The Vietnam War - The 1968 Tet Offensive
For several thousand years, Vietnamese Lunar New Year has been a traditional celebration that brings the Vietnamese a sense of happiness, hope and peace. However, in recent years, It also bring back a bitter memory full of tears. It reminds them the 1968 bloodshed, a bloodiest military campaign of the Vietnam War the North Communists launched against the South.
The "general offensive and general uprising" of the north marked the sharp turn of the Vietnam War. Today there have been a great number of writings about this event. However, it seems that many key facts in the Communist campaign are still misinterpreted or neglected.
In the mid-80, living in Saigon after being released from the Communist
"re-education camp," I read a book published in the early 1980's in America about the story of the 1968 Tet Offensive. It said that the North
Vietnamese Army supreme command had imitated one of the greatest heroes of
Vietnam, King Quang Trung, who won the most spectacular victory over the
Chinese aggressors in the 1789 counter-attack - in planning the 1968 operations. The book quoted King Quang Trung's tactic of surprise. He let the troops celebrate the 1789 Tet Festival one day ahead so that he could launch the attacks on the first three days of the lunar new year while the Chinese troops were still feasting and not ready to organize their defense.
Those who claimed the similarity between the two campaigns certainly did not know the whole truth, but jumped into conclusion with wild imagination after learning that the North Vietnamese attacking units also celebrated
Tet "one day ahead" before the attacks.
In fact, the Tet Offensive broke out on the Tet's Eve - in the early morning of January 30, 1968 at many cities of Central Vietnam, such as Da
Nang and Qui Nhon, as well as cities in the central coastal and highland areas, that lied within the Communist 5th Military Region.. The other cities to the south that included Saigon, were attacked 24 hours later at the small hours of January 31. Thus the offensive lost its element of total surprise that every tactician has to respect.
But It surprised me that some in the American media were still unaware of such tragic story.
The story started some 5 months previously. On August 8, 1967, the North
Vietnam government approved a lunar calendar specifically compiled for the
7th time zone that covers all Vietnam, replacing the traditional lunar calendar that had been in use in Asia for hundreds of years.
That old calendar was calculated for the 8th time zone that Beijing falls
On the second day, July 2nd, the Confederate Army awoke to find that the rest of the Union Army had arrived at Gettysburg. General Lee gave orders for his men to attack in the morning, but General Longstreet was quite slow in getting his troops into position, so the attack didn't take place until the afternoon.
would take on the day of the attack, so when the day came, the troops would be fully
“She was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn’t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn’t try for it.” (Finn, 12) From the moment Huckleberry Finn is introduced in Mark Twain’s text Tom Sawyer, it is beyond evident that he is a boy that is not like most in this society. Huck comes from one of the lowest levels of the white society in which he lives. The truth of the matter is that this is not at all Huck’s fault. His low place in society stems from the fact that his father is an excessive drunk, that disappears for large periods of time, and when he does surface, he spends almost all of that time alternating between being jailed and abusing Huck. Therefore, Huckleberry Finn has become a bit of a ruffian himself, spending a majority of his time homeless, floating along the river, smoking his pipe and running a small gang with one of his only friends, Tom Sawyer. Throughout the course of this text, we watch as Huck transforms from this mindset of very little capacity for competent judgment and a very narrow minded concept of what is right and what is wrong to one of very broad minded perspective with an incredibly complex idea of the differences between rights and wrong. Within Mark Twain’s text Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry undergoes a series of very intense events that ultimately lead to a complete change in the development of his character.
Samuel Clemens - or as he is most commonly referred to as, Mark Twain - was a seminal American novelist, with his works not only contributing to the general American literary canon, but in fact, greatly inspiring other such elemental writings. Twain is, perhaps, most remembered by the quintessential work, The Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn, in which the eponymous character travels down the Mississippi River with his close friend, and runaway slave, Jim. In doing so, the two experience Twain’s satirical, yet quite realistic, interpretation of the South, while Huck, consequently, experiences a drastic change in terms of his own morality. When considering this novel’s content from a literary perspective, it seems to be that this notion of moral growth is quite essential to one’s understanding of the plot, as Huck’s character at the story’s conclusion highly contrasts with that of the beginning. Furthermore, and quite importantly, one shall find that evidence is abound for such a change in moral character when one is to examine Huck’s thoughts and subsequent actions in a chronological manner.
Freedom Rides, Vietnam, and Social activism among the youths of America have left the 60’s with a very profound effect on our society. Without question, the decade of the 1960’s was one of the most controversial in American History. Throughout this period of social unrest, anti-war attitudes were gaining prevalence in a peace-loving subculture, and individuals began to question certain aspects of governmental policy and authority. This was the decade of peace and war, optimism and despair, cultural turbulence and frustration.
Fighting the Vietnam War dramatically changed the lives of everyone even remotely involved, especially the brave individuals actually fighting amidst the terror. One of the first things concerned when reading these war stories was the detail given in each case. Quotes and other specific pieces of information are given in each occurrence yet these stories were collected in 1981, over ten years following the brutal war. This definitely shows the magnitude of the war’s impact on these servicemen. These men, along with every other individual involved, went through a dramatic experience that will forever haunt their lives. Their minds are filled with scenes of exploding buildings, rape, cold-blooded killing, and bodies that resemble Swiss cheese.
There were many events that lead up the Vietnam War, it started in 1945 with the hostilities between the French and Vietminh. “Geopolitical Strategy, economics, domestic US politics, and cultural arrogance shaped the growing American involvement in Vietnam” (Anderson 1). As a matter of fact, the Vietnam War was several wars, but it was not until 1962 that America had their first combat mission, however, Americans were killed during ambushes by the Vietnamese before the first combat mission. There is much controversy over the reasons for the Vietnam War, supported by the several different books and articles written about the war. “The most famous atrocity occurred in a tiny hamlet called My Lai in March 1968” (Detzer 127). History shows that the reaction of many Americans to the attack by US soldiers on the village of My Lai during the Vietnam War was opposition, and the actions of the US soldiers during the My Lai Massacre will be forever remembered as a significant part of the Vietnam War and American History.
Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is an American classic which analyzes and satirizes most if not all of the major issues at the time of its making. These issues are viewed through the eyes of the twelve-year-old Huck who has a unique perspective on the world due to his lack of family and overall wild nature. Huck’s innocence supports the novel as a whole through supporting Huck’s perspective on people, and his innocence also helps begin his journey and transforms as he grows throughout the novel.
Throughout the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the main character, Huck goes through major changes. The story is set before the Civil War in the South. Huck is a child with an abusive father who kidnaps him from, Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, the people he was living with. He eventually escapes from his father and finds Jim, Miss Watson’s runaway slave. As Huck travels with Jim, Huck begins to realize that Jim is more than a piece of property. During the travel down the river, Huck makes many decisions that reflect his belief that Jim deserves the same rights he has. Because of these realizations, Huck chooses to do the right thing in many instances. Some of these instances where Huck does the right thing instead of society’s version of the right thing include, Huck apologizing to Jim, not turning Jim in, and tearing up the letter he was going to send to Miss Watson.
Huckleberry Finn didn’t have a father to look after him, therefore he did not have all of the knowledge he was supposed to for the real world. Instead, he lived with the Widow Douglas. “The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me. I got into my old rage and my sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied” (Twain 1) Huck feels like he does not fit in and that Widow Douglas is always trying to change him to make him just like everybody else. Huckleberry is more an independent person, “Don’t gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry…Why don’t you try to behave” (Twain 3). Huck didn’t know what to do or how to act. He was his own person and he had his own motives because he had no role model, nobody to look up to. “He was most free – and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I couldn’t get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way… it...
The book introduces Huck as the first person narrator which is important because it establishes clearly that this book is written from the point of view of a young, less than civilized character. His character emerges as a very literal and logical thinker who only believes what he can see with his own eyes. In this section Huck’s life with the Widow Douglas and her attempts to raise him as a civilized child sets up the main theme of this book which is the struggle or quest for freedom. Huck’s struggle for freedom from civilized society is paralleled by Jim’s struggle to escape from slavery. Irony as a key literary element in this novel is apparent in this chapter and is primarily expressed through Huck’s sarcasm. A major element of superstition is introduced and continues throughout the entire book. This superstition is used to give insight into Huck’s character, which is very naive and gullible, as well as foreshadow events. For example the killing of the spider in chapter 1 and, in a later chapter, the spilling of the salt does result in bad luck in the form of Pa coming home. Twain puts together an interesting juxtaposition of theft with honor when Tom Sawyer establishes his robber band with Huck and the other boys and they swear to their code of ethics. Interestingly, this is also paralleled at the end of the book when Tom is able to help steal Jim “honorably” because Jim is already a free man. Throughout this section, Huck’s character and personality is established. He is revealed as humble in that he constantly underplays his own intelligence. An example is when he plans his own death and then whi...
The Pre-Civil War novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, is about a young boy named Huck. His mother is dead and his father is an alcoholic. Huck is now being raised by the Widow Douglass, a woman who is attempting to raise Huck to be a successful, educated member of society, despite his many protests. Because of the violence and forced conformity, Huck runs away and unites with a runaway slave named Jim. Instead of turning Jim in, Huck decides to help him break free from slavery. By doing this, he is going against the societal norm and refusing to follow certain rules just because that’s what everyone else is doing. As they run away together, Huck begins to notice and understand the common stereotypes within society. He rebels and goes against society in his attitudes and philosophies. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain explores why humans follow ridiculous ideas just because they are the societal norms by pointing out the hypocrisy within society’s ideals, incorporating satirical examples about religion, education, and slavery into his novel.
Twain introduces the reader to Huck Finn as an uneducated, uncivilized teenager. Twain makes Huck’s evolution in the beginning of the story slightly harder to decipher, as he is still developing, and figuring out society way’s, his own ways, and Tom Sawyer’s ways. And Huck is seen as a “new guy” in the Twain author series, and is apparently “worthy” of the illustrious Tom
Before any external forces unleash their influence, a person is born into this world with a clean slate untouched by the prevailing attitudes that shape modern society. In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the character Huck is a boy who has grown up wild and for the most part free from the rules that govern the society in which he lives. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of an absent mother and a drunkard father, Huck has had the task of raising himself which has contributed to the development of his own moral code. Although there is plenty of violence and action abound in the novel, there is equal excitement to be had in the moral choices Huck encounters along his journey due to the potential danger in which his decisions consistently place him. In his novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain creates suspenseful and dramatic instances by emphasizing the internal moral struggle and danger sprung from the difficult choices his main character is forced to make.
A novel structured on the theme of morality, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain focuses on Huck Finn’s multifaceted growing up process. Huck, through his escapades and misfortunes is obliged to endure the agonizing process from childhood to adulthood where he attains self-knowledge and discovers his own identity. Throughout the journey down the Mississippi River, Jim, Ms. Watson’s runaway slave, accompanies Huck, and is later joined by two con men. It is during this journey that a great moral crisis in Huck’s life occurs where he must make a painful decision as to whether he is going to give Jim up to the slave hunters or notify Ms. Watson about Jim’s whereabouts and assist him to remain a free man. This is the turning point in his character where through deep introspection, he learned to think and reason morally for himself. He comes to his own conclusions, unaffected by the accepted, and often hypocritical, perceptions of Southern culture. Huck also deciphers the truth in the face of lies held by the antagonistic society with its evil nature.