The tunnel rats were American , Australian , New Zealand , and South Vietnamese soldiers who performed underground search and destroy missions during the Vietnam War .
113-834: Later, similar teams were used by the Soviet Army during the Soviet–Afghan War and by the Israel Defense Forces in campaigns in the Middle East . During the Vietnam War, "tunnel rat" became an unofficial specialty for volunteer combat engineers and infantrymen from the Australian Army and the U.S. Army who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes. Their motto was the tongue-in-cheek Latin phrase Non Gratum Anus Rodentum ("not worth
226-485: A .38 Special revolver equipped with a sound suppressor and other non-standard weapons. "A few of the OSS -ordered World War II era suppressed High Standard HD .22 automatics made their way into Tunnel Rat hands. But these weapons were very few in number and wanted by a number of other special units. Personal weapons were used by the rats, ranging from .25 caliber automatics to sawn-off shotguns ." Besides enemy combatants,
339-814: A 2009 report by the Mexican Genome Project, which sampled 300 Mestizos from six Mexican states and one Indigenous group, the gene pool of the Mexican mestizo population was calculated to be 55.2% percent Indigenous, 41.8% European, 5% African, and 0.5% Asian. A 2012 study published by the Journal of Human Genetics found the deep paternal ancestry of the Mexican Mestizo population to be predominately European (64.9%) followed by Amerindian (30.8%) and African (5%). An autosomal ancestry study performed in 2007 on residents of Mexico City reported that
452-583: A Pew Hispanic Center report in 2006 and the Pew Religious Landscape Survey in 2008, Mexican Americans are significantly less likely than other Latino groups to abandon Catholicism for Protestant churches. In 2008, "Yes We Can" (in Spanish: " Sí, se puede " ) was adopted as the 2008 campaign slogan of Senator Barack Obama . His election in 2008 and reelection in 2012 as the first African American president depended in part on
565-931: A Soviet Navy Fleet. From the 1950s to the 1980s the branches ("rods") of the Ground Forces included the Motor Rifle Troops ; the Soviet Airborne Forces , from April 1956 to March 1964; Air Assault Troops ( Airborne Assault Formations of the Ground Forces of the USSR [ ru ] , from 1968 to August 1990); the Tank Troops ; the Rocket Forces and Artillery [ ru ] ( Ракетные войска и артиллерия СССР , from 1961); Army Aviation (see ru:Армейская авиация Российской Федерации ), until December 1990; Signals Troops ;
678-538: A Spanish colony, the territory of California also had an established population of colonial settlers. Californios is the term for the Spanish-speaking residents of modern-day California; they were the original Mexicans (regardless of race) and local Hispanicized Amerindians in the region ( Alta California ) before the United States acquired it as a territory. In the mid-19th century, more settlers from
791-555: A United States force of 60 men on an exploratory expedition. Fremont made an agreement with Comandante Castro that he would stay in the San Joaquin Valley only for the winter, then move north to Oregon. However, Fremont remained in the Santa Clara Valley then headed towards Monterey . When Castro demanded that Fremont leave Alta California, Fremont rode to Gavilan Peak , raised a US flag and vowed to fight to
904-576: A demobilisation controlled first, by increasing the number of military districts to 33, then reduced to 21 in 1946. The personnel strength of the Ground Forces was reduced from 9.8 million to 2.4 million. To establish and secure the USSR's eastern European geopolitical interests, Red Army troops who liberated eastern Europe from Nazi rule in 1945 remained in place to secure pro-Soviet régimes in Eastern Europe and to protect against attack from Europe. Elsewhere, they may have assisted
1017-414: A diverse population made up primarily of Indigenous and European ancestry, along with African . Also on a smaller scale, some also have backgrounds of East Asian and Middle Eastern descent (mainly Lebanese). The majority of the Mexican population identifies as mestizo . In colonial times, Mestizo was understood to be a person of mixed heritage, particularly European and Native American. The meaning of
1130-472: A high amount of military, economic, and political cost. After Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev realized the economic, diplomatic, and human toll the war was placing on the Soviet Union, he announced the withdrawal of six regiment of troops (about 7,000 men) on 28 July 1986. In January 1988 Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze announced that it was hoped that "1988 would be the last year of
1243-640: A high percentage of Agent Orange injuries and diseases due to soldiers' exposure to the chemicals on the ground, or that leached from topsoil into the tunnel environment. While in the tunnels, soldiers were breathing air heavily saturated with Agent Orange. Afghanistan features an extensive series of historic tunnels used for transporting water and the " kariz ." During the 1979–1989 Soviet war in Afghanistan , such tunnels were used by Mujahideen fighters. The Soviet 40th Army therefore fielded their own tunnel clearance and demolition units, which were given
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#17327907140451356-703: A new social group known as " Afgantsy ". These men would become influential in popular culture and politics of the time. The extent military districts in 1990 were: From 1985 to 1991, General Secretary Gorbachev attempted to reduce the strain the Soviet Armed Forces placed on the USSR's economy . Gorbachev slowly reduced the size of the Armed Forces, including through a unilateral force reduction announcement of 500,000 in December 1988. A total of 50,000 personnel were to come from Eastern Europe,
1469-499: A racial classification but an ethnic group. The barrier that the language places on people who are immigrating from Mexico is difficult due to the importance that is placed in the United States related to knowing how to speak English. The lack of support from surrounding people places an even more difficult strain given that there is not much remorse or yet very little patience that comes from those who these Mexican immigrants may find themselves seeking aid from. Genetic studies made in
1582-420: A racial one. It is vaguely defined and may include people who do not have Indigenous ancestry, people who do not have European ancestry, as well as people of mixed descent. Such transformation of the word is the result of a concept known as "mestizaje" , which was promoted by the post-revolutionary Mexican government in an effort to create a united Mexican ethno-cultural identity with no racial distinctions. It
