Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
The Things They Carried-Tim O'Brien Book Portfolio Qtr. 4
The Things They Carried is a book about war, written by Tim O'Brien. The book consists of several war stories, which all tie into one, making the book a first hand account of the Vietnam war. The book goes into graphic detail about the war, the men and friends of the soldiers of the Vietnam war who died. The book also goes into graphic detail about what went through the soldiers mind, and how the war took a major toll on most of them.
This book was rather gruesome, and it disgusted me in parts. Some of the things they did were completely wrong, and they didn't need to be done. I think that they got so sick of the war that their emotions were overcoming them, causing them to do things. Like in one part of the book, a soldier goes crazy, and he kills a baby water buffalo, which was not necessary at all. I don't agree with these things. There are other things they could've done to express their anger. In the book, Tim O'Brien uses many example to express how much the war took a toll on the soldiers. For example, when Kiowa slips into the "sewage" field, his fellow soldier who tried to save him, Norman Bowker, feels responsible for the death of Kiowa. After he gets home form the war the memories of Vietnam haunt him and he ends up hanging himself.
In the book it gives similar facts to the casulties of the war such as the chart below:
Type of Casualty
Number of Records
Hostile, Killed in Action 38,502
Hostile, Died of Wounds 5,264
Hostile, Died While Missing 3,524
Hostile, Died While Captured 116
Non-Hostile, Died from Other Causes 7,458
Non-Hostile, Died of Illness or Injury 1,978
Non-Hostile, Died While Missing 1,351
Total
58,193
Several of the soldiers returning from the war, committed suicide. They had the war flashbacks when they got home, and couldn't deal with it. Some of the statistics say that there were over 150,000 suicides from the vietnam war. I don't know if this is true, it seems like kind of a high number of suicide rates. They suffered from something called post traumatic stress disorder.
I really liked this book. It gave a lot of good history facts, and the way it's written doesn't bore you to death. The end of the book is sad, because several of the soldiers have committed suicide and throughout the book, they seem fine. But it lets you know when they got home how much of their lives were spent going through the horrible flashbacks of the war, and the things that they did.
This book is an eye opener of what really happened during the Vietnam war, because it was sort of a first hand account of it. This book is really graphic though, and the things they did were completely uneeded.
Friday, May 8, 2009
SAT QUESTIONS Carissa, Brittany, and Kourtney
SAT Questions-
1. What was the main speakers point in lines 1 through 9?
A.) The main point was to define the Manifest Destiny.
B.) The main point was to state that Manifest Destiny had both a genuine ideal and justification.
C.) This is just a description the author made up.
D.) The main point was that the president wanted to know what it was.
E.) The main point was to make a point about only justification.
2. In line 5 the word "foreshadowed" most likely means:
A.) Influenced
B.) Introduced
C.) Found
D.) Released
3. The tone of this passage can be best described as
A.) Happy
B.) Sad
C.) Collegiate
D.) Explanatory
E.) Persuasive
4.
A.)
B.)
C.)
D.)
5.
A.)
B.)
C.)
D.)
E.)
Axis Power's.
The axis powers also known as the Axis Alliance, Axis Nations, and Axis Countries. These were the country's that were opposed to the Allies during World War 2. The Allies were Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Germany, was the most deadly army to march across Europe. No other could match tactical expertise or vehicle quality of Germany, they produced nearly 80.000 armored vehicles, but Russia built some 70.000 T-34 tanks alone, and Allied tanks came from all fronts to defeat Germany. From 1939 to 1940 (Pz-II, Pz-III, and Pz-38's) lightly armored was enough for beating Polen or Holland. From 1941 to 1943 (Pz-IV's) were better armor and armament, dealing with T-34's and Shermans, but were still vulnerable to most Allied tanks. From 1943 the Panthers and Tigers gives Germans a technical edge over the Allies, but they were outnumbered by the growing numbers of Allied tanks. German infantry well-equipped could stand up to almost anything the Allies throw at them. From 1943 to end 1944 skill level as a whole declines. The German Army throughout the war has adequate support from its artillery, the changing roles of the Luftwaffe from ground support to that of fighter defense against air raids over Germany, slowly declines German artillery.
Italy, A combination of over-eagerness and bad timing had Italy join the Axis. Poor military leadership and equipment handicapped Italy's efforts in the war, but the Italian Army made valuable contributions to the Axis. From the desert of North Africa to the snow-covered plains of Russia. The Italian infantry soldier was a man with no morale and lackluster. The whole Italian tank production during WW II was nearly 3.500 tanks, under gunned with poor armor. The artillery was perhaps the best troops fielded in the war, well-trained, using 100+ guns, most 75mm field gun or 80mm mortar.
Japan, The Japanese Army in WW II was most part an infantry-based army. Mid 1930's the Japanese began to expand their tank program. They built about 6.000 armored vehicles of all types. There was a wasteful rivalry (hate) in the army between the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), so that the war industry produced separate models planes, tanks and ships for each branch. With limited industrial resources and capacity, the Japanese had to win the war quickly, or not at all. The Japanese were the best light infantrymen in the war, with an incredible devotion to duty, high morale, absolute refusal to surrender and for all deadly enemies. They believed in the all-out charge attack with bayonets and taking positions by pure force. The infantry had not enough automatic weapons (and anti-tank weapons), only armed with rifles and grenades, so they began to field suicide. The Japanese tanks fought mostly in dense, heavily wooded terrain. Japanese opponents in the Pacific and Asian had little or no armor, so Japanese tanks being lightly armored and under gunned in the war. The Japanese artillery had an odd mix of guns calibers and limited available, few recent designs guns, some from WW I and old guns from the early 1900's.No self-propelled artillery, most horse-drawn or towed by truck. Japanese some use the massive bombardment, so as the Allies did, due to doctrine and limited ammunition.
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http://www.scenery.org/posters_axis_directory.htm
| Leadership | Equipment | Where They Fought | Troop Morale | Industrial Production | |
| Germany | No other could match tactical expertise | -80.000 armored vehicles - 70.000 T-34 tanks | Polen or Holland | The German Army throughout the war has adequate support from its artillery | 100 million military personnel |
| Italy | Italy, A combination of over-eagerness and bad timing had Italy join the Axis. Poor military leadership and equipment handicapped Italy's efforts in the war, but the Italian Army made valuable contributions to the Axis. | The Italian infantry soldier was a man with no morale and lackluster. | |||
| Japan |
1939 Germany invades Poland and annexes Danzig; Britain and France give Hitler ultimatum (Sept. 1), declare war (Sept. 3). Disabled German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee blown up off Montevideo, Uruguay, on Hitler's orders (Dec. 17). Limited activity (“Sitzkrieg”) on Western Front. 1940 Nazis invade Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (May 10). Chamberlain resigns as Britain's prime minister; Churchill takes over (May 10). Germans cross French frontier (May 12) using air/tank/infantry “Blitzkrieg” tactics. Dunkerque evacuation > about 335,000 out of 400,000 Allied soldiers rescued from Belgium by British civilian and naval craft (May 26–June 3). Italy declares war on France and Britain; invades France (June 10). Germans enter Paris; city undefended (June 14). France and Germany sign armistice at Compiègne (June 22). Nazis bomb Coventry, England (Nov. 14).
1941 Germans launch attacks in Balkans. Yugoslavia surrenders—General Mihajlovic continues guerrilla warfare; Tito leads left-wing guerrillas (April 17). Nazi tanks enter Athens; remnants of British Army quit Greece (April 27). Hitler attacks Russia (June 22). Atlantic Charter—FDR and Churchill agree on war aims (Aug. 14). Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Philippines, Guam force U.S. into war; U.S. Pacific fleet crippled (Dec. 7). U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Germany and Italy declare war on U.S.; Congress declares war on those countries (Dec. 11).
1942 British surrender Singapore to Japanese (Feb. 15). Roosevelt orders Japanese and Japanese Americans in western U.S. to be exiled to “relocation centers,” many for the remainder of the war (Feb. 19). U.S. forces on Bataan peninsula in Philippines surrender (April 9). U.S. and Filipino troops on Corregidor island in Manila Bay surrender to Japanese (May 6). Village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia razed by Nazis (June 10). U.S. and Britain land in French North Africa (Nov. 8).
1943 Casablanca Conference—Churchill and FDR agree on unconditional surrender goal (Jan. 14–24). German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad—turning point of war in Russia (Feb. 1–2). Remnants of Nazis trapped on Cape Bon, ending war in Africa (May 12). Mussolini deposed; Badoglio named premier (July 25). Allied troops land on Italian mainland after conquest of Sicily (Sept. 3). Italy surrenders (Sept. 8). Nazis seize Rome (Sept. 10). Cairo Conference: FDR, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek pledge defeat of Japan, free Korea (Nov. 22–26). Tehran Conference: FDR, Churchill, Stalin agree on invasion plans (Nov. 28–Dec. 1).
