Role of Zeus in the Iliad free essay sample

As an introduction, I would like to give you some background on my subject, which happens to be Zeus. Zeus is also known as the supreme god of the Olympians. Zeus was the youngest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. When he was born, his father Cronus intended to swallow him as he had all of Zeuss siblings: Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. But Rhea hid the newborn in a cave on Mount Dicte in Crete. (To this day, the guides at the cave of Zeus use their flashlights to cast shadow puppets in the cave, creating images of baby Zeus from the myth. ) When he had grown up, Zeus caused Cronus to vomit up his sisters and brothers, and these gods joined him in fighting to wrest control of the universe from the Titans and Cronus, their king. Having vanquished his father and the other Titans, Zeus imprisoned most of them in the underworld of Tartarus. We will write a custom essay sample on Role of Zeus in the Iliad or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Then he and his brothers Poseidon and Hades divided up creation. Poseidon received the sea as his domain, Hades got the Underworld and Zeus took the sky. Zeus also was accorded supreme authority on earth and on Mount Olympus. Zeus was also known for having many relations with mortal and immortal alike. His offspring include Ares god of war, Eris goddess of discord, Apollo god of light, Aphrodite goddess of beauty, Hermes god of thieves and commerce, Artemis huntsman of the gods, Hephaestus god of the forge, Persephone wife of Hades, Hebe goddess of youth, Dionysus god of the vine, Epaphus, Minos King of Create, Rhadamanthus, the Muses namely, Clio (History), Urania (Astronomy), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Poetry), Erato (Love Poetry), Polyhymnia (Songs to the Gods), Euterpe (Lyric Poetry), and his favourite Athena. Other stories in Greek mythology include the creation of the world, the overthrowing of Cronos, creation of man by Prometheus, the lovers of Zeus who all have stories of their own, the birth of Athena, the wanderings of Dionysus and the labours of Hercules. The story of the Iliad is focusing on the Trojan War. This war is between the Trojans and the Achaeans. There are several themes in the story, one of them being the wrath of Achilles and the will of Zeus. With this I will end my introduction. Chapter 2 Recommended Reading Merit and Responsibility: A Study in Greek Values by Adkins, A. W. H. Religion in the Homeric Epics by Carpenter, Rhys. The Greeks and Their Gods by Guthrie, W. K. C. The Homeric Gods by Otto, Walter F. Translated by Moses Hadas The Iliad Modern Critical Interpretations by Harold Bloom The Iliad by Homer Translated by Robert Fitzgerald The Iliad Classics in Translation. Vol. I by Paul Mackendrick Understanding the Iliad by Leon Golden The Iliad: Structure, Myth and Meaning by Bruce Louden Here are some excerpts from which I got my information: The Role of the Gods in Homers Iliad If one holds the contemporary view of the Christian God then it may be difficult to comprehend the actions and motivation of the Greek deities. The Christian God does not tend to take such an active role in the affairs of peoples lives, where, on the other hand, the Greeks regarded direct involvement by the gods as a daily, uncontrollable part of life(Guthrie 17). Needless to say, divine intervention was a major variable in the equation of Homers Iliad. The gods picked who they would favor for different reasons, except Zeus. As the symbol of supreme authority and justice, he makes judgment calls as to the other gods involvement in the war, remains impartial, and doesnt seem to get caught up in picking favorites. Even when his own son, Sarpedon, was about to die, Zeus chose to let the outcome go unaltered. On the other hand, Zeuss wife, Hera, displayed the more typical actions of a god. After Paris, a Trojan, judged Aphrodite the fairest over Hera, and, after her daughter Hebe was replaced as cupbearer to the gods by a young Trojan boy, she was quite resentful towards Troy and its people. Obviously, she sided with the Greeks and would stop at nothing to express her will. Scheming and manipulating, she even dared to trick her husband, King of the Gods. Hera, along with Athena, who was also passed over by Paris, is seen as the chief divine aid to the Greeks. Being the god of the sea, Poseidon was another strong supporter of the ocean-faring Greeks. Whenever Zeus turned his back, Poseidon tried to help the Greeks in the fight. Poseidon felt that he was somewhat Zeuss equal, as his brother, but recognizing Zeuss authority and experience, he looked to Zeus as an elder. There were also Gods who favored the Trojan side of the conflict. Both Apollo and Artemis, twin brother and sister, gave aid to the city of Troy. Although Artemis takes a rather minor role, Apollo, perhaps angered by Agamemmnons refusal to ransom Khryseis, the daughter of one of his priests, and was constantly changing the course of the war in favor of the Trojans. Responsible for sending plague to the Greeks, Apollo was the first god to make an appearance in the Iliad. Also, mainly because Apollo and Artemis were on the Trojan side, their mother, Leto, also helped the Trojans. Aphrodite, obviously supporting Pariss judgement, sided with the Trojans. Although she was insignificant on the battlefield, Aphrodite was successful in convincing Ares, her lover and the god of war, to help the Trojans. One view of the gods seemingly constant intervention in the war was that they were just setting fate back on the right course. For instance, when Patroklos was killed outside of Troy, Apollo felt no guilt for his doings. It had already been decided that Patroklos would not take Troy, he should never have disobeyed Achilles in the first place. As a god, he was just setting fate on a straight line. Achilles laid blame on Hektor and the Trojans. He did not even consider accusing Apollo, who never came into question, although he was primarily responsible for the kill. Apollos part in the matter was merely accepted as a natural disaster, or illness, would be today. This general acceptance of a gods will is a recurring trend throughout the poem. A prime example of this trend is in book XXIV. Achilles, angry over the death of Patroklos brutally disgraced Hektors body. Tethering Hektors corpse through the ankles, Achilles dragged him around Patroklos tomb every day for twelve days. This barbaric treatment was uncalled for and displeased the gods greatly. Achilles mother, Thetis, was sent by Zeus to tell him to ransom the body back to the Trojans. One may think Achilles would be possessive of the body and attempt to put up a fuss as he did before with Agamemmnon in Book I. But, Achilles showed humility and respect for the gods and immediately agreed to ransom the body to the Trojans, showing that all mortals, even god-like Achilles, were answerable to the gods. This ideology would seem to give the gods a sort of unlimited freedom on earth, although, the gods could not always do as they pleased and, eventually, had to come before Zeus. Zeus acted as a balance of sorts throughout the Iliad. He had to keep the gods in order and make sure that what fate decreed, would happen. For example, after Achilles re-enters the battle, Zeus declared that if Achilles was allowed to go on slaughtering the Trojans with nothing to slow him down, he would take Troy before fate said it would happen. Therefore, to counter Achilles massive retaliation against the Trojans, Zeus allowed the gods to go back to the battle field. In Zeuss own interests, he preferred to deal with issues more personal to the individual heroes of the Iliad. This can be seen throughout the book as Zeus attempted to increase the honour of certain individuals. Zeus knew that Hektor was going to be killed by Achilles, and, feeling sorry for Hektor, Zeus attempted to allow Hektor to die an honourable death. For instance, when Hektor stripped Achilles armor off Patroklos, Zeus helped Hektor fill out the armor so he would not seem like less of a man than Achilles. Zeus also gave his word to Thetis that Achilles would gain much glory showing his involvement on a personal level. Homer used the gods, and their actions, to establish twists on the plot of the war. It would not have been possible for him to write the story without the divine interventions of the gods. Indeed, they affected every aspect of the poem in some way, shape or form. Yet, from the immortal perspective of the Greek god, the Trojan War, and everything related to it, was only a passing adventure in the great expanse of time. The Role Of Zeus in Homers Iliad In the era of Homer, divine intervention was thought to be typical, and one of his foremost works, The Iliad, reflects this. Nearly all of the Greek gods are involved in the outcome of the Trojan War, which happens to be the background story of this epic poem. The gods are used by Homer to add twists on an otherwise standard plot of war. I shall concentrate on Zeus, however, and reflect on his actions and their outcomes on the Trojan War, and more importantly, the story of The Iliad. Zeus, very untypical of a Greek god in his lack of involvement in the Trojan War for selfish reasons, was portrayed as the father figure, being impartial and fair to both sides of the war. He remains this way to serve as a check for each gods involvement in the war. Without his presence at the head of the inner circle of Olympus, it is likely that the activity of the Trojan War would become chaotic, possibly even becoming a playground of war for the gods. With Zeuss majestic power, above all of the other gods combined, along with his experience, he is quite befitting to his role in the storyline of The Iliad. The Iliad was thought to be written by a Greek minstrel named Homer. The Iliad was the first of the major epics credited to him, the second being The Odyssey. Discussion about Homer among scholars inevitably leads to controversy on nearly every conceivable issue, ranging from his birthplace to his actual composition of either of these epics. Because of our lack of reliable information, we have but a small fragment of knowledge agreed on by scholars about the writer of the first great piece of literature of Western civilization. Homer in ancient Greece was conceived as a blind, old man, singing or reciting his own compositions (History of Horticulture), and at least seven ancient Greek cities claimed to be his birthplace. His work has been questioned as to two separate ways: if one minstrel, possibly named Homer, composed these works alone, and if so, if this minstrel wrote both of these epics. It has been argued that Homer is, in fact, the collective progression of minstrels that have passed this ever-evolving tale down until it was inscribed into the epic that we have today. The opposite has been argued also, however. Concerning the second question, that of if Homer wrote both The Iliad and The Odyssey, several points have been brought up. One point brought up is the fact that they have been thought to be written over a generation apart, which, if true, makes it very unlikely for one man to have composed both of these classic epics. The other point brought up is the amount of variances in the writing of these epics, especially in writing style and word choice and phrasing. It has been proposed by several scholars that the authors of The Iliad and The Odyssey be named Homer I and Homer II, respectively. However the origin of these epics, they are classics and served as cornerstones for the early Western literature, and possibly even modern as well. The Iliad has been ascribed to Homer in approximately 750 BC. This would put his writing several centuries after the completion of the Trojan War, currently thought to have occurred in 1185 BC. Homer is writing in what historians call the Dark Ages of Greek history, in which the Greek population saw a virtual elimination of literacy. By the time his epics were composed, literacy had begun to return, which is one of the reasons his works became so popular. Homer reflects on a different time, almost a half millennium earlier, reflecting on an era known as the Heroic Age. This contrasts directly with the contemporary society of Homer, in which the quality of life dropped tremendously. The Iliad, in essence, recounts the story of part of the tenth year of the Trojan War. It recounts of the anger of Achilles, the greatest warrior present at Troy, and of the background battle that is ensuing. The background story of the Trojan War is assumed to be known by the reader, and Homer focuses his energies on expanding the characters of the epic, showing the reader that he is more a dramatist than a pure historian, writing for pleasurable purposes rather than strictly educational purposes. The main theme of The Iliad is the anger of Achilles, even starting in the first line of the play. The wrath of Achilles is brought on by the irrational actions of the leader of the Greek forces, Agamemnon. Achilles refuses to fight against the Trojans, and the Greeks suffer accordingly without their top warrior. Two other themes are intertwined around this main theme, one being the Trojan War, and the final being the will of Zeus, my subject. These intertwining themes meet in the end of the epic, when Achilles wrath is curbed and he returns to battle. The role of Zeus in Homers Iliad is one of moderator and the overall director of all that occurs in this story. His position was to ensure that whatever fate decreed would happen. As I stated before, without his presence, the story would likely become a war playground for the gods instead of the Greeks and Trojans. Zeus stayed impartial throughout almost the entire