Archive for the ‘military history books’ Category
That I can’t get the answer to but maybe some vets would know about this? This is about D-Day.
No books mention this or any videos/documentaries….but through a lot of reading, etc., it became kind-of apparent to me – after reading about the British landings and there successfulness that………
The reason for an almost failure on D-Day for the American forces was the specialized tanks that sank/could not stay afloat in the choppy waters.
The British tanks survived for the most part where they were at and they helped them in an unbelievable way.
Any thoughts re: US casualities/success if the US specialized tanks had made it to shore that day.
Essentially, on the American beaches, there were not tanks for support – just humans against German Guns.
The launching of the amphibian tanks early was one reason the American beaches had trouble, another was that along those stretches no paratroopers had been dropped behind the lines. In the end it was the Americans ability to adapt in the field that saved the day.
The civil rights movement started right after WWII when 1 million black soldiers where discharged from the military and they had to go back to civilian life. First rate soldiers where treated like second class citizens, and they refused to let that be their reality. All these men went back home and decided if a man can’t go into a bar and drink a cold beer amongst other men, then the "STATUS QUE" had to be "CHANGED". This started out breaks of resistance all over America from these men. The one thing that service brought them was how to organize and plan. With these new tools, they would inspire other black people like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X to take up their cause. The American media blocked a lot of turmoil in the country and refused to shine light on it. The Germans reported this news all across the world (the miss treatment of black people), and America was the laughing stock of the whole world, thats when thing began to change for black people, not because white people where nice enough to give us equality.
I learned of this first hand from two grandfathers who fought in WWII. I also have read other books that talk about how black American soldiers were forced to give up their seats to German prisoners of war, simply because they were white. http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8048.html
Not to mention the Tuskegee Airmen, who had to fight discrimination to become the first black Airmen, and they escorted fighters all over Europe and never lost one. http://www.tuskegeeairmen.org/Tuskegee_Airmen_History.html
You are right when you say that this was an impetus to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, some soldiers even stayed in Europe, because of being treated equally. Those that returned, many did not get the benefits of the GI Bill like their white counterparts did.
So yes the Status Quo needed to change. But to be fair, many white Americans joined in the fight and gave up their lives as well.
I’m interested in the history of the Vietnam war (mainly US as opposed to French, but both is ok). I want to understand the overall history – strategy and tactics, major campaigns and battles, etc.
I have Stanley Karnow’s << Vietnam: A History >>. That is good but broader than I want and not deep/detailed enough in terms of military history.
I also have books on specific battles like Ia Drang, the siege of Khe Sanh and the Khe Sanh "Hill Fights". They are very informative and I like them, but I also want something broader that gives the big picture from a military perspective.
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
"Personal account of the helicopter war."
Proving the conspiracy.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/Story?id=6443988&page=1
I was just thinking about the ABC.com article that came out recently asking what is behind the Internet Conspiracy Empires? I think it’s a good question, and so I thought I would take you back through some of the conspiracies that we have looked at over the last couple of years. They will not all be conspiracies, but they will help to show why I have drawn my conclusion about our current conspiracy, and what is behind Gang Stalking.
The Snitching System.
http://www.thejusticeproject.org/wp-content/uploads/snitchsystembooklet1.pdf
[quote]“The history of the snitch is long and inglorious, dating to the common law. In old England, snitches were ubiquitous.Their motives, then as now, were unholy. In the 18th Century, Parliament prescribed monetary rewards—blood money—for snitches, who were turned back onto the streets where they were, in the words of one contemporary commentator,“the contempt and terror of society.”
“The system produced a cycle of betrayal in which each snitch knew he might find himself soon in the dock confronted by another snitch.”
“If all cases ended so poetically, perhaps informant dependent prosecutions would be more humorous than objectionable. In real life, however, O. Henry endings are rare.”
“The snitch system probably arrived in the New World with the Pilgrims.The first documented wrongful conviction case in the United States involved a snitch.The case arose in Manchester, Vermont, in 1819. Brothers Jesse and Stephen Boorn were suspected of killing their brother-in-law, Russell Colvin. Jesse was put into a cell with a forger, Silas Merrill, who would testify that Jesse confessed. Merrill was rewarded with freedom.
The Boorn brothers were convicted and sentenced to death but saved from the gallows when Colvin turned up alive in New Jersey.”[/quote]
With the advent of modern day society can we assume that the Snitching System became obsolete, or would it be better to rightfully conclude that it was and still is an integral part of society and as relevant today as it was yesterday? It is also just as much a concern for this time period as it has been in others?
The Secret Persuaders
During WWII before America agreed to join the war, the United Kingdom set up a secret agency inside of America, designed to convince the entire nation it was a good idea to join the war. This was back in 1940 and this agency had almost 3000 operatives. They sent out false media stories, via newspapers and other mediums they had set up within America. To the individuals that were anti-war they had a game that they played called VIK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/aug/19/military.secondworldwar
[quote]BSC invented a game called “Vik“, described as “a fascinating new pastime for lovers of democracy”. Printed booklets described up to 500 ways of harassing and annoying Nazi sympathisers. Players of Vik were encouraged to ring up their targets at all hours of the night and hang up. Dead rats could be put in water tanks, air could be let out of the subject’s car tyres, anonymous deliveries could be made to his house and so on. In the summer of 1941, BSC sent a sham Hungarian astrologer to the US called Louis de Wohl. At a press conference De Wohl said he had been studying Hitler’s astrological chart and could see nothing but disaster ahead for the German dictator. De Wohl became a minor celebrity and went on tour through the US, issuing similar dire prognostications about Hitler and his allies. De Wohl’s wholly bogus predictions were widely published.[/quote]
I have never been able to locate the booklet with the 500 ways of harassing those that were anti-war, but I am sure some of those methods survived to this time period.
