AU PAIR EDUCATION - ESSAY WH-2 / FIRST TOPIC

HW-2 / Part 1

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

During the classes on July 28-29th in Washington D.C we could experience seeing the memorial honoring the men and women who served in the controversial Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial chronologically lists the names of more than 58,000 Americans who gave their lives in service to their country.

It is an emotionally stirring memorial that pays tribute to the men and women who served in one of America's most controversial wars.

 The instructor commented that near the end of a weeklong national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington after a march to its site by thousands of veterans of the conflict. As also the references says , “the long-awaited memorial was a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with all the soldiers’ names, it is arranged in order of death and also it has some Diamonds and other plus signals that tell us something special about them, it isn’t a rank, as was common in other memorials. The black stones reflect your face on them and give you the idea to “bring the past and present together with names”.

 As the instructor told as the designer of the memorial was Maya Lin, a Yale University architecture student who entered a nationwide competition to create a design for the monument, she got a B in those work, what was interesting once it is now a global memorial.

Lin, born in Ohio in 1959, was the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Many veterans’ groups were opposed to Lin’s winning design, which lacked a standard memorial’s heroic statues and stirring words. But a fact that is interesting is the memorial starts in the middle, in 1959, follow to the right and finishing reading from the left to the middle again. However, a remarkable shift in public opinion occurred in the months after the memorial’s dedication. Veterans and families of the dead walked the black reflective wall, seeking the names of their loved ones killed in the conflict. Once the name was located, visitors often made an etching or left a private offering, from notes and flowers to dog tags and cans of beer.

 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial soon became one of the most visited memorials in the nation’s capital, second the references. A Smithsonian Institution director called it “a community of feelings, almost a sacred precinct,” and a veteran declared that “it’s the parade we never got.” “The Wall” drew together both those who fought and those who marched against the war and served to promote national healing a decade after with the divisive conflict’s end.

 The memorial counts with eight women’s names as the instructor commented and second the references it was designed by Glenna Goodacre for the women of the United States who served in the Vietnam War. Before Goodacre's design was selected, two design entries had been awarded as co-finalists - one a statue and the other a setting - however, the two designs were unable to be reconciled Glenna Goodacre's entry received an honorable mention in the contest and she was asked to submit a modified maquette (design model). Goodacre's original design for the Women's Memorial statue included a standing figure of a nurse holding a Vietnamese baby, which although not intended as such, was deemed a political statement, and it was asked that this is removed. She replaced them with a figure of a kneeling woman holding an empty helmet. On November 11, 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated. There is a smaller replica of that memorial at Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park in Angel Fire, New Mexico.

 Like the reference says it is located at 200 S. 9th Ave in Pensacola, FL the first permanent replica of the National Vietnam Memorial was unveiled on October 24, 1992. Now known as "Wall South," the half-size replica bears the names of all Americans killed or missing in Southeast Asia and is updated each Mother's Day with no difference about gender, nature or religion.

The resource shows us that It is the centerpiece of Veterans Memorial Park Pensacola, a five-and-one-half acre site overlooking Pensacola Bay, which also includes a World War I Memorial, a World War II Memorial, a Korean War Memorial, a Revolutionary War Memorial and a running series of plaques to honor local warriors who have fallen in the Global War on Terror. Like we can see there is also a Purple Heart Memorial, a Marine Corps Aviation Bell Tower and a monument to the submarine lifeguards who rescued Navy pilots in World War II. A Global War on Terror Memorial is planned to be completed in 2017 and will include an artifact from the World Trade Center as a component of the sculpture.

Located in Fox Park in Wildwood, New Jersey, The Wildwoods Vietnam Memorial Wall was unveiled and dedicated on May 29, 2010. The memorial wall is an almost half-size granite replica of the National Vietnam Memorial, and the only permanent memorial north of the nation's capital.

References

IranHostageCrisisFastFacts, “CNN Library”,October 20, 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/meast/iran-hostage-crisis-fast-facts/index.html

Iranians mark anniversary of US Embassy takeover in Tehran, “App News”, Nov. 03, 2016, https://www.apnews.com/103a9c6d0d344ee9bcd3e576ffd4d31b

The Iran Hostage Crisis, “Historical Background and Timeline“, January 9, 2017,https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/iran-hostage-crisis

1979 hostage crisis still casts a pall on U.S.-Iran relations, “Amanpour”, November 4, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/04/iran.hostage.anniversary/

U.S. Relations With Iran, “U.S. State”, July 2, 2018, https://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5314.htm

Louisiana Purchase, “History”, October 26, 2015, https://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase

Louisiana Purchase United States History, “The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica", November 03, 2016, https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase

French Colonial Louisiana, “Know Louisiana The Digital Encyclopedia of Lousiana and Home of Louisiana Cultural Vistas”, August 4, 2011. http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/french-colonial-louisiana

Louisiana Purchase American History, “Qatar”, February 5, 2013, https://quatr.us/north-america/louisiana-purchase-American-history.htm

Purchase of Louisiana, “JOURNAL ARTICLE”, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Spring, 1996, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4233287The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, “The Wall-USA”, January 1, 1970, http://thewall-usa.com/

The Wall That Heals, “National Park Service”, August 23, 2012, https://www.nps.gov/vive/index.htm

Vietnam War History, “Vietnam War”, September 20, 2002, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/index.html

Vietnam War History, “The Wall That Heals, “JOURNAL ARTICLE”,03july, 2015, https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history

Au Pair Education - Essay WH-1 / First Topic

Hello Guys,

In this post, I wanna share with you the essay I wrote for my education evaluation at the University of Virgin Islands in Washington DC.

