Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Pentagon Papers


                Ever since its beginning in 1954, the Vietnam War was controversial for a number of reasons. Many people did not want the United States to be involved in the war and wanted to keep the dispute between northern and southern Vietnam. The US did get involved with the war regardless of popular public opinion. When a top secret study or “encyclopedic history” of the war was leaked out of the Pentagon and published in the New York Times, the controversy surrounding the war doubled.  The Papers were officially titled “Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force” commissioned by Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. The report was leaked to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg, who was an official in the Pentagon who had helped write the papers, in June 1971and distributed all over the country. Even though the publications did have many content inaccuracies, it shed a new light on the US government. The leak of the pentagon papers changed the relationship between the government and society because of the extent of the lies that the Nixon Administration and the Pentagon told about the war, the lengths that the government went to to stop multiple newspapers around the country from printing any more contents from the papers, and the reaction of people all over the country.
                Since the beginning of the war, The President and other important government officials had been lying to the American people about the war. The Government had been telling people that the amount of casualties was low in Vietnam when really soldiers were dying all over the place at an alarmingly fast rate. There is evidence of this deception in a phone conversation between Nixon and Alexander Haig after the Pentagon Papers were published. The conversation is about the number of casualties from that week in Vietnam. Haig tells Nixon that there were more than expected or predicted but neither of them intends for that information to leave their conversation. The pentagon papers showed the public the true facts. This angered people because they found out that their government had been giving them false hope and added to the number of peace protests and anger about the US government decision to get involved in the war. Also, Nixon and others were telling the public that the war was going wonderfully and that the US was “winning” by a long shot when really, American troops were suffering just as much as anyone else and the whole war effort was crashing in on itself. The Papers also shed a new light on presidents Kennedy and Johnson who had apparently also been lying about the war as well. The public was not happy about the government’s fall from their pedestal, and neither was the government.
                The government took extreme action to try to stop the Pentagon Papers from being published in various papers. Firstly, they got a restraining order on the New York Times to keep them from continuing on with their daily series on the Papers, which is a direct violation of the first amendment of freedom of press. Ellsberg was also charged with violating the espionage act when really he was just trying to do what he believed was the right thing. The Nixon Administration went do far as to call the publications a “massive security leak” and say that they were detrimental to the safety of the nation. The government went head-to-head with the New York Times and Daniel Ellsberg in the Supreme Court, but was unable to give any evidence that the publications had actually harmed the security of the nation.  The Government was not seen as trying to protect the country’s national security, but actually trying to protect their own images and status. They were trying to preserve the relationship between the government and the American people, but only so that they could keep themselves on top of the unspoken hierarchy in the U.S. President Nixon responded to the incident by saying “[T]he sonofabitch thief is made a hero and is going to get off on a mistrial, and the New York Times gets a Pulitzer Prize for stealing documents… what in the name of God have we come to?” this quote shows the extreme difference between the way that the government thought of the leak and the was that society thought about it.
The way that the American people responded to the deception changed the way that society used to look up to the government. The American people could have written off the fact that not just one president, but three presidents and many other important historical figures had lied to them and just accepted the new facts as new to everyone, but they rightly chose to examine their trust in the government. The president lost the “father-like” image that had been developed in years past and became a reason for people to be suspicious. In one quote from Haldeman, who was the white house chief of staff (Wikipedia), says “But out of the gobbledygook, comes a very clear thing; you can’t trust the government; you can’t trust what they say; and you can’t rely on their judgment; and the- implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it’s wrong, and the President can be wrong.” This quote is a clear example of the new distrust of the government by the American people.  Also, Daniel Ellsberg was looked at as a hero for giving Americans the truth. Not only did the New York Times publish parts of the Pentagon Papers, but so did the Washington Post and the Boston Globe when the Times had a restraining order placed on it. Ellsberg did not give up trying to inform America of the lies that they had been fed for so many years. Americans lost their belief in the government because of the pentagon papers.

     The lies of the government over many years, the reaction to the leak by the government, and the reaction of the American people to the leak changed the way that American saw the government forever. The Pentagon Papers are still a big topic in the news today and continues to be inspiration for “whistle blowers” every time the government is not to be trusted. It is important to have people in society or in the government who will stand up and tell the truth. It may cause dissension between the ruling party and the people, but it allows us to exercise our equal rights and it keeps us from being conformist. Whistle blowers keep America moving forward. When something needs to be questioned, it is expected that someone brings attention to it so that the constitution remains intact and America can continue to be a nation that is in constant disagreement, but also a nation that works.


