...Battle of Hue City The Battle of Hue City was one of the most fierce and brutal battles in the Vietnam War. Three Marine Battalions totally fewer than twenty-five thousand men attacked and successfully defeated over ten thousand enemy troops liberating Hue for South Vietnam. The City of Hue was located in central Vietnam and was the country’s cultural capital for that reason is was spared from the horrible effects of the war until 1968. During Tet a lunar New Year’s holiday celebrated all over Vietnam the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launch a massive attack on South Vietnam. Second Battalion Fifth Marines fought alongside the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, supported my Army Calvary units to take over Hue City block by block. Hue City was an insanely brutal battle to say the least. Enemy soldiers were pulled out there homes and other buildings they found cover in and eliminated. This battle lasted twenty-six days the longest battle since the battle for Seoul during the Korean War. Major Ron Christmas was quoted saying “fighting house-to-house is the dirtiest of all fighting. . . Just as a rat must be drawn from his burrow to be eradicated, an enemy soldier, burrowed in a building, must also be pulled from his hiding place to be eliminated. Normally, he will not come out without a fight. The attacker must go in and dig him out.” The battle began early January 31, 1968 and by 0800 the North Vietnamese had raised there red and blue Viet Cong flag with its gold star in the...
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...Historical Background "The Battle of Hue City was an urban brawl between two armed and largely adolescent tribes, a street fight of fast action and merciless bloodletting." -John Laurence The Battle of Hue City was a marvel of military achievement; it pitted American and South Vietnamese against a larger North Vietnamese force that was well-positioned in strong fortifications and was ultimately a solid victory for the Allied forces (i.e. South Vietnamese, Americans, Australians). The outcome of the Battle of Hue City was different than one might have expected--outnumbered forces attacking a well-fortified enemy in a city is usually a formula for sure defeat. Therefore, the Battle of Hue City is an important engagement to analyze: there are many lessons that can be taken from its study regarding military operations in urbanized terrain (MOUT) and the effects of combat elements such as timing, heavy gunfire support, armor, communications, and geographic obstacles. 1968 was the pivotal year during the Vietnam War mostly because it was the year that marked the Tet Offensive, the turning point in the war. The Tet Offensive was an operation that the North Vietnamese conducted that called for a simultaneous attack on every major city in South Vietnam; its shock value would prove to be a major blow to American support for the war at home even though it was a great tactical victory for Allied forces. Perhaps the most significant victory for the Allied forces during the...
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...Battle of Huế From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010) | Battle of Huế | Part of the Tet Offensive, Vietnam War | US Marines fighting in Hue | Date | January 30 – March 3, 1968 | Location | 16°28′30.9″N 107°34′33.6″E / 16.47525°N 107.576°E / 16.47525; 107.576Coordinates: 16°28′30.9″N 107°34′33.6″E / 16.47525°N 107.576°E / 16.47525; 107.576 Huế, South Vietnam | Result | Tactical South Vietnamese and US victory[1] | | Belligerents | South Vietnam United States | North Vietnam Viet Cong | Commanders and leaders | Ngô Quang Trưởng Foster LaHue | Trần Văn Quang | Strength | 11 ARVN battalions 2 U.S Army battalions 3 U.S Marines battalions | 10 PAVN and NLF battalions | Casualties and losses | ARVN: 452 killed 2,123 wounded U.S.: 216 killed 1,584 wounded[2] Total: 663 killed 3,707 wounded | PAVN figures: About 2,400 killed and 3,000 wounded (from 30-1 until 28-3)[3] MACV estimate: 8,113 killed[4] 98 captured[5] | 844 civilian deaths and 1,900 injuries due to accident of battle, 4,856 civilians and captured personnel executed by communists or missing according to the South Vietnamese government[6] | [show]v · d · e Military engagements of the Vietnam War | | | Laos - Sunrise – 1st Ap Bac – Go Cong –...
