Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Women

2022-05-19T23:19:44Z

Jfedrov: Was biologically incorrect in saying that women have 2 Y chromosomes. Also included info on how sex hormones and gonads define a woman.

[[File:Angelica Kauffmann Self Portrait 1780 - 1785.jpg|300px|thumb|Angelica Kauffmann, Self Portrait, 1780 - 1785. One of only two female Founder Members of the Royal Academy of Art in London, England.]]
Women are the female of the human species, and a young woman, is a girl. Most women have two X-chromosomes, produce estrogen, and have vaginas and uteruses. Despite this, there are intersex women that have penises and testes, a rare additional Y chromosome, and/or produce above average testosterone, but this has not led these women to show any masculine traits.<ref>Emory Health Sciences. (2014, November 5). Having a Y chromosome doesn't affect women's response to sexual images, brain study shows. ''ScienceDaily''. Retrieved May 19, 2022 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141105165209.htm</ref> They also have different reproductive organs from men and normally can give birth. While on average women’s brains are smaller than men this is not an indication of a lower intelligence.<ref> [https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/battle-of-the-brain-men-vs-women-infographic “Battle of the Brain: Men Vs. Women”] Northwestern Medicine</ref> Other differences include a layer of subcutaneous [[fat]] under the skin which hides the underlying musculature, and a wider pelvis to facilitate carrying the [[baby]] and allowing it to be born. Women also have less fine vellus and coarse hair than men.<ref>[https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319881 Medical News Today]</ref>

Men have typically two times more upper body strength than women, and around 50% more leg strength.<ref>College women have 50 to 60 percent of the arm and shoulder strength and 70 percent of the leg strength of their male counterparts. [http://www.humankinetics.com/products/showexcerpt.cfm?excerpt_id=4171 Human Kinetics]</ref> Women have slightly longer average lifespans than men, which results in women overtaking men in population by middle age despite a 1.05:1 boy to girl ratio at birth in many countries, though the ratio differs in some parts of the world.<ref>[https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/24/the-odds-that-you-will-give-birth-to-a-boy-or-girl-depend-on-where-in-the-world-you-live/ Pew Research],</ref>

== Women in history ==
[[File:MarieCurie.jpg|thumb|[[Marie Curie]], Nobel winning scientist]]
[[File:Sarah Palin.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Sarah Palin]], the former Governor of Alaska]]
[[File:Boebert.png|right|300px|thumb|Lauren Boebart, Republican Party, representative for Colorado's 3rd congressional district.]]
Most women, such as the Virgin Mary and most other women of the Bible as well as more well-known women in later history, have had positive impacts on society (making them akin to the wise woman of [[Proverbs 14]]:1).

Such examples of women who made positive impacts include:

*[[Queen Victoria]]
* St. [[Joan of Arc]]
*[[Queen Esther]]
*[[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Mary of Galilee]]
*[[Mary Magdelene]]
*Judge [[Deborah]]
*[[Judith]]
*[[Harriet Tubman]], [[Underground Railroad]] conductor
*[[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] [[Margaret Thatcher]]
*[[Queen]] [[Elizabeth I]] of [[England]]
*Warrior Celtic Queen [[Boudicca]] of the [[Iceni]] tribe
*Empress Tsarina [[Catherine the Great]] of [[Russia]]
*Pharaoh [[Cleopatra]] of [[Egypt]]
*[[Marie Curie]], [[Nobel Pize]] in physicist with her husband (1903)and chemistry (1911). Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.
*[[Rachel Carson]], her book, ''Silent Spring,'' warned of the dangers of pesticides and other chemicals.
*[[Jane Goodall]], a very famous primate scientist,
*Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for her research in genetics.
*[[Prime Minister of Pakistan]] [[Benazir Bhutto]], the first woman to lead an [[Islam|Islamic state]]
*[[Prime Minister of Israel]] [[Golda Meir]]
*[[Prime Minister of India]] [[Indira Gandhi]]
*United States [[women's rights]] activist [[Lucretia Mott]]
*[[Nobel Peace Prize]] winner, activist and Prime Minister-elect [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] of Burma
*[[Mother Theresa]], who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1979
*[[Toni Morrison]] Nobel prize in literature (1993)
*[[Doris Lessing]] Nobel prize in literature (2007))
*[[Alice Munro]] Nobel prize in literature (2013)
*[[Louise Glück]] Nobel prize in literature (2020)
*[[Phyllis Schlafly]], a founder of the modern conservative movement.
*[[United States Supreme Court Justice]] [[Sandra Day O'Connor]]
*[[Condoleezza Rice]], [[United States Secretary of State]]
*[[Alaska]] governor [[Sarah Palin]]
*[[Ann Coulter]], conservative commentator

Conversely, some women, such as singers/entertainers Madonna and Lady Gaga, [[Hollywood values|many other women in the entertainment and media industries]], politicians and other public officials and the leaders of second-wave and third-wave [[feminism]], have had negative impacts due to the influence of liberalism, socialism and other negative ideologies/doctrines on them (making such women akin to the foolish woman from the same passage of Proverbs). Such women include:

*[[Delilah]], the woman who betrayed [[Samson]] to his enemies the [[Philistine]]s after weakening him by cutting his long hair
*[[Jezebel]], the wife of [[Ahab]], the corrupt king of the [[Northern Kingdom]]; she was so evil that her name has long since become associated with any woman who is evil and corrupt
*Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian noblewoman and serial killer of hundreds of young women
*[[Margaret Sanger]], racist, eugenicist, [[abortion]] activist and the founder of [[Planned Parenthood]]
*[[Eva Peron]], wife of [[Argentina|Argentine]] leader [[Juan Peron]]; she allowed [[Nazi]]s who had escaped from Germany following the fall of the Nazi regime to hide in Argentina
*[[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]], immoral atheist activist whose actions led to [[classroom prayer|the removal of prayer from public schools]]
*First Lady and [[Democrat]] presidential candidate [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]]
*[[Nancy Pelosi]], Speaker of the House of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2002
*[[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna Ciccone]], entertainer
*United States Supreme Court Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]]
*[[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]], socialist demagogue and [[racist]] huckster
*[[Susan B. Anthony]], [[women's suffrage]] activist
*[[Ketanji Brown Jackson]], the first [[African American]] [[female]] appointed to the [[Supreme Court]] who could not define what a woman is in confirmation hearings<ref>https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/jackson-says-she-cannot-define-woman-at-confirmation-hearing</ref>

== Christianity and women's rights ==

''See also:'' [[Christianity and women's rights]] and [[Atheism and women's rights]]

[[File:Georges de La Tour Mary Magdalene.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Georges de La Tour, [[Mary Magdalene]].
 
 
[[Mary Magdalene]] and other women were the first individuals to [[Jesus Christ]] after his [[resurrection]].<ref>[https://www.everystudent.com/wires/women.html Women's rights], Everystudent.com</ref>]]
Dr. Jeff Myers in his book ''Understanding the Culture: A Survey of Social Engagement'' wrote about [[Christianity and women's rights]]:
{{Cquote|[[Christianity]] has done more for women’s rights than any other movement in history. Christianity sprouted in the seedbed of the [[Roman Empire]], whose soil was nourished with the blood of the innocent. To say that Rome was distinctly anti-woman is an understatement. Families typically kept all their healthy boys and their oldest healthy girl. Other daughters were left to die as infants. Surgical abortion was available, and women often died from it or were left maimed. Surviving girls were typically married off at age twelve and were pressured into remarriage when widowed.

Christians opposed these practices. They took in abandoned infants, condemned surgical abortion, allowed girls to remain unmarried until they were ready, and provided support for widows. Welcomed by the church rather than shunned, women converted to Christianity at a far higher rate than men and rose to positions of leadership.Unsurprisingly, this led to a surplus of Christian women who, in marrying pagan men, provided the early church “with a steady flow of secondary converts,” as Rodney Stark drily phrased it. Also, because they accepted rather than rejected all children, Christians gained a distinct population advantage in producing the next generation.

Furthermore, Christianity’s acceptance of women’s dignity led to cultural innovations all over the world. In India, for example, it was only when Parliament forced the British East India Company to allow Christian missionaries into India that the practice of suttee was questioned. It took decades, but these missionaries, together with indigenous Christians like Krishna Mohan Bannerjee, eventually succeeded in having this gruesome practice banned.

In [[China]], traditional culture held that tiny feet were a mark of status and beauty for women. In many parts of China, the feet of little girls were bound tightly to prevent them from growing. This broke the toes and bones in the arches of their feet, leaving many girls nearly crippled. In the 1600s, the Manchu emperors (who were not ethnically Chinese) tried and failed to stop the practice. In the late 1800s, however, Chinese Christian women, such as medical doctor Shi Meiyu, began agitating against this abuse of young girls and women and were eventually successful in making the practice illegal. Meiyu also exerted a transformational influence on China through her work in medicine and public health and the help she provided to opium addicts.

Historically in most cultures, women were often denied educational opportunities. Christian missionaries and indigenous Christian leaders changed that in country after country. In Japan, Nitobe Inazō, a scholar with five doctoral degrees and an innovator in Japan’s agricultural advancement, founded Tokyo Christian Women’s University and became its first president. Tsuda Umeko, a Japanese woman educated in the United States, became the private tutor of prime minister Ito Hirobumi’s children. She had such an influence on securing the right of women to education that Tsuda College, the most prestigious private women’s college in Japan, is named in her honor.<ref>[https://www.summit.org/resources/articles/womens-rights-advanced-christian-worldview-2000-years/ Women’s Rights: Advanced by a Christian Worldview for 2,000 Years]</ref>}}

== Women in the Bible ==
[[File:Mteresa.jpg|thumb|Mother Teresa]]
Contrary to what many [[Liberals]], [[Atheists]], and [[Feminists]] like to say, the Bible does not devalue women. In fact, the Deuterocanonical law of the kinsman redeemer (whereby the entire gentile church was grafted in to God's family) is perhaps the earliest written law intended to protect women's rights.

=== Genesis ===
The Bible says that women, like men, were created by God on the 6th day of [[Creation]], as told in The Book of [[Genesis]]:
{{quotebox-float|So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.|book=Genesis|chap=1|verses=27|version=KJV}}
{{quotebox-float|But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.|book=Mark|chap=10|verses=6|version=KJV}}
[[Genesis]] further elaborates that [[God]] took a [[rib cage|rib]] from [[Adam]], the first man, and from it created [[Eve]], the first woman, as a helper for [[Adam]] when the [[animal]]s, which had been created for that purpose, proved unsuitable:
{{quotebox-float|And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.|book=Genesis|chap=2|verses=18-22|version=KJV}}
According to some biblical literalists, Eve caused sin and suffering to come into the world when she convinced Adam to eat from The Tree of Knowledge, an act directly forbidden by God Himself. As punishment for this, God declared that women shall experience great pain in childbirth.<ref>Genesis 3:16</ref>

=== New Testament statements on the role of women ===
[[File:Vermeer Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.jpg|thumb|[[Jan Vermeer]], Christ in the House of Martha and Mary.]]
Saint Paul also has much to say on the status of women in society, most memorably that women should submit to their husbands just as the church submits to Christ.
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ephesians%205:22-24&version=9 Ephesians 5:22-24 ]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2011:8-9;&version=9; I Corinthians 11:8-9]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2011:4-7;&version=9; I Corinthians 11:4-7]</ref>
<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%2014:34-35;&version=9; I Corinthians 14:34-35]</ref> Most of these things are not believed by even the [[Biblical inerrancy|strictest Christians]], and such views are considered extreme by even the most conservative Christians.

The [[New Testament]] contains several instructions regarding the role of women:
# Women are to dress modestly and not wear "broided hair, or [[gold]], or [[pearl]]s, or costly array."<ref>1 Timothy 2:9</ref><ref>Peter 3:2-6</ref>
# Women may learn in silence, but may not be permitted to teach men.<ref>1 Timothy 2:11-12</ref> Some interpretations limit this rule to the teaching of doctrine.
# Women are not permitted to speak in church.<ref>1 Corinthians 14:34-37</ref>
# Women are to be subservient to and follow the instructions of their husbands.<ref>Ephesians 5:22-24</ref><ref>Colossians 3:18</ref><ref>Titus 2:4-5</ref><ref>1 Peter 3:1-7</ref>
# Women "shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety."<ref>I Timothy 2:15</ref>

These viewpoints are not widely accepted in secular, first-world nations, although some believers still adhere to them. However, Christians do not always agree on how literal or universal these directives are intended to be. For example, dressing modestly is interpreted by some [[Anabaptist]]s to mean that women should only wear black or dull colors and that dresses should cover the entire arms and legs, whereas most non-Anabaptist Christians consider the directive to modesty as simply meaning that garments should not be wrongly provocative. The directive that women should not speak in church is regarded by some as being literal for all situations, but due to other New Testament passages which indicate that women were allowed to publicly testify in the early church,<ref>1 Corinthians 11:5</ref> the most common Christian interpretation{{fact}} of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is that women in the Corinthian church were in the habit of conversing casually and gossiping during the church service, and that the apostle Paul was telling them not to do that. However, that interpretation is at odds with the following Scripture passage:

{{Bible quote|Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.|book=1Timothy|chap=2|verses=11-15|version=KJV}}

Another interpretation sees the silence of women being limited to the immediate context of the passage, namely the authoritative judgment of prophecy.

{{Bible quote|Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge.|book=1Corinthians|chap=14|verses=29|version=KJV}}

Some Protestants{{who}} believe these verses can be taken out of context and applied too legalistically. They believe that the church can conform legitimately to modern [[egalitarian]] ideals without sacrificing the literal meaning of these passages.

===Strong and important women in the Bible===

Among the Bible's several strong and empowered women are [[Deborah]], the only female judge and ruler of [[Israel]]; [[Judith]]; and [[Queen Esther]], heroine of the [[Book of Esther]]. [[Ruth]], the [[Moab]]itess woman in the [[Book of Ruth]], claimed [[Boaz]] as a husband under the law of the kinsman redeemer and gave birth to what became the [[House of David]]. In the New Testament, [[Mary Magdalene]] and other women are disciples of Christ with whom He seems to have close friendships. The [[Virgin Mary]] is heavily revered in the [[Roman Catholicism|Catholic]] and [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] churches.

== Atheism and women ==

[[File:women.jpg|thumbnail|right|200px|Studies indicate that women in the Western World tend to be more religious than men.<ref>Multiple references:
*Kosmin, Barry A., et al. (2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20110904110346/http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/reports/NONES_08.pdf "American nones: Profile of the no religion population"]. American Religion Survey website [Trinity College, Hartford, CT]. Retrieved from Internet Archive.
*Britt, Robert Roy (February 28, 2009). [http://www.livescience.com/7689-women-religious-men.html "Women more religious than men"]. Live Science website.
*Khan, Razib (November 18, 2010). [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/sex-differences-in-global-atheism-part-n/ "Gene expression; Sex differences in global atheism, part N"]. Discover magazine website.</ref>]]
''See also:'' [[Atheism and women]] and [[Atheism and women's rights]]

Surveys throughout the world and other data indicate that women are less inclined to be [[atheism|atheists]].<ref>Khan, Razib (November 18, 2010). [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/sex-differences-in-global-atheism-part-n/ "Gene expression; Sex differences in global atheism, part N"]. Discover magazine website.
*Carter, Stephen L. (March 27, 2015). [http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-27/the-atheism-gap "The atheism gap"]. ''BloombergView''.
*[http://blog.oup.com/2014/09/atheism-feminism/#sthash.0yIBbelF.dpuf Atheism and Feminism], ''Oxford University Press'' blog</ref>
<ref name="PZ">Myers, P.Z. (June 29, 2010). [http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/29/the-woman-problem/ "The woman problem"]. Pharyngula [blog].</ref>

In 2016, Atheist Alliance International (AAI) conducted an annually reoccurring atheist census project and found:
{{Cquote|At the time of writing, the Atheist Census Project recorded that on average worldwide 73.2% of respondents were male. The result is consistent with other research... As such, the focus of many scholarly papers has been on seeking to explain this persistent observation."<ref>[https://www.atheistalliance.org/about-aai/position-statements/1206-aai-position-statement-gender-balance.html AAI Position Statement - Gender Balance]</ref>}}

In November 2010, ''Discover Magazine'' published survey results published by the World Values Survey which showed significant differences between the percentage of men and women who are atheists for various countries with men outnumbering women in terms of adopting an [[atheist worldview]].<ref>Khan, Razib (November 18, 2010). [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/11/sex-differences-in-global-atheism-part-n/ "Gene expression; Sex differences in global atheism, part N"]. Discover magazine website.</ref>

==References==
<references />

== See also ==
*[[Conservative women]]
*[[Women in Science and Mathematics]]
*[[Men]]
*[[Egalitarian]] and [[complementarian]] theology

[[Category:Human Beings]]

Madison Cawthorn

2022-05-19T07:09:51Z

Jfedrov: added info regarding latest NC primary results

{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Madison Cawthorn
|image=MadisonCawthorn.jpg
|party=[[Republican]]
|spouse=
|religion=[[Christian]]
|birth_date=August 1, 1995
|birth_place=Asheville, [[North Carolina]]
}}

'''David Madison Cawthorn''' (born August 1, 1995 (age {{age|1995|8|1}})) is a Republican Representative from [[North Carolina]]'s 11th congressional district, elected in the [[2020 U.S. House elections|2020 elections]] to replace [[Mark Meadows]], who resigned in May to become the White House Chief of Staff to [[President Trump]].

Cawthorn lost his May 2022 primary race, despite former President Trump urging voters to ignore the young congressman's "foolish mistakes" and give him a "second chance".<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/politics/madison-cawthorn-election-in-north-carolina-can-the-26-year-old-hold-on</ref>

Cawthorn was [[homeschooled]].<ref name="The fighter">[https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-fighter The fighter]</ref> A motivational speaker, he is very critical of [[leftist]] higher education: "If you are not becoming an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer, I highly encourage you to drop out. It's a scam."<ref>https://www.newsweek.com/madison-cawthorn-urges-fellow-conservatives-leave-college-i-am-proudly-dropout-1661932</ref>

While the [[Deep State]] and [[neocons]] were unanimously trying in March 2022 to send as many billions of [[American]] dollars to [[Leftist]] [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] politicians as possible, Cawthorn courageously advocated differently:
<blockquote>“Remember that [[Zelensky]] is a thug ... Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt, and it is incredibly evil, and it has been pushing woke ideologies.”</blockquote>

Despite having heavily prepared for and aspired to join the [[United States Naval Academy]],<ref name="The fighter"/> Cawthorn was severely injured and left partially paralyzed from the waist down after a deadly car accident in 2014.<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/08/26/who-madison-cawthorn-what-know-rnc-speaker/5640110002/ Who is Madison Cawthorn? RNC speaker would be youngest member of Congress if he wins in November]</ref>

==2020 U.S. House election in North Carolina's 11th district==
After Rep. [[Mark Meadows]] resigned to become the White House [[Chief of Staff]] only to prove [[Trump's_inept_advisers#Mark_Meadows|his ineptitude]], several Republicans announced their candidacies to replace him, including Cawthorn as well as [[Lynda Bennett]]. After no one won a majority of the vote in the primary<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/03/us/elections/results-north-carolina-house-district-11-primary-election.html North Carolina Primary Election Results: 11th House District</ref>, a runoff proceeded between Bennett, who finished first place with a plurality of 22.7% of the votes cast, and Cawthorn, who narrowly trailed her in second place. While the former received the endorsements of [[Donald Trump]],<ref name="Madison Cawthorn, 24, beats Trump's pick in North Carolina GOP House primary">[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/madison-cawthorn-wins-north-carolina-republican-primary-election-house-of-representatives/ Madison Cawthorn, 24, beats Trump's pick in North Carolina GOP House primary]</ref><ref name="Political newcomer beats Trump's pick in North Carolina GOP congressional primary">[https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/politics/north-carolina-primary-madison-cawthorn/index.html Political newcomer beats Trump's pick in North Carolina GOP congressional primary]</ref> the [[Senate Conservatives Fund]],<ref>[https://www.senateconservatives.com/post/4017/three-new-endorsements Three New Endorsements]</ref> and Meadows himself,<ref>[https://www.rollcall.com/2020/02/12/mark-meadows-backs-only-woman-in-crowded-race-to-replace-him/ Mark Meadows backs only woman in crowded race to replace him]</ref> Cawthorn won the runoff in a landslide upset.<ref name="Madison Cawthorn, 24, beats Trump's pick in North Carolina GOP House primary"/><ref name="Political newcomer beats Trump's pick in North Carolina GOP congressional primary"/><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/23/us/elections/results-north-carolina-house-district-11-republican-primary-runoff-election.html North Carolina Republican Primary Runoff Election Results: 11th Congressional District - The New York Times]</ref> He is mostly<ref>[https://cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings 2020 House Race ratings | The Cook Political Report]</ref><ref>[https://www.politico.com/2020-election/race-forecasts-and-predictions/house/ Who wins 2020? House Election Predictions & Key Races - Politico]</ref><ref>[https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/house/2020_elections_house_map.html Battle for the House 2020 - RealClearPolitics]</ref> expected to win the general election in the heavily Republican district.

Cawthorn gave a speech at the 2020 [[Republican National Convention]], where he ended by rising out of his wheelchair despite being paralyzed.<ref>Two references:
*[https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2020/08/26/madison-cawthorn-rnc-n2575127 Young Conservative Rising Star Madison Cawthorn Had an Incredible Ending to His RNC Speech]
*[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/madison-cawthorn-rnc-stands-paralyzed RNC speaker Madison Cawthorn rises out of wheelchair, after recalling accident that left him paralyzed from waist down]</ref> For this, he was attacked by racist<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bSMiSTdthE WATCH: 'That's such a racist question,' Trump tells NewsHour's Yamiche Alcindor]</ref> [[PBS]] hack Yamiche Alcindor.<ref>Two references:
*[https://nypost.com/2020/08/27/yamiche-alcindor-ripped-for-tweet-about-madison-cawthorns-rnc-speech/ Madison Cawthorn’s standup moment at RNC a ‘rebuke’ of protests, reporter says]
*[https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hottest-take-of-the-night-pbs-reporter-slammed-for-tweet-about-madison-cawthorns-speech-disavowing-kneeling-protests 'Hottest take of the night': PBS reporter slammed for tweet about Madison Cawthorn's speech disavowing kneeling protests]</ref>

Cawthorn has been falsely attacked by his [[Democrat]] opponent Moe Davis, who spread a smear based on a tweet that was misconstrued.<ref>Two references:
*[https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jim-treacher/2020/08/11/nc-republican-madison-cawthorn-gets-smeared-for-celebrating-hitlers-loss-n774081 NC Republican Madison Cawthorn Gets Smeared for Celebrating Hitler's Loss]
*[https://townhall.com/tipsheet/alexcorey/2020/08/11/democrat-candidate-for-congress-floats-bonkers-conspiracy-theory-about-opponent-n2574135 Democrat Candidate for Congress Floats Bonkers Conspiracy Theory About Opponent]</ref>

In late September 2020, Cawthorn wrote an op-ed on [[The Daily Wire]] denouncing the [[2020 Leftwing insurrection]].<ref>[https://www.dailywire.com/news/cawthorn-left-wing-violence-and-anti-police-rhetoric-are-outrageous-unacceptable-and-unsustainable CAWTHORN: Left-Wing Violence And Anti-Police Rhetoric Are Outrageous, Unacceptable, And Unsustainable]</ref> His home was later vandalized in mid-October by [[far-left]]ists.<ref>Multiple references:
*[https://www.dailywire.com/news/you-have-no-soul-far-left-activists-allegedly-vandalize-home-of-north-carolina-congressional-candidate ‘You Have No Soul’: Far-Left Activists Allegedly Vandalize Home Of North Carolina Congressional Candidate]
*[https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/gop-congressional-candidate-madison-cawthorn-says-vandals-struck-north-carolina-home GOP congressional candidate Madison Cawthorn says vandals struck North Carolina home]
*[https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/14/gop-house-candidate-madison-cawthorn-says-his-home-was-vandalized/ GOP House Candidate Madison Cawthorn Says His Home Was Vandalized]</ref> (See also: [[Left-wing violence in the Trump era]])

==Isolated, rare criticism by Conservatives==

Despite all this, he has occasionally faced criticism from a few [[conservatives]] for taking [[neoconservative]] positions and caving to the [[Establishment]] on several occasions. For example, he once supported keeping [[Liz Cheney]] in her position,<ref>https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/cawthorn-removing-cheney-leadership-greene-assignments</ref> as well as voting with [[Democrats]] and [[RINOs]] to pass a red flag gun confiscation bill in September of 2021.<ref>https://welovetrump.com/2021/09/25/here-are-the-135-republicans-who-just-voted-for-red-flag-gun-confiscation/</ref><ref>https://americanfaith.com/read-the-names-135-republicans-vote-with-democrats-to-advance-red-flag-gun-confiscation-bill-as-part-of-ndaa/</ref>

==Controversy==
During an interview with John Lovell on the Warrior Poet Society podcast, Cawthorn said leaders he looked up to invited him to orgies and also watched them do cocaine.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEEpnrZgoJU</ref> <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovn66qMHiyQ</ref>
{{cquote|Aside from that, I mean the sexual perversion that goes on in Washington – I mean it being kind of a young guy in Washington with the average age of probably 60 or 70. And look at all these people, a lot of them that I, you know, I’ve looked up to through my life. I’ve always paid attention to politics guys that, you know, then all of a sudden you get invited to like well, hey, we’re going to have a kind of a sexual get together at one of our homes. You should come there like. What – what did you just ask me to? And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy. Or the fact that you know, there’s some of the people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country and then you watch them doing, you know, a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it’s like wow, this is wild.}}

in the 2022 North Carolina primaries, Cawthorn lost the Republican primary race to Senator Chuck Edwards, despite President Trump's endorsement of him. <ref>Robertson, G. D. (2022, May 18). ''Edwards ousts North Carolina rep. Cawthorn in GOP primary''. AP NEWS. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/2022-primary-madison-cawthorn-north-carolina-e3007751b939f8f395ae82b0338e6616</ref><ref>Sotomayor, M., & Vaillancourt, C. (2022, May 18). ''Voters reject Cawthorn in primary: "too immature and uncultured"''. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/18/madison-cawthorn-north-carolina-primary/</ref> Some reasons that accounted for this loss are due to Cawthorn coming off as immature and being uncultured in the political arena, as he has missed House votes and has broken several rules and laws. <ref>Sotomayor, M., & Vaillancourt, C. (2022, May 18). ''Voters reject Cawthorn in primary: "too immature and uncultured"''. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/18/madison-cawthorn-north-carolina-primary/</ref><ref>Wong, S. (2021, December 9). ''Cawthorn "likely" violated rules by bringing candidate on House floor''. The Hill. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/584976-cawthorn-likely-violated-rules-by-bringing-candidate-on-house-floor/</ref> A leaked video of Cawthorn, naked and thrusting his pubic region onto another male person's head was leaked before the primaries. <ref>Dailymail.Com, M. K. F. (2022, May 5). ''GOP congressman Madison Cawthorn responds to nude thrusting video''. Daily Mail Online. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10784533/GOP-Congressman-Madison-Cawthorn-responds-nude-thrusting-video.html</ref> Cawthorn stated that the video was just a joke with a friend, but he received backlash regardless of the incident's nature. Combined with multiple failures to disarm at a TSA checkpoint and accusations of being invited to cocaine orgies by lead representatives, a negative light of immaturity and lack of ideals for traditional relationships may have led to his defeat.<ref>Person, & Morgan, D. (2022, May 6). ''Nude video latest scandal turning Republicans against U.S. rep. Cawthorn''. Reuters. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/world/us/nude-video-latest-scandal-turning-republicans-against-us-rep-cawthorn-2022-05-05/</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[https://madisoncawthorn.com/ Official Website]
*[https://www.ballotpedia.org/Madison_Cawthorn Madison Cawthorn - Ballotpedia]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cawthorn, Madison}}
[[Category:North Carolina]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]
[[Category:117th United States Congress]]
[[Category:Republican Establishment]]
[[Category:Moderate Republicans]]
[[Category:Non-Interventionist Republicans]]
[[Category:Sexual Immorality]]
[[Category:Illegal Drugs]]

Ecosystem

2022-05-19T06:14:36Z

Jfedrov: added a bit that incorpoartes ecosystems to ecology

An '''ecosystem''' is an association of living [[organism]]s and their physical environment.<ref>Sadava, D., Hillis, D.M., Heller, H.C., & Berenbaum, M.R. (2014). Ecology and the Distribution of Life. In ''Life: The Science of Biology'' (10th ed.). book, Sinauer Associates.</ref> This is one level of complexity above communities, not only incorporating the interacting populations of species in an area, but the abiotic factors that determine the behaviors and interactions organisms have with each other.

==See also==
*[[Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster]]
*[[Ecology]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Ecology]]
[[Category:Permaculture]]
[[Category:Environmental Stewardship]]

Pollution

2022-03-24T06:13:13Z

Jfedrov: added to noise pollution

'''Pollution''' is contamination of a system with harmful foreign components.<ref>http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=pollution</ref> The most common usage of the word pollution refers to environmental pollution, which is contamination of the air, ground, or [[water]] by harmful [[chemical]]s or particulate matter. A less common use is noise pollution, which is "contamination" of a quiet space by disturbing sounds and can be disruptive to both human activities and wildlife.

==See also==
* [[Atheism and the environment]]
* [[Health]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Environment]]
[[Category:Meteorology]]
[[Category:Natural Disasters]]
[[Category:Man-Made Disasters]]
[[Category:Threats]]
[[Category:Survivalism]]

Ellen Page

2022-03-24T05:53:22Z

Jfedrov: added to Page's transgender background

{{Infobox person
|image=
|birth_date=February 21, 1987
|birth_place=[[Halifax]], [[Nova Scotia]], [[Canada]]
|spouse=Emma Portner
}}
'''Ellen Page''' (born February 21, 1987 as '''Ellen Grace Philpotts-Page''') is a Canadian actress and producer. At first she came out as a [[lesbian]], but since 2020, she has identified as [[transgender]] and currently goes by '''Elliott Page''' and has undergone female-to-male transition therapy.<ref>https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/01/entertainment/elliot-page-oprah-interview-intl/index.html</ref> Ellen is a pro-choice feminist, and she practices a vegan diet. Ellen Page is an [[atheist]], having remarked that [[religion]] "''has always been used for beautiful things, and also as a way to justify discrimination''".

In 2008, Page was among the 30 celebrities who participated in the US Campaign for Burma, an online ad series that called for an end to the military dictatorship in [[Burma]].

In January 2018, Page married a dancer and choreographer, Emma Portner.

[[Category:Transgender People]]
[[Category:Canadians]]
[[Category:Atheists]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Homosexual Agenda]]
[[Category:Actresses]]
[[Category:Feminists]]
[[Category:Hollywood Values]]
[[Category:Abortion Advocates]]

==References==

Sigourney Weaver

2022-03-24T05:44:02Z

Jfedrov: added a movie, rearranged text

'''Sigourney Weaver''' (born 1949) is an American motion picture actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Ellen Ripley in the [[Aliens]] film series. She also played starring roles in the [[Ghostbusters]] films, [[Gorillas in the Mist]], and [[Prayers for Bobby]].

She has been nominated for Academy Awards for her work in Aliens (1986), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Working Girl (1988), and Prayers for Bobby (2009).

For a Hollywood personality, she has been married only once, to avant-garde theater and film director James Simpson.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Sigourney}}
[[Category:Actresses]]

Homosexuality and choice

2022-03-24T05:18:03Z

Jfedrov: Added sources to show why the Left pushed for homosexuality to not be labeled as a disease.

[[File:Decision screen.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Given the existence of [[ex-homosexuals]] and given the [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality|existence of human cultures where homosexuality has apparently not existed]], the position that [[homosexuality]] is ultimately a choice in individuals or at the very least can be a choice in individuals has strong evidential support.]]
'''Homosexuality and choice''' are closely related. When answering the question of is [[homosexuality]] a choice one has to consider that homosexual acts between consenting adults are, by definition, done by choice. In addition, according to the Bible and Christian [[ex-homosexuals]], homosexuality is a sinful choice (I Corinthians 6:9-11). Also, in 2012 ABC News reported concerning actress Cynthia Nixon: "Cynthia Nixon stands by her statement that she is gay [a lesbian] by choice, despite the backlash she’s received from members of the gay community."<ref>[https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/01/cynthia-nixon-gay-by-choice/ Cynthia Nixon: Gay by Choice?]</ref>

Given that there are people who state they are [[ex-homosexuals]] and given that the homosexual population has significantly higher rates of many diseases and the homosexual population also has significantly lower rates of various measures of mental health (see: [[Homosexuality and health]]), it can be strongly argued that engaging in homosexual acts is a bad choice for individuals. Those who make this choice suffer significantly higher rates of [[Homosexual Couples and Domestic Violence|domestic violence in homosexual couples]]. In addition, according to experts homosexual murders are relatively or quite common and often homosexual murders are very brutal (see: [[Homosexuality and Murders]]). Also, the homosexual population has a greater propensity to engage in illegal drug use (see: [[Homosexuality and Illegal Drug Use]]).

A person may have a craving for alcohol so strong that he feels powerless to resist it (see [[Alcoholism]]), yet people are free to choose to seek treatment for this addiction with drugs, therapy, or support groups. Psychiatrists often concede that [[religion|spirituality]] provides the most effective cure for those who are willing to try it.