epic in contrast to the other gods, who would scheme and contrive plans for the sides that they chose to ally with. For example, Hera, his wife, chose to display the more typical actions of a Greek divinity. Paris, a Trojan prince, chose Aphrodite as the fairest over Hera and Athena, and this infuriated her, and she went to no end to try to help the Greek army defeat the Trojan side (Classics in Translation, 14). However, Hera recognizes the superiority of Zeus over herself as well as the rest of the Olympian gods. Hera is obviously the subservient god, even becoming afraid and ceasing speaking when Zeus orders her under the possible occurrence of him laying his invincible hands on her (Iliad, Book I, 30). She does try to undermine his power by trickery, slyly getting him to sleep while her and her brother, Poseidon, god of the seas, influence the war in the favor of the Greeks (Iliad, Book XIV, 334). However, when Zeus awakens, his reemergence into the picture effectively eliminates the other gods from intervening in the war due to his sheer will and backing power (Iliad, Book XV, 349). The opposing gods were mainly Apollo and Artemis, twin brother and sister. They favored the Trojan side, and were constantly turning the tide in favor of the Trojans. Apollo respected Zeus and his enforcing of the laws of fate, however, and kept fate as it was deemed to be. An example of this is when Achilles servant, Patroclus, tries to take the city of Troy. Before Patroclus was allowed to wear Achilles armor into battle, he promised only to drive the Trojans away from the ships and not to take an offensive against the city of Troy. Only the reflection of Patroclus by Apollos shield three times prevents this. This lack of moderation shown by Patroclus, as well as the deeming of death before the end of battle by fate, granted by Zeus, leads to his death (Iliad, Book XVI, 398). Zeus serves as an enforcer of fate in the epic, giving no ground to anyone, even his blood relatives. Zeus also shows no mercy to mortals in The Iliad. His own son, Sarpedon, was allowed to die at the hands of Patroclus while Zeus looked on, unwilling to break fate and save even his own son. Zeus was debating whether or not to take him from the battlefield, but Hera convinced him by expressing the feelings other gods would have, namely anger. She told him that he would not be praised and that other gods would possibly take their loved ones out of battle as well (Iliad, Book XVI, 391). Zeus was confined to his own sorrow because he was not willing to take his son out of the battle. Zeus was able, however, to have Apollo take his body from the battlefield and take him back to Lykia, where he could be buried as a hero (Iliad, Book XVI, 397). Patroclus, another example somewhat discussed previously, was also fated to die when he took an offensive against the Trojan city. It was fated for him to die in battle, and it was Zeus who then aroused the spirit in Patroclus breast (Classics In Translation, 37). This led him into his inescapable fate, to which Zeus was unerring and emotionless. Zeus will only enter into the fray of the Trojan War if fate is not being followed, and will only alter situations until fate has been met. At the end of the epic, when Achilles is finally roused back into battle, he turns the fate of the war so much to the Greek side that Zeus temporarily allows the other gods back into the war to ensure the city of Troy is only sacked when fate decrees, and not a second earlier. Zeus interferes in the war in areas that fate has nothing to do with, such as glory and honour. Zeus helps Hector, the main hero of the Trojan side, in his attainment of honour when he takes the armour of Achilles off the body of Patroclus. Only Achilles could fit into the incredible armour, but with Zeus intervention, Hector was enabled to fit into the armour as well, proving himself no less of a man than Achilles (Iliad, Book XVII, 408). Zeus knew of the fate of death of Hector at the hands of Achilles, and felt that the increase in honour of Hector was necessary. Zeus also wanted a respectable and honourable death for Hector, the Trojan hero, and was infuriated when Achilles decided to desecrate the body of Hector. This epic ends when Hectors body is ransomed back to the Trojan side to the pleasure of Zeus, in essence wrapping together the themes of the wrath of Achilles and the presence of all-powerful Zeus. Zeus has an overriding presence in The Iliad, sometimes not directly present, but always in the mix. He is the only presence in the epic that stresses the Greek ideals of moderation and fate. The Greeks believed in the ideal of moderation and the essence that moderation was the key to becoming a better person. Fate also could not be avoided in the eyes of the Greeks, and when fate was trifled with, bad things happened, as they did when fate was trifled with in The Iliad. The presence of Zeus in the epic affected every action taken or avoided in some shape, way, or form. His allowance of other gods intervening in the war at times strengthens the idea that he is all-seeing, all-powerful, due to the fact that the other gods intervention inevitably led fate back onto its original course. In the eyes of the Greeks, the Trojan War was a spectacular event to the mortals, but to the gods, it was nothing more than a mere petty struggle. However, the idea of fate must always be kept under all circumstances, and Zeus was the overseeing power that ensured this in The Iliad. Chapter III Analysis Sub Topic I: Zeus’ Personal Intentions Zeus acted in a way that was not considered normal for the Greek Gods, because in Greek mythology the gods were always intervening. This was considered as a part of life. Zeus was portrayed as a father figure because he was fair to both sides. Without him the Trojan War would become a battleground for the gods themselves. Zeus is befitting to his role because of his power which is greater than all the other gods combined and also because of his experience. The main theme of the Iliad is the anger of Achilles. This is brought about by the irrational acts of Agamemnon the leader of the Greeks. This causes the Greek army to suffer accordingly. There are also two other themes in the story. One is the Trojan War itself and the other is the will of Zeus. The will of Zeus is so great that it is regarded as a theme in itself. These themes meet in the end resulting in Achilles wrath being curbed and he returns to battle. Zeus’ will was to allow things to happen in the way that fate decreed it should happen. Zeus stayed impartial to the sides in contrast to the other gods which include Athena, Hera, Poseidon and Hermes on the side of the Greeks and Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis and Leto for the Trojans. A simple example of the typical behaviour of a Greek god/goddess would be the actions of Hera. When Paris decided that Aphrodite was the fairest god over Hera and Athena, Hera was infuriated and went to no end to help the Greeks. However Hera knows that Zeus is mightier than her and ceases speaking when Zeus threatens her with is invincible hands (Iliad, book I). Even after this Hera still tries to help the Greeks by tricking Zeus into sleeping with her, while Poseidon influenced the war (Iliad, book XIV). An example of Zeus enforcing fate was when Patroclus tried to take the city of Troy. Before Patroclus was allowed to wear Achilles armour into battle, he promised to only drive the Trojans away from the ships and not take an offensive to the city. Only the reflection of Patroclus by Apollo’s shield prevents this. The lack of moderation by Patroclus and the decision of death before the battle by fate granted by Zeus, leads to his death (Iliad, Book XVI). Zeus gives no ground to anyone, even his son Sarpedon whom he let die under the hand of Patroclus. Zeus however was able to make Apollo take out the body from the battlefield and send him back to Lykia, where he would be buried a hero (Iliad, XVI). Even in the example of Patroclus it was already decided that he was to die in battle and it was Zeus who â€Å"aroused the spirit in Patroclus’ breast†. At the end of the story, Achilles goes back into battle he turns the fate of the war so much towards the Greek side that Zeus allowed the other gods to temporarily go back to war to ensure that Troy is only sacked when fate says so. Zeus’ personal intentions lie in the areas where fate plays no part, such as glory and honour. Zeus helps Hector in the attainment of honour when he takes Achilles’ armour off Patroclus and puts it on himself. Only Achilles could fit in the incredible armour but with the help of Zeus, Hector fits in it as well, proving himself no less of a man than Achilles (Iliad, XVII). Zeus knew that Hector was going to die and that an increase in glory and honour was necessary. Zeus also intervened when Achilles, after killing Hector, decided to desecrate Hector’s body. The epic ends when the body is ransomed back to Troy to the pleasure of Zeus. This wraps up the themes of the will of Zeus and the wrath of Achilles. Zeus has an overriding presence and is the only presence which upheld the Greek ideals of moderation and fate. This ends my analysis on the personal intentions of Zeus. Sub Topic II: How Zeus helped the Trojans One of the most notable ways that Zeus helped Troy was when Achilles overcame his wrath and decided to com back to the battlefield. When Achilles returned, his retaliation was so great. Because of this Zeus feared that Troy would be taken before it was the right time. In response to Achilles massive retaliation, Zeus allowed the gods to return to the battlefield. This allowed more time for Troy and in the end allowed Troy to fall at the time fate decreed it to fall. Another way that Zeus helped Troy was when Hera seduced Zeus with glamour and love charms from Aphrodite. When Zeus saw her, he was so overwhelmed and he said that she was more beautiful than the wife of Ixion who bore him Peirithoos, sweet Danae who bore him Perseus, Europa who bore him Minos and Rhadamanthys, Semele who bore him Dionysos, Alkmene (Alcmene) who bore him Herakles (Heracles), the queen Demeter, and glorious Leto, mother of Apollon and Artemis (Iliad, book 14). While Zeus was asleep, Poseidon then went to help the Achaians. Luckily for the Trojans, Poseidon’s bellowing and shrieking awakened Zeus. When Zeus awoke he realized Hera’s treachery and Poseidon’s boldness. He then sent Iris to warn Poseidon of his folly. Poseidon saw the wisdom of retreating and did so. Then Zeus sent Apollo to revive Hector and charge the Achaians back to their ships, thus rebalancing the battle. Zeus did several other things for Troy, including raising the honour of his beloved Hector and sending Sarpedon’s body back to Lykia where he would be buried a hero. Sub Topic III: How Zeus helped the Achaians Zeus helped the Achaians directly by allowing fate to happen. That act in itself gave the Achaians the victory because Troy was already fated to fall. If Zeus had gone against fate, the Achaians would fail and Troy would not fall. Zeus also helped the Achaians indirectly by falling for the charms Hera used on him. This gave Poseidon the chance to help the Achaians turn away the Trojans who already reached the ships of the Achaians. Another way that Zeus helped the Achaians indirectly was by sending Agamemnon a sinister dream. The dream then took the form of old Nestor and said to Agamemnon â€Å"Sleeping, son of Atreus, tamer of horses? You should not sleep all night, not as a captain responsible for his men, with many duties, a great voice in the conferences of war. Follow me closely: I am a messenger from Zeus, who is far away but holds you dear. ‘Prepare the troops,’ he said, ‘to take the field without delay: now may you take by storm the spacious town of Troy. The Olympian gods are of two minds no longer: Hera’s pleading swayed them all, and bitter days from Zeus await the Trojans. ’ Hold on to this message against forgetfulness in tides of day when blissful sleep is gone. Zeus intended to destroy the Achaians in windrows by their ships but instead of this happening, Achilles came back and the Achaians succeeded. With this Zeus hit two birds with one stone. He did glorify Achilles because of his promise to Thetis and he also followed fate by allowing the Achaians to triumph and overthrow Troy. Chapter IV Conclusion My conclusion on the role of Zeus is that Zeus is a moderator and overall director of everything that occurs in the story. His job in the story is to ensure that everything fate decreed would happen. As was stated before, without Zeus’ presence the story would become a war playground for the gods, instead of the Achaians and the Trojans. Unlike the other gods who wanted to help the sides they were allied to Zeus’ interests lie in things that are not affected by fate like glory and honour. Compared to the other gods, Zeus stayed impartial to any side through the whole epic. The other gods would scheme and make plans to give the side they allied with the upper hand. The result of Zeus’ impartiality was that Zeus was not considered as a typical Greek divinity. The more common action of a Greek divinity would be to destroy any person who infuriates him or her. A perfect example, albeit a commonly used one, would be Hera. When Paris chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena, Hera was infuriated and went to no end to defeat the Trojans. Comments My comments on this book would be very positive. As I am an avid fan of Greek mythology, this story really appealed to me. The translation puts out all doubts as to how the original writer would want it written. The description and detail are so precise, which is great and it makes the book so much better.