1695-635: A rat's ass"). In the early stages of the war against the French colonial forces , the Viet Minh created an extensive underground system of tunnels, which was later expanded and improved by the Viet Cong . By the 1960s, the tunnel complexes included hospitals, training areas, storage facilities, headquarters, and barracks. These diverse facilities, coupled with sophisticated ventilation systems, allowed VC guerrillas to remain hidden underground for months at
1808-970: A regional basis, with Soviet soldiers from Russia becoming part of the new Russian Ground Forces , while Soviet soldiers originating from Kazakhstan became part of the new Kazakh Armed Forces . As a result, the bulk of the Soviet Ground Forces, including most of the Scud and Scaleboard surface-to-surface missile (SSM) forces, became incorporated in the Russian Ground Forces . 1992 estimates showed five SSM brigades with 96 missile vehicles in Belarus and 12 SSM brigades with 204 missile vehicles in Ukraine , compared to 24 SSM brigades with over 900 missile vehicles under Russian Ground Forces' control, some in other former Soviet republics. By
1921-666: A series of death threats, Seguín relocated his family in Mexico. He was coerced into military service and fought against the US in 1846–1848 Mexican–American War. Although the events of 1836 led to independence for the people of Texas, the Latino population of the state was very quickly disenfranchised, to the extent that their political representation in the Texas State Legislature disappeared entirely for several decades. As
2034-426: A series of radical modernization reforms throughout the country. Vigorously suppressing any opposition from among the traditional Muslim Afghans, the government arrested thousands and executed as many as 27,000 political prisoners. By April 1979 large parts of the country were in open rebellion and by December the government had lost control of territory outside of the cities. In response to Afghan government requests,
2147-435: A single military or civilian leader in the headquarters complexes. The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles at U.S. F-4 Phantoms , which were shot down over Thanh Hóa in 1965. Over a dozen Soviet soldiers lost their lives in this conflict. Following
2260-637: A time. During the Vietnam War , ANZUS troops uncovered a great number of enemy tunnels while patrolling or conducting larger operations. The men of the 3 Field Troop, an Australian combat engineering unit that served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966, have made a convincing argument that they were the first allied troops to enter the tunnels. Tunnel rats were given the task of destroying them, gathering intelligence within them, and killing or capturing their occupants—often in conditions of close combat. Typically,
2373-406: A tunnel rat was equipped with only a standard issue M1911 pistol or M1917 revolver , a bayonet , a flashlight , and explosives . Many tunnel rats reportedly came to dislike the intense muzzle blast of the relatively large .45 caliber round , as the .45's loud report could often leave one temporarily deaf when fired in a confined space. Consequently, some preferred to clear tunnels armed with
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#17327907140452486-798: Is based on the figures of the last racial census in the country, made in 1921. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Latinobarómetro organization in 2011, 52% of Mexican respondents said they were mestizos, 19% Indigenous, 6% white, 2% mulattos, and 3% "other race". As the United States' borders expanded, the United States Census Bureau changed its racial classification methods for Mexican Americans under United States jurisdiction. The Bureau's classification system has evolved significantly from its inception: For certain purposes, respondents who wrote in "Chicano" or "Mexican" (or indeed, almost all Latino origin groups) in
2599-470: Is because of this that sometimes the Mestizo population in Mexico is estimated to be as high as 93% of the Mexican population. Per the 2010 US Census , the majority (52.8%) of Mexican Americans identified as being white . The remainder identified themselves as being of "some other race" (39.5%), "two or more races" (5.0%), Native American (0.4%), black (2%) and Asian / Pacific Islander (0.1%). It
2712-500: Is no simple explanation, it is possibly some combination of assortative mating , changes in migration patterns over time (with more recent immigrants coming from areas of more concentrated Indigenous communities), population growth and other unexamined factors. For instance, a 2006 study conducted by Mexico's National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) , which genotyped 104 samples, reported that Mestizo Mexicans are 58.96% European, 35.05% Amerindian, and 5.03% African. According to
2825-407: Is notable that only 5% of Mexican Americans reported being of two or more races despite the presumption of mestizaje among the Mexican population in Mexico. This identification as "some other race" reflects activism among Mexican Americans as claiming a cultural status and working for their rights in the United States, as well as the separation due to different language and culture. Hispanics are not
2938-489: The Central Office for South Vietnam , North Vietnam's southern headquarters. Using airspeed and direction, COSVN analysts would calculate the bombing target and tell any assets to move "perpendicularly to the attack trajectory." These advance warnings gave them time to move out of the way of the bombers, and, while the bombing runs caused extensive damage, because of the early warnings from 1968 to 1970 they did not kill
3051-721: The Commonwealth of Independent States until it was formally abolished on 14 February 1992. The Soviet Ground Forces were principally succeeded by the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation in Russian territory; beyond, many units and formations were taken over by the post-Soviet states ; some were withdrawn to Russia, and some dissolved amid conflict, notably in the Caucasus . At the end of World War II
3164-776: The Engineer Troops ; the Air Defence Troops of the Ground Forces ; the Chemical Troops; and the Rear of the Ground Forces. In 1955, the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact with its Eastern European socialist allies, solidifying military coordination between Soviet forces and their socialist counterparts. The Ground Forces created and directed the Eastern European armies in its image for
