Indochina Essay Example for Free

Indochina Essay The South Vietnamese government had a substantial amount of success in keeping power up until 1968, surprisingly. This was done in a number of ways such as; government policies, fighting tactics/strategies and the aid of other countries e. g. America. On 26th October 1955 Ngo Dinh Diem won a referendum which appointed him as the President of South Vietnam (This was a rigged vote) and gave Emperor Bao Dai the boot. Although the country wasn’t really a democracy anymore it was more like an oligarchy that implemented a totalitarian regime. Over the next coming years Diem and his followers built his army up going against the communists in their own country, carry out a new campaign known as the Denunciation Campaign. This campaign convinced people to report anyone to the government who were in favour of communism by means of supporting the Viet Minh or anyone who had fought against the French. By August 1956, Diem made it illegal, in a decree known as Ordinance 47, to be a communist or to associate with one and it is estimated that because of this decree 12 000 people were killed and 40 000 were imprisoned. Although the way the government went about getting rid of communist was seen as harsh, today it can be seen that this tactic could have greatly contributed to government being as successful as they were in keeping power up until 1968. From the moment the Geneva Conference ended in 1954, America was South Vietnams backbone. This can be proven in a letter sent from President Eisenhower of the USA to Ngo Dinh Diem which states that the United States wanted to help with the welfare, stability and strength of the government of South Vietnam. America’s contribution to South Vietnam took form in many different ways, such as; 1. America sent over a thousand military personal to South Vietnam to assist in training and building up there armies. 2. From July of 1957 to June of 1958 America paid ALL of the South Vietnamese cost for their army, 80% of government expenditures and 90% of all imports. 3. The USA provided each refugee coming into South Vietnam with $89 America was a big reason in why South Vietnam was so successful in keeping power up until 1968, without their knowledge, military and financial power South Vietnam would have fallen to he Communist very early on in the war. Another reason the Government being as successful as they were in keeping power was their fighting strategies and tactics, although to many people some of these strategies and tactics can seem harsh and inhumane they actually helped South Vietnam a lot in keeping their government up and running and it has been documented that North Vietnam’s war tactics/strategies were just as inhumane as the South. The South Vietnamese government along with the help of the Americans implemented five main war strategies and tactics. These include; Counterinsurgency, Combat Troops, Search and destroy, Chemical warfare and Pacification. Most of these were very successful on the battlefield and proved to keep some sort of stability in the government. The South Vietnamese government was sufficiently successful in their bid to keep power up until the Tet offensive in 1968. Although without the help of the American government the country would have failed to keep their power well before this. The tactics and strategies implemented by both governments defiantly helped keep the country afloat and rain in some sort of government stability.

Reflections on Death in The Snows of Kilimanjaro Essay -- Snows of Kil

Reflections on Death in The Snows of Kilimanjaro      Ã‚  Ã‚   Hemingway's The Snows of Kilimanjaro is stereotypical of "The Lost Generation" and their values. They were a generation of expatriated US writers that lived and wrote between the Great Wars and thought of themselves separates from the postwar values and "above" the materialistic western society and continuously question morality and philosophy in their work. They tended to think very little of the rich people. These reflections on life are clear during Harry's retrospectives all throughout the story. In this all around depressing story, Harry is in Africa with his wife and a few days back scratched his leg and it got infected to the point of gangrene. Since the begging of the story Harry is well aware he is going to die and reflects back on his life and his failure as a writer and to some point as a human being.       "I watched the way they sailed very carefully at first in case I ever wanted to use them in a story. That's funny now."1 In this sentence Harry reflects on the buzzards that are attracted by the odor of impending death and how as many other things he wanted to write about and thought he would, he never will now. There are several anecdotes throughout the story that all by themselves could be whole stories, but Harry just never got around to writing about them probably because he did not have confidence in himself as a writer. "But he had never written a line of that, nor of that cold, bright Christmas day with the mountains showing across the plain that Barker had flown across the lines to bomb the Austrian officers' leave train, machine-gunning them as they scattered and ran." 2 This is one of the many experiences the narrator has during his life... ...that at the end would be something welcome as a weight lifted off his chest.      Bibliography: Endnotes: 1 Hemingway, Ernest,   "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," in The Norton Anthology: American Literature, fourth edition-volume 2, page 1635.  Ã‚  Ã‚   2 Hemingway, page 1638. 3 Hemingway, page 1637. 4 Hemingway, page 1637. 5 Hemingway, page 1639. 6 Hemingway, page 1640. 7 Hemingway, page 1640. 8 Hemingway, page 1634. 9 Hemingway, page 1643. 10 Hemingway, page 1651. 11 Hemingway, page 1650-51. 12 Hemingway, page 1650. Other Referenced material not cited. 13 Wilson, M. (2000, October 23). The Hemingway Resource Center (Online). Available: http://www.lostgeneration.com/hembio.html 14 Ogunsuyi, Dr. Austin (2001, September ). African Culture (Online). Available : http://africancultures.about.com/cs/customs/