Whereas alcohol addiction is generally regarded as a [[disease]] and/or a moral failing, homosexuality has come to be seen as normal in recent decades. It is clear to the vast majority of people that overindulging in alcohol hurts the individual as well as society. For example, [[drunk driving]] contributes to auto accidents by increasing reaction time and reducing alertness. Alcoholism is closely related to absenteeism and [[domestic violence]]. But a political decision was made in the mid-1970s to drop homosexuality from the official list of mental disorders.<ref>https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201509/when-homosexuality-stopped-being-mental-disorder</ref><ref>https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/world-health-organization-considers-homosexuality-normal-behaviour</ref><ref>https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbtq/mental-health</ref> In fact, the chief "[[scientific]]" reason given to deny a link between homosexuality and choice is that major American mental health organizations deny the link. In other words, scientists have voted on it, and they disapprove (see [[politicization of science]]).

In addition, a distinction is made between choosing to have homosexual desires and choosing to engage in homosexual sex acts. And there are other aspects of choice to homosexuality. One can decide the following aspects: whether or not to believe that homosexual acts are detrimental to one's immortal soul, emotional well-being or physical health and one can also obviously choose whether to enter into a homosexual relationship or not. Obviously one must use wisdom and also do diligence in regards to these matters. For example, the [[Homosexuality and the Bible|Bible condemns homosexuality]] and sound [[Bible exegesis]] reveals this matter.

A 2003 poll done by Ellison Research of [[Phoenix]], [[Arizona]] stated that 82% of all [[United States|American]] [[Protestantism|Protestant]] ministers agreed with the statement “homosexuality is a choice people make."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181025095012/http://www.greymatterresearch.com/index_files/Homosexuality.htm Grey Matter Research Consulting: Study shows vast majority of Protestant
ministers are opposed to same-sex marriage</ref>

The Russian Orthodox Church view is that homosexuality is a choice.<ref>http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_GAY_RIGHTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-12-23-07-15-38</ref>

The [[Roman Catholic Church]]'s position is that suffering from homosexual desires is disordered but not sinful in itself, that homosexuals should be treated with compassion, and that acting sexually on homosexual desires is sinful.<ref name="vatican">http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html</ref><ref>http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html</ref> However, according to the [[Vatican]] individuals should not engage in homosexual acts as they are acts of serious depravity.<ref name="vatican" />

Dr. Nadia El-Awady reflects the view of many adherents of [[Islam]] when he stated the following:
{{Cquote|Much research has been done over the years to discover the scientific origins of homosexuality. Mostly it has been to disprove the fact that homosexuality is a matter of choice.<ref>http://www.unav.es/civil/nsd/nosindebate/elawadi.pdf</ref>}}

Edmund White wrote:
{{Cquote|When I was a young man, in the sixties, before the beginning of [[gay liberation]], I was always in therapy trying to go straight. I was in love with three different women over a ten-year period, and even imagined marrying two often. But after the [[Stonewall Uprising]] in 1969 . . . I revised my thinking entirely: I decided I was completely gay and was only making the women in my life miserable. Following a tendency that Garber rightly criticizes, I denied the authenticity of my earlier heterosexual feelings in the light of my later homosexual identity. After reading ''Vice Versa'', I find myself willing to reinterpret the narrative of my own personal history.<ref>Edmund White, [http://www.queerbychoice.com/indirectchoice.html "Gender Uncertainties: Marjorie Garber Looks at Bisexuality"] (review of [[Marjorie Garber]]'s book Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life), from The New Yorker, July 17, 1995, p. 81</ref>}}

==The homosexual agenda and choice==
One of the goals of the [[homosexual agenda]] is to "indoctrinate children in the nation's public schools by convincing kids that homosexuality is a normal and healthy lifestyle."<ref>https://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=4365</ref> Because schools fail to warn children of the dangers of homosexuality, and because it is taught that homosexuality is not only "normal" but "healthy" as well, homosexuality starts to seem like something that is acceptable by normal society. To supplement this many schools give homosexuals preferential treatment, for instance protecting a homosexual student from teasing in cases where they would not protect a heterosexual student because a heterosexual student wouldn't be as easily bullied about "being gay" if he wasn't. Homosexuals are also given clubs that have the goal of ensuring that homosexuals are not persecuted for their beliefs.<ref>http://www.gsanetwork.org/about/index.html</ref>

These are just some of ways that students are tricked into mistakenly thinking that homosexuality is a desirable lifestyle. As people get older and study the [[Bible|word of God]] they become less susceptible to being misled like this. This is the reason the homosexual agenda targets school children for recruitment into homosexuality.

==Optimal Choice==
The optimal choice is never to become involved in homosexual activities, given the [[Homosexuality Research|many undesirable consequences of homosexuality]] and given what the [[Homosexuality and the Bible|Bible states about homosexuality]]. However, there is certainly hope for the individual who wants to [[Overcoming Homosexuality|overcome homosexuality]] by the grace of [[God]].

Furthermore, as there is no link between homosexuality and genetics, it very likely that homosexuals will engage in homosexual activities not because they were born that way (as some claim<ref>http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=weblog&id=97&wlid=5&cn=55</ref>), but rather because they choose to.<ref>http://www.socyberty.com/Gay-&-Lesbians/Proof-That-Homosexuality-is-Not-a-Choice.666271</ref>

==Choice and Genetics==
Proponents of the [[homosexual agenda]] often claim that homosexuality is unchangeable and has a genetic basis. However, this does not prove that homosexuals do not choose to behave this way. By definition, a consenting relationship, whether homosexual or not must be made by choice, even if there is a latent homosexual desire. People with homosexual tendencies in their genetics can still resist the [[temptation]] to commit sin, and remain faithful to the teachings of the a man who took the words of Jesus Christ and changed them because he was xenophobic and desired for his citizens to hate those of other faith and country.

==Choice and civil-rights status==
[[Image:Alvedaking.jpg‎|right|thumb|200px|Dr. [[Alveda King]]]]
Dr. [[Alveda C. King]] is the founder of King for America, Inc. which is a faith based organization.<ref name="king">http://www.kingforamerica.com/index.htm</ref> Dr. Alveda C. King is the daughter of the late slain civil rights activist Rev. [[A. D. King]].<ref name="king" />

Dr. Alveda C. King stated the following to the Massachusetts General Assembly regarding the existence of ex-homosexuals is an argument that "gay rights" does not achieve civil rights status:
{{cquote|Thirty-nine years ago, my great-uncle, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered to mindful citizens of America a prophetic dream which envisaged all of this great nation's people living in the full exercise of all rights granted to them by the U.S. Constitution. My forebear's dream was deeply rooted in the American dream wherein the Founders of our Union saw every lawful citizen standing in dignity outfitted by unalienable rights from God to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness free from the tyrannies of personal whim and ideology handed down by kings, dictators, political groups, and yes, some institutions of democratic government....

Yet, there is a larger body of science represented even by the above scientists that agrees that mature behavior patterns rely much more on social shaping and choices than genetic predisposition, such that these behaviors may be successfully modified by a variety of means. The food addict may eat responsibly, the alcoholic may drink responsibly or not at all, and the homosexual may live according to a wide range of choices as well. Thus, binge drinking, overeating, cocaine abuse and other behaviors do not have to be granted public latitude as a matter of right in this great nation. Certainly, these and other mutable behaviors may be practiced; they may be under constitutional protection in fact (under our privacy clauses), but they may not be granted civil rights or public protection.

Again, if behavior or other aspects of personhood may be altered, then those aspects fail to meet civil rights status. Homosexual practice clearly falls into this category. As my mother, Alveda C. King has said, "I have met many ex-homosexuals just as I have met many ex-husbands, ex-wives, ex-drug addicts and ex-lawyers. Yet I have never met an ex-Negro, ex-Caucasian or ex-Native American." The politics of preference does not jibe with civil rights legitimacy...<ref>http://www.kingforamerica.com/jrellis-testimony.htm</ref>}}

In short, the distinction is between characteristics that may be altered, and that thus do not merit civil-rights protection, and immutable characteristics, which do merit civil-rights protection. This is why sexual orientation does not merit civil-rights protection, while characteristics such as race, sex, and religion do.

==See also==
*[[Resources on becoming a Christian]]
*[[Overcoming homosexuality]]
*[[Homosexuality]]
*[[Causes of Homosexuality]]
*[[Ex-Homosexuals]]
*[[Homosexuality Research]]
*[[Mystery:Why do people choose homosexuality?]]

==External links==
*[http://www.queerbychoice.com/feelings.html How can feelings ever be chosen?]
*[http://www.queerbychoice.com/indirectchoice.html What is an indirect choice?]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{homosexualityb}}
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

Ecology

2022-03-11T06:28:26Z

Jfedrov: added community ecology

'''Ecology''' is a field of [[biology]] that studies "the distribution and abundance of [[organism|organisms]] and the interactions that determine distribution and abundance."<ref>Begon, M., Harper, J. L., & Townsend, C. R. (2006). Introduction: Ecology and its Domain. In Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems (4th ed., pp. xi-xii). introduction, Blackwell.</ref> These interactions include both biotic (occurring between living individuals) and abiotic interactions (occurring between and individual and its environment). There are several subdisciplines of ecology that focus on different [[Ecology#Organizational Complexity|levels of organization]] and different types of interactions, such behavioral, disease, sensory, and functional ecology.

Ecology is often confused with [[environmentalism]]. While familiarity of the term "ecology" emerged with the growing environmental concerns of the [[The Sixties|1960s]] and [[The Seventies|'70s]], the two have separate meanings and goals. Ecology seeks to understand natural phenomena in the environment whereas environmentalism is a social and political movement.<ref>Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. (n.d.) Confusing Ecology with Environmentalism. Fort Lauderdale. University of Florida Extension.</ref> Even though they are separate, the two are closely related, as environmentalism relies on data and evidence from ecologists to support their [[Environmental Issues|goals]] and ecologists apply their findings to [[conservation]] efforts and management strategies.

==Organizational Complexity==

The discipline of ecology is split up into several subfields, ranging in order of organizational complexity. The smallest field of ecology, is organismal ecology, focusing on the the [[adaptation|adaptations]] and [[physiology]] of an individual. [[Population]] ecology is focused on the interactions that individuals of the same [[species]] have, affecting their population dynamics. [[Community]] ecology investigates how populations of different species interact and affect community composition. [[Ecosystem]] ecology incorporates the abiotic factors that influence individuals, populations, and communities. The largest scale of ecology studies the entire [[biosphere]], specifically the processes that occur in it, how changes in climate and organismal abundance affect it, and reconstruct previous climates and ecosystems on [[Earth]].

Though [[evolution|evolutionary biology]] is a separate field of biology, the two are tightly linked, each not fully explaining phenomena without the other. G. E. Hutchinson combined the two topics through the metaphor of an "evolutionary play in an ecological theater,"<ref>Hutchinson, G. E. (1973). The Ecological Theater and the evolutionary play. Yale Univ. Press.</ref> and as T. G. Dobzhansky states, "nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of evolution."<ref>Dobzhansky, T. (1973). Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of Evolution. The American Biology Teacher, 35(3), 125–129. https://doi.org/10.2307/4444260.</ref> While evolution is still heavilly debated and studied, it is important to take it into account when studying each of the levels of organization and to make sense of adaptations, distributions, and life histories.

==Population Ecology==

Population ecology is concerned with the interactions between members of a single species. A population is defined as a group of potentially interacting individuals of the same species that occupy the same area and can interbreed, for [[Reproduction|sexually reproducing]] species.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Population ecology. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/science/population-ecology </ref> The geographic area that defines a population can be distinct, such as an isolated lake or mountain peak, or it can be subjective, based upon the goal of the scientist studying the population.<ref>Begon, M., & Harper, J. L. (2006). Life, Death and Life Histories. In C. R. Townsend (Ed.), Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems (4th ed., pp. 89–131). chapter, Blackwell.</ref>

Interactions that occur in populations are said to be interspecific. The most prominent of these interactions is competition for resources, such as water, food, shelter, and mates. Competition can be strong, where individuals control large territories to secure resources, or it can be less strong, such as in eusocial species like [[humans]] and [[wolves]].

=====Modeling=====

Population dynamics is an important aspect of population ecology that studies how populations change in size and density. Two important growth models are the exponential and logistic growth curves. The exponential growth equation is as follows: ''Nt = N0ert'', where ''N'' is the population size at time ''t'', ''e'' is Euler's number, and ''r'' is the intrinsic growth rate. This model predicts a population continually growing faster and faster without bound. Exponential growth is rare in nature, but examples include [[bacteria]] and [[humans]].

Most populations in nature do not grow exponentially, they reach a certain density threshold that limits growth, called the carrying capacity. [[Thomas Malthus]] described how at some point in time an expanding population must exceed supply of prerequisite [[natural resources]], i.e., population increases exponentially resulting in increasing competition for means of subsistence, food, shelter, etc. This concept has been termed the "Struggle for Existence". Resources may be plentiful at small population sizes, so initially a population will appear to grow exponentially, however, as resources become less available due to competition, the population growth rate slows down. This is described the by the logistic growth model as follows: ''dN/dt = rN[(K - N) / K]'', where ''K'' is the carrying capacity. Once a population has reached its carrying capacity, it will often remain at that population size, with stochastic fluctuations. Most populations follow this model.

=====Metapopulations=====

Modern approaches to population ecology have incorporated the concept of metapopulations. Inspired by the work of E. O. Wilson and R. H. Macarthur's work on island biogeography, metapopulations are important for discussing smaller populations that are connected to other nearby populations through colonization, [[emigration]], and [[extinction]]. Certain populations can act as sources for the metapopulations whereas others act as sinks and cannot sustain their own populations. Metapopulations have important conservation concerns, as increased habitat fragmentation increases the liklihood of local extinction of a species. Prioritizing which "islands" in a metapopulation should be protected can help to preserve and maintain healthy populations of charismatic species, such as butterflies and birds.

==Community Ecology==

Community ecology incorporates all the populations of species that occur in the same area and interact.<ref>Krohne, D. T. (2018). The Structure of Communities. In Ecology: Evolution, application, integration (pp. 276–297). essay, Oxford University Press. </ref> The main research questions of community ecologists focus on interactions, niches, strucutre, composition, and assembly.

Similar to populations, communities may be difficult to define the boundaries for. Two models for community definition are proposed. F.E. Clements proposed that communities are distinct from eachother, with a set of species unique to each, while H. A. Gleason proposed that communities are not discrete, but continuous, with species prevalence melding communities together through an ecotone.<ref>Dunbar. (1970, January 1). Clements & Gleason - two contrasting views of vegetation associations. UNM Grad Ecology. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from http://unmecology.blogspot.com/2015/08/clements-gleason-two-contrasting-views.html </ref><ref>https://www.britannica.com/science/ecotone</ref> Even though both explanations are in opposition to each other, both are seen in nature. Discrete communities can occur where forests abruptly turn to agricultural land, whereas continuous communities can occur where a grassland gradually turns to a mature forest. The distinction between which model to use depends on the characterisitcs of the ecotone, ranging from abrupt (Clementonian) to gradual (Gleasonian).<ref>Bowersox, M. A., & Brown, D. G. (2001). Measuring the abruptness of patchy ecotones. Plant Ecology, 156(1), 89–103. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20051137</ref>

=====Ecological Niche=====

=====Interspecific Interactions=====

======Positive Interactions======

======Negative Interactions======

=====Community Structure and Composition=====

=====Community Assembly=====

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Biology]]

Environmentalism

2022-03-11T05:12:39Z

Jfedrov: added to "see also"

<center>''See also [[Environmentalist]]''.</center>
'''Environmentalism''' is a political movement that is anti-[[conservative]] in nature, and in some ways even harmful to the environment (such as being pro-[[marijuana]], which is detrimental to the environment). The stated claim of environmentalism is to secure the long-term sustainability of the [[Earth]]. But many priorities of environmentalism are antithetical to the needs of mankind. See also: [[Conservation vs. environmentalism]]

Many environmentalists are [[atheist]]ic, hostile to the [[Bible]], [[free enterprise]], and [[limited government]]. Some liberals who promote left-wing policies claim to be "conservative" in order to [[Liberal deceit|deceive]] conservatives into adopting [[socialist]] policies.<ref>Mooney, Kevin (February 27, 2019). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beware-the-liberal-green-activists-masquerading-as-conservatives-at-cpac Beware the liberal green activists masquerading as conservatives at CPAC]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved February 27, 2019.</ref> Former Czech Republic president Václav Klaus said in his book ''Blue Planet in Green Shackles'' that environmentalism could be considered a form of [[Communism]],<ref name="New Communism">[https://www.aim.org/aim-report/the-new-communism/ The New Communism] at Accuracy in Media</ref> while Peter Staudenmaier extensively noted in his book ''Fascist Ideology: The Green Wing of the Nazi Party and Its Historical Antecedents'' that environmentalism was a key tenet of [[Nazism]], pointing out:

{{cquote|Hitler and Himmler were both strict vegetarians and animal lovers, attracted to nature mysticism and homeopathic cures, and staunchly opposed to vivisection and cruelty to animals. Himmler even established experimental organic farms to grow herbs for SS medicinal purposes. And Hitler, at times, could sound like a veritable Green utopian, discussing authoritatively and in detail various renewable energy sources (including environmentally appropriate hydropower and producing natural gas from sludge) as alternatives to coal, and declaring ‘water, winds and tides’ as the energy path of the future.<ref name="New Communism"/>}}

Historically, a close connection exists between environmentalism and [[eugenics]] and [[population control]].<ref>Williams, Thomas D. (August 20, 2019). [https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2019/08/20/report-ties-between-environmentalism-and-eugenics-run-deep/ Report: Ties Between Environmentalism and Eugenics ‘Run Deep’]. ''Breitbart News''. Retrieved August 20, 2019.</ref>

Environmentalist protesters have invariably turned out to be hypocrites who do not practice what they preach to the public about.<ref name="environmental hypocrites">[https://townhall.com/columnists/susanstamperbrown/2017/05/02/protesters-are-environmental-hypocrites-n2320627 Protesters are Environmental Hypocrites]</ref><ref>[https://www.rebelnews.com/this_is_how_you_expose_the_biggest_climate_hypocrites_on_the_planet This is how you EXPOSE the biggest climate HYPOCRITES on the planet] at Rebel News</ref> Many such protesters who take part in environmental/"climate change" protests have left behind tons of trash, some of it toxic and unrecyclable, at protest sites after they finish and go their separate ways, leaving others to clean up the mess left by the protesters.<ref name="environmental hypocrites"/><ref>[https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/09/climate-change-activists-march-in-new-york-city-leave-their-piles-of-trash-for-someone-else-to-clean-up/ Climate Change Activists March in New York City – Leave Their Piles of Trash For Someone Else to Clean Up] at the Gateway Pundit</ref> Protesters who criticize the oil industry and the building of oil pipelines are frequently ignorant of the fact that many of the everyday items they use, including computers and cell phones and many clothing fabrics, were created with petroleum-based products.<ref>[https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/05/18/22240110/yes-we-protest-shell-oil-with-products-made-from-oil-duh-now-join-us Yes, We Protest Shell Oil with Products Made from Oil. Duh. Now Join Us.]</ref> Likewise, celebrities from Hollywood and the entertainment world (such as [[Leonardo DiCaprio]]<ref>[https://nypost.com/2016/01/24/why-leo-dicaprio-is-just-another-climate-hypocrite/ Why Leo DiCaprio is just another climate hypocrite] at the ''New York Post''</ref> and [[Neil Young]]<ref>[http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Corbella+Neil+Young+chooses+comfort+over+convictions/9406082/story.html Neil Young chooses his own comfort over his convictions] at the ''Calgary Herald''</ref>) and other public figures (such as [[Al Gore]]<ref>[https://www.dailysignal.com/2017/08/15/al-gores-carbon-footprint-hypocrisy/ Al Gore’s Carbon Footprint Hypocrisy] at the Daily Signal</ref> and David Suzuki<ref>[http://www.farmfreshsalmon.org/david-suzuki-environmental-hypocrite David Suzuki Is an Environmental Hypocrite]</ref><ref>[https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/corbella-suzuki-told-me-to-f-off-but-his-hypocrisy-gives-the-finger-to-his-message Suzuki Told Me To ‘F*** Off’, But His Hypocrisy Gives The Finger To His Message] at the ''Calgary Herald</ref>), who purport to be about "saving" the environment and demand that the public give up many necessities for the sake of the environment, display their own hypocrisy by traveling around in jet planes and yachts (both of which consume a great deal of fuel) and refusing to let go of their own energy-consuming luxuries.<ref name="environmental hypocrites"/><ref>[https://www.mrc.org/special-reports/climate-hypocrites-and-media-love-them Climate Hypocrites and the Media that Love Them]</ref><ref>[https://www.mrctv.org/blog/12-most-hypocritical-environmentalists-hollywood The 12 Most Hypocritical Environmentalists in Hollywood]</ref> Unsurprisingly, liberal media pundits have sided with the environmental hypocrites by scoffing at and dismissing criticism of them and by cynically criticizing (even going so far as to call them "climate change deniers"<ref>[https://sustainabilitymattersdaily.com/al-gore-his-private-jets-hypocrisy/ Al Gore & His “Private Jets”: Hypocrisy?]</ref>) those who criticize the hypocrites while the pundits offer no solutions of their own and engage in simultaneous denial, defending, excusing and justification of said hypocrisy.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/23/environmental-hypocrisy-climate-crisis-green-politics When calling out environmental hypocrisy is nothing but a cynical ploy] at the Guardian</ref>

In 2019, left-wing U.S. Senator [[Mazie Hirono]] called on supporters to "believe in climate change as though it’s a religion."<ref>Gage, John (November 12, 2019). [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate-democrat-calls-for-activists-to-believe-in-climate-change-as-though-its-a-religion Senate Democrat calls for activists to ‘believe in climate change as though it’s a religion’]. ''Washington Examiner''. Retrieved November 13, 2019.</ref><ref>Murphy, James (November 14, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/34035-u-s-senator-wants-you-to-believe-in-climate-change-as-though-it-s-a-religion U.S. Senator Wants You to “Believe in Climate Change as Though It’s a Religion”]. ''The New American''. Retrieved November 14, 2019.</ref>

==Further reading==
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-sixteen-the-communism-behind-environmentalism-part-i_2781173.html Chapter Sixteen: The Communism Behind Environmentalism (Part I)], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').
*[https://www.theepochtimes.com/chapter-sixteen-the-communism-behind-environmentalism-part-ii_2786362.html Chapter Sixteen: The Communism Behind Environmentalism (Part II)], ''The Epoch Times'' (from ''How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World'').

==See also==
*[[Ecology]]
*[[Environmentalist]]
*[[Atheism and the environment]]
*[[Essay: Real Environmentalism]]
*[[Essay:Environmentalism and global warming]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Communism}}

[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:Environmentalism|*]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Communism]]
[[Category:Nazism]]
[[Category:Cults]]

Lambda Legal

2022-03-11T04:47:40Z

Jfedrov: added to history and purpose

'''Lambda Legal''' or '''Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund''' is a nonprofit [[lobby]]ing and [[legal]] action organization (see [[pressure group]]) founded in 1973 by [[Gay activism|homosexual activists]] for the advocacy of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV.<ref>About Us. Lambda Legal. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.lambdalegal.org/about-us </ref>

Aspects of their work includes a redefinition of [[marriage]] as a tool in their greater [[homosexual agenda|agenda]] to reorder [[society]], <ref>{{cite book |title=The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the principal threat to religious freedom today |author=Alan Sears and Craig Osten |publisher=B&H Publishing Group |place=Nashville, Tennessee |chapter=5.The Family under attack |pages=99 |isbn=978-0-8054-2698-4 |url=https://www.christianbook.com/homosexual-exposing-principal-threat-religious-freedom/alan-sears/9780805426984/pd/26981}}</ref> aiding teens and young adults, helping LGBTQ+ families, and pushing for fair healthcare for those living with HIV and AIDS.<ref>Our work. Lambda Legal. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.lambdalegal.org/our-work </ref>

== See also ==
*[[Homo-fascism]]
*[[Sexual revolution]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Liberal Organizations]]
[[Category:Sexual Revolution]]

Essay:Best New Conservative Words

2022-03-11T04:26:55Z

Jfedrov: added to "brainstorm"

[[Image:Tax-spend.jpg|thumb|300px|The "tax-and-spend" slogan stuck to [[Harry Hopkins]] like a well-fitted suit.]]
[[Conservative]] terms, with [[conservative insights]], originate at a faster rate and with higher quality than [[liberal]] terms do. Thus conservative triumph over liberalism is inevitable.

Each year the [[English language]] develops about a thousand new words. The [[King James Version]] of the [[Bible]] contains only about 8,000 different words;<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8013859.stm</ref> many good words have developed since.

Powerful new conservative terms have grown at a [[geometric progression|geometric rate]], roughly doubling every century. For each new conservative term originating in the 1600s,<ref>The King James Version of the Bible was published in 1611, by then [[William Shakespeare]] had written nearly all his plays.</ref> there are two new terms originating in the 1700s, four new terms in the 1800s, and eight new terms in the 1900s, for a pattern of "1-2-4-8". This indicates the future will be increasingly conservative.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!Century
!# New Conservative Terms
|-
|1600s
|40 (beginning in 1611)
|-
|1700s
|85
|-
|1800s
|173
|-
|1900s
|347
|-
|2000s
|55 (preliminary)
|-
|}