Free Essays on Women Of The Odyssey

Women of the Odyssey When Homer wrote â€Å"The Odyssey† he wrote about many women, all of which were similar but had distinct personalities or opposed motives. Each woman used these different traits to help Odysseus get home, whether intentional or not. These women are Eurykleia and Melantho; Circe and Kalypso; and Penelope and Clytemnestra. Eurykleia and Melantho are both maidservants in Odysseus’ home. They both help Odysseus make the decision to kill the suitors. Although Eurykleia and Melantho do this in very different ways, they each have a very strong impact on the end of the story. Eurykleia is Odysseus’ old nurse. She has raised him up from childhood. Eurykleia is not rude to Odysseus when he comes to the house dressed as a beggar, instead she bathes him. While bathing him, she recognized the scar on his thigh from the boar. Eurykleia immediately knows who it is yet she keeps quiet. Even though Eurykleia does not like the suitors being in the house, she is not rude or cruel to them. Melantho is another maidservant in the house. Unlike Eurykleia, Melantho judges the beggar, Odysseus, and taunts him along with the suitors. Melantho has befriended the suitors and became accustomed to them being in the house. Melantho shows Odysseus how cruel the men are and shows Odysseus that there are traitors in the house. This gives Odysseus just one more reason to kill the suitors. Circe and Kalypso also help Odysseus get home faster. Both Circe and Kalypso are beautiful goddesses and seductresses. They both fall in love with Odysseus and want to keep him there for their own sexual pleasure. Circe is a goddess that lives in Aiaia and keeps Odysseus at her house for a year. When Odysseus and his men first arrive, Circe intentions are to harm Odysseus and his men. Circe uses drugs to turn Odysseus’ men into pigs, but then falls in love with Odysseus. She bathes, feeds, and clothes Odysseus. Circe te... Free Essays on Women Of The Odyssey Free Essays on Women Of The Odyssey Women of the Odyssey When Homer wrote â€Å"The Odyssey† he wrote about many women, all of which were similar but had distinct personalities or opposed motives. Each woman used these different traits to help Odysseus get home, whether intentional or not. These women are Eurykleia and Melantho; Circe and Kalypso; and Penelope and Clytemnestra. Eurykleia and Melantho are both maidservants in Odysseus’ home. They both help Odysseus make the decision to kill the suitors. Although Eurykleia and Melantho do this in very different ways, they each have a very strong impact on the end of the story. Eurykleia is Odysseus’ old nurse. She has raised him up from childhood. Eurykleia is not rude to Odysseus when he comes to the house dressed as a beggar, instead she bathes him. While bathing him, she recognized the scar on his thigh from the boar. Eurykleia immediately knows who it is yet she keeps quiet. Even though Eurykleia does not like the suitors being in the house, she is not rude or cruel to them. Melantho is another maidservant in the house. Unlike Eurykleia, Melantho judges the beggar, Odysseus, and taunts him along with the suitors. Melantho has befriended the suitors and became accustomed to them being in the house. Melantho shows Odysseus how cruel the men are and shows Odysseus that there are traitors in the house. This gives Odysseus just one more reason to kill the suitors. Circe and Kalypso also help Odysseus get home faster. Both Circe and Kalypso are beautiful goddesses and seductresses. They both fall in love with Odysseus and want to keep him there for their own sexual pleasure. Circe is a goddess that lives in Aiaia and keeps Odysseus at her house for a year. When Odysseus and his men first arrive, Circe intentions are to harm Odysseus and his men. Circe uses drugs to turn Odysseus’ men into pigs, but then falls in love with Odysseus. She bathes, feeds, and clothes Odysseus. Circe te...

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Hombres Necios by Sor Juana - Essay Example However, Sor Juana argues that these faults are caused by men themselves. This is seen in the first stanza of the poem where she argues that men wrongly accuse women forgetting that they are the ones to blame for the emergent faults. During the writing of the poem in the seventeenth century, gender equality was a main issue though it was hardly spoken about. Nonetheless, the poem gives a reflection of the scenario during this period while simultaneously condemning men’s actions against women. For example, the poem uses a relationship approach to show the inequality and atrocities committed to women. In every step of the relationship from courtship to the course of the relationship, men always strive to win and do not take responsibility for any fault at all but rather blame women. Generally, although Sor Juana argues for women, she does use the term ‘we’ in the entire poem. Additionally, the poem is arguably easy to understand owing to the short stanzas, four lines each, and the recurrence of the message. Although Sor Juana was from Mexico, the poem gives a reflection of the general societal setting in Latin America. During this period women’s voice and contributions to the society were limited with only two opportunities as either housewives or nuns. Although nuns enjoyed some privileges such as learning, they were still held back by the limitations imposed on women. As such, Sor Juana’s poem critiquing men was a bold move from a woman making her one of the first pioneers of feminism. Considering the odds against women, it is only logical to ask what motivated her. Did other women approve of her ways? More importantly, did her efforts bear any fruits? Additionally, the poem is relatable to the modern society where issues revolving around gender equality are still imminent. Gender inequality is not only an issue in Latin America but rather a global

My father is a serious person Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

My father is a serious person - Essay Example Growing up, we only saw our father during the holidays. Even then, mother had to force us to pack up; as we barely knew him, it was always awkward during the first days of the holidays. However, though there was this need to connect with him at an emotional level, the time never seemed right. My father had always been a prim proper man who always seemed too busy on the phone, talking up a client or trying to close a deal. He barely had enough to time to sit and enjoy a meal. Learning to ride a bicycle, I only rode with my uncle. I am told that my father was right there throughout the learning period. I do not remember it. When I broke my collar bone back in elementary school, all I remember was seating at the back of the car and my mother’s worried face as we drove to the hospital. I do not recall who the driver was though it was him behind the wheel. In my recollections of the past, I can barely recall interacting with my father. All are but stories I had tried to no avail to combine to form a picture. Dentist appointments, first day at school, graduation ceremonies, birthday parties – he was always there. He never missed any of them. This is no longer the case now, and we are now inseparable. Like there was never a gap in our relationship. A life threaten ing experience can really change how people relate. Twelve years ago I was taken ill with a very funny ailment. My whole body was itchy and I could not stop scratching myself against anything in site. On seeing a doctor, we discovered that my kidney had been failing and had been getting treatment for the symptoms during hospital visits. This came as a shock to the family, considering I had to be put on dialysis as soon as possible and a drastic change in dietary needs. It was thought that I needed a kidney transplant, and being on a waiting list could take years before I get a donor. Either way I was evaluated for insurance purposes and my name

