November 12, 1971

1971Chen Guangcheng, Chinese-American lawyer and activist^[†]

Chen Guangcheng is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for land rights and the welfare of the poor.

1971Rebecca Wisocky, American actress^[†]

Rebecca Wisocky is an American actress. Best known for her role as Hetty Woodstone on the CBS sitcom Ghosts, and Evelyn Powell on Lifetime comedy-drama Devious Maids. She had guest star roles in many popular shows such as Desperate Housewives, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, American Horror Story, Once Upon a Time , Modern Family, and had a recurring role as Ramdha on Star Trek: Picard.

1971Vietnam War: As part of Vietnamization, U.S. President Richard Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.^[†]

Vietnamization was a failed foreign policy of the Richard Nixon administration to end U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a program to "expand, equip, and train South Vietnamese forces and assign to them an ever-increasing combat role, at the same time steadily reducing the number of U.S. combat troops". Furthermore the policy also sought to prolong both the war and American domestic support for it. Brought on by the communist North Vietnam's Tet Offensive, the policy referred to U.S. combat troops specifically in the ground combat role, but did not reject combat by the U.S. Air Force, as well as the support to South Vietnam, consistent with the policies of U.S. foreign military assistance organizations. U.S. citizens' mistrust of their government that had begun after the offensive worsened with the release of news about U.S. soldiers massacring civilians at My Lai (1968), the invasion of Cambodia (1970), and the leaking of the Pentagon Papers At a January 28, 1969, meeting of the National Security Council, General Andrew Goodpaster, deputy to General Creighton Abrams and commander of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, stated that the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) had been steadily improving, and the point at which the war could be "de-Americanized" was close. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird agreed with the point, but not with the language: "What we need is a term like 'Vietnamizing' to put the emphasis on the right issues." Nixon immediately liked Laird's word.

1971Aeroflot Flight N-63 crashes on approach to Vinnytsia Airport, killing 48.^[†]

Aeroflot Flight N-63 was a flight which crashed killing 48 people in Ukraine in 1971.