3277-654: The Great Depression in the 1930s, many Mexicans and Mexican Americans were repatriated to Mexico. Many deportations were overseen by state and local authorities who acted on the encouragement of Secretary of Labor William N. Doak and the Department of Labor. The government deported at least 82,000 people. Between 355,000 and 1,000,000 were repatriated or deported to Mexico in total; approximately forty to sixty percent of those repatriated were birthright citizens – overwhelmingly children. Voluntary repatriation
3390-835: The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . In 1958, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Romania . The Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia was established after Warsaw Pact intervention against the Prague Spring of 1968. In 1969, in the far east of the Soviet Union, the Sino-Soviet border conflict (1969) prompted establishment of a 16th military district, the Central Asian Military District, at Alma-Ata , Kazakhstan. From 1947 to 1989, Western intelligence agencies estimated that
3503-681: The Ministry of Public Security recruit foreigners within high-level diplomatic circles among the Western-allies of the US, under a clandestine program known as "B12,MM" which produced thousands of high-level documents for nearly a decade, including targets of B-52 strikes. In 1975, the SIGINT services had broken information from Western US-allies in Saigon, determining that the US would not intervene to save South Vietnam from collapse. In 1979,
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3616-603: The NKVD in suppressing anti-Soviet resistance in Western Ukraine (1941–1955) and the Forest Brothers in the three Baltic states . Soviet troops, including the 39th Army , remained at Port Arthur and Dalian on the northeast Chinese coast until 1955. Control was then handed over to the new Chinese communist government. Within the Soviet Union, the troops and formations of the Ground Forces were divided among
3729-511: The Southwest : California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, during World War I many moved to industrial communities such as St. Louis , Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland , Pittsburgh , and other steel-producing regions, where they gained industrial jobs. Like European immigrants, they were attracted to work that did not require proficiency in English. Industrial restructuring in the second half of
3842-644: The Tejanos who colonized Texas in the Spanish Colonial Period established a government in Texas that desired independence from Spanish-ruled Mexico. In those days, there was no concept of identity as Mexican. Many Mexicans were more loyal to their states/provinces than to their country as a whole, which was a colony of Spain. This was particularly true in frontier regions such as Zacatecas , Texas , Yucatán , Oaxaca , New Mexico , etc. As shown by
3955-617: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo , which ended the Mexican–American War . Mexicans living in the United States after the treaty was signed were forced to choose between keeping their Mexican citizenship or becoming a US citizen. Few chose to leave their homes, despite the changes in national government. The majority of these Hispanophone populations eventually adopted English as their first language and became Americanized . Also called Hispanos, these descendants of independent Mexico from
4068-642: The civil rights movement ; demands ranged from the restoration of land grants to farm workers' rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rights, as well as emerging awareness of collective history. The Chicano walkouts of antiwar students is traditionally seen as the start of the more radical phase of the Chicano movement. Mexican Americans were found to place more importance on social and economic issues than they do on immigration. Those who are not citizens care considerably more about social issues. Both citizens and noncitizens identify ethnic issues as
4181-443: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian Federation officials acknowledged that the Soviet Union had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam during the war. Some Russian sources give more specific numbers: Between 1953 and 1991, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included 2,000 tanks, 1,700 APCs , 7,000 artillery guns, over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns, 158 surface-to-air missile launchers, and 120 helicopters. During
4294-556: The signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities of the North Vietnamese, through an operation known as Vostok (also known as Phương Đông, meaning "Orient" and named after the Vostok 1 ). The Vostok program was a counterintelligence and espionage program. These programs were pivotal in detecting and defeating CIA and South Vietnamese commando teams sent into North Vietnam, as they were detected and captured. The Soviets helped
4407-440: The "Some other race" category were automatically re-classified into the "White race" group. In some cases, legal classification of White racial status has made it difficult for Mexican-American rights activists to prove minority discrimination. In the case Hernandez v. Texas (1954), civil rights lawyers for the appellant, named Pedro Hernandez, were confronted with a paradox: because Mexican Americans were classified as White by
4520-547: The 1830s, as the westward spread of United States settlements and of slavery brought significant numbers of new settlers into the region known as Tejas (modern-day Texas), then part of Mexico. The Mexican–American War , followed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, extended US control over a wide range of territory once held by Mexico, including the present-day borders of Texas and
4633-634: The 1910s to the 1920s, referred to as the Great Migration. During this time period the Mexican Revolution was taking place, creating turmoil within and against the Mexican government causing civilians to seek out economic and political stability in the United States. Over 1.3 million Mexicans relocated to the United States from 1910 well into the 1930s, with significant increases each decade. Many of these immigrants found agricultural work, being contracted under private laborers. During
