Abstract This paper looks at the origins and rituals surrounding Armistice Day, or as it is better known, Veteran's Day. The author explains how Armistice Day began after WWI and was treated as a holiday and since it was created, many different rituals are carried out. The paper refers to many sources describing the changes in the way Americans celebrated Veteran's Day after WWI to the present.
From the Paper "At 11 a. m. on November 11, 1918, the imperial German army radioed to the world that it had signed the Allied unconditional terms of surrender, and had agreed to the laying down of arms. The guns of the Great War became silent, and were replaced by outbursts of joy across the nation. It was finally over, over there. In 1995, New York City commemorated this event with 500,000 cheering, flag-waving spectators lining the roads. With thundering drums punctuating nostalgic Glenn Miller swing music, tens of thousands of proud American warriors marched out of the past and up Fifth Avenue in New York's largest Veterans Day Parade since the end of World War II. This 1995 parade was a victory of sorts due to the fact that, in recent years, Veterans Day observations have become, as Robert McFadden says, "desultory at best, with spectators often limited to passers-by walking their dogs or heading out for a quart of milk." This parade was evidence of a revival in veteran appreciation, and a renewal of Veterans Day as a much-celebrated American holiday. But while this parade can be used to model a renewal in ceremony and enthusiasm, the true meaning of Veterans Day, or Armistice Day as it was originally called, has been lost through name changes and changes in those it is supposed to honor."
Tags: america, armistice, celebrate, holiday, veteran, war
Abstract This is an argumentative paper that deals with the lost meaning of Armistice Day, or as it is better known, Veteran's Day. The author argues that this American holiday has lost significance and meaning as a memorial day.
From the Paper "With 500,000 cheering, flag-waving spectators lining the way, and thundering drums flanked by nostalgic Glenn Miller swing music on the autumn air, tens of thousands of proud American warriors marched out of the past and up Fifth Avenue in New York's largest Veterans Day Parade since the end of World War II. This 1995 parade was a victory of sorts due to the fact that, in recent years, Veterans Day observations have become, as Robert McFadden says, "desultory at best, with spectators often limited to passers-by walking their dogs or heading out for a quart of milk"("On Parade"). This parade was evidence of a revival in veteran appreciation, and a renewal of Veterans Day as a much celebrated American holiday. But while this parade can be used to model a renewal in ceremony and enthusiasm, the true meaning of Veterans Day, or Armistice Day as it was originally called, has been lost."
Tags: america, armistice, celebrate, holiday, veteran, war
Abstract This paper examines the events that led up to the end of the Korean War in 1953 and the impact it had on the United States. The paper states that one remarkable aspect of the ending of this war was the modest impact it had on America. It claims that this stemmed partly from the fact that Korea had not been a site of significant American interest before this war began, the war had bogged down into seemingly interminable negotiations, and the political situation was focused on other matters. The paper concludes that, when the armistice agreement was signed, there were no wild celebrations, perhaps because the country had finally ended a war it was truly tired of.
Outline:
Lack of a Historical Relationship/Lack of a Historical Korea
The Fall of China, the Rise of McCarthyism, and the Democratic Retreat
The Korean War: From the First Campaigns to the Fall of MacArthur
Armistice and Exhaustion
From the Paper "At the end of World War Two, Korea remain of middling importance to the United States. American Secretary of State Dean Acheson did not define Korea as part of the American sphere of influence in the world, suggesting that the United States would not intervene militarily if North Korea attempted to take over South Korea,17 although apparently few in the American administration took this as a serious prospect. Thus, it was something of a shock when the United States intervened when the war broke out."
Abstract The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 1917 closed the Eastern theater of World War I some two years before the Western armistice. Although the Treaty of Versailles traditionally overshadows that of Brest-Litovsk, the legacy of Russia's and Germany's separate peace treaty is arguably more important than Versailles's. This paper explores the personalities of the Russian leaders involved with the treaty, the internal political struggle behind the Soviet's foreign policy, and the legacy the treaty had in European affairs and Soviet policy.
From the Paper "The terms of the final Treaty signed at Brest-Litovsk were harsher than the ones dictated to Russia a month earlier. The Germans, who had also desired peace initially, had been insulted by Trotsky and the Bolsheviks to such a degree that they no would no longer act fairly towards Russia. Russia lost huge quantities of its natural resources, arable land, population and territory. For Lenin, the challenge now became getting the Congress of Bolsheviks to ratify such an embarrassing treaty."
Abstract This paper describes the ascendency of the Vichy regime. It looks at the main players in the regime, its changing leadership, the fall of France to Germany, and Vichy's attempt at collaboration with Germany, which contributed to the fall of France. Also examined are the resistance movements against Vichy and the Germans, the role that de Gaulle played in the resistance movements, and how members of the movements were able to assist the Allied invasion of Normandy. The paper concludes with a brief biographical sketch of Marshal Philippe Petain.