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...important event in American history because it was a battle that marked a climacteric turning point in American participation in the Vietnam War. It was a series of attacks against South Vietnam. Tet is a holiday on the Vietnamese calendar that has been valued by many people. It had been an occasion for an unofficial peace agreement in the Vietnam War between the South and North. On the eve of the holiday, South Vietnam found themselves caught up in war. North Vietnam attacked the city of Hue, on the eve of the New Year holiday, knowing that everyone had let their guards down that night. The attacks were meant to stir up uprising among the South Vietnamese population and scale down American involvement in the war....
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...Vietnam, the battle within the city of Hue took over a month. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong’s (VC) surprise infiltration and assault on the eve of the Tet holiday allowed them to seize most of the key structures within the city. The only major holdouts were the 1st Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) regiment’s command post within the Mang Ca compound to the north and the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) compound across the river to the south. The enemy gains included the Citadel, a portion of the city north of the Huong River surrounded by a moat and large...
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...attacked the forces of the Republic of Vietnam and us, Their U.S. ally. I heard on the radio that there was supposed to be a two-day cease fire to honor the Tet Lunar New Year, but they tricked everyone by attacking in the early morning on January 30th. We were blindsided by the power of 80,000 communist troops that were well coordinated and able to attack over 100 towns and cities from what I hear. This is the most action we have seen up to this point. We have done our best to try and beat back and contain this wave of Communist forces. I can’t believe I survived the month long Battle of Hue, with all the destruction our side did to the city. The inhumanity of the Viet Cong was unlike anything I could ever imagine witnessing. They executed thousands of residents in Hue; some of the guys are referring to it as the “Massacre at Hue”. I was weary of our commitment to this war before, but somebody has to stop them. I fought them for another two months when they transferred me to the combat base at Khe Sanh. We fought them back and were victorious after in spite of all their persistence. We may have won this battle, but we had many casualties and underestimated the abilities of the Communist to be able to stage such a large scale attack due to all the defeats we have handed them in the past. We were able to kill over 8,000 Viet Cong forces over those two months, but not without our own loss. Over 700 of my Brothers in uniform paid the ultimate sacrifice. The numbers are still coming...
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...Book Review: Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam Organized by the North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, the Tet Offensive aimed to impregnate an uprising in South Vietnam. However, horrific battle scenes that took place in Saigon, Hue and other cities resulted in a cataclysmic defeat for the North. James Arnold, author of Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam, does a substantial assessment of detailing the plans and purposes involved in the key battle of the Vietnam conflict. The author explains how, despite American and South Vietnamese victory in the battle, the American public and their political leaders came to perceive the war as lost. The book, with just over ninety pages long, articulates a major military offensive from two perspectives. It is a book that leaves out essential key components because to offer an imperative discussion of such a massive engagement like the Tet Offensive in limited space is nearly impossible. However, the author offers a surprisingly well written introduction to the operation. Arnold includes illustrations captioned with a description for a concise understanding of the offensive through visual effects. The illustrations are used to portray American soldiers, North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers, and VC (Viet Cong) soldiers as isolated individuals who were physically and emotionally deprived. Photographs are also used in Arnold’s book. Some photos included in the book are Russian weapons used by the NVA and VC, camouflaged...
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...Here Hickman explains the horrendous military strategy General Westmoreland implemented in the war. His conservative nature did not question the outcomes or even the immense violent power he needed in order to follow through. Large-scale use of artillery, air power, and large unit battles were not necessary, but for someone like him it meant everything, it meant victory. America influenced and even leads him into his violent perspective. They should have influenced peace in the nation instead of partaking in horrendous acts. All these military events contradicted America’s motive for freedom. The disastrous events that came from Vietnam were very devastating and shocking. “Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the Communist attacks, news coverage of the offensive (including the lengthy Battle of Hue) shocked and dismayed the American public and further eroded support for the war effort.” (History 1). History refers here that the American public once again, were disrupted by the government’s decision, and moreover the military’s...
