...empirical evidence so contrary to this assumption, I would question as to whether or not I might have indeed been more compliant. Milgram’s findings that strong pressure from someone in authority can cause ordinary people to behave in ways that negate their values and morals (Weiten 2013 pg 542) have had an impact on our understanding of a number of different human tragedies including the atrocities of Nazi Germany, the systematic torture of inmates at Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay and the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. My Lai was a small village suspected of harbouring members of the Vietnamese resistance, the Viet Cong, during the Vietnamese War. When the American soldiers in Charlie Company under the command of William Calley raided the village and found no insurgents, Sgt Calley ordered his men to systematically murder the innocent villagers. On the afternoon of 16th March 1968 over four hundred men, women and children were slaughtered. The example of the My Lai massacre is consistent with the findings of the Milgram experiment in that even though these...
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...Society Uniting Tactics, Divisive Consequences Rape, torture and murder against innocent civilians- what could cause someone to do such a thing? The My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War was a result of a war tactic that continues to be utilized today: racism and dehumanization of the enemy. This strategy, employed by the Armed Forces and facilitated by the media back on American soil has proven to be dangerous in that it causes both soldiers and civilians to treat an entire group as subhuman and unworthy of empathy. We can see this in the My Lai Massacre and through the persistent hare crimes against Muslims during the United States’ current “war on terror.” On March 16 1968, 140 men of the American Charlie Company entered the village of My Lai and were ordered to kill whoever they saw. There was the belief that the province of Quang Ngai where My Lai was located was a stronghold for Vietcong guerillas. After increasing frustration with losing their soldiers and not progressing in the war as much as they’d like, the group took their anger out on what was thought was a village of Vietcong enemies. It was the first chance they had to meet the enemy face to face instead of through grenades and booby traps and finally get even. Lieutenant William L. Calley ordered a search and destroy mission and urged that anyone in My Lai was to be considered connected to the Vietcong in some way, and should be killed. Though no guerillas were found when Charlie Company reached the village...
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...2014 My Lai Massacre The My Lai Massacre happened on March 16, 1968 in the village of My Lai, South Vietnam. The Vietnam war was fought between North and South Vietnam and it was about stopping the spread of Communism, which was greatly feared around the world. Especially in America. Anti-Communist countries like France and America backed South Vietnam the best they could, while countries like China and Russia supported North Vietnam. America fought for eleven years even though the war lasted much longer. In January of 1968, a division of American soldiers called Charlie Company made a base in the Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam. Charlie Company believed that the Quang Ngai Province was full of Vietcong, or North Vietnamese. Earlier in March several Generals fell into a boobie trap, set by the Vietcong, killing one and injuring the others. The division became angered and were encouraged to be aggressive in their next encounter with the enemy. On March 16th, 1968, the 11th Bridge of Charlie Company was airlifted to My Lai Village, under the control of Lieutenant William L. Calley. He believed that the village was a hideout for the Vietcong. Civilians were supposed to be evacuated to safety, although before the operation took place, Captain Eugene Kotouc addressed his troops saying, “Any civilians remaining in the villages would be considered Vietcong or actively sympathetic to the Vietcong,” At 7:22 a.m. on March 16, nine helicopters lifted off for the flight to My Lai...
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... both fictional and nonfictional, regarding the war and its effect on those who had to fight it. (Edar) The My Lai massacre is not representative of American actions in the war, but it does hold a particular place in the effect that war had on those at home, a public that was horrified at some...
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...Conflict and war are inevitable and sometime necessary Of the many wondrous and beneficial qualities we as a society possess, our inclination toward war and conflict is not one of them. In fact it is one of our most destructive and damaging activities humans do. As horrifying, catastrophic and fatal as war may be, it is a necessary element for the survival for humans as a species. Before we talk about why war might be necessary, let us first discuss some of the major causes of war. The most dominant reason for war in human history is ideology, or most specifically religious ideology. From the crusades that begun with Pope Urban II speech at the Church Council at Clermont in 1095 and ended with the expulsion of the Hospital of St John from Malta by Napoleon in 1798 to the current conflict in Israel religion has been a cause for conflict. “…Hubristic identities are a possible cause of war …He defines the term ‘hubristic identities’ as ‘the aspiration for recognition’ of one’s superiority, which is not recognized by other major international actors’… Fascist and communist regime from this hypothesis, and further integrate the notion of ‘image’ – for example, monumental works in the capital city – emphasised by the leaders of such regime. Logically, such ‘hubristic identities’ require some kind of proof for both the domestic and foreign audience to strengthen their claim of their superiority. In such a scenario, winning the war is perhaps the most viable and most credible...