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4746-509: The 19–21 August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt to depose President Gorbachev. Commanders despatched tanks into Moscow, yet the coup failed. On 8 December 1991, the presidents of Russia , Belarus , and Ukraine formally dissolved the USSR, and then constituted the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Soviet President Gorbachev resigned on 25 December 1991; the next day, the Supreme Soviet dissolved itself, officially dissolving
4859-735: The Americans reinforced their forces in what is now southern California. Tens of thousands of miners and associated people arrived during the California Gold Rush , and their activities in some areas meant the end of the Californios' ranching lifestyle. Many of the English-speaking 49ers turned from mining to farming and moved, often illegally, onto land granted to Californios by the former Mexican government. The United States had first come into conflict with Mexico in
4972-654: The European ancestry of Mexicans was 52%, with the rest being Amerindian and some African contribution. Maternal ancestry was analyzed, with 47% being of European origin. Unlike previous studies that included only Mexicans who self-identified as Mestizos, the only criteria for sample selection in this study was that the volunteers self-identified as Mexicans. While Mexico does not have comprehensive modern racial censuses, some international publications believe that Mexican people of predominately European descent (Spanish or other European) make up approximately one-sixth (16.5%); this
5085-733: The General Staff, while the chiefs of the combat arms and specialised forces came under the direct command of the Minister of Defence . The Main Command was then recreated again in November 1967. Army General Ivan Pavlovsky was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Ground Forces with effect from 5 November 1967. From 1945 to 1948, the Soviet Armed Forces were reduced from about 11.3 million to about 2.8 million men,
5198-549: The Ground Forces contained about 210 divisions . About three-quarters were motor rifle divisions and the remainder tank divisions. There were also a large number of artillery divisions, separate artillery brigades, engineer formations, and other combat support formations. However, only relatively few formations were fully war ready. By 1983, Soviet divisions were divided into either "Ready" or "Not Ready" categories, each with three subcategories. The internal military districts usually contained only one or two fully Ready divisions, with
5311-546: The Ground Forces. Nonetheless, Soviet forces possessed too few theater-level nuclear weapons to fulfill war-plan requirements until the mid-1980s. The General Staff maintained plans to invade Western Europe whose massive scale was only made publicly available after German researchers gained access to files of the East German National People's Army following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Red Army advanced into northern Korea in 1945 after
5424-778: The Main Command was disbanded, an organisational gap that "probably was associated in some manner with the Korean War ". The Main Command was reformed in 1955. On February 24, 1964, the Defense Council of the Soviet Union decided to disband the Ground Forces Main Command, with almost the same wording as in 1950 (the corresponding order of the USSR Minister of Defense on disbandment was signed on March 7, 1964). Its functions were transferred to
5537-477: The Mexican Government secularized the missions. In effect this meant that the government took control of large and vast areas of land. The government eventually distributed these lands among the elite of the population in the form of Ranchos, which soon became the basic socio-economic units of the province. Relations between Californios and English-speaking settlers were relatively good until 1846, when military officer John C. Fremont arrived in Alta California with
5650-442: The Mexican population have found their common ancestry at 58.96% European, 31.05% Amerindian and 10.03% African. There is genetic asymmetry, with the direct paternal line predominately European and the maternal line predominately Amerindian. Younger Mexican Americans tend to have more Indigenous ancestry; in those studied born between the 1940s and 1990s, there was an average increase in Indigenous ancestry of 0.4% per year. Though there
5763-408: The National Farm Workers Association, and her co-leader César Chávez united with the strikers to form the United Farm Workers . Huerta's slogan " Sí, se puede " (Spanish for "Yes we can"), was popularized by Chávez's fast. It became a rallying cry for the Chicano Movement or Mexican-American civil rights movement. The Chicano movement aimed for a variety of civil rights reforms and was inspired by
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#17327907140455876-412: The Ranchos that had been originally granted to them by the Mexican government. In the late nineteenth century, liberal Mexican president Porfirio Díaz embarked on a program of economic modernization that triggered not only a wave of internal migration in Mexico from rural areas to cities, but also Mexican emigration to the United States. A railway network was constructed that connected central Mexico to
5989-476: The Red Army had over 500 rifle divisions and about a tenth that number of tank formations. Their war experience gave the Soviets such faith in tank forces that the infantry force was cut significantly. A total of 130 rifle divisions were disbanded in the Groups of Forces in Eastern Europe in summer 1945, as well as 2nd Guards Airborne Division , and by the end of 1946, another 193 rifle divisions ceased to exist. Five or more rifle divisions disbanded contributed to
6102-476: The Southwest during Spanish colonial times, as well as local and Mexican Amerindians. New Mexico Hispanos were a notably large majority of the southwest US population. The vast majority of Hispanos are genetically Mestizo with varying degrees of Spanish ancestry, as well as ancestry from Pueblos and various North American Indigenous tribes. New Mexico was far more populated since the 16th century in comparison to Texas & California. As early as 1813, some of
6215-708: The Soviet Ground Forces were estimated to possess the following equipment. The 1991 estimates are drawn from the IISS Military Balance and follow the Conventional Forces in Europe data exchange which revealed figures of November 1990. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported in 1992 that the USSR had previously had over 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armoured combat vehicles, at least 13,000 artillery pieces, and just under 1,500 helicopters. Mexican American Mexican Americans (Spanish: mexicano-estadounidenses , mexico-americanos , or estadounidenses de origen mexicano ) are Americans of Mexican heritage. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of
