Saturday, December 28, 2019

Fall of Saigon in the Vietnam War

The Fall of Saigon occurred on April 30, 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War. Commanders North Vietnam General Van Tien DungColonel General Tran Van Tra South Vietnam Lieutenant General Nguyen Van ToanMayor Nguyen Hop Doan Fall of Saigon Background In December 1974, the Peoples Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) began a series of offensives against South Vietnam. Though they achieved success against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), American planners believed that South Vietnam would be able to survive at least until 1976. Commanded by General Van Tien Dung, PAVN forces quickly gained the upper hand against the enemy in early 1975 as he directed assaults against the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. These advances also saw PAVN troops capture the key cities of Hue and Da Nang on March 25 and 28. American Concerns Following the loss of these cities, Central Intelligence Agency officers in South Vietnam began to question whether the situation could be rescued without large-scale American intervention. Increasingly concerned about the safety of Saigon, President Gerald Ford ordered planning to commence for the evacuation of American personnel. Debate ensued as Ambassador Graham Martin wished any evacuation to occur quietly and slowly to prevent panic whereas the Department of Defense sought a rapid departure from the city. The result was a compromise in which all but 1,250 Americans were to be quickly withdrawn. This number, the maximum that could be carried in a single days airlift, would remain until Tan Son Nhat airport was threatened. In the meantime, efforts would be made to remove as many friendly South Vietnamese refugees as possible. To aid in this effort, Operations Babylift and New Life were initiated in early April and flew out 2,000 orphans and 110,000 refugees respectively. Through the month of April, Americans departed Saigon through the Defense Attachà ©s Office (DAO) compound at Tan Son Nhat. This was complicated as many refused to leave their South Vietnamese friends or dependents. PAVN Advances On April 8, Dung received orders from the North Vietnamese Politburo to press his attacks against the South Vietnamese. Driving against Saigon in what became known as the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, his men encountered the final line of ARVN defenses at Xuan Loc the next day. Largely held by the ARVN 18th Division, the town was a vital crossroads northeast of Saigon. Ordered to hold Xuan Loc at all costs by South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, the badly outnumbered 18th Division repelled PAVN attacks for nearly two weeks before being overwhelmed. With the fall of Xuan Loc on April 21, Thieu resigned and denounced the United States for failing to provide needed military aid. The defeat at Xuan Loc effectively opened the door for PAVN forces to sweep on to Saigon. Advancing, they encircled the city and had nearly 100,000 men in place by April 27. That same day, PAVN rockets began hitting Saigon. Two days later, these began to damage the runways at Tan Son Nhat. These rocket attacks led the American defense attachà ©, General Homer Smith, to advise Martin that any evacuation would need to be carried out by helicopter. Operation Frequent Wind As the evacuation plan relied on the use of fixed-wing aircraft, Martin demanded the embassys Marine guards to take him to the airport to see the damage firsthand. Arriving, he was forced to agree with Smiths assessment. Learning that the PAVN forces were advancing, he contacted Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at 10:48 AM and requested permission to activate the Frequent Wind evacuation plan. This was immediately granted and the American radio station began repeat playing White Christmas which was the signal for American personnel to move to their evacuation points. Due to the runway damage, Operation Frequent Wind was conducted using helicopters, largely CH-53s and CH-46s, which departed from the DAO Compound at Tan Son Nhat. Leaving the airport they flew out to American ships in the South China Sea. Through the day, buses moved through Saigon and delivered Americans and friendly South Vietnamese to the compound. By evening over 4,300 people had been evacuated through Tan Son Nhat. Though the US Embassy was not intended to be a major departure point, it became one when many became stranded there and were joined by thousands of South Vietnamese hoping to claim refugee status. As a result, flights from the embassy continued through the day and late into the night. At 3:45 AM on April 30, the evacuation of refugees at the embassy was halted when Martin received direct orders from Ford to leave Saigon. He boarded a helicopter at 5:00 AM and was flown to USS Blue Ridge. Though several hundred refugees remained, the Marines at embassy departed at 7:53 AM. Aboard Blue Ridge, Martin desperately argued for helicopters to return to the embassy but was blocked by Ford. Having failed, Martin was able to convince him to allow ships to remain offshore for several days as a haven for those fleeing. The Operation Frequent Wind flights met little opposition from PAVN forces. This was the result of the Politburo ordering Dung to hold fire as they believed interfering with the evacuation would bring American intervention. Though the American evacuation effort had ended, South Vietnamese helicopters and aircraft flew out additional refugees to the American ships. As these aircraft were unloaded, they were pushed overboard to make room for new arrivals. Additional refugees reached the fleet by boat. Fall of Saigon Bombarding the city on April 29, Dung attacked early the next day. Led by the 324th Division, PAVN forces pushed into Saigon and quickly moved to capture key facilities and strategic points around the city. Unable to resist, newly-appointed President Duong Van Minh ordered ARVN forces to surrender at 10:24 AM and sought to peacefully hand over the city. Uninterested in receiving Minhs surrender, Dungs troops completed their conquest when tanks plowed through the gates of the Independence Palace and hoisted the North Vietnamese flag at 11:30 AM. Entering the palace, Colonel Bui Tin found Minh and his cabinet waiting. When Minh stated that he wished to transfer power, Tin replied, â€Å"There is no question of your transferring power. Your power has crumbled. You cannot give up what you do not have.† Completely defeated, Minh announced 3:30 PM that the South Vietnamese government was fully dissolved. With this announcement, the Vietnam War effectively came to an end. Sources HistoryNet: Fall of SaigonBBC: Fall of SaigonUSNI: Operation Frequent Wind