Here are some more amazing details about this agency that was set up by a foreign body on U.S. soil for the sole purpose of manipulating the population intogoing to war. This would have continued, but conveniently ended when the Japanese hit pearl harbour, what a unique coincidence.
[quote]BSC was set up by a Canadian entrepreneur called William Stephenson, working on behalf of the British Secret Intelligence Services (SIS). An office was opened in the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan with the discreet compliance of Roosevelt and J Edgar Hoover of the FBI. But nobody on the American side of the fence knew what BSC’s full agenda was nor, indeed, what would be the massive scale of its operations. What eventually occurred as 1940 became 1941 was that BSC became a huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda. Pro-British and anti-German stories were planted in American newspapers and broadcast on American radio stations, and simultaneously a campaign of harassment and denigration was set in motion against those organisations perceived to be pro-Nazi or virulently isolationist (such as the notoriously anti-British America First Committee – it had more than a million paid-up members).
Stephenson called his methods “political warfare”, but the remarkable fact about BSC was that no one had ever tried to achieve such a level of “spin”, as we would call it today, on such a vast and pervasive scale in another country. The aim was to change the minds of an entire population: to make the people of America think that joining the war in Europe was a “good thing” and thereby free Roosevelt to act without fear of censure from Congress or at the polls in an election.
BSC’s media reach was extensive: it included such eminent American columnists as Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson, and influenced coverage in newspapers such as the Herald Tribune, the New York Post and the Baltimore Sun. BSC effectively ran its own radio station, WRUL, and a press agency, the Overseas News Agency (ONA), feeding stories to the media as they required from foreign datelines to disguise their provenance. WRUL would broadcast a story from ONA and it thus became a US “source” suitable for further dissemination, even though it had arrived there via BSC agents. It would then be legitimately picked up by other radio stations and newspapers, and relayed to listeners and readers as fact. The story would spread exponentially and nobody suspected this was all emanating from three floors of the Rockefeller Centre. BSC took enormous pains to ensure its propaganda was circulated and consumed as bona fide news reporting. To this degree its operations were 100% successful: they were never rumbled. [/quote]
That is an amazing conspiracy that very few knew anything about. Are branches of this program still operational in some capacity on foreign soil today? It’s hard to say.
Operation Gladio
An actual operation that hired agents and had them in keeping in such a time as when they were needed. This is another jewel that came to light while doing research into Gang Stalking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio
[quote]Emblem of NATO’s “stay-behind” paramilitary organizations.After World War II, the UK and the US decided to create “stay-behind” paramilitary organizations, with the official aim of countering a possible Soviet invasion through sabotage and guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Arms caches were hidden, escape routes prepared, and loyal members recruited: i.e. mainly hardline anticommunists, including many ex-Nazis or former fascists, whether in Italy or in other European countries. In Germany, for example, Gladio had as a central focus the Gehlen Org — also involved in ODESSA “ratlines” — named after Reinhard Gehlen who would become West Germany’s first head of intelligence, while the predominantly Italian P2 masonic lodge was composed of many members of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), including Licio Gelli. Its clandestine “cells” were to stay behind (hence the name) in enemy controlled territory and to act as resistance movements, conducting sabotage, guerrilla warfare and assassinations.
However, Italian Gladio was more far reaching. “A briefing minute of June 1, 1959, reveals Gladio was built around ‘internal subversion’. It was to play ‘a determining role… not only on the general policy level of warfare, but also in the politics of emergency’. In the 1970s, with communist electoral support growing and other leftists looking menacing, the establishment turned to the ‘Strategy of Tension’ … with Gladio eager to be involved.”[
[/quote]
A secret paramilitary army that exists in many European countries and has since the end of WWII, set up by the U.S. and the U.K.? Kept secret all the way up to 1990 when the Italian wing was exposed, and then the other branches were exposed as well. This secret army might have remained secret to this day, except for the extreme involvement of the Italian wing in local policy.
[quote]“Coordinated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), {the secret armies} were run by the European military secret services in close cooperation with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British foreign secret service Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also MI6). Trained together with US Green Berets and British Special Air Service (SAS), these clandestine NATO soldiers, armed with underground arms-caches, prepared against a potential Soviet invasion and occupation of Western Europe, as well as the coming to power of communist parties. The clandestine international network covered the European NATO membership, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, as well as the neutral European countries of Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.
‘The existence of these clandestine NATO armies remained a closely guarded secret throughout the Cold War until 1990, when the first branch of the international network was discovered in Italy. It was code-named Gladio, the Latin word for a short double-edged sword [gladius]. While the press said the NATO secret armies were ‘the best-kept, and most damaging, political-military secret since World War II’, the Italian government, amidst sharp public criticism, promised to close down the secret army. Italy insisted identical clandestine armies had also existed in all other countries of Western Europe. This allegation proved correct and subsequent research found that in Belgium, the secret NATO army was code-named SDRA8, in Denmark Absalon, in Germany TD BJD, in Greece LOK, in Luxemburg Stay-Behind, in the Netherlands I&O, in Norway ROC, in Portugal Aginter, in Switzerland P26, in Turkey Counter-Guerrilla, In Sweden AGAG (Aktions Gruppen Arla Gryning, and in Austria OWSGV. However, the code names of the secret armies in France, Finland and Spain remain unknown.