Daniel Ellsberg Trial
               



President Nixon













1.       





















































This source included brief background information on the Pentagon Papers and it also included the full document in a PDF file. I did not use the real copy of the papers honestly because most of the political jargon is over my head and the full document is 7,000 pages long. I did use this source for background information such as when the Papers were leaked and who they were commissioned by.
This source contained some brief background information on the pentagon papers. It also had a range of phone call recordings between President Nixon and various advisors, colleagues, and others. The phone calls helped me to get a better idea of how Nixon felt about the pentagon papers being leaked.
This source included some slightly more detailed information about the Pentagon Paper’s leak. It also included a quote from President Nixon that helped give me evidence to show the separation that was created by the pentagon papers incident between the government and society.
This source included information on Ellsberg’s trial and had a few quotes from Ellsberg concerning the pentagon papers. These quotes also helped me to show the separation between the government and society.
In this source, I found background information on the Vietnam War and more detailed information on the Pentagon Papers. The info gave me a stronger position on my argument.

In this source, I found some fresh information and a couple of quotes helping me form a stronger argument. This source also had a video on the pentagon papers. The video was extremely helpful in understanding the concept of the pentagon Papers and the effects of them on the relationship between the government and society

Monday, April 21, 2014

Cinderella Man Essay

 Many movies made about important historical events are not entirely accurate. Movie directors “Hollywoodize” stories to make them more dramatic. Sometimes they do this by changing or exaggerating the personalities of characters to make conflicts more intense or make the heroes seem more heroic.  Sometimes though, the entire story line of an event is changed the true historical event is diminished. This may leave audiences satisfied but it also leaves them completely ill-informed. It is important for writers and directors not to stray too far from the original story line so they do not dampen the importance of a real event. One movie that did a good job of not sacrificing the accuracy of the story too much while still making the story engaging was “Cinderella Man”. This movie, while not perfectly accurate, did a great job of portraying the hardships of the Great Depression through the setting and scenery, and the fears and desperation of the characters.
            The setting and scenery in “Cinderella Man” helped to represent just how bad the poverty in America was during the Great Depression.  The dramatic switch in the beginning of the movie from Jimmy Braddock and his wife wearing nice clothing and living in a beautiful big house to living in a one room apartment with no color with their three children and hardly any belongings represented just how quickly people were losing their money, their homes, and their freedom. Even families that were doing fine financially like Braddock’s, were affected by the Depression. The bare necessities were the only thing that people had and they sometimes even had less than that. Families were ripped apart because parent could not bear to keep their children in their terrible living conditions. Another scene in “Cinderella Man” that really shows the struggles of people living in urban areas in when Braddock visits a huge “Hooverville” in Central Park, New York City, to find a friend of his. People are shown living in lean-tos made out of cardboard or whatever trash could be found and fighting over possessions and stealing from and beating each other.  The will to live is the only thing that keeps these people human. Desperation caused by poverty turned people into barbarians and animals. This scene in the movie accurately depicted the madness that was unleashed when people on America hit rock bottom and lost all hope.
            The culture of the Great Depression is also shown through the fears and desperation of the characters. Braddock’s wife was particularly concerned about her husband leaving her and their three children because men all over the country were running away from their families because they just gave up. This was such a big fear for women because if their husbands left them, there was no way for them to feed themselves or their kids other than standing in soup lines, no way to keep their power and heat on, and no way to keep their homes. There were already no jobs for men so it was virtually impossible for women to get jobs. Every day, Braddock went to the docks to try to pick up shift for the day. He was afraid of not getting picked for a job that day or not being able to work because of his broken hand. This showed how in the real depression, men were extremely scared of not being able to feed their families and failing as people. This was also shown in the scene in “Cinderella Man “ when Braddock’s children have been sent away because he could not get enough shifts to get enough money to pay his family’s bills and keep the power on. He is forced to go to his old boxing agency and beg for money so that he can get his children back. He makes sure that the men know that this is his absolute last option or else he would not be there. His desperation and shame represents the shame that other men in the Depression felt. The Great Depression was a massive blow to men’s masculinity because they believed that failure was entirely their fault. Men all over the country were feeling the same sense of responsibility for the state of the country. Other men though, felt as though the tragedy was completely the fault of the government, as was shown by the former broker, Mike, in the movie but for the most part, men looked as the crash of the country’s economy to be a sign of personal failure.

