World War II

At daybreak on the first day of September, 1939, the residents of Poland awakened to grave news. A juggernaut force of tanks, guns, and countless grey-clad soldiers from nearby Germany had torn across the countryside and were making a total invasion of the Poles homelands. Germanys actions on that fateful morning ignited a conflict that would spread like a wildfire, engulfing the entire globe in a great world war. This scenario is many peoples conception of how World War II came about. In reality, the whole story is far more detailed and complex.

The origins of war can be traced as far back as he end of the first World War in 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles placed responsibility for that terrible war squarely on Germany. Years later, in the Far East, Japanese ambition for territory led the nation to invade Manchuria and other parts of nearby China, causing hostilities to flare in the Pacific Rim. Great Britain, the United States, and many other nations of the world would all be drawn into battle in the years to come, and each nation had its own reason for lending a hand in the struggle.

Although Germany was the major player in World War II, the seeds of war had already been planted in the Far East years before onflict in Europe. On September 18, 1931, the powerful Japanese military forces began an invasion of the region known as Manchuria, an area belonging to mainland China. This action broke non-aggression treaties that had been signed earlier. It also was carried out by Japanese generals without the consent of the Japanese government. In spite of this, no one was ever punished for the actions. Soon after the assault on China, the Japanese government decided it had no choice but to support the occupation of Manchuria.

By the next year the region had been completely cut off from China (Ienaga 60-64). Because of the Japanese offensive in China, the League of Nations held a vote in October to force Japan out of the captured territory. The vote was passed, 13 to 1, but Japan remained in control of Manchuria. A second vote, taken in February, 1933, a formal disapproval of the Japanese occupation, was passed 42 to 1. Instead of expelling Japan from the area of Manchuria, it caused the nation to formally withdraw its membership in the League of Nations the next month (Ienaga 66).

Now unrestrained by the recommendations of the League of Nations, Japan continued its intrusion onto Chinese soil. By 1937 Japan had moved military forces into Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, as well as other regions of China. By 1940, Japanese seizure of territory had spread to deep inside Southeast Asia and even parts of Australia (Sutel et al). Also in 1940, the Triparte Pact was signed, allying Japan, Germany, and Italy into a powerful force that stretched halfway around the planet. The association with Hitler and Germany unified the war in the Pacific and the war in Europe.

Japan was now fully involved in what came to be known as World War II. As warfare raged in the Pacific Rim, a chain of events was unfolding that would roduce catastrophic results. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 held Germany fully accountable for the tragedy of World War I. The nation was stripped of large areas of land, its armaments, as well as its dignity. In addition, the reparations that were to be paid to the allied nations virtually destroyed the economy of Germany. The resentment of the treaty burned in the hearts and minds of Germans for years afterward.

In 1933, a man by the name of Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany after working his way up the ladder of government. By speaking against the Treaty of Versailles and making romises of a better life to the German people, Hitler gained the support of his fellow countrymen, and he easily won the election. Almost immediately after Hitler took office he began securing his position in power. Hitler took steps to eliminate all opposition, including political parties and anyone else who spoke out against him. The death of President Hindenburg in 1934 clinched his high standing, and he in effect became dictator of Germany.

Hitler held the titles of Head of State, Commander in Chief of German military forces, Chancellor, and Chief of the Nazi Party (Elliott 57). There was no uestion of his supremacy. With his empire established, Hitler took steps to rearm Germany, leading the nation down the road to war. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and a naval treaty signed with Great Britain, Hitler rebuilt the nations army and naval forces. By 1935 the ranks of the army had swelled to over 500,000 and production of arms and ammunition had resumed (73). Also, the Rhineland, a region in western Germany next to France, was reoccupied by military units.

This region had been demilitarized after World War I, and the Treaty of Versailles forbade occupation of the area. In spite of the violations of treaty after treaty, little was done by the world powers to control the renewed German militarism. With the stage now set, Hitler set his plan for conquest into motion. Beginning in 1938, Hitler used threats and political maneuvering to overthrow the government of nearby Austria. His next target was Czechoslovakia. In March of 1939, the nation was overtaken after Hitler threatened a bombing of Prague if his army met resistance on its invasion of the country (80).

With the conquest of Europe well underway and his reich expanding rapidly, Hitlers power and nfluence was growing greater each day. He now planned to add Poland to his list of accomplishments and further extend the German empire. The threat of Russia backing the Poles to defend against an attack was neutralized when Germany and Russia signed a nonaggression pact saying that the two nations would not go to war. Great Britain sternly warned Germany that an attack on Poland would be considered an act of war. Hitler fearlessly ignored the warnings, and his operation swung into action.

In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, German forces mobilized and swarmed into Poland. The old-fashioned Polished cavalry was devastated in the assault, as they stood no chance against the mighty Panzer tanks that rolled through the country with frightening speed. Two days after the attack, Britain and France joined in a declaration of war against Germany. Their belated reactions, however, could not save the army of Poland. In a battle that raged for nearly a month, the Polish army was eventually cornered in the capital city of Warsaw.

After a brutal siege of the city, the valiant countrymen of Poland had no choice but to surrender to the overwhelming German force. The point of no return had been crossed, and Europe had fallen into the clutches of war for the second time in the century. Great Britain still remembered the horrors of World War I, and when Germany began to renew its sense of militarism, Britain was hesitant to start another war. Instead of using force, the British leaders, including prime minister Neville Chamberlain, sought a diplomatic solution to conflicts.

When Germanys ambitions were to capture the area known as Sudentland, in Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain held several meetings with Hitler and other nations, desperately rying to prevent an armed conflict with Germany. Chamberlain believed that by granting Hitlers demands, he could avoid a war with Germany (Elliot 73-74). He was sorely mistaken. Even after all the negotiation and bargaining, Hitlers forces eventually overtook the entire nation of Czechoslovakia by force. When it became clear that Hitler next planned an invasion of Poland, Great Britain had no choice but to issue a threat of war if Germany went through with the operation.

The threat was simply disregard, and the attack on Poland was carried out as planned. On September third, 1939, two days after the Polish invasion began, Chamberlain gave a speech in which he finally stated that, “This country is at war with Germany…”(Wernick 8). The joint declaration of war on Germany with France became official the same day. In spite of efforts to avoid combat, the fears of the British people had come true on that day. The United States of America, like Great Britain, had hoped to avoid bringing the horrors of war to its people.

For many years after the development of tensions in Europe and the Far East, the leaders of the U. S. had done nearly everything possible to remain eutral. For them, too, the memories of World War I were still fresh in mind. Although the U. S. did participate in such affairs as the temporary peace treaty that prevented the capture of Shanghai by the Japanese, the U. S. was determined to prevent the need for its troops to be placed in the way of danger(Ienaga 66). And so it would have remained, if it were not for one incident that would change the lives of many in the United States.

The morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 began as any other day in Pearl Harbor, a U. S. naval base in Hawaii. At 7:49, the Japanese leet of carriers that had been making its way toward the Hawaiian Islands sprang into action. Wave after wave of Japanese aircraft screamed into the harbor and pounced on the American fleet as it sat helpless (Ienaga 136). No one saw the attack coming, so defense to the brutal assault was minimal. In the aftermath of the carnage, the final tallies shocked the nation. Five U. S. battleships and ten warships had been destroyed, and three more battleships were severely damaged.

The human death toll was also high. Over 2,400 American soldiers were slaughtered in the strike. Franklin D. Roosevelt wasted no time in reacting to the attack on Pearl Harbor. By the afternoon of December 7th, Roosevelt had ordered protection for Washington D. C. , major cities along the western coast, major bridges, and dozens of other security precautions in the event of another wave of enemy aggression (Bailey 20). The next day, Roosevelt delivered a speech to congress asking for a declaration of war. The beginning of the speech would become famous in American history.

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately ttacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… (23) Less than an hour after Roosevelt gave his powerful speech, congress voted to declare war on Japan. The declaration was signed by Roosevelt himself at 4:10 that afternoon (23). In the space of only two days, the United states had gone from a neutral spectator to a major participant in World War II. The United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan were four of the largest countries that became heavily involved in the second world war.

But, many more nations played smaller roles in the event. For instance, Italy was an ally of Germany and Japan, having signed the Triparte Pact in 1940. But, the Italians were less than essential to Hitlers domination of Europe, and Benito Moussolini, dictator of Italy, suffered many humiliating defeats at the hands of the allies (Keegan et al). Another country that played a role in the war in Europe was the U. S. S. R. Once considered neutral in the war because of a nonaggression treaty with Germany, the Soviet Union was drawn into the fighting on June 22, 1941, when the German offensive code-named Operation Barbarossa began.

The German forces planned to attack the Soviets at three points – Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, and was expected to be completed in 6 weeks. The Russians proved tenacious, however, and defended their capital and country with great effort, eventually halting the German advance. France was a third major European state that was caught up in the chaotic beginnings of World War II. Allied with Great Britain, France joined in the battle of Europe after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Unfortunately, Hitlers forces eventually invaded France, ending their ability to fend off the attacks of the Axis powers.

Germanys invasion of Poland in late 1939 is considered the major event that set World War II in motion. But, like many other events in history, there is more to the story. Dozens of smaller occurrences pushed the world closer and closer to the brink of war over a period of many years. The results of each of these incidents culminated in total warfare that turned half of the world into a battleground. Several major countries were plunged into chaos and disorder, and the scars and horrible memories of the nightmare that was World War II are something that can never be erased or forgotten.

At daybreak on the first day of September, 1939, the residents of Poland awakened to grave news. A juggernaut force of tanks, guns, and countless grey-clad soldiers from nearby Germany had torn across the countryside and were making a total invasion of the Poles homelands. Germanys actions on that fateful morning ignited a conflict that would spread like a wildfire, engulfing the entire globe in a great world war. This scenario is many peoples conception of how World War II came about. In reality, the whole story is far more detailed and complex.

The origins of war can be traced as far back as he end of the first World War in 1919, when the Treaty of Versailles placed responsibility for that terrible war squarely on Germany. Years later, in the Far East, Japanese ambition for territory led the nation to invade Manchuria and other parts of nearby China, causing hostilities to flare in the Pacific Rim. Great Britain, the United States, and many other nations of the world would all be drawn into battle in the years to come, and each nation had its own reason for lending a hand in the struggle.

Although Germany was the major player in World War II, the seeds of war had already been planted in the Far East years before onflict in Europe. On September 18, 1931, the powerful Japanese military forces began an invasion of the region known as Manchuria, an area belonging to mainland China. This action broke non-aggression treaties that had been signed earlier. It also was carried out by Japanese generals without the consent of the Japanese government. In spite of this, no one was ever punished for the actions. Soon after the assault on China, the Japanese government decided it had no choice but to support the occupation of Manchuria.

By the next year the region had been completely cut off from China (Ienaga 60-64). Because of the Japanese offensive in China, the League of Nations held a vote in October to force Japan out of the captured territory. The vote was passed, 13 to 1, but Japan remained in control of Manchuria. A second vote, taken in February, 1933, a formal disapproval of the Japanese occupation, was passed 42 to 1. Instead of expelling Japan from the area of Manchuria, it caused the nation to formally withdraw its membership in the League of Nations the next month (Ienaga 66).

Now unrestrained by the recommendations of the League of Nations, Japan continued its intrusion onto Chinese soil. By 1937 Japan had moved military forces into Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, as well as other regions of China. By 1940, Japanese seizure of territory had spread to deep inside Southeast Asia and even parts of Australia (Sutel et al). Also in 1940, the Triparte Pact was signed, allying Japan, Germany, and Italy into a powerful force that stretched halfway around the planet. The association with Hitler and Germany unified the war in the Pacific and the war in Europe.

Japan was now fully involved in what came to be known as World War II. As warfare raged in the Pacific Rim, a chain of events was unfolding that would roduce catastrophic results. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 held Germany fully accountable for the tragedy of World War I. The nation was stripped of large areas of land, its armaments, as well as its dignity. In addition, the reparations that were to be paid to the allied nations virtually destroyed the economy of Germany. The resentment of the treaty burned in the hearts and minds of Germans for years afterward.

In 1933, a man by the name of Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany after working his way up the ladder of government. By speaking against the Treaty of Versailles and making romises of a better life to the German people, Hitler gained the support of his fellow countrymen, and he easily won the election. Almost immediately after Hitler took office he began securing his position in power. Hitler took steps to eliminate all opposition, including political parties and anyone else who spoke out against him. The death of President Hindenburg in 1934 clinched his high standing, and he in effect became dictator of Germany.

Hitler held the titles of Head of State, Commander in Chief of German military forces, Chancellor, and Chief of the Nazi Party (Elliott 57). There was no uestion of his supremacy. With his empire established, Hitler took steps to rearm Germany, leading the nation down the road to war. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles and a naval treaty signed with Great Britain, Hitler rebuilt the nations army and naval forces. By 1935 the ranks of the army had swelled to over 500,000 and production of arms and ammunition had resumed (73). Also, the Rhineland, a region in western Germany next to France, was reoccupied by military units.

This region had been demilitarized after World War I, and the Treaty of Versailles forbade occupation of the area. In spite of the violations of treaty after treaty, little was done by the world powers to control the renewed German militarism. With the stage now set, Hitler set his plan for conquest into motion. Beginning in 1938, Hitler used threats and political maneuvering to overthrow the government of nearby Austria. His next target was Czechoslovakia. In March of 1939, the nation was overtaken after Hitler threatened a bombing of Prague if his army met resistance on its invasion of the country (80).

With the conquest of Europe well underway and his reich expanding rapidly, Hitlers power and nfluence was growing greater each day. He now planned to add Poland to his list of accomplishments and further extend the German empire. The threat of Russia backing the Poles to defend against an attack was neutralized when Germany and Russia signed a nonaggression pact saying that the two nations would not go to war. Great Britain sternly warned Germany that an attack on Poland would be considered an act of war. Hitler fearlessly ignored the warnings, and his operation swung into action.

In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, German forces mobilized and swarmed into Poland. The old-fashioned Polished cavalry was devastated in the assault, as they stood no chance against the mighty Panzer tanks that rolled through the country with frightening speed. Two days after the attack, Britain and France joined in a declaration of war against Germany. Their belated reactions, however, could not save the army of Poland. In a battle that raged for nearly a month, the Polish army was eventually cornered in the capital city of Warsaw.