1944 U.S. and British troops land at Anzio on west Italian coast and hold beachhead (Jan. 22). U.S. and British troops enter Rome (June 4). D-Day—Allies launch Normandy invasion (June 6). Hitler wounded in bomb plot (July 20). Paris liberated (Aug. 25). Athens freed by Allies (Oct. 13). Americans invade Philippines (Oct. 20). Germans launch counteroffensive in Belgium—Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 16).
1945 Yalta Agreement signed by FDR, Churchill, Stalin—establishes basis for occupation of Germany, returns to Soviet Union lands taken by Germany and Japan; USSR agrees to friendship pact with China (Feb. 11). Mussolini killed at Lake Como (April 28). Admiral Doenitz takes command in Germany; suicide of Hitler announced (May 1). Berlin falls (May 2). Germany signs unconditional surrender terms at Rheims (May 7). Allies declare V-E Day (May 8). Potsdam Conference—Truman, Churchill, Atlee (after July 28), Stalin establish council of foreign ministers to prepare peace treaties; plan German postwar government and reparations (July 17–Aug. 2). A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima by U.S. (Aug. 6). USSR declares war on Japan (Aug. 8). Nagasaki hit by A-bomb (Aug. 9). Japan agrees to surrender (Aug. 14). V-J Day—Japanese sign surrender terms aboard battleship Missouri (Sept. 2).
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Ray Bauml recounts the Long Patrol.
Ray Bauml recounts the Long Patrol.
You dragged your ass all the way. With our training using rope and pulling up hills and all that, it sure came in handy there. Christ, it was raining, of course. When didn't it rain in the hills? We climbed up on this hill; well, you couldn't walk up it, it was almost perpendicular. We'd tie the rope to a small tree, boost the guys -- we got over. You can imagine the time involved.I'd been the point man four or five hours. That puts a strain on you. A native was leading us and said, "I smell'm Jap." I forgot his name, but let's call him Tonto for now. We worked on hand signals, and his hand went up to signal everybody to stop. You'd look back and everyone else's hand went up down the line, motioning the people behind them to stop.
I feel somebody tap my shoulder, and it's the guy next to me. He points to me and he points up: "You go and check." I looked at him incredulously and said, "What?" I'm thinking to myself, "Here are all these Navy Cross tough guys I'm with. Why aren't they doing it?" So I'm crawling up. I get near the base [of a ridge]. I motioned the rest of the squad to move along and spread out. We start crawling up the hill on our bellies. There was a bunch of dead leaves, and every leaf would crackle when you moved across it. Ten feet from the top were the remains of a Jap bivouac.
I slipped the muzzle of my weapon into my helmet and raise it expecting a burst of fire. Nothing happened, so I crawled up and began exploring about six or seven foxholes. They were there not too long before, because in the jungle meat doesn't last too long, and there was fresh meat just starting to rot, which has an intense smell. I'm looking around, I'm the only one, there's no one backing me, no one protecting my butt -- that's what bothered me. I'm looking around at all these foxholes, stepping lightly. My weapon went into the foxhole first, and I'm thinking, "Why the hell am I doing this?"
I was about to go back to tell them I couldn't find anything, and behind us our officer [Miller] and his runner must have walked up along the trail, come around, and crashed through like a herd of elephants. I almost shot him. I said, "Holy Christ!" He was pissed off. He said, "Where the hell is everyone? What is taking so long?" I said, "They're laying over here about fifteen yards, I'm guessing."
Then I was going to step in front of them to lead them, but they train the officers to go first, so I stepped right behind them. I was about a step behind him. We took two steps, and a Jap machine gun went off and almost blew his entire head off. All his teeth were knocked out, and his tongue was like strips of liver; his whole lower jaw was almost missing. I said, "Lay low." It's amazing how you react, and I said, "Lay low, lieutenant." If I was in a situation like that I'd probably faint. Seeing someone's teeth, tounge, and jaw get all messed up like that would make me sick. -Carissa Parkins 4/2/09 6:47 PM
I started backing up, and Putnam said, "Cover me. I'll get him." He was about five, ten feet behind me. I said, "Okay." So I raised my rifle and I'm thinking to myself, "Who the hell am I covering? I don't see anybody. Where the hell is everybody else? Why aren't they firing?" [The firing] came out of a tree. I raised my weapon. [The runner] left, and another burst came. I'll tell ya, they were so damn close that machine-gun smoke was enveloping us. I patted Miller's leg. "Lay still." I don't know if he heard me or not.
What saved my butt were these ironwood trees in the jungle. They are so tough that you take the sharpest machete, swing all you've got, and barely put a crease in there. Above my belly, near my chest, were two slugs that would have got me if the ironwood tree hadn't stopped them. Then a few minutes later -- Christ, I thought ten years had passed -- I heard a shot and it turned out that [the runner] got shot in the arm going back to the group and lost his arm. [One other man] was the one who saved our ass. He said, "I see them." He was being smart because despite all this training, a lot of these bastards are trigger-happy. He said, "I see them." He opened up with his BAR, stops, opens up again, and he said, "I got them, I got them." I'm guessing there were two.
The next day Miller died. He suffocated from his own phlegm. It wasn't a pretty sight.This is a really intense part. That guy went through a lot and the guy [MILLER] died in the end anyways. That is insane. -Carissa Parkins 4/2/09 6:48 PM
- the second part that i highlighted really made me think wow i dont even know what the heck i would do in this situation, what would you do??
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The Descision to Use Atomic Weapons
from
A People's War?
Howard Zinn
Still, the vast bulk of the American population was mobilized, in the army, and in civilian life, to fight the war, and the atmosphere of war enveloped more and more Americans. Public opinion polls show large majorities of soldiers favoring the draft for the postwar period. Hatred against the enemy, against the Japanese particularly, became widespread. Racism was clearly at work. Time magazine, reporting the battle of Iwo Jima, said: "The ordinary unreasoning Jap is ignorant. Perhaps he is human. Nothing .. . indicates it." ....
The bombing of Japanese cities continued the strategy of saturation bombing to destroy civilian morale; one nighttime fire-bombing of Tokyo took 80,000 lives. And then, on August 6, 1945, came the lone American plane in the sky over Hiroshima, dropping the first atomic bomb, leaving perhaps 100,000 Japanese dead, and tens of thousands more slowly dying from radiation poisoning. We left 100,000 dead and more were dying of poisoning. How did this solve anything, because most these people were civillians. -Carissa Parkins 4/3/09 10:58 AM Twelve U.S. navy fliers in the Hiroshima city jail were killed in the bombing, a fact that the U.S. government has never officially acknowledged, according to historian Martin Sherwin (A World Destroyed). Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, with perhaps 50,000 killed.
The justification for these atrocities was that this would end the war quickly, making unnecessary an invasion of Japan. Such an invasion would cost a huge number of lives, the government said-a million, according to Secretary of State Byrnes; half a million, Truman claimed was the figure given him by General George Marshall. (When the papers of the Manhattan Project-the project to build the atom bomb- were released years later, they showed that Marshall urged a warning to the Japanese about the bomb, so people could be removed and only military targets hit.) These estimates of invasion losses were not realistic, and seem to have been pulled out of the air to justify bombings which, as their effects became known, horrified more and more people. Japan, by August 1945, was in desperate shape and ready to surrender. New York Times military analyst Hanson Baldwin wrote, shortly after the war:
The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, set up by the War Department in 1944 to study the results of aerial attacks in the war, interviewed hundreds of Japanese civilian and military leaders after Japan surrendered, and reported just after the war:The enemy, in a military sense, was in a hopeless strategic position by the time the Potsdam demand for unconditional surrender was made on July 26.
Such then, was the situation when we wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Need we have done it? No one can, of course, be positive, but the answer is almost certainly negative.I completely agree with Zinn right here, because I think that both the bombs were unnecessary. -Carissa Parkins 4/3/09 10:32 AM
Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.
But could American leaders have known this in August 1945? The answer is, clearly, yes. The Japanese code had been broken, and Japan's messages were being intercepted. It was known the Japanese had instructed their ambassador in Moscow to work on peace negotiations with the Allies. Japanese leaders had begun talking of surrender a year before this, and the Emperor himself had begun to suggest, in June 1945, that alternatives to fighting to the end be considered. On July 13, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo wired his ambassador in Moscow: "Unconditional surrender is the only obstacle to peace.. .." Martin Sherwin, after an exhaustive study of the relevant historical documents, concludes: "Having broken the Japanese code before the war, American Intelligence was able to-and did-relay this message to the President, but it had no effect whatever on efforts to bring the war to a conclusion."
If only the Americans had not insisted on unconditional surrender- that is, if they were willing to accept one condition to the surrender, that the Emperor, a holy figure to the Japanese, remain in place-the Japanese would have agreed to stop the war.
Why did the United States not take that small step to save both American and Japanese lives? Was it because too much money and effort had been invested in the atomic bomb not to drop it? This statement is probably true. I bet they didn't want to waste the atom bomb, so instead of saving lives on both sides of the totem pole, they just dropped it to get rid of it. I also agree that they wanted to drop it because they have too much money invested and effort into it. -Carissa Parkins 4/3/09 11:02 AMGeneral Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, described Truman as a man on a toboggan, the momentum too great to stop it. Or was it, as British scientist P. M. S. Blackett suggested (Fear, War, and the Bomb), that the United States was anxious to drop the bomb before the Russians entered the war against Japan?