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS - Essay Example More effort needs to be plugged in this area of language. The Piraha people have a very different distinct language. Their language has no history, neither does it have any descriptive words or sub-ordinate clauses. This is what makes their language a strange affair and has attracted eyeballs of many linguists round the globe. Linguistics center around what most idioms round the world have in common. But Piraha language stands out from the other languages where it’s main features are concerned. Their language is extremely spare and comprises of only 3 pronouns. There is no concept of tense in their language. There is barely any use of past tense verb conjugation and colors are not that important to Piranhas either. The biggest dilemma of their language is the fact that this is the only language in the world that does not use any subordinate clauses. For instance if they were to tell someone that they were done eating and can talk they would use the following statement â€Å"I finish eating, I speak with you.† Pirahas are just as surprising in their daily lives. They don’t normally need numbers and make use of words like all, every, more all the time. It is said that they use a word called â€Å"hoi† and it comes close to the numeral 1. However it can also be referred to as something small or which is in a relatively less amount. For example it could be two small fish compared to one big fish. Another strange thing about their language and culture stems from their inability to count on fingers. For instance they would not count on fingers to determine the number of pieces of meat that need to be grilled for villagers or how much they demand from Brazilian traders. Thus Pirahas use of language is very weird and perplexing. References: CORBETT, GREVILLE G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CRAIN, S., AND D. LILLO-MARTIN. 1999. An introduction to linguistic theory and language acquisition. Oxford: DAVIDSON, DONALD. 200 1 (1997). "The emergence of thought," in Subjective, intersubjective, objective. Edited by Donald Davidson. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DESALLES, JEAN-LOUIS. 2004. About the adaptiveness of syntactic recursion. http://www.interdisciplines.org/coevolution/papers/3/5/1. DESCOLA, PHILIPPE. 1994. In the society of nature: A native ecology in Amazonia. Translated by N. Scott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [AS] DE VALOIS R., H. C. MORGAN, M. C. POLSON, W. R. MEAD, AND E. M. HULL. 1974. Psychophysical studies of monkey vision. 1. Macaque luminosity and color vision tests. Vision Research 14:53 67. DIESSEL, H. 1999. Demonstratives: Form, function, and grammaticalization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DIXON, R. M. W. 1995. "Complement clauses and complementation strategies," in Grammar and meaning. Edited by F. Palmer, pp. 175 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . 2002 Australian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ENFIELD, NICK. Editor. 2002. Ethnosyntax: Ex plorations in grammar and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. EVERETT, DANIEL L. 1979. Aspectos da fonologia do Piraha. M.A. thesis, Universidade Estadual de Campinas,Campinas, Brazil. . 1983. A lingua piraha e a teoria da sintaxe. Sc.D. diss., Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. . 1985. "Syllable weight, sloppy phonemes, and channels in Piraha discourse," in Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 11. Edited by Mary Niepokuj et al., pp. 408 16.

Marks and Spencer Internal and External Factors

Marks and Spencer Internal and External Factors Analysts did not expect there to be a double-dip recession first, but changes in consumer spending trends raised concerns for keeping a keen eye on consumer confidence by carrying out in-depth customer surveys every month. This was to become and stay realistic. Leaders of large firms are very cautious regarding UK economic environment. UK is considered to come through the deepest ravages of the economic turmoil recently and in such a situation still MS managed to post profits of  £632.5m for the last financial year. With the worst effects of the recession behind , the strong foundations in place, and its core values helped MS set for growth under hard circumstances. At  £632.5m, MSs adjusted pre-tax profits for the 12 months to 27 March were 4.6% higher than a year ago but well below the  £1bn profits achieved in 2008. These stats along with the new budget announcement, impact on consumer spending remains a cautious issue and will have impact on outlook for the year ahead. Business Environment Analysis PESTLE The external environment of Marks Spencer is comprised of all the elements that determine what the it needs to compete in its respective industry. Following is highlighted some factors of MAs external environment and how they effect Marks Spencer in executing its strategies: (P)OLITICAL European Integration and Free Trade Agreements have opened up markets for British other Companies to invest in Europe. Thus, causing MA to fight hard to maintain its market share with aggressive strategies. Generally any trade is allowed in UK provided that it does not oppose public policy, public order, or any existing law in the land. But for Marks and Spencer, the most troublesome political elements that they have to contend to deals with the issue of labour laws and industrial relationship. In the long history of MA, its development efforts have been controlled by many infringements in labour laws in local operations and also in international initiatives. (E)CONOMIC UK Retail sector is quite recession prawn and also very sensitive to changes in interest rates. With the event of September 11, the world economies have suffered heavily, Once the customers and economy was on boom track after September 11 post effects, the financial crisis of 2009-09 has again set the economies struggle for survival. UK economy after fighting hard has now regained its system and consumers are again optimistic and the retail industry is once again booming. The United Kingdom being a hub of commerce in Europe, has consumers not limited to only locals but flocks of tourists also, thus creating much variations in base trends and retail business. (S)OCIAL Changes in consumer taste and lifestyle represent both opportunities and threats for the industry. UK consumer have a loyal tendency particularly towards brand. Quality of the product, but these factors can be easily overcome by fairly competitive pricing strategy from a competing brand. Moreover, consumers preference towards trendy styles rather than classics are also apparent in UK consumer market. This is specially in case of Marks and Spencer, as it has struggled hard to gain a greater market share of its customers. This makes evident that UK consumer places high value on their money. (T)ECHNICAL Changes in retailing methods such as Internet used as online shopping store is a common practice in retailing, widening the scope of ecommerce. Moreover, Paperless operation and use of IT systems has provided flexibility in the executing operations of the business. Online marketing activities over the net is also becoming one of the competitive advantages held by the leading retail companies in UK. (E)NVIRONMENTAL The renewable and environmentally friendly sources of resources used in production are opted by most of the companies across globe now which has posed greater struggle for companies to maintain its market share. For Marks Spencer, careful use of fabric and raw materials is a greater concern now. (L)EGAL National legislation for health and safety both in terms of consumer rights and also in terms of production of own natural renewable resources for making clothes is closely monitoring practices of companies so as to evaluate them on complying with legal restrictions . Analysis of the External Environment of Marks and Spencer The retail environment in UK appears to be extremely attractive. Companies, although have government support still there exists in the market some level of difficulty in penetrating the retail market, especially for new entrants, due to the strong hold of monoliths This is also true companies like Marks and Spencer, having strong historical background that their environment is essentially welcoming and neglecting the fact of cutthroat nature of the competition there are chances of immense demise for companies. PORTERS 5 FORCES Porter explains that five forces exist in a market, which determine the intensity of competition and profitability of MS . The first is the threat posed by new entrants, the high capital expenditure and customers changing expectations put significant barriers to entry, making market also sensitive to reputation. But, with emergence of low cost manufactures a significant threat is posed for MS market. There is an opportunity in the low price/ low economy (fast) sector and BHS and Top Shop or ASDA may also consider introducing low cost home products. The second is the threats from substitutes, as there are many retailers in both clothing and food sector, MS has serious concerns regarding this. The third force is the threats from the bargaining power of buyers, this is strong for both MS and the entire food retailing industry with a large number of alternative suppliers, hence, the aggressive pricing strategy which causes strong competitive rivalry in the industry and is getting intensified because of little or no differentiation in the basic product offered. Last is the threats from the suppliers bargainin g power which is considerably low for food industry, due to a range of alternative sources of supply available for products. SWOT SWOT Analysis will help us in understanding Marks Spencers current situation in terms of strengths and where improvements are required within the business and what outside environmental threats it faces along with what new opportunities are available in the short and medium term. (S)TRENGTHS Diverse ranges of Products Food, Clothing, Financial products, furniture, wine and Home Largest retailer in the United Kingdom by sales. Strong Cash Flow Position Increase turnover and trading profits Leading Premium Quality Food Retailer Brand Awareness (O)PPORTUNITIES New Products Innovation Alliances Customers demand change to more value for money products Develop overseas supply chain (W)EAKNESSES Perception of High Prices Customer disinterest Environmental issues: Pollutions Substitute products or technologies (T)HREATS New existing competition Volatility in Price of raw products New legislations Economic recession Low cost retailers  · Extremely high competition Analysis of the Macro environment Microenvironment MS is rated a successful multinational corporation. It has created its large number of loyal customer base by providing them with its high quality, good service, comfortable shopping environment and convenient access to outlets and products. But, due to the immense competition in market and also MSs own wide product ranged offered it has to revise its marketing segmentation approach, especially in reference to clothing market. Consumers have changing fashionable design and coloring requirements and MS as is facing different target markets need to change its designs, cuts and color schemes to meet their demands. These need to specific and separate for women and young consumers who are its main target. MS also needs to enhance stock management. Combing its information technology system with stock management ca help MS find problems immediately and solve them efficiently to supply products timely. MS also needs to consider the global economic environment, where the economic recession has caused deciling sales for MS, it should focus more towards mid-age and mid-class as its target group as now their incomes can afford the high price of MS. Trend Impact Analysis Proposed Strategic Plan for MS After doing analysis of the environment of the MS, the proposed strategic plan will be considering both the internal as well as external environment. Initially its value chain should be focused on: Value Chain The value chain of the organisation is coined primarily by Porter as a tool to recognise the inherent capabilities of the organisation to realise its competitive advantage. The following will describe the primary activities and support activities of the company. Primary Activities The primary activities take in hand several specific functions of the company: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and service. Marks and Spencer receives its inventories from its suppliers, initially the strategy was to stay limited to English suppliers but eventually this trends is now shifting and now suppliers include international suppliers also. Marks and Spencer is involved in the direct selling of apparel, foodstuff, and even home furnishings. The sales and marketing of the company should be the most prioritised elements for the organisation, due to the intense competition present in the industry, vying for consumer favour and to add value to the brand , it takes a step above the rest of these primary activities. Support Activities For these support activities, the company needs to have hold of its f human resource and technology, where with help of proper training of common employee, the company can ccreate knowledge of its products and their awareness during the processes of selling to customers. Use of technology in similar manner can significantly infused in the operations of Marks and Spencer. This includes providing online transactions and loyalty cards on which they should be doing continuous improvements and innovation. Strategic Options Available To create sound strategic options for the MS, they must consider the benefits and impacts those can have on company financial position and customer base also. Following are discussed some options which following the current recession and UK competitive market structure can be of good benefit for the company   Brand repositioning: this technique if used to create fresh feeling in the minds of customers for the brand after frequent intervals. Moreover brand repositioning requires a lot of work on new targets, segments and options, the changing consumer trends and demands can be well handled by MS using such strategies The rapid competition demand fast and logical decisions which are flexible and designed in such a ways that immediate implementation is possible as customers dont have time now and immediately switch to other brands. Thus the structure of decision making should be redesigned to make it more integrated and flexible. Of the many strategic options available for Marks Spencer it appears that Marks and Spencer could focus on to refurbishing its operations. For instance, the company should look into a partnership with the more current and competitive players in the retail industry. This can help broaden the overall outlook of Marks and Spencer regarding their standing in the market. Marks Spencer needs to move ahead with major technology-driven change projects, despite cautiousness over the economy. Improvement in systems can also take place to improve supply chain processes which includes enhancing stock management systems to provide more accurate real-time stock level information. Getting Cost efficiencies by introducing some new point-of-sale system and better customer service to all stores Building a strong multichannel capability can also be useful which will result in more website development and introduction attractive and more efficient facilities and stock availability information for customers