It was mandatory and some of the complex once we need to read and understand about the American history. I'm sharing with you cause I think it can be useful for you that wanna know more about the US and its history.

WH-1 / First Topic[1] Part 1

US Embassy takeover in Tehran – The Iran Hostage Crisis

A dramatic way for some Iranian student revolutionaries to take a break with Iran’s past and also an end to the American Interference in its affairs, was given in the fall of 1979 (to be exactly on November 4th), when the U.S. Embassy  was stormed in Tehran and a total of 90 people was hostages, being 66 Americans. This episode changed the way of Amerian history.

It was the combination of the several decades of a relationship between The United States and Iran but the timeline for this crisis started in August 1953 with the U.S. Assists in Iran Coup D’ETAT when Mohammad Reza Shah, or for short The Shah, became a brutal dictator and whose his intimacy terrorized and tortured people in Iran. Second CNN website, In 1978 “Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's authoritarian rule sparks demonstrations and riots”.

The Iran history changed when in January 1979 The Shah Family left his country for “vacations” in Egypt but never returned. By the Spring, March 1979, that year a religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini takes the country power, which started The Iranian Revolution. He established a new form of government in the Islamic Republic, who showed no respect for the United States.

In April 1979 after following massive approval in a national referendum, the Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed.

After a cancer diagnostic, the Shah flew from Egypt to The United States for treatment. In those days the U.S. power was under President Jimmy’s hands and after some pressure for his committee, the President allowed Shah to enter in the country.

Afterward, the hostage-taking was much about more than Iran’s ex-President medical care, when he arrived on October 1979 at New York Hospital, the Iranian student revolutionaries got angry demanding the extradition of the Shah from the United States, which started on November 1979 a huge protest, with climbing over of the walls of the U.S. Embassy In Tehran and also taking the staff, ranging from the Chargé d’Affaires to the most junior member, as hostages.

The US Embassy should have been better prepared for the attack, the terrorist group was only students and in some point of view, the Carter administration must be negotiated at gunpoint to protect the Embassy staff’s lives of the hostage and the principle that the United States didn’t have its national policy dictated by threat or blackmail.

The group of students was about 450 young Iranians and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the actual Slamic President, and other in his chaotic regime, who disliked Shah, issued a statement supporting for the students’ actions.

A day after the crisis started the Iranian government canceled military treaties with the U.S. and the Soviet Union, those ones that would permit The United States or Soviet military intervention.

President Jimmy Carter sent former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Senate Intelligence Committee staff to Iran to negotiate the release of the hostages but Ayatollah Khomeini refuses to meet with them, what made the things more difficult for The United State. With that, U.S. president ordered Iranian assets in U.S. banks to be frozen.

After 13 days of the hostage, the group got a message from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was the anti-American cleric, to release of 13 hostages; some of them were female and African-American.

In April 1980, eight U.S. servicemen were killed in a helicopter accident colliding with a transport plane during a failed attempt to rescue the hostages. This episode earned a risky military rescue mission known as Operation Eagle Claw.

With 53 hostages remaining, the group has some problem with one them who was sick and needed some medical care. He was also released. Now with 52 hostages, anyone being killed but also not being treated well, The United Nations Security Council started calling for Iran to release the hostages. Between that time Shah left the United States for Panama, and on March 1980, he returned to Egypt.

President Carter in attempting to do something cut diplomatic ties with Iran, he announced further sanctions and ordered all Iranian diplomats to leave the United States.

In July 1980, The Shah dies of cancer in Egypt and in September of the same year Ayatollah Khomeini set new terms for the hostages’ release, it also included the return of the late Shah’s wealth and the unfreezing of Iranian assets.

Between November 1980 and January 1981, the Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher and his delegation worked through mediators in Algeria to negotiate the release of the hostages and in the same month, The United States and Iran signed an agreement to release the hostages and also unfroze Iranian Assets.

The American diplomats were hostage by the Iranians students for 444 days. On January 20, 1981, all the hostages were released and they have flown to Wiesbaden Air Base in Germany and In December 2015, the Congress passed a budget bill that included some provision authorizing each of the 53 hostages to receive $10,000 for each day they were held captive. Thirty-nine years ago and with it was a way to raise the intra/international profile of the revolution’s leader thru American view.

This crisis also dominated the headlines and news broadcasts which made the Administration look week and ineffectual. The release of the hostages was just hours after President Ronald Reagan got the US power, the 40th U.S. president title, which makes many historians believe that hostage crisis cost Jimmy Carter a second term as president once he has defeated in the U.S Presidential Election on November 4, 1980.

One fact that was interesting is that Iran celebrates the embassy takeover as an official Holiday, that has a tradition of every Wednesday in Tehran, tens of thousands show up to hear anti-American speeches.

In November 2016, thousands of Iranians have burned the American flag and chanted anti-US. The main problem between Washington and Tehran is because any country wants to declare lost for what has happened, that means that the two countries have had no diplomatic relations since then. Switzerland is The United States protection power and it provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens in Iran, on another hand, Iran has no embassy in Washington

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1.     [1] From the chart below select two events/persons. Write a 1,000 word essay about each topic.  The assignment is not a group project.  Your essays must be in your own words.  Do not copy and paste from the internet. Person/event 1- 1,00 words using 5 different sources. Person/event 2- 1,000 words using 5 different sources.