The Russians had secretly agreed (they were officially not at war with Japan) they would come into the war ninety days after the end of the European war. That turned out to be May 8, and so, on August 8, the Russians were due to declare war on Japan, But by then the big bomb had been dropped, and the next day a second one would be dropped on Nagasaki; the Japanese would surrender to the United States, not the Russians, and the United States would be the occupier of postwar Japan. In other words, Blackett says, the dropping of the bomb was "the first major operation of the cold diplomatic war with Russia.. .." Blackett is supported by American historian Gar Alperovitz (Atomic Diplomacy), who notes a diary entry for July 28, 1945, by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, describing Secretary of State James F. Byrnes as "most anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians got in."
Truman had said, "The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians." In my opinion this is completely wrong. Even though Zinn didn't say this it is worth a comment because he is saying they didn't want to kill civillians. If you don't want to kill civillians why DROP AN ATOMIC BOMB?-Carissa Parkins 4/3/09 10:39 AM It was a preposterous statement. I completely agree. -Carissa Parkins 4/3/09 10:48 AM Those 100,000 killed in Hiroshima were almost all civilians. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey said in its official report: "Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets because of their concentration of activities and population."
The dropping of the second bomb on Nagasaki seems to have been scheduled in advance, and no one has ever been able to explain why it was dropped. Was it because this was a plutonium bomb whereas the Hiroshima bomb was a uranium bomb? Were the dead and irradiated of Nagasaki victims of a scientific experiment? Martin Shenvin says that among the Nagasaki dead were probably American prisoners of war. He notes a message of July 31 from Headquarters, U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces, Guam, to the War Department:
Reports prisoner of war sources, not verified by photos, give location of Allied prisoner of war camp one mile north of center of city of Nagasaki. Does this influence the choice of this target for initial Centerboard operation? Request immediate reply.
The reply: "Targets previously assigned for Centerboard remain unchanged."
True, the war then ended quickly. Italy had been defeated a year earlier. Germany had recently surrendered, crushed primarily by the armies of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, aided by the Allied armies on the West. Now Japan surrendered.
True, the war then ended quickly. Italy had been defeated a year earlier. Germany had recently surrendered, crushed primarily by the armies of the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, aided by the Allied armies on the West. Now Japan surrendered.
I completely agree with Zinn. I think that the bombings were completely unnessesary because, we "wanted" to keep civillians alive, but most of the people killed were civillians. So in the end it didn't end up seeming like it was a military target, because more civillians died, than military personel. -Carissa Parkins 4/3/09 10:50 AM
American Empires
American Empire
Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend in the year 1897: "In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."....
There was heated argument in the United States about whether or not to take the Philippines. As one story has it, President McKinley told a group of ministers visiting the White House how he came to his decision:
Before you go I would like to say just a word about the Philippine business. . . . The truth is I didn't want the Philippines, and when they came to us as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them. . . . I sought counsel from all sides -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- but got little help. I thought first we would only take Manila; then Luzon, then other islands, perhaps, also. I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way -- I don't know how it was, but it came: 1) That we could not give them back to Spain -- that would be cowardly and dishonorable. 2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany, our commercial rivals in the Orient -- that would be bad business and discreditable. 3) That we could not leave them to themselves -- they were unfit for self-government -- and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and 4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed and went to sleep and slept soundly. The Filipinos did not get the same message from God. In February 1899, they rose in revolt against American rule, as they had rebelled several times against the Spanish. Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader, who had earlier been brought back from China by U.S. warships to lead soldiers against Spain, now became leader of the insurrectos fighting the United States. He proposed Filipino independence within a U.S. protectorate, but this was rejected. It took the United States three years to crush the rebellion, using seventy thousand troops -- four times as many as were landed in Cuba -- and thousands of battle casualties, many times more than in Cuba. It was a harsh war. For the Filipinos the death rate was enormous from battle casualties and from disease. The taste of empire was on the lips of politicians and business interests throughout the country now. Racism, paternalism, and talk of money mingled with talk of destiny and civilization. In the Senate, Albert Beveridge spoke, January 9, 1900, for the dominant economic and political interests of the country:
Mr. President, the times call for candor. The Philippines are ours forever. . . . And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. . . . We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. . . . The Pacific is our ocean. . . . Where shall we turn for consumers of our surplus? Geography answers the question. China is our natural customer. . . . The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East. . . . No land in America surpasses in fertility the plains and valleys of Luzon. Rice and coffee, sugar and cocoanuts, hemp and tobacco. . . . The wood of the Philippines can supply the furniture of the world for a century to come. At Cebu the best informed man on the island told me that 40 miles of Cebu's mountain chain are practically mountains of coal. . . . I have a nugget of pure gold picked up in its present form on the banks of a Philippine creek. . . . My own belief is that there are not 100 men among them who comprehend what Anglo-Saxon self-government even means, and there are over 5,000,000 people to be governed. It has been charged that our conduct of the war has been cruel. Senators, it has been the reverse. . . . Senators must remember that we are not dealing with Americans or Europeans. We are dealing with Orientals. The fighting with the rebels began, McKinley said, when the insurgents attacked American forces. But later, American soldiers testified that the United States had fired the first shot. After the war, an army officer speaking in Boston's Faneuil Hall said his colonel had given him orders to provoke a conflict with the insurgents. In February 1899, a banquet took place in Boston to celebrate the Senate's ratification of the peace treaty with Spain. President McKinley himself had been invited by the wealthy textile manufacturer W. B. Plunkett to speak. It was the biggest banquet in the nation's history: two thousand diners, four hundred waiters. McKinley said that "no imperial designs lurk in the American mind," and at the same banquet, to the same diners, his Postmaster General, Charles Emory Smith, said that "what we want is a market for our surplus." William James, the Harvard philosopher, wrote a letter to the Boston Transcript about "the cold pot grease of McKinley's cant at the recent Boston banquet" and said the Philippine operation "reeked of the infernal adroitness of the great department store, which has reached perfect expertness in the art of killing silently, and with no public squalling or commotion, the neighboring small concerns." James was part of a movement of prominent American businessmen, politicians, and intellectuals who formed the Anti-Imperialist League in 1898 and carried on a long campaign to educate the American public about the horrors of the Philippine war and the evils of imperialism. It was an odd group (Andrew Carnegie belonged), including antilabor aristocrats and scholars, united in a common moral outrage at what was being done to the Filipinos in the name of freedom. Whatever their differences on other matters, they would all agree with William James's angry statement: "God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippine Isles." The Anti-Imperialist League published the letters of soldiers doing duty in the Philippines. A captain from Kansas wrote: "Caloocan was supposed to contain 17,000 inhabitants. The Twentieth Kansas swept through it, and now Caloocan contains not one living native." A private from the same outfit said he had "with my own hand set fire to over fifty houses of Filipinos after the victory at Caloocan. Women and children were wounded by our fire." A volunteer from the state of Washington wrote: "Our fighting blood was up, and we all wanted to kill 'niggers.' . . . This shooting human beings beats rabbit hunting all to pieces." It was a time of intense racism in the United States. In the years between 1889 and 1903, on the average, every week, two Negroes were lynched by mobs -- hanged, burned, mutilated. The Filipinos were brown-skinned, physically identifiable, strange-speaking and strange-looking to Americans. To the usual indiscriminate brutality of war was thus added the factor of racial hostility. In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger reported:
The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog. . . . Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to make them talk, and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later, without an atom of evidence to show that they were even insurrectos, stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses. Early in 1901 an American general returning to the United States from southern Luzon, said:
One-sixth of the natives of Luzon have either been killed or have died of the dengue fever in the last few years. The loss of life by killing alone has been very great, but I think not one man has been slain except where his death has served the legitimate purposes of war. It has been necessary to adopt what in other countries would probably be thought harsh measures. Secretary of War Elihu Root responded to the charges of brutality: "The war in the Philippines has been conducted by the American army with scrupulous regard for the rules of civilized warfare. . . . with self-restraint and with humanity never surpassed." In Manila, a Marine named Littletown Waller, a major, was accused of shooting eleven defenseless Filipinos, without trial, on the island of Samar. Other marine officers described his testimony:
The major said that General Smith instructed him to kill and burn, and said that the more he killed and burned the better pleased he would be; that it was no time to take prisoners, and that he was to make Samar a howling wilderness. Major Waller asked General Smith to define the age limit for killing, and he replied "Everything over ten." In the province of Batangas, the secretary of the province estimated that of the population of 300,000, one-third had been killed by combat, famine, or disease. Mark Twain commented on the Philippine war:
We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner, the Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag. And so, by these Providences of God -- and the phrase is the government's, not mine -- we are a World Power. American firepower was overwhelmingly superior to anything the Filipino rebels could put together. In the very first battle, Admiral Dewey steamed up the Pasig River and fired 500-pound shells into the Filipino trenches. Dead Filipinos were piled so high that the Americans used their bodies for breastworks. A British witness said: "This is not war; it is simply massacre and murderous butchery." He was wrong; it was war. For the rebels to hold out against such odds for years meant that they had the support of the population. General Arthur MacArthur, commander of the Filipino war, said: " . . . I believed that Aguinaldo's troops represented only a faction. I did not like to believe that the whole population of Luzon -- the native population, that is -- was opposed to us." But he said he was "reluctantly compelled" to believe this because the guerrilla tactics of the Filipino army "depended upon almost complete unity of action of the entire native population."
Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend in the year 1897: "In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."....
There was heated argument in the United States about whether or not to take the Philippines. As one story has it, President McKinley told a group of ministers visiting the White House how he came to his decision:
Before you go I would like to say just a word about the Philippine business. . . . The truth is I didn't want the Philippines, and when they came to us as a gift from the gods, I did not know what to do with them. . . . I sought counsel from all sides -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- but got little help. I thought first we would only take Manila; then Luzon, then other islands, perhaps, also. I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight; and I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance more than one night. And one night late it came to me this way -- I don't know how it was, but it came: 1) That we could not give them back to Spain -- that would be cowardly and dishonorable. 2) That we could not turn them over to France or Germany, our commercial rivals in the Orient -- that would be bad business and discreditable. 3) That we could not leave them to themselves -- they were unfit for self-government -- and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's was; and 4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed and went to sleep and slept soundly. The Filipinos did not get the same message from God. In February 1899, they rose in revolt against American rule, as they had rebelled several times against the Spanish. Emilio Aguinaldo, a Filipino leader, who had earlier been brought back from China by U.S. warships to lead soldiers against Spain, now became leader of the insurrectos fighting the United States. He proposed Filipino independence within a U.S. protectorate, but this was rejected. It took the United States three years to crush the rebellion, using seventy thousand troops -- four times as many as were landed in Cuba -- and thousands of battle casualties, many times more than in Cuba. It was a harsh war. For the Filipinos the death rate was enormous from battle casualties and from disease. The taste of empire was on the lips of politicians and business interests throughout the country now. Racism, paternalism, and talk of money mingled with talk of destiny and civilization. In the Senate, Albert Beveridge spoke, January 9, 1900, for the dominant economic and political interests of the country:
Mr. President, the times call for candor. The Philippines are ours forever. . . . And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. . . . We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. . . . The Pacific is our ocean. . . . Where shall we turn for consumers of our surplus? Geography answers the question. China is our natural customer. . . . The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East. . . . No land in America surpasses in fertility the plains and valleys of Luzon. Rice and coffee, sugar and cocoanuts, hemp and tobacco. . . . The wood of the Philippines can supply the furniture of the world for a century to come. At Cebu the best informed man on the island told me that 40 miles of Cebu's mountain chain are practically mountains of coal. . . . I have a nugget of pure gold picked up in its present form on the banks of a Philippine creek. . . . My own belief is that there are not 100 men among them who comprehend what Anglo-Saxon self-government even means, and there are over 5,000,000 people to be governed. It has been charged that our conduct of the war has been cruel. Senators, it has been the reverse. . . . Senators must remember that we are not dealing with Americans or Europeans. We are dealing with Orientals. The fighting with the rebels began, McKinley said, when the insurgents attacked American forces. But later, American soldiers testified that the United States had fired the first shot. After the war, an army officer speaking in Boston's Faneuil Hall said his colonel had given him orders to provoke a conflict with the insurgents. In February 1899, a banquet took place in Boston to celebrate the Senate's ratification of the peace treaty with Spain. President McKinley himself had been invited by the wealthy textile manufacturer W. B. Plunkett to speak. It was the biggest banquet in the nation's history: two thousand diners, four hundred waiters. McKinley said that "no imperial designs lurk in the American mind," and at the same banquet, to the same diners, his Postmaster General, Charles Emory Smith, said that "what we want is a market for our surplus." William James, the Harvard philosopher, wrote a letter to the Boston Transcript about "the cold pot grease of McKinley's cant at the recent Boston banquet" and said the Philippine operation "reeked of the infernal adroitness of the great department store, which has reached perfect expertness in the art of killing silently, and with no public squalling or commotion, the neighboring small concerns." James was part of a movement of prominent American businessmen, politicians, and intellectuals who formed the Anti-Imperialist League in 1898 and carried on a long campaign to educate the American public about the horrors of the Philippine war and the evils of imperialism. It was an odd group (Andrew Carnegie belonged), including antilabor aristocrats and scholars, united in a common moral outrage at what was being done to the Filipinos in the name of freedom. Whatever their differences on other matters, they would all agree with William James's angry statement: "God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippine Isles." The Anti-Imperialist League published the letters of soldiers doing duty in the Philippines. A captain from Kansas wrote: "Caloocan was supposed to contain 17,000 inhabitants. The Twentieth Kansas swept through it, and now Caloocan contains not one living native." A private from the same outfit said he had "with my own hand set fire to over fifty houses of Filipinos after the victory at Caloocan. Women and children were wounded by our fire." A volunteer from the state of Washington wrote: "Our fighting blood was up, and we all wanted to kill 'niggers.' . . . This shooting human beings beats rabbit hunting all to pieces." It was a time of intense racism in the United States. In the years between 1889 and 1903, on the average, every week, two Negroes were lynched by mobs -- hanged, burned, mutilated. The Filipinos were brown-skinned, physically identifiable, strange-speaking and strange-looking to Americans. To the usual indiscriminate brutality of war was thus added the factor of racial hostility. In November 1901, the Manila correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger reported:
The present war is no bloodless, opera bouffe engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog. . . . Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to make them talk, and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later, without an atom of evidence to show that they were even insurrectos, stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses. Early in 1901 an American general returning to the United States from southern Luzon, said:
One-sixth of the natives of Luzon have either been killed or have died of the dengue fever in the last few years. The loss of life by killing alone has been very great, but I think not one man has been slain except where his death has served the legitimate purposes of war. It has been necessary to adopt what in other countries would probably be thought harsh measures. Secretary of War Elihu Root responded to the charges of brutality: "The war in the Philippines has been conducted by the American army with scrupulous regard for the rules of civilized warfare. . . . with self-restraint and with humanity never surpassed." In Manila, a Marine named Littletown Waller, a major, was accused of shooting eleven defenseless Filipinos, without trial, on the island of Samar. Other marine officers described his testimony:
The major said that General Smith instructed him to kill and burn, and said that the more he killed and burned the better pleased he would be; that it was no time to take prisoners, and that he was to make Samar a howling wilderness. Major Waller asked General Smith to define the age limit for killing, and he replied "Everything over ten." In the province of Batangas, the secretary of the province estimated that of the population of 300,000, one-third had been killed by combat, famine, or disease. Mark Twain commented on the Philippine war:
We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three hundred concubines and other slaves of our business partner, the Sultan of Sulu, and hoisted our protecting flag over that swag. And so, by these Providences of God -- and the phrase is the government's, not mine -- we are a World Power. American firepower was overwhelmingly superior to anything the Filipino rebels could put together. In the very first battle, Admiral Dewey steamed up the Pasig River and fired 500-pound shells into the Filipino trenches. Dead Filipinos were piled so high that the Americans used their bodies for breastworks. A British witness said: "This is not war; it is simply massacre and murderous butchery." He was wrong; it was war. For the rebels to hold out against such odds for years meant that they had the support of the population. General Arthur MacArthur, commander of the Filipino war, said: " . . . I believed that Aguinaldo's troops represented only a faction. I did not like to believe that the whole population of Luzon -- the native population, that is -- was opposed to us." But he said he was "reluctantly compelled" to believe this because the guerrilla tactics of the Filipino army "depended upon almost complete unity of action of the entire native population."
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Book Portfolio Quarter 3
The book I read for quarter three was "What Work Is" by Phillip Levine. This book was really good, and I didn't think I'd like it. It was made up of a bunch of poems, ranging from themes of God, working, trying gin for the first time, and growing up in general. I don't really know if there is one theme you can go with throughout the book because there really wasn't one. It seemed like there was a different theme in each poem, varying from life lessons learned and growing up.
The first few poems were about him working in industrial factories and about the work he had to do which consisted of him getting down and mixing such elements such as hydrochloric acids. The first few poems were really interesting to know what kind of work happened in factories like that. It also described in detail how hard some of the work was. The author used a lot of detail in all of the poems. Some of the poems were really confusing and you really couldn't tell if it was a man or a women talking because some of the poems were very confusing. Something that I noticed about this book is that some of it was placed in the time period of World War Two and it was hardly mentioned at all. It talked a tiny bit about the military draft, but he must not of gone. The book was really descriptive about trying stuff for the first time, like his experience with gin. They didn't know why everyone made such a big deal about it when it really wasn't that good.