[/quote]
The promised that they would close down these secret armies. We however know that with other similar programs they are never shut down, they are just repackaged and start up again. That is one heck of a conspiracy. Secret armies in many European countries set up by the U.S. and the U.K.
Red Squads
Not so much a conspiracy, but a little known wing of the police that exists in many countries around the world. Set up for the sole purpose of destroying dissidence. During Cointelpro and the Canadian VIP program they worked closely with the government to neutralize dissidence.
http://www.amazon.com/Protectors-Privilege-Squads-Repression-America/dp/0520080351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229548302&sr=1-1
[quote] The cops love these free-wheeling, elite units. They were ostensibly created to combat terrorism, but have been used mostly to infiltrate and suppress liberal and radical political organizations and civil rights groups. They lift their members out of the routine of police work into something of a James Bond life. As Frank Donner points out in this excellently researched, thoughtful and well-detailed study of police spying, their excesses have been many. But Donner, who directed the American Civil Liberties Project on Political Surveillance, concludes with the chilling thought that the Red squads will be around long after there are any Reds.[/quote]
These groups go back over a hundred years, as each new wave of immigrant population introduced themselves Red Squads were there, using informants to infiltrate, get information and help to disrupt these groups, movements, and unions. With other infiltration programs the idea is to try to get the corportion of members of the infiltrated groups, by asking some of them to become informants. Once you are an informant for the system, you are always considered an informant for the system.
[quote]Worse yet, the information, and misinformation, gathered by these sleuths is fed into the growing number of intelligence networks maintained by federal, state and local law-enforcement organizations. In the computer age, if you attend a left-wing meeting in Echo Park, your name is likely to be spread as far as New York.
As Donner points out, the squads are not a recent invention. One of his most important contributions is tracing the history of the Red squads, showing how deeply rooted they are in American political, social and economic life….
…That set the pattern for the Red squads, a pattern that continues today. Whatever the city, said Donner, the goal and tactics are much the same: “police behavior motivated or influenced in whole or in part by hostility to protest, dissent and related activities perceived as a threat to the status quo.”
[/quote]
Elite branches of the police designed to squash dissident and protect against perceived threats to the status quo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_squad
[quote]In New York, former City Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy traced their origin there to an “Italian Squad” formed in 1904 to monitor a group of Italian immigrants under suspicion[1]. However, it is their association with fighting communism which provides the basis for the name “Red Squad.” They became more commonplace in the 1930s, often conceived of as a countermeasure to Communist organizers who were charged with executing a policy of dual unionism – namely, building a revolutionary movement in parallel with membership in above-ground labor organizations. Similar units were established in Canada in this period, although only the Toronto police used the name.
In the late 1960s, as the protests against Vietnam and the general domestic upheaval intensified, the Red Squads augmented their focus, to include dissidents largely outside the labor movement, including therein not just war resisters, but protest movements of all political stripes, including Neonazis, Native American movements, the women’s movement, environmentalists, the civil rights movement, and others. The methods employed ranged from simple surveillance to isolated incidents of assassination. Anti-activist police operations were expanded under the Johnson and Nixon administrations, particularly in concert with, and within the cadre of the FBI’s COINTELPRO surveillance program, but also including domestic spying by the CIA.
[/quote]
This very rarely discussed unit of the police apparently were in and still are in existence in many cities, some going by different names, but the same concept applies, squash dissidence.
Alexandra Natapoff
http://www.aclu.org/images/asset_upload_file744_30623.pdf
[quote]
The use of criminal informants in the U.S. justice system has become a flourishing socio-legal institution. Every year, tens of thousands of criminal suspects, many of them drug offenders concentrated in inner-city neighborhoods, informally negotiate away liability in exchange for promised cooperation, while law enforcement at the local, state and federal levels rely on ever greater numbers of criminal actors in making basic decisions about investigations and prosecutions. While this marriage of convenience is fraught with peril, it is nearly devoid of judicial or public scrutiny as to the propriety, fairness, or utility of the deals being struck. At the same time, it is a quintessential expression of some of the most contentious characteristics of the modern criminal system: law enforcement discretion, secrecy, and the increasing informality of the adjudication process.
The informant institution is also an under-appreciated social force in low-income, high-crime, urban communities in which a high percentage of residents – as many as fifty percent of African American males in some cities – are in contact with the criminal justice system and therefore potentially under pressure to snitch. By relying heavily on snitching, particularly in drug-related cases, law enforcement officials create large numbers of informants who remain at large in the community, engaging in criminal activities while under pressure to provide information about others. These snitches are a communal liability: they increase crime and threaten social organization, interpersonal relationships, and socio-legal norms in their home communities, even as they are tolerated or under-punished by law enforcement because they are useful.
The Article also hypothesizes the harms imposed by the informant institution on socially disadvantaged, high-crime communities in which snitching is common. These harms may include increased crime, the erosion of trust in interpersonal, familial and community relationships and other psychological damage created by pervasive informing, the communal loss of faith in the state, and the undermining of law-abiding norms flowing from law enforcement’s rewarding of and complicity in snitch wrongdoing.