==Conservative words and terms==

{{clear}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!New Term
!Origin date
!Comments
|-
|a.m.
|1762
|"a.m." means "before noon" in [[Latin]] (ante meridiem); it became popular much as "[[A.D.]]" did. Also, a morning [[work ethic]] is a conservative concept.
|-
|abortuary
|1983
|an [[abortion]] clinic, which in reality is a mortuary for unborn children
|-
|[[abstract nonsense]]
|1940s
|a pejorative term for unnecessarily abstract mathematics of doubtful rigor; [[liberal denial]] insists that this term, which describes something as "nonsense", is somehow not negative!
|-
|[[accountability]]
|1794
|the willingness or obligation to be held responsible for one's actions - a fundamental conservative ideal, unlike liberals who believe that "society", and not individuals, is responsible for their wrongdoing.
|-
|[[accuracy]]
|1660
|conservatives strive for accuracy, while many liberals are masters of [[deceit]]
|-
|Achilles' heel
|1864
|an inevitable weak point of vulnerability amid overall strength, highlighting the need for [[God]] even by the strongest
|-
|act of [[God]]
|1787<ref>From ''Pollard v. Shaaffer'', 1 U.S. 210, 213 (1 Dall. 210) (Pa. S.Ct. 1787): "In the case before the court, if the lessee had covenanted for himself and his assigns, to deliver up the tenements in good order and repair, notwithstanding they should be destroyed by act of God or of an Enemy, then this action would certainly lie, because of the special express words; but when there are no such words, but only generally to repair &c. would it be reasonable to construe these words so as to extend to the cases put?"</ref><ref>Merriam-Webster asserts a date of origin of 1635 in its online version [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/act%20of%20god], but 1859 in its 10th edition print version.</ref>
|an extraordinary, unforeseeable event, such as a massive flood or earthquake; term was probably inspired as a reference to the [[Great Flood]]
|-
|[[action-at-a-distance]]
|1693
|[[Newton]]'s acceptance of this concept—which became fundamental to [[electrostatics]] and [[quantum mechanics]] and has a basis in Christianity<ref>''See, e.g.'', [[Jesus]]'s cure of the centurion's slave.</ref>—was central to the development of his theory of gravity.<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-philosophy/#ActDis</ref> [[Materialists]] censor this concept, while Einstein criticized it as "spooky".
|-
|[[activism]]
|1915
|this differentiates conservatives from inactive people; this term might have originated in connection with [[Prohibition]] and efforts to pass the [[Eighteenth Amendment]]
|-
|[[addictive]]
|1939
|the intrinsic characteristic of certain things or activities to induce repetitious involvement, usually with a harmful effect on the participant, as in [[gambling]], or [[video games]].
|-
|administrative state
|1948<ref>The title of a book: "The Administrative State" by Dwight Waldo (1948).</ref>
|originally used in a descriptive manner by admirers of it, the term is frequently used in a pejorative manner by conservatives due to the lack of accountability of an overbearing bureaucracy.
|-
|aerobics
|1967
|invented by the [[Christian]] Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper<ref>http://www.christianadvice.net/famous_christians.htm</ref> to describe his self-help program to improve health; he gave the title "Aerobics" to his ground-breaking book in 1968, and eventually it revolutionized attitudes toward exercise.
|-
|[[agency capture]]
|1985<ref>The concept originated a bit earlier, but its first best articulation was when a federal court recognized that "agency capture" is "where the regulated become the regulators." ''Huron Valley Hospital, Inc. v. Pontiac'', 612 F. Supp. 654, 663 (E.D. Mich. 1985).</ref>
|the misuse of Big Government (agencies) by Big Business to choke off free enterprise through regulations that impede competition
|-
|agitprop
|1929
|propaganda designed to incite agitation, originally coined to describe communist propaganda
|-
|[[alarmism]]
|1867
|needless warnings, as in the politically motivated claims of [[global warming]]
|-
|{{#ifexist: alcoholism | [[alcoholism]] | alcoholism }}
|1860
|excessive or addictive drinking of alcohol
|-
|[[algorithm]]
|1849
|an efficient and consistent step-by-step methodology for achieving a goal, the opposite of [[liberal style]]
|-
|altar call
|1899
|an invitation by a preacher for people to come forward to the altar to signify their personal commitment to [[Christ]], and many do
|-
|[[altruism]]
|1853
|selfless assistance of others; this also occurs in the animal kingdom, and is a [[counterexample to evolution]]
|-
|ambulance chaser
|1896
|a lawyer who searches for victims to persuade them to sue for his profit
|-
|[[American dream]]
|1911<ref>1911 is the date given by the "OED", which refers to the Oxford English Dictionary. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives a date of 1931.</ref>
|the vision that, with hard work, anyone in American can attain happiness and prosperity
|-
|[[American exceptionalism]]
|1835
|the idea that the United States and the American people hold a special place in the world, by offering opportunity and hope for humanity
|-
|American Way
|1930s
|later conservative entrepreneurs used this to coin a new name for what became a highly successful and uniquely American business model: "Amway"
|-
|[[anti-Christian]]
|1900s
|opposing Christian ideals and institutions
|-
|anticompetitive
|1854
|interfering with open competition and the enormous benefits that flow from it
|-
|[[anti-constitutionalist]]
|2019
|a description of the elected leaders who had taken over the [[Democratic party]] in the early decades of the 21st century
|-
|[[antilife]]
|1929
|term criticizing a tendency to oppose life and lifesaving care
|-
|[[antitrust]]
|1890
|the origin is the passage of the [[Republican]]-sponsored [[Sherman Act]] to prohibit restraints of trade, one of the greatest pieces of legislation in all of history
|-
|apathetic
|1744
|term critical of the those who are deliberately inactive and disengaged mentally
|-
|apologetic
|1649
|offered in support or defense, especially of Christianity (typically used today as the noun "apologetics").
|-
|apology tour
|2009
|the term is used to criticize someone who repeatedly apologizes for a country or institution that does a great deal of good; this term became popular to criticize the newly elected [[Barack Obama]] for going on a foreign tour to bash the [[United States]], which was misleading and broke a tradition of presidents not doing that.
|-
|[[Apostles' Creed]]
|1658
|a concise statement of [[Christian]] [[faith]] that began with the original [[Apostles]] and has guided billions since. (The earliest historical evidence of the creed's existence is in a letter written by the Council of Milan in 390 A.D.<ref>[http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies/articles/churchhomeleadership/080730.html Christianity Today]</ref>)
|-
|[[apparatchik]]
|1941
|an official who blindly does what he thinks his government superiors want, as in [[communism]]
|-
|[[apple pie]]
|1780
|honesty, simplicity, wholesomeness. Relating to, or characterized by traditionally American values.<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apple%20pie Merriam-webster- Apple pie]</ref>
|-
|arm-twisting
|1945
|behind-the-scenes pressure tactics used in politics, primarily by [[liberals]], in order to compel people to vote and act in ways they would not do otherwise
|-
|assimilate
|1880s<ref>estimate only; this originated sometime in the late 1880s.</ref>
|the desired absorption of immigrant groups into the culture and mores of the resident population
|-
|[[atheistic]]
|1625-35
|An adjective pertaining to or characteristic of atheists or atheism; containing, suggesting, or disseminating atheism.
|-
|attention span
|1934
|correlated with intelligence, the attention span is how long someone can concentrate on something. It is rapidly shortening; the Lincoln-Douglas debates 150 years ago lasted for hours, but none do today.<ref>http://www.help4teachers.com/ras.htm</ref> The average length of sentences in speech is another indication of attention span, and it has been shortening significantly.
|-
|[[Austrian economics]]
|1900s<ref>A more precise date is welcome; "Austrian school" was coined a bit earlier, initially as a derisive term.</ref>
|an approach to economics that emphasizes the purposeful decisions of individuals, and which was belatedly recognized by a 1974 [[Nobel Prize]] to [[Friedrich von Hayek]]; these economic ideas influenced [[Ludwig von Mises]], [[Ron Paul]], and 1987 Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan.
|-
|axiomatic
|1797
|self-evident (first usage), and later it developed the meaning of being based on a set of axioms
|-
|[[baby boom]]
|1920<ref>[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/baby-boomer.html Baby boomer] phrases.org.uk, retrieved August 30, 2012</ref>
|an increase in birthrate, which is a good thing; note that what is known as post-World War II baby boom actually started before the war, contrary to what textbooks teach. Perpetuating the mistake, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the generation born between 1946 and 1964 as the baby boomers.<ref>[https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/cb06-ffse01-2.html Newsroom: Facts for Features - Special Edition - The Oldest Baby Boomers Turn 60!]</ref>
|-
|back burner
|1963
|inactive status away from attention, as in "RINOs try to put social issues on the back burner"
|-
|bag lady
|1979
|a woman, typically unmarried, whose life tragically degenerated into a homeless existence of wandering in a city while carrying bags of worthless possessions
|-
|[[bailout]]
|1951
|wasting taxpayer money to rescue, temporarily, a failing company
|-
|bake sale
|1903<ref>[https://www.redstate.com/barrypopik/2011/03/27/origin-of-the-bake-sale-and-maddows-bakesales-for-bombersbakesales-or-billionaires/ Citizen Patriot of Jackson, Michigan, “Albion,” pg. 6, (Nov. 21, 1903)]</ref>
|the activity of volunteers, typically women, baking good food and selling it to raise money for a worthy cause
|-
|balkanize
|1919
|to break a region or neighborhood into divisive components; the opposite of the American concept of assimilation or "[[E pluribus unum]]"
|-
|bargain hunter
|1911
|a [[conservative]] trait that helps keep [[inflation]] low. First usage in courts occurred when the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down a regulation and explained that the improper regulation was too broad and not limited to protection against schemes that deceive a "veteran bargain hunter." ''Kanne v. Segerstrom Piano Mfg. Co.'', 118 Minn. 483, 487, 137 N.W. 170, 171 (1912).
|-
|[[baseball]]
|1815
|an American original that is governed by rules rather than a clock; the stars and fans are overwhelmingly conservative
|-
|[[bedrock]]
|1840-1850
|an American term for unbroken solid rock underneath fragments or soil, which adopted the figurative meaning of strong values: "bedrock principles"<ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bedrock</ref>
|-
|beltway mentality
|1986
|popularized by [[Paul Weyrich]] though possibly first used by then-Governor [[John Sununu]] ("captives of yourselves"), it refers to a governing style that sees only as far as the highway that surrounds its capital, especially the one around D.C.
|-
|benchmark
|1842
|a quality standard for which people can strive
|-
|[[Best of the Public]]
|2009
|A term coined by [[Andy Schlafly]] to express the idea that one does not need [[liberal]] credentials that so-called "experts" have. Indeed, many great historical figures would have failed the liberal "expert" test.
|-
|[[Bias|biased]]
|1649
|to show prejudice for or against something; American society is rapidly becoming ''biased'' against Christian and Conservative beliefs
|-
|[[Bible Belt]]
|1925
|southern regions of the [[United States]] where people read the [[Bible]] and attend church, rather than try to avoid both as in the [[liberal]] Northeast and West Coast
|-
|Biblophobic
|2012<ref>http://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-greg-laurie-i-hate-the-word-homophobic-83209/</ref>
|hatred or fear of the [[Bible]]
|-
|Bidenism
|1992
|an idiotic remark that would subject the politician to enormous ridicule if he were a [[conservative]], but when spoken by [[liberal]] [[Joe Biden]] the media are just fine with it
|-
|[[Big Brother]]
|1949
|government constantly watching its citizens; [[George Orwell]] first coined this term in his classic, ''[[1984]]''
|-
|Bilderbergers
|1964<ref>First coined by [[Phyllis Schlafly]] in ''A Choice Not an Echo'' (1964) as "DeBilderbergers" based on the Dutch origin of the name.</ref>
|a secret political society that was first exposed in ''[[A Choice Not an Echo]]''; the society consists of elite [[globalists]] who have met annually since 1954 to try to exert influence over the world
|-
|biological clock
|1955
|how each woman begins to lose her ability to have children at age 27, no matter how much [[feminists]] try to conceal this scientific fact from women
|-
|Blame America Crowd<ref>Or "Blame-America-First Crowd"</ref>
|1984
|Michael Barone quoted [[Jeane Kirkpatrick]] as saying that the "San Francisco Democrats" (site of the Democratic National Convention in 1984) "always blame America first."<ref>http://www.creators.com/opinion/michael-barone/the-blame-america-first-crowd.html</ref>
|-
|blank check
|1884
|irresponsibly giving someone unlimited spending authority or power, as in "a Con Con would be a blank check to destroy the nation"
|-
|blather
|1719
|nonsensical or insignificant babble, as in "liberal blather is common in the [[lamestream media]]"
|-
|blue curtain
|2016
|Michigan and Pennsylvania, which for nearly 30 years were "safe" Democratic states in presidential elections totaling a whopping 36 electoral college votes in 2016, but won by [[Donald Trump]] in a massive upset aided by their lack of [[early voting]] that is manipulated by [[Democrats]] in other states.
|-
|[[Blue Dog Democrat]]
|1995
|a person who adheres to conservative principles within the Democratic party, once called a Boll Weevil; as of 2009 there are 45-50 Blue Dog Democrats in the [[House of Representatives]], which is enough to form a majority with [[Republicans]]
|-
|bona fides
|1910<ref>Estimate for the emergence in popularity of this meaning of the term.</ref>
|evidence or confirmation of someone's good faith or authenticity
|-
|boomerang
|1825
|originally coined to describe a throwing device that returns to the thrower, the term became increasingly useful to describe how wrongful conduct returns to bite the perpetrator
|-
|boondoggle
|1935
|"popularized during the [[New Deal]] as a contemptuous word for make-work projects for the unemployed." <ref>http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=boondoggle&searchmode=none</ref> The term gained popularity in [[Canada]] following a corruption scandal tied to the [[Liberal]] government in 2000.
|-
|bootstrap
|1913
|unaided effort, personal merit, hard work
|-
|bork
|1988
|coined by [[William Safire]] to refer to how Democrats savage a conservative nominee, such as their defeat of Supreme Court nominee [[Robert H. Bork]].
|-
|born-again
|1861
|it takes an open mind and heart; term's origin can be traced to [[John Wyclif]]'s 1382 translation of the [[Bible]]: "But a man schal be born agen."
|-
|borrowed time
|1898
|a bit more time in life than one has earned, which is best spent by accepting the truth of the [[Bible]]
|-
|bottom line
|1967
|the essential point, without the [[liberal claptrap]]<ref>The original usage of the term the "bottom line" had nothing to do with money.</ref>
|-
|brainstorm
|1894
|working in a group to devise a solution to a project or issue.<ref>https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/brainstorm_2#:~:text=%2F%CB%88bre%C9%AAnst%C9%94rm%2F,as%20many%20ideas%20as%20possible.</ref>
|-
|brainwashing
|1950
|derived from the Chinese term "xǐnǎo" soon after the [[communist]] takeover of China, "brainwashing" means forced abandonment of [[faith]] in favor of regimented [[atheism]]. In a more general sense, it refers to the manipulation and control of the human mind through torture and propaganda techniques.
|-
|[[Brexit]]
|2016
|the slogan for the successful campaign in the [[United Kingdom]] to leave the [[EU]], it has since been copied to describe movements in additional countries to reject [[globalism]], such as "[[Frexit]]."
|-
|bright-line rule
|1971<ref>First used by [[U.S. Supreme Court]] Justice [[John Harlan II]] in ''United States v. Jorn'', 400 U.S. 470, 486 (1971), where he rejected adopting a bright-line rule for that case.</ref>
|a clear, unwavering line dividing what is allowed from what is prohibited; increasingly favored to avoid confusion and requirements that arbitrarily change. Championed by [[Supreme Court]] Justice [[Antonin Scalia]].
|-
|bromide
|1836<ref>Its figurative meaning probably dates from the late 1800s.</ref>
|hackneyed, unoriginal statement lacking in substance, similar to [[liberal claptrap]]
|-
|brinkmanship
|1956
|the art of displaying a willingness to use military force in order to obtain a just resolution to a conflict between nations
|-
|bubble
|1720
|an inflated financial market which ultimately collapses, as first used in reference to the South Sea Bubble.<ref>https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=bubble</ref>
|-
|[[bureaucracy]]
|1818
|
|-
|busywork
|1910
|meaningless activity under the pretense of accomplishing something
|-
|cabin fever
|1900
|a mental and emotional reaction to a confinement on freedom of mobility as though imprisoned in a cabin
|-
|can-do
|1903 <ref>according to the Oxford English Dictionary. [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/can-do Miram-webster] gives the date of 1945</ref>
|Phrase coined in a short story by [[Rudyard Kipling]] that has come to refer to an attitude that espouses individual ability and responsibility and not reliance on [[entitlements]]
|-
|[[Cantorize]]
|2014<ref>named after the upset landslide defeat of the [[House]] [[Majority Leader]] [[Eric Cantor]] in his own primary. Made popular by [[Sarah Palin]] on national television in 2016 by declaring that she will campaign against [[Speaker of the House]] [[Paul Ryan]] in his primary.</ref>
|to be removed from a high political position by a vote in one's own primary
|-
|[[capitalism]]
|1850-1855
|creating jobs and wealth based on a private invention, ownership and investments rather than state-controlled resources
|-
|card-carrying
|1950s
|popularized by Sen. [[Joseph McCarthy|Joe McCarthy]] (R-WI) to describe senselessly dedicated [[communist]]s; later used to great effect by [[George H.W. Bush]] to successfully criticize his opponent as a self-described card-carrying member of the [[ACLU]].
|-
|career politician
|1974<ref>First use found by ''Conservapedia'' was in an article describing a controversy in communist [[Yugoslavia]] over their "career politicians," published in the ''New York Times'' and authored by Malcolm W. Browne, sect. 4, p. 3, col. 1.</ref>
|a term originally used for the entrenched communist government officials in Yugoslavia, with whom even President Tito was fed up; today it applies to the thousands of self-serving politicians who avoid productive jobs
|-
|[[carpetbagger]]
|1868
|a politician who moves to a new area to be elected to a government position, as in [[Hillary Clinton]] moving to [[New York]] to become a U.S. Senator
|-
|carte blanche
|1645-1655
|unconditional authority or power, without any limits on misuse of that power
|-
|cash discount
|1917
|a reduction in price for payment by cash, in recognition of how cash is more efficient
|-
|catharsis
|1775
|facilitating forgiveness and spiritual renewal by expression, as in writing or teaching or confession
|-
|caucus
|1763
|citizens or representatives gathering to meet and reach political decisions as a group while harnessing aspects of the [[best of the public]]; first coined by [[John Adams]]<ref>The future author of the Massachusetts Constitution who also played a role in developing the [[Declaration of Independence]].</ref> when he described a meeting of political Boston elders as a "caucus club"; the word may be from an Algonquian term for a group of advisers or elders.
|-
|cesspool
|1782
|an evil or corrupt place or state.
|-
|chairwarmer
|1987<ref>William Safire popularized this word in his regular ''New York Times'' column entitled''On Language'' (March 8, 1987).</ref>
|someone who is useless and ineffective while holding a position, as in "[[Biden]] would at most be a chairwarmer of a president"
|-
|chaperone
|1720
|care and well-being of youths overseen by adults
|-
|charisma
|1930
|literally "a gift from God", charisma is a personal magic of leadership found in [[conservative]] public figures (but beware of the liberal tendency to put style before substance!)
|-
|checkmate
|1789<ref>First usage as a verb then, see https://www.etymonline.com/word/checkmate</ref>
|a verb from the [[conservative]] game of [[chess]] which is widely used in many contexts today
|-
|Chicken Little
|1895
|one who falsely predicts disaster, especially for silly reasons: "global alarmists" are the Chicken Littles of our time<ref>In characteristically [[liberal]] style, the online Merriam-Webster spins the [[global warming]] example usage by saying the data showed he wasn't a Chicken Little.</ref>
|-
|Chinese wall
|1900
|a beneficial, impregnable wall that safeguards against wrongdoing
|-
|choice, not an echo
|1964<ref>Popularized by the bestselling book entitled "[[A Choice Not An Echo]]" by [[Phyllis Schlafly]] in 1964.</ref>
|a pithy slogan that objects to politics-as-usual as controlled by insiders regardless of which political party wins
|-
|Christmas card
|1883
|another conservative innovation that apparently did not exist earlier, even though mail did; cards that say "Seasons Greetings" are a cheap imitation now.
|-
|Christmas tree
|1835
|the immensely popular custom of using an evergreen tree to support ornaments, cards and gifts, and symbolize life impervious to the darkness and cold of winter
|-
|chump change
|1968
|a term that highlights the insignificance of an amount of money; used especially against a miser or someone who makes the mistake of thinking money is more important than [[Christ]]
|-
|churchgoer
|1687
|a person who makes an effort, during the 168 hours in a week, to attend a church service
|-
|circle the wagons
|1800s
|regroup with family and friends, when under attack. usage from settlers in the old US west.
|-
|citizen's arrest
|1941
|private enforcement of the law without the need of a taxpayer-funded police officer
|-
|citogenesis
|2011
|the genesis of false factual assertions by circular citations originating from a fallacious source, such as [[Wikipedia]]; the term was first coined by Randall Munroe in his comic xkcd
|-
|civil defense
|1939
|civilians protecting themselves and their community against attack or natural disasters
|-
|claptrap
|1799
|pretentious, verbose, and often liberal nonsense; example usage: "the professor wasted the rest of the class on his [[liberal claptrap]]"
|-
|class act
|1976
|exemplify conservative principles with values, integrity and a work ethic
|-
|class warfare
|1848
|this concept was initially coined by [[Karl Marx]] in ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'', but it has become so discredited that it is now used mostly by conservatives to point out liberal demagoguery
|-
|closed shop
|1904
|a business that requires membership in a union as a condition of working there; 22 conservative states prohibit this
|-
|clueless
|1943
|hopelessly ignorant about something important, as liberals often are
|-
|[[Coase theorem|Coasean]]
|1980s
|an efficient result or bargain based on market forces without the distortions caused by [[transaction costs]]
|-
|coattails
|1848<ref>Speech in the House by [[Abraham Lincoln]] on July 27, 1848.</ref>
|the lifting of a weaker political candidate by a stronger one who is on the same ballot, as in [[Pat Toomey]] winning reelection for the [[Senate]] based on [[Trump]]'s coattails in 2016; this term was popularized by a speech by [[Abraham Lincoln]] on the [[House]] floor
|-
|cogent
|1659
|compelling with the powerful force of reason, the opposite of [[liberal claptrap]]
|-
|cold turkey
|1921
|a slang term for doing something all at once, as in defeating an addiction by completely turning away from it, often by using power of the [[Bible]] and [[Christ]]
|-
|[[Cold War]]
|1945
|coined by [[George Orwell]] shortly after he wrote ''Animal Farm'',<ref>http://www.worldwar2history.info/war/causes/Cold-War.html</ref> as recognition that communist nations were at war with American freedom even in the absence of actual military conflict
|-
|collectivism
|1857
|when decision-making by a group takes priority over the good ideas of an individual, often preventing progress
|-
|Columbian
|1757
|relating to Christopher Columbus ''or the United States''
|-
|commie
|1940
|abbreviation for "communist" that captures their simple-minded totalitarianism
|-
|common sense
|1726
|sound judgment based on facts
|-
|competitive
|1829
|
|-
|[[Con Con]]
|1980s
|popularized by [[Phyllis Schlafly]] to highlight the deception and risks inherent in proposed national constitutional conventions
|-
|conniption
|1833
|hysteria or alarm, as in "having a conniption fit"; a typical response by [[liberals]] when confronted with their [[double standards]] and illogical positions
|-
|conservation of charge
|1949
|overall charge does not change in an isolated system; it is neither created nor destroyed; the concept was first suggested by [[Benjamin Franklin]] but the date of origin for this term is surprisingly recent
|-
|[[conservative]]
|1808<ref>"[T]his is one of those rare cases when the [Oxford English Dictionary] gets something wrong. America, not Britain, deserves credit for inventing the word. Jacob Wagner, a Massachusetts federalist, first used ''conservative'' in its modern political sense in a letter dated May 13, 1808." David Lefer, ''The Founding Conservatives'', page 5 (2013).</ref>
|principles of limited government, personal responsibility, moral values, and productivity
|-
|[[conservative field]]
|1870s?
|a type of physical force over a region such that items moving throughout the region can store energy ''without loss'', as in the planetary system and electrical products<ref>The mathematical definition of a conservative field -- which arises in [[multivariable calculus]] -- is that a scalar potential exists for the function and, alternatively, it is [[irrotational]].</ref>
|-ly
|[[consumer surplus]]
|1890<ref>First coined by Cambridge University Professor Alfred Marshall in his acclaimed text, ''Principles of Economics'' (1890).</ref>
|the extra benefit received by consumers above the price they paid for a good or service, illustrating the value of the [[free market]]; specifically, consumer surplus is the difference between what consumers would have paid for something, and the lower price they did pay.
|-
|constant
|1832
|(noun) something unchanging in value
|-
|constitutionality
|1787
|its date of origin is the year of the [[Constitutional Convention]] that proposed the [[U.S. Constitution]]
|-
|contrarian
|1657
|someone who advocates views contrary to that of others; this type of person frustrates [[liberal]] attempts to gain control
|-
|cooking the data
|1830
|[[Charles Babbage]] used it in his book, "Reflections on the Decline of Science in England."<ref>http://www.scientus.org/Church-Science-History.html</ref>
|-
|copacetic
|1890s<ref>Merriam-Webster officially lists its date of origin as 1919 and its source as unknown, but that is well after when Robinson says he developed it.</ref>
|Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, tap dancer extraordinaire, claimed the invention of this word; it was first popularized by African Americans
|-
|cop-out
|1942
|taking the easy way out, usually by shirking one's responsibilities
|-
|copyright
|1735
|extending private property to protect expressive works
|-
|corporate socialism
|1970s
|the tendency of large corporations to act in a socialistic manner, at the expense of meritocracy and productivity
|-
|correlate
|1742
|(verb) to show that one thing relates to another, such as [[atheism]] or [[homosexuality]] and selfishness or lack of charity; [[liberal]]s falsely rely on anecdotes to deny the general relationship
|-
|[[countability (Mathematics)|countability]]
|1874
|[[Georg Cantor]], loathed by the leading contemporary [[mathematicians]], developed this in proving that the real numbers are ''uncountable''
|-
|counterexample
|1957
|an example that is contrary to the proposition. A common point in logical, reasoned debate.
|-
|counterfactual
|1946
|especially assumptions that are contrary to fact; Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] wrote for the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], "petitioners' standing does not require precise proof of what the Board's policies might have been in that counterfactual world."<ref>''Free Enter. Fund v. Pub. Co. Accounting Oversight Bd.'', 130 S. Ct. 3138, 3163 (2010) (5-4 decision).</ref>
|-
|counterproductive
|1959
|interfering with a worthy goal. Example usage: "nearly everything a liberal supports is counterproductive."
|-
|counter-reformation
|1840
|a movement in response to another movement, as in a counter-reformation to the [[homosexual agenda]]
|-
|cover-up
|1927
|concealment by government officials of the truth about a matter of public concern
|-
|crackpot
|1884
|crazy talk, lunacy, a person on the fringe of reality
|-
|[[creation science]]
|1970s
|a term coined by the [[Young-Earth creationism|young-Earth creationist]] [[Henry Morris]].<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801716.html</ref>
|-
|[[Credentialism]]
|1967
|the often-false belief that credentials make someone a better or more competent person
|-
|creativity
|1875
|an ability, unique to God and his likeness, to make something from nothing
|-
|cronyism
|1952
|the practice of appointing friends to important government or political positions, rather than the most ideologically aligned or competent; this was particularly a flaw in [[George W. Bush]]'s administration
|-
|cross-examination
|1824
|the most effective tool against [[liberal]] [[deceit]], better than even the requirement of an oath
|-
|crystal clear
|1815
|liberals are the opposite
|-
|[[culture war]]
|1991
|widespread use after the book ''Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America'' by James Davison Hunter
|-
|cyberbullying
|2000s
|a type of obnoxious and hurtful liberal behavior on the internet
|-
|[[dark money]]
|2010
|money that influences politics in secretive ways without traceability to its mega-donors, such as [[George Soros]]
|-
|[[DC Gulag]]
|2021
|coined by [[conservative]] Rep. [[Marjorie Taylor Greene]] (R-GA) to describe the inhumane mistreatment of [[Trump]] supporters as political prisoners in the [[Washington, D.C.]] jail long after the 70-day limit for pre-trial detention under the [[Speedy Trial Act]] and [[Sixth Amendment]]
|-
|de minimis
|1948
|an inconsequential amount. Sample usage: "Liberals typically spend at most de minimis time reading the Bible."
|-
|[[deadweight loss]]
|1930s<ref>Confirmation of the first use is desired.</ref>
|the loss in overall wealth and efficiency imposed by monopolies and taxation, due to the loss in extra value that someone would have received beyond what he would have paid for a good at a free market price
|-
|[[death panel]]
|2009
|a provision of [[Obamacare]] that will enable a panel of government bureaucrats to decide who receives medical treatment
|-
|[[death tax]]
|1989
|interestingly, the term was coined by Canadians opposed to the high estate tax on their assets held in the United States; [[Frank Luntz]] is credited with later popularizing this term in the United States.<ref>''See'' Dr. Frank Luntz, ''Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear''</ref>
|-
|debunk
|1923
|derived from "bunkum" (nonsense), a term that originated in 1845 based on a silly, tiresome speech made by Congressman Felix Walker on the floor of Congress in 1820 in which he said his real audience was his constituents in Buncombe County, NC
|-
|decentralization
|1846
|the dispersion of power, as in a shift from national to local control
|-
|decrypt
|1935
|military code-breaking, which played an instrumental role in World War II in deciphering enemy codes that many felt were unbreakable; illustrates the "can do" approach of conservatism in a patriotic way
|-
|[[deep state]]
|2017
|the entrenched bureaucracy in [[Washington, D.C.|D.C.]] that opposes and undermines attempts by a [[conservative]] president to scale back government
|-
|de-escalate
|1964
|strive to reduce the dangerous intensity of a physical encounter, as in police work
|-
|[[defeatism]]
|1918
|a negative attitude that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
|-
|defensive driving
|1964
|a style of driving a car that always focuses on avoiding accidents, even those potentially caused by others; nearly a half-century later, dictionaries still do not recognize this term
|-
|deflation
|1891
|an increase in the value of savings
|-
|defund
|1948
|refers especially to termination of government funding of a wasteful or hurtful program
|-
|deliberative assembly
|1774<ref>''Introduction to Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised'' (19th Ed. 2000), xxv.</ref>
|used by Edmund Burke in describing the British parliament during a speech to voters in Bristol; he meant a body of persons meeting to discuss and decide common action under parliamentary law
|-
|demagogue
|1648
|the initial meaning of "demagogue" was positive, but preacher Robert South gave it a negative connotation in 1716 by observing that a "plausible, insignificant word, in the mouth of an expert demagogue, is a dangerous and a dreadful weapon."
|-
|demonic
|1662
|in its serious usage, "demonic" refers to actions that seem to be influenced by [[evil]] or by [[Satan]] himself, such as when someone acts out of character in a wrongful way, or when a group goes in a bad direction, or when random chance takes an unlikely bizarre turn; demonic also explains why some events or activities become more overbearing than they should
|-
|denaturalization
|1858<ref>Jones v. McMasters, 61 U.S. (20 How.) 8 (1858). An earlier use of 1800 is cited by Merriam-Webster but for a different, non-legal meaning.</ref>
|taking away the citizenship of a naturalized citizen (a "[[natural born citizen]]" cannot be denaturalized).
|-
|[[deregulation]]
|1963
|Reagan won in 1980 by campaigning on this.
|-
|design by committee
|before 1958
|pejorative term directed against collective production by a group
|-
|despotism
|1727
|a ruler with unlimited powers
|-
|[[deterrence]]
|1861
|Disincentive of committing a crime based on the amount of punishment
|-
|devalue
|1918
|describing an unwelcome attitude or act, as in "devaluing human life"
|-
|devil's advocate
|1760
|someone who espouses the position of the wrong side, in order to test, sharpen and strengthen the right side
|-
|devotee
|1645
|ardent follower, supporter, or loyalty to. 56 years separates devotee and devoted
|-
|disinformation
|1939
|false information spread (and sometimes manufactured) by groups with a strong political agenda
|-
|division of labor
|1776
|increasing productivity through specialization of labor, as in a husband working in manufacturing while his wife cares for children
|-
|dog and pony show
|1970
|an overblown event, typically having more fanfare than substance; liberals like to run a "dog and pony show" in towns having a large public university, where students brainwashed by liberal professors are led like cattle to the events
|-
|[[domino effect]]
|1966
|how the fall of one nation to communism can result in its harmful spread to neighboring nations
|-
|double standard
|1894
|applying harsher criticism against one group, such as churchgoers or conservatives, than against another group, such as atheists or liberals; recognition of a double standard by the [[Prodigal Son]] led him to repent and convert
|-
|doublethink
|1949
|a term first coined by [[George Orwell]] in his dystopian novel ''[[1984]]''; it means simultaneously holding contradictory beliefs, which is a characteristic of [[status worship]]
|-
|doubting Thomas
|1848
|someone who believes only what he can see and touch, and doubts all else; named after the [[Apostle]] Thomas as described at [[John 15-21 (Translated)#20:24|John 20:24]]
|-
|[[drain the swamp]]
|2016
|popularized by [[Donald Trump]], it is an expression that President [[Ronald Reagan]] once used in 1983 to “drain the swamp” in reference to big government in D.C.
|-
|drifter
|1897
|someone whose residency wanders about aimlessly, failing to become a permanent, productive member of any community
|-
|duh science
|2000
|First coined by the ''LA Weekly'' to criticize the ''[[LA Times]]'' for failing to criticize a publicly funded study that concluded that pessimistic people are often in bad moods.<ref>Originally "duh!" science: "But couldn't we have been treated to just a soupcon of critical thinking, some irony even -- perhaps a glancing reference to the wisdom of public funding for 'duh!' science?"
"L.A. TIMES WHO KNEW? DEPARTMENT", ''LA Weekly'' p. 12 (Jan. 14, 2000).</ref>
|-
|dumb down
|1933
|
|-
|dumpster diving
|1982
|Searching through dumpsters for food or other material that can used rather than discarded; first known use: "Restaurant and store owners have complained about drunks panhandling during the day and 'dumpster diving' through trash at night."<ref>Phil Long, "Special Wing for Drunks Suggested at Future Jail," Miami Herald D1 (Nov. 24, 1982).</ref> It is also a popular method used by watchdog groups; they rummage through the trash of organizations they consider to be corrupt, hoping to find evidence to use against them (televangelist Robert Tilton's ministry was brought down in such a manner; thousands of prayer requests -- with all the donations removed -- were found in the dumpster of his attorney).
|-
|dumpster fire
|2008
|senseless chaos characteristic of [[liberal]] endeavors
|-
|duplicitous
|1928
|someone—particularly a liberal politician—who deceptively says one thing when he really intends to do something else
|-
|dystopia
|1868
|the dehumanizing opposite of "utopia"; dystopia was first coined by the [[Victorian]] philosopher, [[John Stuart Mill]] in the [[British]] [[House of Commons]]: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians."
|-
|Eagle Scout
|1913
|the highest rank in the [[Boy Scouts]], the term also means "a straight-arrow and self-reliant man."<ref>Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1994).</ref>
|-
|earmark
|2009
|"A provision in congressional legislation that allocates a specified amount of money for a specific project, program or organization."<ref>Merriam-Webster's Dictionary (2009).</ref>
|-
|eat crow
|1872<ref>After popular use, in 1885 the ''Magazine of American History'' wrote, "'To eat crow' means to recant, or to to humiliate oneself."</ref>
|Liberal Republican [[Horace Greeley]] was described by critics as "boiled crow," which conjured up the meaning of humiliation associated with the term "eat crow."
|-
|echo chamber
|1937
|a figurative room with sound-reflecting walls, where people give opinions that influence no one and are heard only by other people who have their own opinions, such as cable news talk shows
|-
|economic rent
|1889
|revenue above the minimum amount to keep a good or service on the market, typically due to monopoly power; notice the date of origin was only one year prior to passage of the conservative [[Sherman Act]] in 1990
|-
|editorialize
|1856
|"to introduce opinion into the reporting of facts"<ref>Merriam-Webster (1994).</ref>
|-
|educrat
|1968
|a liberal education bureaucrat
|-
|[[efficiency]]
|1633
|ultimately from the Latin ''efficientem'', meaning ''"working out, or accomplishing"''<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=efficient Online Etymological Dictionary]</ref>
|-
|egotism
|1714
|the root of atheism, as explained by Paul in Romans 1:21-22; the root of depression and anxiety also
|-
|electioneering
|1780s
|to work for the success of a particular candidate, party, ticket, etc., in an election.
|-
|[[elementary proof]]
|1865
|a mathematical proof based on the minimum assumptions associated with real analysis; term probably does not predate [[complex analysis]] and its first use may have been the English mathematician James Joseph Sylvester's paper, "On an elementary proof and generalisation of Sir Isaac Newton's hitherto undenionstrated rule for the discovery of imaginary roots."<ref>http://www.archive.org/stream/circular129johnuoft/circular129johnuoft_djvu.txt</ref>
|-
|[[elitism]]
|1950
|an attitude or belief in one's superiority based solely on membership in a particular group or community, especially liberals
|-
|[[embryoscopy]]
|1967<ref>The first endoscopic image of the unborn child was in 1967, by Mandelbaum. The date of origin of the term "embryoscopy" may have been later, but likely before the 1990s.</ref>
|Search this term on the internet and see the spectacular photos of the unborn child ("embryo") that were "scoped" by tiny cameras.
|-
|empowerment
|1986
|facilitating power for the ordinary; see also [[best of the public]]
|-
|empty nest
|1962
|a family home after children have grown and left
|-
|endgame
|1881
|a term from the [[conservative]] game of [[chess]] which refers to the final part of a project or triumph
|-
|[[entitlement]]
|1944
|a liberal welfare state's "reward" for refusing to work hard and succeed
|-
|[[entitlement]] mentality
|1980s
|a state of mind where people think they own things that are not theirs and which they did not work for
|-
|entrepreneur
|1852
|a brave person willing to take the necessary risks to establish a business, often found in the free market enterprise system
|-
|[[ethnic voting]]
|1900s
|widely recognized and even advocated by some,<ref>http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/5/2/3/4/p152345_index.html</ref> yet the dictionary doesn't yet recognize it
|-
|etiquette
|1740
|social standards of behavior that promote dignity and discourage inept communications (or lack thereof)
|-
|[[Eurabia]]
|1970s
|A satirical word based on the idea that Europe is rapidly becoming Islamized.
|-
|[[Eurosceptic]]
|1970s
|someone who opposes joining the super-socialist [[European Union]]; some prefer the term "Eurorealist" to express this opposition, and sometimes "Eurosceptic" is used to criticize opponents of the EU
|-
|everyman
|1906
|the typical person
|-
|exceptional
|1787
|same year of origin as the [[U.S. Constitution]]!
|-
|exculpatory
|1781
|often used in the phrase "exculpatory evidence," it took nearly 50 years to develop this term after origination of the legal term suggesting guilt: "incriminate"
|-
|existence proof
|1950
|overcoming denial that something is possible by referencing its existence
|-
|expatriate
|1768
|to give up one's own citizenship, or be banished by one's own nation
|-
|explain away
|1704
|a weaker form of [[liberal denial]], "explain away" the truth is the only way that some remain liberal as they grow older
|-
|expose
|1803
