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Viet Cong

(Encyclopedia)Viet Cong vēĕtˈ kông [key], officially Viet Nam Cong San [Vietnamese Communists], People's Liberation Armed Forces in South Vietnam. The term was originally applied by Diem's regime to Communist t...

Bradley, Omar Nelson

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, Omar Nelson, 1893–1981, U.S. general, b. Clark, Mo. A graduate of West Point, he served in World War I and filled various army administrative and academic posts before assuming (1943) comma...

Tehran Conference

(Encyclopedia)Tehran Conference, Nov. 28–Dec. 1, 1943, meeting of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin at Tehran, Iran. The conference was held to stren...

Bishops' Wars

(Encyclopedia)Bishops' Wars, two brief campaigns (1639 and 1640) of the Scots against Charles I of England. When Charles attempted to strengthen episcopacy in Scotland by imposing (1637) the English Book of Common ...

Canaris, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Canaris, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm känäˈrĭs [key], 1887–1945, German admiral. He occupied various positions in the German navy during and after World War I. In 1935 he was made chief of the Abwehr [mi...

Longstreet, James

(Encyclopedia)Longstreet, James, 1821–1904, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Edgefield District, S.C. He graduated (1842) from West Point and served in the Mexican War, reaching the rank of major...

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

(Encyclopedia)Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), first U.S. public railroad, chartered in 1827 by a group of Baltimore businessmen to regain trans-Allegheny traffic lost to the newly opened Erie Canal. Constr...

Pirogov, Nikolai Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Pirogov, Nikolai Ivanovich nyĭkəlīˈ ēväˈnəvĭch pĭrōgôfˈ [key], 1810–81, Russian surgeon, b. Moscow. He entered Moscow Univ. at the age of 14 and completed the medical curriculum at 17. ...

chemical warfare

(Encyclopedia)chemical warfare, employment in war of incendiaries, poison gases, and other chemical substances. Ancient armies attacking or defending fortified cities threw burning oil and fireballs. A primitive ty...

monitor, type of warship

(Encyclopedia)monitor, type of turreted warship (no longer used) carrying heavy guns, having little draft, and lying low in the water. Monitors were so called from the first of the class, the Monitor, built for the...