Case Analysis: “No Frills” Air Fares

Business Economics Case Analysis: â€Å"No Frills† Air Fares Distinguish between the demand curves for National Airlines, Eastern Airlines and the Airlines industry. The above analysis requires an understanding of: (i) Why is the demand curve downward sloping? (ii) Can price have the same effect on the demand between the firms and at industry level? (iii) What would be the effect of changes in income and other prices on the demand curve of a firm? iv) Calculate the price elasticity of demand for National and Eastern Airlines. (v) Which elasticity measurement (Point vs. Arc) is appropriate for National and Eastern Airline? Explain â€Å"No Frills† Air Fares As the 1974-1975 recession made inroads into passenger traffic loads of the major airlines, National Airlines persuaded the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to let it try an experiment with a discount of as much as 35 % from normal coach fares on certain of its regularly scheduled routes. National, in an effort to build up its load factor, tied its discount fare proposal to the offering of â€Å"no frills† service during the flight, including doing away with complimentary meals, snacks, soft drinks, and coffee so as to reduce costs and partially offset the lower-priced fares. However, passengers using the â€Å"no frills† plan could selectively purchase these items in-flight if they wished. The no frills fares were offered only Mondays through Thursdays. The CAB gave the go-ahead to National to experiment with the no frills fare, with the proviso that National study the plan and report back at a later date. Eastern Airlines and Delta Airlines, both competitors of National on some of the routes where National proposed to implement no frills fares, were also permitted to use the discount fares for a trial period. In its report to the CAB on the results of the no frills approach, National maintained that 56 % of the 133,000 passengers who used its no frills fare from mid- April through June 30, 1975, were enticed to travel by air because of the discount fare plan. According to National, the new passenger traffic generated by discount fares increased its revenues by $4 million during that period. National said that its figures were based upon an on-board survey of 13,500 passengers and presented one of the most exhaustive studies ever conducted for a CAB investigation. J. Dan Brock, vice president for marketing for National Airlines, was quoted at a news conference as saying that the fare had been an â€Å"unqualified success,† had created a new air-travel market, and had generated more than twice the volume of new passengers required to offset revenue dilution caused by regular passengers switching to the lower fare. He said the stimulus of the fare gave National a net traffic gain of 74,000 passengers during the initial 21/2 – month trail. But he also cautioned that the success claims he was making for the no frills fare did not mean that low fares were the answer to the airline industry’s excess capacity problems. Yet Brock did go so far as to state that â€Å"what no frills has proved†¦ is that a properly conceived discount fare, offered at the right time in the right markets with the right controls, can help airlines hurdle traditionally soft traffic period. Eastern Airlines reported a much different experience. Eastern said its studies showed that only 14 % of the 55,200 of its passengers who used a no frills fare between mid-April and May 31 represented newly generated traffic, with the remaining 86 % representing passengers diverted from higher fares who would have flown anyway. It said that the effect of the fare in the six major markets it studied was a net loss in re venue to Eastern of $ 543,000 during the initial 11/2 months. At the same time Eastern attacked the credibility of the National Airlines’ survey, noting that its own data were based upon an exhaustive and scientific blind telephone survey among persons who did not know the purpose and sponsor of the survey. Eastern claimed that this type of study was more apt to produce unbiased results that National’s on-board surveys. Other airlines joined Eastern in challenging National’s survey results in the CAB’s hearing to decide whether the no frills fares should continue to be allowed. Delta Airlines, for example, claimed that the no frills fare did not even come close to offsetting the dilution its experienced in revenues. Other airline officials observed that while National Airlines might have succeeded through its heavy promotion of the no frills fares in diverting some business from ther carriers, they felt that National‘s claims of generating many passengers who otherwise would not have flown were â€Å"preposterous. † Those airlines in direct competition with National on the routes where the discount fares were tried were vehemently opposed to continuing the discounts. In their view the no frills approach constituted â€Å"economic nonsense. † They announced a policy of matching National’s discount fare only where forced to for competitive reasons.

Explanation of Human Behavior Essay

Psychology is a vast field that studies the behavior of a person. Because of psychology there is a better understanding of the disorders people may be affected by, the choices people make, and even the sexuality of the human race is understood by psychology. How psychology came to be, is a question that I had asked myself in the past. When researchers chose to directly observe psychological events, such as timed reactions, 130 years ago, psychology emerged into a scientific field of its own. The first psychological lab was created in 1879 by Wilhelm Wandr. Since the field of psychology was originally developed by Caucasian males, many beliefs were biased. As the field of psychology has grown, so has the diversity involved in psychological study; leaving us with more accurate understanding. As I happened to mention earlier, psychology is a vast field. This leaves room for many different perspectives. There are three primary perspectives with several sub-fields of psychology. First there is the biological perspective which includes biopsychology and evolutionary psychology. Second, is the psychological perspective that includes behaviorism, cognitive psychology, the psycho-dynamic approach, and humanism. The third perspective of psychology is the sociocultural perspective. Together, these three perspectives and their sub-fields have helped in advancing knowledge in the field. A long standing debate in the field of psychology is the effect of nature and nurture on a person’s behavioral development. I feel that both are equally important factors in how a person behaves. Some people are born with psychological disorders, but their upbringing helps them live a comfortable life without being controlled by their disorder. Others grow up in a bad environment that brings out the worst of their disorders. There are some people who aren’t born with psychological disorders, but develop some over time due to their upbringing. For example, I was born without any  abnormalities and was completely healthy. Unfortunately I was born into a family of addiction and violence. As a child I was sexually, physically, and emotionally abused. As a result of this abuse I suffered from depression and even now as an adult, many of my choices are influenced by the environment I grew in. I do feel that a lot of personal choices are in our own control, though. Another example, though I was raised in the type of family I was raised in, I chose to be better. I chose to break the pattern of addiction and abuse and become a better person. I know other people who grew up in the same situation as me, and they choose to follow the path and they choose to carry a grudge that the world owes them something. I feel there are too many factors involved in behavior for it to be caused by only one perspective. Reference Mitterer, & Coon. Introduction to Psychology: Gateways to Mind and Behavior with Concept Maps and Reviews (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Cengage Learning.

Vietnam Essays (2501 words) - Vietnam War, Free Essays, Term Papers

Vietnam Essays (2501 words) - Vietnam War, Free Essays, Term Papers Vietnam Vietnam: The War We Should Have Won Essay written by Chris Styduhar The Vietnam War is one of the most disgraceful periods in American history. Not only did the greatest superpower in the world get bested by an almost third-world nation, but we lost badly. Perhaps this war could have been won, or even prevented in the first place. The United States could have and should have won this war, with a combination of better weapons usage, better tactics, and better support from their home country. Before the War Even years before the war, Vietnam was a hotly disputed territory. Many countries had taken Vietnam over, and after World War II, Vietnam was in the hands of France. Obviously, the Vietnamese wanted their own country, and their long history of being a colony prompted the oppressed people to fight for their independence in the French-Indochina war. 7 Ho Chi Min, a leader of the Communist party, organized the Vietnamese independence movement, Viet Minh. Asking for support from America first, Ho Chi Min did not want to have to turn to communist support for the freedom of his people. Since the United States viewed helping Ho gain his independence from France as a move against their own allies, they declined. It was only after Russia and China offered to help that Ho adopted communist ideals and wanted to make all of Vietnam communist. The Vietnam war started simply because Ho Chi Min and his communist supporters wanted South Vietnam to become communist after the South split off in 1954 to become its own democratic nation. The United States saw this as a threat to democracy, and using the Domino theory, successfully threw the U.S. into the one of the worst wars it has ever seen. If only the United States had looked past its petty alliances and helped another country gain its independence like we had gained ours so many years ago, this war would have been completely avoided. Unfortunately for the families of over 64,000 soldiers, it wasn't. Beginnings of a Nightmare As early as 1954, the United States started sending financial and military aid to South Vietnam, hoping to stop the spread of communism. The flow of 'military advisors' from 700 to over 14,000 1 built up steadily through John Kennedy's presidency, and after he was assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson escalated the war to the point of no return. Johnson used the ludicrous domino theory to justify the military buildup in Vietnam. American people were so scared of communism by McCarthyism in the 1950's, that they were willing to do anything to stop communism where it started. The people of the United States let Johnson build up a huge force in Vietnam, and he was also almost unanimously backed by congress. By the end of the war, Johnson was so ashamed that he didn't even try to run for reelection. If the American populous would have stopped and thought about what they were getting themselves into and not jumped gung-ho into a frivolous war, their representatives wouldn't have felt so pressured to back Johnson. In 1964, the event every war-hungry Commie-killer was waiting for happened. In the Gulf of Tonkin, several VC torpedo boats reportedly fired on a U.S. vessel. 6 Even though the American ship sustained no damages, Johnson drafted the 'Gulf of Tonkin Resolution', which authorized him to use any force necessary to beat back the North Vietnamese. Congress never declared war or even directly authorized troops, but Johnson twisted enough words around to have his own little executive war. Early in the War At first, Johnson limited the conflict to an air war, hoping to pound away and demoralize the VC into submission. He used planes such as the B-52 bomber and the F-4 Phantom to try to win the war as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the United States' air power had many shortcomings. The F-4 Phantom was the latest and greatest piece of technology out there during Vietnam. Manufactured by McDonnell-Douglas, this plane was capable of multiple roles, as a dogfighter, bomber, recon, and support aircraft. However, the F-4 had its share of problems. First, the engineers who designed it neglected to mount any type of gun on the F-4A through the F-4D, thinking that the Phantom's frightening compliment of

