American History

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Do you think the Weathermen were revolutionaries or terrorists? Why or why not?

Weathermen as a group seem to be both terrorists and revolutionaries. In the view of the group revolutionary violence was necessary to help tackle what was perceived as ‘war’ against African-Americans, and the military actions overseas such as the Vietnam war. Upon its creation in 1968 it appeared as a liberation movement. The students for a democratic society were their slogan and acted as their slogan and acted against racism. They believed that the violent action would make the government change. They then decided to add a military spin to the violence. They held riots in Chicago and recruited youths to their movement in protest for arrest of African Americans. This followed the assassination of Martin Luther King that sparked more riots in the Chicago city.

They can on the other hand be branded as terrorists when they started bombing buildings and even police headquarters in accordance to the definition of terrorism. They wanted to overthrow the government and hence did all underground strategies to bomb and cause disruption to the government departments. Terrorism act is often viewed when the interest is political and this had actually turned to such a scenario. Many buildings and properties had been destroyed and a few lost lives. The FBI tried to follow them at one time but they made one of the most remembered escapes in history and went underground. They helped a very crucial prisoner escape in prison and this did not go well with the authorities and their activities hence were viewed as acts of terror. In 972 the group bombed the pentagon and made subsequent bombing in the year in 1971. The weather underground cited the murder of black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark as a turning point. Many believed it to be a government sanctioned killing in an effort to wipe out militants groups such as panthers. Eventually they were wiped out and they went underground d only to resurface after a few years. They started as revolutionaries of racial discrimination but at the end were portrayed as terrorists when they began to fight the government.

‘’They are only half truth’’.. What does this statement mean?

Eddie Adams, a photojournalist made history with his famous picture of South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan that showed the general point blank execution of a Viet Cong captain named Bay Lop. The pictured showed him pointing a gun to the captain that looked terrified and the fierce clenched teeth of an officer standing nearby. This still picture told one story only for the photographer to admit later admit that actually in the situation any other person could have done that. The picture portrayed the general as a merciless killer yet he was doing his people a favor as he was liked by many. Adams later admits that picture told a different story from his contrition for the same photo.

Did Adams photo lie?

Adams photo lied. This is in reference to the time when he was interviewed and he openly regretted ruining Loans life as his picture portrayed him as the world’s worst executioner yet he was so much loved by the Vietnamese. He actually was a hero to them as his people said he was ‘’fighting our war not their war.’’ That is what any other soldier could do to a prisoner in the same situation of war as he was termed to be dangerous. He also killed their people and that was the just thing to do as per the situation.

Why did Reagan demand Gorbachev to tear down the wall? Why can’t capitalism and communism coexist peacefully?

Regan in his speech challenged Gorbachev to make a statement that would be unmistakable and that would be the cause for advancement of peace and freedom. He asked Gorbachev to open the gate and tear down the walls if his intention was really to seek peace and liberalization of Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. He wanted Gorbachev to review his weapon reduction talks with the United States. This was an appeal to Gorbachev to review negotiations that concerned nuclear arms reduction. Reagan wanted to see action taken to ease the cold war tension that had grown just in eight months before a summit that later ended unsatisfactorily

Can capitalism and communism exist?

Capitalism and communism can exist together. For instance china, communist nation has had a pretty good relationship with the USA. More so USA and the USSR did not go to war until after the World War 2. The reason why the Soviet Union and USA could not coexist after the war was that the Soviet Union was totalitarian state that took control of every human life aspect. The emergence of Stalin did not help much. He was paranoid and committed a lot of genocide killing people in the name of looking for enemies. After the world war two the Soviet Union tried to recover from the war using the crudest ways. They crushed and destroyed but USA was the only threat to this poor ideology by Stalin. But in addition, ideological differences have existed between capitalism and communism that makes them incompatible. Communist believes in egalitarianism while capitalism believes in efficiency.