6328-412: The Soviet Ground Forces' strength remained c. 2.8 million to c. 5.3 million men. In 1989 the Ground Forces had two million men. To maintain those numbers, Soviet law required a three-year military service obligation from every able man of military age, until 1967, when the Ground Forces reduced it to a two-year draft obligation. By the 1970s, the change to a two-year system seems to have created
6441-524: The Soviet Union in 1991, a considerable number of weapons were transferred to the national forces of emerging states on the periphery of the former Soviet Union, such as Armenia , Azerbaijan and Tajikistan . Similarly, weapons and other military equipment were also left behind in the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. Some of these items were sold on the black market or through weapons merchants, whereof, in turn, some ended up in terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda . A 1999 book argued that
6554-407: The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prop up its puppet government, provoking a 10-year Afghan mujahideen guerrilla resistance. Between 850,000 and 1.5 million civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran . Prior to the arrival of Soviet troops, the pro-Soviet Nur Mohammad Taraki government took power in a 1978 coup and initiated
6667-551: The Soviet Union to support Korea's growth directly. When northern Korea eventually wished to invade South Korea in 1950, Kim Il Sung traveled to Moscow to gain approval from Stalin. It was granted with full support, leading to the full-scale invasion of South Korea on June 25. Soviet ships in the South China Sea gave vital early warnings to PAVN/VC forces in South Vietnam. The Soviet intelligence ships would pick up American B-52 bombers flying from Okinawa and Guam . Their airspeed and direction would be noted and then relayed to
6780-414: The Soviet government under leader Leonid Brezhnev first sent covert troops to advise and support the Afghan government, but, on December 24, 1979, began the first deployment of the 40th Army . Arriving in the capital Kabul on December 27, they staged a coup , killing the president Hafizullah Amin , and installing a rival socialist Babrak Karmal , who was viewed as more moderate and fit to lead
6893-538: The Soviet official newspaper of record . First, the combined arms formations, divisions and armies, would be reorganised, and as a result division numbers would be reduced almost by half; second, tank regiments would be removed from all the motor rifle (mechanised infantry) divisions in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, and tank divisions would also lose a tank regiment; air assault and river crossing units would be removed from both Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia; fourth, defensive systems and units would rise in number under
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#17327907140457006-407: The Soviet troops stay"; the forces pulled out in the bitter winter cold of January–February 1989. The cost for the military due to the war is estimated to have been roughly 15 billion rubles in 1989. The combat casualties estimates at 30,000–35,000. During 1984–1985, more than 300 aircraft were lost, and thus a significant military cost of the war is attributed to air operations. Since the first year,
7119-446: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexicans were repeatedly targeted by legislation that targeted their socio-economic standing in the area. One significant instance of this is exemplified by the passage of legislation that placed the heaviest tax burden on land. The fact that there was such a heavy tax on land was important to the socio-economic standing of Mexican Americans, because it essentially limited their ability to retain possession of
7232-429: The US border and also opened up previously isolated regions. The second factor was the shift in land tenure that left Mexican peasants without title or access to land for farming on their own account. For the first time, Mexicans in increasing numbers migrated north into the United States for better economic opportunities. In the early 20th century, the first main period of migration to the United States happened between
7345-405: The US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans . In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United States. Mexicans born outside the US make up 53% of the total population of foreign-born Hispanic Americans and 25% of the total foreign-born population. Chicano is a term used by some to describe the unique identity held by Mexican-Americans. The United States is home to
7458-479: The USSR on 26 December 1991. During the next 18 months, inter-republican political efforts to transform the Army of the Soviet Union into the CIS Armed Forces failed; eventually, the forces stationed in the republics formally became the militaries of the respective republican governments. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the Ground Forces dissolved and the fifteen Soviet successor states divided their assets among themselves. The divide mostly occurred along
7571-419: The United States began to enter the territory. In California, Mexican settlement had begun in 1769 with the establishment of the Presidio and Catholic mission of San Diego. 20 more missions were established along the California coast by 1823, along with military Presidios and civilian communities. Settlers in California tended to stay close to the coast and outside the California interior. The California economy
7684-481: The United States beginning in World War II. They contracted agricultural labor from Mexico due to labor shortages from the World War II draft. An estimated 4.6 million Mexican immigrants were pulled into the United States through the Bracero Program from the 1940s to the 1960s. The lack of agricultural laborers due to increases in military drafts for World War II opened up a chronic need for low-wage workers to fill jobs. While Mexican Americans are concentrated in
7797-418: The United States from Argentina. In 2015, the United States admitted 157,227 Mexican immigrants, and as of November 2016, 1.31 million Mexicans were on the waiting list to immigrate to the United States through legal means. A 2014 survey showed that 34% of Mexicans would immigrate to the United States if given the opportunity, with 17% saying they would do it illegally. Ethnically, Mexican Americans are