|(noun) a statement of the facts, typically to discredit wrongdoing by government
|-
|eyeball-to-eyeball
|1962
|"We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked" was a conservative statement by Secretary of State Dean Rusk during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].<ref>http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/annals.htm</ref>
|-
|facade
|1845<ref>1845 is the date of origin for the figurative use. The literal use dates back to 1650s, meaning the front of a building.</ref>
|Example usage: "The facade of a liberal politician is often conservative."
|-
|fair shake
|1830
|approaching an idea or concept with an open mind
|-
|fairy tale
|1749
|a fanciful fictional story. Sample usage: "[[Evolution]] is a fairy tale for adults who don't want to read and accept the logic of the [[Bible]]."
|-
|faith healing
|1885
|
|-
|[[faithless elector]]
|2016
|an elector in the [[Electoral College]] who violates their pledge to support the candidate chosen by the voters in their state, and instead votes for someone else or abstains; the [[liberal media]] thereby referred to electors who might betray Trump
|-
|[[fake news]]
|2017<ref>The term was used by [[liberals]] in late 2016, and had sporadic use going back even as early as the 1890s, but did not become common until 2017 when President Trump began using it.</ref>
|Popularized by President [[Donald Trump]] in describing false smears by the [[liberal media]] against him and other [[conservatives]].
|-
|false flag
|2015
|deceptive tactic by [[ISIS]] and other insurgents to commit heinous acts but falsely make it look like the governing regime did it. The origin of the name comes from a ship sailing under the false flag of its adversary until it got close enough to fire upon them.
|-
|[[family values]]
|1916
|a moral code that binds together and strengthens a typical family unit; widespread use after a speech by Vice President [[Dan Quayle]], 1992
|-
|fat farm
|1969
|a place where obese people—such as self-centered [[atheists]]—might go to try to lose weight
|-
|father figure
|1934
|someone who fulfills the essential role of a father, biological or figurative
|-
|faux conservative
|1990<ref>First coined by ''The Economist'', in "[[New England]]'s governors; All change" (September 22, 1990), in reference to Lowell Weicker's "loss in 1988 to a Faux-conservative Democrat, Mr [[Joseph Lieberman]]."</ref>
|
|-
|federal government
|1787
|used by [[Alexander Hamilton]] in the first phrase of the ''[[Federalist Papers]]'' to signify a government that is not fully sovereign, as the States are
|-
|[[federalism]]
|1789
|the unique system of dual sovereigns, state and federal (national), established by the [[U.S. Constitution]]
|-
|fear-mongering
|1938<ref>The ''[[New York Times]]'' attributed the first use -- ironically -- to President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]].</ref>
|a method of stirring up exaggerated fear by the public, typically to expand government
|-
|feedback
|1920
|an all-important element of accountability and improvement, and a key consideration in good engineering design
|-
|[[fellow traveller]]
|1925
|may have existed earlier, but popularized in 1924 by Leon Trotsky. Describes a sympathizer of a cause but who does not formally belong to the cause, such as a [[communist]] sympathizer who is not part of the communist party. The term was invented by the communists in its original, non-negative sense, but the conservatives were the first to use it as a pejorative term.
|-
|[[fiscal cliff]]
|2012
|first coined by Federal Reserve Chairman [[Ben Bernanke]], it refers to the effect on the economy of a sharp drop in spending and perhaps an increase in taxes scheduled to take effect at approximately the same time.<ref>http://www.benjaminfedwards.com/blog/?p=197</ref>
|-
|fleebaggers
|2011
|a play on the word "teabaggers", a "fleebagger" is a Democrat state legislator who flees his or her state in order to block a [[quorum]] needed to pass [[conservative]] legislation, such as an [[election integrity]] bill in [[Texas]] in 2021.<ref>https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/12/fleebaggers-a-history-of-democrats-running-away-to-deny-a-quorum/</ref>
|-
|[[Flip flop (politics)|flip-flop]]
|1976
|''verb'', meaning to change political position, typically due to [[liberal]] pressure. First used by the Republican S.I. Hayakawa campaign to describe California Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator John Tunney, whom Hayakawa defeated in an upset.
|-
|force majeure
|1883
|an intervening event beyond ordinary anticipation, such as an act of [[God]] or, in 2020, the [[coronavirus]] pandemic, which justifies nullifying a legal [[contract]]
|-
|force-feed
|1901
|to force someone to accept something, often against that person's will; what liberals do to students in [[public schools]] today in training them to be [[atheist]]ic socialists
|-
|[[Essay: Fornonormativity|fornonormativity]]
|2016
|A state of a society, organization, or group in which fornication and related behaviors are presupposed to be normal, morally good, and expected. In a fornonormative social milieu, people who abstain from or oppose certain behaviors are considered deviant or worse.
|-
|forward-looking
|1800
|planning for the future rather than dwelling on the past
|-
|Founding Fathers
|1914
|the several dozen [[Christian]]s<ref>[http://www.adherents.com/gov/Founding_Fathers_Religion.html Religious Affiliation of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, Adherents.com]</ref>, not semi-secular deists, contrary to popular belief, who helped draft the formative documents of the United States
|-
|[[free enterprise]]
|1820
|
|-
|free lunch
|1949
|something acquired ostensibly without paying for it, as in welfare; often used to remind people that "there's no such thing as a free lunch" in order to point out that it must cost someone something, now or later.
|-
|[[free market]]
|1907
|an economy wherein anyone can run a business with limited government intervention, if not none at all
|-
|free speech
|1873
|shorthand for "freedom of speech," but with a connotation that extends to non-citizens and listeners; first used in a U.S. Supreme Court opinion in dissent in the [[Slaughter-House Cases]] by Justice Bradley
|-
|free world
|1949
|areas of the world free of communism, fascism, and other dystopian, oppressive liberal governments
|-
|freeloader
|1934
|someone who avoids paying or working to earn a share of a benefit
|-
|frontiersmen
|1814
|living and working in a self-sufficient manner and with courage in a new land.
|-
|fuzzy math
|1937
|non-computational math designed to obscure the differences between the correct answers and the incorrect—but perhaps politically motivated—answers
|-
|galvanize
|1802
|as in, "the liberal proposals ''galvanized'' the grassroots in opposition"
|-
|[[gambit]]
|1656
|a sacrifice that obtains an advantageous position, as in the game of [[chess]] ([[Bobby Fischer]]'s queen's gambit was a masterpiece) or in real life (the [[Passion of Christ]])
|-
|gamble
|1726
|to intentionally take a risk for the sake of the risk itself, often addictive and even [[demonic]] as in [[gambling]]
|-
|gang up
|1925
|group pressure
|-
|gateway drug
|1982
|a slang term describing an addictive substance that can lead to a more addictive substance, as in when abuse of alcohol/marijuana eventually leads to harder drugs cocaine/heroin
|-
|[[gerrymandering]]
|1812
|coined by a newspaper editor to criticize the manipulation of the lines of a new district into a salamander shape<ref>http://www.allbusiness.com/information/publishing-industries/251259-1.html</ref> that favored election of a liberal politician
|-
|gimmick
|1922
|originally meant a deceptive mechanical device for controlling a [[gambling]] machine, and then its meaning expanded to include all trickery to attract attention
|-
|girlie men
|1988
|popularized by [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] before he became [[California]]'s Republican governor, beginning when he campaigned for President [[George H.W. Bush]] by referring to his [[liberal]] opponents as "girlie men"
|-
|Giving Tuesday
|2012
|a day of charity during the [[Christmas]] season, in response to "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday"
|-
|[[globalism]]
|1997
|Merriam-Webster states it was first used in 1943<ref>https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/globalism</ref> and the OED gives a date of 1965 for the exact term "globalism";<ref>http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50095613/50095613se2?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=globalism&first=1&max_to_show=10&hilite=50095613se2</ref> the term "globalization" was first used in the mid-1980s in a different, complimentary sense.
|-
|gobbledygook
|1944
|circular bureaucratic directives; term was coined by [[conservative]] [[Texas|Texan]] Congressman Maury Maverick
|-
|God-fearing
|1835
|Living by the rules of God; living in a way that is considered morally right.
|-
|godsend
|1820
|something so miraculous that there is no other explanation for it other than it being a blessing from God; can be used positively in both the literal and figurative sense
|-
|go-getter
|1921
|someone who works hard with unwavering determination to achieve a goal
|-
|[[gold standard]]
|1831
|the highest standard. With respect to currency, when money could be exchanged for a fixed amount of gold.
|-
|golden parachute
|1981
|a pejorative term for a pre-arranged handout to a corporate executive when fired, as when the company is taken over by new ownership
|-
|good book
|1860
|the [[Bible]]
|-
|[[Good Samaritan]]
|1640
|a person who performs acts of voluntary charity, as did a Samaritan in one of Jesus' parables
|-
|goon
|1926
|a dim-witted thug, especially one who intimidates on behalf of a union
|-
|government school
|1955
|coined by [[economist]] [[Milton Friedman]] as a more accurate name for [[public schools]]
|-
|[[grade inflation]]
|1975
|the tendency by Liberal educationalists and public schools to increase marks, irrespective of merit or actual achievement.
|-
|[[gradualism]]
|1835
|a form of [[liberal creep]]
|-
|grandmaster
|1927
|the elite [[chess]] ranking of excellence, based entirely on merit, which is 99% male to the dismay of [[feminist]]s
|-
|grandstand
|1917
|to act in an insincere or exaggerated manner in order to try to impress onlookers
|-
|[[grassroots]]
|1901
|
|-
|gravy train
|1927
|easy money for little or no work, in contrast with the work ethic; notice how the [[Great Depression]] hit two years later
|-
|greasy spoon
|1902
|a free enterprise term for a small, cheap restaurant - which in many places is just what the public wants; reflects Jesus' [[Biblical scientific foreknowledge]] about the digestive system
|-
|[[Great Awakening]]
|1730-1740
|A religious revival. Christian Great Awakenings recur periodically. See [[Essay:The Coming Fifth Great Awakening in America]].
|-
|[[Gresham's Law]]
|1858
|the tendency in a free market for bad money (which loses its value) to drive out (be used more often in transactions) than good money (which retains its value), because people want to horde the good money while getting rid of the bad money; a similar effect can be seen when profanity drives out intelligent discussion
|-
|[[groupthink]]
|1952
|a style of thought consisting of conformity to a manufactured consensus and self-deception; coined by William H. Whyte in 1952.
|-
|guardian angel
|1631
|a protector who guards someone from danger or evil; sometimes even a stranger unknown to the person protected.
|-
|half-baked
|1855
|an idea that can appear reasonable at first, but with just a little thought it is recognized to be absurd
|-
|hallmark
|1721
|purity, authenticity, as in an official seal or distinguishing feature
|-
|handout
|1882
|describes charity and government giveaways
|-
|happy talk
|1973
|senseless banter among broadcasters in the [[lamestream media]], as a substitute for real news; more generally, happy talk is unjustifiably feel-good rhetoric that implicitly denies the real existence of [[Hell]].
|-
|hardworking
|1774
|the quality of working persistently to achieve something
|-
|harmless error
|1861
|an insignificant violation of a duty or procedural rule; first used in ''Western Ins. Co. v. The Goody Friends'', 29 F. Cas. 764 (S.D. Ohio 1861) (referring to a duty)
|-
|hatchet job
|1944
|still looking for the context of its first use; today it means an article, typically by a liberal, that misleadingly smears someone, typically a conservative
|-
|Hawthorne effect
|1962
|the increase in achievement resulting merely from being observed; this was demonstrated by experiment at the Hawthorne Works of Western Electric in Cicero, Illinois
|-
|heartland
|1904
|the central portion of the [[United States]] known for its [[Midwest conservative|Midwestern conservative values]], [[Midwestern austerity]], unpretentious culture, and lack of control by the [[liberal media]] and [[Hollywood]].<ref>https://www.britannica.com/place/Midwest</ref>
|-
|heckler's veto
|1965
|coined by University of Chicago Law Professor Harvey Kalven, Jr., a strong supporter of free speech in politics, this term has been used in [[Supreme Court]] decisions by Justices [[Sam Alito]],<ref>''See'' ''Pleasant Grove City v. Summum'', 129 S. Ct. 1125 (2009); ''see also'' ''Child Evangelism Fellowship of N.J., Inc. v. Stafford Twp. Sch. Dist.'', 386 F.3d 514 (3rd Cir. 2004).</ref> [[Antonin Scalia]], and [[Clarence Thomas]].<ref>''Good News Club v. Milford Cent. Sch.'', 533 U.S. 98 (2001)</ref>
|-
|high maintenance
|1980s<ref>The use of the term was picked up and repeated in a movie released in 1989, ''When Harry Met Sally'' (1989).</ref>
|someone, often liberal, who repeatedly demands attention and unproductive help from others
|-
|hindsight
|1866
|understanding of an event or decision with the benefit of wisdom gained afterward
|-
|[[hippie]]
|1965
|a member of the original 1960s counterculture, which rejects traditional morality, encourages smoking [[marijuana]] and [[LSD]], promotes feminine hairstyles on men and masculine hairstyles on women, encourages limitless extramarital sex, and shuns hard work; this term became increasingly pejorative over time
|-
|hissy fit
|1970
|an unjustified tantrum, typically female in nature, as in "[[feminist]]s had a hissy fit when [[Lawrence Summers]] suggested (but criticized) the possibility that women have weaker scientific aptitude than men, and Summers ultimately resigned."
|-
|hoax
|1796
|to deceive the public into believing something that is false, often to pull people away from the [[Christianity]] and the [[Bible]].
|-
|Hobson's choice
|1649<ref>this term has the entertaining history of originating with an English liveryman who required customers to "choose" the horse closest to the door.</ref>
|an ostensible choice that disguises a lack of freedom, because each alternative is completely unacceptable. This term is invoked to criticize an illusory freedom of choice. This term has been used in 48 cases by Supreme Court Justices, more often by conservatives than by liberals.
|-
|hokey
|1927
|phony, in an obvious or corny way (in 1908, "hokum" originated, which means pretentious nonsense<ref>https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hokum</ref>)
|-
|Holy Week
|1710
|the week leading up to [[Easter]], including the [[Passion]], [[Crucifixion]] and [[Resurrection]]
|-
|[[home rule]]
|1855<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/home-rule Dictionary.com estimates the first use as being at 1855-60]</ref>
|self-government on an issue at a local level, as in curriculum in education being established by a school district rather than the state or federal government
|-
|[[homemaker]]
|1876
|a wife and mother whose efforts are wisely spent running the household for the family
|-
|[[homeschool]]
|1980<ref>the OED assigns a date of origin of 1850 to "homeschool".</ref>
|
|-
|hometown
|1912
|the place where someone grew up and typically obtained some benefit
|-
|[[homosexual agenda]]
|1989
|the sociopolitical ideology governing homosexuals; used to promote the agenda in the book ''After the Ball'', but then used to criticize the movement by Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] in his dissent in ''Lawrence v. Texas'' (2003)''
|-
|honor system
|1903
|an approach to discipline that emphasizes and encourages trust, honesty and personal responsibility rather than constant supervision
|-
|human rights
|1766
|rights of all peoples, such as to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as set forth in the [[Declaration of Independence]]
|-
|hype
|1931
|originally meant to deceive or "put on," and then its meaning shifted slightly to represent extravagant promotion of something as the liberal media often do
set forth in the [[Declaration of Independence]]
|-
|hypergamy
|1883
|the preference of many women to "marry up," which requires a society where men tend to make more than women do
|-
|hyphenated American
|1889
|an American citizen who identifies as another nationality before identifying as American; President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1915, "There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American."
|-
|hypothesis
|1656
|a suggestion, typically scientific in nature, which must be tested and proven before asserted as truth
|-
|hysteria
|1801
|From the Latin ''hystericus'', from Greek ''hystera '' meaning ''"womb"''<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hysteria Meriam Webster Dictionary]</ref> (an old notion that hysteria was caused by the [[womb]]).
|-
|idealist
|1829
|a person guided by ideals
|-
|illiteracy
|1660
|a lack of reading comprehension or writing ability, which often results in lack of free will; liberals seek to produce illiterate voters who lack independence, and many graduates of the [[public schools]] are illiterate today
|-
|inalienable
|1640s
|describes something cannot be taken away, especially by government, as in "inalienable rights" in the [[Declaration of Independence]]
|-
|inattentive
|1741<ref>Date of origin given by the Online Etymology Dictionary; Merriam-Webster cites an earlier date of origin, perhaps with a narrower meaning.</ref>
|more than 150 years before the discovery in physics of the connection between attentiveness/observation and uncertainty/chaos, this conservative word cautioned against inattentiveness
|-
|incentivize
|1970
|to create a reward to encourage good work
|-
|incidental inequality
|2009
|inequalities that result as side effects of an objectively just system
|-
|incoherent
|1626
|not consistently making sense; the term often applies to liberal [[double standard]]s
|-
|incompleteness
|1931
|a system of logic or mathematics that includes propositions that are impossible to prove or disprove; term coined as a result of [[Kurt Gödel]]'s work in 1931
|-
|[[incrementalism]]
|1966
|imposing bad political or social change slowly
|-
|indecisive
|1726
|being unable to make a decision; can result from a lack of [[faith]] and determination
|-
|[[independence]]
|1640
|free will
|-
|[[individualism]]
|1827
|the idea that values, rights and duties arise from the individual
|-
|[[inerrancy]]
|1834
|free from error, as in "biblical inerrancy"
|-
|infinitesimal
|1706
|vanishingly small and approaching [[zero]], as in the [[faith]] of an [[atheist]]
|-
|inflationary
|1920
|policies causing inflation of the monetary supply
|-
|informed consent
|1967
|consent to surgery is meaningful only if informed, a requirement that should apply to abortion
|-
|initiative
|1793
|self-starting first step toward improvement, overcoming a tendency of complacent underachievement
|-
|inoculate
|1721
|to safeguard against future harm by developing immunity against it. Sample usage: "Conservapedia inoculates against [[liberal claptrap]]."
|-
|insightful
|1907
|what conservatism is about: gaining insights into the truth, and bettering individuals and society with them
|-
|inside baseball
|1978<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/19/magazine/on-language-inside-baseball.html (popularized in the 1970s, but a date of origin earlier in the 1900s is likely)</ref>
|strategy and tactics known to the well-informed participants, but mysterious to most observers
|-
|intangible
|1914
|something valuable that cannot be seen or touched, such as goodwill
|-
|intellectual property
|1845
|denotes an intangible work that rightfully belongs to its creator, e.g. "we [should] protect intellectual property, the labors of the mind, productions and interests as much a man's own, and as much the fruit of his honest industry, as the wheat he cultivates, or the flocks he rears." ''Davoll v. Brown'', 7 F. Cas. 197 (Cir. Ct. Mass. 1845) (Woodbury, federal judge).
|-
|[[intelligent design]]
|1991<ref>A few isolated references to this phrase, without its full current significance, can be found dating back to the mid-1800s</ref>
|coined in ''Darwin on Trial'', a book by Philip Johnson, who is considered the father of the intelligent design movement and who co-founded the [[Discovery Institute]]'s Center for Science and Culture in 1996<ref>http://biologos.org/resources/johnson-phillip-e</ref>
|-
|interventionism
|1923
|"governmental interference in economic affairs at home or in political affairs of another country"<ref>Merriam-Webster (1994).</ref>
|-
|invisible hand
|1776
|coined by Adam Smith in the ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'' and widely used today.
|-
|[[invisible hand of marriage]]
|2008
|discovered on Conservapedia, it is the unseen force of productivity that results from marriage (only between a man and woman).
|-
|Iron curtain
|1945
|coined by Winston Churchill in a speech in Missouri just after World War II, to describe the communist's figurative wall against freedom
|-
|[[irreducible complexity]]
|1935
|coined<ref>[[Alan Turing]] reportedly used the term for a completely different meaning that went nowhere. [http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/nasty-feelings-in-the-ool-community-toward-yockey/]</ref> and later adopted and developed by [[Michael Behe]] to describe structure or system that could not possibly have evolved, because removing any part makes it nonfunctional, thereby showing that [[God]] must have created it whole into biology; if the [[Nobel Prize]] were not dominated by [[atheism]], Behe could win one for this insight.
|-
|[[Islamofascism]]
|1990?
|A form of totalitarian Muslim fundamentalist rule, or extreme Islamism.
|-
|ivory tower
|1910
|a description of the pampered culture of liberal [[professor values|professors]], and how far out of touch with the truth it is
|-
|jabberwocky
|1872
|meaningless talk; coined by [[Lewis Carroll]], a [[conservative]] [[mathematician]], in his classic book "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There"
|-
|[[John Hancock]]
|1903
|a personal signature, especially in a bold style that stands up for principles as [[John Hancock]] did with his signing the United States [[Declaration of Independence]]
|-
|[[judicial activism]]
|1947
|first coined in an article in ''Fortune'' magazine by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/278089</ref> and repeatedly used in U.S. Supreme Court opinions since 1967,<ref>''United States v. Wade'',
388 U.S. 218 (1967).</ref> yet as of 2009 [[Merriam-Webster]] dictionary still fails to recognize this widely used term.
|-
|judicial prejudice
|2009
|the bias of a judge in favor of a political correct identity group intended to rig outcome equality in favor of that group based on subjective bias rather than objective justice.
|-
|[[judicial restraint]]
|1942
|"Assuming that this court has power to act, it does not necessarily follow that it should act. ... In a number of situations, and in a number of cases, it has been held that courts should voluntarily refrain from using or asserting power. Where the use or assertion of power might be destructive of a well defined purpose of law or of a declared public policy such voluntarily imposed '''judicial restraint''' may be commendable."<ref>Osage Tribe of Indians v. Ickes, 45 F. Supp. 179, 184-85 (D.D.C. 1942) (emphasis added).</ref>
|-
|[[judicial supremacist]]
|2004
|one who advocates that the courts should be supreme over the other branches of government for certain legal issues; first coined in a book by [[Phyllis Schlafly]]; first used by the judiciary by the Michigan Supreme Court in ''Paige v. City of Sterling Heights'', 476 Mich. 495 (2006).<ref>A similar yet different concept, "judicial supremacy," was coined by [[conservative]] Supreme Court Justice [[Robert H. Jackson]] as the title of his book,'' The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy: A Study of a Crisis in American Political Power'' (New York: Knopf, 1941).</ref>
|-
|[[judicial taking]]
|1982
|the deprivation of private property due to a court decision; this concept was introduced by conservative Justice [[Potter Stewart]] in 1967, and the term was used for the first time independently by the Michigan and Hawaii Supreme Courts in the same month (!) in December 1982, and then used often in law review articles and Circuit Court decisions in the 2000s, and then four Justices of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] endorsed the principle in a decision in 2010, with two others accepting the possibility.
|-
|[[junk science]]
|1962<ref>http://rated.com/dir/Society/Issues/Environment/Opposing_Views/Junk_Science</ref>
|the corruption of the scientific method to advance other, often political, goals (such as [[Global Warming]])
|-
|jury nullification
|1948
|the power of a jury to overrule the law and acquit an ostensibly guilty defendant; the power was established in the colonies in 1735 in the trial of [[John Peter Zenger]], but this term was first used in state court by ''Pfeuffer v. Haas,'' 55 S.W.2d 111 (Tex. Civ. App. 1932) and in federal court by ''Skidmore v. Baltimore & O. R. Co.'', 167 F.2d 54 (2nd Cir. 1948)
|-
|Kafkaesque
|1946
|illogical, nightmare-like situations, which typically arise from [[Leftist]] control of a bureaucracy
|-
|killjoy
|1776
|one who spoils the pleasure of others.<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/killjoy Killjoy 1776 Mer-Web]</ref> ''Example''-Vandals seek to disrupt conservative wikis, an education project. They are a killjoy to the learning process.
|-
|kiss of death
|1943
|a kiss symbolizing the promise to kill someone, from Judas's betrayal of Jesus with a kiss, Mark 14:44-4
|-
|kleptocrat
|1819
|A politician who seeks status and personal gain at the expense of the governed
|-
|kowtow
|1826
|obsequious, unthinking obedience to someone or something, used especially in the context of dictatorships and liberal belief systems
|-
|Kremlinology
|1958
|the study of the otherwise indecipherable behavior of the government of the [[communist]] [[Soviet Union]]. Refers to the Kremlin, the traditional seat of Russian government (Soviet or not).
|-
|kudos
|1831
|praise for real achievement
|-
|kvetch
|1952
|to repeatedly complain, usually about unimportant, self-centered issues
|-
|la-la land
|1979<ref>First known use was in an article by Tom Zito, "Mr. Mike's Mania; Sick Humor, Very Well Indulged," [[Washington Post]] F1 (Nov. 8, 1979): "But now, it's off to La-La land, and his movie deal. 'The thing about Southern Californians,' he says, 'is this: They wake up and say, 'Gee, what a wonderful morning. I think I'll make a salad.' And that takes them the whole day. ..."</ref>
|a term for the decadent, liberal culture of [[Hollywood]]-driven [[Los Angeles]], originally capitalized as "La-La land."; Merriam-Webster is in denial about this etymology and claims a later origin of 1983.
|-
|[[labor camp]]
|1900
|forced work prison
|-
|[[laissez-faire]]
|1825
|opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is minimally necessary
|-
|lame duck
|1761
|a public official whose current power is diminished because he will not be reelected, and thus lacks continuing authority
|-
|[[lamestream media]]
|2009
|coined by Bernie Goldberg to describe the clueless [[Mainstream media]] that repeat superficial, discredited liberal claptrap
|-
|landslide
|1838
|In the political sense, an overwhelming election victory. A clear, democratic expression of popular will.
|-
|lapdog
|1950
|Coined by Senator [[Joe McCarthy]] in the figurative sense as he attempted to remove [[communist]]s from the [[State Department]]: "Senator McCarthy (R-Wis) renewed his Communists-in-Government charges today and called Senator Tydings (D-Md) the [[Truman]] administration's 'whimpering lap dog.'"<ref>https://www.etymonline.com/word/lapdog (quoting AP news story of Aug. 7, 1950)</ref>
|-
|leadership
|1821
|an ability and willingness to lead, often by example
|-
|learning curve
|1922
|initial, extra time and effort that is typically necessary before someone becomes productive
|-
|[[Left Coast]]
|1990s
|a more descriptive term for the West Coast of the United States
|-
|leftism
|1920
|principles and doctrine of leftists
|-
|level-headed
|1876
|"balanced", "having common sense and sound judgment"
|-
|[[liberal creep]]
|2008
|liberal bias that gradually creeps or distorts an entry, definition, explanation, description, or historical account.
|-
|life vest
|1939
|a pro-life invention
|-
|lifelong
|1855
|something, usually a commitment, that lasts a lifetime, as in "a lifelong commitment to [[Christ]]"
|-
|[[limousine liberal]]
|1969
|a multi-millionaire who pretends to be compassionate about the poor, but supports liberal policies that increase burdens on working Americans
|-
|litmus test
|1952
|use of a single political issue to determine if a candidate or nominee is acceptable
|-
|local
|1824<ref>This date refers to its first usage as a ''noun'', which is an estimate of its adoption as a concept.</ref>
|common usage: "all politics is local"
|-
|lockstep
|1802
|mindless conformity, often to liberal values
|-
|locomotive
|1829
|a great engine of economic growth during the [[Industrial Revolution]]
|-
|lone wolf
|1909
|a person who prefers to work, act, or live alone,<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lone%20wolf Lone wolf, Merriam-Webster]</ref> synonymous with self-sufficiency
|-
|loose cannon
|1973
|an undisciplined person or program that dangerously lacks forethought; used in mid-November 1976 to describe $11 billion in unspent appropriations by the Ford Administration: "'That money,' says Arnold Packer, a senior Senate Budget Committee economist who is helping Carter draw up his shadow budget, 'is like a loose cannon rolling around the deck' because a sudden reappearance of the funds could be inflationary." (''BusinessWeek'')
|-
|lowest common denominator
|1854
|the lowest in work ethic, morals, or knowledge among a group; typically used to criticize the liberal practice of dumbing down content
|-
|low-information voter
|2007
|a term that explains why people vote for Democrats
|-
|lunatic fringe
|1913
|coined by U.S. President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] to describe members of eccentric, radical or extremist groups<ref>http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lunatic</ref>
|-
|machismo
|1948
|a slang word for masculine charm, never used favorably by feminists
|-
|magnum opus
|1791
|the greatest work by an author, as in [[Adam Smith]]'s ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'' published 15 years before this term was coined.
|-
|Main Street
|1743
|one of the many small towns in America, and their conservative values
|-
|mainstay
|1787
|the primary support, typically for something good
|-
|mainstay
|1787
|the primary support, typically for something good
|-
|mama's boy
|1850
|an effeminate male due to an overbearing mother
|-
|manhunt
|1846
|notice how sexist the term is, and yet [[liberals]] have not been able to convert it to "personhunt"
|-
|man-hater
|1970s<ref>This was during the epic struggle -- and defeat -- of the so-called [[Equal Rights Amendment]].</ref>
|William Safire wrote in the ''New York Times'' in 1983, "Misandry, from the Greek misandros for 'hating men,' is in the 1961 Merriam-Webster New International Dictionary, and the Oxford Dictionary Supplement traces it to 1946. The word is pronounced as 'Ms. Andry,' but I wonder why we need the Greek word for it. What's wrong with good, old-fashioned man-hater?"<ref>Sunday, Oct. 30, 1983, Section 6, Page 12, Column 3.</ref>
|-
|make-work
|1923
|inefficient or useless activity that has the false appearance of being productive; a favorite endeavor of liberals
|-
|[[market failure]]
|1958<ref>Coined as the title of a scholarly article by Francis M. Bator, "The Anatomy of Market Failure," ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' (1958) [http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/Courses/econ335/out/bator_qje.pdf]</ref>
|instances where the free market does not provide a desirable result, as when information is withheld from an unsuspecting consumer
|-
|manifest destiny
|1845
|Providential design over future events, which originated in the context of expanding the United States to the Pacific Ocean
|-
|[[Mardi Gras]]
|1699
|The annual celebration on the eve of [[Ash Wednesday]] and [[Lent]], particularly in the historically [[Catholic]] city of [[New Orleans]].
|-
|marriage redefinition
|2003
|descriptive term used to criticize the legalizing of same-sex marriage in [[Canada]].
|-
|mask police
|2020
|busybodies, typically [[Opposition to Donald Trump|anti-Trumpers]], who demand that others wear a mask during the [[COVID-19]] pandemic despite unproven benefits of masks
|-
|materialism
|1748
|the view of life that physical matter is all that exists; as an "ism", the term criticizes such view
|-
|meat and potatoes
|1951
|the most interesting or fundamental part
|-
|[[Medal of Honor]]
|1898
|a special American military honor for bravery on the battlefield
|-
|[[media bullying]]
|2008<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Media_bullying&oldid=430831 (Apr. 14, 2008)</ref>
|first coined by ''Conservapedia'', media bullying is aggressive bias by the media in the attempt to influence a politician or others, typically toward a [[liberal]] goal
|-
|melting pot
|1912
|a nation that requires "social and cultural assimilation" of immigrants for successful immigration<ref>Merriam-Webster dictionary (1994)</ref>
|-
|memory hole
|1949
|a term created by [[George Orwell]] in his classic novel, ''[[1984]]'', to describe the [[censorship|censoring]] of something historical for political reasons
|-
|[[meritocracy]]
|1958
|a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement
|-
|[[microeconomics]]
|1947
|the study of the economics of the individual person or business
|-
|micromanage
|1985
|insistence on controlling details, typically by liberals to [[censorship|censor]] progress; [[Ronald Reagan]] was critical of this style by [[Democrat]] Presidents
|-
|Midwest conservative
|2006
|used initially to describe right-leaning politicians from the Midwest including [[Gerald Ford]] when he passed away, the term captures the mixture of common sense, intellectualism, and [[faith]] that leads the conservative movement from the heartland.
|-
|mind control
|1944
|a pejorative term for how an atheistic government influences what people believe, especially through public education
|-
|mindset
|1909
|close-minded point-of-view, typically in adherence to a liberal falsehood and often to the exclusion of Christ
|-
|missile defense
|1980s
|popularized by President Ronald Reagan as part of [[SDI]]
|-
|mission creep
|1991
|the liberal tendency to incrementally broaden the original goals of an organization or mission; used by Tucker Carlson to describe the defect in the investigation by Robert Mueller of the Trump Administration in 2017
|-
|missionary
|1625
|someone sent on a mission, typically a religious mission
|-
|mob justice
|2021
|used by multiple critics of the demands and pressure by [[liberals]] for a murder conviction in the [[Derek Chauvin]] trial, despite a lack of evidence for any intent to kill or a wrongful cause of death
|-
|mobocracy
|1754
|rule by a mob, as at Wikipedia
|-
|monogamy
|1612
|this has the same date of origin as "productive", and that may not be a coincidence!
|-
|moonlighting
|1957
|working more than a full-time job in order to be as productive as possible; the [[work ethic]] at its best
|-
|moral majority
|1979
|coined by [[Jerry Falwell]] to describe the movement of growing moral, Christian conservatives.
|-
|moxie
|1930
|determined enthusiasm, initially coined as a trademark for a popular soft drink sold at baseball games and elsewhere
|-
|muckety–muck
|1912
|a pejorative term for an arrogant person who holds a title or position considered to be important by others
|-
|muckraker
|1910
|a person who searches out and publicly exposes [[deceit]]<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/muckraker Merriam-Webster - Muckraker]</ref>
|-
|Murphy's Law
|1958
|if something can go wrong, then it will go wrong: this was a conservative insight by engineer Edward Murphy
|-
|muscle car
|1967
|placing a powerful engine in a classic two-door car for highly efficient performance; the result celebrates masculine style against erosion by feminism
|-
|myopic
|1990s
|originally a term in optometry (1752), 1990's used to describe liberals' lack of foresight
|-
|namby-pamby
|1745<ref>In 1726, poet Henry Carey first coined this term to ridicule rival poet Ambrose Philips, whose verses were unsophisticated. The modern meaning of the term developed a bit later.</ref>
|weak, indecisive, and, when describing a male group, also effeminate
|-
|name-dropping
|1950
|a term critical of the [[liberal]] practice of seeking to impress others by casually mentioning personal association with prominent people regardless of relevance to the conversation
|-
|nanny state
|1978
|"Under the New Economic Policy, [the new French Prime Minister Raymond] Barre has made it clear that industrial lame ducks can no longer count on the generosity of Nanny i.e. the state - for bailing out."<ref>Leo Ryan, "Economy Shored up: France's new surge of liberalism," The Globe and Mail (Canada) (Aug. 1, 1978)</ref> Note how two powerful new conservative terms led to a third here!
|-
|negativism
|1824
|mental attitude that tends that is skeptical about almost everything, except one's own views
|-
|newspeak
|1949
|political or media expressions using [[circumlocution]] and [[euphemism]]s to disguise or distract from the truth; first coined by [[George Orwell]] in ''[[1984]]''
|-
|neopopulism
|2012
|a form of populism that is [[conservative]], as articulated by the book ''Neopopulism as Counterculture''.<ref>By Thomas Dahlberg and Erick Kaardal (Vision Series: 2012).</ref> In a somewhat different way, the populism-based election of [[Donald Trump]] was also a conservative neopopulism.
|-
|Never-Trumper
|2015
|emotional, nearly deranged opponents of [[Donald Trump]], such as [[Liz Cheney]] and [[Mitt Romney]]
|-
|noel
|1811
|a Christmas carol or, when capitalized, Christmas itself
|-
|non-justiciable
|1922<ref>Used by the state attorneys for West Virginia (including Philip Steptoe, founder of Steptoe & Johnson) in ''Pennsylvania v. West Virginia'', 262 U.S. 553 (1923): "It is not the 'subject of judicial cognizance,' Hans v. Louisiana, 134 U.S. 1, 15; Louisiana v. Texas, 176 U.S 1, 15; Missouri v. Illinois, 180 U.S. 208, 233, or 'susceptible of judicial solution.' Louisiana v. Texas, 176 U.S. 1, 18, 22; Missouri v. Illinois, 180 U.S. 208, 233, 234."</ref>
|a difficult issue that the courts should not attempt to resolve, often because it is too political in nature
|-
|non-locality
|1920s
|[[action at a distance]] at the atomic level; even though proven, it is still opposed by those who believe in [[relativity]] and still not recognized by Merriam-Webster
|-
|nonstarter
|1902
|an idea—typically a [[liberal]] one—that has no possibility of being productive
|-
|nonstarter
|1902
|an idea—typically a [[liberal]] one—that has no possibility of being productive
|-
|nothingburger
|1953<ref>First attributed use is by [[Hollywood]] gossip columnist Louella Parsons, who used the term to disparage minor celebrities.</ref>
|A useful term in deflating persons or theories, as in [[Leftist]] conspiracy theories and politicians.
|-
|nullification
|1798
|assertion of authority by a State against encroachment by the federal government, in defense of liberty
|-
|obstructionism
|1879
|deliberate interference with free speech or legislative progress, as when liberal legislators (the "fleebaggers") fled Wisconsin to try to block a reform
|-
|off the grid
|1978
|self-sufficiency independent of public utilities for electricity and municipalities for water
|-
|Old Glory
|1862
|a poetic name for the ''United States of America'' flag, as is Stars & Stripes
|-
|one-size-fits-all
|1996<ref>Was there an earlier conservative use? Frank Zappa's album cover in the 1970s does not count!</ref>
|Lee Wishing, director of communications for conservative [[Grove City College]], in criticism of how the government administers student loans: "Unfortunately, with government programs, it's one size fits all."<ref>http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1996/dec96/er-dec96.html</ref> The 2008 Republican platform states, "We reject a one-size-fits-all approach and support parental options, including home schooling, and local innovations such as schools or classes for boys only or for girls only and alternative and innovative school schedules."<ref>http://platform.gop.com/2008Platform.pdf</ref>
|-
|one-trick pony
|1980
|a person or group that relies repeatedly on the same gimmick, as in "the media are a one-trick pony in their criticism of [[Rand Paul]]"
|-
|open-minded
|1828
|see [[Essay:Quantifying Openmindedness]]
|-
|opportunistic bioterrorism
|2020
|Concealment of the emergence of a biological agent, pathogen or a disease by acts of commission or omission with the knowledge that such an act will harm or kill humans, animals, or plants with the intent to intimidate or coerce a government or civilian population to further political or social objectives or by using a situation to get power or an advantage.<ref>http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/covid-19-the-chinese-military-and-maj-gen-chen-wei/</ref>
|-
|[[opportunity cost]]
|1911
|
|-
|optimism
|1759
|
|-
|ordered pair
|1870s
|developed by the [[Christian]] [[Georg Cantor]], this [[conservative]] concept was part of the [[set theory]] that he invented and revolutionized mathematics with, despite opposition by the establishment
|-
|organic food
|1950s
|a grassroots conservative response, led by mom-and-pop consumers and pharmacies, against government-approved pesticides and mandatory fluoridation
|-
|originalism
|1985
|taken from original intent, The belief that the United States Constitution should be interpreted in the way the authors originally intended it
|-
|originality
|1742
|[[Liberals]] not only lack originality, but (like Justice [[Hugo Black]]) are often hostile to its possibility.
|-
|Orwellian
|1960s
|terminology or style that advances the power of big government but is hurtful or nonsensical<ref>http://www.ntu.org/main/press.php?PressID=604</ref>
|-
|ostensibly
|1765
|having an outward appearance that may not reflect the underlying truth; good potential use is Luke 3:23 in describing Jesus as the son of Joseph
|-
|outflank
|1765
|to move swiftly around an opponent, a military tactic mastered by [[conservative]] [[General]] [[George Patton]] to crush the [[Germans]] in [[World War II]]
