Lê Quang Tung (1923–63) was the commander of the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam Special Forces under the command of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother
of South Vietnam's president, Ngô Đình Diệm. During the 1950s, Tung
was a high-ranking official in Nhu's Cần Lao, a secret political
apparatus which maintained the Ngô family's grip on power. Appointed as
commander of the special forces in 1960, his leadership was noted more
for repressing dissidents than fighting the Viet Cong insurgents. His
most well-known attack was the raid on Xá Lợi pagoda in August 1963
in which hundreds died or disappeared. Tung's main military programme
was a scheme in which army personnel attempted to infiltrate North
Vietnam for intelligence gathering and sabotage. The program was
ineffective, with the vast majority of infiltrators being killed or
captured. Tung was also reported to be planning an assassination attempt
on Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam.
Following the pagoda raids, America terminated funding to Tung's men
because they were used as a political tool rather than against the
communists. Along with Diệm and Nhu, Tung was assassinated during the
November 1963 coup.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Quang_Tung>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1793:
Marie Antoinette (pictured), queen consort of Louis XVI, was
guillotined at the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the height of the
French Revolution.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette>
1869:
Girton College, one of the 31 constituent colleges of the
University of Cambridge and England's first residential college for
women, was founded.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girton_College,_Cambridge>
1951:
The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was
assassinated in Rawalpindi.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaquat_Ali_Khan>
1968:
To protest racism in the United States, African American
athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed the Black Power salute
during a medal ceremony at the Mexico City Summer Olympics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute>
1975:
Five journalists for Australian television networks based in
the town of Balibo were killed by Indonesian special force soldiers
prior to their invasion of East Timor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balibo_Five>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
sparge:
1. To sprinkle or spray
2. To introduce bubbles into a liquid.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sparge>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done
before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other
things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to
be, and you've lost your true self forever.
--Eugene O'Neill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_O%27Neill>