7910-413: The Vietnam War. Soviet Army The Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union (Russian: сухопутные войска , romanized : Sovetskiye sukhoputnye voyska ) was the land warfare service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces from 1946 to 1992. In English it was often referred to as the Soviet Army. Until 25 February 1946, it was known as the Red Army . In Russian,
8023-591: The amendment referred only to racial, not "nationality", groups. Thus, since Mexican Americans were tried by juries composed of their racial group—whites—their constitutional rights were not violated. The US Supreme Court ruling in Hernandez v. Texas case held that "nationality" groups could be protected under the Fourteenth Amendment, and it became a landmark in the civil rights history of the United States. While Mexican Americans served in all-White units during World War II, many Mexican–American veterans continued to face discrimination when they arrived home; they created
8136-719: The century put many Mexican Americans out of work in addition to people of other ethnic groups. Their industrial skills were not as useful in the changing economies of these areas. The Delano grape strike was influenced by the Filipino-American farm worker strike in Coachella Valley, May 1965. Migrant Filipino-American workers asked for a $ 0.15/hour raise. The 1965 Delano grape strike , sparked by mostly Filipino American farmworkers, became an intersectional struggle when labor leaders and voting rights and civil rights activists Dolores Huerta , founder of
8249-622: The changes implicit in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty began to create more disruption. The withdrawals became extremely chaotic; there was significant hardship for officers and their families, and "large numbers of weapons and vast stocks of equipment simply disappeared through theft, misappropriation and the black market." In February 1989, Defence Minister Dmitri Yazov outlined five major planned changes in Izvestiya ,
8362-642: The creation of the Bear Flag Republic . On July 9, US military forces reached Sonoma; they lowered the Bear Flag Republic's flag, replacing it with a US flag. Californios organized an army to defend themselves from invading American forces after the Mexican army retreated from Alta California to defend other parts of Mexico. The Californios defeated an American force in Los Angeles on September 30, 1846. In turn, they were defeated after
8475-602: The early 21st century, the states with the largest percentages and populations of Mexican Americans are California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and Utah. There have also been markedly increasing populations in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Illinois. In terms of religion, Mexican Americans are primarily Roman Catholic , which was largely established in culture during the Spanish and Mexican periods. A large minority are Evangelical Protestants . Notably, according to
8588-709: The early-to-middle 19th century differentiate themselves culturally from the population of Mexican Americans whose ancestors arrived in the American Southwest after the Mexican Revolution . The number of Mexican immigrants in the United States has sharply risen in recent decades. In 1900, there were slightly more than 500,000 Hispanics of Mexican descent living in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, California, and Texas. Most were Mestizo Mexican Americans of Spanish and Indigenous descent, Spanish settlers, other Hispanicized European settlers who settled in
8701-592: The effect Texas independence had on the Tejano community: A native of San Antonio, Juan Seguín is probably the most famous Tejano to be involved in the War of Texas Independence. His story is complex because he joined the Anglo rebels and helped defeat the Mexican forces of Santa Anna. But later on, as Mayor of San Antonio, he and other Tejano felt the hostile encroachments of the growing Anglo power against them. After receiving
8814-555: The end of World War II , with the intention of aiding in the process of rebuilding the country. Marshals Kirill Meretskov and Terentii Shtykov explained to Joseph Stalin the necessity of Soviet help in building infrastructure and industry in northern Korea. Additionally, the Soviets aided in the creation of the North Korean People's Army and Korean People's Air Force . The Soviets believed it would be strategic to
8927-517: The end of 1992, most remnants of the Soviet Army in former Soviet Republics had disbanded or dispersed. Forces garrisoned in Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states ) gradually returned home between 1992 and 1994. This list of Soviet Army divisions sketches some of the fates of the individual parts of the Ground Forces. In mid-March 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin appointed himself as
9040-485: The federal government and not as a separate race in the census, lower courts held that they were not being denied equal protection by being tried by juries that excluded Mexican Americans by practice. The lower court ruled there was no violation of the Fourteenth Amendment by excluding people with Mexican ancestry among the juries. Attorneys for the state of Texas and judges in the state courts contended that
9153-609: The first of the new High Commands, for the Far East, was created at Ulan-Ude in Buryatia under Army General Vasily Petrov . In September 1984, three more were established to control multi-Front operations in Europe (the Western and South-Western Strategic Directions) and at Baku to supervise three southern military districts. Western analysts expected these new headquarters to control multiple Fronts in time of war, and usually
9266-484: The forces in Mongolia (totaling five divisions and 75,000 troops) were to be reduced, but the remainder was to come from units inside the Soviet Union. There were major problems encountered in trying to organise the return of 500,000 personnel into civilian life, including where the returned soldiers were to live, housing, jobs, and training assistance. Then the developing withdrawals from Czechoslovakia and Hungary and
9379-402: The formation of NKVD convoy divisions, some used for escorting Japanese prisoners of war . The Tank Corps of the late war period were converted to tank divisions, and from 1957 the rifle divisions were converted to motor rifle divisions (MRDs). MRDs had three motorized rifle regiments and a tank regiment, for a total of ten motor rifle battalions and six tank battalions; tank divisions had
