and put to death for his alleged role in the conspiracy,
Kluge committed suicide on 18 August 1944 near Metz,
France. Within a year, Hitler would also take his own
life, and Nazi Germany would fall to the Allies.
References: Hoffman, Peter, The History of the German
Resistance, 1939–1945, translated by Richard Barry
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), 276; Von Dieter, Ose,
Entscheidung im Westen 1944: der Oberbefehlshaber West
und die Abwehr der alliierten Invasion (Stuttgart, Ger-
many: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1982).
Kublai Khan (Qubilai Khan, Khubilai Khan, Kubla
Khan) (1215–1294) Mongol warlord
Kublai Khan (also known as Khubilai Khan, Kubla
Khan, and several other spellings of his name) was born
in 1215, the son of Toluia, a son of Mongol warlord
genghis khan, and his wife, Sorghaghtani Beki. Kub-
lai was not destined to become a leader until his elder
brother Mongke died on the field of battle in 1260;
he was then elected a khan, or leader, of a khanate, a
province ruled by a warlord. The empire founded by
his grandfather Genghis (or Chinggis) Khan covered
much of China, western Asia, and southern Russia. Al-
though Genghis Khan was the founder of the khanate
that ruled over these areas, it was his grandson Kub-
lai who extended the empire to its greatest boundar-
ies. Even before his rise to power, Kublai Khan was
involved in military expeditions to enhance his family’s
control of the region. Starting in 1251, he became the
military governor of China, and seven years later he or-
dered the Mongol attack on what is now the modern
city of Baghdad, Iraq, ending the caliphate there. The
following year (1260), he succeeded his brother, and in
1267, he moved the Mongol capital from Karakorum,
Mongolia, to Daidu, renamed Khan-Balik (also spelled
Cambuluc), now Beijing.
In 1268, Kublai resolved to attack the Song (Sung)
Empire in southern China. After five years, the two great
cities of Siang-yang and Fen-Cheng fell, and he became
ruler of all China in 1276. He was now master of an
empire that stretched from the Pacific to Turkestan and
the Black Sea.
By 1274, Kublai had assembled a military expe-
dition to invade the islands of Japan. His army—con-
sisting of approximately 40,000 men, including some
8,000 Koreans—sailed on about 800 ships from what
is now South Korea and landed at the islands of Iki and
Tsushima (later the scene of the famed battle in the
1904–05 Russo-Japanese War). Taking control of these
lands, Kublai’s army continued to advance. The Japa-
nese, outmanned with only approximately 10,000 sol-
diers, fought in small divisions utilizing guerrilla tactics.
But their strategy only served as a diversion and not as
a defense. What saved them was a typhoon that struck
the Mongol fleet, wrecking one third of the ships and
forcing the Mongols and their allies to withdraw. This
typhoon is known to the Japanese as a kamikaze, or “di-
vine wind.” Realizing that their defenses were poor and
that the Mongols would invade again when they had
regained their military strength, the Japanese set out on
a major building program, constructing stone walls for
defensive measures and building small boats to be used
to attack the huge but unwieldy Mongol ships. The sec-
ond attack came in June 1281, when the Mongol force,
140,000 strong in nearly 5,000 ships, split into two
fleets and sailed in part from southern China and the
southern Korean Peninsula. The southern Chinese fleet
landed first, on the island of Kyushu, and quickly over-
whelmed the Japanese defenses. Again, just as it seemed
the Mongols would be successful in their assault, another
typhoon struck their fleet, killing over 100,000 Mongol
soldiers and once again forcing their withdrawal. Fol-
lowing this second defeat, Kublai Khan gave up on his
dream of conquering Japan. Additional invasions against
what are now Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, and Viet-
nam all failed.
Although he was a military leader, Kublai Khan
was also the ruler of his people, including those he
conquered and controlled. He worked to bring gov-
ernment to China, promoting economic growth and
vitality, helping to rebuild the Grand Canal and other
internal improvements, introducing paper currency in-
stead of coins, and tolerating all religious activity even
though he made Buddhism the state religion. He also
sent emissaries to Europe to encourage further trade and
commerce.
Much of what is known today of Kublai Khan
comes from the journals and writings of an Italian trav-
eler, Marco Polo, who, with his father and uncle, sailed
from Europe in 1260 and were caught in a civil war be-
tween Mongol warlords only to be rescued and invited
to visit Kublai at his capital in Mongolia. During two ex-
peditions to China and related areas, lasting from 1275
until 1292, the Polos served as official advisers to Kublai kublAi khAn