Brookstone Helicopter, Spin

The Vietnam War, Part 2 / 2

By Stefan Sasse

Part 1, found here.

soldiers search a house after Vietcong

The deployment of more than two hundred thousand U.S. Marines under the command of General Westmoreland was followed, as already demonstrated its own inherent dynamics of the military. The threat to the bases of the Air Force by the Viet Cong should be provided initially by a few Marines, but the American commanders was a purely defensive role is not, and the inability the South Vietnamese ARVN for independent victorious end to the conflict was obvious. It was decided to adjust the guerrilla war in the country use the American doctrine, "Americanize" the war that is to be prepared the better job. Westmoreland turned on to commence a three-stage plan of operations: the downward trend in South Vietnam through the deployment from Marines in late 1965 and reside in the reliance points to start in Phase II, a major offensive with allies and relegate the Vietcong from the densely populated areas in the periphery and destroy him there in Phase III final. In theory, should drop the end of Phase III to the end of 1967th

tacitly With this new doctrine beerdingte President Johnson the idea that the ARVN itself lead to war and was supported by the United States only. This massive change in your intentions but was withheld from the press - instead, they spoke of continuity with the existing rules of engagement so for a while and turned off by the events. As military fatal should soon emerge from this massive deception caused training gap: since you brought officially a war and still conscripts moved in, the time in Vietnam was one year limited ( "tour of duty" ). On the one hand, depriving this one-year period, the units of experienced leadership and made it effective use of the soldiers necessary to shorten this time into projected training period, which as in higher losses necessary and many failures in battle resulted, which could have been avoided with better training can. On the other hand, the soldiers were always the end of this period in mind and tried it as pleasant as possible by bringing - the effect on morale was devastating.

river patrol boats sprayed napalm

The results were correspondingly modest. The major offensives in which at times was also attended by U.S. allies in the SEATO area - such as Australia and New Zealand, but never NATO allies such as Canada or United Kingdom - achieved no success because the communist guerrillas a much greater strategic flexibility demonstrated when the American Generals and quickly adapted the new tactics. The American tactics were to have extremely ineffective. They were based on the political need to keep the losses under the GI's as low as possible. To this end, they occupied their own bases and kept the larger cities (such as Saigon and Hue) and left it for their operations, in most cases to protect the soldiers in helicopters ("flying cavalry"). The pattern that the Americans came during the day, depending on the mood somewhat destroyed or helped to build again in the evening went, and then the Viet Cong came and destroyed some whim or constructions commute on. Effectively gave the Americans so up control over large parts of the country to the Viet Cong as they could only move during the day.

The Viet Cong used to hide by day a very extensive, underground tunnel system through which one sometimes many miles could travel unseen altogether. Even massive American bombing of known Tunnel routes could not paralyze them. The Viet Cong has been held down only temporarily, but never taken seriously. Simultaneously, the population suffered from the constant attacks and operations and tended with continuous duration of the war to the Vietcong. Although the strategy Westmoreland's obviously not opened up, this was always before the press and declared success. Also, the Pentagon published only positive reports. A growing credibility gap arose in this way, but this was not discussed by the media - the American public was still clearly positive attitude towards the war. Only the end of 1967 announced Westmoreland, that the end was in sight and the war would soon be won.

General Westmoreland

believed President Johnson saw then dawn. His entire second term of office - which had started in 1965 - had been under the shadow of the ever-escalating Vietnam War. His ambitious domestic reform program of the inferior in Germany in 1969 the ruling Social Democrats in nothing, was completely sidelined, reduced financial flexibility by the exploding costs of the Vietnam War to zero. The U.S. debt is exploding, because you did not want to burden the public with the admission of the continuance of the war effort and that would have brought a shift to a war economy. This production of "guns and butter" (instead of the famous saying from World War II "guns before butter") exceeded the economic performance of the U.S.. To gloss over the consequences, the Fed printed and mass-dollar scourge took the western allies in detention, their central banks to buy up the always worth more informal, completely overvalued dollar were forced. The Bretton Woods system, since the economic base of the bound on the Gold Standard Dollars in 1944 Stability in the Western world had been guaranteed, in fact at the end and only preserved as a living corpse through the pretense of non-existent facts of life.

Until 1969, most European currency appreciated massively against the dollar. Through this appreciation was the decline of the system are again stopped just before the U.S. was forced in 1971 to announce the official separation of the dollar from the gold standard and thus release all exchange rates. The system of Bretton Woods was at the end, and since then determine currency speculation and non-political setting for better or for worse exchange rates. The United States in any case, this step pause to bring before it by the end of the engagement in Vietnam in the long stagflation slipped in the 1970s, in which low economic growth with high inflation went hand in hand, which should open the space for the radical experiments of a Ronald Reagan - but that is another story that starts out only at this time.

Marines in street fighting in Hué

The Dawn Johnson disappeared least 31 assumed in January 1968 on one stroke behind the horizon. Was one of them so far and had it announced to the public that at least phase II of the original plan - the compulsion of the Vietcong in the periphery - was succeeded, this changed radically on that day. The 31st January is Tet the Vietnamese calendar, New Year's Day, the highest holiday of the Vietnamese, and traditionally the day of ceasefire, similar to Yom Kippur in Israel. That day started the Vietcong, in the official representations of the U.S. government virtually defeated and destroyed, the largest offensive in South Vietnam since the war began. All major cities and most U.S. bases were attacked simultaneously, the U.S. Embassy in Saigon fell for several hours in the hands of the Insurgents could be recaptured and destroyed half. In other places, the fighting continued well into the spring, and the United States could with difficulty hold their position and move so slow to counterattack. The last offensive of the Viet Cong failed to Saigon until August 1968.