The best poem in the whole book, in my opinion, was "What Work Is." I loved this poem, it really says so much within it's two pages. It describes waiting in a line for a job, just to be declined, and seeing someone who looks just like your brother, but who is really not. Then it describes the last time you saw him, bringing on a flood of emotions, and it ends with you didn't do the simplest task of hugging and kissing him because you just don't know What Work Is. This is simply the best poem in the entire book, and really caught my attention the most.
A lot of the poems were really kind of dull at first and then they got interesting, each of them telling a small story or fact of life in a page or so. They caught your attention at the end because it proved the purpose the author had for writing them. The poem "Facts" was also another really good one just stating facts about his life, and just random facts, which was really interesting, and comical.
I think the authors purpose for writing this book was to describe life in a way that is surrounded around his personal life stories. It was really good, and very interesting. There were a few god references and that is what the book ended up with was a poem about god. I think that the author didn't really do a good job making the theme pop out, so it was easy to see, but maybe that was the way it was supposed to be.
Overall this was a very good book.
The first few poems were about him working in industrial factories and about the work he had to do which consisted of him getting down and mixing such elements such as hydrochloric acids. The first few poems were really interesting to know what kind of work happened in factories like that. It also described in detail how hard some of the work was. The author used a lot of detail in all of the poems. Some of the poems were really confusing and you really couldn't tell if it was a man or a women talking because some of the poems were very confusing. Something that I noticed about this book is that some of it was placed in the time period of World War Two and it was hardly mentioned at all. It talked a tiny bit about the military draft, but he must not of gone. The book was really descriptive about trying stuff for the first time, like his experience with gin. They didn't know why everyone made such a big deal about it when it really wasn't that good.
The best poem in the whole book, in my opinion, was "What Work Is." I loved this poem, it really says so much within it's two pages. It describes waiting in a line for a job, just to be declined, and seeing someone who looks just like your brother, but who is really not. Then it describes the last time you saw him, bringing on a flood of emotions, and it ends with you didn't do the simplest task of hugging and kissing him because you just don't know What Work Is. This is simply the best poem in the entire book, and really caught my attention the most.
A lot of the poems were really kind of dull at first and then they got interesting, each of them telling a small story or fact of life in a page or so. They caught your attention at the end because it proved the purpose the author had for writing them. The poem "Facts" was also another really good one just stating facts about his life, and just random facts, which was really interesting, and comical.
I think the authors purpose for writing this book was to describe life in a way that is surrounded around his personal life stories. It was really good, and very interesting. There were a few god references and that is what the book ended up with was a poem about god. I think that the author didn't really do a good job making the theme pop out, so it was easy to see, but maybe that was the way it was supposed to be.
Overall this was a very good book.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Am. Studies neww
The Marines on Guadalcanal
TOM LYONS, 1st Parachute Battalion
Converted for the Web from "Into The Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat" by Patrick K. O'Donnell
Jump to: The Marines on Guadalcanal John Sweeney, 1st Raider BattalionRobert Youngdeer of E-Company John Sweeney commands B-CompanyDave Taber at Bloody Ridge Ira Gilliand throwing grenadesJohn Mielke defends Henderson Field Tom Lyons, 1st Parachute Battalion"Horse Collar" James Smith Frank Guidone and the mortar squadDean Winters, 2nd Raider Battalion Ray Bauml on the Long Patrol
Outnumbered and running out of ammunition, Edson's three hundred defenders faced their gravest threat when a large element of the Japanese III Battalion, 124th Infantry seemed poised to overrun the left side of the knoll. Edson ordered the Marine parachutists holding that side of the knoll to counterattack immediately. But the parachute battalion's commanding officer was nowhere to be found. He was relieved on the spot by Edson, and Captain Harry Torgerson was placed in command. Torgerson assembled two companies of parachutists and launched them in a desperate counterattack, saving the left flank of the line. After the Marines regained the line, the fighting became hand-to-hand, as parachutist Tom Lyons vividly remembers.
When they started raking us with a machine gun, that pissed me off, so I got up and crawled through the grass. The grass was about a foot and a half tall off the side of that hill, and I crawled up and around to the side of the machine gun. Bullets were flying everywhere, but the grass was high enough that it would partially hide you. I got almost to the machine gun before I was detected. They didn't see me until I stood up. There were so many people running around you couldn't shoot anybody. I stood up and threw a hand grenade, and just as I threw the grenade, they swung the gun around and ripped me up through the middle. I took several bullets; most of them went all the way through, and one missed my heart by about a half an inch. It knocked me ass over tin cup down the hill. The first one stung like hell. It really hurt. But the others after that didn't hurt at all. It seemed like I just left my body and was floating up in the air looking down at everything going on.
I saw a Jap come out, and he stepped on my stomach and he stabbed me in the throat with his bayonet. It went through the side of my neck and into the ground behind me but it didn't hurt. Jesse Youngdeer [Robert Youngdeer's brother] was coming up the trail with a box of hand grenades, and this Jap stepped off me and instead of finishing me off, he made a thrust at Youngdeer. [Youngdeer] stopped it with the box of hand grenades, and then he grabbed the Jap's rifle and was trying to wrestle it out of his hands. The Jap had stabbed him just above the knee. Another Marine ran up with his bayonet, and he tried to stab the Jap, and he got confused and stabbed Youngdeer right in the leg.
My eyes were wide open. I could see everything that was going on. I thought I was seeing it from fifty feet above. When they started firing the 105s [artillery] right in my area, I got some shrapnel in the right side of my chest. The bullets and shells were passing right over where I was floating around up there, and I was afraid they were going to hit me.
Morning came, and they came around, and all the Japs were gone. There were dead Japs all around me. They were picking out the Marines and throwing all the bodies on a truck, and they cut all our dog tags off. They hauled us down to the cemetery in the coconut grove, and they dumped our bodies out. I ended up at the top of the pile. The driver came around close to the tailgate and thought I was coming alive, so he started running into the jungle screaming, and he didn't come back. This is really disturbing. They thought the guy was dead, and then the driver ran away. -Carissa Parkins 3/26/09 11:52 AM
An hour or so later, two corpsmen came by in a jeep, and they put me on a stretcher and hauled me to the hospital. They put me under a palm tree. From the stretcher, doctors told them to take this one out and bring in someone they can save. So I was there under a palm tree, and fresh troops started coming up the road. A ship came in with reinforcements, and an officer came over and said, "Take all the people out of the field hospital and put them on my ship and I'll take them back to Buttons [Base Buttons in Esp�ritu Santo]." And he said, "And that one under the palm tree, put him in my cabin and call the ship surgeon." He said, "You're going to be on the bridge all the way back to Buttons." I was conscious but couldn't talk. My mouth was full of caked blood. I was wearing the same clothes for almost two months.
This ship surgeon got my lung uncollapsed, and he pumped all the blood out of it and had me all cleaned up. After we made port, they put me on a plane to New Zealand. My mother got a check from my insurance saying I was dead the same day she got a letter from me written by a nurse at hospital in New Zealand.
TOM LYONS, 1st Parachute Battalion
Converted for the Web from "Into The Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat" by Patrick K. O'Donnell
Jump to: The Marines on Guadalcanal John Sweeney, 1st Raider BattalionRobert Youngdeer of E-Company John Sweeney commands B-CompanyDave Taber at Bloody Ridge Ira Gilliand throwing grenadesJohn Mielke defends Henderson Field Tom Lyons, 1st Parachute Battalion"Horse Collar" James Smith Frank Guidone and the mortar squadDean Winters, 2nd Raider Battalion Ray Bauml on the Long Patrol
Outnumbered and running out of ammunition, Edson's three hundred defenders faced their gravest threat when a large element of the Japanese III Battalion, 124th Infantry seemed poised to overrun the left side of the knoll. Edson ordered the Marine parachutists holding that side of the knoll to counterattack immediately. But the parachute battalion's commanding officer was nowhere to be found. He was relieved on the spot by Edson, and Captain Harry Torgerson was placed in command. Torgerson assembled two companies of parachutists and launched them in a desperate counterattack, saving the left flank of the line. After the Marines regained the line, the fighting became hand-to-hand, as parachutist Tom Lyons vividly remembers.
When they started raking us with a machine gun, that pissed me off, so I got up and crawled through the grass. The grass was about a foot and a half tall off the side of that hill, and I crawled up and around to the side of the machine gun. Bullets were flying everywhere, but the grass was high enough that it would partially hide you. I got almost to the machine gun before I was detected. They didn't see me until I stood up. There were so many people running around you couldn't shoot anybody. I stood up and threw a hand grenade, and just as I threw the grenade, they swung the gun around and ripped me up through the middle. I took several bullets; most of them went all the way through, and one missed my heart by about a half an inch. It knocked me ass over tin cup down the hill. The first one stung like hell. It really hurt. But the others after that didn't hurt at all. It seemed like I just left my body and was floating up in the air looking down at everything going on.