After a brutal siege of the city, the valiant countrymen of Poland had no choice but to surrender to the overwhelming German force. The point of no return had been crossed, and Europe had fallen into the clutches of war for the second time in the century. Great Britain still remembered the horrors of World War I, and when Germany began to renew its sense of militarism, Britain was hesitant to start another war. Instead of using force, the British leaders, including prime minister Neville Chamberlain, sought a diplomatic solution to conflicts.

When Germanys ambitions were to capture the area known as Sudentland, in Czechoslovakia, Chamberlain held several meetings with Hitler and other nations, desperately rying to prevent an armed conflict with Germany. Chamberlain believed that by granting Hitlers demands, he could avoid a war with Germany (Elliot 73-74). He was sorely mistaken. Even after all the negotiation and bargaining, Hitlers forces eventually overtook the entire nation of Czechoslovakia by force. When it became clear that Hitler next planned an invasion of Poland, Great Britain had no choice but to issue a threat of war if Germany went through with the operation.

The threat was simply disregard, and the attack on Poland was carried out as planned. On September third, 1939, two days after the Polish invasion began, Chamberlain gave a speech in which he finally stated that, “This country is at war with Germany… “(Wernick 8). The joint declaration of war on Germany with France became official the same day. In spite of efforts to avoid combat, the fears of the British people had come true on that day. The United States of America, like Great Britain, had hoped to avoid bringing the horrors of war to its people.

For many years after the development of tensions in Europe and the Far East, the leaders of the U. S. ad done nearly everything possible to remain neutral. For them, too, the memories of World War I were still fresh in mind. Although the U. S. did participate in such affairs as the temporary peace treaty that prevented the capture of Shanghai by the Japanese, the U. S. was determined to prevent the need for its troops to be placed in the way of danger(Ienaga 66). And so it would have remained, if it were not for one incident that would change the lives of many in the United States.

The morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 began as any other day in Pearl Harbor, a U. S. naval base in Hawaii. At 7:49, the Japanese fleet of carriers that had been making its way toward the Hawaiian Islands sprang into action. Wave after wave of Japanese aircraft screamed into the harbor and pounced on the American fleet as it sat helpless (Ienaga 136). No one saw the attack coming, so defense to the brutal assault was minimal. In the aftermath of the carnage, the final tallies shocked the nation. Five U. S. battleships and ten warships had been destroyed, and three more battleships were severely damaged.

The human death toll was also high. Over 2,400 American soldiers were slaughtered in the strike. Franklin D. Roosevelt wasted no time in reacting to the attack on Pearl Harbor. By the afternoon of December 7th, Roosevelt had ordered protection for Washington D. C. , major cities along the western coast, major bridges, and dozens of other security precautions in the event of another wave of enemy aggression (Bailey 20). The next day, Roosevelt delivered a speech to congress asking for a declaration of war. The beginning of the speech would become famous in American history.

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately ttacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… (23) Less than an hour after Roosevelt gave his powerful speech, congress voted to declare war on Japan. The declaration was signed by Roosevelt himself at 4:10 that afternoon (23). In the space of only two days, the United states had gone from a neutral spectator to a major participant in World War II. The United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Japan were four of the largest countries that became heavily involved in the second world war.

But, many more nations played smaller roles in the event. For instance, Italy was an ally of Germany and Japan, having signed the Triparte Pact in 1940. But, the Italians were less than essential to Hitlers domination of Europe, and Benito Moussolini, dictator of Italy, suffered many humiliating defeats at the hands of the allies (Keegan et al). Another country that played a role in the war in Europe was the U. S. S. R. Once considered neutral in the war because of a nonaggression treaty with Germany, the Soviet Union was drawn into the fighting on June 22, 1941, when the German offensive code-named Operation Barbarossa began.

The German forces planned to attack the Soviets at three points – Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, and was expected to be completed in 6 weeks. The Russians proved tenacious, however, and defended their capital and country with great effort, eventually halting the German advance. France was a third major European state that was caught up in the chaotic beginnings of World War II. Allied with Great Britain, France joined in the battle of Europe after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Unfortunately, Hitlers forces eventually invaded France, ending their ability to fend off the attacks of the Axis powers.

Germanys invasion of Poland in late 1939 is considered the major event that set World War II in motion. But, like many other events in history, there is more to the story. Dozens of smaller occurrences pushed the world closer and closer to the brink of war over a period of many years. The results of each of these incidents culminated in total warfare that turned half of the world into a battleground. Several major countries were plunged into chaos and disorder, and the scars and horrible memories of the nightmare that was World War II are something that can never be erased or forgotten.

I am doing this report on the M1 Garand for Mr. Walker 182’s History Class. The Garand is a fascinating World War II semi-automatic rifle. In the sub-sections below I will describe the developement history of the gun, the service history, and info on different versions. I wanted to add diagrams of the M1 rifle but the pictures are copyrighted and I was not able to download but the diagrams could be found at http://www. chestnutridge. com/gchart. asp Development History The origins of the United States Rifle, Caliber.

30, M1 begin around August, 1900, when Captain O. B. Mitcham wrote to the Chief of Ordnance at Springfield Armory about “the question of automatic small arms is now being taken up seriously in Europe. ” Not much was done by the U. S. Army until just before and during the U. S. entered the World War I. Many rifles were tested, most of which were tested were attempts to convert the M1903 rifle from bolt-action to semi-automatic. It was during this time that John Garand, then a young man of 30, moved to New York City from Canada after the United States entered World War I. After learning of the arms problem, he decided to try to make a rifle and got financial backing from John Kewish.

Garand’s first rifle was built and tested before Hudson Maxim, who suggested the rifle be presented before the Naval Consulting Board. Governmental officials then determined Garand’s rifle had merit and arranged to pay Garand $35. 00 per week for his services, with Kewish paying the other $15. 00 per week of Garand’s pay. This arrangement later caused Kewish to claim Garand cheated him of his share when the M1 rifle was adopted eighteen years later. After his first design was turned down by the military, Garand was transferred to Springfield Armory in November, 1919.

During the next five years, Garand created many rifle designs, but they all had one thing in common: the primer of the spent cartridge was used to operate the rifle’s action. When the military changed the design of the M1906 cartridge, Garand could no longer use this operating principle. It was at this time when John Pedersen arrived with a new design in a totally new caliber, . 276. Pedersen was an expert of his day in weapons design, so the military then ordered Garand to build his rifle design around the new . 276 caliber.

Between 1927 and 1931, the military held many tests to see if either Garand’s design or Pedersen’s was better. While the military argued against the . 276 caliber, Garand’s . 276 caliber design was recommended for adoption on January 4, 1932. On February 25, 1932, the Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, put an end to the caliber issue, stating “this change will introduce an element of chaos, confusion and uncertainty which, when magnified under war conditions, would more than counteract the beneficial effect of any semi-automatic rifle.

With this statement, MacArthur ordered the development of a . 30 caliber rifle. This did not delay Garand’s work because he had already developed a design to fire the . 30 caliber on his own time in anticipation of such an event. Two more years would pass before the rifle was adopted as the United States Rifle, M1 on January 9, 1936. The United States became the first country in history to adopt a semi-automatic rifle as its standard military rifle after this event. Problems beset the M1 as it was first being issued.

They occurred in the area where expanding gases of the fired bullets were tapped from the barrel to operate the rifle and the rifle suffered stoppages after firing only seven of the eight rounds in its clip. The M1’s early performance problems gave it such a bad reputation that after the 1939 National Matches, the National Rifle Association was able to get Congress to look at the problem. A major redesign was ordered on October 26, 1939 and Garand redesigned the rifle to operate with gases tapped from a gas port just below the barrel.

In July, 1940, the Army demonstrated the revised M1 before Congressional officials, allowing them to fire the rifle for themselves. Senator Ernest Lundeen, a former infantry officer and the M1 rifle’s biggest critic, fired 27 consecutive bull’s-eyes at 300 yards, convincing all at the event the M1 was the best design available. In November, 1940, the United States Marine Corps adopted the M1 as its standard service rifle. A year later, the M1 was being fired in battle for the first time after the United States entered World War II.

Between 1942 and 1945, Springfield Armory and Winchester Repeating Arms built just over 4 million M1 rifles. Also during the war, two major design changes were proposed for the M1 to create a handier rifle for airborne and armored troops. The first was the M1E5 had a shorter barrel (18″ compared to the standard 24″) and a folding stock to reduce its overall length and weight. Only one was ever built. The second was the T26, which had an 18” barrel, but the standard length stock. Only about 150 were built. As with the M1903, the M1 rifle spawned sniper variations.

The M1C and the M1D, standardized in July and September, 1945 respectively, both mounted the telescope used on the rifle to the left to allow the top-loading M1 to be reloaded, but differed in the way the telescope was mounted to the rifle. Neither was truly successful in the sniping role. The June 25, 1950 North Korean invasion of South Korea caught the United States small arms production establishment totally unprepared. No M1 Rifles had been manufactured since August 1945, but during this interconflict period, Springfield Armory had refurbished and prepared various types of World War II small arms for long term storage.

In June 1950, Springfield Armory prepared to resume M1 Rifle production. This process included the acquisition of machinery, physical plant layout, updating engineering drawings, and the hiring and training of a production labor force. Over six months passed before Springfield Armory produced its first M1 rifle. To supplement Springfield Armory, the Ordnance Department decided to contract for additional M1s with Harrington & Richardson Company(H&R) of Worchester, Massachusetts and International Harvester Company’s(IHC) Evansville(Indiana) Works plant. Contracts were signed in early 1952.

IHC had never produced any type of small arms before, but was chosen primarily due to its geographic location. There was widespread concern about the dense concentration of defense-related industries on the East Coast of the United States. U. S. military planners determined these facilties were venerable to Soviet manned bomber or missile attack, therefore, defense production facilties should be dispersed throughout the middle sections of the United States. With no prior firearms manufacturing experience, IHC required a great deal of assistance from Springfield Armory personnel.

The assistance included using Springfield Armory-supplied receivers to meet initial contract delivery schedules. IHC did not produce stocks, handguards or barrels. Stocks and handguards were supplied by the S. E. Overton Company, South Haven, Michigan. All IHC M1 rifles were fitted with barrels produced by the Line Material Company (LMR) of Birmingham, Alabama. IHC small arms manufacturing inexperience and start-up difficulties resulted in the delivery of only 6,904 M1 Rifles between 1 July 1952 and 30 June 1953.

And for reasons which are not entirely clear, H&R also got off to a slow start. In Fiscal Year 53, HRA delivered only 500 M1 Rifles, but produced its own stocks and barrels. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, which officially ended the Korean War. Both World War II and 168,500 newly manufactured Springfield Armory M1 Rifles, were available in sufficent numbers to equip all United Nations troops. The probability of any IHC or HRA produced M1 Rifles being used to arm United Nations troops prior to July 27, 1953 is highly unlikely.

With the 1955 sale of its Evansville plant to Whirlpool Corporation, IHC ceased M1 Rifle production and in 1955, H&R closed its lines as well. Springfield Armory continued M1 Rifle production into 1956, but on a reduced schedule. In 1952, the Marine Corps rebuilt most of its existing M1C sniper rifles, using upgraded telescopes and mounts, calling the result the MC-1. Between the years 1953 and 1963, Springfield Armory new-built and modified existing M1 rifles into nearly 45,000 M1 National Match rifles. On 17 May 1957, the adoption of the United States Rifle, Caliber 7. mm, M14 officially marked the end of production of the M1 rifle.

But a shortage of M14 and M16 rifles during the Vietnam War prompted the U. S. Navy to have a special chamber insert built to allow the M1 to use NATO-standard 7. 62mm M80 Ball ammunition and first standardized the rifle as the M1E14, then later as the Rifle, 7. 62mm, Mk2 Mod 0. Service History The M1 was affectionately nicknamed the Garand, after its designer. The rifle proved to be accurate, durable, rugged and reliable. The only problems with the rifle came from the use of its clip.

The clip held only eight rounds in a staggered grouping. The rifle could not be “topped up” in the middle of battle because of the way the clip operated. After the last round was fired from the rifle, the clip ejected with a distinctive sound. Other than these small problems with the rifle the M1 was exceptional. The M1 Rifle was also distributed to several nations under many American military assistance programs. During the Vietnam War , the M1 served as a training rifle for troops inducted into the U. S. Army. It still serves in the training rifle role for the U. S. Navy .

The M1 was the main rifle of many military reserve units until the mid-1970’s for example, the M1 was seen in the hands of Illinois National Guard troops during confrontations between Guardsmen and demonstrators outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention complex, when it was replaced by the M16. To this day, the M1 also fulfills a ceremonial role with all branches of the military, in color guard and honor guard units. Like its predecessor, the M1903, the M1 rifle served this nation very well during times of conflict and peace.

The Treaty of Versailles was a violation of Wilsons ideals. The Treaty is one of the most important agreements (or disagreements) that shaped 20th century Europe socially and physically. Woodrow Wilson on January 22, 1917 in an address to the United States Senate called for a peace without victors, but the Treaty signed by the participating nations was everything but that. The blame for the war was placed on Germany and justified the reparations that were outlined by the treaty for the war.

The terms of the treaty were very harsh to the Germans and they took on great resentment. It was a fragile peace agreement that would be used as fuel to keep hostilities going 20 years later. When the details of the treaty were published in June 1919 most Germans were horrified. Germany had not been allowed to the Peace Conference and was told to accept the terms or else. Most Germans however, had believed that the Treaty would be lenient because of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

Many people in other lands thought that the treaty was a way of making legal the punishment on the Germans and this was in violation of Wilsonian idealism. The peacemakers should have been able to set aside hatred that was built up from the past in order to come up with a more proper and fair settlement. Instead of doing this, they placed the blame on the Germans by forcing them to pay for reparations they couldn’t afford, insulting them with the accusation of guilt from the war and taking away their territory.

The treaty would only intensify the hatred felt by all the parties involved in the treaty and heighten German nationalism. This was a poor beginning for democracy in Germany and for Wilson’s New World. President Woodrow Wilson had hopes for a New World. For Wilson, the war had been fought against autocracy. A peace settlement based on liberal-democratic ideals, he hoped, would get rid of the foundations of war. None of Wilson’s hopes seemed better than the idea of self-determination — the right of a people to have its own state, free of any foreign domination.

In particular, this goal meant the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France which had been lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war, the creation of an independent Poland, the changing of the frontiers of Italy to include Austrian lands where Italians lived, and an opportunity for Slavs of the Austro- Hungarian Empire to form their own states. Several of the clauses of the Treaty were thought to be very harsh. It was going to be almost impossible to pay the reparations. In fact, the German government gave up after only one year, and the War Guilt Clause seemed very unfair.

