Platoon

The war can be a very tough on a person. It is obvious that a war will put a toll on your body physically, but I think it will affect you more emotionally. You could definitely see that in the movie we watched called “Platoon”.

The quote that says we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves is a very true statement. Yes, they were obviously still trying to fight the enemy, but they were fighting with themselves more than anything. When in the war, you see a lot of things that you will never see anywhere else. You see hundreds of dead people, hundreds of injured soldiers just sitting there with a wound and there is nothing they can do. You are in so much danger and you could be the one getting shot at any moment. You become very good friends with all these people and it just kills you mentally when you see one of them go down.

All of these factors will affect you mentally to a point where you can’t even function anymore. You completely lose focus on fighting the actual enemy. You pretty much find a reason to get mad because you can’t take it anymore. So you end up getting mad at your fellow soldiers. Sometimes you and another soldier have a different opinion or think something should’ve been done differently. You might end up killing him because you are so messed up mentally from all the tragic events you have been through already.

Even when the war is done, you can’t go back home and live a normal life and be happy again. You might think or hope these memories will go away, but these they will live on with you until the day you die. Pretty much every soldier goes through what is called PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). This is where people have flashbacks and nightmares about the bad memories they had from war. They end up going to psychotherapists and take medicine to help but sometimes this won’t even help any. This can also lead to suicide because you can’t deal with all the depression and sadness you are going through.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was very sad to watch but it was really an eye opening experience. It really showed you in full detail what it is like to be in a war. You get to see all the hardships the soldiers face and the pain and agony that goes through them. I honestly don’t think that I would ever be able to be a war veteran. There is no way I would any help. I would be in complete shock if I see people getting shot and lying there helplessly. I get sick to the stomach when I see people break a bone let alone people bleeding to death.

I have so much respect for all of the war veterans that have been fighting. It takes a lot of guts to go out and do what they do and you seriously can’t thank them enough. 

A Loss of Innocence

Part I

Yes, I do believe that our nation lost some of our innocence after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Before the assassination, we were a very confident nation. We didn’t think that anything could ever happen to our president. We believed that our leaders would make the right decisions to make our country the best. Because of all the media, the people really got to know the president better than any previous president because TVs and other media were just coming out. The assassination seemed to be the beginning of a lot of violence in our country.  It also affected our trust in our government.  We were able to bounce back but it has never quite been the same.

Part II

Yes, I do believe that 9/11 had a similar effect on the US and its people. When the planes knocked down the World Trade Center in New York City, the American people were in complete shock. They never thought anything like this would ever happen. Who would have thought that terrorists would attack us on American soil!  On this day and every day thereafter, we would never feel that sense of security again.

If you ask me which incident had a greater effect on America, I would say it was the assassination of JFK. JFK was only in office for almost 3 years. During this time, he had lot of good things going for him and for our country.  He created the first federal program to address juvenile delinquency, he signed the Nuclear Test Ban, he expanded the National park system, passed the Equal Pay Act, and many other things. I believe that if he could’ve kept going in office, he could’ve been one of the best presidents America would have seen. I think the assassination of JFK had a worse effect on the American people because the president is the most protected person in America. If we can’t even protect him, we won’t be able to protect anyone else. So now nobody feels 100% safe.

After something tragic happens, people always feel like they are the ones to blame. People always ask, what did I do wrong? What could’ve I done to prevent this from happening? What happened on September 11 of 2001 was very unfortunate and there was really nothing that the Americans could have done to stop it.

Part III

John F. Kennedy could’ve been targeted for many reasons. One of them being, once the Bay of Pigs operation went to a bust, JFK wanted to shut down the CIA. This was not a good idea because the CIA watches all the other countries to make sure that America isn’t in danger of any terrorist attacks or anything.

I think that the government was behind the assassinated JFK. In my opinion, they wanted him dead because he wanted to end the Vietnam War. The reason the government didn’t want to pull the troops out of the Vietnam was because by this time, we had already invested a lot of men, money and supplies into the war. They didn’t want to back out now and let all of that effort go to waste. Plus it would make our country look very weak if we backed out.

There are many reasons that back up why I think the government actually killed him. The first one is the parade route. Originally, they planned on going down Main Street. This street was straight and they would be able to keep a steady and fast pace. But at last second, they decided to turn down Houston Street and turn again on Elm Street. They had to take two extra turns which would slow them down and make it an easy shot. Also, there were better places to hide here and get off a much closer shot. Only the government would be able to change this on such short notice. After the assassination, there was very little investigating going on. The government obviously isn’t going to rat themselves out so they just pretended like Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.  

There was one big similarity between the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. All three of them were against the Vietnam War and wanted to get out as soon as possible. JFK wanted to get out because he noticed that our military was in trouble and that the American resources were in danger. RFK was eager to end the war because that was the main reason his brother (JFK) was assassinated. MLK was also against the Vietnam War. King wasn’t so mad about the war itself, but more on the racial view of it. We were sending a lot more black soldiers over there than white people. MLK thought this was very racist and wanted it to be more even.  

Trump and Nixon Similarities / Book Questions

1.       They are against silent majority. They are not scared to speak whatever is on their minds.

2.       They both had a secret plan to end wars. Trump supposedly has a secret plan to destroy ISIS and Nixon had a secret plan to end Vietnam War.

3.       They both believe that law and order is very important.

4.       They both had protesters at their rallies.

5.       There was racism going on in both of the elections.

Page 837,#’s 6-8

6.            The U.S. was sworn enemies with them because they were the world’s two largest Communist giants. / People thought that the US, China, and the Soviet Union should get along and become powerful.

7.            We wanted to have a better relationship with China and the Soviet Union so then we wouldn’t have to worry about them being a threat to us.

8.            I think that the SALT I was a very important treaty. This treaty limited offensive nuclear weapons. It helped ease the growing concerns about the arms race. It showed that the US and the Soviet Union were willing to work together. 

Asian Auschwitz

This article about the “Asian Auschwitz” really caught my attention. All of the ways they tortured the prisoners just made me sick.

Some of the prisoners were tortured by having their chest get cut open and dissecting all of their internal organs. All this was happening while they were still fully alive. They said they just wanted to know more about anatomy and that it was just education about sex. Ishii wanted to do a brain experiment, so while he’s still alive, they took an axe to his head, and pulled out the brain. They would hang people upside down and see how long it would take for them to die. They wanted to find a cure for frostbite so they would send people outside with little to no clothing on and pour water on them so they could freeze faster. Other times they wouldn’t even torture them for experiments, they would just do it to see them suffer. They would inject urine into the prisoner’s kidneys just so they could watch them under go severe pain.

All of these cruel activities occurred in an undercover medical experimentation under the Japanese Army. Officially, it was known as the Anti Epidemic Water Supply and Purification Bureau, but the people working there and in charge of it knew it better as Unit 731. 

What really blows my mind is that after this fiasco got done, they went on with their life and got jobs. One guy that worked for Ishii became the head of Green Cross (Japan’s largest pharmacy company). How come they get to kill all these innocent people and get away with it? Yes, they’re doing it for experiments, but it is not right to kill them the way they did or at all. I was very saddened by the article and couldn’t imagine being tortured the way they were.