I saw a Jap come out, and he stepped on my stomach and he stabbed me in the throat with his bayonet. It went through the side of my neck and into the ground behind me but it didn't hurt. Jesse Youngdeer [Robert Youngdeer's brother] was coming up the trail with a box of hand grenades, and this Jap stepped off me and instead of finishing me off, he made a thrust at Youngdeer. [Youngdeer] stopped it with the box of hand grenades, and then he grabbed the Jap's rifle and was trying to wrestle it out of his hands. The Jap had stabbed him just above the knee. Another Marine ran up with his bayonet, and he tried to stab the Jap, and he got confused and stabbed Youngdeer right in the leg.
My eyes were wide open. I could see everything that was going on. I thought I was seeing it from fifty feet above. When they started firing the 105s [artillery] right in my area, I got some shrapnel in the right side of my chest. The bullets and shells were passing right over where I was floating around up there, and I was afraid they were going to hit me.
Morning came, and they came around, and all the Japs were gone. There were dead Japs all around me. They were picking out the Marines and throwing all the bodies on a truck, and they cut all our dog tags off. They hauled us down to the cemetery in the coconut grove, and they dumped our bodies out. I ended up at the top of the pile. The driver came around close to the tailgate and thought I was coming alive, so he started running into the jungle screaming, and he didn't come back. This is really disturbing. They thought the guy was dead, and then the driver ran away. -Carissa Parkins 3/26/09 11:52 AM
An hour or so later, two corpsmen came by in a jeep, and they put me on a stretcher and hauled me to the hospital. They put me under a palm tree. From the stretcher, doctors told them to take this one out and bring in someone they can save. So I was there under a palm tree, and fresh troops started coming up the road. A ship came in with reinforcements, and an officer came over and said, "Take all the people out of the field hospital and put them on my ship and I'll take them back to Buttons [Base Buttons in Esp�ritu Santo]." And he said, "And that one under the palm tree, put him in my cabin and call the ship surgeon." He said, "You're going to be on the bridge all the way back to Buttons." I was conscious but couldn't talk. My mouth was full of caked blood. I was wearing the same clothes for almost two months.
This ship surgeon got my lung uncollapsed, and he pumped all the blood out of it and had me all cleaned up. After we made port, they put me on a plane to New Zealand. My mother got a check from my insurance saying I was dead the same day she got a letter from me written by a nurse at hospital in New Zealand.
:)
The Marines on Guadalcanal
TOM LYONS, 1st Parachute Battalion
Converted for the Web from "Into The Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat" by Patrick K. O'Donnell
Jump to: The Marines on Guadalcanal John Sweeney, 1st Raider BattalionRobert Youngdeer of E-Company John Sweeney commands B-CompanyDave Taber at Bloody Ridge Ira Gilliand throwing grenadesJohn Mielke defends Henderson Field Tom Lyons, 1st Parachute Battalion"Horse Collar" James Smith Frank Guidone and the mortar squadDean Winters, 2nd Raider Battalion Ray Bauml on the Long Patrol
Outnumbered and running out of ammunition, Edson's three hundred defenders faced their gravest threat when a large element of the Japanese III Battalion, 124th Infantry seemed poised to overrun the left side of the knoll. Edson ordered the Marine parachutists holding that side of the knoll to counterattack immediately. But the parachute battalion's commanding officer was nowhere to be found. He was relieved on the spot by Edson, and Captain Harry Torgerson was placed in command. Torgerson assembled two companies of parachutists and launched them in a desperate counterattack, saving the left flank of the line. After the Marines regained the line, the fighting became hand-to-hand, as parachutist Tom Lyons vividly remembers.
When they started raking us with a machine gun, that pissed me off, so I got up and crawled through the grass. The grass was about a foot and a half tall off the side of that hill, and I crawled up and around to the side of the machine gun. Bullets were flying everywhere, but the grass was high enough that it would partially hide you. I got almost to the machine gun before I was detected. They didn't see me until I stood up. There were so many people running around you couldn't shoot anybody. I stood up and threw a hand grenade, and just as I threw the grenade, they swung the gun around and ripped me up through the middle. I took several bullets; most of them went all the way through, and one missed my heart by about a half an inch. It knocked me ass over tin cup down the hill. The first one stung like hell. It really hurt. But the others after that didn't hurt at all. It seemed like I just left my body and was floating up in the air looking down at everything going on.
I saw a Jap come out, and he stepped on my stomach and he stabbed me in the throat with his bayonet. It went through the side of my neck and into the ground behind me but it didn't hurt. Jesse Youngdeer [Robert Youngdeer's brother] was coming up the trail with a box of hand grenades, and this Jap stepped off me and instead of finishing me off, he made a thrust at Youngdeer. [Youngdeer] stopped it with the box of hand grenades, and then he grabbed the Jap's rifle and was trying to wrestle it out of his hands. The Jap had stabbed him just above the knee. Another Marine ran up with his bayonet, and he tried to stab the Jap, and he got confused and stabbed Youngdeer right in the leg.
My eyes were wide open. I could see everything that was going on. I thought I was seeing it from fifty feet above. When they started firing the 105s [artillery] right in my area, I got some shrapnel in the right side of my chest. The bullets and shells were passing right over where I was floating around up there, and I was afraid they were going to hit me.
Morning came, and they came around, and all the Japs were gone. There were dead Japs all around me. They were picking out the Marines and throwing all the bodies on a truck, and they cut all our dog tags off. They hauled us down to the cemetery in the coconut grove, and they dumped our bodies out. I ended up at the top of the pile. The driver came around close to the tailgate and thought I was coming alive, so he started running into the jungle screaming, and he didn't come back. This is really disturbing. They thought the guy was dead, and then the driver ran away. -Carissa Parkins 3/26/09 11:52 AM
An hour or so later, two corpsmen came by in a jeep, and they put me on a stretcher and hauled me to the hospital. They put me under a palm tree. From the stretcher, doctors told them to take this one out and bring in someone they can save. So I was there under a palm tree, and fresh troops started coming up the road. A ship came in with reinforcements, and an officer came over and said, "Take all the people out of the field hospital and put them on my ship and I'll take them back to Buttons [Base Buttons in Esp�ritu Santo]." And he said, "And that one under the palm tree, put him in my cabin and call the ship surgeon." He said, "You're going to be on the bridge all the way back to Buttons." I was conscious but couldn't talk. My mouth was full of caked blood. I was wearing the same clothes for almost two months.
This ship surgeon got my lung uncollapsed, and he pumped all the blood out of it and had me all cleaned up. After we made port, they put me on a plane to New Zealand. My mother got a check from my insurance saying I was dead the same day she got a letter from me written by a nurse at hospital in New Zealand.
TOM LYONS, 1st Parachute Battalion
Converted for the Web from "Into The Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat" by Patrick K. O'Donnell
Jump to: The Marines on Guadalcanal John Sweeney, 1st Raider BattalionRobert Youngdeer of E-Company John Sweeney commands B-CompanyDave Taber at Bloody Ridge Ira Gilliand throwing grenadesJohn Mielke defends Henderson Field Tom Lyons, 1st Parachute Battalion"Horse Collar" James Smith Frank Guidone and the mortar squadDean Winters, 2nd Raider Battalion Ray Bauml on the Long Patrol
Outnumbered and running out of ammunition, Edson's three hundred defenders faced their gravest threat when a large element of the Japanese III Battalion, 124th Infantry seemed poised to overrun the left side of the knoll. Edson ordered the Marine parachutists holding that side of the knoll to counterattack immediately. But the parachute battalion's commanding officer was nowhere to be found. He was relieved on the spot by Edson, and Captain Harry Torgerson was placed in command. Torgerson assembled two companies of parachutists and launched them in a desperate counterattack, saving the left flank of the line. After the Marines regained the line, the fighting became hand-to-hand, as parachutist Tom Lyons vividly remembers.
When they started raking us with a machine gun, that pissed me off, so I got up and crawled through the grass. The grass was about a foot and a half tall off the side of that hill, and I crawled up and around to the side of the machine gun. Bullets were flying everywhere, but the grass was high enough that it would partially hide you. I got almost to the machine gun before I was detected. They didn't see me until I stood up. There were so many people running around you couldn't shoot anybody. I stood up and threw a hand grenade, and just as I threw the grenade, they swung the gun around and ripped me up through the middle. I took several bullets; most of them went all the way through, and one missed my heart by about a half an inch. It knocked me ass over tin cup down the hill. The first one stung like hell. It really hurt. But the others after that didn't hurt at all. It seemed like I just left my body and was floating up in the air looking down at everything going on.
I saw a Jap come out, and he stepped on my stomach and he stabbed me in the throat with his bayonet. It went through the side of my neck and into the ground behind me but it didn't hurt. Jesse Youngdeer [Robert Youngdeer's brother] was coming up the trail with a box of hand grenades, and this Jap stepped off me and instead of finishing me off, he made a thrust at Youngdeer. [Youngdeer] stopped it with the box of hand grenades, and then he grabbed the Jap's rifle and was trying to wrestle it out of his hands. The Jap had stabbed him just above the knee. Another Marine ran up with his bayonet, and he tried to stab the Jap, and he got confused and stabbed Youngdeer right in the leg.