[/quote]
Many people see this article and assume it’s an inner city problem, but it’s not. This is a societal problem. These informant programs are not just going after African American males, they are going after the females, and they are going after other communities. They started in these communities, and these communities currently have higher ratios of Informants, but then it branches out.
Imagine a society where over 50% of your community is a potential snitch? Imagine what that does to the heart and soul of a society? Some people don’t have to imagine because they have already been through something very similar.
[quote]
http://www.november.org/razorwire/2005-02/art/RazorWire-V8N3a.pdf
“As summer travel ebbed, I dove into the study of
the informant system, as pertains to those whom the police arrest, then pressure to go back into their
places of home and work and set others up for arrest.”
How many informants do we have in communities? We can’t measure it because of this secret system, but experts have some guesses.
“Because researchers know what is behind the search warrants granted, they know that almost 98% of the time the police don’t have any goods on anyone, just a confidential informant. A lot of informing is going on, and it’s escalating.”
“So they squeeze these people into rolling on their mother. Our family involved my brother’s girlfriend; it was her brother who turned her in, and so we went through this ourselves. And it is hard to try to explain to people this part — people do 20, 30 years and they get through it. Somehow, I don’t know how.
I’ve never been to prison, but they get through
it, and what dogs them all of the time is this —
how could my sister do that to me? How could my friend do this to me? That stays with them.
That psychological damage never goes away.
And it spreads to everyone in the family, just like anything traumatic does, and you get a bunch of sick people.”
When I grew up, the Russians were doing it a lot, the informant system throughout all the communities. A person could be hauled off and interrogated and taken off to the ice fields. It terrified me, those Russian people. We studied these communities in
Russia after that period because there was a lot of
mental illness. Our country went over there to help them with all their crazy people. And do you know what our country found out? Our scientists and
doctors went over there and came back and said, “It was all those informants. It made them crazy to live
among people, and nobody knew who was going to rip them off, or who needed to ‘get in good,’ or some favor. And so turn someone in, and that person gets hauled off to Siberia. It made people crazy. <b>Well, that’s what is happening in our communities now.”</b>
[/quote]
The new face of snitching might surprise you. As mentioned they started in ethnic communities, but they have branched out so much further then this.
http://www.mapinc.org/images/Hoffman.jpg
Meet Rachel Hoffman she was a 23-year-old Florida State psychology graduate, she is also the face of snitching. Rachel earlier this year agreed to become an Informant to lower her sentence for a drug conviction. She was killed while making a drug purchase for the police to help reduce her drug sentence. Informants come from a variety of social and economical backgrounds and once caught up in the system, many will do anything to escape prison sentences normally offered for much more severe crimes.
http://november.org/stayinfo/breaking08/FinalNight.html
[quote]Immediately after Tallahassee police raided her apartment April 17, Hoffman went to her boyfriend’s house and told him about the deal she’d cut. Over the next three weeks, she would tell him and Liza all about her work as a confidential informant.
“They wanted her to turn in her friends, and she wouldn’t do that,” said Liza, a 24-year-old FSU graduate student. “She said she wanted to get some grimy people off the street. She wanted to get bad guys.”
At first she agreed to give up a guy she knew who dealt drugs and sometimes bought pot from her, her friends said. But after one controlled call from the police station, she confessed to him she was working for the police and asked him to help her find someone else to turn in.[/quote]
She was killed during a sting that went wrong. She was an inexperienced 23 year old, who didn’t want to go to jail, didn’t want her parents to find out, and thought this would be a cool way to work off her sentence. She paid the ultimate price for it. This story is not that uncommon in today’s modern society, but many of us, like myself, were previously unaware of the extent to which citizen informants are being used in society.
She should no more have been turned into an Informant than many of these young urban men and woman, who also don’t want to spend years in jail, vs living outside for minor drug possessions, these people exchange their freedoms for a type of slavery and servitude to the system that is unimaginable. These situations are becoming too common, and they are contributing to the detriment and moral fiber of our societies.
Fusion Centers and TLO
The informant system is not just using paid informants. They are also using an army of volunteer Informants. The Citizen Informants who are parts of various community programs, or who were inducted via their place of employment.
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/privacy/fusion_update_20080729.pdf
The ACLU has released a report on Fusion Centers. 800,000 operatives will be dispersed throughout every American city and town. Set to report on even the most common everyday behaviors which will go into state, local and regional, linked data bases.
This number of 800,000 is outside of other Informant programs that are already in place within America. Informants working via Citizen Corps, and other sub programs.
There are informant programs for local businesses, informant programs for truckers, boats, and so many others.
http://blog.t1production.com/utility-workers-hired-as-stasi-informants-in-colorado-california-arizona
T.I.P.S. officially died, but lived on in many other forms.
Spying101
The Canadian Government spying on it’s own citizens? Canada that friendly and peaceful nation? The very one.
http://www.spying101.com/
http://www.gangstalkingunited.com/forum/books/spying-101/
[quote]If you attended a Canadian university in the past eighty years, it’s possible that, unbeknownst to you, Canadian security agents were surveying you, your fellow students, and your professors for ’subversive’ tendencies and behaviour. Since the end of the First World War, members of the RCMP have infiltrated the campuses of Canada’s universities and colleges to spy, meet informants, gather information, and on occasion, to attend classes. [/quote]
[quote]RCMP spies kept secret files on hundreds of Canadian Politicians and bureaucrats at all three levels of government as part of a project known as the “VIP program,”[/quote]
[quote]The book, a thorough examination of RCMP surveillance of the academic world, also discusses the Mounties’ efforts to keep tabs on other
elements of society, including government, the media and women’s groups.