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...The Third of May is a painting by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. It was completed in 1814, but is about an event that happened 6 years prior. The piece was painted in oil paints, creating a blended texture throughout the work. The piece shows what seems to be a dispute, weapons and blood involved. To generalize, the picture is takes place in the early hours of the morning. Historically, this is after the battle at Medina del Rio Seco in Spain. Napoleon Bonaparte---the Emperor of the French from August 15, 1769 to May 5, 1821---sent his troops into Medina del Rio Seco to conquer the city. They were met by 21,000 Spaniards, fighting to protect their land. The artwork shows two groups of people, a seemingly regal group of...
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...Most Americans sent to Vietnam were chosen by the draft. The Selective Service System, as it was called, favored the middle and upper classes. College students could avoid service, as could those in “critical” occupations, such as teachers and engineers. As the war escalated, the draft was changed so that some students were called up through a lottery system. Still, those who knew the medical requirements might be able to produce a doctor’s affidavit certifying a weak knee, flat feet, or bad eyes—all grounds for flunking the physical. Of the 1200 men in Harvard’s class of 1970, only 56 served in the military, and only 2 of them in V The poorest and least educated were also likely to escape service, because the Armed Forces Qualification Test and the physical often screened them out. Thus the sons of blue-collar America were most likely to accept Uncle Sam’s letter of induction. Once in uniform, the sons of Hispanic and black Americans who had fewer skills were more often assigned to combat duty. The draft also made it a relatively young man’s war. The average age of soldiers serving in Vietnam was 19, compared with the average of 26 for World War II. Most American infantry came to Vietnam ready and willing to fight. But physical and psychological hardships took their toll. An American search-and-destroy mission would fight its way into a Communist-controlled hamlet, clear and burn it, and move on—only to be ordered back days or weeks later because the enemy had moved in again...
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...Henry Fleming, along with most Civil War soldiers, endured psychological struggles when faced with the reality that death is inevitable. Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage as a realistic novel by using average soldiers and conflicts that the average person could easily understand. Crane also included naturalism in this novel by associating the setting with the protagonist. Stephen Crane’s use of these psychological struggles made The Red Badge of Courage a truly unique novel of its time. The Red Badge of Courage is set in during the Civil War at the three day long Battle of Chancellorsville. The Civil War lasted for about four years in which the Union Army fought the Confederate Army, to preserve the United States, in sixty-seven full-scale battles, three hundred and ten engagements, and 6,337 skirmishes (Bowman 280). The Civil War claimed approximately 360,000 Union soldiers’ lives and left hundreds of thousands of men disabled. More than 400,000 men died of diseases, accidents, and other causes than war (Bowman 280). The war also severely hurt the economy. The property losses would cost billions of dollars by today’s terms. The total cost of the Civil War was fifteent billion in 1860 dollars which is equal to three hundred and fifty billion in 1990 dollars (Bowman 280). These losses resulted in the restoration of the American Union and the emancipation of four million enslaved African Americans. The Confederate Army fought against the mighty Union army for their...
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...The Legacy of Ho Chi Minh Vietnam is a country which has suffered a lot of turmoil, both political and regional, over the years. After gaining independence from the Chinese in 938 AD, successive Vietnamese dynasties ruled the nation while expanding geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the French colonized the nation into of a federation of states called Indochina, which consisted of North, Central and South Vietnam, along with Cambodia in the 19th century. During such turmoil, Ho Chi Minh was born in Hoang Tru village of French Indochina on May 19, 1890. His birth name was Nguyen Sinh Cung, but he was more popular with other names. After completing his primary education, Ho travelled to the city of Hue and attended the Franco – Vietnamese academy. Post-graduation, at the age of 21, Ho obtained a job as a cook aboard a French steam ship, and travelled to France. He later travelled through various parts of Europe, US and other countries. While in France, he was introduced to Communism, and became involved in leftist and anticolonial activism. Influenced by the communism ideas, he started the Association for Annamite Patriots, an organization composed of Vietnamese nationals living in France who opposed the French colonial occupation, and later became part of the French Communist party in 1920. He also started a journal to serve as a platform for anti-colonial activists to express and disseminate their views about the French colonial regime. Later...
