1967 Vietnamese Dan Chu Newspaper Map of the Six-Day War in the Middle East

This is a c. 1967 Thai Hung and Dan Chu newspaper map of the Middle East during the Six-Day War. A composition consisting of four maps on one sheet, a general map of the Middle East is situated on the left, providing the newspaper's readers with the geographical context they need to be able to comprehend the events unfolding in the war. This map illustrates the region from the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt to Iraq and Saudi Arabia and from Lebanon and Syria to the Red Sea. Major cities in Israel (labeled here as Jewish - Do-Thái), such as Haifa, and Tel Aviv are labeled, as is Jerusalem, which at the time was split between Jordan and Israel. Amman, the capital of Jordan, is also labeled, along with Gaza. A handful of other locations are also noted.

The Six-Day War Battle Maps

Three battle maps occupy the rest of the map, illustrating the Syrian, Jordanian, and Sinai fronts. Both Israeli units and those of the opposing force, be they Syrian, Jordanian, or Egyptian, are all illustrated and divided into brigades (lữ-đoàn) and divisions (sư-đoàn). The map of the Syrian front (Mặt Trận Syrie) focuses on the Golan Heights, the part of Syria that Israel captured during the war, occupied, and effectively annexed in 1981. The second, just below the map of the Syrian front, depicts the Sinai Peninsula (Mặt Trận Sinai) and the complete debacle suffered by the numerically superior Egyptian armed forces, as it only took the Israelis two days to completely conquer the peninsula. The third and final map highlights the Jordanian front (Mặt Trận Jordanie) and the fighting in the West Bank. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Jordan had occupied the West Bank under the armistice moderated by the United Nations. By the end of the Six-Day War, Israel had occupied all of the West Bank, including Eastern Jerusalem.

Census and Publication History

This map was drawn by Thai Hung and published by the Vietnamese newspaper Dan Chu c. 1967. We have not been able to locate any other examples.