My eyes were wide open. I could see everything that was going on. I thought I was seeing it from fifty feet above. When they started firing the 105s [artillery] right in my area, I got some shrapnel in the right side of my chest. The bullets and shells were passing right over where I was floating around up there, and I was afraid they were going to hit me.
Morning came, and they came around, and all the Japs were gone. There were dead Japs all around me. They were picking out the Marines and throwing all the bodies on a truck, and they cut all our dog tags off. They hauled us down to the cemetery in the coconut grove, and they dumped our bodies out. I ended up at the top of the pile. The driver came around close to the tailgate and thought I was coming alive, so he started running into the jungle screaming, and he didn't come back. This is really disturbing. They thought the guy was dead, and then the driver ran away. -Carissa Parkins 3/26/09 11:52 AM
An hour or so later, two corpsmen came by in a jeep, and they put me on a stretcher and hauled me to the hospital. They put me under a palm tree. From the stretcher, doctors told them to take this one out and bring in someone they can save. So I was there under a palm tree, and fresh troops started coming up the road. A ship came in with reinforcements, and an officer came over and said, "Take all the people out of the field hospital and put them on my ship and I'll take them back to Buttons [Base Buttons in Esp�ritu Santo]." And he said, "And that one under the palm tree, put him in my cabin and call the ship surgeon." He said, "You're going to be on the bridge all the way back to Buttons." I was conscious but couldn't talk. My mouth was full of caked blood. I was wearing the same clothes for almost two months.
This ship surgeon got my lung uncollapsed, and he pumped all the blood out of it and had me all cleaned up. After we made port, they put me on a plane to New Zealand. My mother got a check from my insurance saying I was dead the same day she got a letter from me written by a nurse at hospital in New Zealand.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Q's
1. How does a person make money on an investment?
-Buy low and sell high.
2. What makes 'cheap credit' mean?
-Cheap credit is mean because they are targeting people who have troble with their credit and they have very high interest rates.
-
3. What is 'buying on margin' mean?
-The person does not have the money to pay back the loan, and the only reason they can pay it off is because they made money off of it.
- You figure that you can sell the product, and you are out the 30 dollars.
(refer to board)
-Stung the economy.
Betting the margin will keep going up4. How is 'speculation' different from 'investment'?
-People would buy and sell quick stocks quickly to make a quick buck.
Because of the buying and selling stock value increased.
5. How does 'panic selling' start?
-When everyone tried to sell everything at the same time.
-When everyone tried to sell, and no one wanted to buy, or could afford to buy.
6. How can high unemployment start a negative economic cycle?
-When people don't have jobs you have no money to buy stuff.
The more people that get fired, the more stuff that doesn't get sold.
Unemployment goes up^ and productivity goes down.
7. How did increases in technology contribute to overproduction in the 1920's?
-We came up with everything and all the ideas -----> Then they made it.
- Before we made it and they came up with it.
-It gives people jobs, and more people are working to produce stuff.
8. What is meant by 'uneven distribution of wealth? Is it a bad thing?
-That some people have more money than others.
- Yes, this is a bad thing because more money is going to some people, than others.
9. What is a tariff, and why don't they seem to work in the modern economy (post-WWI)?
-A tariff raises the price.
-It's an import tax.
10. What is 'rugged individualism? Is it real?
-Rugged individualism is an idea. In america we like to think that we are self made man and women.
-We make ourselves and our own destiny.
-It is true of all america and it mostly with republican.
-11. What is a Hooverville, and why is it called that?-10000 to 20000 have lost there homes and jobs.
-homeless people grouping together=hooverville
-Buy low and sell high.
2. What makes 'cheap credit' mean?
-Cheap credit is mean because they are targeting people who have troble with their credit and they have very high interest rates.
-
3. What is 'buying on margin' mean?
-The person does not have the money to pay back the loan, and the only reason they can pay it off is because they made money off of it.
- You figure that you can sell the product, and you are out the 30 dollars.
(refer to board)
-Stung the economy.
Betting the margin will keep going up4. How is 'speculation' different from 'investment'?
-People would buy and sell quick stocks quickly to make a quick buck.
Because of the buying and selling stock value increased.
5. How does 'panic selling' start?
-When everyone tried to sell everything at the same time.
-When everyone tried to sell, and no one wanted to buy, or could afford to buy.
6. How can high unemployment start a negative economic cycle?
-When people don't have jobs you have no money to buy stuff.
The more people that get fired, the more stuff that doesn't get sold.
Unemployment goes up^ and productivity goes down.
7. How did increases in technology contribute to overproduction in the 1920's?
-We came up with everything and all the ideas -----> Then they made it.
- Before we made it and they came up with it.
-It gives people jobs, and more people are working to produce stuff.
8. What is meant by 'uneven distribution of wealth? Is it a bad thing?
-That some people have more money than others.
- Yes, this is a bad thing because more money is going to some people, than others.
9. What is a tariff, and why don't they seem to work in the modern economy (post-WWI)?
-A tariff raises the price.
-It's an import tax.
10. What is 'rugged individualism? Is it real?
-Rugged individualism is an idea. In america we like to think that we are self made man and women.
-We make ourselves and our own destiny.
-It is true of all america and it mostly with republican.
-11. What is a Hooverville, and why is it called that?-10000 to 20000 have lost there homes and jobs.
-homeless people grouping together=hooverville
Monday, February 9, 2009
DRUGGG WARRR STUFFFFFF
In 1971 President Nixon declared the War on Drugs.
"When Reagan assumes office and prioritizes the war on drugs, extradition becomes the greatest fear of the Colombian traffickers."
"Reagan responds by creating a cabinet-level task force, the Vice President's Task Force on South Florida. Headed by George Bush, it combines agents from the DEA, Customs, FBI, ATF, IRS, Army and Navy to mobilize against drug traffickers. Reagan later create s several other regional task forces throughout the U.S."
"Reagan responds by creating a cabinet-level task force, the Vice President's Task Force on South Florida. Headed by George Bush, it combines agents from the DEA, Customs, FBI, ATF, IRS, Army and Navy to mobilize against drug traffickers. Reagan later create s several other regional task forces throughout the U.S."
"Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign becomes a centerpiece of the Reagan administration's anti-drug campaign. The movement focuses on white, middle class children and is funded by corporate and private donations."
"1986
Anti-Drug Abuse Act - Mandatory Sentences
President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, instituting mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes.
In conjunction with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the new law raised federal penalties for marijuana possession and dealing, basing the penalties on the amount of the drug involved. Possession of 100 marijuana plants received the same penalty as possession of 100 grams of heroin.
A later amendment to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act established a three strikes and you're out policy, requiring life sentences for repeat drug offenders, and providing for the death penalty for drug kingpins. "
Anti-Drug Abuse Act - Mandatory Sentences
President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, instituting mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes.
In conjunction with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the new law raised federal penalties for marijuana possession and dealing, basing the penalties on the amount of the drug involved. Possession of 100 marijuana plants received the same penalty as possession of 100 grams of heroin.
A later amendment to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act established a three strikes and you're out policy, requiring life sentences for repeat drug offenders, and providing for the death penalty for drug kingpins. "
The drug war of nowwww:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/16/eveningnews/main4672172.shtml?source=search_story
Thursday, February 5, 2009
- What are the problems America Faces?
- We are facing sustained inflation
- Fixed income
- Unemployment
- tax system tax
- public spending
- deficits
- economic upheavals
- economy.
- Government
- What are Reagan's solutions?
No groups singled out
Interest group-
Healthy vigorous growing economy.
Revived economy
What policy decisions might Reagan make according to this-
MILITARY!!!!
Using strength.
:D
What does this event reveal about Reagan's Relationship to the country as a leader?
How did this event effect Reagan's roll with the Am. public?
Who is the audience for this speech?
The audience for the speech is a group of christians.
;)
What is the argument Reagan makes here?
He is talking a lot about god and communism and he was using god to argue. I think he does this so he can make his speech seem more important, and to make the religious groups pay more attention to what he was saying and his argumentt.
What do you think Reagan's agenda is in this speech?
I think Reagans agenda was to get the attention of everyone watching, and to make a huge point.
10. What is the message here?
11. How does the ad use Carter?
12. What does the ad suggest about the character/morals of the country?
Friday, January 30, 2009
70's Post
70’s
Episode Watched: Brady Bunch
Focusing on: Family Life
Before the 70’s: Life was very simple. Families ate together, there were not nearly as many divorces. The mothers were very young. The mothers stayed home and cooked and cleaned, while the man was out working. Children could play outdoors without adult supervison. They only had one tv in the whole house, as well as one phone. It was a very simple life before the 70's. There were only 385,000 divorces before the 70's, which is across the ENTIRE United States.