Vietnam Essay

Vietnam Essay Free Online Research Papers From the beginning of John Kennedys Administration into this fifth year of Lyndon Johnsons presidency, substantially the same small groups of men have presided over the destiny of the United States. In that time they have carried the country from a limited involvement in Vietnam into a war that is brutal, probably unsinkable, and, to an increasing body of opinion, calamitous and immoral. How could it happen? Many in government or close to it will read the following article with the shock of recognition. Those less familiar with the processes of power can read it with the assurance that the author had a firsthand opportunity to watch the slide down the slippery slope during five years (1961-1966) of service in the White House and Department of State. Mr. Thomson is an East Asia specialist and an assistant professor of history at Harvard. As a case study in the making of foreign policy, the Vietnam War will fascinate historians and social scientists for many decades to come. One question that will certainly be asked: How did men of superior ability, sound training, and high ideals American policy-makers of the 1960s create such costly and divisive policy? As one who watched the decision-making process in Washington from 1961 to 1966 under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, I can suggest a preliminary answer. I can do so by briefly listing some of the factors that seemed to me to shape our Vietnam policy during my years as an East Asia specialist at the State Department and the White House. I shall deal largely with Washington as I saw or sensed it, and not with Saigon, where I have spent but a scant three days, in the entourage of the Vice President, or with other decision centers, the capitals of interested parties. Nor will I deal with other important parts of the record: Vietnams history prior to 1961, for instance, or the overall course of Americas relations with Vietnam. Yet a first and central ingredient in these years of Vietnam decisions does involve history. The ingredient was the legacy of the 1950s by which I mean the so-called loss of China, the Korean War, and the Far East policy of Secretary of State Dulles. This legacy had an institutional by-product for the Kennedy Administration: in 1961 the U.S. governments East Asian establishment was undoubtedly the most rigid and doctrinaire of Washingtons regional divisions in foreign affairs. This was especially true at the Department of State, where the incoming Administration found the Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs the hardest nut to crack. It was a bureau that had been purged of its best China expertise, and of farsighted, dispassionate men, as a result of McCarthyism. Its members were generally committed to one policy line: the close containment and isolation of mainland China, the harassment of neutralist nations which sought to avoid alignment with either Washington or Peking and the maintenance of a network of alliances with anti-Communist client states on Chinas periphery. Another aspect of the legacy was the special vulnerability and sensitivity of the new Democratic Administration on Far East policy issues. The memory of the McCarthy era was still very sharp, and Kennedys margin of victory was too thin. The 1960 Offshore Islands TV debate between Kennedy and Nixon had shown the President-elect the perils of fresh thinking. The Administration was inherently leery of moving too fast on Asia. As a result, the Far East Bureau (now the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs) was the last one to be overhauled. Not until Averell Harriman was brought in as Assistant Secretary in December 1961, were significant personnel changes attempted, and it took Harriman several months to make a deep imprint on the bureau because of his necessary preoccupation with the Laos settlement. Once he did so, there was virtually no effort to bring back the purged or exiled East Asia experts. There were other important by-products of this legacy of the fifties: The new Administration inherited and somewhat shared a general perception of China-on-the-march a sense of Chinas vastness, its numbers, its belligerence ; a revived sense, perhaps, of the Golden Horde. This was a perception fed by Chinese intervention in the Korean War (an intervention actually based on appallingly bad communications and mutual miscalculation on the part of Washington and Peking; but the careful unraveling of that tragedy, which scholars have accomplished, had not yet become part of the conventional wisdom). The new Administration inherited and briefly accepted a monolithic conception of the Communist bloc. Despite much earlier predictions and reports by outside analysts, policy-makers did not begin to accept the reality and possible finality of the Sino-Soviet split until the first weeks of 1962. The inevitably corrosive impact of competing nationalisms on Communism was largely ignored. The new Administration inherited and to some extent shared the domino theory about Asia. This theory resulted from profound ignorance of Asian history and hence ignorance of the radical differences among Asian nations and societies. It resulted from a blindness to the power and resilience of Asian nationalisms. (It may also have resulted from a subconscious sense that, since all Asians look alike, all Asian nations will act alike.) As a theory, the domino fallacy was not merely inaccurate but also insulting to Asian nations; yet it has continued to this day to beguile men who should know better. Finally, the legacy of the fifties was apparently compounded by an uneasy sense of a worldwide Communist challenge to the new Administration after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. A first manifestation was the Presidents traumatic Vienna meeting with Khrushchev in June 1961; then came the Berlin crisis of the summer. All this created an atmosphere in which President Kennedy undoubtedly felt under special pressure to show his nations mettle in Vietnam if the Vietnamese, unlike the people of Laos, were willing to fight. In general, the legacy of the fifties shaped such early moves of the new Administration as the decisions to maintain a high-visibility SEATO (by sending the Secretary of State himself instead of some underlying to its first meeting in 1961), to back away from diplomatic recognition of Mongolia in the summer of 1961, and most important, to expand U.S. military assistance to South Vietnam that winter on the basis of the much more tentative Eisenhower commitment. It should be added that the increased commitment to Vietnam was also fueled by a new breed of military strategists and academic social scientists (some of whom had entered the new Administration) who had developed theories of counter-guerrilla warfare and were eager to see them put to the test. To some, counterinsurgency seemed a new panacea for coping with the worlds instability. SO MUCH for the legacy and the history. Any new Administration inherits both complicated problems and simplistic views of the world. But surely among the policy-makers of the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, there were men who would warn of the dangers of an open-ended commitment to the Vietnam quagmire? This raises a central question, at the heart of the policy process: Where were the experts, the doubters, and the dissenters? Were they there at all, and if so, what happened to them? The answer is complex but instructive. In the first place, the American government was sorely lacking in real Vietnam or Indochina expertise. Originally treated as an adjunct of Embassy Paris, our Saigon embassy and the Vietnam Desk at State were largely staffed from 1954 onward by French-speaking Foreign Service personnel of narrowly European experience. Such diplomats were even more closely restricted than the normal embassy officer by the cast of mind as well as the language to contacts with Vietnams French-speaking urban elites. For instance, Foreign Service linguists in Portugal are able to speak with the peasantry if they get out of Lisbon and choose to do so; not so the French speakers of Embassy Saigon. In addition, the shadow of the loss of China distorted Vietnam reporting. Career officers in the Department, and especially those in the field, had not forgotten the fate of their World War II colleagues who wrote in frankness from China and were later pilloried by Senate co mmittees for critical comments on the Chinese Nationalists. Candid reporting on the strengths of the Viet Cong and the weaknesses of the Diem government was inhibited by the memory. It was also inhibited by some higher officials, notably Ambassador Nolting in Saigon, who refused to sign off on such cables. In due course, to be sure, some Vietnam talent was discovered or developed. But a recurrent and increasingly important factor in the decision-making process was the banishment of real expertise. Here the underlying cause was the closed politics of policy-making as issues become hot: the more sensitive the issue, and the higher it rises in the bureaucracy, the more completely the experts are excluded while the harassed senior generalists take over (that is, the Secretaries, Undersecretaries, and Presidential Assistants). The frantic skimming of briefing papers in the back seats of limousines is no substitute for the presence of specialists; furthermore, in times of crisis, such papers are deemed too sensitive even for review by the specialists. Another underlying cause of this banishment, as Vietnam became more critical, was the replacement of the experts, who were generally and increasingly pessimistic, by men described as can-do guys, loyal and energetic fixers unsoured by expertise. In early 1965, when I confided my growing policy doubts to an older colleague on the NSC staff, he assured me that the smartest thing both of us could do was to steer clear of the whole Vietnam mess; the gentleman in question had the misfortune to be a can-do guy, however, and is now highly placed in Vietnam, under orders to solve the mess. Despite the banishment of the experts, internal doubters and dissenters did indeed appear and persist. Yet as I watched the process, such men were effectively neutralized by a subtle dynamic: the domestication of dissenters. Such domestication arose out of a two-fold cubbish need: on the one hand, the dissenters desire to stay aboard; and on the other hand, the no dissenter’s conscience. Simply stated, dissent, when recognized, was made to feel at home. On the lowest possible scale of importance, I must confess my own considerable sense of dignity and acceptance (both vital) when my senior White House employer would refer to me as his favorite dove. Far more significant was the case of the former Undersecretary of State, George Ball. Once Mr. Ball began to express doubts, he was warmly institutionalized: he was encouraged to become the in-house devils advocate on Vietnam. The upshot was inevitable: the process of escalation allowed for periodic requests to Mr. Ball to speak his piece; Ball felt good, I assume (he had fought for righteousness); the others felt good (they had given a full hearing to the dovish option), and there was minimal unpleasantness. The club remained intact, and it is, of course, possible that matters would have gotten worse faster if Mr. Ball had kept silent, or left before his final departure in the fall of 1966. There was also, of course, the case of the last institutionalized doubter, Bill Moyers. The President is said to have greeted his arrival at meetings with an affectionate, Well, here comes Mr. Stop-the-Bombing. Here again, the dynamics of domesticated dissent sustained the relationship for a while. A related point and crucial, I suppose, to the government at all times was the effectiveness trap, the trap that keeps men from speaking out, as clearly or often as they might, within the government. And it is the trap that keeps men from resigning in protest and airing their dissent outside the government. The most important asset that a man brings to bureaucratic life is his effectiveness, a mysterious combination of training, style, and connections. The most ominous complaint that can be whispered of a bureaucrat is: Im afraid Charlies beginning to lose his effectiveness. To preserve your effectiveness, you must decide where and when to fight the mainstream of policy; the opportunities range from pillow talk with your wife to private drinks with your friends to meetings with the Secretary of State or the President. The inclination to remain silent or to acquiesce in the presence of the great men to live to fight another day, to give on this issue so that you can be effective on later issues is overwhelming. Nor is it the tendency of youth alone; some of our most senior officials, men of wealth and fame, whose place in history is secure, have remained silent lest their connection with power is terminated. As for the disinclination to resign in protest: while not necessarily a Washington or even American specialty, it seems truer of a government in which ministers have no parliamentary backbench to which to retreat. In the absence of such a refuge, it is easy to rationalize the decision to stay aboard. By doing so, one may be able to prevent a few bad things from happening and perhaps even make a few good things happen. To exit is to lose even those marginal chances for effectiveness. Another factor must be noted: as the Vietnam controversy escalated at home, there developed a preoccupation with Vietnam public relations as opposed to Vietnam policy-making. And here, ironically, internal doubters and dissenters were heavily employed. For such men, by virtue of their own doubts, were often deemed best able to massage the doubting intelligentsia. My senior East Asia colleague at the White House, a brilliant and humane doubter who had dealt with Indochina since 1954, spent three quarters o f his working days on Vietnam public relations: drafting presidential responses to letters from important critics, writing conciliatory language for presidential speeches, and meeting quite interminably with delegations of outraged Quakers, clergymen, academics, and housewives. His regular callers were the late A. J. Muste and Norman Thomas; mine were members of the Womens Strike for Peace. Our orders from above: keep them off the backs of busy policy-makers (who usually happened to be no doubters). Incidentally, my most discouraging assignment in the realm of public relations was the preparation of a White House pamphlet entitled Why Vietnam, in September 1965; in a gesture toward my conscience, I fought and lost a battle to have the title followed by a question mark. THROUGH a variety of procedures, both institutional and personal, doubt, dissent, and expertise were effectively neutralized in the making of policy. But what can be said of the men in charge? It is patently absurd to suggest that they produced such tragedy by intention and calculation. But it is neither absurd nor difficult to discern certain forces at work that caused decent and honorable men to do great harm. Here I would stress the paramount role of executive fatigue. No factor seems to be more crucial and underrated in the making of foreign policy. The physical and emotional toll of executive responsibility in State, the Pentagon, the White House, and other executive agencies is enormous; that toll is of course compounded by extended service. Many of todays Vietnam policy-makers have been on the job for from four to seven years. Complaints may be few, and physical health may remain unimpaired, though emotional health is far harder to gauge. But what is most seriously eroded in the deadening process of fatigue is the freshness of thought, imagination, a sense of possibility, a sense of priorities and perspective those rare assets of a new Administration in its first year or two of office. The tired policy-maker becomes a prisoner of his own narrowed view of the world and his own clichà ©d rhetoric. He becomes irritable and defensive short on sleep, short on family ties, short on patience. Such men make bad policy and then compound it. They have neither the time nor the temperament for new ideas or preventive diplomacy. Below the level of the fatigued executives in the making of Vietnam policy was a widespread phenomenon: the curator mentality in the Department of State. By this, I mean the collective inertia produced by the bureaucrats view of his job. At State, the average desk officer inherits from his predecessor our policy toward Country X; he regards it as his function to keep that policy intact under glass, untampered with, and dusted so that he may pass it on in two to four years to his successor. And such curatorial service generally merits promotion within the system. (Maintain the status quo, and you will stay out of trouble.) In some