|-
|overthink
|1987<ref>started its sharp increase in usage in this year</ref>
|to think so much about a problem or issue as to miss more advantageous, simpler approaches. Sample usage: [[Donald Trump]]'s successful style illustrated that his rivals were overthinking politics.
|-
|pack heat
|1940s
|carry a concealed firearm, allowed by permit in nearly every state, yet liberal bias has made dictionaries slow to recognize this term
|-
|parenting
|1958
|children raising
|-
|Parkinson's Law
|1955
|how bureaucracies expand regardless of the productivity, and how inefficient work expands to fill the time available for its completion
|-
|parochial school
|1755
|a donation-supported, religious alternative to the mistake of [[public schools]]
|-
|[[Parthian shot]]
|1832
|a negative term for the tactic of expressing a criticism while one exits, just as the ancient Parthians would shoot arrows while retreating in battle. This tactic is common among those who reject [[conservative]] truths, as seen when left-leaning editors leave ''Conservapedia''.
|-
|[[partial-birth abortion]]
|1995<ref>Used by congressman Charles Canady to name the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act" to prohibit the horrific procedure.</ref>
|a hideous "dilation and extraction" [[abortion]] late in pregnancy that dismembers the child and punctures his head
|-
|passive-aggressive
|1946
|aggressively obstinate by failing to act, as [[liberals]] are in refusing to read the [[Bible]] with an open mind
|-
|[[patent troll]]
|2001
|a company that obtains or buys up patents for the sole purpose of asserting infringement claims, and without any intention of actually manufacturing the invention; the term was first coined by Peter Detkin, in-house counsel to Intel
|-
|patriotism
|1726
|the concept of being willing to serve one's nation under any circumstances, especially when defending it against outside opponents
|-
|Pavlovian
|1926
|a conditioned, automatic and unthinking response to a signal; it has been used twice by [[conservative]] Supreme Court Justices. "It is well established that this Court does not, or at least should not, respond in Pavlovian fashion to confessions of error by the [[Solicitor General]]." ''De Marco v. United States'', 415 U.S. 449, 451 (1974) ([[Rehnquist]], J., dissenting); "'[[Incorporation doctrine|Incorporation]]' has become so Pavlovian that my Brother BLACK barely mentions the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] in the course of an 11-page opinion dealing with the procedural rule the State of [[Florida]] has adopted for cases tried in Florida courts under Florida's criminal laws." '' Williams v. Fla.'', 399 U.S. 78, 144 (1970) ([[Potter Stewart|Stewart]], J., dissenting and concurring).
|-
|pejorative
|1882
|a word that has negative connotations in describing something, which the [[liberal media]] use while pretending that the term is neutral, such as "nativism" or "isolationism"
|-
|Pelosi pawn
|2021
|The term described [[RINO]] [[Liz Cheney]] as she became a toady for the [[Leftist]] agenda in supporting continued investigation and even imprisonment of ordinary [[American]]s for entering the [[United States Capitol]] on January 6th.
|-
|perpetual war
|1947
|Coined by historian Charles A. Beard,<ref>Charles A. Beard is best known for interpreting the Constitution as being primarily motivated by economic interests.</ref> it has been used most recently by [[Ann Coulter]]
|-
|[[personhood]] <ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/personhood Personhood] Dictionary.com</ref>
|1955
|Inherent rights guaranteed to all human beings from the beginning of their biological development, including the pre-born, partially born. Also, the state or fact of being a person.
|-
|Philadelphia
|1682
|coined by [[William Penn]] and meaning "city of brotherly love," the concept captures the "[[best of the public]]" approach
|-
|[[phonics]]
|1684
|conservatives have long championed phonics to promote literacy, Bible-reading, and informed voters; liberals take the opposite position
|-
|phony
|1900<ref>This surprisingly recent origin appears to be derived from a British confidence game.</ref>
|needed to address [[liberal deceit]]
|-
|[[photo bias]]
|1992<ref>A letter to the editor by a reader of the [[liberal]] ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' observed, "This is the third time in recent weeks that a weird or disfigured picture of Mr. Quayle has appeared in your Sunday paper."</ref>
|a common trick of the [[liberal media]] to push the reader to the political left on an issue, as in displaying a man without teeth as an opponent of a liberal bill or candidate.
|-
|Pickwickian
|1836
|a simple and generous quality, usually a person in the mold of Samuel Pickwick, a character in [[Charles Dickens]]' ''Pickwick Papers''
|-
|[[pie in the sky]]
|1911
|an unrealistic claim of value about a future [[materialism|materialistic]] benefit
|-
|piece of cake
|1936
|Sample usage: with church and the [[Bible]], life can be a piece of cake, but without [[Christ]] it can be very difficult
|-
|plandemic
|2020
|politically motivated hysteria over a pandemic, in order to advance [[Leftist]] goals such as mail-in voting and increased government control though vaccine mandates and passports, and mandatory masking of schoolchildren
|-
|plasticity
|1783
|having a plastic quality that conforms to molding or pressure; in pejorative usage, someone who easily conforms to [[peer pressure]] or [[liberal]] falsehoods
|-
|play in Peoria
|1969
|a saying in defiance of the [[liberal media]]-dominated culture on the coasts, first used in this way by President [[Richard Nixon]]'s aide [[John D. Ehrlichman]] in response to the press: "Don't worry, it'll play in Peoria."<ref>Scheetz, George H. "Peoria." In Place Names in the Midwestern United States. Edited by Edward Callary. (Studies in Onomastices; 1.) Mellen Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7734-7723-3</ref>
|-
|[[poetic justice]]
|1890
|when virtue is rewarded and/or wrongdoing is punished in an indirect or unexpected way
|-
|point of order
|1745<ref>[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/point+of+order Free dictionary gives a range of 1745-1755 for first usage]</ref>
|an objection to how a proceeding or discussion is being conducted, typically in opposition to [[liberal style]] and bias
|-
|[[political capital]]
|2004
|popularized by President [[George W. Bush]] after he won reelection and declared that he would "spend" the political capital by implementing his agenda
|-
|political machine
|1905
|a pejorative term for local and typically Democratic power structures that prevent outsiders from winning elections; first used by George Washington Plunkitt to criticize the Tammany Hall machine for which he served
|-
|political prisoner
|1864<ref>Apparently coined as part of a history of the [[Civil War]].</ref>
|someone imprisoned for his political beliefs. Sample usage: Foreign leaders have objected to how political prisoners are being held in jail in [[D.C.]] in 2021 for many months without a trial, for their peaceful support of President [[Trump]].
|-
|[[politically correct]]
|1983
|This term originated among radicals at the [[University of Wisconsin-Madison]] to enforce radical orthodoxy, but immediately flipped in usage to become a term of mockery of radicals.<ref>For an early different usage of the word, see J. Wilson, comments in U.S. Republic, 1793: "The states, rather than the people, for whose sake the states exist, are frequently the objects which attract and arrest our principal attention... 'The United States', instead of the 'People of the United States', is the toast given. This is not politically correct." [https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/161941/how-has-the-meaning-of-politically-correct-changed]</ref>
|-
|politicize
|1846
|seeking political gain at the expense of truth or quality<ref>The Merriam-Webster definition (1994 ed.) is incomplete and unclear: "to give a political tone or character to"</ref>
|-
|politics of envy
|2011
|used by Australian [[conservative]] Christopher Pine to describe the philosophy behind taking money from private schools and giving it to public ones.
|-
|poll watcher
|1890s
|a volunteer who monitors traffic and identification verification at a polling booth in order to protect election integrity
|-
|Pollyanna
|1913
|a very optimistic, cheerful, and exuberant person who lights up the world around her; the main character in the best-selling children's book by that name written by Eleanor H. Porter (published in 1913)
|-
|poppycock
|1865
|assertions that are nonsense, as much of [[liberal]] talk is
|-
|portability
|1965
|the degree to which something—particularly software—may be easily moved with minimal expense from one technology platform to another; parables are effective because of their portability among languages
|-
|pork barrel
|1909
|government as a source of handouts that redistribute money from hard-working people to those who avoid work
|-
|[[post-abortive]]
|1986
|the unexpected trauma and physical harm—which can worsen over time—that is experienced by a woman after having an [[abortion]]; coined by Dr. Kaye Cash in an editorial describing what she learned during a 365-mile walk in southeast Arkansas to speak with the public about abortion<ref>Editorial by Kaye Cash, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR), October 23, 1986.</ref>
|-
|Potemkin village
|1935
|a phony facade designed to distract the public from a disgraceful condition, typically used to describe deception by government against the people
|-
|potential
|1817<ref>Usage here refers to "promise", not "possibility".</ref>
|
|-
|pothead
|1959
|someone who smokes marijuana and doesn't realize its longterm negative psychological effects
|-
|powerhouse
|1881
|source of energy and strength - which is what the conservative movement is
|-
|[[price discrimination]]
|1920
|charging different prices for exactly the same service or good; first coined by the British economist (and critic of [[John Maynard Keynes]]) Arthur Cecil Pigou in ''The Economics of Welfare''.
|-
|[[price fixing]]
|1920
|the setting of prices in interference of the [[free market]]; it is illegal for private companies to do this, but government itself sometimes does it
|-
|prioritize
|1961
|to recognize that some goals and activities are more important than others, and then focus accordingly
|-
|private sector
|1952
|non-governmental businesses and jobs functioning in free enterprise
|-
|privatize
|1940
|to return a business or enterprise from state to private control; to de-nationalize.
|-
|proactive
|1933
|
|-
|Procrustean
|1832
|a pejorative description of the one-size-fits-all mentality, which disregards individual differences
|-
|productive
|1612
|
|-
|productivity
|1810
|the gap of about 200 years between the creation of "productive" and "productivity" is astounding
|-
|[[pro-life]]
|1960
|describes one who supports women going through with having children rather than killing them in the womb
|-
|pronoun police
|2015
|a pejorative term popularized by ''Breitbart.com''<ref>https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2015/04/28/bruce-jenner-and-the-pronoun-police/</ref>
|-
|property right
|1853
|
|-
|provocateur
|1919
|someone who spends more time causing unproductive conflicts rather than advancing knowledge, accomplishing legitimate goals, or helping anyone
|-
|pseudoscience
|1844
|worthless claims written with the appearance of scientific rigor to gain an aura of credibility
|-
|public charge
|1880
|an official term used by the government to describe someone who depends on payments from government
|-
|publicity stunt
|1969<ref>Earlier usage in the 1900s may have occurred, but the term "stunt" was not coined until 1878.</ref>
|Used on April 10, 1969 by Republican Senators who withdrew from a tour and probe by Senator [[Ted Kennedy]], criticizing him for his "publicity stunt" in preparation for his expected run for the presidency; the [[Chappaquiddick incident]] sunk his chances three months later.
|-
|puff piece
|1980s
|a biased story by the [[lamestream media]] to promote someone who shares their [[Leftist]] views
|-
|punctual
|1675
|consistently showing up on time, rather than a disrespectful tardiness
|-
|quantify
|1840
|
|-
|quisling
|1940
|a traitor who collaborates with the enemy, from the name of Vidkun Quisling, the Norway army officer who urged [[Adolf Hitler]] to invade Norway whereupon Quisling declared himself the ruler and later became its "minister president" until it was liberated.
|-
|race card
|1995<ref>This is the date of its widespread familiarity.</ref>
|"Playing the race card" consists of relying on racial emotions or charges of racism in order to overcome the truth and logic in politics, legal proceedings, or otherwise; this term became familiar in the criticism of the defense and acquittal of O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend.
|-
|reasonable doubt
|1770
|a Christian concept for the benefit of the souls of jurors, not the accused; first used in English by [[John Adams]] (before that, in [[canon law]]) in addressing the jury during his defense of the Boston Massacre perpetrators: "Where you are doubtful never act: that is, if you doubt of the prisoner's guilt, never declare him guilty; that is always the rule, especially in cases of life."<ref>http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=fss_papers</ref>
|-
|rapture
|1629
|spiritual ecstasy [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=rapture]
|-
|[[recidivism]]
|1886
|the tendency for people lacking in [[faith]] and determination to revert to prior patterns of harmful behavior, such as repeat criminal offenders
|-
|recuse
|1949
|self-removal by a decision-maker (especially a judge) because of possible bias with respect to the pending issue
|-
|red diaper baby
|1960s<ref>https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/60/messages/606.html</ref>
|child of [[American]] [[communist]]s (typically born between 1940 and 1970), some of whom (such as [[David Horowitz]]) later converted to the side of liberty and [[conservative|conservatism]].
|-
|red tape
|1736
|excessive bureaucracy and procedural complexity which frustrate meaningful activity and progress
|-
|refudiate
|2010
|combination of ''refute'' and ''repudiate'', as coined by [[Sarah Palin]]
|-
|[[relativism]]
|1865
|the view that ethical truths are not absolute, but depend on the person or group that holds them
|-
|[[responsibility]]
|1737
|the state of having a duty to do something, or being accountable or blamable for something; HAMILTON Federalist No. 63 (1988) II. 193 Responsibility in order to be reasonable must be limited to objects within the power of the responsible party.
|-
|rethink
|1700<ref>Date of origin given by the 10th Edition of the ''Merriam-Webster'' dictionary; its online dictionary has an earlier date.</ref>
|to reconsider, a sign of [[Essay:Quantifying Openmindedness|openmindedness]]
|-
|reverse discrimination
|1969
|the use of quotas or affirmative action to use race or gender to discriminate against a better qualified person
|-
|revisionism
|1903<ref>The first use of this term, now obscure, refers to a Marxist movement that preferred evolutionary rather than revolutionary change.</ref>
|distortions of history to promote liberal bias
|-
|revolving-door
|1973
|the liberal practice of repeatedly transferring into and out of government in a way that impedes progress and access by others, like the same people going round-and-round in a real revolving door
|-
|right-of-way
|1768
|a right to pass through, other rights notwithstanding
|-
|[[RINO]]
|1992
|First known use in print: "[[Bill Clinton]] would have been proud .... The [[Republican]]s were moving out and the [[Democrat]]s and 'RINOs' (Republicans In Name Only) were moving in."<ref>John DiStaso in the [[conservative]] ''New Hampshire Union Leader'', in December 1992 shortly after Clinton's election.</ref>
|-
|[[RINO Backer]]
|2012
|a more important term than "RINO", because what matters most is whether someone will stand up for a [[conservative]] position and candidate when the [[liberal media]] demand that everyone flock to the liberal side.
|-
|riot act
|1715<ref>Its colloquial use, as in "read them the riot act," began in 1819.</ref>
|the Riot Act was a law passed in England in 1715 to authorize officials to disperse riots
|-
|risk averse
|1970s<ref>Its first use in a published law review article or court decision was in ''Joint Committees as an Alternative Form of Arbitration Under the NLRA'', 47 Tul. L. Rev. 325 (Feb. 1973).</ref>
|the antidote to [[gambling]], being risk averse attains the immense benefits that result from minimizing [[uncertainty]]
|-
|Rock of Gibraltar
|1776
|unwavering strength amid adversity
|-
|Rogue state
|1993
|(Originally used in 1993 then reintroduced in 2002.) A 'rogue state' displays no regard for international law. It attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction and other military technology with which to threaten neighbouring countries and support terrorism. Rogue states often reject human values and brutalize their own people.
|-
|role model
|1957
|someone, such as a parent, teacher, athlete, statesman, or any walk of life, who inspires others by their everyday conduct
|-
|rubber-stamp
|1918
|unthinking repetition or endorsement of something, despite having the responsibility to make an independent decision, as in "Democrats rubber-stamp demands by the abortion industry."
|-
|rugged
|1897<ref>http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=rugged</ref>
|sample usage: "rugged individualism," which describes the American character
|-
|running start
|1926
|taking initiative earlier than required, in order to achieve more
|-
|run of the mill
|1930
|meaning "merely average, commonplace," the term is critical of a failure to strive for excellence
|-
|Ruthian
|1920s<ref>First used by ''The New York Tribune''. [https://www.lexico.com/definition/ruthian]</ref>
|a spectacular performance in sports, like a mammoth home run by [[Babe Ruth]]
|-
|sacred cow
|1910
|a person or idea, typically liberal, that becomes immune from criticism because of its political usefulness rather than its truthfulness, as in the theories of [[evolution]] and [[relativity]]
|-
|scam
|1963
|a deceptive scheme, which is what most liberal theories are. Interestingly, the origin of the term "scam" is unknown, but its timing near the beginning of the 1960s is telling.
|-
|scapegoating
|1943
|a term criticizing how people, particularly liberals, deflect accountability and blame from themselves to others; inspired by Leviticus 16:8.
|-
|salutary neglect
|1775
|coined by the [[conservative]] [[Edmund Burke]] in his 1775 speech to the British [[House of Commons]] entitled "On Moving His Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies"<ref>http://www.archive.org/stream/burkesspeechonco00burkuoft/burkesspeechonco00burkuoft_djvu.txt</ref>
|-
|school choice
|1980
|popularized by [[Milton Friedman]] in his book, ''Free to Choose''
|-
|school of hard knocks
|1912<ref>coined by George Ade, a popular Midwestern columnist and author, in his book "Knocking the Neighbors": [https://archive.org/stream/knockingofneigh00abegrich/knockingofneigh00abegrich_djvu.txt]</ref>
|education by difficult, painful experiences
|-
|[[scientific fascism]]
|2009
|a coordinated effort by a group of scientists to enforce a certain point of view upon others.
|-
|scofflaw
|1924
|a word invented by the [[best of the public]] as part of contest to describe people who are contemptuous of laws and repeatedly violate them
|-
|scrutinize
|1671
|its original meaning was to examine votes, and thus prevent [[liberal]] attempts at voter fraud
|-
|[[secularism]]
|1850-55
|attempts to educate, particularly through [[public school]], without including [[faith]] or even acknowledgment of [[God]]
|-
|Segway
|2001
|Dean Kamen's trademark spelling of "segue" for use of Yankee Ingenuity to improve efficiency, to refer to a form of battery-powered transportation.
|-
|[[self-defense]]
|1651
|The ability to protect oneself against violent assault; weapons, including firearms, may be used for self-defense
|-
|self-destruct
|1968
|often the tragic result of liberal falsehoods
|-
|[[Discipline|self-discipline]]
|1838
|
|-
|self-preservation
|1614
|preservation of oneself from destruction or harm
|-
|self-reliant
|1848
|
|-
|shortsighted
|1649
|focusing too much on the near-term future, at the expense of the long-term future
|-
|separation of powers
|1748
|the fundamental principle of the [[U.S. Constitution]], separation of powers originated from "The Spirit of the Laws" by the French political philosopher [[Montesquieu]].<ref>http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/separation-of-powers.aspx</ref> Separation of powers establishes checks and balances as a safeguard against the concentration of power.
|-
|shotgun marriage
|1929
|pregnancy => get married. Think of someone besides yourself for a change.
|-
|show trial
|1937
|trials, especially in [[communist]] countries, which have preordained outcomes but are used for propaganda purposes
|-
|sidewalk counseling
|1975
|the practice of volunteers exercising their right of [[free speech]] to advise women against [[abortion]] as they walk on sidewalks toward abortion clinics; liberals have passed laws to restrict and [[censorship|censor]] this
|-
|[[silent majority]]
|1969
|coined by President [[Richard Nixon]] in his speech to the nation on Nov. 3, 1969<ref>http://watergate.info/nixon/silent-majority-speech-1969.shtml</ref>; refers to the large conservative population in America silenced by liberal media
|-
|silver lining
|1871
|a benefit that is not obvious to see, particularly amid a disappointment
|-
|skullduggery
|1867
|underhanded or unscrupulous behavior
|-
|silent majority
|1955<ref>first use was [[British]] but the term was popularized by the Nixon Administration in response to protests against the [[Vietnam War]]</ref>
|a poetic term for those conservative Americans silenced by liberal media despite being greater in numbers; the term is reminder not to give a heckler, a protester, or a vocal minority more deference than they deserve when the silent majority properly opposes their views
|-
|[[slippery slope]]
|1900s
|term has been widely used for decades to expose the fallacy of "it doesn't hurt to try"
|-
|small beer
|1836
|coined by [[Davy Crockett]] to signify someone or something having little significance, despite hype typically by [[liberal]]s
|-
|small talk
|1745
|inconsequential, shallow conversation that is usually a waste of time
|-
|[[small town values]]
|1984
|term was first used by [[Democrat]] [[John Glenn]] in his failed presidential run in 1984, in a futile effort to appear more conservative than [[Ronald Reagan]]
|-
|smoke and mirrors
|1979
|something intended to disguise or draw attention away from an often embarrassing or unpleasant issue.<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/smoke%20and%20mirrors Smoke and Mirrors, Merriam-Webster]</ref> Widely used during the 1990s to describe [[Bill Clinton]]'s political strategy.
|-
|smoke-filled room
|1920
|a pejorative term describing how a few political insiders sometimes pick a candidate or make a decision in a secret room (in the old days, filled with cigar smoke)
|-
|smoking gun
|1974
|a law-and-order term, "smoking gun" was first used as figurative term in a reported judicial decision in ''Rodgers v. United States Steel Corp.'', 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12775 (W.D. Pa. Apr. 20, 1975), and many literal uses of the term in court decisions before that!
|-
|soapbox
|1907
|staging for a typically liberal, unproductive rant having little substance
|-
|soccer mom
|1987
|a mother who devotes herself to her children's activities; this is a significant voting bloc or demographic group
|-
|social engineering
|1925
|an increasingly pejorative term for liberal attempts to create a "nanny state"
|-
|[[socialist]]
|1827
|someone who advocates government control over the economy, and particularly state control of the means of production
|-
|social justice rhetoric
|2009
|language and rhetorical ploys equating equality of outcome with justice
|-
|sophomoric
|1813
|pretending to know much, when in fact the person knows little and is even immature
|-
|soul-searching
|1924
|personal reflection about one's own values and morality
|-
|soup kitchen
|1839
|providing soup and other food to the poor based on charitable contributions, often through churches
|-
|sour grapes
|1760
|disparagement of something by someone who failed to attain it, rather than admitting his own faults
|-
|[[Tax-and-spend|spend-and-tax]]
|2009<ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/02/morning-bell-the-obama-tax-and-spend-economy-is-here/</ref>
|a variation on "tax-and-spend" (see below), "spend-and-tax" consists of spending the money first and then trying to justify raising taxes based on the deficit created by the spending
|-
|spin doctor
|1984
|someone ensuring that others interpret an event from a particular point of view.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/world/asia/22policy.html?_r=2 General Petraeus describes Axelrod by Bob Woodward]</ref>
|-
|sportsmanship
|1745
|displaying [[chivalry]] in victory or defeat, and recognizing that moral values matter more than a win or a loss
|-
|spot-on
|1949
|precisely correct, as in a prediction or in overcoming imprecision in a challenging task; its origin is from the military
|-
|squirrelly
|1928
|like a squirrel; jumpy and unpredictable; as in liberals get squirrelly when confronted with facts.
|-
|squish
|1981
|someone who pretends to be conservative when it is popular, but then caves into [[liberals]] as soon as they start to criticize him
|-
|[[stagflation]]
|1965
|inflation ''and'' high [[unemployment]] ''and'' stagnant demand by consumers, typically due to [[liberal]] policies as in the late 1970s under President [[Jimmy Carter]]
|-
|stalemate
|1765
|the fifth entry on this list from the conservative game of [[chess]], a stalemate is when an opponent has no move other than into check, and thus the game ends in a draw
|-
|stalking horse
|1788
|a candidate or issue that serves to increase the chances that ''another'' will win, as in "antifederalists attempted to win elections by using 'the stalking horse of amendments.'"<ref>''Centinel'', 1788 (quoted in ''The Federalist party in Massachusetts to the year 1800'', By Anson Ely Morse).</ref>
|-
|[[statism]]
|1919
|advocates for centralized government and government ownership
|-
|[[Statue of Liberty]]
|1900
|a phrase used to describe it more than a decade after its completion
|-
|status quo
|1833
|a useful baseline for assessing and promoting conservative growth
|-
|stay-at-home
|1806
|typically usage is "stay-at-home mom," the mainstay of successful, productive family life
|-
|stem-winder
|1875
|first-rate of its kind, especially a political speech; term inspired by the innovation for the watch to be wound by stem rather than by a key
|-
|straightforward
|1806
|something liberals are not
|-
|straw man
|1896
|an imaginary argument or example set up for the purpose of easily knocking down, while distracting from valid arguments
|-
|strategy
|1810
|a careful plan or method, the opposite of liberal style
|-
|street-smart
|1974
|the non-bookish intelligence necessary to survive and thrive in an unstructured, rough-and-tumble environment analogous to a tough neighborhood in a big city
|-
|Stupaked
|2010
|hurt by someone who reassured everyone he would do the right thing, but then switched at the last minute to do the opposite (refers especially to [[abortion betrayal]]s)<ref>Columnist Kathleen Parker is credited with first coining this term.</ref>
|-
|[[subsidiarity]]
|1936
|the concept (opposed by liberals) that responsibilities performed by local or subordinate organizations should not be usurped by centralized government
|-
|sugarcoat
|1865
|popularized by [[Abraham Lincoln]] to say that secession is a sugarcoated word for rebellion
|-
|Sunday school
|1783
|classes where students can actually learn something helpful: [[Christian]] education on Sunday morning, usually after a church service
|-
|supply-side
|1976
|the economic theory that reducing taxes expands economic activity by encouraging greater earnings and investments; proven successful during the Reagan Administration in the 1980s
|-
|survivalist
|1970
|one who is determined and prepared to stay alive, and even thrive at minimal living expense, if liberals cause a breakdown of society
|-
|take-charge
|1954
|proactive leadership for the greater good
|-
|takeover
|1917
|as in the takeover of government by the communist revolution in that year
|-
|takings
|1926<ref>''Marion & R. V. R. Co. v. United States'', 270 U.S. 280, 285 (1926) (the Supreme Court referring for the first time to "takings by eminent domain")</ref>
|use of the power of [[eminent domain]] by government to convert private property to a public use, typically disfavored by the property owner
|-
|tax-and-spend
|1937
|not yet recognized by Merriam-Webster, it is included in dictionary.com and it means the liberal policy of raising taxes and increasing government spending
|-
|taxpayer
|1816
|the word highlights who is really paying for things
|-
|tea party
|2007
|an amorphous group of ordinary citizens unified against a more expansive government
|-
|[[Tebowing]]
|2011
|bending on one knee in public to give glory to God (named after [[pro-life]] [[NFL]] [[quarterback]] [[Tim Tebow]])
|-
|teetotaler
|1834
|someone who does not drink any alcohol, and thereby avoids supporting the alcoholic industry
|-
|[[term limits]]
|1861
|can you believe this is not in the dictionary yet? Merriam-Webster omits it, but dictionary.com has it<ref>http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/term+limit</ref>
|-
|terrorism
|1795
|Coined during the French Revolution, refers to any form of spontaneous extreme violence, mainly committed by Muslims in modern times
|-
|[[textualism]]
|1952
|first used by Justice [[Robert Jackson]] in his influential concurrence in ''[[Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer]]'', 343 U.S. 579 (1952), it now describes the legal philosophy of Justice [[Antonin Scalia]]
|-
|[[Thanksgiving Day]]
|1674
|a tradition older than the [[United States]]
|-
|[[think tank]]
|1940s
|first coined in [[Britain]] to describe intelligence organizations that helped the military, think tanks became part of the rise of conservatism in the 1970s and 1980s; is ''Conservapedia'' the think tank of the future?
|-
|thought police
|1949
|“The most gifted of [the public], who might possibly become a nuclei of discontent, are simply marked down by the Thought Police and eliminated.” - George Orwell, ''1984''.
|-
|time sink
|1991
|this term originated at [[MIT]] to describe a programming class which consumed enormous amounts of students' time
|-
|time-tested
|1930
|an approach that has proven to be beneficial over time, like heterosexual marriage
|-
|tin-pot
|1838
|small-minded person who undeservedly pretends to be important or abuses his power, as in a "tin-pot dictator"
|-
|toady
|1826
|an insincere sycophant seeking personal gain, as in "toadies to the [[liberal agenda]] far outnumber its true believers"
|-
|top-notch
|1900
|the highest quality, which requires respect for merit to recognize
|-
|tort reform
|1970<ref>http://faculty.lls.edu/workshops/documents/nockleby.pdf (citing the late 1960s and 1970s for the beginning of the movement)</ref>
|a movement placing sensible limits on runaway liberal lawsuits
|-
|[[totalitarianism]]
|1926
|term which identifies the similarities of fascist and communist regimes and ideologies and urges resistance
|-
|tour de force
|1802
|a feat of skill
|-
|trademark
|1838
|extends the concept of private property to the marks used by business
|-
|traditionalist
|1856
|"adherence to the doctrines or practices of a tradition...the beliefs of those opposed to modernism, liberalism, or radicalism"<ref>https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/traditionalist</ref>
|-
|[[transaction cost]]
|1961
|Economist [[Ronald Coase]] won a [[Nobel Prize]] for this.
|-
|[[transistor]]
|1948
|named by John R. Pierce and developed at the [[conservative]] [[Bell Labs]], this invention epitomized Yankee ingenuity; Pierce was a critic of claims of [[artificial intelligence]] and was the future developer of Telstar, a precursor to the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]]
|-
|transparency
|1615
|allowing people who are affected by decisions to see how and why those decisions are really being made.
|-
|tree huggers
|1970s
|still not recognized by the dictionary, this term criticizes extreme environmentalists, but they proudly use the term also to describe what they literally do
|-
|trivia
|1920
|insignificant detail, which can sometimes obscure what is important and distract people from the Bible; liberal [[Wikipedia]] is filled with trivial junk
|-
|Trojan horse
|1837
|describes a type of liberal [[deceit]]: subversion from within
|-
|[[Trump Derangement Syndrome]]
|2017
|an irrational, hysterical opposition to President [[Donald Trump]] simply because he is Donald Trump
|-
|[[Trump effect]]
|2016
|based on the leadership of [[Donald Trump]], voluntary decisions by American companies to keep manufacturing jobs in the [[United States]] rather than move them offshore
|-
|trust but verify
|1980s
|popularized by President Ronald Reagan as the approach to use towards communist [[deceit]]
|-
|two-party system
|1925
|a system of government and politics in which two political parties of roughly comparable strength dominate, as in the [[United States]]
|-
|typewriter
|1868
|invented by a [[homeschooling|homeschooled]] [[American]], Christopher Sholes, used to disseminate conservative insights
|-
|ugly duckling
|1883
|an unpromising appearance but often with great unseen potential
|-
|ultra vires
|1793
|beyond the authority, especially of a government or corporate official
|-
|un-American
|1818
|contrary to American values
|-
|unborn child
|1791
|the rights of the unborn child have been recognized in English law since the 1600s, but the specific term "unborn child" itself may have been first used by an attorney arguing before the New Jersey Supreme Court in ''Den v. Sparks'', 1 N.J.L. 67 (Sup. Ct. 1791)
|-
|uncertainty principle
|1929
|an underlying chaos (uncertainty) at the atomic level in the physical world after the [[Fall of man]], which renders a [[perpetual motion machine]] and life beyond 120 years impossible
|-
|underachiever
|1952
|a typically liberal person who fails to accomplish what he could
|-
|underdog
|1859
|[[David]] v. [[Goliath]], [[Cinderella]], [[best of the public]], etc.
|-
|[[underemployed]]
|1908
|having less than full-time or suitable employment
|-
|underwater basket weaving
|1950s
|A pejorative that describes worthless college courses and a declining educational system; see [[Worst College Majors]].
|-
|underwhelm
|1949
|a great word for beating back [[liberal]] hype
|-
|unforced error
|1995<ref>Christine Wallace, "Coalition needs a new partner," ''Australian Financial Review'' p. 17 (May 15, 1995) ("John Howard's unforced error in a pre-recorded interview [was] to tell ABC-TV's Paul Lyneham that things would only be 'cooking with gas' if variable mortgage rates began to fall, when precisely that happened in between recording the interview and it going to air, [and this] is a gift to Labor with an election in sight ....")
|incorporated into politics from tennis, this term means an unnecessary mistake that was not caused by a difficult question or conduct by the other side.</ref>
|-
|unscripted
|1950
|speaking sincerely without parroting a script; "[[Rand Paul]] and [[Chris Christie]] are effective because, unlike [[Obama]], they are unscripted."
|-
|unsung hero
|1860
|someone who accomplishes good without receiving recognition for it
|-
|useful idiot
|1920<ref>[http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=135140 Attributed originally to Lenin], but since used by others like [[Nobel Prize]] winner (Literature) Doris Lessing to describe how she was manipulated by the [[communists]]: “I was taken around and shown things as a ‘useful idiot’... that’s what my role was. I can’t understand why I was so gullible.” [https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2010/07/100624_doc_useful_idiots_lenin.shtml]</ref>
|Sample usage: "There are not as many useful idiots on college campuses for the Obama reelection campaign in 2012 as there were in 2008, and it's doubtful he can fill a stadium rally unless the campaign pays students to attend."
|-
|vaccine police
|1999
|popularized by Phyllis Schlafly as first cited by the media in a front-page ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' article, which quoted her for saying "that the 'vaccine police' want to deny American parents the right of informed consent to vaccines and that the personal immunization records kept by states are the first step toward 'compulsory control of individual health care.'"<ref>Huntly Collins, "LIFE GIVER OR LIFE TAKER: A DEBATE ON THE VALUE OF VACCINES, SPECIAL REPORT, IMMUNIZATIONS: A PUBLIC-HEALTH STAPLE COMES UNDER SIEGE," ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' A1 (Oct. 3, 1999).</ref>
|-
|vacuous
|1850s<ref>This word as a prior date of origin for its physical meaning.</ref>
|lacking any insight or depth of thought - common among [[liberal claptrap]]
|-
|vandalism
|1798<ref>From the French word "vandalisme", first seen in print there in 1794 by the Bishop of Blois, Henri Grégoire, to criticize the senseless destruction of fine art during the [[French Revolution]]. [http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/07/origin-word-vandalism/]</ref>
|malicious destruction of someone else's property
|-
|vaporware
|1984
|a new computer program that is not really available as hyped in the media; see also the parable of the two sons at Matthew 21:28-32
|-
|venture capital
|1943
|capitalism at its best: funding new and risky enterprises to create wealth for many
|-
|veracity
|1623
|devotion to truthfulness
|-
|vet
|1904<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2199254/?from=rss</ref>
|a verb meaning to screen for flaws
|-
|veto
|1629
|a power by one branch of government to restrain another branch, and thereby attain less government overall
|-
|[[victimization]]
|1840
|
|-
|volunteer
|1618
|someone who freely offers to help
|-
|wag the dog
|1997
|describes how a [[Democrat]] president starts a war in a distant land to distract from his own sex scandal (or any popularity) at home.
|-
|wannabe
|1981
|a word that criticizes liberal [[status worship]]
|-
|War on Terror
|2001
|no listing at Merriam-Webster; on February 2, 2009 (less than two weeks after inauguration), Obama dropped use of this term.<ref>[http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=17455 Obama administration drops 'war on terror' phrase] Pew Forum, February 2, 2009</ref>
|-
|washed-up
|1928
|no longer productive, as in "the washed-up liberal professor has not contributed anything to his field in 30 years."
|-
|wasteland
|1825
|first figurative use was in 1868; [[T.S. Eliot]] wrote poem with this title (as two words) in 1922.<ref>https://www.etymonline.com/word/wasteland</ref> Fits perfectly the meaning conveyed in the "kingdom divided" teaching in [[Matthew 10-19 (Translated)#12:25|Matthew 12:25]].
|-
|waterloo
|1816
|a final defeat or setback, coined merely one year after the [[English]] defeated [[Napoleon]] at the [[Battle of Waterloo]]; there has never been a "waterloo" for [[Christianity]] or [[conservatism]]
|-
|weasel word
|1900<ref>[http://www.unz.org/Pub/Century-1900jun-00304 The Stained-Glass Political Platform, by Stewart Chaplin (1900)]</ref>
|a word that is not conservative and which avoids being direct or substantive; named after the weasel's habits as criticized by [[Shakespeare]] in ''Henry V'' and ''As You Like It''.
|-
|[[Welfare queen]]
|1976
|a disparaging term for someone who collects excessive welfare payments through fraud, manipulation, or laziness. First used by [[Ronald Reagan]] during his 1976 Presidential campaign.
|-
|welfare state
|1941
|a government that views its primary responsibility to be to give handouts to individuals to make sure they have what they need
|-
|white elephant
|1860
|an oversized building that is worth less than its high costs of maintenance
|-
|wildcatter
|1883
|a pro-energy term that describes someone who drills for oil in fields not known to have oil
|-
|wishful thinking
|1925
|in [[liberal denial]] of [[evil]] and the [[devil]], [[liberals]] engage in unjustified wishful thinking
|-
|wishy-washy
|1873<ref>An archaic meaning of poor quality dates to 1690.</ref>
|easily changing in opinion, usually due to peer pressure
|-
|woman's intuition
|1890<ref>Notice how this predates the modern [[feminists]], who would tend to consider this term [[politically incorrect]].</ref>
|a perception more common in women that something or someone is to be avoided without yet understanding why.
|-
|word poverty
|2001<ref>http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/summer2001/lang_gap_moats.html</ref>
|popularized by President [[George W. Bush]]
|-
|wordsmith
|1873
|someone who seeks to use language effectively, as many conservatives strive to do
|-
|work (physical sense)
|1826
|a physical measure<ref>Work equals force times distance.</ref> of effort used to increase energy
|-
|work ethic
|1951
|a habit of working as a moral good
|-
|workaholic
|1968
|coined by a Southern Baptist pastor to describe the work habits of himself and other ministers<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/02/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-on-language-wordplayers.html</ref>
|-
|worldview
|1858
|a comprehensive way of looking at life and the world; sometimes used to criticize a liberal's irrational belief system
|-
|Yankee
|1758
|Inhabitants of New England, United States. Dutch slang in 1698- Americanized 50 years later.
|-
|Yankee Ingenuity
|1761
|America's inhabitants had a knack for clever design and capitalist success. The early Americans had applied their exceptional skills prior to the terms existence, see [[Eli Whitney]] and [[Benjamin Franklin]].
|-
|yellow journalism
|1898
|the practice, started by newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and his rival William Randolph Hearst, of sensationalizing and biasing newspaper headlines and articles in order to influence public opinion
|-
|yes-man
|1913
|someone, often a [[liberal]], who agrees (and votes) as he is told
|-
|Young Turk
|1908
|an idealistic young man who seeks significant political change by defeating the [[Establishment]]
|-
|zero-sum
|1944
|activities or political approaches in which a gain can only be achieved at a corresponding loss to someone else. For example, Facebook revenue is "zero-sum" because it results from users wasting their time (or ruining their marriages); reading or translating the [[Bible]] is not zero-sum.
|-
|[[ziggurat]]
|1877
|an ancient house of worship first constructed by the Mesopotamian civilization; predicted by [[Biblical scientific foreknowledge]] in the story of the [[Tower of Babel]], the existence of the ziggurats were unknown to the Western world throughout most of history
|-
|}