Book Critique Family to Family Essay

Author Information The authors of the book are Jerry Pipes and Victor Lee. Content Summary In the book, Family to Family, Families Making a Difference, the writers detail the major premise of the work within its first few pages: â€Å"Family to Family will help you discover God’s purpose for your family, develop a family mission statement, establish core values, make time for quality and quantity family time centered around God’s purposes, and equip you to lead your children to Christ and mentor them spiritually† (3). The book’s purpose is to maximize family time in the Lord, bringing family members closer together by helping them actualize their standing first in Christ, and then as they relate and interact with each other. The book promotes the idea of discovering â€Å"the critical link between being on mission as a family and passing the baton of your faith on to your children† (3). This line of thought is prevalent in the book and it seems to summarize the mission of the writers. The book views itself as being based and rooted in the solid foundation of the scriptures, and the authors express as much: â€Å"The bottom line–God’s plan for the family has been revealed in His Word†¦ The success of our families will be determined by our commitment to know and live the principles of God’s Word† (3). In the first chapter of the book, the writers make the contention that many families are not healthy and are not spending quality time with one another. The writers reference research gathered from The American Family Association and George Barna. Through the accumulated research, the writers state that, â€Å"only 34 percent of America’s families eat one meal together each day. (In addition) the average father spends only eight to 10 minutes a day with his children. This includes meal times.† (6) Another alarming statistic that they present to their audience is that â€Å"only 12 percent of America’s families pray together, (and) the average couple spends only four minutes of uninterrupted time together a day† (6). After the writers finish sharing some alarming statistics, they proceed to identify what a healthy Christian family should look like. They call for persons to examine their own families and to ask the following questions: Is it a cohesive unit or a disjointed collection of individuals? Is it on mission for God or unsure of its mission? Is it flowing or fumbling? Disciplined or destructive? Purposeful or pointless (7)? From the second chapter onward, the writers seek to allow the book to serve as a guide to nurture an unhealthy family as they move towards an improved level of spiritual health. The writers begin by proposing a family mission statement, stating that, â€Å"A family mission statement will serve as a centerline and guardrails for your family on the road through life† (25). The writers lead us on an extensive exposition on the importance of a familial mission statement and how to initiate one and incorporate one into our families. In chapter two, they present seven realities, which are geared towards accepting and incorporating the fact that God is and can be an ever-present reality within your family. The writers then discuss the importance of teaching and sharing the Gospel with children. They present the fact that 90 percent of all Christians have accepted Jesus before the age of 25, and therefore, place a premium on passing the baton onto the next generation as early as we can (51). The remainder of the book becomes a summary of other evangelical programs and ideas, shared in an effort to encourage the entire family to become an evangelizing force together. They include the models of concentric circles (75) and other familial evangelistic ideas, which are geared towards the family being unified and presenting that unification before others as a witness to their unity in Christ. In the final chapter of the book, the writers detail the importance of Biblical based evangelism for all of those persons involved in the family unit. The writers advocate what they call the FIRM approach to evangelism, which involves: F – ask about family, I – ask about their interests-listen, R – ask about religion-listen, and M – share the message (114-115). Lastly, the writers provide some practical methods for sharing the Gospel, which include some scripture memorization and tips on a salvation-testimony presentation. Evaluation The book seeks to establish a rationale for the disunity of the modern family and then to provide mechanisms to promote unity within the family through the Word, then to evangelize through the family as a united front in Christ. The book is short, efficient and to the point. It allows for easy reading and presents an effective rationale for families being unified first in Christ (with each other), and then presenting that unification as an active, vibrant testimony to others. The writers identify early on that this is a book for families in crisis, and the greatest contributing factor to that difficulty involves time and busyness within the members of the family itself. Due to the simplistic presentation of the material, the writers allow for a potential impact for a wide variety of persons and family units (beyond the traditional ones). The writer’s presentation of unhealthy families and the facts provided which detail children who have fallen away from the church cannot be understated in its level of importance, and serves to provide the reader with a foundation for the rest of the work. The flow of the work involves a clever method employed by the writers that mixes conversational and anecdotal stories with necessary information, which is important to hold the interest of the target audiences. The writers may have perhaps offered a more compelling argument, had they given their target audience a little more background information concerning the statistics they compiled, rather than just highlighting that information in endnotes. The chapter on mission statements feels rushed, and gives the impression that research for the work appears to be somewhat lacking. Case in point: there is no citation offered concerning the comparison of Jonathan Edwards and the Jukes families. This cannot help but offer the audience the false notion that the writers composed the necessary research to develop the notion they are putting forth (24-25). The writers provide another example without properly citing and giving credit to the source on page 26, in the example of the bucket of sand and the big rock and the little rock. This is an illustration which has been used by many in the past, and the writers are not the original source of it. They state, â€Å"Perhaps you have seen the illustration of the big rocks and little rocks† (26). Again, this may be nitpicking; however, I believe that they need to demonstrate responsibility, since the book is a Christian work. The book contains relevant study questions and provides a plethora of workbook-like material. That being said, the work is ideal for small group studies in the church and provides a foundational approach for working with families. Beyond being simple enough for the new convert to understand, the book is filled with practical and insightful applications for all believers to use in their endeavors to spread the Word within their families and to others. The writers have fulfilled their purpose in the book. It is obvious to see, with the statistics presented and the commentary offered, that families are in trouble and the church needs to respond to their needs. The church is comprised (mostly) of families. The enemy is aware that if he destroys the family unit (as presented in scripture), then he goes a long way to placing a major injury on the church. Pipes and Lee are to be commended for their efforts. They wrote Family to Family: Leaving a Lasting Legacy, as a reply to the susceptibility of even supposedly Christian families to the status quo. This status quo, as presented by the writers, involves an adherence to one of the varying levels of dysfunction that many families experience. The outline for families in the scriptures is one man, one woman, and if they are blessed, then children. This work provides an excellent evangelistic modality within which to engage all types of families (single parent, no children, etc). This is due to the fact that, regardless of the construction of the particular family, salvation is needed within and should be displayed cohesively to the world. That being said, one can see that, once a family mission statement is adopted, the potential for manipulation within a family is obvious. Potential problems could arise should one of the parents attempt to use the mission statement to manipulate their children to act and perform in the manner that they desire. Should conflict and divorce arise in the family (which is a startling reality for the church as well as the world), then these paradigms constructed originally to help could instead be used to further divide the entire family. With any risk of developing methodology and then instructing others to incorporate this methodology into their lives, without being able to control all extraneous variables (which only God can), there is the potential danger for some using the writer’s material for abusive purposes. Yet in taking this risk, the writers succeed. This is largely due to the fact that they speak the truth of the scriptures in love, and are to be applauded for developing and exhorting others to incorporate these methods into their lives to improve their families and evangelize the lost. There is something pure and right about someone trying to assist others whom are in desperate struggles in this life. The writers have presented a unique and challenging way for the church to implement and instruct families which are in desperate need of such tutoring. A most wonderful encapsulating quote is found on page 114, which states, â€Å"The bottom line is sharing the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. This is what this book is all about: raising your family to follow Christ. Following Christ means sharing the gospel with those who do not know Him. Jesus said, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matt.4:19). If you are not fishing, you are not following. You and your family are on mission to be fishers of men† (114). This is a rousing call to families and the Body of believers. Those who endeavor to heed the call must realize the writer’s purposes in desiring to show them a way to raise their families to serve and follow Jesus. BIBLIOGRAPHY Pipes, Jerry and Victor Lee. Family to Family, Families Making a Difference. Lawrenceville, GA: Jerry Pipes Productions, 1999.