From the Paper "In April 1942, Laval returned to power and contrived to convince the Germans that they could get more active collaboration from him. Germany was now engaged in a massive war with the Soviet Union, and with the United States, and needed greater security in western Europe. Six months later, in October 1942, however, the whole basis of Vichy's position was transformed. In October, U.S. and British forces landed in North Africa. The main units of the French fleet were scuttled by their crews at Toulon, and on November 11th 1942, Germany occupied the whole of France and disbanded the "armistice army" of Vichy."
Tags: nazi, world, war, ii, franco-german, armistice, soviet, union, united, states, britain, fascist, moulin
Abstract This paper focuses on the reasons for Hitler's rise to power over the Weimar Republic. In particular, it discusses how the failure of the Weimar Republic was due in part to the Treaty of Versailles and how it caused social unrest, economic upheaval and lastly, political tension within the Republic itself. It attempts to show how all of these factors led to the eventual downfall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Adolf Hitler.
From the Paper "Because Berlin was still rife with revolutionary tension, the meeting for the drafting of the new Constitution for the new Republic was held at Thuringian town, Weimar. The National Assembly passed the Constitution on July 31, 1919. It was accepted by "265 to 75 votes". Power was derived from the people and the state (Reich) was a democratic Republic. The German Parliament (Reichstag) was where sovereignty resided and it was elected every four years. The vote was extended to men and to women over 21 years of age. Each party was allowed one representative for every 60 000 votes cast in its favour. The former states were renamed into provinces, Lander. The former federal council was replaced with the Reichsrat. The executive power, formally vested in the Kaiser, was shared between the Rech President and the Reich government. "
Abstract The defeat of Germany in the First World War came as a tremendous shock to Adolf Hitler and the German people, and is the primary reason why the Nazi Party was able to rise to power. Ever since the founding of the German Empire and Bismarck's victories over Denmark, Austria, and France on the nineteenth-century, the German public had placed supreme confidence in the German Army and its generals. Defeat on the battlefield was unimaginable, so when the armistice ending World War I was signed on November 11, 1918, millions of Germans believed that only treachery and betrayal could have caused such a catastrophe. This paper explains the reason behind the success of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. The paper asserts that when the Nazi Party was founded in 1920 it took advantage of the belief that the German Army had been betrayed and portrayed itself as the only party that could bring Germany back to a position of superiority.
Abstract The paper relates that for the United States, the Korean War was the first limited war of the twentieth century that required painful learning and difficult adjustment. The paper describes how Korea became a bloody stalemate; the thirty-seven months of fighting had resulted in over 550,000 casualties. The paper explains how the Korean War was a key history-shaping event of the twentieth century, for it was a war that resonated worldwide and recast the international structure of Northeast Asia. It also led to significant changes in the U.S. national security system and was the proving ground for many of the doctrinal concepts. The paper concludes that the Korean War provided many lessons that are directly relevant to the conduct of joint and coalition warfare today.
From the Paper "Although the Truman administration and the United States military, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, were somewhat concerned about the possibility of further armed conflict between the Democratic People's Republic of (North) Korea and the Republic of (South) Korea, the majority of U.S. military planners had concluded that the R.O.K. was indefensible (Sandler 1999). Moreover, the United Sates was focused on Western Europe, since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had been founded the previous year in 1949, a year which also had witnessed the termination of the Berlin Airlift and the Soviet's first explosion of a nuclear weapon (Sandler 1999)."
Abstract The paper discusses the Korean War that divided a once single nation into North and South Korea. The paper shows how the United States has been one of the raison d'etre for the Korean War; the U.S. saw the Soviet Union's expansion in the Asian continent as a threat to its sphere of democracy. The paper discusses how as the world entered the 21st century, the United States continued its involvement in the Korean peninsula, albeit as a broker for peace and reunification initiatives. The paper concludes that despite all the United States' reunification efforts, the two Koreas are still a long way off from actually coming to terms with reunification.
From the Paper "Never in the history of mankind have we seen a conflict that lasted for over half a century. A conflict that started with a full-scale warfare and continued with skirmishes and psychological warfare, the Korean War divided a once single nation into North and South Korea. "On June 25, 1950, fighting broke out between North Korea and South Korea along the 38th parallel. The South Koreans were quickly overrun and sought help from the United Nations (UN). By October, UN forces had advanced as far north as the Yalu River, which forms Korea's border with China. China then entered the war on the side of North Korea and forced a retreat of UN troops back toward the 38th parallel. An armistice line was formed July 27, 1953, north of the 38th parallel along the battle line. (Microsoft Corp., 2006)" "