During the 70's: In the 70's everthing changed, well, to an extent. There were still the happy little homes, like the Brady's and even though they weren't perfect, because they too came from split families, but got along all too well, with one another. They made life look perfect. They could solve an issue in 30 minutes flat. The mothers in the households started to work more than they did in the 50's or say the 60's. Then you watch a show like That 70's Show that is trying to depict the 70's, and they look like the most dysfunctional family. But back then, the parents actually disciplined their child for doing wrong, and not just let them off the hook. Divorce's in the 70's also increased to about around 800,000 or 900,000 which is triple the amount before the 70's. The 70's changed alot for the people also. They had Nixon for a president, and that led to the Watergate scandal. Nixon also promised to end the Vietnam war, which tore through families across the nation. The seventies were a critical time for families. They didn't really frown upon divorce, and there were tons of split up families.
After the 70's- The changes since the 70's are phenomenal. Divorce is a consistant thing, it seems more are divorced than together. There are more split families than ever before. No one even bats an eyelash to a divorce, yet, are surprised if parents are still together. Now, almost every child across the nation has a cell phone, computer, and a myspace or facebook, when before these never even existed. The music has changed too, before the music was happyish, and upbeat, now most music is down. We have had a war raging on for 7 years, and really have no solution on how to end it. Some things have also gotten better, we now have our first African American president, and we are more technology sophisticated, so we can make computers and such, to help us. Everything is a lot different.
Episode Watched: Brady Bunch
Focusing on: Family Life
Before the 70’s: Life was very simple. Families ate together, there were not nearly as many divorces. The mothers were very young. The mothers stayed home and cooked and cleaned, while the man was out working. Children could play outdoors without adult supervison. They only had one tv in the whole house, as well as one phone. It was a very simple life before the 70's. There were only 385,000 divorces before the 70's, which is across the ENTIRE United States.
During the 70's: In the 70's everthing changed, well, to an extent. There were still the happy little homes, like the Brady's and even though they weren't perfect, because they too came from split families, but got along all too well, with one another. They made life look perfect. They could solve an issue in 30 minutes flat. The mothers in the households started to work more than they did in the 50's or say the 60's. Then you watch a show like That 70's Show that is trying to depict the 70's, and they look like the most dysfunctional family. But back then, the parents actually disciplined their child for doing wrong, and not just let them off the hook. Divorce's in the 70's also increased to about around 800,000 or 900,000 which is triple the amount before the 70's. The 70's changed alot for the people also. They had Nixon for a president, and that led to the Watergate scandal. Nixon also promised to end the Vietnam war, which tore through families across the nation. The seventies were a critical time for families. They didn't really frown upon divorce, and there were tons of split up families.
After the 70's- The changes since the 70's are phenomenal. Divorce is a consistant thing, it seems more are divorced than together. There are more split families than ever before. No one even bats an eyelash to a divorce, yet, are surprised if parents are still together. Now, almost every child across the nation has a cell phone, computer, and a myspace or facebook, when before these never even existed. The music has changed too, before the music was happyish, and upbeat, now most music is down. We have had a war raging on for 7 years, and really have no solution on how to end it. Some things have also gotten better, we now have our first African American president, and we are more technology sophisticated, so we can make computers and such, to help us. Everything is a lot different.
CHAT WITH KRISTEN
friesiangrl14: hey
me: Hi.
khamilton403: hi
me: Hi Kiana.
friesiangrl14: ok so i think that he was right and the real threat of america is faith in our country and that we are all loosing that faith.
me: The yellow means then, that the country as one is losing faith, and it's not gas, oil, or anything like that. He also states that the economy will get better, but we need to have faith that it will get better. He also says that the government can't do it all alone.
khamilton403: he mentions how this didnt happen over night, and that its goin to take more then just a copple of weeks to get out of it. carissa you were right we all needed to come together as a nation not just the goverment.
friesiangrl14: To answer back to the second part of this question in the yellow i would say that this would never leave this country though maybe not noticed it will always be here.
what do you think carissa
??
me: In my opinion, I don't think that specific threat is with us today. I think that we have more of a threat of economy today. The economy is really bad, now it's not as much as us having a problem of faith, it's the economy bringing us down now.
Now onto the red.
friesiangrl14: ok
:)
me: I read the first red paragraph and what Jimmy Carter is saying is that we used to be a strong country that is run on our faith in god. Now we are selfish and we basically pay alot of attention to what we have, and what can be bought for us. But even that can't help fill the void we have. :D
friesiangrl14: This paragraph that i had just read talks about how america needs to look up and that
if we dont then nothing will happen and what you are letting yourself beliving it will come true.
What about the third?
me: Yeahhh. On too green. :D
Third paragraph you mean I get it!!!!
friesiangrl14: no carissa we still have another paragraph lol
hehe someones a loser
;p
me: We are supposed to be doing are work. Not making smiley faces.
friesiangrl14: ok i def. think that this paragraph is not completely true because the reason we treat some of these facilitys like we do is because of the reaction that we get back from these places. For example our schools, well of course we are going to have disrespect for this if they raise our taxes to keep paying for things not needed.
NOW on to the next question....
me: YEAHHHHHH.
friesiangrl14: ok
me: green.
friesiangrl14: lol
I do think that this relates to america today what about you?
me: Yeah, how do you expect us to respect them when we buy things for schools, and stuff we don't. Okay now onto green.
Wow, I just repeated youuu. Hahaha. But I agree comp-letely with you. :D
friesiangrl14: okay.. someones lossin there mind
:0
me: Are we on green nowwww?
friesiangrl14: yessss
me: So in green we talk about how he is makiing a bunch of points starting with how we need to not use a lot of foreign oil. The second point is how he will use his presidential authority to make sure we have a quota. The third is to conserve energy in a way.
me: Hi.
khamilton403: hi
me: Hi Kiana.
friesiangrl14: ok so i think that he was right and the real threat of america is faith in our country and that we are all loosing that faith.
me: The yellow means then, that the country as one is losing faith, and it's not gas, oil, or anything like that. He also states that the economy will get better, but we need to have faith that it will get better. He also says that the government can't do it all alone.
khamilton403: he mentions how this didnt happen over night, and that its goin to take more then just a copple of weeks to get out of it. carissa you were right we all needed to come together as a nation not just the goverment.
friesiangrl14: To answer back to the second part of this question in the yellow i would say that this would never leave this country though maybe not noticed it will always be here.
what do you think carissa
??
me: In my opinion, I don't think that specific threat is with us today. I think that we have more of a threat of economy today. The economy is really bad, now it's not as much as us having a problem of faith, it's the economy bringing us down now.
Now onto the red.
friesiangrl14: ok
:)
me: I read the first red paragraph and what Jimmy Carter is saying is that we used to be a strong country that is run on our faith in god. Now we are selfish and we basically pay alot of attention to what we have, and what can be bought for us. But even that can't help fill the void we have. :D
friesiangrl14: This paragraph that i had just read talks about how america needs to look up and that
if we dont then nothing will happen and what you are letting yourself beliving it will come true.
What about the third?
me: Yeahhh. On too green. :D
Third paragraph you mean I get it!!!!
friesiangrl14: no carissa we still have another paragraph lol
hehe someones a loser
;p
me: We are supposed to be doing are work. Not making smiley faces.
friesiangrl14: ok i def. think that this paragraph is not completely true because the reason we treat some of these facilitys like we do is because of the reaction that we get back from these places. For example our schools, well of course we are going to have disrespect for this if they raise our taxes to keep paying for things not needed.
NOW on to the next question....
me: YEAHHHHHH.
friesiangrl14: ok
me: green.
friesiangrl14: lol
I do think that this relates to america today what about you?
me: Yeah, how do you expect us to respect them when we buy things for schools, and stuff we don't. Okay now onto green.
Wow, I just repeated youuu. Hahaha. But I agree comp-letely with you. :D
friesiangrl14: okay.. someones lossin there mind
:0
me: Are we on green nowwww?
friesiangrl14: yessss
me: So in green we talk about how he is makiing a bunch of points starting with how we need to not use a lot of foreign oil. The second point is how he will use his presidential authority to make sure we have a quota. The third is to conserve energy in a way.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Richard Nixon and Watergate
What was the Watergate scandal and why was he reelected?
Many people say that Nixon got elected because he said he would end the Vietnam war, even though more soldiers died under his presidency. Nixon promised an end of the war, and that is the main reason he was elected for a second term. After the Watergate scandal was thouroughly investigated, Nixon was not Impeached in 1974, he resigned so they could not impeach him. :D
- The Watergate scandal was when 5 people broke into the Watergate hotel. They were then indicted for breaking into democratic government head quarters. Then they were indicted with two others for conspiracy, burglary, and wire tapping. The seven men were ignored at first until Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein began investigating. The two others were part of Nixon's committee to get him reelected. The one who was Chief was a man who used the alias of "Deep Throat" who was Mark Felt. We did not find this out until about two years ago, after he died.Also another big thing to be involved was CReeP which is the Commitee to Re-Elect the President.
Indicted- To accuse of a wrong-doing. Law- To make a formal accusation.
Conspiracy- an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot.- Why after the Watergate scandal was Richard Nixon elected?
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