These were massive attacks of the Vietcong from the regular North Vietnamese People's Army supported. The goal, which followed the North Vietnamese leadership of this attack was to incite the population in the South to revolt and cause a conflagration, which would thus bring the victory. This did not succeed. On the contrary, the attacks Viet Cong and the People's Army were very inefficient and the reaction of the U.S. armed forces as the ARVN quickly and decisively. The Vietcong and the people's army suffered heavy casualties but led the attacks until August. The fighting was particularly fierce in Hue, where, during the battle, almost 80% of the city destroyed. When the attacks ceased in the summer of 1968, were dozens of villages and parts of larger cities in ruins. The reporter Peter Arnett quoted an officer as saying that the destruction of the village of Ben Tre was necessary to save it. Militarily, the Tet offensive, the North had been a failure. No city, no comment from U.S. Army or ARVN had held can be, and the losses were horrific high. The Vietcong had effectively ceased to exist. For the remainder of the war the Americans fought in South Vietnam, mainly from the north against the Ho Chi Minh Trail infiltrated People's Army. Militarily, the U.S. had won an overwhelming victory.

peace demonstration against the Vietnam war before the Pentagon

alone, the Tet Offensive is a prime example of the divergence of political and military objectives. The military success of the Americans was a political disaster. The Tet offensive had also led the last doubters just how big the credibility gap between official pronouncements and the reality was now. Now no one believed the Pentagon, and at home won the Antirkriegsbewegung momentum, which the government could not be more sir. Desertions multiplied. A symbol of the moral inconsistency of the war was committed in March 1968 and in 1969 became known massacre at My Lai, where U.S. Marines 300-500 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians killed. The outcry in the public cost President Johnson's re-election. In November 1968 the Americans elected Richard Nixon as president, gave the promise, "bring the boys home" ( to take the boys home ).

saw Nixon's strategy in Vietnam therefore before the reduction of military presence and smaller, better planned and targeted strikes than the previous major offensives in the now detached General Westmoreland. Instead of taking all the areas, the logistics of the guerrillas should be taken. Better cooperation with the ARVN was sought. To prevent the replenishment of the guerrillas, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was heavily bombed, while also used the infamous defoliant Agent Orange, which makes today for abnormalities. In this way, the hiding the guerrillas are defeated. Success had these military measures are no. At the same time Nixon ran a foreign policy line of relaxation. The massive operations against North Vietnam had recently strained relations with the Soviet Union strong. The detente that accompanied simultaneously in Europe, the Ostpolitik Brandt (albeit against the wishes of the Americans, which the Germans went too far), permitted the official start of peace talks with North Vietnam - the biggest win of Ho Chi Minh in the Tet offensive, the died 1969. At the same time, the Americans moved their troops back into the populated centers of the country and protected - which halved the losses among the GIs, though, But while large parts of the country definitely gave the Communists.

U.S. helicopters sprayed chemicals in the Mekong Delta

1970, the U.S. supported a coup against Prince Sihanouk in Cambodia, who had pursued a policy of neutrality. Under the pro-American successor they bombed the Cambodian border region and the local caches of the guerrillas. This from the American public secret extension of the war flared up as new protests, which in the same year a new peak, the National Guard at Kent State University, four students killed and nine seriously injured part. A nationwide student strike and a march on Washington with more than 100,000 participants were the result. Nixon's Vietnam policy which had for a moment the hope of calming the situation and charge but the mistakes of the Johnson administration was able to, so also discredited and made in the public a continuity.

order to calm the population and to find a way out of the war, Nixon had begun in 1969, talking to a "Vietnamization" of the war, the word: the military operations should be conducted by the ARVN, supported only by the advisory and defensive air cover operating and giving Americans - that is ultimately a return to the plans before 1965, albeit at a higher level logistical and material. Under this strategy, the ARVN in 1971, a campaign led by the equally neutral and the People's Army serving as a staging ground Laos. During the withdrawal of troops of the Americans suddenly stopped, the ARVN failed across the board. In complete panic and confusion, a withdrawal from Laos to South Vietnam was made, past the corpses of their own men. As the fleeing soldiers left behind their heavy equipment just after the gas was all, the Air Force had to fly missions and destroy it, before it fell into enemy hands. The Vietnamization of the war was a clear disaster.

B52 bombing in "Linebacker II", 1972

1972 should offset any remaining illusion but the kiss of death be. At Easter, the South Vietnam People's Army directly from the north attacked her in the most conventional attack since 1955. The ARVN also broke out in full here, and the North Vietnamese were advancing rapidly, and threatened to divide the country, while the withdrawal of U.S. troops was in full swing. At the same time sabotaging the North Vietnamese, the Paris Peace negotiations by transmitted the secret of the concessions negotiated Kissinger to the press and demanded more concessions. To halt the collapse of the South Vietnamese and to bomb back to the negotiating table, "the North Vietnamese, authorized Nixon the most massive bombing of the war and probably the largest conventional bombardment of all time in Operation Linebacker II" were dropped almost 20,000 tons of bombs, the advance North Vietnam was brought to a halt. It was the second military defeat of the North since Tet, and again there was great turmoil at home. Nixon did win re-election, the majority in Congress, however, went to the Democrats, who then Measures blocked and turned off the money supply even more important than that in 1973 the oil price shock, the South Vietnamese economy hit hard. While the guerrillas celebrated further successes, the American took off faster and faster. In 1975 he was executed. That same year, North Vietnam launched its final offensive. The ARVN went down for the last time and finally, in April and was the capital of Saigon.

The scenes that took place during the evacuation of American embassy where the desperate South Vietnamese attached to the skids of the helicopter in order to flown out to be burned themselves into the public memory. For over a decade If you damage the credibility of the U.S. trading day, which did not even trust their own allies, because they obviously were not able to protect them. The reputation of the U.S. in the world was on the zero point after witness could live, like an army of rice farmers, the most advanced army in the world chased from the country. The country was deeply traumatized. Contrary to earlier, victorious conflicts were the veterans of the Vietnam War, participants in a morally discredited, lost battle that the government would rather forget. Large segments of the population that had supported the anti-war movement, they saw even as criminals. Many of the young soldiers - The average age of 19 is well below the previous conflicts - were traumatized and were classified poorly documented or not to civilian life, a process that about the first Rambo film (which had, in English the title of "First Blood") class .

graffiti on U.S. Embassy in Tehran

American foreign policy was discredited and was well into the 1980s draw no more self-confidence. The budget was severely cut, the interventions made at the level of intelligence and thus into the shadowy realm of a parallel world urged in the final were no moral restrictions more. The absolute nadir of their reputation had reached the United States, as the 1979 Tehran hostage rescue in embarrassing failed.

was culturally prepared for the Vietnam War German best known in Hollywood. Next to the first Rambo are three main anti-war films that the image of Vietnam as that of a dirty war in which all morality scale is lost, mostly dominated: Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979), Platoon (Stone, 1986) and Full Metal Jacket (Kubrick, 1987). At the same time, there are also a number of films that are pursuing a more negative nature of the treatment: movies in which the players fight in Vietnam but also in a lost war, but in the fight against faceless, malignant masses of Vietnamese people to prove themselves individually. Rambo II is just one example of this kind of trashy action-waste.