How could Germany be the only country to blame for the war? After all it had started when a Serbian shot an Austrian. It was felt that Germany had been simply made a scapegoat by the other countries for all that had happened. Looking back it is clear that the Treaty of Versailles created more problems than it actually solved. The treaty broke up empires and changed boundaries. The Germans lost territory and other countries tried to weaken Germanys military potential and strengthen their own to compensate for the destruction of their lands caused by the Germans.

The Germans were unanimously against the Treaty of Versailles. They viewed the terms of the treaty as humiliating and merciless, designed to keep Germany militarily and economically weak. To the Germans, the Treaty of Versailles was not the beginning of the New World that Wilson had promised, but a horrible crime. At the end of World War I, the victorious Allies met in Paris to draw up the peace conditions. Although the Allies had varying expectations and demands, they did agree that Germany should have the burden of responsibility for causing the war.

Germany was severely penalized under the terms of the treaty. However, the League of Nations couldnt to enforce Germany’s compliance, which increased international tensions. The new German Republic struggled and their economy continued to fall. Although 27 nations attended the Peace Conference, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy strongly dictated the peace terms. Even though each agreed that Germany should assume the financial burden of putting Europe back together, the “Big Four” had different expectations and demands, which they sought.

France demanded a harsh settlement that would eliminate Germany as a potential military threat and it wanted their land back. Italy specifically wanted more territory to add to its empire. Great Britain wanted to keep its strong navy and thought it would be in Europes best interest to help restore the German economy. Finally, the United States sought the League of Nations to be an international committee to break up future conflicts and Wilson was pushing his 14 Points. The fact that Germany was made responsible for ALL the reparations helped to break apart international relations.

The Allies were counting on Germany to pay their war debts. They hoped to use that money to help their own economic problems. The League of Nations was not very effective in forcing Germany to make payments, because it lost credibility when the United Stated didnt join. The new German republic was in a constant state of instability because new radical groups were emerging left and right, trying to attain power. The continuing economic decline worsened the struggle, leaving the German people discouraged and desperate.

The conclusions of the war included the following; Germany was forced to reduce its army to 100,000 men, reduce the navy to 6 warships and was not allowed to have any submarines, destroy all of its air force, give land to Belgium, France, Denmark and Poland, hand over all of its colonies, agree to pay reparations to the Allies for all of the damage caused by the war, put no soldiers or military equipment within 30 miles of the east bank of the Rhine, and accept all of the blame for the war (War Guilt Clause. ) Italy was given the two small areas of Istria and the South Tirol.

The Adriatic coast was made part of a new country called Yugoslavia, which included Serbia and Bosnia. Other new countries were created; Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were formed from land lost by Russia. Czechoslovakia and Hungary were formed out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Allies also gave Germany a new form of government based on proportional representation. It was meant to prevent Germany from being taken over by a dictatorship, but it led to the creation of more than thirty political parties; none of them was big enough to form a government on its own.

Aware that a harshly treated Germany might seek revenge, engulfing the world in another destruction, Wilson insisted that there should be a “peace without victory. ” A fair settlement would encourage Germany to work with the Allies in building a new Europe. To preserve peace and to help remake the world, Wilson urged the formation of a League of Nations. What was most significant about the Treaty of Versailles was that it did not solve the German problem.

Germany was left weak but unbroken — its industrial and military power was only temporarily taken away and its nationalist feelings have intensified. The real danger in Europe was German unwillingness to accept defeat or surrender their longtime dream of expansion. In conclusion, had the Allies Powers listened to President Wilson’s hopes for a new world and to his famous Fourteen Points, the settlement would have been peaceful and the Germans would not have been humiliated as they have been and would have no reason to want to seek revenge.

Susan Griffin’s “Our Secret” is an essay in which she carefully constructs and describes history, particularly World War II, through the lives of several different people. Taken from her book A chorus of Stones, her concepts may at first be difficult to grasp; however David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky say that, “Griffin writes about the past – how we can know it, what its relation to the present, why we should care. In the way she writes, she is also making an argument about how we can know and understand the past…” (pg. 844) Griffin strikes all of these aspects in her essay.

What is most compelling about the essay, however, is the way Griffin incorporated personal, family, and world history into a chilling story of narrative and autobiography, without ever losing the factual evidence the story provided. The chapter reads like an entire novel, which helps the audience to understand the concepts with a clear and complete view of her history, not needing to read any other part of the book. Two other authors, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison, who write about their experiences in life can possibly be better understood as historical texts when viewed through the eyes of Griffin.

Rodriguez explores his own educational history in his essay “The Achievement of Desire” and Ralph Ellison depicts his own journeys and personal growth in his essay, “An Extravagance of Laughter”. Both essays, which when seen through Susan Griffin’s perspective, can be reopened and examined from a different historical view, perhaps allowing them to be understood with a more lucid view of history and what it is really about. What is history? Many believe that history is what is read in textbooks, or what is seen on the news.

If Susan Griffin were asked that question, she would probably argue that history is much more than that. It is about the minds and souls of the people who went through the historical event, not simply what happened. In her essay, Griffin incorporates stories of people from totally different backgrounds, and upbringings, including herself, all to describe their account of one time period. Each person’s history is somehow connected with the next person’s, and each story contributes equally to the larger view of history. Griffin inputs three types of histories in her text; personal, family and world history.

In her personal history, she describes her life, and her childhood, which intertwines with her family history. However, she not only talks about her histories, she talks about the histories of the other characters in the essay to bring across the larger world history. One of the technique’s that Griffin uses to help the audience understand her concepts, is explaining two other story lines while telling her main story. The first one is a description of a cell. Throughout the essay, italicized sentences explaining the intricacies of a cell are placed seemingly randomly between passages.

The description begins with a nucleus, and as the story progresses, so does the nucleus. Griffin tells what happens to the nucleus, and how the inner-workings of the nucleus develops into a cell, which gives rise to many cells, which will eventually become an embryo. He other story line, also italicized sentences, goes through the making and beginning of missiles. Later in the essay, Griffin explains how the one missile develops into a bigger and more effective missile. These separate story lines are placed within the story to explain that everyone has a background, and a past.

The background and past are factors in developing the present and future; and certain characters in the story had a tendency to try to forget their past, not realizing that there is no escape from it. Griffin illustrates this technique most vividly with Heinrich Himmler, a prominent Nazi figure during WWII. In great detail, she describes Himmler’s childhood, and the harshness of his father. As Griffin traces Himmler’s life, it is evident that there is always a marker, or base from his childhood and father, approaching the conclusion that a childhood can affect the decisions made later in life.

At no time does she condone any of his actions; Griffin merely does this to help provide an understanding of how such behavior develops. The art of this technique being effective, however, is that Griffin interconnects all three stories so that the audience can grasp her concepts, and possibly incorporate those histories as well. In reading Susan Griffin, doors may be opened up to understand other authors and texts, with regard to it being a historical text. Richard Rodriguez is one author that already goes through history, but from an educational standpoint.

He discusses his childhood, and how coming from a working-class family influenced his process of learning. In his essay, he examines quite a bit of his family history, and his personal history as well. In speaking of his family history, Rodriguez traces back to his parents in Mexico, and their move to America, and the struggle to keep their standards of living in America. He also explains what is was like growing p in a Mexican-American household. Incorporated with his family history, his personal history has a lot to do with his family as well.

Rodriguez began to not like his background and roots at an early age. In many ways, he wanted to discard the Mexican persona and develop and keep an American one. Griffin talks about this subject in “Our Secret”. Griffin could be considering what could happen when Rodriguez tries to shed being Mexican, “ At a certain age we begin to define ourselves, to choose an image of who we are. I am this and not that, we say, attempting thus to erase whatever is within us that does not fit our idea of who Rodriguez hides himself behind an image of what he thinks he should be, but not who he really is.

He even has a central theme of a “scholarship boy”, a concept which he did not surmise. One aspect of his essay, perhaps not seen before, is the combining of his family and personal history into his world history. Both his family and personal history are already interlocked with world history with his family’s migration to America, ironically around the same time that Susan Griffin talks about. And while the war was not in the America’s, they must have had to endure racism, and hardships in coming to the United States.

Another author that can be looked at through Griffin’s eyes in a historical perspective is Ralph Ellison’s “Extravagance of Laughter”. What is interesting about looking at these two essays is that not only the histories, but a lot of the major themes as well are in both essays. Ellison has a vast personal history, and surrounding that is world history, however there is not a lot of evidence of family history. His personal history begins with his journey from the South to the North in the early nineteenth century.

He talks of accounts of racism he encountered in both places, which falls into the larger picture of world history. His remembrances of those racist happenings were occurring throughout the country at that time. Ellison incorporates so much personal history with world history that it becomes difficult to distinguish which is personal history, and which is world history. One of the themes that stay current throughout both essays, however, is constant effort to hide the truth. Ellison had a difficult time admitting and realizing his true place in society.

He wore “masks” to cover how he really felt, to accommodate whatever situation he was in. When Griffin talks about places in the family, she speaks of masks as well. She said, I think of it now as a mask, not an animated mask that expresses the essence of the inner truth, but a mask that falls like dead weight over the human face, making flesh a stationary object. (pg. 323) Both Ellison and Griffin felt trapped in this mask, and it took only self-revelation in both authors to free themselves of that mask. The revelation hit Ellison during a play and Griffin after learning about her family..

All three authors of these essays are in a sense, historians. They wrote about events that are in history, which makes the essays about history. However, these are all great works, and are being used to help explore the ways of writing history. Thus, in the context of which they are being used, they are all history. Themes about finding the truth within the self are current throughout works, and different types of histories are explored; making these text much more than just about history; they have become history.

Ralph Ellison once said, The way [one] expresses both the agony of life and the possibility of conquering it through is the sheer toughness of the spirit. They fall short of tragedy only in that they provide no solution, offer no scapegoat but the self…” (pg. 143) Each author demonstrates the toughness of the spirit, and provide no solution, as history never does. It is up to the individual to decide whether history will repeat itself, or whether or not a scapegoat will be found. However, Griffin, Rodriguez, and Ellison all did their part in providing possible solutions. …for history.

Philip K. Dick has written over fifty novels, and is considered among some of the greatest experimental writers of the 1950s and ’60s, such as; William Burroughs, J. G. Ballard, and Thomas Pynchon. (Star 34) He has written science- fiction and regular fiction. His fiction usually spoke of people trying to figure out who they are, or what they are supposed to be. He is best known, however, for his work in science-fiction, and this represents the majority of his work. He has, also, won awards for two of his science-fiction novels. He won the Hugo Award for best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (Brians 1). An opera has been based on one of P. K. D. later novels, Valis (Brians 1). One of his short stories, We Can Build It For You, was made into a movie recently.

The movie was Screamers, starring Peter Weller. He has also had two of his novels, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Total Recall), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner), made into movies. Of the two, Blade Runner (B. R. ) has had the greatest impact. B. R. , however, differs greatly from Dicks’ original novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (D. A. D. O. E. S. ) Blade Runner was released in 1982 under the direction of Ridley Scott, who also made another sci-fi classic, Alien. The film begins in the city of Los Angeles. The year is 2019. The city of Los Angeles is overpopulated, teeming with all sorts of humans. Japanese ADs are all over the place. The Japanese input was strictly the director, Ridley Scot’s. Scott saw the future world being controlled by the Japanese. Philip K. Dick did not mention this. The planet is recovering from World War III, although I’m not sure they actually say this.

In the book, the war is clearly tated and was called World War Terminus. The effects of the radiation has mutated some people. Only the ones who had not been disfigured or altered genetically by radiation from the nuclear bombs could emigrate, (leave the planet earth). Some, who were perfectly healthy chose to stay, however. They stayed because they were stubborn and wanted to die on the planet they were born on. The chickenheads had to stay, it was law. Chickenheads is Dicks term for the disfigured or the genetically altered. They are also referred to as specials.

There are no chickenheads in the movie. None of this is made clear n the movie, but this is what is explained in the novel. The ones who do emigrate to other planets receive one free worker to help them with their settling of a new home. The worker is not human. It is an android. In the movie they are called replicants or skin-jobs. These are the newest versions of androids, which were created by the Rosen Association. They are Nexus-6. Nexus-6 mimic humans in every way, except in one thing, they have no empathy. Empathy is the ability to feel for another.

For example, if you cared for a puppy that was beaten, skinned, and then left to die, that care would be empathy. Androids don’t have this trait. They would watch the puppies’ skin be removed without a blink in their eyes. They can pretend to feel, but they’d have to know first there was something disturbing about the skinning of a puppy. The nonexistent empathy of replicants is never discussed in the movie, but it is pretty obvious in the way they kill or try to kill. This lack of empathy scared many humans on earth, so a law was passed that didn’t allow androids on the planet.

In the novel, this is where the bounty hunters come in. Their job is to retire (kill) the androids, who have somehow escaped to earth or just were never eeded out from the other humans. You might be wondering why I said bounty hunter instead of blade runner? Well, the term blade runner is never used in the novel. Apparently, Ridley Scott wanted a specific name for the people who hunted down the androids. He didn’t want to just call them bounty hunters. Scott was told of a William Burroughs book named Blade Runner: The Movie. The book was never a movie.

Burroughs just had that in the title. Scott liked the way blade runner sounded, so he bought the rights of the Burroughs novel (Blackwood). That is how he came up with the title and a name for the hunters of the replicants. The way a blade runner can know if an android is a human or not is through the Voight-Kampff test. This is shown in the movie, although not used as much as in the novel. The test consists of the tester setting up several scenarios and seeing the testes’s responses. The responses are measured through dilation in the eyes and the blushing of cheeks.

The blushing is recorded by a device that is placed on your face and the dilation of the eye; by a laser that shines in your eye. An example of something that Deckard or whoever was administering the test would say was: “You are watching an old movie on TV, a movie from before the war. It shows a banquet in progress; the guests are enjoying raw oysters. ” “Ugh,” Rachel said; the needles swung swiftly. “The entree,” he continued, “consists of boiled dog, stuffed with rice. ” The needles moved less this time, less than they had for the raw oysters. “Are raw oysters more acceptable to you than a dish of boiled dog? Evidently not. (Dick 45) A human would react more to the dog than raw oysters. This showed that this particular subject, Rachael Rosen, was an android. It wouldn’t just be one question though, it would be many. All would be something along these lines, though. After, he found out for sure; the android, ( or in the ovie: replicant), would be retired. The Voight-kampff test is only shown at the beginning of the movie when Dave Holden is administering the test to Polokov, a replicant. The main character of the novel and movie is Rick Deckard . Deckard is played by Harrison Ford. He is a blade runner (bounty hunter) that has come out of retirement.