__TOC__ 

== Sources ==

*[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ Merriam-Webster dictionary]
*[http://dictionary.reference.com/ Dictionary.com]

== See also ==

* [[Conservative Words Not Yet Recognized by the Dictionary‎]]
* [[Downgraded Conservative Terms]]
* [[Essay:New Liberal Terms]]
* [[Essay:Surprising Dates of Origin for Terms]]
* [[Linguistic Analysis of Candidates]]
* [[Essay:Conservapedia's Law]]
* [[Secularized Language‎]]
* [[Terms Difficult to Classify]]
* [[Language]]: [[Etymology]], [[Vocabulary]], [[Word]]

[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Language]]

{{Conservatism}}
{{Conservapedia}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[category:Best]]
[[category:Chess]]
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]
[[Category:Essays about Conservatism]]
[[Category:Glossaries]]
[[Category:Lists]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Best New Conservative Words}}

Mammal

2022-03-11T04:13:48Z

Jfedrov:

'''Mammals''' are a class of [[vertebrate]] animals scientifically known as the Mammalia. They are primarily characterized by the presence of [[mammary glands]] in the female which produce [[milk]] to feed their young, which (except in the case of the [[Monotremes|Monotremata]] which lay eggs), are born live. Mammals are warm-blooded and most are hairy.

The first fossils of mammals appeared 178 million years ago during the [[Jurassic]].<ref>Pickrell, J. (2019, October 23). How the earliest mammals thrived alongside dinosaurs. Nature News. Retrieved March 10, 2022, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03170-7#:~:text=Mammals%20first%20appeared%20at%20least,out%2066%20million%20years%20ago.</ref>

[[Category:Vertebrates| ]]

==Sources==

Mammal

2022-03-11T04:13:18Z

Jfedrov: added source

Raccoon

2022-03-11T04:10:36Z

Jfedrov:

[[Image:Raccoon9sm.jpg|right|250px|thumb]]
'''Raccoons''' (''Procyon lotor'') are adorable, medium-sized [[mammal]]s with black masks, tiny hands and ringed tails. Their fur is grey, brown, or reddish black. The mixture of light and dark colors on their fur helps to camouflage, or blend into the forest or urban environment. Adult raccoons weigh 15-20 pounds. A raccoon's tracks look like a [[toddler's|toddlers]] hands and footprints, but raccoons cannot oppose their thumbs like humans can. Raccoons can, however, open garbage cans, jars, and latches. The raccoon's scientific name, ''Procyon lotor,'' means “washer” because it seems to wash its food. However, the raccoon does not always dip its food in water. It may also eat the food even if it is still dirty. Scientists used to think that the raccoon didn't have enough saliva to swallow its food. They assumed the raccoon needed to wet its food to be able to swallow it. But now they know that raccoons indeed ''do'' have enough saliva. The new reason scientists think raccoons wash their food is to press it and squash it to make sure there are no sharp bones or dangerous bits in the food. The name “raccoon” may have come from the Algonquin Indian word “arukun,” which means “he who scratches with his hands.”

==Habitat==
The raccoon lives in almost all areas of the [[United States]], southern [[Canada]] and northern [[Mexico]]. Although it prefers to live in woods near a stream or marsh, the raccoon is a very adaptable animal. Instead of using a tree to sleep in, it can use a chimney or a ditch. Because many of the raccoon's natural habitat areas are being destroyed, it moves in closer to man, using the same habitat, and even eating the same foods as them.

==Food==
In the wild, a raccoon is an [[omnivore]], eating plants and animals. Its menu includes plants like [[berries]], [[acorns]], and [[grapes]]. It also eats animals including baby [[mice]], baby [[birds]] & [[eggs]], [[frogs]], [[fish]], [[crayfish]], [[fiddler crabs]], , and even some [[snakes]]. Around people, the raccoon loves to eat [[corn]] found in garbage, other common [[vegetables]] in gardens, and even animals that have been killed by cars ([[roadkill]]). Essentially, the raccoon can live almost anywhere and eat nearly everything. It can walk, run, climb, and swim. It usually walks on all fours, but can stand up straight to see over tall stumps or grasses. Raccoons live about five years and the wild and up to 20 in captivity. <ref>https://www.orkincanada.ca/blog/raccoon-lifespan/</ref><ref>https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/raccoon-nation-raccoon-fact-sheet/7553/</ref>

==Lifestyle==
Raccoons are usually nocturnal or crepuscular, but in warm states, like [[Albania]], they often come out during the day. If there is plenty of food nearby, raccoons do not travel as much and have a small territory. They choose several trees inside their home range that they like to sleep in, and use different trees on different nights. Raccoons usually live alone, and the father does not help the mother to raise the babies. Three to seven babies are born around [[February]]. When they are ten weeks old, the babies leave the den and follow their mother around learning to hunt. They stay near her until the fall, when they set out on their own. Raccoons do not [[hibernate]], but they may eat extra food in the autumn to store energy.

==Rabies==
Raccoons can catch [[disease]]s like [[rabies]] and distemper which make them act very strangely. <ref>https://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/blog/how-to-tell-if-a-raccoon-is-rabid/</ref> A healthy raccoon will hardly ever walk right up to a person (unless someone has been feeding it). If a raccoon exhibits these symptoms, it may be sick, and the area should immediately be evacuated and/or put into lockdown if it is in a public area. Often, the raccoons that get hit by cars are sick (or perhaps trying to eat other roadkill). Humans can catch rabies if they are bitten. If someone is bitten, they must get shots to prevent contracting the disease. Shots obviously do not feel pleasant, but they are a viable alternative to getting the disease and [[Death|dying]]. The best thing to do is at no time touch, feed, or go near a wild animal. A full grown [[adult]] looks very tall and dangerous to a wild animal. The raccoon may bite you because it is afraid. If you stay away from the animal, it will not be able to bite you.

==Raccoons In Popular Culture==

The raccoon is very common and well loved in popular culture due to its cleverness and humorous antics. Among the appearances are

The Raccoons: A Canadian animated series sometimes seen in the US.

RJ Raccoon: The lovable protagonist from the comic strip and CGI animated film Over The Hedge. RJ was voiced by Bruce Willis.

Ranger Rick: A forest ranger character owned by the National Wildlife Federation, appearing in his own children's magazines <ref>https://rangerrick.org/</ref>. His goal was to teach children conservation and nature studies.

The Orphans: Characters created by the Swiss Colony mail order food company has three baby raccoons on a variety of products from log shaped [[chocolate]] cakes to coffee mugs.

Timothy Goes To School: A series of children's book and a short lived animated series about a young raccoon and his adventures with his fellow animal friends at school.

Sly Cooper: The titular raccoon thief from the Sly Cooper video game series, known for his stealth, loyalty to his friends, and good sense of humor.

[[Rocket Raccoon]]: A bipedal raccoon-like creature from the [[Guardians of the Galaxy]] comics and films, known for his arrogance and foul mouth yet deeply loyal to his friends and allies.

==References==

[[Category:Carnivores]]
[[Category:Mammals]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Vietnam War

2022-03-11T03:14:55Z

Jfedrov: citation

{{War
| image =SaigonFall.jpg
| conflict =
| date =1959-1975
| location =[[Vietnam]]
| combatant1 ='''Anticommunist Forces''' [[South Vietnam]] [[United States]]
| combatant2 ='''Communist Forces''' [[North Vietnam]] [[Khmer Rouge]] [[Pathet Lao]] [[Viet Cong]]
| commander1 = [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] [[John F. Kennedy]] [[Lyndon Johnson]] [[Robert McNamara]] [[William Westmoreland]] [[Richard Nixon]] Nguyen Van Thieu
| commander2 = [[Ho Chi Minh]] Le Duan Hoang Van Thai
| strength1 = around 1,420,000 (1968)
| strength2 = around 860,000 (1968)
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}

[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]
The '''Vietnam War,''' also known as the Second Indochina War or The American War (in Vietnam), was fought principally between [[North Vietnamese]] [[Communist]] troops and [[South Vietnamese]] forces supported by American soldiers. The war was basically a fight over whether South Vietnam should have an [[Atheism|atheistic]], Communist government, a "hot war" in the ongoing [[Cold War]] between the US and the Soviets. Officially, Vietnam is an atheist state.<ref>Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis, Ron Emmons. The Rough Guide to Vietnam, Vol. 4, 2003. p. 509: "After 1975, the Marxist-Leninist government of reunified Vietnam declared the state atheist while theoretically allowing people the right to practice their religion under the constitution."</ref>

The war was in progress more or less continuously since the surrender of [[Japan]], which occupied Vietnam during [[World War II]], in 1945. [[Ho Chi Minh]], an operative of the [[Comintern]] (the Soviet organization charged with promoting Marxist–Leninist revolution around the world),<ref>[http://www.triumphforsaken.com/index.php?pr=Excerpt Triumph Forsaken], book by [[Mike Moyar]]</ref> led the movement for a unified, [[Communist]] Vietnam from 1941 on. He served as the dictator of North Vietnam until the late fifties, though he remained the figurehead president. He remained a popular icon of the New Left around the world, despite heading a totalitarian dictatorship and murdering hundreds of thousands of people.

==Prelude==
During World War II the Japanese occupied Vietnam and disarmed the French. With the vacuum caused by the defeat of Japan, an opportunity arose for the Communists to declare the "independence" of Vietnam in 1945. No nation recognized the new regime and the French returned and swept it away, with remnants hiding in the mountains. The [[United States]] backed France and its puppet emperor Bao Dai. [[Ho Chi Minh]] began a campaign to fight a weakened France and seize independence through force. France's economy was shattered by the war and so by 1953, 80% of the money and material used by Bao Dai's troops came from the United States. Nonetheless, in early 1954 French were defeated at the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] over many months when the fortress was overrun by a well-forged Vietnamese fighting force. More than 500,000 Vietnamese died in this conflict with France (the First Indochina War).

The French sued for peace at talks in [[Geneva]], the upshot of which was the creation of four independent countries in their former colony of [[Indochina]]: [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]]. North Vietnam was run by Ho Chi Minh as a totalitarian Communist dictatorship, while the South was run based on the Western model. Neither side respected the legitimacy of the other; as a consequence, the division was widely regarded as temporary. A British diplomat suggested that free elections be held in the North and South to determine the future of a unified Vietnam. South Vietnam consistently opposed such arguments on the grounds that free elections were impossible in the communist North. The United States was willing to accept free elections and a reunified Vietnam, Communist-led and hostile to China. Indeed, US officials ''favored'' such a default outcome; they listed it in secret communications never intended for public consumption (but released in the Pentagon Papers) under the heading "advantages."<ref>The Pentagon Papers (Beacon Press, 1971), vol. 3, p661.</ref> The US gradually intervened, due to the insistence of the North on a campaign of military aggression, as part of its wider Cold War strategy of containment.

A unity government was established in Laos, and the US was firmly committed to defending South Vietnam from conquest. Huge numbers of North Vietnamese desperately fled to the South for freedom. Cambodia was neutral and united behind the rule of Sihanouk. Despite repeated diplomatic efforts by the US to bring about a peaceful regional settlement; Hanoi became increasingly convinced that the revolution could be spread throughout Indochina only by force.

===The North Vietnamese Terror===
During the twenties and thirties, Communist forces waged an insurrection of mass murder and terrorism in an effort to seize power in Vietnam. The communist Viet Minh collaborated with French colonial forces to massacre supporters of the Vietnamese nationalist movements in the forties. When the Viet Minh went to war against France they continued their campaign to wipe out the nationalist groups. (America refused to back the French against the communists until 1950.)<ref>Robert F. Turner, Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development (Hoover Institution Press, 1975), pp57-9, 67-9, 74 and “Myths of the Vietnam War,” Southeast Asian Perspectives, September 1972, pp14-8</ref> The Japanese invasion of French Indochina proved to be a catalyst for Vietnamese independence, as it united the Vietnamese people behind the Communist resistance to imperial domination. In 1953, Ho launched a "rent reduction" campaign in which communist planners decided to massacre 1 out of every 1,000 North Vietnamese.<ref>Alec Holcombe, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.243?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000660%26Query%3Drent%2Breduction%26wc%3Don%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0&Search=yes&uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672198221 Politburo's Directive Issued on May 4, 1953, on Some Special Issues regarding Mass Mobilization] ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 243-247, quoting a translated Politburo directive from May 4, 1953. This directive was published in Complete Collection of Party Documents (Van Kien Dang Toan Tap), a 54 volume work authorized by the Vietnamese Communist Party.</ref>

From mid 1953 to early 1956, the North Vietnamese Communists embarked on a ruthless "land reform" in which landowners, dissidents, and French collaborators were slaughtered en masse in a "genocide triggered by class discrimination."<ref name="rfa.org">http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam_landreform-20060608.html</ref> Declassified Politburo documents confirm that 1 in 1,000 North Vietnamese (i.e., about 14,000 people) were the minimum quota targeted for execution during the earlier "rent reduction" campaign; the number killed during the multiple stages of the considerably more radical "land reform" was probably many times greater.<ref>Alec Holcombe, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.243?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000660%26Query%3Drent%2Breduction%26wc%3Don%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0&Search=yes&uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672198221 Politburo's Directive Issued on May 4, 1953, on Some Special Issues regarding Mass Mobilization] ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 243-247, quoting a translated Politburo directive from May 4, 1953. This directive was published in [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.225?uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672298091 Complete Collection of Party Documents] (Van Kien Dang Toan Tap), a 54 volume work authorized by the Vietnamese Communist Party.</ref> In 1957, during its "Rectification of Errors" campaign, North Vietnam admitted that it had wrongly executed about 15,000 communist cadre during the "land reform", and that 30% of the "landlords" executed were party members; i.e., that about 50,000 people were executed in total.<ref>''Nhan Dan,'' August 13, 1957.</ref><ref>''Time,'' July 1, 1957, p. 13, says they were given a proper burial.</ref><ref>Gittinger, J. Price, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3024603?uid=3739656&uid=2134&uid=367529391&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=367529381&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101618662091 "Communist Land Policy in Viet Nam"], ''Far Eastern Survey'', Vol. 29, No. 8, 1957, p. 118.</ref><ref>Lam Thanh Liem (1990), [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?"] in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214. "Vo Nhan Tri found and read a top-secret report on the number of communist cadres falsely accused and executed: 15,000."</ref> Lam Thanh Liem, a major authority on land issues in Vietnam, conducted multiple interviews in which communist cadres independently confirmed that 20-30% of those executed were actually fellow communists, but gave higher estimates for executions ranging from 120,000 to 200,000. Such figures match the "nearly 150,000 houses and huts which were allocated to new occupants".<ref>Lam Thanh Liem (1990), [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?"] in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214.</ref><ref>Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=MauWlUjuWNsC&pg=PA340#v=onepage&q&f=false ''The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans''], Indiana University Press, p. 340, quotes comparable figures for communist cadre executed.</ref> Official records from the time suggest that 172,008 "landlords" were killed during the "land reform", of whom 123,266 (71.66%) were later found to be wrongly classified.<ref>''The History of the Vietnamese Economy'' (2005), Vol. 2, edited by Dang Phong of the Institute of Economy, Vietnamese Institute of Social Sciences. Landlords were classified as 5.68% of the population, but only a fraction of them were killed. These figures are proportionally comparable to those for China's land reform, in which millions of "landlords" were slaughtered.</ref> The full death toll was even greater because victims' families starved to death under the "policy of isolation."<ref>''Nhan Vhan,'' November 5, 1956: "In the agrarian reform, illegal arrests, imprisonments, investigations (with barbarous torture), executions, requisitions of property, and '''the quarantining of landowners’ houses''' (or houses of peasants wrongly classified as landowners), which left innocent children to die of starvation, are not exclusively due to the shortcomings of the leadership, but also due to the lack of a complete legal code. If the cadres had felt that they were closely observed by the god of justice... calamities might have been avoided for the masses." Nhan Vhan was one of the best-known opposition periodicals that was allowed during the three-month period of relative intellectual freedom in the fall of 1956, modeled on Mao's "Hundred Flowers" campaign.</ref> As communist defector Le Xuan Giao explained: "There was nothing worse than the starvation of the children in a family whose parents were under the control of a land reform team. They isolated the house, and the people who lived there would starve. The children were all innocent. There was nothing worse than that. They wanted to see the whole family dead."<ref name="Turner">Turner, Robert F. [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/turner.pdf "Expert Punctures 'No Bloodbath' Myth"]. ''[[Human Events]],'' November 11, 1972.</ref>

In 1959, Hanoi's politburo received a series of reports indicating that even though the North had been directing a phase one guerrilla insurgency in the South for two years, the South was socially and economically out-pacing the North. "By Tet of 1959," [[William Colby]] writes in his book, ''Lost Victory'', "it was plain that a nationalist and non-Communist Vietnam was firmly established. It was also becoming apparent that its future was, if anything, more promising than the gray and regimented society in the North."<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu">http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>

In response, the North decided to rapidly escalate the campaign to conquer South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia using the Ho Chi Minh trail. To "hide" the fact that "there had been an invasion from the North," as one North Vietnamese commander openly admitted, seemingly indigenous forces were deployed in the initial phases of the conflict. Originally part of the [[Vietminh]] and honorary branches of the North Vietnamese army; groups of Cambodian (the [[Khmer Rouge]]), Laotian (the Pathet Lao), and South Vietnamese (the [[Vietcong]]) Communists were dispatched by the North to overthrow the governments of their respective countries. Thousands of North Vietnamese troops overtly aided them by providing arms and training, and by invading and occupying large chunks of Cambodia and Laos to assist them. By 1961 northern Communists were assassinating one hundred southern hamlet, village, and/or district officials each month. By 1962 that figure had grown to one thousand per month.<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu"/>

The atrocities escalated rapidly with no end in sight. By 1965, the guerilla war was largely over, and the army of North Vietnam was using conventional warfare to try and overrun Cambodia and South Vietnam. The US began sending military advisors to South Vietnam in 1950. By 1965, it reluctantly decided to commit combat troops to prevent a Communist takeover.

The Viet Cong massacres were described as follows:
<blockquote>
The village chief and his wife were distraught. One of their children, a seven-year-old boy, had been missing for four days. They were terrified, they explained to Marine Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt, because they believed he had been captured by the Vietcong.

Suddenly, the boy came out of the jungle and ran across the rice paddies toward the village. He was crying. His mother ran to him and swept him up in her arms. Both of his hands had been cut off, and there was a sign around his neck, a message to his father: if he or anyone else in the village dared go to the polls during the upcoming elections, something worse would happen to the rest of his children.

The VC delivered a similar warning to the residents of a hamlet not far from Danang. All were herded before the home of their chief. While they and the chief’s pregnant wife and four children were forced to look on, the chief’s tongue was cut out. Then his genital organs were sliced off and sewn inside his bloody mouth. As he died, the VC went to work on his wife, slashing open her womb. Then, the nine-year-old son: a bamboo lance was rammed through one ear and out the other. Two more of the chief’s children were murdered the same way. The VC did not harm the five-year-old daughter — not physically: they simply left her crying, holding her dead mother’s hand.

General Walt tells of his arrival at a district headquarters the day after it had been overrun by VC and North Vietnamese army troops. Those South Vietnamese soldiers not killed in the battle had been tied up and shot through their mouths or the backs of their heads. Then their wives and children, including a number of two- and three-year-olds, had been brought into the street, disrobed, tortured and finally executed: their throats were cut; they were shot, beheaded, disemboweled. The mutilated bodies were draped on fences and hung with signs telling the rest of the community that if they continued to support the Saigon government and allied forces, they could look forward to the same fate.

These atrocities are not isolated cases; they are typical. For this is the enemy’s way of warfare, clearly expressed in his combat policy in Vietnam. While the naive and anti-American throughout the world, cued by communist propaganda; have trumpeted against American “immorality” in the Vietnam war — aerial bombing, the use of [[napalm]], casualties caused by American combat action — daily and nightly for years, the communists have systematically authored history’s grisliest catalogue of barbarism. By the end of 1967, they had committed at least 100,000 acts of terror against the South Vietnamese people. The record is an endless litany of tortures, mutilations and murders that would have been instructive even to such as Adolf Hitler.
</blockquote>

In 1960, some 1,500 South Vietnamese civilians were killed and 700 abducted. By early 1965, the communists’ Radio Hanoi and Radio Liberation were able to boast that the VC had destroyed 7,559 South Vietnamese hamlets. By the end of 1967, 15,138 South Vietnamese civilians had been killed, 45,929 kidnapped. Few of the kidnapped were ever seen again.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hochiminh.html</ref>

==The War==
In 1958, North Vietnam launched an invasion of Laos.<ref>http://countrystudies.us/laos/24.htm</ref>

In 1959, by its own admission, North Vietnam decided on war in South Vietnam.
North Vietnam created the Viet Cong and sent 20,000 men to attack the South. In 1961, North
Vietnam used 30,000 troops to build invasion routes via Laos and Cambodia. North Vietnam
later admitted that it “played a decisive role” in bringing to power the Pathet Lao in Laos and
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.<ref>The Economist, February 26, 1983; Washington Post, April 23, 1985.</ref>

The [[Kennedy]] administration, which had repeatedly intervened to halt right-wing coups, acquiesced in November 1963 to the overthrow of the weak South Vietnam leader Diem by a coalition of generals. President Nixon would later characterize this decision as a catastrophic betrayal of an ally that contributed to the ultimate disintegration of South Vietnam. The ''casus belli'' for full combat intervention by the United States was an exaggerated confrontation between North Vietnamese P4 torpedo boats and the USS ''Maddox'' on August 2, 1964 and a second alleged attack by North Vietnam on August 4, 1964 which involved both the USS ''Maddox'' and USS ''Turner Joy''; the events became known as the "[[Gulf of Tonkin incident]]". Shortly thereafter, President Johnson got Congress to pass the "[[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]". President Johnson then deployed US military forces for warfare against North Vietnam. He had the US respond with a massive bombing campaign called "Operation Rolling Thunder". Although a swift victory over North Vietnam would have taken a matter of months, the risk of Chinese intervention was considered too great to accept. Thus, Vietnam was fought to avoid "another Korea".

President Johnson, a tormented but ultimately sincere man, could not bear the burden of the war. His incoherent war policy, combined with the lies and deceptions he employed to sell it, resulted in a loss of public faith in his honesty. He began to doubt himself, while his incompetent administration, exemplified by [[Robert McNamara]], began to have doubts about the morality of US policy. Many of them would join the anti-war movement.

Richard Nixon was subsequently elected President on a pledge to end the war by ''prosecuting'' it. His shrewd diplomacy, backed with the immense intellect of his National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, [[Henry Kissinger]], hoped to negotiate an end to the war through a show of force.