9492-423: The government spend roughly 2.5–3.0% of the yearly military budget on funding the war in Afghanistan, increasing steadily in cost until its peak in 1986. The Soviet Army also suffered from deep losses in morale and public approval due to the conflict and its failure. Many injured and disabled veterans of the war returned to the Soviet Union facing public scrutiny and difficulty re-entering civilian society, creating
9605-516: The greatest opportunity for terrorist organizations to procure weapons was in the former Soviet Union. In 2007, the World Bank estimated that out of the 500 million total firearms available worldwide, 100 million were of the Kalashnikov family , and 75 million were AKMs . However, only about 5 million of these were manufactured in the former USSR. In 1990 and 1991,
9718-553: The growing importance of the Mexican American vote. The struggle of presidents of both Democratic and Republican administrations to solve immigration reform in the United States has led in part to an increased polarization in the nation over an increasingly diverse population. Mexican Americans have increasingly settled in areas other than traditional centers in the Southwest and Chicago. Most Mexican Roma came to
9831-453: The hazing practice known as dedovshchina , "rule of the grandfathers", which destroyed the status of most NCOs. Instead the Soviet system relied very heavily on junior officers. Soviet Armed Forces life could be "grim and dangerous": a Western researcher talking to former Soviet officers was told, in effect that this was because they did not "value human life". By the middle of the 1980s,
9944-587: The increasing volume of Anglo-American immigration and restricted the number of settlers from the United States allowed to enter Texas. Consistent with its abolition of slavery, the Mexican government banned slavery within the state, which angered American slave owners. The American settlers, along with many of the Tejano, rebelled against the centralized authority of Mexico City and the Santa Anna regime, while other Tejano remained loyal to Mexico, and still others were neutral. Author John P. Schmal wrote of
10057-553: The key problem that Mexican Americans face, highlighting the need for stronger community and political organization. Since there were not many job opportunities in their country, Mexicans moved to the United States to gain work. They often had to settle for low-paying jobs, including as agricultural workers. During this period, civil rights groups such as the National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee were founded. By
10170-598: The last man to defend it. After three days of tension, Fremont retreated to Oregon without a shot being fired. With relations between Californios and Americans quickly souring, Fremont returned to Alta California, where he encouraged European-American settlers to seize a group of Castro's soldiers and their horses. Another group seized the Presidio of Sonoma and captured Mariano Vallejo. The Americans chose William B. Ide as Commander in Chief and on July 5, 1846, he proclaimed
10283-839: The military districts. There were 32 of them in 1945. Sixteen districts remained from the mid-1970s to the end of the USSR (see table). Yet, the greatest Soviet Army concentration was in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany , which suppressed the anti-Soviet Uprising of 1953 in East Germany . East European Groups of Forces were the Northern Group of Forces in Poland, and the Southern Group of Forces in Hungary , which put down
10396-503: The narrow dark passages. Tunnel rats were generally men of smaller stature (165 cm (5 ft 5 in) and under), who were able to maneuver more comfortably in the narrow tunnels. Tom Mangold and John Penycate, authors of one of the definitive accounts of tunnel warfare during the Vietnam War, reported that the U.S. tunnel rats were almost exclusively soldiers of European or Hispanic descent, many of whom were Puerto Rican or Mexican American . By Mangold and Penycate's account,
10509-420: The nation. While the Soviet government initially hoped to secure Afghanistan's towns and road networks, stabilize the communist regime, and withdraw from the region within the span of one year, they experienced major difficulties in the region, due to rough terrain and fierce guerrilla resistance. Soviet presence would reach near 115,000 troops by the mid-1980s, and the complications of the war increased, causing
10622-467: The new Russian minister of defence, marking a crucial step in the creation of the new Russian Armed Forces , comprising the bulk of what was left of the Soviet Armed Forces. The last vestiges of the old Soviet command structure were finally dissolved in June 1993, when the paper Commonwealth of Independent States Military Headquarters was reorganized as a staff for facilitating CIS military cooperation. In
10735-461: The new divisional organisation; and finally the troop level in the European part of the USSR would drop by 200,000, and by 60,000 in the southern part of the country. A number of motor-rifle formations would be converted into machine gun and artillery forces intended for defensive purposes only. Three-quarters of the troops in Mongolia would be withdrawn and disbanded, including all the air force units there. The Armed Forces were extensively involved in
10848-513: The next few years, the former Soviet Ground Forces withdrew from central and Eastern Europe (including the Baltic states ), as well as from the newly independent post-Soviet republics of Azerbaijan , Armenia , Uzbekistan , Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan . Now- Russian Ground Forces remained in Tajikistan , Georgia and Transnistria (in Moldova ). After the dissolution of
10961-568: The over 60 indigenous groups in Mexico (approximately 200,000 people in California alone). It is estimated that approximately 10% of the current Mexican-American population are descended from residents of the Spanish Empire and later Mexico, which preceded the acquisition of their territories by the United States ; such groups include New Mexican Hispanos , Tejanos of Texas, and Californios . They became US citizens in 1848 through
11074-604: The proportions reversed. The Land Forces Main Command was created for the first time in March 1946. Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov became Chief of the Soviet Ground Forces in March 1946, but was quickly succeeded by Ivan Konev in July 1946. By September 1946, the army decreased from 5 million soldiers to 2.7 million in the Soviet Union and from 2 million to 1.5 million in Europe. Four years later