            “Cinderella Man” may not be perfectly historically accurate but it does a great job to represent the feelings and culture of the people that were affected by the Great Depression through the setting and scenery and through the fears of the characters. The way that the poor people in jersey responded to Braddock’s boxing just showed how much they needed a hero. Braddock was not trying to be a hero; he was just a great man who never stopped trying to protect his family. A film that affects audiences in the way that “Cinderella Man” does is what filmmaking is all about. It is important that the directors of movies based off of historical events do their best to maintain accuracy because making a film about an event is just like creating a monument or statue to attribute a person or event. It needs to create a community and it needs to help people remember either what they went through or what their parents or grandparents went through. Remembering keeps us from making the same mistakes again and helps us to appreciate what we have.


http://bytheway-nana.blogspot.com/2012/01/cinderella-man.html#.U1agXfldUXs

Sunday, March 9, 2014

World War One Answers


1.       WWI began July 28th, 1914. Imperialism, Nationalism, militarism, and alliances played major roles in starting the war and during the war.The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian Nationalist organization set the war off. The combatants were The Allies: United Kingdom, France, Russian Empire, United States, Japan (eventually) and the Central powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire
2.       The US got involved in WWI on April 6th, 1917. They joined the Allies in the war because the Germans had attacked a British ship called the Lusitania with 128 Americans aboard.
3.        
Population (millions)
Military deaths
Direct civilian deaths (military action)
Excess civilian deaths (famine, disease & accidents)
Total deaths
Deaths as % of population
Military wounded
45.4
886,939
2,000
107,000
995,939
2.19%
1,663,435
Sub-total for British Empire
-
1,115,597
2,000
109,000
1,226,597
-
2,090,212
7.4
58,637
7,000
55,000
120,637
1.63%
44,686
France France e
39.6
1,397,800
40,000
260,000
1,697,800
4.29%
4,266,000
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/State_Flag_of_Greece_%281863-1924_and_1935-1970%29.svg/23px-State_Flag_of_Greece_%281863-1924_and_1935-1970%29.svg.png Greece f
4.8
26,000
150,000
176,000
3.67%
21,000
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Flag_of_Italy_%281861-1946%29_crowned.svg/23px-Flag_of_Italy_%281861-1946%29_crowned.svg.png Italy h
35.6
651,000
4,000
585,000
1,240,000
3.48%
953,886
53.6
415
415
0%
907
0.3
See footnote
0.5
3,000
3,000
0.6%
10,000
6.0
7,222
82,000
89,222
1.49%
13,751
7.5
250,000
120,000
330,000
700,000
9.33%
120,000
175.1
1,811,000 to
2,254,369
500,000
(1914 borders)
1,000,000
(1914 borders)
3,311,000 to
3,754,369
1.89% to 2.14%
3,749,000 to
4,950,000
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/State_Flag_of_Serbia_%281882-1918%29.svg/23px-State_Flag_of_Serbia_%281882-1918%29.svg.png Serbia q
4.5
275,000
150,000
300,000
725,000
16.11%
133,148
92.0
116,708
757
117,465
0.13%
205,690
Total (Entente Powers)
800.4
5,712,379
823,757
2,871,000
9,407,136
1.19%
12,809,280
Population (millions)
Military deaths
Direct civilian deaths (military action)
Excess civilian deaths (famine, disease & accidents)
Total deaths
Deaths as % of population
Military wounded
51.4
1,100,000
120,000
347,000
1,567,000
3.05%
3,620,000
5.5
87,500
100,000
187,500
3.41%
152,390
64.9
2,050,897
1,000
425,000
2,476,897
3.82%
4,247,143
21.3
771,844
2,150,000
2,921,000
13.72%
400,000
Total (Central Powers)
143.1
4,010,241
121,000
3,022,000
7,153,241
5%
8,419,533
Grand total
954.2
9,722,620
948,248
5,893,000
16,563,868
1.75%
21,228,813

4.       WWI ended on June 28, 1919 with the treaty of Versailles.


I used Wikipedia and pbs.org