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Analyzing Strawson s Three Arguments Against The...

The aim of this essay is to assess Strawson’s three arguments against the incompatibilist from his paper, ‘Freedom and Resentment’ (1974). To this aim, I will first give the context of Strawson’s discussion. Next, I will give an account of causal determinism, following McKenna and Russell (2010), then explain the three camps that have emerged from the dialectic: the (i) compatibilist, (ii) incompatibilist and (iii) what I will call the ‘non-Strawsonian’ pessimist. I will then explain how Strawson’s reactive attitudes framework fits with his three arguments against the incompatibilist. I will then give an analysis of why these arguments fail to show that the incompatibilist position is false. Finally, I will conclude by maintaining that Strawson’s reactive attitudes framework do not demonstrate that the incompatibilist is mistaken in holding that determinism would undermine moral responsibility. Before I begin, I will first note that Strawson’s 1974 paper, ‘Freedom and Resentment’ fits into a broader debate about moral responsibility and free will where he argues for a type of compatibilist position in the free will and moral responsibility literature. I will now define the relevant terms. Determinism is the claim that â€Å"everything that happens in the world including all human thought and action-is subject to causal laws and that this involves the necessitation of effects by antecedent causal conditions† (McKenna and Russell, 2012, 1). What this means is that the course of

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Public Interest Political Concept

Question: Discuss about the Public Interest for Political Concept. Answer: Introduction LAN Airlines and Southwest Airlines have been growing at an amazing speed. Now to finance the next face of growth in the business there is a need to finance the next round of increase in working capital. The paper will explore all possible options by which the financing can be raised. The objective is to understand about different kind of financing and then taking a call on the working capital financing. Local currency denominated bank loan Any corporate treasury would have some exposure in mutual funds especially liquid, UST and ST funds. Now to finance the next face of growth in the business there is a need to finance the next round of increase in working capital. The paper will explore all possible options by which the financing can be raised. The objective is to understand about different kind of financing and then taking a call on the working capital financing. This tools would allow the user to set predefined parameters to select the funds from the universe After selection, the user would also have the flexibility to create investment specific triggers like the AUM etc. USD denominated bonds The tool would check how liquid is the stock in the portfolio and create necessary dashboard for the portfolio/watchlist which the user has created Local currency denominated bank loan Currently under development, details to be shared later Equity This report would allow to user to see whether the portfolio is actually diversified or not. The user can use his watchlist, portfolio or select funds from the dropdown Once the user has selected the funds, the tool would show the common portfolio in terms of sector, company etc. Comparison of each of the asset class Benefits Drawback U.S. dollar denominated bonds Benefit of lower interest rate and hedge against any risk after losing the business Currency risk can be high in adverse risk of argentinian peso movement Local Currency denominated bonds Currency risk movement of Argentinian movement If the business is lost, no point of this debt Bank Loan Lower currency risk Can be expensive Equity Adverse movement can be avoided Expensive proposition Local currency denominated bank loan The tool would check how concentrated is the portfolio USD denominated bonds Currently under development, details to be shared later Local currency denominated bank loan How much alpha the fund has generated wrt benchmark, additional benchmark across different time periods shown in the form of dashboard. Now to finance the next face of growth in the business there is a need to finance the next round of increase in working capital. The paper will explore all possible options by which the financing can be raised. The objective is to understand about different kind of financing and then taking a call on the working capital financing. Equity Market cap wise analysis New entry/exit Exposure in terms of AMC/% of AUM/number of schemes Unique and popular holding analysis Online portfolio tracker which can be used by the distributors investor as well It will have all the reports from the current desktop version in a renewed dashboard form plus some exciting new features such as tool for brokerage calculation which is still a big pain point for most small IFAs, distributors etc. It will also provide user the mechanism to store information about its user and use this information smartly like auto SIP reminder, pop-up before a fund maturity, and update on fund performance etc. In one place the user can find the factsheets as published by the AMCs Financing decision The IFA/distributors can use this tool to generate customized factsheet in their own logo and contact details. They can also feed in the prospects information which will be printed on top of the document Some basic investor awareness related content in ICRON branding which can be used for knowledge updation, training of sales force etc. Any customization in content, branding can be done at an additional cost. Now to finance the next face of growth in the business there is a need to finance the next round of increase in working capital. The paper will explore all possible options by which the financing can be raised. The objective is to understand about different kind of financing and then taking a call on the working capital financing (Schubert, 1963). Conclusion They should go for U.S dollar denomination as even if the contract is lost they will be able to service the loan without taking any interest rate risk. Any corporate treasury would have some exposure in mutual funds especially liquid, UST and ST funds. Now to finance the next face of growth in the business there is a need to finance the next round of increase in working capital. The paper will explore all possible options by which the financing can be raised. The objective is to understand about different kind of financing and then taking a call on the working capital financing. How much alpha the fund has generated wrt benchmark, additional benchmark across different time periods shown in the form of dashboard. Now to finance the next face of growth in the business there is a need to finance the next round of increase in working capital. The paper will explore all possible options by which the financing can be raised. References: Hantke-Domas, M. (2003). The public interest theory of regulation: non-existence or misinterpretation?.European journal of law and economics,15(2), 165-194. Schubert, G. A. (1960).The public interest: A critique of the theory of a political concept. Free Press of Glencoe Sanday, P. R. (Ed.). (2014).Anthropology and the public interest: Fieldwork and theory. Academic Press Baudot, L., Roberts, R. W., Wallace, D. M. (2015). An examination of the US public accounting professions public interest discourse and actions in federal policy making.Journal of Business Ethics, 1-18