circumstances, the inertia bred by such an outlook can act as a brake against rash innovation. But on many issues, this inertia sustains the momentum of bad policy and unwise commitments momentum that might otherwise have been resisted within the ranks. Clearly, Vietnam is such an issue. To fatigue and inertia must be added the factor of internal confusio n. Even among the architects of our Vietnam commitment, there has been persistent confusion as to what type of war we were fighting and, as a direct consequence, confusion as to how to end that war. (The credibility gap is, in part, a reflection of such internal confusion.) Was it, for instance, a civil war, in which case counterinsurgency might suffice? Or was it a war of international aggression? (This might invoke SEATO or UN commitment. ) Who were the aggressor and the real enemy? The Viet Cong? Hanoi? Peking? Moscow? International Communism? Or maybe Asian Communism? Differing enemies dictated differing strategies and tactics. And confused throughout, in like fashion, was the question of American objectives; your objectives depended on whom you were fighting and why. I shall not forget my assignment from an Assistant Secretary of State in March 1964: to draft a speech for Secretary McNamara which would, inter alia, once and for all dispose of the canard that the Vietnam conflict was a civil war. But in some ways, of course, I mused, it is a civil war. Dont play word games with me! snapped the Assistant Secretary. Similar confusion beset the concept of negotiations anathema to much of official Washington from 1961 to 1965. Not until April 1965, did unconditional discussions become respectable, via a presidential speech; even then the Secretary of State stressed privately to newsmen that nothing had changed, since discussions were by no means the same as negotiations. Months later that issue was resolved. But it took even longer to obtain a fragile internal agreement that negotiations might include the Viet Cong as something other than an appendage to Hanois delegation. Given such confusion as to the who’s and whys of our Vietnam commitment , it is not surprising, as Theodore Draper has written, that policy-makers find it so difficult to agree on how to end the war. Of course, one force a constant in the vortex of commitment was that of wishful thinking. I partook of it myself at many times. I did so especially during Washingtons struggle with Diem in the autumn of 1963 when some of us at State believed that for once, in dealing with a difficult client state, the U.S. government could use the leverage of our economic and military assistance to make good things happen, instead of being led around by the nose by men like Chiang Kai-shek and Syngman Rhee (and, in that particular instance, by Diem). If we could prove that point, I thought, and move into a new day, with or without Diem, and then Vietnam was well worth the effort. Later came the wishful thinking of the air- strike planners in the late autumn of 1964; there were those who actually thought that after six weeks of air strikes, the North Vietnamese would come crawling to us to ask for peace talks. And what, someone asked in one of the meetings of the time, if they dont? The answer was that we would bomb for another four weeks, and that would do the trick. And a few weeks later came one instance of wishful thinking that was symptomatic of good men misled: in January 1965, I encountered one of the very highest figures in the Administration at a dinner, drew him aside, and told him of my worries about the air-strike option. He told me that I really shouldnt worry; it was his conviction that before any such plans could be put into effect, a neutralist government would come to power in Saigon that would politely invite us out. And finally, there was the recurrent wishful thinking that sustained many of us through the trying months of 1965-1966 after the air strikes had begun: that surely, somehow, one way or another, we would be in a conference in six months, and the escalatory spiral would be suspended. The basis of our hope: It simply cant go on. AS A further influence on policy-makers I would cite the factor of bureaucratic detachment. By this I mean what at best might be termed the professional callousness of the surgeon (and indeed, medical lingo the surgical strike for instance seemed to crop up in the euphemisms of the times). In Washington, the semantics of the military muted the reality of war for the civilian policy-makers. In quiet, air-conditioned, thick-carpeted rooms, such terms as systema tic pressure, armed reconnaissance, targets of opportunity, and even body count seemed to breed a sort of games-theory detachment. Most memorable to me was a moment in the late 1964 target planning when the question under discussion was how heavy our bombing should be, and how extensive our strafing, at some midpoint in the projected pattern of systematic pressure. An Assistant Secretary of State resolved the point in the following words: It seems to me that our orchestration should be mainly violins, but with periodic touches of brass. Perhaps the biggest shock of my return to Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the realization that the young men, the flesh and blood I taught and saw on these university streets, were potentially some of the numbers on the charts of those faraway planners. In a curious sense, Cambridge is closer to this war than Washington. There is an unprovable factor that relates to bureaucratic detachment: the ingredient of crypto-racism. I do not mean to imply any conscious contempt for Asian loss of life on the part of Washington officials. But I do mean to imply that bureaucratic detachment may well be compounded by a traditional Western sense that there are so many Asians, after all; that Asians have a fatalism about life and a disregard for its loss; that they are cruel and barbaric to their own people; and that they are very different from us (and all look alike?). And I do mean to imply that the upshot of such subliminal views is a subliminal question whether Asians, and particularly Asian peasants, and most particularly Asian Communists, are real people like you and me. To put the matter another way: would we have pursued quite such policies and quite such military tactics if the Vietnamese were white? It is impossible to write of Vietnam decision-making without writing about language. Throughout the conflict, words have been of paramount importance. I refer here to the impact of rhetorical escalation and to the problem of overselling. In an important sense, Vietnam has become of crucial significance to us because we have said that it is of crucial significance. (The issue obviously relates to the public relations preoccupation described earlier.) The key here is domestic politics: the need to sell the American people, press, and Congress on support for an unpopular and costly war in which the objectives themselves have been in flux. To se ll means to persuade, and to persuade means rhetoric. As the difficulties and costs have mounted, so has the definition of the stakes. This is not to say that rhetorical escalation is an orderly process; executive prose is the product of many writers, and some concepts North Vietnamese infiltration, Americas national honor, Red China as the chief enemy have entered the rhetoric only gradually and even sporadically. But there is an upward spiral nonetheless. And once you have said that the American Experiment itself stands or falls on the Vietnam outcome, you have thereby created a national stake far beyond any earlier stakes. Crucial throughout the process of Vietnam decision-making was a conviction among many policy-makers: that Vietnam posed a fundamental test of Americas national will. Time and again I was told by men reared in the tradition of Henry L. Stimson that all we needed was the will, and we would then prevail. Implicit in such a view, it seemed to me, was a curious assumption that Asians lacked will, or at least that in a contest between Asian and Anglo-Saxon wills, the non-Asians must prevail. A corollary to the persistent belief in a will was a fascination with power and awe in the face of the power America possessed as no nation or civilization ever before. Those who doubted our role in Vietnam were said to shrink from the burdens of power, the obligations of power, the uses of power, the responsibility of power. By implication, such men were soft-headed and effete. Finally, no discussion of the factors and forces at work on Vietnam policymakers can ignore the central fact of human ego investment. Men who have participated in a decision to develop a stake in that decision. As they participate in further, related decisions, their stake increases. It might have been possible to dissuade a man of strong self-confidence at an early stage of the ladder of a decision, but it is infinitely harder at later stages since a change of mind there usually involves an implicit or explicit repudiation of a chain of previous decisions. To put it bluntly: at the heart of the Vietnam calamity is a group of able, dedicated men who have been regularly and repeatedly wrong and whose standing with their contemporaries, and more important, with history, depends, as they see it, on being proven right. These are not men who can be asked to extricate themselves from error. THE various ingredients I have cited in the making of Vietnam policy have created a variety of results, most of them fairly obvious. Here are some that seem to me most central: Throughout the conflict, there has been persistent and repeated miscalculation by virtually all the actors, in high echelons and low, whether dove, hawk, or something else. To cite one simple example among many: in late 1964 and early 1965, some peace-seeking planners at State who strongly opposed the projected bombing of the North urged that, instead, American ground forces be sent to South Vietnam; this would, they said, increase our bargaining leverage against the North our chips and would give us something to negotiate about (the withdrawal of our forces) at an early peace conference. Simultaneously, the air-strike option was urged by many in the military who were dead set against American participation in another land war in Asia; they were joined by other civilian peace-seekers who wanted to bomb Hanoi into early negotiations. By late 1965, we had ended up with the worst of all worlds: ineffective and costly air strikes against the North, spiraling ground forces in the South, and no negotiations in sight. Throughout the conflict as well, there has been a steady give-in to pressures for a military solution and only minimal and sporadic efforts at a diplomatic and political solution. In part, this resulted from the confusion (earlier cited) among the civilians confusion regarding objectives and strategy. And in part, this resulted from the self-enlarging nature of the military investment. Once air strikes and particularly ground forces were introduced, our investment itself had transformed the original stakes. More air power was needed to protect the ground forces, and then more ground forces to protect the ground forces. And needless to say, the military mind develops its own momentum in the absence of clear guidelines from the civilians. Once asked to save South Vietnam, rather than to advise it, the American military could not but press for escalation. In addition, sad to report, assorted military constituencies, once involved in Vietnam, have had a series of cases to prove: for instance, the utility not only of air power (the Air Force) but of supercarrier-based air power (the Navy). Also, Vietnam policy has suffered from one ironic byproduct of Secretary Mc Namaras establishment of civilian control at the Pentagon: in the face of such control, an interservice rivalry has given way to a united front among the military reflected in the new but recurrent phenomenon of JCS unanimity. In conjunction with traditional congressional allies (mostly Southern senators and representatives) such a united front would pose a formidable problem for any President. Throughout the conflict, there have been missed opportunities, large and small, to disengage ourselves from Vietnam on increasingly unpleasant but still acceptable terms. Of the many moments from 1961 onward, I shall cite only one, the last and most important opportunity that was lost: in the summer of 1964 the President instructed his chief advisers to prepare for him as wide a range of Vietnam options as possible for postelection consideration and decision. He explicitly asked that all options be laid out. What happened next was, in effect, Lyndon Johnsons slow-motion Bay of Pigs. For the advisers so effectively converged on one single option juxtaposed against two other, phony options (in effect, blowing up the world, or scuttle-and-run) that the President was confronted with unanimity for bombing the North from all his trusted counselors. Had he been more confident in foreign affairs, had he been deeply informed on Vietnam and Southeast Asia, and had he raised some hard questions that unanimity had submerged, this President could have used the largest electoral mandate in history to de-escalate in Vietnam, in the clear expectation that at the worst a neutralist government would come to power in Saigon and politely invite us out. Today, many lives and dollars later, such an alternative has become an elusive and infinitely more expensive possibility. In the course of these years, another result of Vietnam decision-making has been the abuse and distortion of history. Vietnamese, Southeast Asian, and Far Eastern history has been rewritten by our policy-makers, and their spokesmen, to conform to the alleged necessity of our presence in Vietnam. Highly dubious analogies from our experience elsewhere the Munich sellout and containment from Europe, the Malayan insurgency and the Korean War from Asia have been imported in order to justify our actions. And more recent events have been fitted to the Procrustean bed of Vietnam. Most notably, the change of power in Indonesia in 1965-1966 has been ascribed to our Vietnam presence; and virtually all progress in the Pacific region the rise of regionalism, new forms of cooperation, and mounting growth rates has been similarly explained. The Indonesian allegation is undoubtedly false (I tried to prove it, during six months of careful investigation at the White House, and had to confess failu re); the regional allegation is patently unprovable in either direction (except, of course, for the clear fact that the economies of both Japan and Korea have profited enormously from our Vietnam-related procurement in these countries; but that is a costly and highly dubious form of foreign aid). There is a final result of Vietnam policy I would cite that holds potential danger for the future of American foreign policy: the rise of a new breed of American ideologues who see Vietnam as the ultimate test of their doctrine. I have in mind those men in Washington who have given a new life to the missionary impulse in American foreign relations: who believe that this nation, in this era, has received a threefold endowment that can transform the world. As they see it, that endowment is composed of, first, our unsurpassed military might; second, our clear technological supremacy; and third, our allegedly invincible benevolence (our altruism, our affluence, our lack of territorial aspirations). Together, it is argued, this threefold endowment provides us with the opportunity and the obligation to ease the nations of the earth toward modernization and stability: toward a full-fledged Pax Americana Technocratic. In reaching toward this goal, Vietnam is viewed as the last and crucial test. Once we have succeeded there, the road ahead is clear. In a sense, these men are our counterpart to the visionaries of Communisms radical left: they are technocracys own Maoists. They do not govern Washington today. But their doctrine rides high. Long before I went into government, I was told a story about Henry L. Stimson that seemed to me pertinent during the years that I watched the Vietnam tragedy unfold and participated in that tragedy. It seems to me more pertinent than ever as we move toward the election of 1968. In his waning years Stimson was asked by an anxious questioner, Mr. Secretary, how on earth can we ever bring peace to the world? Stimson is said to have answered: You begin by bringing to Washington a small handful of able men who believe that the achievement of peace is possible. Research Papers on Vietnam EssayMr. Obama and IranInflation TargetingGlobal Distributive Justice is UtopianCombating Human TraffickingBooker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-BarnettAmerican Central Banking and OilHas the British Welfare System beenDefinition of Export QuotasInternational PaperThe Equal Rights Amendment