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...The My Lai massacre was one of the most horrendous instances to ever take place during any of the wars the United States fought in. A United States Army battalion directed by William Calley, entered then My Lai village anticipating to discover participants of the Vietcong. Instead, the Charlie Company killed approximately 500 innocent civilians brutally. This massacre was not stopped until Robert Thompson, a helicopter pilot saw all the lifeless bodies and flew down to figure out what transpired. Calley claims Ernest Medina ordered him to execute the killings. When Calley was indicted for murder the nation broke out in a "Free Calley" movement claiming he was innocent. William “Rusty” Calley was born June 8th 1943 in Miami, Florida. His father was a United States Navy veteran from World War II. He attended Palm Beach Junior College for a year, but had to drop out due to...
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...The Vietnam War was an extremely controversial and divided time in American History. From the government lying to the public, media favoring an anti-war viewpoint, to the graphic images and stories of what was occurring an ocean away, many people were affected by the war and lives were changed from it. Many are still alive today to tell their stories. Two different people were interviewed, one who experienced the war from the eyes of an teenager at home, and the other an Air Force veteran that served in the war. Their stories and the thousands of others from the time will help us to learn more of the mistakes, triumphs, and the effects on the people from the Vietnam War. The first person that was interviewed was my grandfather, Roy Lenza. Roy...
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...Name: Andraie Lewis Eng. 122 May 8,2013 Blind obedience Society often view obedience as a good quality or trait to have; employers want obedient employees and parents often wish for obedient children. Being obedient means that an individual shows respect for an authority figure and will carry out the instructions they are given; when someone is obedient they are widely accepted by society, because they do whatever it is that society asks of them. But obedience carried too far can have disastrous consequences to both the individual and society; this is referred to as blind obedience. Blind obedience is when a person follows authority without even thinking about the consequences that the order to which they are obeying carries. It’s as if the authority figures are puppeteers and the people blindly obeying them the puppets. Puppeteers and their puppets best illustrate the relationship between the authority figure and the people doing horrendous actions, because being obedient is the right thing to do. So many events in history have proven how inhumane human beings can be when following authority. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted one of the most controversial experiments in history, in attempt to demonstrate how individuals can lose themselves to an authority figure. Milgram’s experiment was called “Obedience to Authority.” Theodore Dalrymple wrote an article titled, “Just do What...
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...My Lai Massacre On the morning of March 16, 1968, soldiers of Charlie Company, a unit of the American Division's 11th Infantry Brigade arrived in the hamlet of My Lai in the northern part of South Vietnam. They were on a “search and destroy” mission to root out 48th Viet Cong Battalion thought to be in the area. The unit met no resistance in My Lai, which had about 700 inhabitants. Indeed, they saw no males of fighting age. They only found villagers eating breakfast. Nevertheless, over the next three hours they killed as many as 504 Vietnamese civilians. Some were lined up in a drainage ditch before being shot. The dead civilians included fifty ages 3 or younger, 69 between 4 and 7, and 27 in their 70s or 80s. Stabbed. Some victims were mutilated with the signature "C Company" carved into the chest. One soldier would testify later, "I cut their throats, cut off their hands, cut out their tongues, and scalped them. I did it. A lot of people were doing it and I just followed. I lost all sense of direction." Only one American was injured - a GI who had shot himself in the foot while clearing his pistol. America’s excuse When the American troops entered My Lai, they did not find any Viet Cong soldiers or weapons. Nonetheless, the platoon led by Second Lieutenant William Calley began to fire at what they claimed was an enemy position In response, the US Army initiated a program of...
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...The My Lai Massacre took place on March 16, 1968. The Massacre was a horrific event during the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war, the American soldiers didn’t ever see their enemy. They would fall into poison bungee sticks, and were taken back to an American base for treatment; that is one way that the Americans lost some of their men. Another way that they lost soldiers, was that they would run into landmines. When the My Lai Massacre took place, the American soldiers were advised to kill anyone in the village, treating them as if they were all part of the Vietnamese military. The My Lai Massacre took place shortly after the Tet Offensive (which is another war in Vietnam). It was a bad part of American history because there were so...