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Bi

Bi-Lingual Education Essay Bilingual EducationEducation is very important. There use to be a time when you didn’t have to go to school. When it was only important for men to have an education. Times have really changed. Now it is crucial for everyone in our society to have an education. Survival is the main reason: a cohesive society is another. Our schools today need to keep Bilingual education as a tool for teaching: not only for the sake of our society but also for the sense of our culture. Bilingual education in our schools is crucial: but still there is talk about banning the use of foreign language in the instruction of our young children. We have to work to change that kind of attitude. We have to proceed from the assumption that bilingual education is a sound educational proposition for all children and that it addresses the needs of all the constituencies of education. Now more than ever the words of Thomas Jefferson ring with special meaning: in 1977, in a letter to his nephew, Jefferson said: â€Å"Bestow great attention on Spanish and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish America will render that language a valuable acquisition. The ancient history of that part of America, too, is written in that language†. (qt. in A Relook ’66). Hispanic leaders should plan an initiative to help Hispanic youths do better in school. Its a coming-together as a community to deal with a very pressing issue. The organizations should be composed of public officials, students, educators, administrators, and business people and should try to determine the biggest problems facing Latino students in their community. These groups need to work together to develop a statewide agenda. Hispanic students, according to some studies, lag behind other students in classroom performance; have the highest dropout rate of any ethnic group in the country; and, according to federal data, are less likely to pursue higher learning(Tucson â⠂¬â„¢66). We as a society, need to have a school system that prepares our students for higher education if that is their choice. Society needs to work together to change the educational process for Latino students. Consider these numbers, which we drew from As A Relook at Tucson ’66 states† Minority groups are being shortchanged by more than 200,000 teaching jobs in the public elementary and secondary schools of the nation. In 1972, the enrollment of the nation’s public schools was 44.6 million. As a relook at Tucson ’66 states, the number of English speakers in the Western Hemisphere is only slightly larger than that of Spanish speakers. By the year 2000 the number of Spanish speakers will be far greater than the number of english speakers. Statistics indicate that the United States is now one of the major Spanish-American countries. One statistical example: If the figures on illegal Mexican aliens are correct, that means that every year the United States adds another city the size of Albuquerque and Tucson combined. Or, put it another way, it adds another state larger in population than Wyoming and Alaska combined†(a relook at Tucson 14). The policy of most governments toward bilingualism in the home is and long has been one of neglect. A few countries actively encourage it, especially if the second (non-community) language is the more important language in the country or in the world, or if the minority (community) language is the language of a group given special consideration under the law. Many countries, which have recently been colonies, for example, encourage their young people to learn the language of their former Mother Country, because bilingualism of this type is important in international trade and politics. However, we could find castles full of research and still very little is being done in public schools to improve and enforce bilingual education. We have to use the research being conducted about bilingual edu cation and improve bilingual education. Some public schools want to stop bilingual education, saying that its detrimental to students but they dont put any consideration in improving it, or educating themselves on the needs of not just Latino but all children. All bilingual children deserve further discussion on the issues of culture, immigration, ethnicity and adjustment. An Introduction To Nanoscience And Nanotechnology Biology EssaySocial Issues