victims of the My Lai massacre

One of the key lessons learned be learned from Vietnam is that military operations require a clear policy framework and a realistic goal. The strategies applied the Americans in Vietnam were featured at the beginning of ideals and took care of particularly 1965-1968 for huge mistakes. To win the conflict was not. The population of Vietnam was opposed to the majority of Americans, and paradoxically the military successes against the guerrillas provided for the biggest defeat of the Americans. The United States came to the doctrine will no longer allow free press in war zones. The embedded journalists were born in Vietnam. Until 2001/2003, the U.S. is not committed long-term-minded in hostile states, but resulted from a short invasion, bombing and intelligence operations. Today the lessons of Vietnam are now almost forgotten and a new generation sets out to they are expensive to buy on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

References:
Peter Scholl-Latour - death in the rice field
Rolf Steiniger - Vietnam War
Bernd Greiner - war without fronts. The U.S. in Vietnam
Marc Frey - History of the Vietnam War
Denise Chong - The girl behind the photo: The story of Kim Phuc
Jonathan Neale - The American War - Vietnam 1960 - 1975
Edith Cz purification - The Vietnam War 1965 - 1975

DVD - Full Metal Jacket

DVD - Platoon

DVD - Apocalypse Now Redux

DVD - Rambo

Photo credits:

house search - Lawrence J. Sullivan (public domain)

boat - U.S. Naval War College Museum (public domain)

Westmoreland - unknown (public domain)

Marines in Hue - U.S. Military (public domain)

Demo - Albert R. Simpson (public domain)

spraying - Brian K. Grigsby (public domain)

bombing - USAF (public domain)

goo - Philip Maiwald (CC-BY-SA 3.0)

My Lai - Ronald L . Haeberle (public domain)

Ottawa Basketball Gyms

Craft show Monday, 07.03. by 15 clock to HSE24

Love tinkerers and hobbyists,

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If you feel like it, then you are still here:) and who has no time for my next show is fixed since. On Saturday, 12.3. stamped, colored with stickers on film and created geeeeile Easter cards! So do not miss:)


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My Baby Bottle Teat Are Discoloured

Complaints roll! - Episode 5 with beach attendants, discussions, and pepper spray

The life of a skateboarder is not always easy. Also on the island of Rügen is no different, and so make the skateboarding beach guards and aggressive residents a hard time. More to it in the fifth episode 'complaints roll! ".



The next episode 'complaints roll! " comes next Thursday!

Occasional Diverticulosis

finds XXI

By Stefan Sasse

The veteran journalist and Politkberater Michael Spreng has worked since the 1970s for many newspapers on the conservative side of the spectrum and in 2002 was Edmund Stoiber's campaign advisor. His blog "explosive device" includes daily (or weekly current) weekly political commentary and anecdotes . From meeting with Helmut Schmidt of dubious public relations consultant, to former PICTURE Scoops because everything is represented and read very well, although of course died somewhat subjective. raged

Char Mugen Cloud Final Fantasy

The Vietnam War, Part 1 / 2

By Stefan Sasse

Indochina in 1992

From 1946 to 1975 in Indochina a war, was the most geopolitically insignificant spots earth should in the main theater of the hot wars in the East-West conflict and transform disavouiren two superpowers difficult. The small country of Vietnam, which had around 1945 almost 30 million inhabitants and had no natural resources, defined in its struggle against the French and the Americans are doing the guerrilla struggle in a way that it had previously only the Spaniards in their defensive battles against Napoleon can. For the U.S., Vietnam became the national trauma of the 20th Century, against which they fight like a shadow always perilous today. Vietnam itself is still a deep-struck country, the losses and destruction this war era has never completely overcome. The image of the Vietnam War has been characterized in the West much of Hollywood, where, on the processing of the trauma, the clearest perceptible traces left behind. However, a detailed knowledge of what exactly happened in Vietnam and actually like a small nation of rice farmers two of the biggest superpowers could beat her time is scarce. An attempt to change to be made here.

In the early 1940s, Indochina was already about 70 years under French colonial rule. Although the Grande Nation had been repeatedly faced with insurrections of the natives who did not accept colonial rule, a real momentum could never develop this. Colonial rule and resistance to it were it not for Vietnam New, but a constant of about 2000 years of history: the giant northern neighbor, China had practiced repeatedly pressure or direct rule, and the history of Vietnam is full of war with China - it is perhaps telling that the Chinese never succeeded the little Vietnam to completely take control.

Vo Nguyen Diaper (l), Ho Chi Minh (r)

changed the situation in Indochina but 1940/41 rapidly. The collapse of France under the onslaught of the Wehrmacht sent shock waves through South East Asia. The allied with Germany, Japan invaded the colony was abandoned by Vichy France without a fight. Most French colonial officials exercised their function during the war, however, continue, albeit under Japanese command. Their propaganda about the "great Asian Prosperity Sphere" was in Vietnam because of the obvious breaches with the reality hardly fertile soil, worse than the French, the Japanese exploited previously in the country with an iron hand. 1944/45 the colony was run down so much and plundered that a massive famine attacked furiously around, the middle of 1945 had fallen to one million victims (ten million people living in affected areas). This famine of the previously small Communist faction in Vietnam, the Viet Minh brought (led by Ho Chi Minh and Vo Ngyuen DIAP), her first big success, they called for refusal to pay taxes and looting of food stocks and were then subsequently very popular.

conducted in close cooperation with American OSS agent, the Viet Minh guerrilla war against the Japanese and declared on 2 September 1945, the day the Japanese surrender, its independence, which was believed to have earned legally. The Vietminh were leaning in their declaration of independence dicht an die USA an, die sie al Vorbild betrachteten und von denen sie sich Hilfe für ihre Sache erhofften: "All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America m 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free. The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: "All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights." Those are undeniable truths. " The victors of the Second World War, but agreed to Indochina back to France to return. The Vietnminh felt betrayed, probably rightly, by the United States. As the French in 1945 were too weak even to its former colony itself again to take possession of the occupied National Chinese and British, the country together until the French in 1946 invaded the Viet Minh tried to negotiate with the French, especially after their overwhelming electoral victory in early 1946 that seemed to give them any legitimacy -. Paris was but not willing to compromise.

