WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are warned that this website contains images and names of deceased persons.

Intelligence operative A. Peter Dewey killed by the Việt Minh, the first of nearly 59,000 Americans to be killed in Vietnam

Sept. 26, 1945

Intelligence operative A. Peter Dewey killed by the Việt Minh, the first of nearly 59,000 Americans to be killed in Vietnam On 2 September 1945, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence at Ba Dinh Square, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
From History.com: "Lt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam, is shot and killed in Saigon. Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the Japanese. [...] On the way to the airport, accompanied by another OSS officer, Capt. Henry Bluechel, Dewey refused to stop at a roadblock manned by three Viet Minh soldiers. He yelled back at them in French and they opened fire, killing Dewey instantly. Bluechel was unhurt and escaped on foot. It was later determined that the Viet Minh had fired on Dewey thinking he was French. He would prove to be the first of nearly 59,000 Americans killed in Vietnam."