Rick is hired to track down four androids: Roy Baty, Pris, Luba, and Polokov. The original number of replicants had been five, but one of his colleagues, Dave Holden, had already retired one. The name of the retired replicant is never mentioned. The original five had killed their human masters n another planet, stolen a ship, and illegally come to earth. In D. A. D. O. E. S. , the original number of androids is eight and Holden retires two, leaving six for Deckard. Holden was only able to kill one; because he is paralyzed by Polokov, while administering the Voigt-Kampff test.

This, also, is what happens in the novel: Polokov shoots a laser through Holdens’ back. So, Deckards’ search begins, and the hunt for the replicants’ (androids) is on. The remaining part of the film, is Deckard tracking down and killing the renegade replicants. When first released, B. R. was not a commercial success. (Star 39) Some udiences members loved it, but others didn’t think it was so great. The box office showed the latter: not very good. The film made little money. But, one thing that almost all people did enjoy from the film was the scenery and the visionary background.

The set designs were wonderful. Roger Ebert, a critic of the Chicago Sun-Times said, ” It looks fabulous, it uses special effects to create a new world of it’s own, but it is thin in its human story” (Ebert 1) Ebert gave it an overall rating of three stars. His opinion, though, summed up the majority opinion of the few people who went and saw it at the theater. The pecial effects and background were great, but the plot was weak. It was just another action film, with a lot of violence; nothing unique about it. Even though the movie did not make money at first; over the years, it would become a cult classic.

The late interest was most likely sparked by a new version that would be released years after the original release of the movie. The version, Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut, was what the director, Ridley Scott, originally wanted (Scott). Apparently, the original movie that came out at theaters in 1982 had been tainted by Hollywood producers, with editing (Berry 16). They said the film was too confusing and didn’t have a happy ending. “Preview audiences found this ending too ambiguous and bleak” (Smith 2) You have to have a cheesy happy ending in Hollywood.

The 1982 release has Deckard and Rachael, (a replicant that is an exact copy of the daughter of the President of The Rosen Association; he falls in love with her), at the end, riding off into the country. Supposedly, these scenes were out takes from The Shining (Smith 2) The producers didn’t like Scotts ending. In Scott’s ending, Deckard and Rachael enter an elevator, and then the movie abruptly ends. Too unhappy. The producers also thought the movie was too confusing and not clear, so they added a voice-over; someone narrating the story (Berry 16).

The narrator was Deckard (Harrison Ford). Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut, returns the original scenes. The happy ending is gone, and there is no more voice-over. This changed the effect of the movie. In the 1982 release it gave you the feel of an old Bogart movie. In the new version, a new mood is brought out, and a better effect is created. The narration was totally unnecessary. The movie becomes more enjoyable.

The followers of B. R. grows; as the sparks of interest touch them with his improved movie. This is how the director had originally created it. B. R. should have been released this way, originally. Proof of this is shown just in this newfound interest. Remember, the movie originally bombed at the box office, but now people loved it. The second director’s cut, however, would fan those sparks of interest up into flames. There had been rumors, that in the original screenplay, it was quite obvious that Deckard was a replicant. Deckard, the replicant hunter, was a replicant himself! Blade Runner: The Directors Cut II confirmed this rumor. Evidence is plentiful that Deckard was actually a replicant himself.

First, is the glowing eyes (Bitnet 22) When he(Deckard) goes to meet The President of The Rosen Association to discuss the knowledge of any replicants on earth, there is a replicant owl and if you watch when the owls’ head turns, you can see an orange glow in its; eyes. The glow is also in Rachael eyes, and can be seen in Roys’ when he is first introduced in the movie. Later, if you watch closely, you can see that same glow in Deckards eye in a scene where he is talking to Rachel of someday someone will hunt her down. When he turns his head, you can see the glow. You have to be watching extremely close to notice it, and it he

This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. Insanity is a major theme in Kurt Vonneguts life and in turn his novels tend to be a release for his thoughts of mental illness. Vonneguts characters tend to embody him or at least characteristics of himself. His characters generally suffer from mild insanity and therefore hints that Vonnegut himself is possibly mildly insane. In each of his novels there are characters that are highly related to Vonnegut such as Kilgore Trout, Billy Pilgrim, and Eliot Rosewater.

Each of these characters appear in different novels to help develop the plot and continue the relative theme. The theme of insanity is what dominates the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, and is what ties all aspects of the tale together. In the novel Slaughterhouse-Five there is a character that is identical to Vonnegut. His name is Billy Pilgrim. Both were in the American army and became prisoners of war. Also, they both witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany. Dresden was destroyed on the night of February 13, 1945, Billy Pilgrim began. We came out of our shelter the next day.

Slaughterhouse-Five 179) Billy is a thin frail boy who joined the Army so he would become a man, like the author. World War II attracted them both because they realized that it was an important time in history. With the horrors of war Pilgrim went into quasi- insane state hes described as bearded in a blue toga and silver shoes, with his hands in a muff (Slaughterhouse-Five 149). This description is after they got off of a POW train on a balmy Dresden day. Vonnegut also has this character become unstuck in time or on a more realistic level, he has lashbacks, even though Pilgrims flashbacks flash him to the future as well as the past.

His future is to Tralfamadorian Zoo; Tralfamadorians are little green men, the Tralfamadorians, as a sort of appeasement to his capture, gave Pilgrim a beautiful wife. This flash-forward was most likely just a science fiction writers fantasy. His real future is as a Ilium, New York optometrist. His unsticking in time is just a symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. It appears in both Pilgrim and Vonnegut, and later in Rosewater. Which lead to the ever-present flashbacks nd trips to a future space zoo. Pilgrim also has problems distinguishing the past, present, and future.

On top of that he doubts his own judgement. He had fallen asleep at work. It had been funny at first. Now Billy was starting to get worried about it, about his mind in general. He tried to remember how old he was, couldnt. He tried to remember what year it was. He couldnt remember that either. (Slaughterhouse-Five 56) These flashbacks are told later in better detail, for he was simultaneously on foot in Germany in 1944 and riding his Cadillac in 1967. Germany dropped away, and 1967 became bright and clear. Slaughterhouse-Five His flashbacks happened at any time, even while driving, indicating a severe case of Post- Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Apathy is also a major problem with the traumas of war.

This apathy could be related to the apathy experienced after war or its following flashbacks. Many things do not concern Billy Pilgrim as he has disassociated himself from the world. He no longer lives in what we refer to as reality. both found life meaningless, partly because of what they had seen in the war. Slaughterhouse-Five 101) Common day life has become too difficult to deal with, hence the lack of emotion Billy has.

In dealing with this post-war trauma, Billy becomes unstuck in time. He mentally travels through time to a place where he more is more comfortable being. He avoids all touch with reality. Eliot Rosewater is another Vonnegut alter ego. His vague description is that of a lonely, drunken, World War II veteran, who comes from an affluent family. In Slaughterhouse-Five he objects to the annihilation of Dresden by speaking through a British POW who is telling the American POWs who are oing to Dresden, You neednt worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city.

It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any Importance. (Slaughterhouse-Five146) Rosewater and Vonnegut both suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome but only Rosewater was hospitalized for it. He later becomes a drunk after the war but he also finds enlightenment through the writings of Kilgore Trout and the company of Billy Pilgrim. Billy and Eliot Rosewater become good acquaintances during their time together in the mental hospital. As Eliot sits in he hospital he tries to become friendly with Pilgrims mother, even though she thinks hes a hideous man.

Rosewater also turns Pilgrim onto Kilgore Trout and that in turn opened up a whole new realm of understanding for Pilgrim. It was Rosewater who introduced Billy to science fiction, and in particular the writings of Kilgore Trout. (Slaughterhouse-Five 100) The best Vonnegut alter ego is Kilgore Trout. He is the neer-done-well, loser of many Vonnegut books. He is a very significant part of the writing process. He embodies much about what Vonnegut has to say about himself and ow he thinks he is perceived.

He perceives himself, most likely in the beginning of his career, as a hack science fiction writer, who will never make it as a serious writer and will only be published as pornography filler. It is Trouts books themselves that enlighten Billy. He feels as if he is not the only one to get unstuck in time. This enlightenment enables Billy to feel more at ease with how he sees his life will fold out. A major recurrence in the novel Slaughterhouse-Five is the repetition of the phrase So it goes. If you notice, this comes after every death there is in the ovel.

On page 210, the first five paragraphs emphasize just how often this quote is replayed. Also, this quote is showing the removal of Billy from the situation. Many people would find these occurrences extremely traumatising, but for Billy he just withdraws from the entire scenario. This enables him to continue life without dealing with everyday pain and suffering. Kurt Vonnegut through his three main literary self-portraits vents his mental illness. Not only does he do that, but also he gives us insightful tid-bits of knowledge and advice that will help us later in life.

His honesty and straightforward manner help the relieving process for Vonnegut or any author who uses writing as a catharsis. His need to rejuvenate himself from all his post- war trauma is a perfect example of a form of insanity. Kurt Vonnegut uses all of his novels to express all the emotions built up from years of suppression. He uses the theme of insanity in all of his pieces of works to convey to the public how he identifies himself. Insanity is the ruling force in Slaughterhouse-Five and the passage on page 210 is the decisive force in portraying

General systems theories emerged in the biological and social sciences following World War II. This led to the conceptualization of the individual as an interdependent part of larger social systems. Systemic therapy does not focus on how problems start, but rather on how the dynamics of relationships influence the problem. The therapist’s goal is to alter the dynamics of the relationships rather than to focus only on the behavior or internal dynamics of individuals.

For example, if a child is having temper tantrums, attention would be given to the stage of family development, the quality of communication between its members, and the clarity and flexibility of family roles. In the family, the executive subsystem is that of the parents; the sibling subsystem is that of the children. Invisible boundaries–unspoken rules about who does what with whom–are drawn around each (and around the immediate family itself) so that each subsystem can carry out its family-stabilizing tasks while remaining connected to the others.

One of the most common family problems is a weak boundary between subsystems. A woman making several calls a day from work to instruct her teenagers on how to dress for school, what to say when they turn in homework, and so forth indicates over-involvement with the sibling subsystem; a man who calls or visits his mother every time he argues with his wife shows a weak boundary between the immediate and extended families.

In therapy it’s quite common to see a little boy suddenly make everyone laugh at precisely the moment the therapist is asking the uncomfortable parents how their marriage is going. Without knowing it, the boy, usually prompted by some subtle signal from his parents, protects the family by taking the heat off them and their fragile relationship. The therapist, seeing the family operating as a whole (self-preservation through distraction) rather than as isolated individuals (Mom, Dad, the son), might then comment.

In alcoholic families the member who drinks controls the whole family with his/her behavior. His/Her unavailability, bad health, violence, unpredictability, and self-contempt distort every interaction between family members. The whole family learns to adapt itself to his/her drinking with maneuvers like denial, bailing him out of jail if he drinks and drives, calling in sick for him if he’s hung over, walking carefully when he’s drunk and angry, unconsciously nominating one child to stand in for him and parent the family.

Family therapists use the term IP, meaning Identified Patient, because a dysfunctional family member generally means a destabilized family system. Whatever its components, unresolved stress between parents reverberates down through all family interrelations and normally results in coalitions, emotional parent-child alignments against the other parent and perhaps other children. For example a mom is a verbally abusive, so when she explodes, dad and brother console one another and perhaps agree that she’s nuts.

A linear approach would emphasize mom’s upbringing and lack of anger management skills and thereby ignore the coalition process itself and reinforce its tendency to scapegoat, whereas a systems approach would focus on the present-time context of mom’s explosions, looking at the interactions leading up to it and encouraging dad and mom to work out new, non-escalating ways to talk and negotiate. Perhaps the couple could enter into couples therapy, rather than blaming her or him or failing to confront, and thus defuse alliances forming elsewhere in the family.

When a couple in session argues about how it started, the therapist can let them know that there is more interest in where it’s going: “How will you resolve this here? ” With specific reference to alcoholics, many have inherited biological and family stresses and have low self-esteem and other dynamics which can all play a part. What counts for the alcoholic isn’t looking for causes so much as cutting the feedback circles that maintain drinking.

A good clinician will refer the client to AA, consider hospitalization, assess for suicidal intent, advise a physical, ask about weapons in the home, and work on both family and individual levels with interventions aimed at interactions (arguments, nagging, money problems, abuse) that presently maintain the alcoholism. A typical situation as described by Neil Jacobson in 1995, an un-intense family with a cool emotional atmosphere unconsciously selects a member to turn up the heat; brother and sister start fighting.

This turns into an argument between the parents, the drama escalates, and then, before it gets too hot, a child who plays the role of family ambassador calms everybody down. In that family, the bias, the emotional level setting, is too low. Many drug and alcohol counselors know that when one member of the family stops drinking or using, the family will subtly try to push him back into his old vices, not because they want him sick, but because families, like other organisms, naturally resist changes that might further destabilize the system.

So one day the husband says to his abstaining wife, “Why not skip your AA meeting tonight so we can catch a movie? ” Or the mother of a teen who’s quit using congratulates him on finding a job, in a restaurant with a bar and grill. Introducing positive feedback (system-changing) loops into these families might include warning them about enabling, relapses and resistance to change and examining what family members gain from having a malfunctioning member (control?

A scapegoat? Distraction from other conflicts? Someone to rescue? ). Constructive intensity might re-calibrate the bias and make explosions unnecessary. Battery normally begins with emotional or verbal abuse (name-calling, shouting, intimidation, shaming) and escalates over the years from pushing and shoving to beatings and even murder. Abuse gives rise to more abuse, violence to more violence: destructive synergy.

In theory of constructive synergy, however, a batterer uses a batterer’s group to learn and master rage-control techniques; those enhance his self-esteem; his wife praises his efforts and trusts him more; he feels good about that and shows her more empathy; the two get problems out on the table instead of hiding them; both grow; their affection deepens; their children carry the resulting relationship blueprint into their own relationships.