French paratroopers in combat, 1952

So were the signs of war. While the French occupied the country (which it mainly uses the Foreign Legion) and bring it under control hoped that the Vietminh began a guerrilla war. (Were the cities of the French and the Americans later checked much lighter) thanks to the sympathy that they held in especially the ordinary people in the country, they could strike quickly and disappear without the French would have been in a position of permanently to get hold of. The strength of the Viet Minh took over the years and growing Parts of the country came under their control and slipped away from the French colonial power. After the Communist victory in China, they began to supply the Viet Minh in a high level training and supplies. From 1950, the Vietminh were transformed into a regular army, the French could offer more and more stand up. For France, the war became more and more into a costly affairs, the running costs of the already could be applied in an economic crisis staked land barely.

In France, it was in this situation, fortunate that the Korean War broke out . The Americans were thus also involved in Southeast Asia, fought also against the communist-rated foe and were thereby convinced that the domino theory had to be right (the domino theory was that if a country would be communist, his neighbors like dominoes also "fall" and communist would). The case of Vietnam to the Viet Minh was so out of the question. The Americans established the Military Assistance Advisory Group and MAAG, should support France. Military advisers were sent to a Vietnamese "Against Army" to form, weapons supplied and subsidized especially the cost of the war the French. 1954 paid the MAAG, 80% of the French war costs. The American navy also crossed in the Gulf of Tonkin, while the U.S. Air Force flew reconnaissance missions for the French. Despite this massive support, the French lost, however, more and more ground.

Dien Bien Phu (central four green hills)

Since they the Vietnamese guerrilla warfare the long term only had little to counter - but could not achieve lasting success Vietming to, but that was in their own country also do not have to - and replenishment heranzuschaffen was more difficult, while the morale sank, he decided the French Headquarters 1954 gamble : as the Vietminh based ultimately on poorly equipped guerrillas and no planes, no tanks, no artillery, and only a few trucks to even fewer roads had conquered French paratroopers in a coup the fortified Fort Dien Bien Phu in northwest Vietnam, far away from the traditional routes and hiding the Viet Minh. Dien Bien Phu was mounted between some hills where the French burying itself quickly. The plan was to supply the fortress from the air and the attacking Viet Minh, which has the possibility of any heavy equipment was missing through the difficult environment to bring to teach heavy losses and so the Decision to enforce - a modern version of the Battle of Verdun, in a sense. But, the plan failed. The underestimation of the Vietnamese cultural arrogance of the French was soon to be devastating: the southern hill, Isabelle, was isolated significantly and untenable, and the Vietminh were approached to bring to closure of the siege, despite massive French-American air attacks in painstakingly heavy artillery, mostly only by the aid of bicycles. This possibility had rejected the French plan completely, and soon, five Vietnamese divisions - the 308th, 312, 351, 316 and 304 - The hills of Dien stock up Bien Phu from their positions with artillery fire targeted and slowly over the course of several weeks of battle closer and closer. In response to the air strikes, the Vietminh had also changed their tactics and are buried. Bit by bit they dug at the French positions, they blew up, digging new trenches and comes so slowly meter by meter. On 7 May 1954 received the French, the last radio message from Dien Bien Phu: "The enemies have invaded us and we all blow up in the air Vive la France.."

By 26 April were in Geneva met representatives of many countries on a solution on the future of law to see Korea and a possible peace settlement in Indochina. The first time the Indo-China conference was overshadowed by the fighting at Dien Bien Phu from which would emerge both sides win. Vo Ngyuen Diaper, the commanding general of the Viet Minh, and their political leader Ho Chi Minh worked masterfully. The massive attacks in the first week of May forced the Vietminh victory over the French and the international recognition of the Viet Minh as a power that could not be simply ignored. In Geneva, the Vietnam's independence was officially recognized, France and new Socialist Republic of Vietnam signed a cease-fire agreement. The land was along for provisional 17th Parallel in two halves, the north ruled by the Vietminh in the south, the French governor. 1956, general elections take place in Vietnam, and so overall the country are finally agreed. The intervening period should allow for the controlled withdrawal of the French, the transfer of government power and the possible departure of opponents of the Viet Minh - the French were here a good character to their friends, which should leave the Americans in their hasty flight 1975 and.

Ngo Dinh Diem (r), Dwight D. Eisenhower (l) in Washington, 1957

The ink on the Geneva Convention was not yet dry when the United States - which had not signed the agreement to be bound by its provisions - a huge propaganda campaign among the Catholics of the North did. The left by the French emperor in Saigon, Bao Dai, had nominated the Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem as his prime minister, and South Vietnam was sold to the Catholics just as safe port of refuge, while was threatened in the north of the Day of Judgement for all believers. Over a million people fled, assisted by the 7th U.S. fleet and $ 93,000,000 refugee money, within a very short time on the 17th Latitude. To the Exodus to stop was Ho Chi Minh little choice but to close the border - a clear violation of the Geneva Convention. That the favorite project of all communist governments, a general land reform, in the north with the elimination of thousands of "class enemies" ended and the government in 1956 to the admission of "excesses" by force, this situation has hardly improved. 1955 Diem announced, not to feel bound by the Geneva Convention and the elections hold to 1956 do not want. The argument that 80% of the population to the Vietminh, and would not vote for Emperor Bao Dai, convinced the Americans of that line. From this point

were caught with the U.S. mitgehangen. The domino theory building on the foreign policy, demanded the unconditional protection of South Vietnam against communist activities similar to South Korea. This one worked, just as in South Korea, together with a ruthless dictator. Knowing the Diem was backed by Washington for even equal to it to eliminate his political opponents in a number of strokes by using military and secret police. As news of the atrocities broke out, they simply pushed Diem the Communists in their shoes. In return, called the North in 1956, remaining cadres in South Vietnam who were not in anticipation of the elections in 1954 moved to the north, on to "low-level insurgency." Ho Chi Minh took diese Strategie so zusammen: "Do not engage in military operations; that will lead to defeat. Do not take land from a peasant. Emphasize nationalism rather than communism. Do not antagonize anyone if you can avoid it. Be selective in your violence. If an assassination is necessary, use a knife, not a rifle or grenade. It is too easy to kill innocent bystanders with guns and bombs, and accidental killing of the innocent bystanders will alienate peasants from the revolution. Once an assassination has taken place, make sure peasants know why the killing occurred." Diese Strategie wurde "bewaffnete Propaganda" genannt. In der Anfangszeit der Bewegung richteten sich diese Morde hauptsächlich gegen Regierungsangestellte, aber bald wurden auch andere Repräsentanten of the unloved status quo murdered - teachers, agricultural and health officials. To gain control of the south of the rural villages, attacked the rebels - the Viet Cong - in particular the village chief, the right of appointed from Saigon, and in most cases were corrupt. 1958 were already 20% of the village chief dead