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...40 days of Lent; a time of abstinence and spirituality. Huge parades through the cities are organized with bands, floats and dances and balls in the evenings. The final day concludes with the famous Red-and-Black dance held by the Clube Nacional in Panjim. The origins of carnival are apparently the hedonistic feasts of ancient Rome and Greece. It made its appearance in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, where it metamorphosed into the very Latin singing-dancing-drinking bouts. The carnival is presided over by King Momo, who on the opening day orders his subjects to party. The festival attracts thousands of tourists. The exciting and fun-filled three-day non-stop extravaganza of fun, frolic, song, music and dance that is uniquely Goan is a Pagan festival popular in Latin American countries that were colonies of Portugalatsomepointintime. The Carnival is uniquely Goan and is not celebrated anywhere else in India. It is a typical Latin, song, music and dance and precedes the "Lent". The highlight of the exotic frenzy of merriment is the appointment and arrival of “KING MOMO” and his retinue to the capital city Panaji on "Fat Saturday", the eve of Carnival. The procession is flocked by dancers, bands of troubadours dressed up as fortune tellers, hawkers, women, and older men in funny clothes. In earlier times the procession was characterized by mock battles among boys and men with fake cartridges stuffed with colored powder called cocotes...
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...numbers towards the war was provided, things turned very bad a few weeks later. In the early morning of January 30, 1968, the beginning of the year of the Monkey, the NLF fighters attacked the U.S. embassy. Up to this point, Saigon was a secure and safe area and it was believed it would never be attacked. The attacked did not end until the next morning and the battle took the lives of nineteen enemy soldiers and five American soldiers. This communist attack was just one of many that occurred throughout five cities, 36 capitals and other small hamlets across Vietnam. After these initial attacks, President Johnson told General Westmoreland to hold press briefing to “convey to the American public your confidence in our capability to blunt these enemy moves, and to reassure the public here that you have the situation under control.” After the attacks, the U.S. military conducted a counterattack which is considered the most successful operation done during the war. At the end of the offensive, the communist had 40,000 deaths. The attacks did not end until the U.S. and South Vietnamese were able to recapture the city of Hue. The Tet offensive surprise attack revealed how the administration was overselling the success of the war, which in turn gave a “blow to public confidence in American government leaders to tell the truth and to do the right thing.” The Tet offensive has shaped trust in government officials to this date. We still do not trust the government to tell us the truth...
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...Soeteria Winters April 18, 2014 FAS202-Introduction to Humanities II Art History Analysis Paper When we think of art, we rarely focus on its origins. Art itself dates back to the early modern humans that lived thirty-five thousand years ago. This includes carvings on Mammoth tusks, cave paintings, sewn beadwork on clothing, carved Venus statues from bone, and baked clay. The created art often depicted the animals that were hunted and the seasons. In many cases the animals could not be recognized as the depictions were distorted, thus it was concluded that said depictions were of religious significance, making this the first type of “religious” art. Two examples of such art is the cave art in Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain. Through these ancient depictions of the past, we are able to improve in all matters of society. This is just one of many examples that prove, art reflects the human journey through the past, present and into the future. The artists surrounding my art history analysis are the works of Juan Bautista Maino and Alessandro Turchi. “The Resurrection”, painted by Juan Bautista Maino in Spain, in 1612. The Baroque style art depicts the strong Christian values of the time, as Christianity had become a major religion in Spain. Christianity was introduced to Spain in 62 AD but was later rejected by the Visigoths whom rules Spain in 711 AD. In this time, the religion of Islam began to spread due to lack of taxation of citizens and the lack of forced...
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