The Dark And Despair Of A Math Midterm- - 1724 Words

Veronica had clawed her way out of the dark and despair of a math midterm- she deserved a few minutes of after-school peace with her dog and the pacific ocean, she thought. It’s unfathomable that some people don’t have access to the beach. Her mind conjured up one of her worst conscious nightmares- her, older, married with brats, living in some midwestern state where beaches were things of myth and corn was all but currency. She shook her head, her daydream interrupted by her cell ringing. â€Å"You okay, Veronica?† Ah Wallace. Dependable, sweet, Wallace. â€Å"My GPA’s gonna take a hit, but I’ll probably still get into some of the sluttier colleges; you know, the lesser ones with the lower standards,† Veronica mused, patting her†¦show more content†¦What nagged at Veronica, was that if that was Missy’s body found in a shallow grave almost ten miles from where her car was found- hypothetically, if the two cases were related, Missy’s and Lilly’s, Jake Kane would have had no apparent reason to kill Missy Blake. Either the murders weren’t connected, or her dad had risked and lost everything- his reputation, his job, their house, his wife- for a theory that was being unraveled by another murder. Don Lamb’s face on her television didn’t comfort Veronica in the slightest. One unsolved teen murder in Neptune frightened the public, the second in as many years was panic; the killer among them on the loose, the anchorwoman said people feared. Thinking their neighbor could be a killer, living with that fear and uncertainty- Veronica understood why people were uncomfortable living with constant, unrestricted suspicion. It wasn’t always a picnic. FBI correspondents will not make a comment about their work on the Missy Blake case, except to say that any and all resources the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department needs are to be immediately available, and that inter-departmental efforts can only help the community deal with the loss and fear of a missing teen. Back Up in her lap on the couch let out a heavy sigh, and Veronica had to wholeheartedly agree. Her mind thought about a venn