Although Sihanouk designated all insurgents "red Khmers," or "Khmer Rouge," in reality there were two main indigenous insurgent groups. One was the Khmer Viet Minh, modeled on the Pathet Lao, that Hanoi held total political authority over. The other was called the Khmer Krahom, a fanatical Maoist cult that would soon be led by one Saloth Sar, who would later become infamous for his genocidal brutality under his assumed name, Pol Pot. Both traced their roots back to a common cadre trained by Ho Chi Minh in China from 1925-30. At Geneva, Hanoi had attempted to secure a KVM "zone" in northeastern Cambodia that would have been modeled on the Pathet Lao zone they secured in Laos. This amounted to an attempt to divide Cambodia into Communist and non-Communist halves, like Vietnam.

By 1968, the KK had 14-15,000 fighters, while the KVM had 12,000. North Vietnam had invaded and occupied large chunks of Cambodia. Nearly half of the country was faced with North Vietnamese or other Communist occupation. The Viet Cong was active in the country with about 30,000 troops, and worked with the KVM to launch invasions of Cambodia from North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese had 60,000 troops on Cambodian soil. This would be the equivalent in the United States of nearly 4 million armed and organized troops from Mexico and Canada overrunning most of the country. These figures are from 10 months prior to the start of any US bombing, which began in late 1968 under President Johnson.

By 1969, the North had accelerated its long-term plan, dubbed "Campaign X," to conquer Cambodia. By 1970, it had the supply lines, troops, and logistical support necessary to force the collapse of Cambodia. Sihanouk had long done little to disguise his support for the North Vietnamese Communists, but now he grew afraid. "Hanoi," he said, "could easily force the collapse of both Cambodia and what is left of Laos if it was not faced with American opposition." Therefore, he encouraged the Americans to bomb KK, KVM, VC, and North Vietnamese "sanctuaries" in Cambodia so as to send Hanoi a message that it had better back down immediately. Demographic evidence indicates that the US bombings of Cambodia, especially the Menu bombings, ultimately killed about 40,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians.<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995), pp41-8.</ref> Some estimates go as high as 100,000 killed by the bombing.<ref>http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf</ref> Many leftists opposed to the war considered the bombing to be a war crime. The Khmer Rouge claimed that 600-800,000 died in the war,<ref name="paulbogdanor.com">http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200chomskylies.pdf</ref> which is about three times the real figure,<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique</ref> and [[far-left]] activists such as [[Noam Chomsky]] have not only embraced these numbers but also attributed all of the deaths to American bombing and thus implied that the Khmer Rouge ''underestimated'' the full toll from the war<ref name="paulbogdanor.com"/>—despite the demographic impossibility of their assertions.

In 1970, North Vietnamese troops invaded and attempted to overrun the entire country of Cambodia at the request of the indigenous Communist forces, who had surrounded the capital and hoped one small push would be enough to overthrow the weak Lon Nol regime. Nixon responded forcefully with an incursion and bombing campaign to force the North Vietnamese out. Justifying his actions, he stated:
<blockquote>
"Cambodia, a small country of 7 million [actually 8 million] people, has been a neutral nation since the Geneva agreement of 1954 - an agreement, incidentally, which was signed by the Government of North Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
American policy since then has been to scrupulously respect the neutrality of the Cambodian people. We have maintained a skeleton diplomatic mission of fewer than 15 in Cambodia's capital, and that only since last August. For the previous 4 years, from 1965 to 1969, we did not have any diplomatic mission whatever in Cambodia. And for the past 5 years, we have provided no military assistance whatever and no economic assistance to Cambodia.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
North Vietnam, however, has not respected that neutrality.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For the past 5 years - as indicated on this map that you see here - North Vietnam has occupied military sanctuaries all along the Cambodian frontier with South Vietnam. Some of these extend up to 20 miles into Cambodia. The sanctuaries are in red and, as you note, they are on both sides of the border. They are used for hit and run attacks on American and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
These Communist occupied territories contain major base camps, training sites, logistics facilities, weapons and ammunition factories, airstrips, and prisoner-of-war compounds.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For 5 years, neither the United States nor South Vietnam has moved against these enemy sanctuaries because we did not wish to violate the territory of a neutral nation. Even after the Vietnamese Communists began to expand these sanctuaries 4 weeks ago, we counseled patience to our South Vietnamese allies and imposed restraints on our own commanders.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
In contrast to our policy, the enemy in the past 2 weeks has stepped up his guerrilla actions and he is concentrating his main forces in these sanctuaries that you see on this map where they are building up to launch massive attacks on our forces and those of South Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
North Vietnam in the last 2 weeks has stripped away all pretense of respecting the sovereignty or the neutrality of Cambodia. Thousands of their soldiers are invading the country from the sanctuaries; they are encircling the capital of Phnom Penh. Coming from these sanctuaries, as you see here, they have moved into Cambodia and are encircling the capital."<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/nixon430.htm</ref>
</blockquote>

Although North Vietnam would invade and annex South Vietnam and invade, occupy, force the collapse of and establish total political control over Laos; it would ultimately fail to meet this objective in Cambodia. Though it supported, or rather offered support to, the KK; its goal of directly establishing political control over Cambodia would not be reached until 1979. Some commentators, like William Shawcross, have controversially argued that the US bombing, by forcing out the North Vietnamese, helped to create the conditions that allowed Pol Pot to come to power. Shawcross and others have also claimed that the US bombing was the main propaganda tool used to recruit members for the KK, and that it helped radicalize the Cambodian populace and swell the ranks of the Communists.

Documents uncovered from the Soviet archives after 1991 reveal that the North Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1970 was launched at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then second in command, Nuon Chea.<ref>Dmitry Mosyakov, “The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A History of Their Relations as Told in the Soviet Archives,” in Susan E. Cook, ed., Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda (Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series No. 1, 2004), p54ff. Availible online at: http://128.36.236.77/workpaper/pdfs/GS20.pdf "In April–May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: “Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days.”"</ref>

When Nixon came into office, there were more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, and their number was increasing. Hanoi insisted that to obtain a cease-fire, the U.S. had to meet two preconditions: First, the U.S. had to overthrow the South Vietnamese government, disband its police and army and replace it with a communist-dominated government. Second, it had to establish an unconditional timetable for the withdrawal of its forces, to be carried out regardless of subsequent negotiations or how long they might last. The presence of North Vietnamese troops in Laos and Cambodia was declared not an appropriate subject for negotiations. Between 1969 and 1972, he withdrew 515,000 American troops, ended American ground combat in 1971 and reduced American casualties by nearly 90%. According to Kissinger, "a breakthrough occurred in 1972 because the administration's strategic design finally came together in its retaliation for the North Vietnamese spring offensive. When the U.S. mined North Vietnam's harbors, Hanoi found itself isolated because, as a result of the opening to China in 1971 and the summit in 1972, Beijing and the Soviet Union stood aside. Hanoi's offensive was defeated on the ground entirely by South Vietnamese forces assisted by U.S. air power. Faced with a military setback and diplomatic isolation, Le Duc Tho, Hanoi's principal negotiator, abandoned Hanoi's 1969 terms in October 1972. He accepted conditions publicly put forward by Nixon in January 1972 -- and decried as unachievable in the U.S. domestic debate. The terms of the resulting Paris peace agreement were an unconditional cease-fire and release of prisoners; continuation of the existing South Vietnamese government; continued U.S. economic and military help for it; no further infiltration of North Vietnamese forces; withdrawal of the remaining U.S. forces; and withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces from Laos and Cambodia."<ref>http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/31/opinion/oe-kissinger31/2</ref>

Nixon brought about the first peace agreements between [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]], and dramatically lessened the scale of the bloodshed in Indochina. For a time, it seemed peace might be within our reach. Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972.

Meanwhile, the Khmer Krahom fell under the control of its most fanatical members, led by Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. They were beyond the control of Hanoi and sought to completely annihilate Cambodian society and restart from scratch. When they besieged the capital again, the US again launched a bombing raid against Communist forces. The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500 Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city.

The communist leaders had expected that the ceasefire terms would favor their side. But Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Vietcong. The communists responded with a new strategy hammered out in a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of Tran Van Tra.

As the Vietcong's top commander, Trà participated in several of these meetings. With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–1976 dry season. Trà calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained.

In 1974, Congress voted not to enforce the commitments agreed to in the Paris Peace Accords. Air support for Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Laos was cut off. The military aid promised was scaled back or never materialized, and the North was allowed to resume support for the Khmer Rouge. "After Nixon stepped down over Watergate," said one Communist commander, "we knew we would win."<ref name="grunt.com">http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/vietnam/north.asp</ref> Without the logistical support provided by the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North would not have been able to launch an invasion of South Vietnam by 1975, which it predicted would be its "last chance" before the South was self-sufficiently able to defend itself.<ref name="grunt.com"/> The US canceled the bombing of Communist positions on the trail. In Cambodia, last minute efforts on the part of the US to arrange for a peace settlement involving Sihanouk ended in failure. When the US Congress vetoed [[Ford]]'s call for a resumption of air support in Cambodia, panic and a sense of doom filled the capital, which was mercilessly shelled for more than a year by the Communists. President Ford openly predicted a "bloodbath" and stated that the Congress's decision to abandon Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge, in particular, would lead to "an unbelievable horror story".<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/cambodia/bloodbath1.pdf</ref> The US frantically abandoned Saigon, and the Pathet Lao advanced throughout Laos.

==Aftermath==
Professor R.J. Rummel calculates that Communist Vietnam directly killed 1.7 million people from 1945 to 1987 in democide alone (not counting war casualties or boat people),<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM</ref> from a total range of 700,000 to 3.7 million murdered.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF</ref> Some 400,000 to 2.5 million of these were killed after 1975. These figures include Laotians and Cambodians killed by Hanoi.

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, fell to followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, commonly known as the [[Khmer Rouge]], on April 17, 1975. Over the next four years, the Khmer Rouge enacted a genocidal policy that would kill over one-fourth of all Cambodians, or more than 2 million people. UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.<ref>William Shawcross, ''The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust, and Modern Conscience'' (Touchstone, 1985), p115-6.</ref> Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001">Heuveline, Patrick (2001). "The Demographic Analysis of Mortality in Cambodia." In Forced Migration and Mortality, eds. Holly E. Reed and Charles B. Keely. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.</ref> while Marek Sliwinski estimates that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.<ref name="Marek Sliwinski 1995">Marek Sliwinski, ''Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique'' (L'Harmattan, 1995).</ref> Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution".<ref name="Mekong.net_deaths">{{cite web|last=Sharp|first=Bruce|title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia|date = April 1, 2005|url = http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm|accessdate =January 9, 2013}}</ref> Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion.<ref>Khieu Samphan, Interview, Time, March 10, 1980</ref> By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot,"<ref>New York Times, August 8, 1979.</ref><ref name="time.com">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,947511,00.html</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,912511,00.html</ref> who were saved by American and international aid.

The Vietnamese Communists, led by Le Duan, perpetrated a huge bloodbath in South Vietnam, murdering hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese men, women, and children in cold blood. Up to 155,000 refugees fleeing the final NVA [[1975 Spring Offensive|Spring Offensive]] were killed or abducted on the road to [[Tuy Hoa]] in 1975.<ref>Wiesner, Louis, ''Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954-1975'' (Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 318-9.</ref> Sources have estimated that 165,000 South Vietnamese died in the re-education camps out of 2.5 million sent,<ref name="Desbarats">Desbarats, Jacqueline. [http://jim.com/repression.htm "Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation"], from ''The Vietnam Debate'' (1990) by John Morton Moore. "We know now from a 1985 statement by Nguyen Co Tach that two and a half million, rather than one million, people went through reeducation....in fact, possibly more than 100,000 Vietnamese people were victims of extrajudicial executions in the last ten years....it is likely that, overall, at least one million Vietnamese were the victims of forced population transfers."</ref><ref>Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan, [http://dartcenter.org/content/camp-z30-d-survivors Camp Z30-D: The Survivors], ''Orange County Register'', April 29, 2001.</ref> while the number executed could have been as high as 200,000<ref>Al Santoli, ed., ''To Bear Any Burden'' (Indiana University Press, 1999), pp272, 292-3.</ref> (Jacqueline Desbarats estimates an absolute minimum of 100,000 executions<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref>Morris, Stephen J. [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/morris.pdf Glastnost and the Gulag: The Numbers Game], ''Vietnam Commentary'', May–June 1988.</ref>). Victims were beheaded, eviscerated or buried alive.<ref>Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson, "Research Among Vietnamese Refugees Reveals a Bloodbath," Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1985.</ref> Rummel estimates that slave labor in the "New Economic Zones" caused 50,000 deaths (out of a total 1 million deported).<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref name="Statistics of Vietnamese Democide">Rummel, Rudolph, [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM Statistics of Vietnamese Democide], in his ''Statistics of Democide''.</ref> The number of [[boat people]] who died is estimated between 200,000 and 400,000, out of the 2.5 million that fled (according to the UN).<ref>Associated Press, June 23, 1979; San Diego Union, July 20, 1986. See generally Nghia M. Vo (2006), ''The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975-1992'', McFarland.</ref> There were also tens of thousands of suicides after the North Vietnamese take-over.<ref>Le Thi Anh, "The New Vietnam", ''[[National Review]]'', April 29, 1977, estimated some 20,000 post-war mass suicides.</ref> In 1988, Vietnam suffered a famine that afflicted millions.<ref>Crossette, Barbara, [https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/15/world/hanoi-citing-famine-fears-seeks-emergency-aid.html?src=pm Hanoi, Citing Famine Fears, Seeks Emergency Aid], ''[[The New York Times]],'' May 15, 1988.</ref>

The Pathet Lao overthrew the Royalist Government of Laos in December 1975. They established a Communist dictatorship known as the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The Pathet Lao waged a campaign of genocide, exterminating an estimated over 100,000 Hmong tribespeople. They inflicted massacres, terror bombing, concentration camps, and mass rape.<ref>Forced Back and Forgotten (Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, 1989); and Jane Hamilton-Merrit, ''Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos'' (Indiana University Press, 1999)</ref> The Communists killed over 184,000 people in Laos altogether.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat5.htm#Lao75</ref>

More than 3 million people fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos as “boat people,” about half of whom have been resettled by the United States.

After repeated border clashes in 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ousted the Khmer Rouge, installing a puppet government headed by Khmer Rouge defector Heng Samrin. From January until July 1979, according to [[CIA]] estimates, around 350,000 people were killed, primarily by Vietnam's refusal to allow foreign aid for a time. In addition, a comparable number of people fled Cambodia for [[Thailand]].<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/demcat.htm</ref> The toll from the entire famine over the years 1979-81 is estimated at about 500,000 dead (according to Etcheson).<ref name="hawaii.edu">http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB4.1A.GIF</ref> Some 25-50,000 Vietnamese died in combat,<ref name="users.erols.com">http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm</ref> while perhaps 100,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians died in the war itself.<ref name="hawaii.edu"/><ref name="users.erols.com"/> Tens of thousands more were killed by the Khmer Rouge, which controlled parts of the country late into 1979 and waged a guerilla war against the Vietnamese-backed government.<ref name="hawaii.edu"/> The total number of people killed by the Samrin regime in democide has never been clearly documented. Rummel estimates 230,000;<ref name="hawaii.edu"/> but this is mere guesswork. As noted, scores of thousands more were killed in the civil war that followed the invasion and by Khmer Rouge guerillas. Rummel believes that the full toll from this period could be in excess of one million.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP4.HTM</ref> This claim may be an exaggeration, but as is common in post-genocide societies, the population growth rate for Cambodia in the eighties was exceptionally high—which could have masked the full extent of the democide.

In response to the Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as the Third Indochina War, which cost over 200,000 casualties, including some 30,000 deaths.

In 1981, Pol Pot made his famous declaration denying guilt for the brutalities committed by the organization he led:

<blockquote>
Pol Pot said that he knows that many people in the country hate him and think he’s responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn’t keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house he didn’t know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much. For example, he allowed [one person] to take care of central committee business for him, [another person] to take care of intellectuals, and [a third person] to take care of political education.... These were the people to whom he felt very close, and he trusted them completely. Then in the end ... they made a mess of everything.... They would tell him things that were not true, that everything was fine, that this person or that was a traitor. In the end they were the real traitors. The major problem had been cadres formed by the Vietnamese.
</blockquote>

Communist Vietnam's refusal to allow international food aid into Cambodia after 1979 so as to starve out whatever remained of the Khmer Rouge resistance nearly led to the mass death of millions of people from starvation and disease.<ref name="time.com"/>

Vietnam fought three more wars after 1975 and armed Communist insurgencies with billions of dollars in an attempt to overrun [[Thailand]] and [[Malaysia]]. In South Vietnam, a nightmarish police state was established based on the Stalinist model: Political parties were outlawed; all music, books, literature, movies, and other media published prior to 1975 were banned completely; rationing, malnutrition, and famine ensued; ongoing class discrimination, xenophobic ethnic cleansing, and religious persecution continue to this day.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/toai.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan.html</ref><ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/morris.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982</ref><ref>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/SRV-Discrimination-1990</ref>

The US and other Western countries covertly armed the non-Communist forces of Son Sann and Prince Sihanouk in an attempt to force out the Vietnamese troops occupying Cambodia. These brave guerillas also engaged in extensive fighting with the Khmer Rouge.<ref>Far Eastern Economic Review, December 22, 1988</ref> (See [[Reagan Doctrine]])

Far from bringing peace, American defeat vastly increased the scale of the bloodshed in Indochina, as 3-4 million people were slaughtered in a bloodbath far surpassing the expectations of even the most fervent supporters of the war. Although North Vietnam agreed to "peace" in 1973; no one protested its subsequent invasion of South Vietnam, let alone Vietnam's wars with China, Laos, and Cambodia. The campuses were silent on the Holocaust in Cambodia, despite their hysterical response to the limited US incursion in 1970. The bloodbath received little media coverage at the time.

Evidence exists that the United States left behind POWs in Vietnam when it withdrew, even though the government denied such claims.<ref>Kirkwood, R. Cort (September 1, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/29825-evidence-of-pows-from-vietnam Evidence of POWs From Vietnam]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 1, 2018. See also:
*Kirkwood, R. Cort (August 26, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/29882-mccain-was-no-maverick-on-pows McCain Was No Maverick on POWs]. ''The New American''. Retrieved August 26, 2018.</ref>

===Failure of US campaign to help the South===
Military, political, and social historians have ever after debated why the United States was unable to defeat the North Vietnamese.

James Q. Wilson wrote: "First, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson both wanted to avoid losing Vietnam without waging a major war in Asia." <ref>When Richard Nixon became president, he wanted to end the war by pulling out American troops, and he did so. None of the three presidents wanted to win, but all wanted to report "progress." All three administrations instructed military commanders always to report gains and rely on suspect body counts as a way of measuring progress. [http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110009203]</ref>

Another factor was careerism of the officer corps. The number of officers in the US army grew disproportionately from the end of World War II, with a 1-in-15 ratio dropping to 1 in 6. Competition for promotions was handled badly by General Westmoreland, who permitted a six-month tour of duty for officers. This was hardly enough time to learn how to engage the enemy successfully, and gave rise to resentment among the largely working-class enlisted men. {{fact}}

America at first operated on the assumption that victory by body count was possible and would eventually bring the North Vietnamese to the peace table. There were in fact peace negotiations following Operation Linebacker II in December 1972, but these succeeded mostly in giving the United States its prisoners back and time to withdraw from the fight. It was simply impossible for the North Vietnamese leadership, which had been fighting in some form for 30 years, to imagine the indefinite existence of South Vietnam apart from unification under their rule.

==Cost of the War==
195,000-430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name="Lewy">Lewy, Guenter (1978). ''America in Vietnam''. New York: Oxford University Press. Appendix 1, pp.450-453</ref><ref>Thayer, Thomas C (1985). ''War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam''. Boulder: Westview Press. Ch. 12.</ref> 50,000-65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name="Lewy"/><ref>Wiesner, Louis A. (1988). ''Victims and Survivors Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam''. New York: Greenwood Press. p.310</ref> The Army of the Republic of Vietnam lost between 171,331 and 220,357 men during the war.<ref name="Lewy"/><ref>Thayer, Thomas C (1985). ''War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam''. Boulder: Westview Press. p.106.</ref> The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 communist forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Defense Department officials believed that these body count figures need to be deflated by 30 percent. In addition, Guenter Lewy assumes that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of communist military forces was probably closer to 444,000.<ref name="Lewy"/> During the peak war years, almost a third of civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.<ref>Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.</ref> Between 200,000 and 300,000 Cambodians died in the war,<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001"/><ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995)</ref><ref>Banister, Judith, and Paige Johnson (1993). "After the Nightmare: The Population of Cambodia." In Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community, ed. Ben Kiernan. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.</ref> as well as 20,000 Laotians.<ref>Small, Melvin & Joel David Singer, ''Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars 1816–1980''.</ref>

Over the course of the war, the United States suffered 46,226 battle deaths with 153,311 wounded 5,486 missing and 10,326 non-battle deaths. 3.3 million troops fought over the course of the war, with the largest number of 625,866 reached on March 27, 1969. The North Vietnamese claimed to have lost 1 million men.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979, Chart Page 1221</ref> Such a casualty rate, if applied to the United States, would have meant 13 million Americans killed and 3.9 million missing in action.<ref>Who Lost Vietnam?, by Joseph L. Galloway, a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report</ref>

{{cquote|'''They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam -- boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.'''

'''And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong. ---[[President Ronald Reagan]], 1986'''}}

The death toll from US defeat far surpassed that exacted by the war itself.

==Controversies about the War==

Max Boot wrote:
<blockquote>
Numerous bits of conventional wisdom have accreted around the Vietnam War. It is commonly held that [[Ho Chi Minh]] was a Vietnamese nationalist above all, not a true [[communist]], and that his victory was inevitable. That [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] was an unpopular and repressive [[reactionary]]. That the United States had no vital strategic interest in defending South Vietnam. That the ‘[[domino theory]]’ was a myth. That the U.S. was right not to invade North Vietnam or Laos for fear of triggering Chinese intervention. [[Mark Moyar]], a young, bold, and iconoclastic historian, takes a sledge hammer to these hoary beliefs. [His book] is ‘revisionist’ in the best sense of the word.” [https://web.archive.org/web/20061125071028/http://www.triumphforsaken.com/]
</blockquote>

Jeffrey Record contends that the military was relegated, as a result of its constitutional position, to the role of an accomplice in what Record states was the ''most strategically reckless American enterprise of the 20th century.'' He charges President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara with harshly suppressing their military advisers, with Johnson believing that his hawkish Joint Chiefs of Staff were out to destroy his Great Society by their wild-eyed schemes.<ref>The wrong war. Why We Lost in Vietnam, by Jeffrey Record.</ref>

Many politically correct "history books" make the My Lai Massacre into an important event of the war. In March 1968 in the hamlet of [[My Lai]], approximately 400 civilians were killed by American troops under the command of 2nd Lt. William Calley. Many troops present that day protested and did not take part in the event. After the event, the U.S. Army conducted an investigation and concluded there had been poor training in the Laws and Rules of Engagement, poor discipline and poor leadership up to the brigade commander. Atrocities on some level occur in every war. Since the 19th century, the U.S. is one of the few nations who prosecute its soldiers for such acts when they happen. The enemy in Viet Nam "conveniently" overlooked their far more numerous acts of atrocities and used this event for propaganda.<ref>Dunnigan & Nofi, ''Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War'' (1999)</ref> This does not justify the massacre, but 3 to 5,000 civilians were killed and found in mass graves after the retaking of Hue following the [[Tet Offensive]], a point not often noted. Other atrocities are listed in other sections of this article.

Largely because of misreporting during the war (see Media Bias below) as well as the [[anti-war]] movement, various returning veterans in Vietnam were treated horribly by the anti-war crowd, where they often were spat upon and denounced as "baby killers.<ref>https://americanhistory2013vietnamwar.weebly.com/treatment-of-returning-troops.html</ref> Ironically, as [[Leftists]], many of the anti-war protestors tended to support [[abortion]].

==Media Bias==

Charges of western [[media bias]] in favor of the Communist side have often been made by critics,<ref>Leonard Magruder, “I was there and that’s not the way it was”</ref> who see such alleged bias as being crucial in turning military victories by America into a loss of the war, much by means of propaganda. Underlying the importance of such is the often quoted exchange between Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. and his North Vietnamese counterpart, Colonel Tu. During one of his liaison trips to Hanoi, Colonel Summers, Jr. told Tu, "You know, you never beat us on the battlefield," Colonel Tu responded, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."<ref>On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War, Harry G. Summers</ref>

The success of the propaganda war has seemed enigmatic to many. “If there is to be an inquiry related to the Vietnam War, it should be into the reasons why enemy propaganda was so widespread in this country, and why the enemy was able to condition the public to such an extent that the best educated segments of our population (that is, media and university elite) gave credence to the most incredible allegations.” (Final Report - Chief of Military History - U.S. Government)

British "Encounter" journalist Robert Elegant stated,
<blockquote>
For the first time in modern history, the outcome of a war was determined not on the battlefield but on the printed page and, above all, on the television screen. Looking back coolly, I believe it can be said (surprising as it may still sound) that South Vietnamese and American forces actually won the limited military struggle. They virtually crushed the Viet Cong in the South, the "native" guerrillas who were directed, reinforced, and equipped from Hanoi; and thereafter they threw back the invasion by regular North Vietnamese divisions. Nonetheless, the war was finally lost to the invaders after the U.S. disengagement because the political pressures built up by the media had made it quite impossible for Washington to maintain even the minimal material and moral support that would have enabled the Saigon regime to continue effective resistance....Never before Vietnam had the collective policy of the media sought by graphic and unremitting distortion, the victory of the enemies of the correspondents own side.<ref>[http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/Vietnam/Readings/elegant.htm How to Lose A War: The Press and Viet Nam]; Encounter (London), vol. LVII, No. 2, August 1981, pp. 73-90</ref>
</blockquote>

Some journalists have admitted that their reporting was decidedly biased, and had profound effects on history. West German correspondent Uwe Siemon-Netto confessed, "Having covered the Viet Nam war over a period of five years for West German publications, I am now haunted by the role we journalists have played over there.

In relation to not reporting the true nature of the Hanoi regime and its actions resulting from the American withdrawal, he stated,

"Those of us who had wanted to find out knew of the evil nature of the Hanoi regime. We knew that, in 1956, close to 50,000 peasants were executed in North Viet Nam. We knew that after the division of the country nearly one million North Vietnamese had fled to the South. Many of us have seen the tortured and carved-up bodies of men, women, and children executed by the Viet Cong in the early phases of the war. And many of us saw, in 1968, the mass graves of Hue, saw the corpses of thousands of civilians still festively dressed for Tet, the Vietnamese New Year."

"Why, for heaven's sake, did we not report about these expressions of deliberate North Vietnamese strategy at least as extensively as of the My Lai massacre and other such isolated incidents that were definitely not part of the U.S. policy in Viet Nam?. What prompted us to make our readers believe that the Communists, once in power in all of Viet Nam, would behave benignly? What made us, first and foremost Anthony Lewis, belittle warnings by U.S. officials that a Communist victory would result in a massacre?

Why did we ignore the fact that the man responsible for the executions of 50,000 peasants, Truong Chinh, was—and still is—one of the most powerful figures in Hanoi. What made us think that he and his comrades would have mercy for the vanquished South Vietnamese? What compelled, for example, Anthony Lewis shortly after the fall of Saigon to pat himself on the shoulder and write, "so much for the talk of a massacre?"

"...Are we journalists not in part responsible for the death of the tens of thousands who drowned? And are we not in part responsible for the hostile reception accorded to those who survive?...However, the media have been rather coy; they have not declared that they played a key role in the conflict. They have not proudly trumpeted Hanoi's repeated expressions of gratitude to the mass media of the non-Communist world, although Hanoi has indeed affirmed that it could not have won "without the Western press."<ref>Uwe Siemon-Netto in the International Herald Tribune, reprinted in Encounter, October 1979</ref>

''CBS Evening News with [[Walter Cronkite]]'' regularly carried news reports from its [[Moscow]] Bureau Chief, [[Bernard Redmont]]. When peace negotiations commenced with North Vietnam in Paris, Redmont became ''CBS News'' [[Paris]] Bureau Chief. What Redmont never reported during the ten year conflict was, Redmont had been a [[KGB]] operative since the 1930s, and member of the notorious [[Silvermaster group]].<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55], Alexander Vassiliev, Notes on A. Gorsky’s Report to Savchenko S.R., 23 December 1949. Original document from KGB Archives [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page46.html].</ref> Redmont was the only journalist to whom his fellow [[Comintern]] party member, and North Vietnamese chief negotiator, Mai Van Bo, granted an interview to bring the Communist point of view into American living rooms in what has been called, "the living room war."

The most manifest example of such biased reporting is held to be the portrayal of the TET offensive, in which western media was charged with inspiring and aiding the propaganda war of the communists.

Truong Nhu Tang stated years later,

The Tet Offensive proved catastrophic to our plans. It is a major irony of the Vietnam War that our propaganda transformed this debacle into a brilliant victory. The truth was that Tet cost us half our forces. Our losses were so immense that we were unable to replace them with new recruits. (Truong Nhu Tang - Minister of Justice - Viet Cong Provisional Revolutionary Government - The New York Review, October 21, 1982)

In addition to his biased reporting, FBI documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act by [[Yahoo]] news, evidence that legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even promising that CBS News would rent a helicopter to take liberal Senator [[Edmund Muskie]] to and from the site of an anti-war rally.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2067/print</ref>

An ongoing example of such liberal bias is the work on Vietnam by the extreme left-wing propagandist, historical revisionist and genocide-denier Marilyn Young, which is required reading in many universities, even though she denies the North Vietnamese "land reform" bloodbath by relying entirely on official Communist press releases (as well as Moise and Porter, who in turn rely entirely on official North Vietnamese press releases). According to her, Communist Vietnam killed only 15,000(!) people at most during the "reform" and all other accounts of its atrocities were fabrications made up by the Western media (hence North Vietnamese media is a more reliable source than any in the West—a point she quite explicitly argues); ''even though official North Vietnamese government records document over 172,000 executions of individuals named as landowners during the 1954-6 period alone''.<ref name="rfa.org"/>

Young ignores the testimony of former North Vietnamese government officials like Hoang Van Chi, as well as foreign witnesses like Gerard Tongas; she denies the irrefutable evidence of the "disappearance" of at least 150,000 landowners from 1953-6;<ref name="ReferenceA">http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html</ref> she dismisses US intelligence; accuses Vietnamese experts like Lam Thanh Liem of lying; and mocks the survivors of Communist genocide as CIA propagandists. She endorses [[Noam Chomsky]]'s nonsensical lies, ''supports'' the North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam, paints a glowing picture of the concentration camps, and reduces the role of Khmer Rouge atrocities to 500-1,000,000 by citing the obscure and unknown Pol Pot apologist Michael Vickery—despite the 1,386,734 victims of execution in the mass graves!

Young further blames America for Pol Pot's rise, attributes all of the deaths in the entire war solely to the United States, and (on page 310) argues that the "boat people" really fled Vietnam not due to Communist repression, but rather the US trade embargo. She also simply denies the Hue Massacre.

Finally, Young claims that South Vietnam was the aggressor and that its imaginary “violation” of the 1973 cease-fire prompted the invasion from the “peace-loving” North—which is not surprising in the light of her reliance on official Communist sources, although it suggests quite a chasm between their claims and reality.<ref>Vietnam Wars, 1945-90 by Marilyn Young.</ref>

Notably, all of Young's sources on North Vietnamese crimes come from the North Vietnamese government itself, and she fails to cite a single dissident Vietnamese publication independent of that government in her entire work, while casting suspicion on the honesty of Vietnamese refugees. That she is a respected Professor indoctrinating American youth is consistent with the overall liberal propaganda that has come to characterize American higher education.

Paul Bogdanor notes: "The bloodbath deniers simply ignore or dismiss the evidence from dissident publications, communist defectors and foreign witnesses. They rely on official North Vietnamese publications, which they take at face value. This is what passes for scholarship on the 'anti-imperialist' left."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> And Young is but one gulag-denying professor out of many.

Young's denial of the "land reform" bloodbath is not unique. Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy, wrote the key bloodbath-denial work, titled simply "The Myth of the Bloodbath." Professor Robert F. Turner, drawing on his knowledge of thousands of captured Viet Cong documents, scores of interviews with Communist defectors, and extensive research on the "land reform;" carefully refuted all of Porter's charges, demonstrating that they could not withstand any serious critical scrutiny and that some 300,000 people were, in fact, killed during the genocide.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/turner.pdf</ref>

Porter is shown repeatedly contradicting himself, lying, making judgments that lack evidence and credibility, and accusing others of mistranslating a language he could barely speak. Although Porter's work was apparently sufficient to convince Young, its manifest sloppiness is contrary to honest scholarship. Vietnamese scholar Hoang Van Chi (1913-1988), who worked as a revolutionary and diplomat writing history and political science, also responded to Porter, who accused him of being a CIA propagandist in a ridiculous ad hominem attack.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/chi.pdf</ref> Porter would later deny the Cambodian genocide and express admiration and outspoken support for Pol Pot in the infamous ''Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution.''