Therapists begin this process by helping clients consciously relate and capitalize on growth-producing thoughts, feelings, and interactions (“Now that you stopped drinking, he feels safer telling you about his sadness; you empathized, so he is listening to you more often and with greater care… good work! How will you keep this going? “) Even twins eventually take different roads, grow into individuals with their own insights and values, habits and preferences. Jacobson, 1995) Consciousness guarantees that what we choose to make of our original conditions is more important than the conditions themselves. The abuse survivor who owns the pain moves on; the one who won’t becomes a chronic victim and will probably get into re-victimizing situations. Therapists who realize this assume that a client can and should take full responsibility for the work of healing no matter how dangerous or abusive that client’s environment may have been.

Families are likeliest to be conflicted and symptomatic when key horizontal transitions like marriage, the birth of children, children going to school, children moving away from home, changes of jobs, et cetera coincide with a resurfacing of stressors like old emotional baggage. For example, a workaholic husband driven to succeed by high internalized standards (Rogers’s “conditions of worth”) that equate esteem with production (vertical stressor) puts in even more overtime to stuff the loneliness he feels when his eldest son leaves for college (horizontal stressor). Jacobson, 1995) Worried about his health, escalating stress, and increasing distance from her, his wife suggests that they see a family therapist. Part of the therapeutic agenda would include giving the family tools for negotiating the “empty nest syndrome” while helping the husband get in touch with his mourning, examine his expectations of himself, and reconnect with his family.

Teaching family members how to use “I” statements and listen empathically demonstrate first-order changes that enhance the family’s current functioning. Coaching a widow through the loss of her husband, helping a couple let go of the last child to leave the nest, and restructuring an alcoholic family to eliminate drinking are second-order changes that alter the family fundamentally, bringing it to an entirely new structure and psychological place.

Yes, there really are families–and extended families and neighborhoods and even companies–that work this way: members are clear about what to expect from one another and neither intrude nor distance themselves, they speak openly and affectionately to one another, they know who’s in charge of what, they know and can talk about what is permitted and what is not, their roles and favorites are flexible and changing, and they feel comfortable and safe getting problems and hurt feelings out in the open where everyone can work on them. When enough families succeed at this, perhaps the systemic impact on whole nations will become irresistible.

The 1920s sandwiched as they were between the horror of World War 1 and the untold misery of the great depression, remain firmly in peoples mind as the period of prosperity and where life was free and easy owing to modern technological advances in Australia. After the war we achieved a great sense of national pride. This was mainly seen through what we had accomplished as a young country. We survived the depression of the 19th Century, the influenza epidemic, federation and finally the war.

In the 1920s the cities had electricity for the first time, motor cars replaced the old horse and carriage, the odd plane flew overhead, and the role of women radically changed. The greatest change taking place was the way people dressed and behaved which was a break from the traditions of the pre-war era. The great suffering of the war was over and gave way to a new era of materialism and consumerism resulting in people enjoying themselves After WW1 Australians saw the need to expand and grow. This idea can be best described in the words of the Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, Men, Money, Markets.

Australians saw the need to increase the population to stop the traditional fears of Asians (the Yellow Peril) and Bolshevism (Communism). The population increase was for defensive purposes. Another slogan aimed at the great fear of communism was Keep the Reds Out of Australia. So great was the fear of communism that the church had stood against it and said that it was Godless and attacked the principles of democracy. Money, Markets was seen by the improving and expanding of our country infrastructure and also to start using our primary industry to its full potential.

Once the excitement of both the war and influenza epidemic had died down the 1920s was a release of tensions and traditions. Both the employer and the worker had more money and were willing to spend. Through technological advances life was getting much better for most Australians. The use of electricity brought new appliances such as washing machines, fridges, stoves, irons, radios, gramophones and also vacuum cleaners. These while revolutionary were quite expensive. Transport was another major change. Automobiles had increased form 37,000 btw to an incredible 300,000 in the 20s.

Aviation had also been furthered due to brave pioneers such as, Charles Ulm and Charles Kingsford Smith, Hinckler, and Flysh and McGuinness who had started Qantas. Another improvement in transport was that of electric trams. This made travel from town to town easier and therefore changed family life. The role of women had changed dramatically in the 1920s. They were now able to, in some degree, express themselves and have a greater say in society. This gravely changed traditions. Australia was once a very male orientated society and women were not held in high regard to make decisions.

However during the war women proved themselves by carrying out the male jobs in factories and ensuring the functioning of the country. They unfortunately did receive less pay than their male counterparts. In 1921 with the induction of Edith Cowan into the parliament women were taken seriously. Her induction onto parliament was great because women were only allowed to vote in 1902. The common trend btw (before the war) was that women took on domestic duties such as teaching, nursing and the domestic duties.

From the 1920s and onward the traditional role was gone and women were seen in all areas of employment. This trend to see women on the workforce was not entirely common and most women kept their roll of wife and mother. Perhaps the biggest break in tradition was that of fashion. Many groups apposed the changes, however did little to stop it. Btw womens fashion was characterized by a lower neckline, a slim waistline which was achieved by wearing ill-fitting and uncomfortable corsets, large hats and a principal of covering up.

In the 1920s people were outraged to see hair cut and bobbed, hems lifted above the knee, faces bearing make-up, long stockings and high heels. Women also started smoking and drinking in public, which was a sin in itself, and also driving! This was shocking to elder people in society. The traditions before the war were thrown out the window and women lived a less restrictive lifestyle. During the 1920s many changes questioned the previous morals and traditions. People who opposed this social change were called wowsers.

These people came from a strong religious background that believed in traditions. They went out of their way to stop the deeming of society. Unable to change womens fashion, they were able to enforce a 6 oclock still. The still prevented alcohol form being sold after 6pm. Entertainment had changed lives and as a result traditions. Australian entertainment was influenced by world trends, mainly America. As the mobility of the population increased so too did their desire for new forms of entertainment, such as going to the flicks on Saturday night at the local flea house.

By the end of the 1920s most suburbs and large country towns boasted one or more theaters. This activity was hugely popular and a part of everyday life. This replaced previous traditions for entertainment. This revolution did not end with picture theatre. The 1920s were the era of jazz, dances and cabarets. Wowsers viewed the dances as immoral and unethical. Also a form of entertainment was sport. Due to the advances in technology, mainly electric trams allowed Australians to move to and from sports grounds and beaches.

The issue of beaches was a heated topic of debate in the 1920s. Btw (before the war) there was very strict laws regarding the beach. Surfing, for the early part of the century, was illegal and the act of going to the beach was to paddle at the edge of the water and the only items of clothes removed was shoes and sox. Just prior to the war there was laws passed to only allow single sex beaches. In the 1920s the wowsers once again was angered because woman and men were bathing in the same beaches. The compromise was that men and women had to wear costumes covering form elbow to knee.

The 1920s were a prosperous era that brought happiness and excitement to the people of Australia. Not only in the last 50 years have we survived through a depression, federation, population increase and the brutal effects of the war, but we had also advanced as a country with a strong sense of pride. The 1920s were a revolutionary part of history. For the people it was a great break in tradition and they were free and enjoying themselves. This break in tradition, while it was good for the country came to an end in October 1929 with the crash of the New York Stockmarket.

The Treaty of Versailles was a violation of Wilsons ideals. The Treaty is one of the most important agreements (or disagreements) that shaped 20th century Europe socially and physically. Woodrow Wilson on January 22, 1917 in an address to the United States Senate called for a peace without victors, but the Treaty signed by the participating nations was everything but that. The blame for the war was placed on Germany and justified the reparations that were outlined by the treaty for the war.

The terms of the treaty were very harsh to the Germans and they took on great resentment. It was a fragile peace agreement that would be used as fuel to keep hostilities going 20 years later. When the details of the treaty were published in June 1919 most Germans were horrified. Germany had not been allowed to the Peace Conference and was told to accept the terms or else. Most Germans however, had believed that the Treaty would be lenient because of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

Many people in other lands thought that the treaty was a way of making legal the punishment on the Germans and this was in violation of Wilsonian idealism. The peacemakers should have been able to set aside hatred that was built up from the past in order to come up with a more proper and fair settlement. Instead of doing this, they placed the blame on the Germans by forcing them to pay for reparations they couldn’t afford, insulting them with the accusation of guilt from the war and taking away their territory.

The treaty would only intensify the hatred felt by all the parties involved in the treaty and heighten German nationalism. This was a poor beginning for democracy in Germany and for Wilson’s New World. President Woodrow Wilson had hopes for a New World. For Wilson, the war had been fought against autocracy. A peace settlement based on liberal-democratic ideals, he hoped, would get rid of the foundations of war. None of Wilson’s hopes seemed better than the idea of self-determination — the right of a people to have its own state, free of any foreign domination.

In particular, this goal meant the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France which had been lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war, the creation of an independent Poland, the changing of the frontiers of Italy to include Austrian lands where Italians lived, and an opportunity for Slavs of the Austro- Hungarian Empire to form their own states. Several of the clauses of the Treaty were thought to be very harsh. It was going to be almost impossible to pay the reparations. In fact, the German government gave up after only one year, and the War Guilt Clause seemed very unfair.

How could Germany be the only country to blame for the war? After all it had started when a Serbian shot an Austrian. It was felt that Germany had been simply made a scapegoat by the other countries for all that had happened. Looking back it is clear that the Treaty of Versailles created more problems than it actually solved. The treaty broke up empires and changed boundaries. The Germans lost territory and other countries tried to weaken Germanys military potential and strengthen their own to compensate for the destruction of their lands caused by the Germans.

The Germans were unanimously against the Treaty of Versailles. They viewed the terms of the treaty as humiliating and merciless, designed to keep Germany militarily and economically weak. To the Germans, the Treaty of Versailles was not the beginning of the New World that Wilson had promised, but a horrible crime. At the end of World War I, the victorious Allies met in Paris to draw up the peace conditions. Although the Allies had varying expectations and demands, they did agree that Germany should have the burden of responsibility for causing the war.

Germany was severely penalized under the terms of the treaty. However, the League of Nations couldnt to enforce Germany’s compliance, which increased international tensions. The new German Republic struggled and their economy continued to fall. Although 27 nations attended the Peace Conference, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy strongly dictated the peace terms. Even though each agreed that Germany should assume the financial burden of putting Europe back together, the “Big Four” had different expectations and demands, which they sought.

France demanded a harsh settlement that would eliminate Germany as a potential military threat and it wanted their land back. Italy specifically wanted more territory to add to its empire. Great Britain wanted to keep its strong navy and thought it would be in Europes best interest to help restore the German economy. Finally, the United States sought the League of Nations to be an international committee to break up future conflicts and Wilson was pushing his 14 Points. The fact that Germany was made responsible for ALL the reparations helped to break apart international relations.

The Allies were counting on Germany to pay their war debts. They hoped to use that money to help their own economic problems. The League of Nations was not very effective in forcing Germany to make payments, because it lost credibility when the United Stated didnt join. The new German republic was in a constant state of instability because new radical groups were emerging left and right, trying to attain power. The continuing economic decline worsened the struggle, leaving the German people discouraged and desperate.

The conclusions of the war included the following; Germany was forced to reduce its army to 100,000 men, reduce the navy to 6 warships and was not allowed to have any submarines, destroy all of its air force, give land to Belgium, France, Denmark and Poland, hand over all of its colonies, agree to pay reparations to the Allies for all of the damage caused by the war, put no soldiers or military equipment within 30 miles of the east bank of the Rhine, and accept all of the blame for the war (War Guilt Clause. ) Italy was given the two small areas of Istria and the South Tirol.

The Adriatic coast was made part of a new country called Yugoslavia, which included Serbia and Bosnia. Other new countries were created; Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were formed from land lost by Russia. Czechoslovakia and Hungary were formed out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Allies also gave Germany a new form of government based on proportional representation. It was meant to prevent Germany from being taken over by a dictatorship, but it led to the creation of more than thirty political parties; none of them was big enough to form a government on its own.

Aware that a harshly treated Germany might seek revenge, engulfing the world in another destruction, Wilson insisted that there should be a “peace without victory. ” A fair settlement would encourage Germany to work with the Allies in building a new Europe. To preserve peace and to help remake the world, Wilson urged the formation of a League of Nations. What was most significant about the Treaty of Versailles was that it did not solve the German problem.

Germany was left weak but unbroken — its industrial and military power was only temporarily taken away and its nationalist feelings have intensified. The real danger in Europe was German unwillingness to accept defeat or surrender their longtime dream of expansion. In conclusion, had the Allies Powers listened to President Wilson’s hopes for a new world and to his famous Fourteen Points, the settlement would have been peaceful and the Germans would not have been humiliated as they have been and would have no reason to want to seek revenge.

It is a common held belief that America has historically been a nation driven by the ideology of isolationism. The best cases for these arguments are through our unwillingness to participate in either world war. The lynch pin being the events that happened in Pearl Harbor. I will try to dispel this theory in my essay. On December 7th, 1941 war was forced upon America by the Japanese assault on Peal Harbor, and declarations of war by Germany and Italy four days later.

It is a myth that Franklin D. Roosevelt was anxious to bring America into the war, and was prevented from doing so by the overwhelming isolationist spirit of the American people. The evidence shows that FDR was primarily concerned with his domestic policies and had no wish to join in a crusade against Nazism or totalitarianism or indeed against international aggression. He took no positive steps to involve the United States in the conflict. The war came as much a surprise-and an unwelcome surprise-to him as anyone else.

There is a persistent myth that he was forewarned about the Japanese aggression at Pearl Harbor, and did nothing to stop it, being anxious that American participation in the global conflict should be precipitated by the unprovoked act of aggression. That all kinds of warnings were in the air at the time is clear. But an objective survey of all the evidence indicates that Pearl Harbor came as a real and horrifying shock to all the members of the Roosevelt administration, beginning with the President himself.

It is also a myth, however, that Americas unwillingness to engage in World War Two-the polls show that around 80 percent of the adult population wanted America to stay neutral until the Pearl Harbor assault-sprang from a deep sense of isolationism, which was Americas pristine and natural posture in world affairs. This myth is so persistent that it has led in the 1990s to a demand to return to isolationism, as though it were Americas destiny and natural preference. So it is worth examining in a longer historical context.

There is nothing unique, as many Americans suppose, in the desire of a society with a strong cultural identity to minimize its foreign contacts. On the contrary, isolationism in this sense has been the norm wherever geography has made it feasible. A characteristic example of a hermit state is Japan, which tried to use its surrounding seas to pursue a policy of total isolation. China, too, was isolationist for thousands of years, albeit an empire at the same time. The British were habitually isolationist even during the centuries when they were acquiring an empire embracing a quarter of the worlds surface.

