Far East Crisis send Ike Home (1958)

Daily Express dated Thursday September 11th 1958

In January 1955, the U.S. Congress passed the “Formosa Resolution,” which gave President Eisenhower total authority to defend Formosa (now Taiwan) and the off-shore islands of Quemoy and Mazu. The Eisenhower Administration considered many options, ranging from convincing Chiang Kai-Shek to give up the islands to employing nuclear weapons against the People’s Republic of China. Luckily for World Peace and probably due to Russian pressure, China backed down and stopped bombing the disputed Island in the Formosa Straits. 

In 1958 the bombing resumed and President Eisenhower was concerned that the loss of the islands would hurt Nationalist morale and might be a precursor to the Communist conquest of Formosa. The United States thus arranged to re-supply the Republic of China garrisons on Quemoy and Mazu. This brought an abrupt end to the bombardment and eased the crisis. Eventually, the Communist and Nationalist Chinese came to an arrangement in which they shelled each other’s garrisons on alternate days. This continued for twenty years.

See also this post and this post.

Japs Begin to Give up Arms

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday August 19^th 1945

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On August 6th 1945 the USAAF dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.  On August 9^th a second atomic bomb was dropped, this time on the city of Nagasaki. On the 15th Emperor Hirohito broadcast a radio message to his Empire announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies, although the formal surrender wasn’t signed until September 2^nd.

Officially a state of war existed between the USA and Japan right up to April 1952.

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A 2 page spread proves that the War is over… for some. That’s Marlene Dietrich on the right doing her bit for peace.

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When Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in Czechoslovakia in 1942 it was Karl Hermann Frank and Heydrich’s replacement Kurt Daluege that organized the total destruction of the village of Lidice and its people. Both Frank and Daluege were convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.

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The civil war between Chiang Kai-Shek and the communists under Mao Tse-Tung went on until 1949 when Mao forced Kai-Shek and his people to evacuate from the mainland to the island of Taiwan.

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Since she (or he) was first sighted in 1871 the Loch Ness Monster has been a staple ‘light relief’ item for newspapers.

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Maria Anna Minges (sometimes written Marianne) was sentenced to death twice in 1949 by a French Military court, but was inexplicably given a free pardon in 1950.

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The War may have been won but the political battles between Labour and Conservative continued. Winston Churchill’s wartime National Government was replaced by Clem Attlee’s Labour Government in the General Election of July 1945.

“… too easy for too long for politicians to evade responsibility for their blunders..” Well I’m glad that sort of thing doesn’t happen these days!

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I wonder if little Colin Dexter is out there now still defying death. He’d be about 75.

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The demobilization of about 5 million men and women began in June 1945, the last wartime conscript being returned to civvy-street in 1949. No wonder there were strikes by disgruntled service men.

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A typical example of the perennial Sunday newspaper exposé of vice. All that is missing is the ‘I was invited up to her room but made my excuses and left’ line.

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The 18-month National Service imposed on most 18 year-old men lasted from the end of the War until 1960. 

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Footballers threatening to go on strike because some were being paid £8 a match and others only £4. Makes you wonder how Gareth Bale will survive on only £250,000 a week.