North Vietnamese on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

1959 launched the north, the next stage of this strategy, the "armed struggle ". The Vietcong were supplied with weapons, supplies and more men. Since the fine line on 17 Latitude good defended, was leaked that a replenishment of the so-called "Ho Chi Minh Trail" to South Vietnam. This path ran from North Vietnam on the territory of Laos and Cambodia. For long stretches he was in the jungle to discover at all from the air. The North Vietnamese moved their supplies on their backs or on donkeys and bicycles on the several hundred kilometer route. The rebels in the south have been more quickly. - It is necessary to take this opportunity to clarify the terms a little. The Vietnam War films often give the impression that the Viet Cong just all fighters against South Vietnam and the United States. But this is false, but rather it was a mainly from existing South Vietnamese Liberation Army and the guerrillas, which hoped to achieve the liberation of the South on its own. While were also members of the North Vietnamese People's Army in her, but then as they did the Vietcong, not as members of the same. In the following, therefore, the term "Viet Cong" for the guerrillas are in the south, called the term "people's army," the regular forces of North Vietnam.


in office since 1961, President Kennedy suffered only the first year in three crises (Bay of Pigs fiasco, the construction of the Berlin Wall, Cambodia compromise) and thought he could afford no more. Exuberantly proclaimed Vice President Johnson Diem as "Winston Churchill's Asia" (he later explained that he had said it because Diem "the only one is that we have there") and tied it to all public, the United States to the fate of the corrupt and inefficient South Vietnamese government. The U.S. has lost so dramatically along with Diem its reputation. Kennedy and his administration were, however, feel that the conflict without U.S. ground troops had to be resolved, unpredictable and potentially harmful interactions, their use would have. So we moved out, hundreds of military advisers to South Vietnam to send and thus enable the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) in the situation, the Vietcong to fight independently. This strategy was a colossal failure. The ARVN was fighting to 1975, never able to seriously an opponent. Poorly equipped, poorly executed and completely unmotivated they could neither VC nor the People's Army are more dangerous. To wrest the guerrillas in control of the villages again, drew the Americans from so 1961 hamlet strategy , the larger villages to military villages rebuilt, in which all individuals had to move in the area and the night curfews, had a sort of Asian version of the European castles. With this strategy, but the locals were separated from their traditional places and so shaken, the spiritual life of Vietnamese people but is based largely on family spirit and was therefore bound location. The population has been driven only even more so in the hands of the Vietcong.

The dead Ngo Dinh Diem, 2 November 1963

1963, the failure of the Diem regime had become definitively clear than that the U.S. would have even longer can tolerate. The Buddhist population was suppressed in favor of Catholicism, scandals rocked the government, large parts of the country had slipped from their control. The CIA was in contact with several South Vietnamese generals who were planning a coup and promised in return to war to finally end victorious. The Americans were aware that they are not standing in the way and they would accept it. decided after a further failed offensive, the military opposition to action, overthrew and killed Diem and his brother. The bloody coup provoked revulsion and horror, and further destroyed the credibility of the Americans, who congratulated the generals and their support soon intensified. The alternate in rapid succession in South Vietnam suffered military cabinets, besides its incompetence, which they shared with Diem, in addition to the Stigma of being puppets of the United States - a charge that even the toughest opponent the die-hard nationalists Diem had to make.

The conflict dragged on Sun The ARVN was unable to halt the activities stop, and the Americans are not further dealt with the issue. Lyndon B. Johnson after Kennedy's assassination President, saw its attention mainly on its domestic reform and development of the American welfare state ("Great Society"). Vietnam was for him a completely uninteresting border conflict. That changed dramatically when, on 2 and 4 August 1964, the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese attacks Torpedo boats reported. We now know that these attacks have never happened, but then gave it as a pretext to bring in the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in Congress that represents a crucial turning point in U.S. political system. It is worthwhile therefore to stay briefly with her.

The resolution

official order to explain the state of war needs, the president of the majority in both houses of Congress. If he does not go that step - for example, because a war would be not to sell domestically - it can, of course, certain of the rights for the use of regular Troops are necessary to allow temporarily transferred by the Congress. This is done usually in a resolution that delimits these circumstances. The Gulf-of-Tonkin Resolution, however, was so general that the president was, in principle, unrestricted freedom of action in Southeast Asia. Army, Navy and Air Force he were available. Not even the time frame had been placed too much. The entire war up to 1975 was followed only on the basis of this resolution, as well as the subsequent expansion of the fighting in Laos and Cambodia. Never again after this resolution, Congress would issue such a permissive a blank check for a president and give up his control rights although the Iraq war in 2003 has clear parallels to it.

To assist South Vietnam immediately and provide a response to the alleged attack North Vietnam launched the U.S. Air Force in several stages a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Within the next three years should be in "Rolling Thunder" will be dropped over a million tons of bombs - and the number of the Second World War, much of Germany dropped bombs exceed. The Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay announced his intention to North Vietnam "back bombs in the stone age" to do what has since become a catchphrase. The aim of the operation was to prevent the resupply of the Vietcong, to undermine the morale of the North and to support the South. None of these goals was achieved. One of the officers then saw the advance already and noted: . "This is a political war and it calls for discriminate killing The best weapon ... would be a knife ... The worst is an airplane." He had certainly right.

Marines with prisoners, 1968

As so often happens in such cases, the events developed its own dynamic. The expansion of the U.S. air war increased the importance of the bases in South Vietnam, clearly, and no one trusted the ARVN seriously, they protect to. If one were to perform the actual air strategy in the planned extent, a backup of the bases could not be avoided. It was therefore decided - in overwhelming support of the American population - a first group of 3,500 Marines to send to South Vietnam to protect the American bases there. Even as this defense troops arrived two things were clear. Firstly, the ARVN troops were unable to survive in their own operations, they lost several key battles in the course of the year and stood at the edge of collapse in 1966. On the other hand, the American troops and their commanders for the offensive warfare trained and equipped, was not defending them. In December 1965, 200,000 American soldiers stationed in Vietnam. The first major ground offensive and therefore the conclusion of the "Americanization" of the war was only a matter of time.