Describe and Evaluate the main Macro Economic Policies used by the Essay

Describe and Evaluate the main Macro Economic Policies used by the Australian Government and Reserve Bank over the last two year - Essay Example In the last two years, the government’s goal has achieved economic growth, internal and external balance within an economy thereby maintaining economic growth and low inflation as well as ensuring low foreign debt and liabilities. Although economic growth has not been constant for the last two years due to international business cycles, the government has reduced the fluctuations via influencing demand. In as much as the economy has had several ups and downs, her improved international demands and rich natural resources such as iron ore and coal. According to â€Å"International Monetary Fund,† Reserve Bank of Australia has strengthened financial system in such a way that the macroeconomic policy is devised to curb recession instead of controlling inflation (Web). Macroeconomic aggregates which include rate of inflation, GDP growth and unemployment rate can possibly reflect the performance of a country’s economy. ... even as other countries such as U.S are struggling to recover from recession, the Australian government has boosted the economy by encouraging export to Asia (125-128). The government’s move to incorporate interest rate is aimed at promoting non-mining and housing investments which play integral role in spurring economic growth. Reserve Bank of Australia further made some great efforts in controlling money supply through the open market operations which involves purchasing or selling of financial instruments (Web). This has stabilized the Australian economy for the last two years because of their eventual effect on consumption and investment. According to Soliman RBA’s monetary policy for the last two years has been directed to achieve 2-3% inflation rate on the average over the cycle and this has really stimulated economic activities without interfering with economic decisions in the economy (98-100). It is apparent that both the government and the RBA have instituted strong fiscal and monetary policies that have successfully countered the economic recession. Theoretically, reduction of interest rate would enhance aggregate demand by influencing the aggregate components such as stimulation of investments projects as borrowing would be less expensive. The attraction or creation of a good investment environment has been one of the core activities that the government has dealt with in the previous years as this will deal with unemployment issues. Soliman explains that low interest rate has enabled Australia to increase her export while reducing their imports thus enhancing net export (101-102). The monetary policy decision process in Australia which includes the RBA board has been frequently meeting to discuss new developments in both Australia and international