The RCMP created security files on 800,000 Canadians, and it has long been known the force took an active interest in politicians and public
servantswith links to Communist organizations or other pursuits deemed subversive.[/quote]
Talk about conspiracy. The Canadian government for over 80 years spied on it’s citizens and opened files on many of it’s citizens just because they attended a university or college? If the Canadian government was willing to do this, what about other nations?
This program after 80 years of operation within Canadian Universities and Colleges, when exposed supposedly formally ended. That is the official story that the public is suppose to believe.
These spying programs were not content to just watch the universities, the research shows that they branched out into the community, because after graduating, these people might still have subversive ideas.
Within the last 10 years since the program supposedly ended, it’s hard to imagine how many new files might have been opened on unsuspecting students.
Stasis- What happened to these people who were former spies for the East German state?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,540771,00.html
[quote]More East Germans were spying on their neighbors, colleagues, family and friends when the Berlin Wall fell than had previously been thought. According to a report published Monday, 189,000 people were informers for the Stasi — the former Communist secret police — when East Germany collapsed in 1989 — 15,000 more than previous studies had suggested.[/quote]
The C.I.A. were handed the list of these names after the Berlin Wall fell. How many went to other countries and were asked to continue with their domestic spying is unclear.
The above scenarios are just a few of the conspiracies, intrigues, and surprising information I have come across when researching Gang Stalking.
what I am seeing is a continual and consistent pattern of something that is systemic, with many absorption points. This means that citizens are being incorporated into these programs through many different venues, some via their families. Other through educational institutions, others via their places of employment, other through religious institutions, etc.
I am also seeing a link to some people that are being mobbed and bullied out of this system. I am also seeing the same patterns of collusion that has been reported elsewhere, by others.
http://www.bullyonline.org/action/obstruct.htm
http://www.targetedindividuals.com/System.html
That’s part of the conspiracy that I am seeing, and this conspiracy has been ongoing within society for some time now. Many communities have been affected by this and some are very aware of the level of snitching and informing that is ongoing in society, paid and unpaid. Others have had very limited or no exposure to these concepts, and therefore are not aware of what is ongoing in society.
gangstalking
http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/conspiracies-695384.html
Alternative Histories – An Answer to the Question “What If?”
http://www.yallways.com
Alternative histories are essentially stories that develop when historians ask “what if?” They are fictional works created on the premise of a change in the events of our past. Although some of these works can take a rather imaginative approach, most are based on a strong framework of historical fact. Thus, alternative histories offer a unique glimpse of what could have happened if humankind had taken a slightly different course.
Alternate histories have been fascinating people for centuries. In fact, the first known account of a variation on the past was written approximately two thousand years ago by Titus Livy, a Roman historian. In his work History of Rome from its Foundation, Livy speculates on what would have happened if Alexander the Great had lived longer and moved his armies westward to attack Rome. In this brief speculative account, which composes a mere section of one out of 142 books, Livy argues that the Romans would have been able to defeat Alexander the Great.
Perhaps the first modern alternate history was composed in France in the early 19th century by Louis Geoffroy. Geoffroy wrote a compelling tale of what could have happened if Napoleon had succeeded in his Russian campaign and continued his global conquests. In this version, titled History of the Universal Monarchy: Napoleon and the Conquest of the World, Napoleon Bonaparte eventually unifies the world and rules as an enlightened despot. Ultimately, Geoffroy tells of a utopian society under Napoleon. Other writers of this period also created utopian alternate histories. For example, in 1895 Englishman Castello Holford composed a variation on the settlement of Virginia. In his version, a reef of gold is found and the settlers use the wealth to build a perfect society in the New World.
By the twentieth century, the genre of alternate history had undergone a notable change. Rather than taking a utopian spin, many authors began composing “dystopian” stories. These works depict a world that is completely under the authority of an authoritarian regime. Many focus on what would have happened if the Allies had not been victorious during World War II. Thus, in The Man in the High Castle, Philip K Dick shows what the United States might have been like had they surrendered to Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. Similarly, George Orwell’s classic text 1984 depicts a society completely overtaken by totalitarian regimes after World War II. In this version, the Second World War gave birth to three authoritarian super-states controlled by Britain, Russia, and China / Japan.
For the last several decades, there has been a growing trend to merge alternate history with science fiction. In many of these works, time-travel is an underlying theme. Historical figures and events are dragged across space and time to show interesting historical possibilities. One early example of this style was composed in 1923 by H.G. Wells. In his work, Men Like Gods, Wells sends his characters to an alternative timeline showing an oddly utopian Britain. In another variation on this theme, Murray Leinster sends his protagonists through several alternate timelines in his short work Sidewise in Time. More recently, Arthur C. Clark and Stephen Baxter co-authored Time’s Eye, a novel where the world is torn apart and reassembled with pieces from different eras. This ultimately results in one of the most interesting military matchups in alternative history; Alexander the Great versus Genghis Khan.