Get out in Part 2 .

References:
Peter Scholl-Latour - death in the rice field
Rolf Steiniger - Vietnam War
Bernd Greiner - war without fronts. The U.S. in Vietnam
Marc Frey - History of the Vietnam War
Denise Chong - The girl behind the photo: The story of Kim Phuc
Jonathan Neale - The American War - Vietnam 1960 - 1975
Edith cleaning Cz - The Vietnam War 1965 - 1975

Credit:

card - NgaViet (public domain)

Giap, Minh - The Deer (public domain)

paratrooper - Warner Pathé News (public domain)
Dien Bien Phu - Raul 654 (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Diem, Eisenhower - Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force (Public Domain)
path - Joel D. Meyerson (public domain)
Diem dead - not available (public domain)
Resolution - States United States States Congress (Public Domain)
Marines - U.S. Air Force (Public Domain)

Vacation Nadine Jansen

Baltic Brett Battle 2011 - The dates have been announced!

3 contests, 1 Overall winner, 100% Skateboarding - The Baltic Board Battle is the skateboarding contest series in the north-eastern Germany, more precisely, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In the third year three stations in Rostock, Greifswald and Sellin are on complaints on the plan.

dates

25th June 2011 in Rostock (Skate Park August-Bebel-Straße)

16th 6th July 2011 in Greifswald (Skate Park people's stadium)

August 2011 in Sellin on Rügen (PSM skate park on the B196)

mode

All three contests will be run in jam sessions with two to four participants. Two minutes, the skateboarders show off their trick repertoire. In the end, remain the best two or four drivers who will have the final five minutes, to secure the necessary points for the championship. In the end there are three daily winners, one winner overall and in each case the best young rider of each contest. And do not forget: The best trick contest at j Edem Tour Stop .

Locations

Rostock

The skate park with a plastic coating in the August-Bebel-Straße has already some talents like Denny Pham Erik Gross produced. Here is the BBB starts in 2011 with the 4th O.zone Skateboard Contest.

Greifswald

four years fighting the Greifswald skateboarders for their Concrete Park in the People's Stadium. In 2011 the now fifth Skateboard Contest held in the framework of the BBB.

Sellin

complete self-built is the skate park in Sellin, home to the first complaint Skateboard Park Skating Association Mönchgut. In the traditional 11th PPP decides Skateboard Contest to who wins the overall title this year.

Photo: Axel Krüger

Halogram On Ohio I.d.

finds XX

By Stefan Sasse

In the music video for "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" by Ultravox from the year 1984, one another amazing Anschaungsmaterial for the mood of the 1980s, the Fear of technical nuclear accident - the Greens represent certainly not limited to Germany alone movement. It is also interesting how, in contrast to the 1950s now the Nutrzlosigkeit a flight from the nuclear explosion in the memory sticks. Whether it is a conspiracy theory that has previously seen after the Chernobyl Ultravox? - The music seems to be completely inappropriate to the pictures, but it may be that the sensitivities of the 21 Th centuries is due.

Measurements For Underwear Modelling

complaints rolling! with Jesche, Pham and Great

The film project of the Park Skating Association Mönchgut progress! For a few minutes, the fourth episode with Eric Jesche online!



The third row, we do not deny you! Here you can Erik Gross, and Denny Pham at her first professional photos for a magazine shoot observe.

Adams County Ohio Deer

morning, 02/23/2011, 22 clock, HSE Extra

love craft friends and crafting friends,

tomorrow by 22 clock I show you to HSE extra dimension (the digital transmitter HSE24) the wonderful Colour Tues St icker with which you can make your great, trendy floral cards.

Stickerset "color dimension" (313 168)

and the Supplementary

313 681 Supplementary Set card paper A4

And for all the knitting Lieseln and who want to become, I show again the genial:

knit ring "Serenity Loom" ( 313 162)

and how the knitting ring "Serenity Loom" works.

Be there!

New Born Baby And Christmas / Good Wish

memory and historical consciousness of the German

By Stefan Sasse

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin 2006

The German relations For your own past, since the founding of the German nation state in 1871 subject to certain amendments. From nationaltrunkenem chauvinism, where you saw brought millennium development lines finally the happy-glorious conclusion to the thesis of the great betrayal of the Left and the Lost World War II to a complete rejection of one's own past as an aberration after the Second World War is the historic remembrance of the Germans in a renewed upheaval. allow the natural extinction of witnesses from the era of National Socialism and remembering the time before there are more and more to unblock the view of the German past. The reunion has care of the rest to done to make the management of their own past in question, and the continuing debate over the memory of the displaced persons, or year-long dispute over the Holocaust memorial determine the current debate. This development is to be traced in the following, before a final analysis will be attempted.

the newly founded German Reich in 1871, it was necessary in rapid a national myth to build - in contrast to the surrounding nation states, it seemed, was it so late came to fore in the circle and could not even rely on any myths . It was therefore only logical to build on the existing and the flight of creating their own myth. The current is fast explains, is the battle of Sedan. Here, "the Frenchman" in a tactical masterstroke was defeated, brave cavalry dashed into the enemy ranks, colorful flags waved at the end of Emperor Napoleon III surrendered. his sword to the victorious William I. That war was won then by no means, studiously ignored the folklore and made the second Every September a national holiday with parades, marches and much fanfare-not for nothing called Sebastian Haffner the Sedan Day as the only national holiday, which the Germans have ever had.

Germanic council

existing conditions, able to connect to that one, was a rather crude attempt to establish a direct line drawn from the Germans until the unification and this reduces to put in an all-German continuity and it the sting of actually illegitimate random product of an error history to take, as they seemed to many. In this perception came from the Germans tall, courageous and, above all, pure barbarians, who had defended as a true nature-boy German virtues against the Romans. The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest played a crucial role for this purpose, the Cheruscan Arminius, "Hermann" as said to have a nation-building role. From there it was not difficult zuzschreiben medieval potentates like Charles and Otto (both the Great) likewise nation-building roles. Gladly we saw in the house of Habsburg then a single incident, the German unification in modern times prevented them, and the evil France - it took just the heroes of the Prussian Hohenzollern to accomplish against the envy of other's work at last.