The British always regarded the English Channel as a cordon sanitaire to protect them from what they saw as the Continental disease of war. The Spanish too were misled by the Pyrenees, and the Russians by the Great Plains, into believing that isolationism was feasible as well as desirable. The United States, however, has always been an internationalist country. Given the sheer size of the Atlantic (and the Pacific), with its temptation to hermitry, the early colonists and rulers of the United States were remarkably international minded.

The Pilgrim Fathers did not cut themselves off from Europe, but sought to erect a City on a Hill precisely to serve as an example to the Old World. The original Thirteen Colonies had, as a rule, closer links with Europe than with each other, focusing on London and Paris, rather than on Boston or Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin had perhaps a better claim to be called a cosmopolitan than any other figure on either side of the Atlantic. He believed strongly in negotiations and in mutually advantageous treaties between nations.

Americas ruling elite was always far more open towards, interested in, and knowledgeable about the world (especially Europe) than the French-Canadians to the north and the Spanish- and Portuguese-Americans to the south. Despite the oceans on both sides, the United States was from the start involved with Russia (because of Oregon and Alaska), China (because of trade), Spain, Britain, and other European powers. Isolation in a strict sense was never an option, and there is no evidence that the American masses, let alone the elites, favored it, especially once immigration widened and deepened the ties with Europe.

It is true that the United States, through most of the 19th century, was concerned with expanding its presence in the Americas rather than with global policies. But exponents of America First, like John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and the Manifest Destiny chorus, were imperialists rather than isolationists. Between the two world wars, America sometimes appeared , in theory as well as in practice, isolationist, and much of the tragedy of World War Two is attributed to this.

But, despite rejection of the League, America was certainly not isolationist in the 1920s, though its intervention in international affairs was not always prudent, particularly in the Pacific. American interest in Asia had grown steadily throughout the 19th century, and it was not only, or indeed not primarily, commercial. It was religious and cultural too. There was something in Asian culture, it had been argued, that persuaded Americans that they had a mission to intervene and change it for the better.

An American idealogy that the United States is the greatest country and therefore other countries benefit by our cultural bombardment (coca-cola and nike for instance). By the end of the 19th century, there were over 3,000 American missionaries in Siam, Burma, Japan and Korea, and, above all, China. The one Asian country which resisted Americanization was Japan, and it symbolized this rejection of American cultural notions (though not its technology) by building an ocean going navy on a large scale. The United States did nothing to prevent the development of hostile US-Japanese relations.

There were reasons for this. In the early 20th century California introduced race laws to prevent the settlement of Japanese immigrants and from 1906-8 the mass migration from Japan had been halted. American policy in the 1920s tended not merely to perpetuate Japanese-American hostility but to poison the relationship between Japan and Britain too. At Versailles, Wilson antagonized the Japanese by refusing to write a condemnation of racism(which had bearings on the situation in California) into the covenant of the League.

Under President Hoover, the American government continued to play a world role, with the object of preserving peace. But its actions were usually counterproductive. Hoover refused to veto the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which destroyed Japans American trade, 15 percent of its exports. That combined with the London treaty, which it signed reluctantly, completed Japans alienation from the West, and determined its rulers, or at any rate the military cliques which in effect ran Japanese army and naval policy, to go it on their own.

There followed the 1931 Japanese occupation of Manchuria and, in 1933, Japans departure from the League of Nations. Hoover made no positive moves to oppose Japanese expansion. When Roosevelt took over, he made matters worse. Hoover had helped to plan a world economic conference, to be held in London June 1933. It might have persuaded the have not powers like Japan and Germany that there were alternatives to fighting for a living . But on July 3 Roosevelt canceled it.

Thereafter the United States did indeed move into isolation, though it was not the only great and civilized power to do so in the 1930s. Nor was its move out of want but necessity. Among the victors of World War One, fear of a second, which would invalidate all their sacrifices, was universal. In the United States, the Depression, coming after nearly seventy years of dramatic economic expansion which had made it the richest and most powerful country on earth, abruptly reduced half the population to poverty.

In August 1935 Roosevelt passed the first Neutrality Act, which kept the U. S. officially and globally out of the war. This allowed America to rebuild its internal infrastructure, without having the glaring inevitability of war present in congress and the public eye. Roosevelts administration became infected by the spirit of isolationism, not out of national idealogy or arrogance, but out of panic at a nation and populace that now found its self bankrupt and desperate.

Roosevelt showed himself as lacking in leadership as Baldwin and Chamberlain in Britain, or Daldier in France. It is permissible to speculate that Theodore Roosevelt, with his clearer ideas of Americas responsibilities to the world, and his warmer notions of democratic solidarity, would have been more energetic in alerting the American people to the dangers which threatened them and the need for timely preparation and action, thereby saving countless American lives, and prodigious quantities of U. S. treasure.

As it was, not until November 17, 1941, after repeated confrontations with German submarines in the North Atlantic, and the actual torpedoing of the US destroyer Reuben James, did Congress amend the Neutrality Acts to allow US merchant ships to arm themselves and to carry cargo to belligerent ports. This was only three weeks before Pearl Harbor ended the tragic farce of American neutrality. Thus the United States was finally drawn into the war for the survival of democracy and international -6- law at a time and place not of its own choosing, but of its enemys.

Roosevelt had no real belief that Pearl Harbor was ever going to be bombed. The Japanese war preparations were a characteristic combination of breathtaking efficiency and inexplicable muddle. Gen. George Marshall, FDRs principal military advisor, had repeatedly assured the President that Oahu fortress complex, which included Pearl Harbor, was the strongest in the world and that a seaborne attack was out of the question. The plan of attack on Pearl Harbor, which involved getting a gigantic carrier force unobserved over thousands of miles of ocean, was the most audacious and complex scheme of its kind in history.

Nothing like it had ever been conceived before, in extent and complexity, and it is no wonder that Marshall discounted its magnitude and FDR brushed aside such warnings as he received. The Second World War was not started in secrecy and deceit. Roosevelt was not an ideologist, who saw salvation in forcing an isolationist country into international affairs. He was a President fraught with the problems of a panicked, economically debacled country. His entire focus was on the regrowth of the American infrastructure.

The fickle attitude of Japan, a country that occilated between threats of war and neutrality, between military and civilian control, were not taken seriously in leu of more prevalent problems. This is not to say, either, that the U. S. itself was a populace of isolationists. America had grown wealthy through international trade and exports, but the devastating implications of a war on an already strained people was too much. America joined the war, initially, in retaliation to the threat of war. It was forced, inadvertently, into war, not by Presidential conspiracy to overturn isolationist feelings, but out of self-defense.

Many of us can remember playing childhood games when we were younger. One of my personal favorites was hide and seek. My favorite part of the game was when I was hiding and tried to watch where the seeker looked while he or she searched. Of course I could have been caught, but it wasn’t a big deal at the time. What would happen though if the seeker didn’t know who he was looking for, but knew someone was hiding? How would he go about finding the person? Further more how much more could the person accomplish if they were hiding right in front of them, but the seeker did not know?

Well it may sound a little off, but that was basically the game of espionage. Spies would try to conceal themselves by gathering information at the same time. During times of war it was critical to keep your movements, plans, and technology secret so that enemies could not be prepared or be one-step ahead. Therefore spies would be a very influential on outcomes of wars. One of the wars that the USA needed espionage help was in WWII. Not only did they need to get information but have counter intelligence to keep secrets away from Germany and their allies. Espionage helped the US during WWII in the defeat of Germany and their allies.

Spies during WWII were intended to provide the basis for an accurate assessment of other nations’ intentions and military capabilities. [Richelson, 103] In such a war a successful surprise attack could leave a victim staggered and ready for a knockout blow. [103] That meant it was critical for the USA to stop espionage from telling their moves and having their spies tell them about the planned attacks of the Axis Powers. This would help the USA to pull off critical assaults on Germany such as D-Day. But before the beginning of the end of the war came many other obstacles to be overcome by the US.

At the beginning of the war all the major combatants had a place in code breaking establishments, all of which would experience explosive growth during the war. [173] These agencies would then go on to provide critical information during the war to provide information needed to combat the Axis. One of the most important needs for espionage was in the deciphering of the ENIGMA. [176] This was used to code and decode German messages sent and received between commanders and such. [176]

It was very hard to decipher the ENIGMA because of the way it was set up. 176] What made it so difficult to decipher was the process by which a letter in an original message was transformed into a different one for the transmitted message. [176] The process involved, among other things, three motors in each machine that were chosen from a set of five. [176] Each of them had twenty-six settings, and a plugboard, which connected the keyboard letters to the lampboard letters. [176]

For example the first time the L key was pressed a B might light up, but because the rotors turned further entries of L on the board would not produce another B but rather other letters. 176] US intelligence along with help from other countries was eventually able to make a duplicate machine that would help them in decoding messages. [177] Without help from espionage in this instance the US and their allies would be susceptible to unknown attacks and movements of armies without having a chance to prepare for it.

Here to the use of American Espionage was evident in the fight against its oppressors. Without proper deciphering of messages the battles could have been altered for the side of the Axis. One particular instance in which the US used intelligence to gain an advantage when going to be attacked was the battle of Midway.

The US intercepted an encrypted message from a Japanese Admiral and revealed the date in which the attacks were scheduled. [O’Toole, 388] Therefore the US was able to have a task force waiting for the Japanese when they arrived. [389] It was said that Midway marked the turning point of the war for the pacific. [389] Again the use of Espionage provided huge results for American’s throughout the war with the Axis. Another importance of espionage in the war was that the Axis powers didn’t know that the Allies intercepted their communications. 392] Also, the British intercepted many messages that were given to the US as well. [392] The agreement they came upon to share intelligence was called the BRUSA. [392] This actually helped join the espionage together to use personnel along with technology of each other together with providing security for the operations. [392] Again the intelligence agencies of the USA helped them in winning the war by combining efforts with their allies.

Ultra intelligence played a vital role in every major allied operation in the European, North African, and Mediterranean theatres of the war. 393] For example, it showed the Germans were not prepared for American landings in North Africa in November of 1942. [393] Also it disclosed movement of German forces instantaneously after the landings. [393] As historian Ronald Lewin wrote: Ultra was a fundamental for strategic deception—fundamental for knowing in advanced which of the enemy’s forces were stationed where (the order of battle): fundamental for observing immediately his secret reactions to any attempt to deceive: and fundamental for monitoring any redeployment of his troops which might confirm that he had been taken in. [393]

One of the most important uses for Ultra was support in anti-submarine warfare in the Battle of the Atlantic. [394] They used intercepted information to capture the naval Enigma machine from U-110 in May 1941. [394] It helped to guide anti-submarine forces to the German U-boats. [394] Again Espionage from the US produces striking results in the battles that could’ve easily gone the other way without the information that was provided by the intelligence. The US did not just use their spies against the Germans though. After all, the Japanese were that ones that attacked us to bring us into the war.

A man by the name of William F. Friedman played a significant role in the world of American Espionage. [Volkman, 74] After working to decode ciphering machines in World War I, Friedman looked to break the code of the Japanese ciphering machine named PURPLE. [76] To do this Friedman worked with a the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) to come up with a ciphering machine of their own that was considered unbreakable. [75] It took him a while, but after working seven days a week, for twelve hours a day, for four months and finally cracked the machine. 75] This was the beginning of something huge for the Americans because they had a great deciphering man in Friedman. Friedman’s group of mathematicians and intelligence was called the Magicians. [77] Throughout the war they helped decipher many Japanese originated messages that were critical military moves. [81] One of the greatest moves Friedman made was in the interception of the fortifications of Normandy, which made D-Day possible. [81]

His efforts led to the creation of a counterpart of PURPLE that allowed the USA to decipher its’ messages. 81] The Magicians and Friedman played a major role in making the defeat of Japan and Germany possible by deciphering messages and creating counterparts to cipher machines. Another help that USA Espionage did in the war was because it could show evidence of military moves. One of the greatest moves it foretold was that Germany was going to attack Russia. [Richelson, 113] It was recorded that Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden summoned Maisky, an Ambassador of resent German redeployments of forces towards Russian and informed him of this:

In the past forty-eight hours the information reaching us had become more significant. The troop concentrations might be for the purpose of a war of nerves, or they might be for the purpose of an attack on Russia . . . but we were bound to consider in the light of this very formidable build-up, that conflict between Germany and Russia was possible. [113] Of course there was an attack on Russia by Germany, but the Soviets were not completely unprepared thanks to our intelligence’s work. 113] Our spies had a work as great as the troops that fought in the war, because they also put themselves on the line in the other countries to support the war behind the scenes. Their contributions helped the US in preparing other countries for attacks that would soon after ally themselves with them. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a major part of the war.

Although intelligence helped maintain our strength in the war, its’ mistakes helped us make it into the war. Intelligence historian David Kahn observed this: Intelligence officers could have perhaps have foreseen the attack if the United States, years before, had instituted spies into high level Japanese military and naval circles, flown regular aerial reconnaissance of the Japanese navy, put intercept units aboard ships sailing close to Japan to pick up naval messages hat greatly expanded codebreaking unit might have cracked. . . . The intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor was not one of analysis but of collection. ” [122] Although it was not necessarily a mistake, the attack, according to Historian David Kahn could have been either known of or prevented. [123]

Some of the various information that was critical for the US to acquire was provided by their counterspies. [124] These spies were used as agents against those who stole information that would help the Axis in their wins, just as the USA used their own Espionage to their advantage so would their enemies. Keeping their information was a critical point so that Germany was not able to know that the Allied Powers knew of their plans. Some of the transmitting had to stop because of the danger of counterspies. [131] Unfortunately for the Axis, the US continued to work throughout the hostility of counterspies and had success. Johnson, 123]

One critical part of intelligence was to keep the atomic bomb a secret. [Richelson, 134] Not only from the Axis, but Russia was trying to spy on the US’s attempts as well. [134, 135] The FBI and the CIA did much work in the defeat of these spies by arresting them, searching houses for documents and such. [140] This part of the US Espionage was critical for if the Atomic bombs plan were wrecked the war could’ve gone on longer, or if the technology had fallen into the hands of the Axis the war could have turned into a different scenario.

Throughout many different other battles the US had information on various military movements of the Axis because of the share of there information with the British. [O’Toole, 392] British intelligence had some information the US did not have against the Axis which proved very useful against their enemies. [393] British intelligence became of much use to the US throughout the world war and they intern continue to give there espionage information to them as well. This boded for a greater advancement in espionage because each of the countries best combined for great possibilities in that field. 395] Again, when USA intelligence ran into some trouble they continue to help with their efforts in winning the war by sharing and receiving information from the British. Perhaps the greatest contributions of the espionage in the USA were when the assault on D-Day took place.