Alternate histories shine an interesting light on the past. They tell the story of how our world could have been if even the smallest change had been made to the historical record. When properly researched and accurately written, these works can be startlingly realistic. While it is impossible to know how accurate an alternative history account truly is, they ultimately provide an interesting commentary on the world we know.
John W. Martin
http://www.articlesbase.com/history-articles/alternative-histories-an-answer-to-the-question-what-if-698640.html
I am always dawging yanks, they are an easy target! They are arrogant and complacent. They reckon that they saved the world during WW2 but really they only ever saved the World in the movies (e.g. Independance Day) They are clearly more like the Nazi’s then Hitler was! As far as I can see America has given the World McDonalds and Obesity, they have stolen everyone else’s idea’s and inventions especially Military ones, thanks for that America. If I have offended any yanks I am happy, America is the most hated country in the world for good reason! Before all you yanks launch into abusing me take a look at the history books (especially military history) and your leader…..need I say more?
There was a similar conversation going on within yahoo 360. I, being an American, can do nothing more than agree with you on most points. I don’t know that I would go as far as to say that as a whole we are worse than Hitler, but I have mentioned to several that I work with that I feel, our President Bush is modern days version of Hitler.
I think, unfortunately, that most (not all) foreigners don’t realize that most (not all) Americans don’t like the man either! His approval rating as of yesterday was 33%. That’s pretty bad. We don’t like that he seems to be a bully to others and don’t like that we are as a whole viewed as believing the way he does. The argument can be made that "we" re-elected the man. I understand that, although I did not. I didn’t vote for him either time. I think the general thought at the time, was that he started something we better let him finish it, since (in theory) he should know what he’s doing. Ha!
As far as history is concerned. I can’t argue that either. But again, like every other country that is judged, and they all are, the country as a whole does not necessarily believe the same as their leaders do. I think in the beginning they put on a good "show" and are then elected into leadership. Whom ever puts on the best show wins the "prize". It sucks.
My response in the discussion to the blog was similar to what is here. I also said that I really hope that someday people just learn to accept others for what they are and what they believe. There is no right or wrong way. There is only what people believe is best for them. That includes democracy! It might be OK for us, but not for others. Our way is not necessarily the "best" way. I just wish everyone could leave everyone else alone.
Rise and Fall of Prior Civilizations
We can go back in history and look at prior civilizations. Whether it was Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun, Hannibal, Constantine, The Greek Empire, Roman Empire, British Empire, Russia or any other global power and we know from facts that their fall was caused from within and not by being conquered.
Military History tells us that the great generals of history conquered foreign lands but brought into their control the resources of those lands and the inhabitants.
Our history books are full of illustrations of battles won, lands conquered, lootings, riches, gold and just about any contrivance that the human mind is capable of creating was a precursor of what we might be facing today.
What Was the Common Thread?
Greed, pure and simple greed. Classic movies, with Charlton Heston and Victor Mature have depicted the “glorious days” of past civilizations. The screens were full of the “spoils of war”.
Peasants were always the losers, just as in today’s society, the losers or the one’s that are paying the heavy price of “fiscal mismanagement” are the average people. Could education about the monetary system have changed the course of history? I don’t know that answer, but we do know that “lack of knowledge” of the monetary system kept the “masses” always in “serfdom” to royalty.
Taking a look back at history and relating it to our present day situation, we can see “history repeating” itself. Do you remember when Jimmy Carter left office? Do you remember what the prime rate of interest was? Shades of our forefathers, would you believe that we were paying in excess of twenty-percent (20%) interest in our time.
The Rule of “72”
Whenever I conduct a seminar or workshop, I always give the students a lesson on the “rule of 72”. I am always amazed at how many have never heard this expression let alone what it means. I can begin by simply saying this. If, Mother has $100,000 and she puts it into a very safe “bank account”, she is content for the bank to pay her a modest four (4%) return on her investment. Well, divide that four percent (4%) into seventy two (72) . The answer is simple. It is eighteen (18). So this means that it takes, dear old “Mom” eighteen (18) years for her $100,000 to double.
Wow, what a deal ! But, now lets look at the credit card companies that have the nerve to charge twenty-eight percent (28%) interest on a credit card. Hmmmm, that amounts to two and one half years. So, because Jimmy Carter was so in-experienced in “fiscal policy” and his tenure as President allowed for such usurious rates to become reality, this opened the door for usury to become a part of our daily lives.
Of course, promoters, bankers, credit card companies and lobbyists all claimed that Americans needed credit and this was a result of what was needed. Well, if that is the case, then why the big, disparity in credit profiles and why do banks and credit card companies continually keep average folks in this credit prison. Usury was banned by Constantinople but our country’s leaders were not even aware of what had been the demise in other civilizations. It was high interest rates then and it is high interest rates today. Present day credit card rates for the average person and how under the “rule of 72” it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to get out of debt.
Perhaps, you are now beginning to see where this article is going. Maybe, just maybe our “dilution of tax base dollars” just might be the result of high interest rates, foreclosures, repossessions, divorce, sickness and the high un-employment rates today.
Regis Sauger
http://www.articlesbase.com/history-articles/rise-aand-fall-of-prior-civilizations-701245.html
POPE GREENSPAN
Well, well, well. Behold the reign of His Eminence Alan Greenspan. Lest we forget, His Holiness was not an employee of the US Government nor was he required to provide any information to anyone about how, why and where his decisions came from. There has been enough articles written about his employer so why would we be surprised to know it. In case, you missed any of the articles or simply ignored them, Alan Greenspan was the Head Honcho of the FEDERAL RESERVE.