From the current state of the science of history, of course, these interpretations are unfounded. Germanic and medieval potentate had to do with the German nation state with virtually nothing, until the 19th Century really shone on the horizon weather. However, it was believed in the cultural superiority of the Germans ("culture" was as popular topos against the Anglo-Saxon "civilization" is set), and the enmity with France, which had been fought since the Thirty Years' War, the Palatine war and Napoleon, of course, always against which to eventually forced the unification. It is certainly not the case that the nationalist-pralerischen covers were on our own history a purely German phenomenon, striking only was the plump-triumphant aggressiveness with which the represented latecomer it to the stigma of his all too recent creation date with as impressive lineage to verkomplettieren.

picture postcard from the 1930s

began after World War II, the interpretation of the "early German history," a new direction to learn. In keeping with the emerging "leader worship" right in certain circles and the nationalist ideology could see the blond giant now no longer as conquerors of the Romans and pure ancestors, according to Tacitus, but also believed a racial purity and pure base form to discover the Germans: subdued autonomous tribes in this view of history a guide, which they followed for better or worse in a constant struggle for survival, which survived only the fittest and the force of the nationalist Germans justified. were increased Ins completely absurd such interpretations with the change to the Third Reich, where they began again to artificially create a continuity. This continuity resulted from the dark past to Prussia, where a direct line from Frederick the Great - Bismarck - Hindenburg - Hitler was drawn.

was after the Second World War, this historical picture bankrupt. The nationalist ideology was disavouiert completely refuted by the victory of the Slavic sub-humans "in the East and the" materialistic and degenerate "Anglo-Saxon" civilization "in the West see them all. Prussia disappeared through a formal decision by the victorious powers in 1947 in history, as if it had never existed. In the immediate postwar period, most people had other problems than worrying about history, and the version of the victorious powers that Prussia was guilty as a stronghold of militarism and should be resolved therefore also appeared to most people as quite logical and continued in slowly established. For the first time urged the historians, however, until 1961, back into the public consciousness. Fritz Fischer's book 'bid for world power, "rejected the recent historical consensus that the First World War was caused by a" get drawn, "the parties and dismissed the German Reich to the sole fault. In a country that does not even had begun to heal the emotional wounds of the Nazi era, this shock was hardly be underestimated.

Germany turns away, cartoon from 1904

Fischer's version met strong resistance especially among conservatives. With the sole guilt and responsibility for the devastation of World War II had come to terms. Now on the first to be blamed them was too much. Of course, this attitude was to meet not only among conservatives, many of those over 40 years they shared, as they seemed to assign its entire life the wrong track, a botched era at anything was wrong. Precisely for this reason, Fischer achieved in the generation that was only a few years later form the 68-movement, a thumping. Today we know that his ideas were clearly exaggerated. His methodology is particularly targeted by the criticism because he employs only German sources and the events in France, Russia and Britain completely hides, almost as if to have the world turned just about Germany and in anxious expectation every train to wait for the empire. The seed of the idea that had already been the Bismarck Reich and not just the Nazi Reich was a mistake, down. The days of glory were over Bismarck.

received in the 1960s German historical consciousness, however, a further analysis: the processing of the Holocaust began, initially mainly in law. The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials made the extent of the Holocaust and the compromise of the parent generation of the 68 clearly visible. The question of "What have you done then?" divided the generations, but contemporaries like the myth had maintained that only a few Nazis had committed the crimes and the rest had a white vest. This idea began to collapse. The Holocaust began as a fixed topos in German historical consciousness anchor.

No

exceptionalism: William I and Napoleon III. at Sedan in 1871

What was after the Fischer controversy still remains of sympathy for the Second Empire, destroyed in the 1970s systematically Hans-Ulrich Wehler and his thesis of "exceptionalism" that Germany would have gone. The idea is that, rather than as England and France are liberal, parliamentary political system, a transition to an authoritarian, militaristic society, went down the final failure cause and the Nazi Dictatorship had decided with the end and the exceptionalism and Germany was led into the circle of Western civilization, which it already in the 19 Century should have gone. This interpretation is in contrast to Fischer's thesis is still very much alive, although Wehler's approach has some significant weaknesses. He is due to that we now know the problems of the German constitutional reality in contrast to the British and French, but, if in the 19 Century, a special path was followed, then England and France. As a military-nationalist, authoritarian state Germany was in Europe at the time that is in good company. England and France to accept the default on which the kingdom had to be measured, leads them astray. The question is really more of why this liberal democracies, but where almost all other European countries under autocratic were governed. If we compare the kingdom to this, so this comparison is equally positive in

.- The 1980s saw the final consolidation of the Holocaust as a defining element of German culture of memory. Prompted by the U.S. television series "Holocaust - the history of the family Weiss began working up a width, which led in 1985 to ban Holocaust denial and continued well into the 1990s hineinzog. At the same time began to spread over the government in 1982 a new approach: the new Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced the "spiritual and moral change" that implicitly included the right of a final stroke. It should be an end to the constant, "left" abuse of the nation state. Instead, the conservatives wanted to create a new, positive image occupied nation to which we could independently recall the events of the past. It is not said too much, this intellectual and moral failure to turn to explain. It was the black and yellow policy is not to find a coherent topos, which allowed a new approach, although first attempts are visible and have persisted. This was primarily the speech of President Weizsacker heard of 8 May 1985, in which he presented at the 40th Anniversary of the war, said the 8th May was, he for the Germans, not day of defeat, but the day of liberation, liberation from the Nazi regime. He put the German people to in a series with the liberated by the Allied nations in Europe - although aware of last place - and thus enabled a separation of the "bad Germany" before 1945. The memory of the displaced was in black and yellow much more space and in cooperation with its reminiscent of the 1950s, aggressive anti-communism to a revisionist potpourri that unfolded fortunately at that time not many and has by its initiators dropped substantially again.

Josef Stalin in 1942

Also in the 1980s is the so-called "historians' dispute". Kindled He had been promoted to Ernst Nolte's so-called "theory of totalitarianism," in the (highly simplified) was that Stalinism and Hitlerism ultimately, the two totalitarian regimes and were clearly similar to each other than we had previously thought. Thus, the Thesenerfindet stung though in a hornet's nest, because of the understanding of all that is known as the left - and this time were substantially more than today - is at least the beginnings of the anti-fascist role of the Soviet Union and despite its own crimes less debt. The totalitarianism thesis but raised Stalin's Soviet Union, ultimately to the same level as Hitler's third Rich - not just the left saw it as a dangerous revisionism. Similar as in the case of Fritz Fischer's the theory now plays no major role more - the view of Stalin's crimes is pretty relaxed, and the idea of qualitatively equivalent to the Nazis, is no more - the second one confess to Soviet dictator nonetheless like to .

