74th, 75th, and 76th Armored Regiment taking part in the Siege of Lahore, which began on January 21, 1987. Unlike Sialkot though, the battle for Lahore underwent a far more symbolic and political battle, as the success of that siege could mean life or death for both Pakistan and India. Lahore is basically Pakistan's progressive, cosmopolitan and wealthy city, although Karachi is Pakistan's financial center. However, Lahore was also a major financial center of the British Raj, and at one point, Lahore was going to be awarded to India, before being placed under Pakistani control, as Kolkata was already given to the Indians. Well, Lahore's reputation as a socially liberal, progressive city went out of the window, the moment the first Indian artillery shell had struck the streets of Lahore. From what I heard, the Siege of Lahore became Pakistan's version of the Siege of Leningrad, as it became the bloodiest conflict in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1986, only surpassed by the later Indo-Pakistani conflict of 1997, over Pakistan's attempt to regain its lost portion of the Punjab province that was ceded to India in the Treaty of Hamburg, through the Siege of Amritsar." Gary Volesky, on the Opening Stages of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1986.
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