A plan finally arose after many days of scheming. [Richelson, 154] It was called JEDBURGH. [154] The plan basically took many three manned teams that would infiltrate the area once the invasion began and started to gather intelligence, while others linked up with the masquisards. 154] They then continued to tell of German military movements, decipher intercepted messages and told airplanes where to drop the weapons that were needed to upend the German defense plans. [154] Additional sabotage operations forced Germans to communicate by radio and they became easier to intercept and decipher. [155] Espionage was needed to make this monumental assault a success for the Allies. During the war, the spies continued there hiding, while the Germans began to seek them. Americans came out with the upper end in the war.

Espionage helped prepare defenses, win battles, and warn other allied powers of attacks of the Axis. On all accounts it seems that the USA could not have won the war without the help of their Espionage. Whether it be deciphering messages, recording military movements, or finding other spies, American espionage played a major role in the defeat of Germany and their allies during World War II. American Espionage stood up to the dangers that a soldier faced in battle and did not back down when their country needed them, even if it meant dying to keep a secret.

Pearl Harbor were not awaken by the familiar sound of a bugle but by gunfire and explosions. This attack led to other events in World War II such as, America’s involvement in the war and the dropping of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima. Between the years of 1920 and 1940 dictators came to power in Germany, Italy, and Japan. The first country to have a dictatorship was Italy. Thier dictator was Benito Mussolini. He became dictator in 1922. Mussolini organized and founded the Fascist party before he became dictator. After thier loss in World War I Germany had severe problems with thier economy.

Adolf Hitler and his political party the Nazis promised they would end Germanies problems if Hitler became dictator. The Germans made Hitler thier dictator in 1933. Italy and Germany decided to become allies in 1939. They called themselves the Axis Powers. Japan joined the Axis Powers in 1940. The emperor of Japan at the present time was Emperor Hirohito. After he joined with the Axis Powers he started taking over countries, cities, and island in and around Japan that belonged to countries who opposed the Axis Powers. Joseph Stalin, the ruler of Russia at the present time, sided ith Hitler until Hitler double crossed him and tried to take over Russia.

After the double cross Stalin decided to side with the Allies. The Allies were the countries that were opposed to the Axis Powers. These countries were Britain, France, the U. S. A. , and Russia. The three leaders of the Allied Powers were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. After World War II started Japan grew angry with the U. S. A. because they were helping China by sending them war supplies. Japan didn’t like this because China was the main target of Japanese attacks.

As a result of this Japan decided to take a “peace” trip to the U. S. A. . They made the trip in November of 1941. During this “peace” trip Japan made three proposals to the government. These proposals were, to stop aiding China, to stay out of Asian affairs, and to begin shipping oil to Japan right away or Japan would attack the U. S. A. . President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the government of the United States didn’t carry out these proposals. As a result of this Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941 at 7:55 AM.

The reason they attacked that arly was because Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the person in control of the Japanese warships in that area, knew most of the troops at Pearl Harbor would be asleep. The main planes Japan used for the attack were bombers. The number of bombers used was 350. Six aircraft carriers are what these planes were carried on. They chose to use bombers because thier primary objective was to destroy as many ships as possible. They did have one squadron of fighter planes in each wave, however. The reason they did this was because Yamamoto predicted that the troops at Pearl Harbor would be able to a launch a few planes.

There were two waves of planes. The first wave of planes were to destroy as many capital ships as possible. Capital ships are ships that are powerful. The planes that were still up and running after the first wave were to join in the second wave. The second wave of planes were to destroy whatever was left after the first wave of planes finished thier mission. These were mostly carrier ships and submarines that were surfaced. During this attack exactly ten major command ships were destroyed. Some of the ships that were destroyed were the U. S. S. Arizona, the Pennsylvania, the Maryland, and the West Virginia.

The major results off the bombing of Pearl Harbor were the involvement of the United States in World War II. The second major result was the dropping of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima in Japan. Harry S. Truman was the president who dropped the bomb on Japan because F. D. Roosevelt died shortly before that happened. Before he died he gave a speech about what happened at Pearl Harbor. In this speech he said, “Yesterday December 7,1941-a date witch we live in infamy [total disgrace]-the United States of America was deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… ”

That was nly part of the speech ,however. The U. S. S.. Arizona which was one of the most badly damaged ships because of the attack had a memorial made for it. After the bombing American soldiers use the phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor” to raise thier spirits during the remainder of the war. Pearlharbor On December7, 1941 the U. S. troops stationed on the island of Pearl Harbor were not awaken by the familiar sound of a bugle but by gunfire and explosions. This attack led to other events in World War II such as, America’s involvement in the war and the dropping of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima.

Between the years of 1920 and 1940 dictators came to power in Germany, Italy, and Japan. The first country to have a dictatorship was Italy. Thier dictator was Benito Mussolini. He became dictator in 1922. Mussolini organized and founded the Fascist party before he became dictator. After thier loss in World War I Germany had severe problems with thier economy. Adolf Hitler and his political party the Nazis promised they would end Germanies problems if Hitler became dictator. The Germans made Hitler thier dictator in 1933. Italy and Germany decided to become allies in 1939. They alled themselves the Axis Powers. Japan joined the Axis Powers in 1940. The emperor of Japan at the present time was Emperor Hirohito. After he joined with the Axis Powers he started taking over countries, cities, and island in and around Japan that belonged to countries who opposed the Axis Powers. Joseph Stalin, the ruler of Russia at the present time, sided with Hitler until Hitler double crossed him and tried to take over Russia. After the double cross Stalin decided to side with the Allies. The Allies were the countries that were opposed to the Axis Powers. These countries were Britain, France, the U.

S. A. , and Russia. The three leaders of the Allied Powers were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. After World War II started Japan grew angry with the U. S. A. because they were helping China by sending them war supplies. Japan didn’t like this because China was the main target of Japanese attacks. As a result of this Japan decided to take a “peace” trip to the U. S. A. . They made the trip in November of 1941. During this “peace” trip Japan made three proposals to the government. These proposals were, to stop aiding China, to stay out of Asian affairs, nd to begin shipping oil to Japan right away or Japan would attack the U. S. A. . President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the government of the United States didn’t carry out these proposals.

As a result of this Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941 at 7:55 AM. The reason they attacked that early was because Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the person in control of the Japanese warships in that area, knew most of the troops at Pearl Harbor would be asleep. The main planes Japan used for the attack were bombers. The number of bombers used was 350. Six aircraft carriers are what these lanes were carried on. They chose to use bombers because thier primary objective was to destroy as many ships as possible. They did have one squadron of fighter planes in each wave, however. The reason they did this was because Yamamoto predicted that the troops at Pearl Harbor would be able to a launch a few planes. There were two waves of planes.

The first wave of planes were to destroy as many capital ships as possible. Capital ships are ships that are powerful. The planes that were still up and running after the first wave were to join in the second wave. The second wave of planes were to destroy hatever was left after the first wave of planes finished thier mission. These were mostly carrier ships and submarines that were surfaced. During this attack exactly ten major command ships were destroyed. Some of the ships that were destroyed were the U. S. S. Arizona, the Pennsylvania, the Maryland, and the West Virginia. The major results off the bombing of Pearl Harbor were the involvement of the United States in World War II. The second major result was the dropping of the Atom Bomb at Hiroshima in Japan.

Harry S. Truman was the president who dropped the bomb on Japan because F. D. Roosevelt died shortly before that happened. Before he died he gave a speech about what happened at Pearl Harbor. In this speech he said, “Yesterday December 7,1941-a date witch we live in infamy [total disgrace]-the United States of America was deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… ” That was only part of the speech ,however. The U. S. S.. Arizona which was one of the most badly damaged ships because of the attack had a memorial made for it. After the bombing American soldiers use the phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor” to raise thier spirits during the remainder of the war.

After the World War II and the Holocaust, many Jewish and Christian people were left wondering why God would let such a thing happen. Many felt estranged, as if God had somehow abandoned them in their most desperate time of need. The world needed an explanation as to why God would let such a thing happen to his so-called “children”. This need for an explanation of why evil exists in a world that is supposed to have been created by an all-powerful and all-loving God has plagued religious believers for centuries. Because of this need, many scholars have sought out explanations.

This search for an answer to the problem of evil has resulted in many theodicies, or defenses of God in view of the existence of evil. One such defense is known as the free will defense. The free will defense attempts to combat the problem of evil by rationalizing that evil is the result human action and therefore, God is not to be held accountable for it. This essay will discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of the free will defense. Before we can discuss the free will defense, we must define the different types of evil that exist.

Philosophers distinguish between two types of evil that exist in this world, natural evil and moral evil. Natural evils are those evils that occur that are outside of our control, or more simply put, the evils exist in nature. These evils include natural disasters like earth quakes, floods, and tornados. They also include other forms of “chance” occurrences that are out of our control. Moral evils, on the other hand, are the evils that are in the control of humans and result from human action. They include things such as murder, rape, theft, etc.

Evil, both natural and moral, creates many problems and contradictions regarding the existence of God. One such problem that has been created by the existence and abundance of evil in the world can be summed up into one logical argument: God is supposed to be all-loving and all-powerful, but how can he be all-loving and all-powerful and at the same time allow the existence of evil and suffering in this world. This is essentially the idea behind the problem of evil for many believers. It is also the basis for the argument that many disbelievers use to disprove the existence of God.

There are many approaches taken by theologians to answer the problem mentioned above. The free will defense, in particular, is one of the most popular approaches. This approach makes its argument by attacking the purposed idea that an all-loving and all-powerful God cannot exist in a world where evil exists and is in abundance. The argument says that when God created humans, he gave us was the ability to choose our course of actions for ourselves. He did this because He wanted us to have the ability to choose on our own between right and wrong, good and evil, and believing in Him or not.

God could not create humans without giving them free will. If He had done so, then humanity’s faith in God and their actions of piousness would mean nothing. We would essentially be robots. That is why God gave us free will, despite knowing that it would result in evil, suffering, and the questioning of his existence. The argument goes on to state that since humanity has free will, they are responsible for their own actions. The evil that exists in this world and the bad things that result from it are a direct result of human action.

Humanity may be tempted by the appeal of evil, but regardless of this, it is still humanity’s choice of whether or not to choose to commit evil. If humanity does indeed choose to commit evil, it is their fault, not God’s. Therefore, humanity is held accountable, not God, for the presence of evil in the world, because the choice to sin was made by humanity alone. Regarding the free will defense, some philosophers and theologians, like Ediegar Burkovitz, believe that while God is not held accountable in the here and now, he is held accountable in the afterlife.

God may not be responsible for the evil that we create in this world, but He is responsible for giving us free will. God knew that humanity was bound to choose evil, because we are imperfect, and therefore, He is in some way responsible. All the innocent people that suffered because of the evil acts of others must be compensated in the afterlife for being faithful to God, in spite their suffering. This is why some believe that for the free will defense to work, there must be a dimension beyond time and history where all suffering finds its course. Biblical support of the free will defense can be seen in the story of Adam and Eve.

In story of Genesis, God created a perfect world for Adam and Eve to live in, The Garden of Eden, where they had no need for want or sin. Adam and Eve might have had no need to sin, but God gave them the ability to choose their actions for themselves. Both Adam and Eve were tempted by the Devil to rebel against God’s commands and chose to sin. They made this choice of their own accord. This example of the Original Sin shows that when God first created humanity, He valued moral independence so highly that He gave humanity a sense of free will, despite knowing that they might choose to commit evil.

It also reinforces the idea that humanity is responsible for its plight and the existence of evil in the world today. The free will defense is such a popular theodicy because it has such a logical way of explaining evil. It forces humanity to hold itself accountable for the evil that exists in the world and it gives good reasons for why this evil exists. As the logic goes, God could not eliminate evil without at the same time rendering it impossible to accomplish other goals that are important to Him.

Certainly, for God to create human beings that are capable of sustaining a personal relationship with Him, they must be beings that are capable of freely loving Him and following His will without coercion. Unfortunately, the logic of the argument fails when approached from certain angles. The free will defense provides a good explanation as to why moral evil exists in the world, but in order for the free will defense to work, it must adequately explain not only moral evil, but natural evil as well. This is where the free will defense is weakest.

Some might argue that there are evil forces in the world that cause natural evil, and because of this God is not responsible for these evils. There is no proof, however, that such evil forces exist, so this argument fails. Others argue that humans indirectly cause natural evil, for example, floods caused due to deforestation. However, this argument fails too, because there are countless other natural evils that are not caused in any way by humans, like hurricanes or tornados. Natural evils that exist in the world are not the result of human action, but that of nature, which is attributed to God.

The free will defense essentially fails to free God of the responsibility of natural evil; therefore, the free will defense cannot adequately answer the problem of natural evil since natural evil is not the result of human action. The free will defense is not entirely infallible when applied to moral evil either. One philosopher who has found flaw in this argument is John Mackie. Mackie’s argument is that, “If God has made men such that in their free choices they sometimes prefer what is good and sometimes what is evil, why could he not have made men such that they always freely choose the good? Religion’s response to this argument is that if God had done this then it would still limit humanity’s free will by not allowing humanity the ability to choose the bad in addition to the good.

Mackie responds by saying that the church contradicts itself when it says that free will cannot exist in such a state because when the church seeks “a happier or more perfect state of affairs than now exists…they are explicitly recognizing the possibility of a state of affairs in which created beings always freely choose the good. By this logic, Mackie is able to prove that it was indeed possible for God to create a world in which suffering does not exist in such abundance.

Therefore, God is in some way accountable for the suffering that exists in this world, because he could have prevented it and still maintained free will. The free will defense is a very functional way of approaching evil in this world. It allows people to logically understand and accept the fact that evil is able to exist in a world that an all-knowing and all-powerful God created. This defense is not infallible; in fact, it has several flaws and critics.

It does, however, adequately answer the problem of evil for many believers. It might not be able to turn the disbeliever into a believer, but it will provide assurance for those who feel doubt in their religious faith because of the abundance of evil that exists in the world. Theodicies are an important thing for the believer. The believer must know that God is just, all-loving, and all-powerful, for his faith the be strong, and I believe, despite the inconsistencies in the argument, that the free will defense does indeed assure these things.