To, remind you, the Federal Reserve is privately owned by long time banking families from Europe and a couple of families here in the US. Remember the names of the, Rothschild s, Rockerfellers and others? They are the private owners of the Federal Reserve.
Charlie, if you haven’t figured it out yet, please don’t stand on the corner with a sign and protest something that you don’t know what the hell you are talking about. I was raised in an automobile working family and my Father was a staunch union voting, democratic endorsing patriot. He fathered six sons and every one has seen military service. So, this article is not about being born with a “silver spoon” in my mouth. This article is written because I was taught by the Dominican Nuns the value of reading.
When I read that the Federal Reserve, simply prints money out of thin air, and then charges interest on that money, I couldn’t believe it. Hell, I had a hard time trying to figure it out. So, I bought books and started reading about the history of the Federal Reserve. The “Monster from Jekyll Island” is part of our history. Why not read up about it. It was at the plush, Georgia private island that the Federal Reserve Bank was put into motion. It was conceived, most probably hundreds of years earlier by the most powerful banking families in Europe.
Curiosity got the best of me. What a subject to read about. But, the story goes much deeper. I started asking myself questions and as I bought these books and started putting pieces of the puzzle together, I was not only shocked but amazed at how powerful the banking industry is. Not only here in the US but also all over the world. It was a quote from the Rothschild elder many years ago that became prophetic. He was quoted as saying, “It not matter to me who owns the army, but give me control of that country’s banking system and I care not”.
I am still confused because of history relating banking to the Freemason Society. I don’t know much about Freemasonry, other than what I can read. But, more and more books are revealing the secret tie-in with banking and this secret society. In a book written by: A. Ralph Epperson, entitled “The New World Order” which was published in (1990) and registered with the copyright in (1990) I was hypnotized by what this author has revealed.
It seems, according to the author, that a secret plan to control the currencies of the world was being contrived many years ago. Well, history tells us that Baron Rothschild send two of his sons to open up banking in other countries. By doing so, his banking empire extended beyond borders. Now, I really was amazed when I read that his son’s would create chaos in these countries by the control of the currency. The French Revolution is said to have been caused by this action on currency. Well, when civil wars, chaos and revolutions break out, debt is incurred by both parties. The winners borrow to finance the war and the losers borrow but end up owing or losing their land and possessions to the lender.
Want some very interesting reading on this subject? Find the book, entitled “PROOFS OF A CONSPIRACY” written by, John Robison and originally read by George Washington. John Robison was a professor and was solicited to join this secret society. The book was re-published in 1967 by Western Islands, now in Appleton, Wisconsin.
So, in closing, I ask this question. Was, Alan Greenspan aware of this pending disaster and was he just feeding the flames as instructed by his bosses? Only history will tell us.
Regis Sauger
http://www.articlesbase.com/ethics-articles/pope-greenspan-723329.html
I believe he is an english and a tv host.
He also wrote books such as Royal Blunders,The Major Faults of Military Battle History,The Major Faults of Navy Battle History.
His name maybe Jeffery Reagan,but i cant search the right one in Google or yahoo.
His name is Geoffrey Regan. There’s not much info on him. Your better of actually looking for it in books and encyclopedias rather than the net. But here’s the Wiki site for him, as you can see VERY little about him. Hope it helped though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Regan
THE ANCIENT SPARTANS
Ancient Sparta is a name that everybody knows and recognises. The bravery of Leonidas and the 300 are the heroic basis of myriad Hollywood blockbusters. The betrayal of Menelaos, by beautiful Helen of Troy, is enshrined in glorious Homeric myth and legend. Documentaries and books portray the brutal military regime, and the abhorrent practice of exposing weak infants in the harsh Taygetos Mountains.
As any local in the modern town will tell you, the reality of Spartan society was very different from the modern perceptions. The society of the Ancient Spartans was surprisingly sophisticated, their culture as rich as any other city in Ancient Greece.
BEGINNINGS
Surprisingly to some, the history of the Ancient Spartans does not begin with the Homeric Trojan War. The realm of Menelaos and Helen existed nearly a century before the dawn of historical Ancient Sparta. This was an older civilisation, semi-mythical even to the Dorian Spartans of Leonidas. Some authorities believe that the kingdom of Menelaos, known as Lakedaimon, was based at nearby Ancient Pellanas, not Sparta.
Excavations there are ongoing, but are yet to find concrete evidence of any palace. The historical Sparta of Leonidas begins with the Dorian Greek invasion. Tribes migrating from north-eastern Greece displaced the ‘long-haired’ Achaean Greeks of Homeric legend.
The rise of Ancient Sparta began in about 750 BC, when the emerging Spartan state systematically subdued the populations of the surrounding areas. The nearby village of Amyclae was incorporated into the original four settlements and Messinia was invaded, the population subjugated as helots. These were not quite slaves, but had few rights and were forced to farm the land, giving half of the produce to Sparta.
The lands of Messinia were parcelled out to Spartan warrior-citizens, known as Spartiates. During this period, the Spartan constitution was formulated, and the state elected two kings, ruling alongside a council of elders and demos of male citizens. Helots and inhabitants of outlying areas, the Perioikoi, were denied a vote. This is very similar to the ‘democracy’ of Athens, where only the richest males had the right to vote.