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...contains digital links to first hand testimony of individuals involved in addition to detailed chronology of events, and insight to rules of engagement criteria, known as the “nine rules”. The firsthand accounts will be used to detail events, and additional information will be used to cross check facts from other sources. Major Addicott, Jeffrey F., Major Hudson, William A. (1993) The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of My Lai: A Time to Inculcate the Lessons Learned. Military law review-Volume 139 Major Addicott was a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps, assigned to International and Operational Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General of the US Army. Major Hudson was a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps, assigned as an Instructor of International and Operational War Division, Judge Advocate General School. This source was retrieved from a quarterly Military Law Review (volume 139) conducted at the Judge Advocate General’s school. It was selected for it’s in depth analysis of the findings and contributing factors of root causes for the My Lai Massacre. This Document is instrumental in displaying lessons learned....
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...ancestry was heavily influenced by the propaganda that was spread across the United States. Posters across the nation labeled the Japanese as “a ruthless and animalistic enemy that needed to be defeated” (Miles). These images of the Japanese enemy portrayed Japanese people in a way that made them look more animal than human. This was not a difficult task, as during this time period, Americans related with images of white people with “attractive features” as trustworthy friends and citizens (Miles), and the images of the Japanese were purposely not fitting of this mold. The Japanese were further dehumanized in American life through offensive nicknames that made them seem even more separated from Americans. As Hannah Miles describes in her essay on anti-Japanese propaganda, “racial distinctions were purposefully included in order to further alienate the Japanese as the other people.” The use of propaganda to dehumanize populations that are an intended enemy is never unusual, and in a war built and fueled by propaganda, it is no surprise that even America could use it to...
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...Ordinary people can do terrible things when told to by somebody in authority. Discuss. This essay will discuss obedience in authority, considering why people can do terrible things when instructed to by someone of a higher standing. It will first discuss social psychological explanations into obedience, outlining and evaluating agency theory and legitimate authority. It will then go onto evaluate the contrasting research of Milgram and Hofling’s studies into obedience, also looking at other similar studies. The third section will discuss and analyse the ethical issues into social psychological research referring to the specific issues contained in the studies of the previously mentioned psychologists. A conclusion will sum up the entirety...
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...The SAT Essay: Building a Repertoire of Examples The SAT essay is intended to measure your writing skills, not your knowledge of any specific subject. Therefore, the essay prompts given on the SAT must be fairly open-ended, so that anyone with a highschool education and life experiences common to all teenagers can respond to them. Most of them deal with basic philosophical, psychological, moral, or social issues. In my experience as a teacher, I’ve seen that the biggest challenge students face in writing the SAT essay is coming up with rich and relevant examples to discuss within the twenty-five minutes you’re given for the essay section. Quite often, students end up using examples that are inappropriate or superficial, or they don’t know enough about the examples they’ve chosen to write about them in detail. The way to combat this problem is to create your own repertoire of examples that you are well prepared to write detailed paragraphs about. Then, when you read the prompt you’re given on the day of the test, you can simply choose the examples from your repertoire that are most relevant to that particular topic. (Of course, this method isn’t fullproof; it may happen that you are unfortunate enough to get a topic that your prepared examples aren’t really appropriate for. If that’s the case, don’t try to force your examples to fit the topic. The process of coming up with these examples and writing several practice essays will also help you learn how to come up with new examples...
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...JFK Essay “History is concerned with neither the past by itself nor with the historian’s thoughts about it by itself, but the two in mutual relations. All history is the history of thought.” Discuss the validity of Collingwood’s view on history, in reference to your case study. The past and the way the historian is able to interpret the past is the true nature of history. Collingwood’s view on history has merit, as it is the combination of the two that constitutes history. This is extremely evident in the variety of interpretations that have emerged through the study of President John F. Kennedy. Three particular historians, Theodore Sorenson, Seymour Hersh and Michael O’Brien, all construct ‘unique’ accounts of JFK’s Presidency particularly in his relations with Khrushchev (1961-1963) and his management of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 to become solid examples of the importance of the historian in creating the history. All search for ‘the truth’ about Kennedy, using a variety of methodologies to come to different conclusions about his presidency. Context is also key in evaluating the both the historian and his work as it is reflected through his aims and purposes. Without a thorough examination of the historian, the history cannot be understood. The historian thus becomes the third element of the construction of history. Theodore Sorenson’s 1965 work, Kennedy argues a consensus view of history, attempting to “glorify” his place within America History. As a close...
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