11187-508: The remainder lower strength formations. The Soviet system anticipated a war preparation period which would bring the strength of the Ground Forces up to about three million. Soviet planning for most of the Cold War period would have seen Armies of four to five divisions operating in Fronts made up of around four armies (and roughly equivalent to Western Army Groups ). On 8 February 1979,
11300-766: The remainder of the Cold War, shaping them for a potential confrontation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After 1956, Nikita Khrushchev , General Secretary of the Communist Party , reduced the Ground Forces to build up the Strategic Rocket Forces , emphasizing the armed forces' nuclear capabilities. He removed Marshal Georgy Zhukov from the Politburo in 1957 for opposing these reductions in
11413-453: The second-largest Mexican community in the world (24% of the entire Mexican-origin population of the world ), behind only Mexico. Most Mexican Americans reside in the Southwest , with more than 60% of Mexican Americans living in the states of California and Texas. They have varying degrees of indigenous and European ancestry, with the latter being of mostly Spanish origins. Those of indigenous ancestry descend from one or more of
11526-423: The states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California. Although the treaty promised that the landowners in this newly acquired territory would have their property rights preserved and protected as if they were citizens of the United States, many former citizens of Mexico lost their land in lawsuits before state and federal courts over terms of land grants, or as a result of legislation passed after
11639-503: The task of clearing the tunnels of enemy combatants, disarming booby traps, and destroying the underground complexes. According to contemporary accounts, the U.S. Marine Corps and British Royal Marines were involved in similar work in the war in Afghanistan . SAMOOR ( Hebrew : סמור , " weasel "), a formation within Israel's Yahalom elite combat engineer unit, is charged with many of the same missions that tunnel rats performed during
11752-658: The term armiya (army) was often used to cover the Strategic Rocket Forces first in traditional Soviet order of precedence; the Ground Forces, second; the Air Defence Forces , third, the Air Forces , fourth, and the Soviet Navy , fifth, among the branches of the Soviet Armed Forces as a whole. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist in December 1991, the Ground Forces remained under the command of
11865-408: The treaty. Even those statutes which Congress passed to protect the owners of property at the time of the extension of the United States' borders, such as the 1851 California Land Act, had the effect of dispossessing Californio owners. They were ruined by the cost over years of having to maintain litigation to support their land titles. Following the concession of California to the United States under
11978-654: The tunnel rats first garnered public attention in January 1966, after a combined U.S. and Australian operation against the Củ Chi tunnels in Bình Dương Province , known as Operation Crimp . The "Diehards" of the U.S. Army 's 1st Engineer Battalion later were tunnel rats during their rotation through the Củ Chi District of South Vietnam in 1969. In the years since the Vietnam War ended, tunnel rats have suffered from
12091-406: The tunnels themselves presented many potential dangers to tunnel rats. Sometimes they were poorly constructed and they would simply collapse. Tunnels were often booby trapped with hand grenades, anti-personnel mines, and punji sticks . The VC would even use venomous snakes (placed as living booby traps). Rats, spiders, scorpions , and ants also posed threats to tunnel rats. Bats also roosted in
12204-570: The tunnels, although they were generally more of a nuisance than a threat. Tunnel construction occasionally included anti-intruder features such as U-bends that could be flooded quickly to trap and drown the tunnel rat. Sometimes poison gases were used. A tunnel rat might therefore choose to enter the tunnels wearing a gas mask (donning one within was frequently impossible in such a confined space). According to U.S. tunnel rat veterans, however, most tunnel rats usually went without gas masks because wearing one made it even harder to see, hear, and breathe in
12317-438: The war, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $ 450 million. From July 1965 to the end of 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by some 6,500 officers and generals, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and sergeants of the Soviet Armed Forces. In addition, Soviet military schools and academies began training Vietnamese soldiers—in all more than 10,000 military personnel. The KGB had also helped develop
12430-413: The word has changed through time, and in the early 21st century, it is used to refer to the segment of the Mexican population who are of at least partial Indigenous ancestry, but do not speak Indigenous languages . Thus in Mexico, the term "Mestizo", while still applying mostly to people who are of mixed European and Indigenous descent, to various degrees, has become more of a cultural label rather than
12543-467: The writings of colonial Tejanos such as Antonio Menchaca , the Texas Revolution was initially a colonial Tejano cause. Mexico encouraged immigration from the United States to settle east Texas and, by 1831, English-speaking settlers outnumbered Tejanos ten to one in the region. Both groups were settled mostly in the eastern part of the territory. The Mexican government became concerned about
12656-423: Was based on agriculture and livestock. In contrast to central New Spain, coastal colonists found little mineral wealth. Some became farmers or ranchers, working for themselves on their own land or for other colonists. Government officials, priests, soldiers, and artisans settled in towns, missions, and presidios. One of the most important events in the history of Mexican settlers in California occurred in 1833, when
12769-543: Was much more common during the repatriations than formal deportation. According to legal professor Kevin R. Johnson, the repatriation campaign was based on ethnicity and meets the modern legal standards of ethnic cleansing , because it frequently ignored individuals' citizenship. The second period of increased migration is known as the Bracero Era from 1942 to 1964. This referred to the Bracero program implemented by
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