In the early 1990s turned the reunification of new questions and problems. Would a new, strong Germany again slipping on the old "special way" paths and try to strive for dominance in Europe? Would wage war to preserve the old eastern territories again? The latter concern has been found to be unnecessary. A reunified Germany had taken on a new work-up to the historic Back: 40 years of communist dictatorship expected their work-up, and there were heated discussions on the question of how to proceed here: one could just as after the Second World War, a line draw and take up to a few top offender reconciliation. Or could this time, not an apparent error recurring, set to fully investigate and punish the perpetrators. Known, they opted for the latter, the document summarized under the direction of Joachim Gauck together into one huge authority and began the systematic evaluation. This approach, however, probably prevented an inner unification, because the east was put under general suspicion. Until today not really predict whether a burning of all files and draw a line not all would have been better served, as was indeed also required - for better or for worse at any rate is the former Gauck and current Birthler authority both an educational tool and a political weapon was. A sharper classification of their benefits and damage is probably only one or two decades will be possible and then allow a statement as to which management approach was the better one. With the stigma, the Nazi criminals and their mass murder but spared, to have pursued the shooters but unyielding wall, West Germany will have to live anyway. certain the end of the 1990s, however, again, the Second World War, the historical headlines readers. An exhibition on the war crimes of the army caused a sensation. So far they had in the workup of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, while recognizing the crimes of the Nazi Party, SS and other Nazi organizations and the involvement of many people in it - the myth that the Wehrmacht itself a "clean", that international law covered war have done and the atrocities of the SS commandos behind the lines were only committed, had been held. The outcry over the exhibition was great, many felt cheated out of their past. If now they all are guilty in some way? Could be because no be yourself get through the affair? Is not it enough to constantly refer to the Holocaust? That the exhibition also soon could be detected technical mistakes that led to premature closure, fueled the debate anew.

Gerhard Schröder in 2003

A historian commission was set up to investigate the issue. They ruled that some images were mislabeled or not on topic in this field and it was generally lax, and many statements had also been too generalizing. The basic message was, however, that the Army was deeply involved in Nazi crimes was, was not repealed, while a 2001 to second Wehrmacht exhibition began collaborative research areas intensively employ scientifically it. The legend of the white waistcoat of the armed forces is in any case as final since 2001 by the table, the second army exhibition brought by far not as large crowds more like that of 1995, which is probably because the extinction of the direct witnesses more and more: as 1998 Red-Green coalition came into office, were the first politicians in the lead, who had not experienced the war itself. Your view of things is naturally a different, less personal. can apply

Gerhard Schroeder as an exemplary personalization of this generation: not only he became the first German politician in the celebrations on the anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy on 6 June thing - look at the reinterpretation Weizsacker, the German, the last of the Allies liberated the people found here their symbolic most expression - it was he who, in the place of the special German guilt for the Holocaust was the special responsibility of the Germans, consideration of further excesses of this kind in their own countries to prevent and abroad. It is recalled that this argument already used by Joschka Fischer in 1999, when he the NATO attack on Serbia by preventing new Auschwitz established in Kosovo. Start without a discussion on the legality of this mission to do an Auschwitz certainly not threatened, but the instrumentation came in 1999 to little protest - clear sign that something had changed in the consciousness. was inaugurated in 2006, when the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin after a long tug, was found hardly anything here that the saying was rumored that there should be "a place to which one likes." The ratio of the Germans to the Holocaust and his own past had significantly relaxes around the turn of the century - not a moment too soon, because the increasing ritualization of memory had those Germans who were born well after the war, more and more angry and counterproductive reached proportions that could be contained by the new looseness again.

Guido Knopp

This new relaxed attitude also has its dark side, they led it in a historical revisionism that seems like a late effect of Kohl's "spiritual and moral revolution": already Guido Knopp's quote promising ZDF documentaries, which revolved almost one and all to any Nazi theme (before then also like the icons of BRD-memory as the economic miracle or obtained competition with East Germany added) had laid the ground for a modification of the German crimes. Peter Kümmel said to Knopp's documentaries "functioned as role playing, with the help could the Germans reconcile with their grandfathers. The films were the" talk we "feeling more than the facts. Memory is loaded emphatically with him, too kind . Finally have the revisionism and the trivialization of Nazi crimes, such as the twisting of facts, the flood of TV productions responsibility that falls since 2004 on public service channels on the Germans was "The Downfall" been controversial, but at least good made, so the films do about the flood of Hamburg, the Berlin Airlift, and especially the flight of refugees very hard feelings out in twisting of historical facts, by adopting a vague glorification and thus created a remarkable patriotism that transcends the Third Reich. Especially "The Fugitive" is emphasized here that the causes of displacement - no mention, but reinwäscht things, an aristocrat from the Prussian Junkers speak on behalf of their class and - the unleashed by Germany, the Second World War and the brutal crimes in Eastern Europe a completely unnecessary and, yes, hateful subplot of a communist Spy on the "Wilhelm Gustloff" invents. Based on these dull fermenting revision then the dynamics of Erika Steinbach arise that could zuschanzen their "League of displaced persons", who acts far only as a supply base is the grandson of the original displaced persons, a much larger role in everyday politics than what is actually due, and caused some diplomatic scandals. It, too, and her sympathetic conservatives much like to exploit the memory of the displaced, while, although probably unintentionally, to relativize the crimes of National Socialism.

This development is not yet considered as finished, thank God be. The historians 'guild itself is eerily quiet, the last great performance - the "historians' dispute" - dated to the 1980s. It would be just to them to back the findings of the research of the last thirty years more in the public spotlight and to not remain on the state of the 1980s or even to leave the field revisionist amateur historians believe sovereignty. It is right to separate from überkommenem ballast of past decades and to seek a non-convulsive teres relation to their own history. It can not be objective, to speak the word of a historical revisionism that reaches although that is in place of outdated ideas, but ideas, but has its roots in very troubled depths can reach.

Photo credits:
Memorial - K. White (CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Germans - jackalope (public domain)
Postcard - Photo Hoffmann (public domain)
cartoon - known (public domain)
Sedan - Walter Stein (public domain)
Stalin - Margaret Bourke-White (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Schroeder - Hinrich ( CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Knopp - Richardfabi (Public domain)