Before World War II broke out the world took a wild ride during Hitlers rise to power. The entire world didnt think that he would become as powerful as he became. Hitler achieved his power by relying on the nerviness of the world to sit back and allow him to do what he wanted. The world was too concerned about the political, economic and militant to busy worrying about the Germans who where thinking about ruling the world. Before and during the war, the world was concerned about the economic system. Ever since World War I, the world countries have been in and out of depressions, no one anted another war.

The United States, which was in the Greatest Depression of all, was its a big problem itself. The US didnt want war, especially after the last one they fought with huge causalities and huge amounts of money spent. The citizens of the US didnt want another war because they knew that another war would cause another depression and that was something that the people didnt want. Even thought the war would create jobs, and put the economy back into a war boom, the American public didnt want to have to deal with the downsides of a war.

The major downside being the huge economic toll it would take on the government, which would be fighting on two oceans on different sides of the world. It would become very costly to maintain war and win too. The world also had enormous political concerns. The US was in a period of major and they wanted no part of anything else in the world, except the Western Hemisphere. With Germanys rise of Nazism, the world responded with fascist parties popping up in every nation across the world. Hitler has spread his beliefs into every county in the entire world, xactly what he wanted.

These parties responded to every action that their leader took; they helped him scout out a specific country and infiltrate that countrys government. These parties believe in Hitler and did whatever he told them to do, including in the United States. After the countries realized Hitlers power they all formed different alliances. The Germans allied with Italy and Japan. The US allied with Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. It seemed as though each day another country would sign up with either side.

Sometimes, even, countries would agree not to fight each. The pre-war and during the war, militaries from all countries fought a war with superior equipment than in the last war. With the invention of the plane, tank, machinegun spread war supplies all over the globe and allowed each country to empower itself. The US prepared for war by passing a series of congressional acts that enabled the war budget to increase dramatically. These acts also allowed for the US to help other countries without actually engaging in the war.

The US supplied Great Britain with supplies and ships ithout ever declaring war on Germany. Germanys invention of the Blitzkrieg they attacked nations and conquered them in single days. No nation had ever seen tactics like this before, and they worked for Hitler. Hitlers air force was the best in the world; he had the most planes with the best pilots. They were unstoppable. Japans increase in military power proved itself with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December. Japan showed off its massive air force that dominated and destroyed the majority of the United States Navy fleet.

Pearl Harbor was certainly one of the most dramatic turning points in United States history, with all the elements that go along with an epic drama: heroes, villains, propaganda and conspiracy theories. It propelled the country from an isolationist continent into the spotlight on the world stage. World War II changed the way the world viewed the United States and how Americans viewed themselves. As a result of Pearl Harbor and the war the United States accepted the predominant world leadership role.

The tragedy of Pearl Harbor shocked and united the American people into a singular purpose and goal to a greater extent than any other event before or since. As Americans awoke on a lazy Sunday morning in paradise, little did they know that within a few short minutes their lives would be changed forever. Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen watched in horror as the United States fleet including the mighty dreadnoughts burned and sank to the bottom of the shallow blue harbor.

The calamity incited mass chaos and confusion. Numerous false rumors were spread including that Japanese paratroopers were invading Hawaii and that follow-on assaults were imminent. Above all, no one knew how to react since this was the first time since the War of 1812 that Americans were attacked on their own soil. As the nation was just recovering from the Great Depression, with optimism in the horizon the American people really had no desires to involve themselves in foreign wars.

However President Franklin Roosevelt was aware of the actions taking place in Europe and Asia and could foresee the United States inevitable danger to the free world if the United States didn’t take a stand in the war. While Americans favored neutrality the United States administration knew that it would only be a matter of time until the United States would enter the war. The convenient timing of Pearl Harbor allowed Roosevelt’s unhindered pursuit of his interventionist agenda.

This along with certain details, such as the lack of aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, led some to believe Roosevelt had forewarning of the attack and intentionally provoked the Japanese to open the backdoor to war. Twenty three hours after the initial aggression, Roosevelt declared war and ensured that, “This day will live in infamy” in his address to Congress. In the end Americans pulled through and became their own heroes; Admiral Yamamoto’s made a prophetic remark shortly after December 7, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”.

Winning WWII Americans a newfound confidence and reinforced the united in United States. World War II was a period of lost innocence and immense social growth for the United States. The nation was exposed to the horrors of total war and matured as a dominant world power. It’s intriguing to imagine what course history may have taken if Japan had made a different choice on December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor was certainly one of the most dramatic turning points in United States history, with all the elements that go along with an epic drama: heroes, villains, propaganda and conspiracy theories.

It propelled the country from an isolationist continent into the spotlight on the world stage. World War II changed the way the world viewed the United States and how Americans viewed themselves. As a result of Pearl Harbor and the war the United States accepted the predominant world leadership role. The tragedy of Pearl Harbor shocked and united the American people into a singular purpose and goal to a greater extent than any other event before or since. As Americans awoke on a lazy Sunday morning in paradise, little did they know that within a few short minutes their lives would be changed forever.

Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen watched in horror as the United States fleet including the mighty dreadnoughts burned and sank to the bottom of the shallow blue harbor. The calamity incited mass chaos and confusion. Numerous false rumors were spread including that Japanese paratroopers were invading Hawaii and that follow-on assaults were imminent. Above all, no one knew how to react since this was the first time since the War of 1812 that Americans were attacked on their own soil.

As the nation was just recovering from the Great Depression, with optimism in the horizon the American people really had no desires to involve themselves in foreign wars. However President Franklin Roosevelt was aware of the actions taking place in Europe and Asia and could foresee the United States inevitable danger to the free world if the United States didn’t take a stand in the war. While Americans favored neutrality the United States administration knew that it would only be a matter of time until the United States would enter the war.

The convenient timing of Pearl Harbor allowed Roosevelt’s unhindered pursuit of his interventionist agenda. This along with certain details, such as the lack of aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, led some to believe Roosevelt had forewarning of the attack and intentionally provoked the Japanese to open the backdoor to war. Twenty three hours after the initial aggression, Roosevelt declared war and ensured that, “This day will live in infamy” in his address to Congress.

In the end Americans pulled through and became their own heroes; Admiral Yamamoto’s made a prophetic remark shortly after December 7, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”. Winning WWII Americans a newfound confidence and reinforced the united in United States. World War II was a period of lost innocence and immense social growth for the United States. The nation was exposed to the horrors of total war and matured as a dominant world power. It’s intriguing to imagine what course history may have taken if Japan had made a different choice on December 7, 1941.

During Hitler’s time in power minority groups in Germany and in Europe were tortured, tormented, exiled and killed. Hitler persecuted various minority groups because he thought they had no place in his master race. Hitler had a vision of a master race called the “Aryan race” which he planned to purify and become world dominators. Hitler decided that to make this master race he would have to exterminate all the minorities which did not fit under the Aryan race. Examples of these minorities are the Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, handicapped and anyone who he believed to be asocial or defective.

Not only did Hitler persecute these groups in Germany, as he started invading other countries he persecuted the minorities in those countries as well. Some of the most affected countries were Poland, Holland, Austria and France. Hitler’s persecution of Minority groups was an issue that affected Europe as a whole. What was Hitler’s view of a master race? In Hitler’s book Mein Kampf Hitler divides humans into categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower orders, or types of humans.

At the top, according to Hitler is the Germanic man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler refers to this type of person as an Aryan. He asserts the Aryan is the supreme form of human, or master race. “All the human culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan… ” (http://www. bofhlet. net/tasteless/13/kampf. htm). This direct quote gives an excellent view of Hitler’s belief.

Hitler used powerful propaganda techniques to convince not only the German people, but countless others, that if they eliminated the people who stood in their way and the egenerates and racially inferior, they – “the great Germans” would prosper (http://www. holocaustforgotten. com/romgypsies. htm). Hitler gave the title degenerates and racially inferior to the Jews and other minority groups. Although the Aryan race was superior there were still people within the Aryan race who were considered a burden to the society and were taken away and treated as one of the minorities.

These people were normally the disabled and mentally ill and although they were of Aryan decent they were persecuted just like the minorities because of their individualities. There were many different groups of people who were persecuted by the Nazis, but by far the largest group was the Jews. There are many different suggestions of why Hitler hated the Jews, one being that his mothers doctor was a Jew and when he couldn’t save her, Hitler blamed his mother’s death on the Jews and another that he heard voices in his head telling him to save Germany form the Jews (War Time leader series: Adolf Hitler.

Learning essentials, Victoria), however this video source does seem to mix fact and opinion making assumptions of what was on Hitler’s mind. The fact is that the Jews were chosen for annihilation because of their race. Even though Jews are defined by religion, Hitler saw the Jewish people as a race that he believed needed to be completely annihilated (http://www. holocaustforgotten. com/romgypsies. htm). This source is also supported by many other historical writings.

Hitler said it was the Jews who are engaged in a conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as rulers of the world, by tainting its racial and cultural purity and even inventing forms of government in which the Aryan omes to believe in equality and fails to recognize his racial superiority. For Hitler and committed Nazis the Jews were the arch-enemy. Persecution began with a boycott of Jewish businesses and professionals on April 1, 1933, allegedly in response to “atrocity propaganda” by Jews abroad.

The campaign to destroy world Jewry continued, and endless trains took millions of Jews to extermination camps. On the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938) throughout Germany, Jewish synagogues were torched, Jewish businesses and dwellings ransacked, Jews beaten up, in ome cases killed, and thousands sent to concentration camps. With the war against the Soviet Union in June 1941, the SS deployed “task forces” (Einsatzgruppen) behind German lines, who systematically massacred hundreds of thousands of Jews.

In the winter of 1941 to 1942, the SS began the systematic murder of Jews through the use of gas, first through exhaust fumes in vans and then in gas chambers in six death camps: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek. This continued until the end of 1944. The total Jewish death toll from ill treatment, shooting, nd gas has been estimated at between 5 million and 6 million (Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2003. 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved). While some individuals dispute these figures, their factual basis is accepted in nearly all history texts.

Although The Jews were heavily persecuted there are many other minorities that were persecuted as well and should not be forgotten. These groups are the homosexuals, gypsies, mentally ill and the handicapped. Hitler had planned to persecute the homosexuals but it was not until 1933 when Hitler ad become supreme legal authority of the Third Reich that the active persecution of gays had begun. One of the biggest issues regarding the persecution of the homosexuals was Hitler’s persecution of Ernst Rohm, head of the SA (storm troopers).

Rohm’s army was growing ever strong and Hitler knew that he could not maintain power without the help of Rohm and his army so Hitler came to Rohm’s defence by saying, “His private life cannot be an object of scrutiny unless it conflicts with basic principles of the National Socialist ideology” (http://www. infopt. demon. co. uk/nazi. htm). When Rohm’s army grew to 500,000 men by 1932, Hitler saw a threat and decided that Rohm’s private life did conflict with the parties ideologies.

On June 30th, 1934 Hitler made his move on Rohm and his army which came to be known as the “The Night of Long Knives”. A group of Hitler’s men barged into a party that the SA were having and shot some men on the spot while 200 other SA leaders were rounded up and taken to Berlin where they were massacred. Rohm was taken to Stadelheim prison in Munich by order of Himmler and Goring, given a gun a told to kill himself. He refused saying, “Let Adolf do his dirty work”. They shot him down (http://www. infopt. demon. co. uk/nazi. htm).

These quotes seem plausible but the source maybe biased as it appears to be from a gay activist’s perspective. On that same day Hitler ordered the elimination of all homosexuals from the army in fear that they had started a secret order within the army. Although the Night of the Long Knives marks the beginning of the slaughtering of gays, the year before (1933) began the persecutions. On February of that year all gay bars and hotels were banned. On March 3rd nudism was banned. March 7th the West Germany city Administration began its ampaign against homosexuals, Jews, Negroes, and Mongols.

November 13th the Hamburg City Administration asked the Head of Police to pay special attention to transvestites and to deliver them to the concentration camps if necessary (http://www. infopt. demon. co. uk/nazi. htm). The Gypsies were persecuted like the Jews for being “racially inferior and degenerate”. The gypsies were also seen as being asocial which added to their worthlessness to the Nazis vision of a master race. It was because of this view, as an asocial race, that the gypsies were sterilized.

This terilization occurred so that they were not able to reproduce, and therefore in the long run the gypsies would eventually become an extinct race. Like the Jews, the Gypsies were also moved into special areas set up by the Nazis. Half a million Gypsies, almost the entire Eastern European Gypsy population, was wiped out during the Holocaust (http://www. holocaustforgotten. com/romgypsies. htm) Forced sterilization was the forerunner of the systematic killing of the mentally ill and the handicapped. Hitler made a law that allowed doctors to kill people who were suffering from an incurable illness.

This program was called Euthanasia and was as a euphemism used by the Nazis as their true goal was to exterminate the mentally ill and handicapped which would cleanse the Aryan race. Originally the patients were killed by lethal injection, but carbon monoxide proved to be a more efficient method of killing as gas chambers could be disguised as showers complete with fake nozzles in order to deceive victims.

This method carried on through the war and was later inserted into the extermination camps and many more were built in Poland for use later in the war (http://www. us- srael. org/jsource/Holocaust/disabled. tml). This evidence is very clear and consistent and is believed to be true in many historical texts. However the website is made from the perspective of a US-Israel organization.

Hitler’s persecution of minority groups spread to other countries as well. Poland was severely affected as it was great agricultural land close to Germany filled with strong healthy farmers. Hitler forced the Polish Jews into Ghettos and imprisoned the people of Poland inside their own land. Blonde haired children were Germanized and taken back to Germany to be rained as Nazi supporters. (http://www. holocaustforgotten. om/fivmil. htm) Holland was invaded by Germany because they were considered to be the “superior” racial composition of the Dutch people, certifiably 100% Aryan; German interbreeding with the Dutch could in fact improve the racial purity of the new German super-nation (http://www- lib. usc. edu/~anthonya/war/holnazi. htm).

An example of a minority persecuted in Holland is Anne Frank. Anne Frank was one of the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution during the Second World War. After Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, increasingly evere anti-Jewish measures began there (http://www. hannels. nl/amsterdam/annefran. html). The information found on Anne Frank is from a Dutch website which summarises her factual account and which is a well recognised source of information of the effects of Hitler’s regime on Holland and on her as one individual. In conclusion, because of Hitler’s vision of a master race, so many innocent people were persecuted all over Germany and Europe. Hitler committed genocide so that everyone could be the same without differences. By doing this he took away the one thing that makes a person, their individuality.