THE RISE OF ANCIENT SPARTA
Between 680 and 660 BC, the Spartan army adopted the hoplite method of fighting, which would become the mainstay of their tactics for many centuries. In 669, the army suffered a reverse against the neighbouring Argives, and had to put down a Messinian revolt in the 650’s. Despite this, the reform continued and the revolt was crushed, within ten years. Finally, Messinia was completely conquered and Sparta began to look further afield.
The famous laws of Lycurgus were crafted to stabilise the society and were impressed into the psyche of all Spartans. Military training became compulsory for all citizen males; from the age of seven, their lives were dictated by unbreakable rules. The Messinian Helots provided food, and the Perekoi became the craftsmen and merchants, allowing Ancient Sparta to establish a professional army. The constant training and hardening, by beatings, austere conditions and rigid selection, led to a highly trained and elite fighting force, devoted entirely to the law.
The whole system discouraged the gathering of wealth into a few hands, avoiding material imbalances that could lead to tyranny, coups or revolts. The use of professional troops, against the part-time hoplites of other Greek states, was the major factor in the growing Spartan dominance. By the middle of the 6th century, Ancient Sparta had conquered its near neighbours and was the dominant power in the Peloponnesian league, a major player in Greek politics.
THE PERSIAN EXPANSION
Throughout the sixth century BC, the Persian Empire gradually developed. Starting as a loose confederation of tribes in modern day Iran, it grew and dominated the Middle and Near East. The great cities of Babylon, Memphis and Susa, fell to the well equipped and well drilled army of Cyrus the Great. By 512 the new king, Darius, overran the Greek cities in Asia Minor and began to influence their politics.
After a failed revolt by these cities, in 494, King Xerxes of Persia decided to punish the Greeks, especially the Athenians, key supporters of this Ionian revolt. Xerxes invaded, but the resulting Battle of Marathon saw defeat at the hands of the Athenians and their allies. Ancient Sparta declined to send an army until their religious ceremonies were over, by which time the battle was won.
480 BC saw the pinnacle of Spartan history, the Battle of Thermopylae, a name that has echoed down through history. Despite the subsequent overestimation of Persian numbers and the underestimation of Greek numbers, it was still an act of steadfast bravery. Thermopylae was an awesome display of Spartan prowess, courage and strength.
The Persian king, Xerxes, timed his invasion to coincide with religious festivals, preventing many of the Greek city states from sending armies. Despite this, many states sent small contingents, including the famous 300 Spartans under Leonidas, the overall General. The Greek forces probably numbered about 7000, and the Persian force up to 250 000 men, a vast difference in strength.
After four days of waiting for the Greeks to accept terms and disperse, Xerxes sent in his first wave of troops, demanding annihilation of the Greeks. Here his plan faltered; the terrain funnelled his army onto a narrow front and neutralised the effect of numbers. The superior training and morale of the Ancient Spartan phalanxes held the ‘Hot Gates’, and the initial assault was cut to pieces. The next day saw an assault by the elite 10 000 immortals, but they were also forced back, in shame.
The course of the battle now swung against the Greek forces. The infamous traitor, Ephialtes, led a force of 40 000 Persians along a goat path, bringing them around the rear of the Greeks. The guarding force of 1000 Phocians fled, and the encirclement of the advance force was almost complete. Hearing of this, Leonidas dismissed the Greek allies, leaving only the 300 Spartans, 900 Messinian Helots and 700 Thespian volunteers. They made a last stand on a hill behind the pass, dying to a man and inspiring generals for centuries.
One year later, at Platea, 10 000 Ancient Spartan warriors, part of a force of about 45 000 hoplites, and an uncertain number of light troops, defeated a huge Persian force. This, along with the victory of the Athenian navy in the battle of Salamis, crushed Persian hopes forever. They never again invaded Greece and their focus shifted to using their wealth and prestige to influence Greek politics.
THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS
The end of the fifth century BC saw the uneasy alliance between Athens and Ancient Sparta, the two major powers in Greece, break down. At first, there was no outright declaration of war, but the two city states began playing the political game, wrangling and manipulating their allies. Athens exerted pressure on the city of Corinth and its colonies in Sicily, establishing its own outposts on that island. Corinth, alarmed by this, turned to Sparta for help, and threatened to leave the Peloponnesian League.
The Athenians also intrigued against another city, Megara, neighbour of Corinth, by restricting their rights to trade in Athens. Pressure built and war broke out, becoming a battle of attrition. Despite the superior initial strength of the Spartan armies, the strong defensive walls and powerful navy of Athens forced a stalemate.
By 421 BC both cities were feeling the strain upon their treasuries and armies. An uneasy truce was called, lasting until 415, when the Athenians suffered a major defeat whilst attempting to conquer Sicily. Despite this, Ancient Sparta failed to take advantage of this reversal and again offered peace. This was gratefully accepted and lasted until 404 BC. For a while, Sparta was the dominant force in the Eastern Mediterranean, but never fully exploited its position.
Persian gold equipped a new Spartan fleet, which crushed the Athenian navy in the Hellespont. Athens had no option but to surrender, and the Spartan terms were harsh. Athens had to tear down its walls and disband its fleet.
Please visit www.eccentric-englishman.com>www.eccentric-englishman.com for more history of Lakonia.
Martyn Shuttleworth