Many US reporters admired the Khmer Rouge, while prominent intellectuals openly denied the Cambodian genocide. During the genocide, human rights abuses in Chile and South Korea got more coverage than Cambodia.<ref>"Irvine derived from the Television News Index and Abstracts a statistical table on media coverage of human rights in Chile, South Korea, North Korea, Cuba and Cambodia. The news organizations covered were the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC in 1976. The findings were startling. In table 4.1, the reader will see that, contrary to the Porter-Hildebrand-Chomsky-Herman claims, the New York Times and Washington Post published four and nine stories on human rights in Cambodia, respectively. According to table 4.1, Chile received more than eight times the coverage "on human rights problems" as did Cambodia. South Korea was covered merely 5.6 times more often. The total allocation of media resources to Cambodia paled in comparison to the massive campaign against Chile and South Korea, two non-communist countries. Perhaps the reason why Chomsky and Herman used anecdotal evidence to prove their theories was because they knew that aggregate analysis would show they were wrong." Sophal Ear. "The Khmer Rouge Canon." http://jim.com/canon.htm</ref> Some journalists, mocking the claims of a bloodbath, were so bold as to sing the following lyrics to the tune of "She Was Poor But She Was Honest": "Oh will there be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town?/ Aye, there'll be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town."<ref>http://jim.com/canon.htm#ch2</ref>

==Vietnam War in Popular Culture==
The war and its aftermath were the inspiration for several films, including ''The Green Berets'', ''The Deer Hunter'', ''Platoon'', ''Hamburger Hill'', and ''We Were Soldiers''.

The TV series ''Tour of Duty'' was about a U.S. Army platoon in country around the time of the [[Tet Offensive]]. The series ''Magnum, P.I'', ''Night Court'', ''Airwolf'', and ''Area 88'' all had Vietnam veterans as main or major characters. In the military drama series ''JAG,'' the main character's father was a US Navy pilot lost over North Vietnam, and the main character's desire to find out what happened to him is the focus of a major story arc over the first few seasons. In addition, the spinoff ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' has the major character Henrietta Lang having conducted operations during Vietnam, and at least two arcs during the 8th and 9th seasons involving her dealt with the Vietnam War, or more accurately, the aftermath.

===Quotes===
See: [[Vietnam War Quotes]].

==See also==
* [[Allen Ross Culpepper]]
* [[M-16]] and [[M-14]] rifles used by America and the [[South Vietnamese]]
* [[Kalashnikov]] ([[AK-47]]) and [[SKS]] rifles used by [[Viet Cong]]
* [[List of wars involving the United States]]
* [[Battle of Hamburger Hill]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Prados, John. ''Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975'' (2009) 704 pages
* Jennings, Phillip. ''America's victory in Vietnam'' 244 pages "A well-researched, brisk review of the central myths of the Vietnam War, set in historical context." (James S. Robbins, Washington Times)

==External links==
* [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/vietnam.html Vietnam War Bibliography by Richard Jensen]
*Larry Berman, [http://hnn.us/articles/37934.html ''Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An''], Time Magazine (Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins, 2007). [http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060888381/Perfect_Spy/index.aspx]
*[http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/almanac-saigon.pdf SIGINT and the Fall of Saigon, April 1975].
*[http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?eventID=6 "Secrecy, Freedom and Empire: Lessons for Today from Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers"].
*[http://www.onpower.org/foreign_regional_Asia.html#10 Vietnam War].
*[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2391209/posts?page=3 Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.) Capt. Scott Beaton, Vietnam (Fact vs Fiction)]
*[http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part01.html Vietnam and the Media, part 1] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071005220621/http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part01.html archived])
*[http://www.viet-myths.net/Turner.htm Myths and Realities in the Vietnam Debate]
*[http://www.rjsmith.com/war_myth.html Vietnam War Myths]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67C8yzww_Y How the Vietnam War Was Won and Lost by Prager University]
*[http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/goldwater-on-vietnam#.YH9ZLyWSmUk Goldwater on Vietnam]
[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Veterans]]

Vietnam War

2022-03-11T03:12:53Z

Jfedrov: grammar

{{War
| image =SaigonFall.jpg
| conflict =
| date =1959-1975
| location =[[Vietnam]]
| combatant1 ='''Anticommunist Forces''' [[South Vietnam]] [[United States]]
| combatant2 ='''Communist Forces''' [[North Vietnam]] [[Khmer Rouge]] [[Pathet Lao]] [[Viet Cong]]
| commander1 = [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] [[John F. Kennedy]] [[Lyndon Johnson]] [[Robert McNamara]] [[William Westmoreland]] [[Richard Nixon]] Nguyen Van Thieu
| commander2 = [[Ho Chi Minh]] Le Duan Hoang Van Thai
| strength1 = around 1,420,000 (1968)
| strength2 = around 860,000 (1968)
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}

[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]
The '''Vietnam War,''' also known as the Second Indochina War or The American War (in Vietnam), was fought principally between [[North Vietnamese]] [[Communist]] troops and [[South Vietnamese]] forces supported by American soldiers. The war was basically a fight over whether South Vietnam should have an [[Atheism|atheistic]], Communist government, a "hot war" in the ongoing [[Cold War]] between the US and the Soviets. Officially, Vietnam is an atheist state.<ref>Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis, Ron Emmons. The Rough Guide to Vietnam, Vol. 4, 2003. p. 509: "After 1975, the Marxist-Leninist government of reunified Vietnam declared the state atheist while theoretically allowing people the right to practice their religion under the constitution."</ref>

The war was in progress more or less continuously since the surrender of [[Japan]], which occupied Vietnam during [[World War II]], in 1945. [[Ho Chi Minh]], an operative of the [[Comintern]] (the Soviet organization charged with promoting Marxist–Leninist revolution around the world),<ref>[http://www.triumphforsaken.com/index.php?pr=Excerpt Triumph Forsaken], book by [[Mike Moyar]]</ref> led the movement for a unified, [[Communist]] Vietnam from 1941 on. He served as the dictator of North Vietnam until the late fifties, though he remained the figurehead president. He remained a popular icon of the New Left around the world, despite heading a totalitarian dictatorship and murdering hundreds of thousands of people.

==Prelude==
During World War II the Japanese occupied Vietnam and disarmed the French. With the vacuum caused by the defeat of Japan, an opportunity arose for the Communists to declare the "independence" of Vietnam in 1945. No nation recognized the new regime and the French returned and swept it away, with remnants hiding in the mountains. The [[United States]] backed France and its puppet emperor Bao Dai. [[Ho Chi Minh]] began a campaign to fight a weakened France and seize independence through force. France's economy was shattered by the war and so by 1953, 80% of the money and material used by Bao Dai's troops came from the United States. Nonetheless, in early 1954 French were defeated at the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] over many months when the fortress was overrun by a well-forged Vietnamese fighting force. More than 500,000 Vietnamese died in this conflict with France (the First Indochina War).

The French sued for peace at talks in [[Geneva]], the upshot of which was the creation of four independent countries in their former colony of [[Indochina]]: [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]]. North Vietnam was run by Ho Chi Minh as a totalitarian Communist dictatorship, while the South was run based on the Western model. Neither side respected the legitimacy of the other; as a consequence, the division was widely regarded as temporary. A British diplomat suggested that free elections be held in the North and South to determine the future of a unified Vietnam. South Vietnam consistently opposed such arguments on the grounds that free elections were impossible in the communist North. The United States was willing to accept free elections and a reunified Vietnam, Communist-led and hostile to China. Indeed, US officials ''favored'' such a default outcome; they listed it in secret communications never intended for public consumption (but released in the Pentagon Papers) under the heading "advantages."<ref>The Pentagon Papers (Beacon Press, 1971), vol. 3, p661.</ref> The US gradually intervened, due to the insistence of the North on a campaign of military aggression, as part of its wider Cold War strategy of containment.

A unity government was established in Laos, and the US was firmly committed to defending South Vietnam from conquest. Huge numbers of North Vietnamese desperately fled to the South for freedom. Cambodia was neutral and united behind the rule of Sihanouk. Despite repeated diplomatic efforts by the US to bring about a peaceful regional settlement; Hanoi became increasingly convinced that the revolution could be spread throughout Indochina only by force.

===The North Vietnamese Terror===
During the twenties and thirties, Communist forces waged an insurrection of mass murder and terrorism in an effort to seize power in Vietnam. The communist Viet Minh collaborated with French colonial forces to massacre supporters of the Vietnamese nationalist movements in the forties. When the Viet Minh went to war against France they continued their campaign to wipe out the nationalist groups. (America refused to back the French against the communists until 1950.)<ref>Robert F. Turner, Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development (Hoover Institution Press, 1975), pp57-9, 67-9, 74 and “Myths of the Vietnam War,” Southeast Asian Perspectives, September 1972, pp14-8</ref> The Japanese invasion of French Indochina proved to be a catalyst for Vietnamese independence, as it united the Vietnamese people behind the Communist resistance to imperial domination. In 1953, Ho launched a "rent reduction" campaign in which communist planners decided to massacre 1 out of every 1,000 North Vietnamese.<ref>Alec Holcombe, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.243?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000660%26Query%3Drent%2Breduction%26wc%3Don%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0&Search=yes&uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672198221 Politburo's Directive Issued on May 4, 1953, on Some Special Issues regarding Mass Mobilization] ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 243-247, quoting a translated Politburo directive from May 4, 1953. This directive was published in Complete Collection of Party Documents (Van Kien Dang Toan Tap), a 54 volume work authorized by the Vietnamese Communist Party.</ref>

From mid 1953 to early 1956, the North Vietnamese Communists embarked on a ruthless "land reform" in which landowners, dissidents, and French collaborators were slaughtered en masse in a "genocide triggered by class discrimination."<ref name="rfa.org">http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam_landreform-20060608.html</ref> Declassified Politburo documents confirm that 1 in 1,000 North Vietnamese (i.e., about 14,000 people) were the minimum quota targeted for execution during the earlier "rent reduction" campaign; the number killed during the multiple stages of the considerably more radical "land reform" was probably many times greater.<ref>Alec Holcombe, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.243?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000660%26Query%3Drent%2Breduction%26wc%3Don%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0&Search=yes&uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672198221 Politburo's Directive Issued on May 4, 1953, on Some Special Issues regarding Mass Mobilization] ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 243-247, quoting a translated Politburo directive from May 4, 1953. This directive was published in [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.225?uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672298091 Complete Collection of Party Documents] (Van Kien Dang Toan Tap), a 54 volume work authorized by the Vietnamese Communist Party.</ref> In 1957, during its "Rectification of Errors" campaign, North Vietnam admitted that it had wrongly executed about 15,000 communist cadre during the "land reform", and that 30% of the "landlords" executed were party members; i.e., that about 50,000 people were executed in total.<ref>''Nhan Dan,'' August 13, 1957.</ref><ref>''Time,'' July 1, 1957, p. 13, says they were given a proper burial.</ref><ref>Gittinger, J. Price, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3024603?uid=3739656&uid=2134&uid=367529391&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=367529381&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101618662091 "Communist Land Policy in Viet Nam"], ''Far Eastern Survey'', Vol. 29, No. 8, 1957, p. 118.</ref><ref>Lam Thanh Liem (1990), [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?"] in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214. "Vo Nhan Tri found and read a top-secret report on the number of communist cadres falsely accused and executed: 15,000."</ref> Lam Thanh Liem, a major authority on land issues in Vietnam, conducted multiple interviews in which communist cadres independently confirmed that 20-30% of those executed were actually fellow communists, but gave higher estimates for executions ranging from 120,000 to 200,000. Such figures match the "nearly 150,000 houses and huts which were allocated to new occupants".<ref>Lam Thanh Liem (1990), [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?"] in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214.</ref><ref>Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=MauWlUjuWNsC&pg=PA340#v=onepage&q&f=false ''The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans''], Indiana University Press, p. 340, quotes comparable figures for communist cadre executed.</ref> Official records from the time suggest that 172,008 "landlords" were killed during the "land reform", of whom 123,266 (71.66%) were later found to be wrongly classified.<ref>''The History of the Vietnamese Economy'' (2005), Vol. 2, edited by Dang Phong of the Institute of Economy, Vietnamese Institute of Social Sciences. Landlords were classified as 5.68% of the population, but only a fraction of them were killed. These figures are proportionally comparable to those for China's land reform, in which millions of "landlords" were slaughtered.</ref> The full death toll was even greater because victims' families starved to death under the "policy of isolation."<ref>''Nhan Vhan,'' November 5, 1956: "In the agrarian reform, illegal arrests, imprisonments, investigations (with barbarous torture), executions, requisitions of property, and '''the quarantining of landowners’ houses''' (or houses of peasants wrongly classified as landowners), which left innocent children to die of starvation, are not exclusively due to the shortcomings of the leadership, but also due to the lack of a complete legal code. If the cadres had felt that they were closely observed by the god of justice... calamities might have been avoided for the masses." Nhan Vhan was one of the best-known opposition periodicals that was allowed during the three-month period of relative intellectual freedom in the fall of 1956, modeled on Mao's "Hundred Flowers" campaign.</ref> As communist defector Le Xuan Giao explained: "There was nothing worse than the starvation of the children in a family whose parents were under the control of a land reform team. They isolated the house, and the people who lived there would starve. The children were all innocent. There was nothing worse than that. They wanted to see the whole family dead."<ref name="Turner">Turner, Robert F. [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/turner.pdf "Expert Punctures 'No Bloodbath' Myth"]. ''[[Human Events]],'' November 11, 1972.</ref>

In 1959, Hanoi's politburo received a series of reports indicating that even though the North had been directing a phase one guerrilla insurgency in the South for two years, the South was socially and economically out-pacing the North. "By Tet of 1959," [[William Colby]] writes in his book, ''Lost Victory'', "it was plain that a nationalist and non-Communist Vietnam was firmly established. It was also becoming apparent that its future was, if anything, more promising than the gray and regimented society in the North."<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu">http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>

In response, the North decided to rapidly escalate the campaign to conquer South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia using the Ho Chi Minh trail. To "hide" the fact that "there had been an invasion from the North," as one North Vietnamese commander openly admitted, seemingly indigenous forces were deployed in the initial phases of the conflict. Originally part of the [[Vietminh]] and honorary branches of the North Vietnamese army; groups of Cambodian (the [[Khmer Rouge]]), Laotian (the Pathet Lao), and South Vietnamese (the [[Vietcong]]) Communists were dispatched by the North to overthrow the governments of their respective countries. Thousands of North Vietnamese troops overtly aided them by providing arms and training, and by invading and occupying large chunks of Cambodia and Laos to assist them. By 1961 northern Communists were assassinating one hundred southern hamlet, village, and/or district officials each month. By 1962 that figure had grown to one thousand per month.<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu"/>

The atrocities escalated rapidly with no end in sight. By 1965, the guerilla war was largely over, and the army of North Vietnam was using conventional warfare to try and overrun Cambodia and South Vietnam. The US began sending military advisors to South Vietnam in 1950. By 1965, it reluctantly decided to commit combat troops to prevent a Communist takeover.

The Viet Cong massacres were described as follows:
<blockquote>
The village chief and his wife were distraught. One of their children, a seven-year-old boy, had been missing for four days. They were terrified, they explained to Marine Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt, because they believed he had been captured by the Vietcong.

Suddenly, the boy came out of the jungle and ran across the rice paddies toward the village. He was crying. His mother ran to him and swept him up in her arms. Both of his hands had been cut off, and there was a sign around his neck, a message to his father: if he or anyone else in the village dared go to the polls during the upcoming elections, something worse would happen to the rest of his children.

The VC delivered a similar warning to the residents of a hamlet not far from Danang. All were herded before the home of their chief. While they and the chief’s pregnant wife and four children were forced to look on, the chief’s tongue was cut out. Then his genital organs were sliced off and sewn inside his bloody mouth. As he died, the VC went to work on his wife, slashing open her womb. Then, the nine-year-old son: a bamboo lance was rammed through one ear and out the other. Two more of the chief’s children were murdered the same way. The VC did not harm the five-year-old daughter — not physically: they simply left her crying, holding her dead mother’s hand.

General Walt tells of his arrival at a district headquarters the day after it had been overrun by VC and North Vietnamese army troops. Those South Vietnamese soldiers not killed in the battle had been tied up and shot through their mouths or the backs of their heads. Then their wives and children, including a number of two- and three-year-olds, had been brought into the street, disrobed, tortured and finally executed: their throats were cut; they were shot, beheaded, disemboweled. The mutilated bodies were draped on fences and hung with signs telling the rest of the community that if they continued to support the Saigon government and allied forces, they could look forward to the same fate.

These atrocities are not isolated cases; they are typical. For this is the enemy’s way of warfare, clearly expressed in his combat policy in Vietnam. While the naive and anti-American throughout the world, cued by communist propaganda; have trumpeted against American “immorality” in the Vietnam war — aerial bombing, the use of [[napalm]], casualties caused by American combat action — daily and nightly for years, the communists have systematically authored history’s grisliest catalogue of barbarism. By the end of 1967, they had committed at least 100,000 acts of terror against the South Vietnamese people. The record is an endless litany of tortures, mutilations and murders that would have been instructive even to such as Adolf Hitler.
</blockquote>

In 1960, some 1,500 South Vietnamese civilians were killed and 700 abducted. By early 1965, the communists’ Radio Hanoi and Radio Liberation were able to boast that the VC had destroyed 7,559 South Vietnamese hamlets. By the end of 1967, 15,138 South Vietnamese civilians had been killed, 45,929 kidnapped. Few of the kidnapped were ever seen again.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hochiminh.html</ref>

==The War==
In 1958, North Vietnam launched an invasion of Laos.<ref>http://countrystudies.us/laos/24.htm</ref>

In 1959, by its own admission, North Vietnam decided on war in South Vietnam.
North Vietnam created the Viet Cong and sent 20,000 men to attack the South. In 1961, North
Vietnam used 30,000 troops to build invasion routes via Laos and Cambodia. North Vietnam
later admitted that it “played a decisive role” in bringing to power the Pathet Lao in Laos and
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.<ref>The Economist, February 26, 1983; Washington Post, April 23, 1985.</ref>

The [[Kennedy]] administration, which had repeatedly intervened to halt right-wing coups, acquiesced in November 1963 to the overthrow of the weak South Vietnam leader Diem by a coalition of generals. President Nixon would later characterize this decision as a catastrophic betrayal of an ally that contributed to the ultimate disintegration of South Vietnam. The ''casus belli'' for full combat intervention by the United States was an exaggerated confrontation between North Vietnamese P4 torpedo boats and the USS ''Maddox'' on August 2, 1964 and a second alleged attack by North Vietnam on August 4, 1964 which involved both the USS ''Maddox'' and USS ''Turner Joy''; the events became known as the "[[Gulf of Tonkin incident]]". Shortly thereafter, President Johnson got Congress to pass the "[[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]". President Johnson then deployed US military forces for warfare against North Vietnam. He had the US respond with a massive bombing campaign called "Operation Rolling Thunder". Although a swift victory over North Vietnam would have taken a matter of months, the risk of Chinese intervention was considered too great to accept. Thus, Vietnam was fought to avoid "another Korea".

President Johnson, a tormented but ultimately sincere man, could not bear the burden of the war. His incoherent war policy, combined with the lies and deceptions he employed to sell it, resulted in a loss of public faith in his honesty. He began to doubt himself, while his incompetent administration, exemplified by [[Robert McNamara]], began to have doubts about the morality of US policy. Many of them would join the anti-war movement.

Richard Nixon was subsequently elected President on a pledge to end the war by ''prosecuting'' it. His shrewd diplomacy, backed with the immense intellect of his National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, [[Henry Kissinger]], hoped to negotiate an end to the war through a show of force.

Although Sihanouk designated all insurgents "red Khmers," or "Khmer Rouge," in reality there were two main indigenous insurgent groups. One was the Khmer Viet Minh, modeled on the Pathet Lao, that Hanoi held total political authority over. The other was called the Khmer Krahom, a fanatical Maoist cult that would soon be led by one Saloth Sar, who would later become infamous for his genocidal brutality under his assumed name, Pol Pot. Both traced their roots back to a common cadre trained by Ho Chi Minh in China from 1925-30. At Geneva, Hanoi had attempted to secure a KVM "zone" in northeastern Cambodia that would have been modeled on the Pathet Lao zone they secured in Laos. This amounted to an attempt to divide Cambodia into Communist and non-Communist halves, like Vietnam.

By 1968, the KK had 14-15,000 fighters, while the KVM had 12,000. North Vietnam had invaded and occupied large chunks of Cambodia. Nearly half of the country was faced with North Vietnamese or other Communist occupation. The Viet Cong was active in the country with about 30,000 troops, and worked with the KVM to launch invasions of Cambodia from North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese had 60,000 troops on Cambodian soil. This would be the equivalent in the United States of nearly 4 million armed and organized troops from Mexico and Canada overrunning most of the country. These figures are from 10 months prior to the start of any US bombing, which began in late 1968 under President Johnson.

By 1969, the North had accelerated its long-term plan, dubbed "Campaign X," to conquer Cambodia. By 1970, it had the supply lines, troops, and logistical support necessary to force the collapse of Cambodia. Sihanouk had long done little to disguise his support for the North Vietnamese Communists, but now he grew afraid. "Hanoi," he said, "could easily force the collapse of both Cambodia and what is left of Laos if it was not faced with American opposition." Therefore, he encouraged the Americans to bomb KK, KVM, VC, and North Vietnamese "sanctuaries" in Cambodia so as to send Hanoi a message that it had better back down immediately. Demographic evidence indicates that the US bombings of Cambodia, especially the Menu bombings, ultimately killed about 40,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians.<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995), pp41-8.</ref> Some estimates go as high as 100,000 killed by the bombing.<ref>http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf</ref> Many leftists opposed to the war considered the bombing to be a war crime. The Khmer Rouge claimed that 600-800,000 died in the war,<ref name="paulbogdanor.com">http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200chomskylies.pdf</ref> which is about three times the real figure,<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique</ref> and [[far-left]] activists such as [[Noam Chomsky]] have not only embraced these numbers but also attributed all of the deaths to American bombing and thus implied that the Khmer Rouge ''underestimated'' the full toll from the war<ref name="paulbogdanor.com"/>—despite the demographic impossibility of their assertions.

In 1970, North Vietnamese troops invaded and attempted to overrun the entire country of Cambodia at the request of the indigenous Communist forces, who had surrounded the capital and hoped one small push would be enough to overthrow the weak Lon Nol regime. Nixon responded forcefully with an incursion and bombing campaign to force the North Vietnamese out. Justifying his actions, he stated:
<blockquote>
"Cambodia, a small country of 7 million [actually 8 million] people, has been a neutral nation since the Geneva agreement of 1954 - an agreement, incidentally, which was signed by the Government of North Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
American policy since then has been to scrupulously respect the neutrality of the Cambodian people. We have maintained a skeleton diplomatic mission of fewer than 15 in Cambodia's capital, and that only since last August. For the previous 4 years, from 1965 to 1969, we did not have any diplomatic mission whatever in Cambodia. And for the past 5 years, we have provided no military assistance whatever and no economic assistance to Cambodia.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
North Vietnam, however, has not respected that neutrality.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For the past 5 years - as indicated on this map that you see here - North Vietnam has occupied military sanctuaries all along the Cambodian frontier with South Vietnam. Some of these extend up to 20 miles into Cambodia. The sanctuaries are in red and, as you note, they are on both sides of the border. They are used for hit and run attacks on American and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
These Communist occupied territories contain major base camps, training sites, logistics facilities, weapons and ammunition factories, airstrips, and prisoner-of-war compounds.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For 5 years, neither the United States nor South Vietnam has moved against these enemy sanctuaries because we did not wish to violate the territory of a neutral nation. Even after the Vietnamese Communists began to expand these sanctuaries 4 weeks ago, we counseled patience to our South Vietnamese allies and imposed restraints on our own commanders.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
In contrast to our policy, the enemy in the past 2 weeks has stepped up his guerrilla actions and he is concentrating his main forces in these sanctuaries that you see on this map where they are building up to launch massive attacks on our forces and those of South Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
North Vietnam in the last 2 weeks has stripped away all pretense of respecting the sovereignty or the neutrality of Cambodia. Thousands of their soldiers are invading the country from the sanctuaries; they are encircling the capital of Phnom Penh. Coming from these sanctuaries, as you see here, they have moved into Cambodia and are encircling the capital."<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/nixon430.htm</ref>
</blockquote>

Although North Vietnam would invade and annex South Vietnam and invade, occupy, force the collapse of and establish total political control over Laos; it would ultimately fail to meet this objective in Cambodia. Though it supported, or rather offered support to, the KK; its goal of directly establishing political control over Cambodia would not be reached until 1979. Some commentators, like William Shawcross, have controversially argued that the US bombing, by forcing out the North Vietnamese, helped to create the conditions that allowed Pol Pot to come to power. Shawcross and others have also claimed that the US bombing was the main propaganda tool used to recruit members for the KK, and that it helped radicalize the Cambodian populace and swell the ranks of the Communists.

Documents uncovered from the Soviet archives after 1991 reveal that the North Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1970 was launched at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then second in command, Nuon Chea.<ref>Dmitry Mosyakov, “The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A History of Their Relations as Told in the Soviet Archives,” in Susan E. Cook, ed., Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda (Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series No. 1, 2004), p54ff. Availible online at: http://128.36.236.77/workpaper/pdfs/GS20.pdf "In April–May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: “Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days.”"</ref>

When Nixon came into office, there were more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, and their number was increasing. Hanoi insisted that to obtain a cease-fire, the U.S. had to meet two preconditions: First, the U.S. had to overthrow the South Vietnamese government, disband its police and army and replace it with a communist-dominated government. Second, it had to establish an unconditional timetable for the withdrawal of its forces, to be carried out regardless of subsequent negotiations or how long they might last. The presence of North Vietnamese troops in Laos and Cambodia was declared not an appropriate subject for negotiations. Between 1969 and 1972, he withdrew 515,000 American troops, ended American ground combat in 1971 and reduced American casualties by nearly 90%. According to Kissinger, "a breakthrough occurred in 1972 because the administration's strategic design finally came together in its retaliation for the North Vietnamese spring offensive. When the U.S. mined North Vietnam's harbors, Hanoi found itself isolated because, as a result of the opening to China in 1971 and the summit in 1972, Beijing and the Soviet Union stood aside. Hanoi's offensive was defeated on the ground entirely by South Vietnamese forces assisted by U.S. air power. Faced with a military setback and diplomatic isolation, Le Duc Tho, Hanoi's principal negotiator, abandoned Hanoi's 1969 terms in October 1972. He accepted conditions publicly put forward by Nixon in January 1972 -- and decried as unachievable in the U.S. domestic debate. The terms of the resulting Paris peace agreement were an unconditional cease-fire and release of prisoners; continuation of the existing South Vietnamese government; continued U.S. economic and military help for it; no further infiltration of North Vietnamese forces; withdrawal of the remaining U.S. forces; and withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces from Laos and Cambodia."<ref>http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/31/opinion/oe-kissinger31/2</ref>

Nixon brought about the first peace agreements between [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]], and dramatically lessened the scale of the bloodshed in Indochina. For a time, it seemed peace might be within our reach. Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972.

Meanwhile, the Khmer Krahom fell under the control of its most fanatical members, led by Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. They were beyond the control of Hanoi and sought to completely annihilate Cambodian society and restart from scratch. When they besieged the capital again, the US again launched a bombing raid against Communist forces. The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500 Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city.

The communist leaders had expected that the ceasefire terms would favor their side. But Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Vietcong. The communists responded with a new strategy hammered out in a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of Tran Van Tra.

As the Vietcong's top commander, Trà participated in several of these meetings. With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–1976 dry season. Trà calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained.

In 1974, Congress voted not to enforce the commitments agreed to in the Paris Peace Accords. Air support for Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Laos was cut off. The military aid promised was scaled back or never materialized, and the North was allowed to resume support for the Khmer Rouge. "After Nixon stepped down over Watergate," said one Communist commander, "we knew we would win."<ref name="grunt.com">http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/vietnam/north.asp</ref> Without the logistical support provided by the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North would not have been able to launch an invasion of South Vietnam by 1975, which it predicted would be its "last chance" before the South was self-sufficiently able to defend itself.<ref name="grunt.com"/> The US canceled the bombing of Communist positions on the trail. In Cambodia, last minute efforts on the part of the US to arrange for a peace settlement involving Sihanouk ended in failure. When the US Congress vetoed [[Ford]]'s call for a resumption of air support in Cambodia, panic and a sense of doom filled the capital, which was mercilessly shelled for more than a year by the Communists. President Ford openly predicted a "bloodbath" and stated that the Congress's decision to abandon Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge, in particular, would lead to "an unbelievable horror story".<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/cambodia/bloodbath1.pdf</ref> The US frantically abandoned Saigon, and the Pathet Lao advanced throughout Laos.

==Aftermath==
Professor R.J. Rummel calculates that Communist Vietnam directly killed 1.7 million people from 1945 to 1987 in democide alone (not counting war casualties or boat people),<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM</ref> from a total range of 700,000 to 3.7 million murdered.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF</ref> Some 400,000 to 2.5 million of these were killed after 1975. These figures include Laotians and Cambodians killed by Hanoi.

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, fell to followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, commonly known as the [[Khmer Rouge]], on April 17, 1975. Over the next four years, the Khmer Rouge enacted a genocidal policy that would kill over one-fourth of all Cambodians, or more than 2 million people. UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.<ref>William Shawcross, ''The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust, and Modern Conscience'' (Touchstone, 1985), p115-6.</ref> Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001">Heuveline, Patrick (2001). "The Demographic Analysis of Mortality in Cambodia." In Forced Migration and Mortality, eds. Holly E. Reed and Charles B. Keely. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.</ref> while Marek Sliwinski estimates that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.<ref name="Marek Sliwinski 1995">Marek Sliwinski, ''Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique'' (L'Harmattan, 1995).</ref> Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution".<ref name="Mekong.net_deaths">{{cite web|last=Sharp|first=Bruce|title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia|date = April 1, 2005|url = http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm|accessdate =January 9, 2013}}</ref> Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion.<ref>Khieu Samphan, Interview, Time, March 10, 1980</ref> By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot,"<ref>New York Times, August 8, 1979.</ref><ref name="time.com">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,947511,00.html</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,912511,00.html</ref> who were saved by American and international aid.

The Vietnamese Communists, led by Le Duan, perpetrated a huge bloodbath in South Vietnam, murdering hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese men, women, and children in cold blood. Up to 155,000 refugees fleeing the final NVA [[1975 Spring Offensive|Spring Offensive]] were killed or abducted on the road to [[Tuy Hoa]] in 1975.<ref>Wiesner, Louis, ''Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954-1975'' (Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 318-9.</ref> Sources have estimated that 165,000 South Vietnamese died in the re-education camps out of 2.5 million sent,<ref name="Desbarats">Desbarats, Jacqueline. [http://jim.com/repression.htm "Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation"], from ''The Vietnam Debate'' (1990) by John Morton Moore. "We know now from a 1985 statement by Nguyen Co Tach that two and a half million, rather than one million, people went through reeducation....in fact, possibly more than 100,000 Vietnamese people were victims of extrajudicial executions in the last ten years....it is likely that, overall, at least one million Vietnamese were the victims of forced population transfers."</ref><ref>Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan, [http://dartcenter.org/content/camp-z30-d-survivors Camp Z30-D: The Survivors], ''Orange County Register'', April 29, 2001.</ref> while the number executed could have been as high as 200,000<ref>Al Santoli, ed., ''To Bear Any Burden'' (Indiana University Press, 1999), pp272, 292-3.</ref> (Jacqueline Desbarats estimates an absolute minimum of 100,000 executions<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref>Morris, Stephen J. [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/morris.pdf Glastnost and the Gulag: The Numbers Game], ''Vietnam Commentary'', May–June 1988.</ref>). Victims were beheaded, eviscerated or buried alive.<ref>Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson, "Research Among Vietnamese Refugees Reveals a Bloodbath," Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1985.</ref> Rummel estimates that slave labor in the "New Economic Zones" caused 50,000 deaths (out of a total 1 million deported).<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref name="Statistics of Vietnamese Democide">Rummel, Rudolph, [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM Statistics of Vietnamese Democide], in his ''Statistics of Democide''.</ref> The number of [[boat people]] who died is estimated between 200,000 and 400,000, out of the 2.5 million that fled (according to the UN).<ref>Associated Press, June 23, 1979; San Diego Union, July 20, 1986. See generally Nghia M. Vo (2006), ''The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975-1992'', McFarland.</ref> There were also tens of thousands of suicides after the North Vietnamese take-over.<ref>Le Thi Anh, "The New Vietnam", ''[[National Review]]'', April 29, 1977, estimated some 20,000 post-war mass suicides.</ref> In 1988, Vietnam suffered a famine that afflicted millions.<ref>Crossette, Barbara, [https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/15/world/hanoi-citing-famine-fears-seeks-emergency-aid.html?src=pm Hanoi, Citing Famine Fears, Seeks Emergency Aid], ''[[The New York Times]],'' May 15, 1988.</ref>

The Pathet Lao overthrew the Royalist Government of Laos in December 1975. They established a Communist dictatorship known as the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The Pathet Lao waged a campaign of genocide, exterminating an estimated over 100,000 Hmong tribespeople. They inflicted massacres, terror bombing, concentration camps, and mass rape.<ref>Forced Back and Forgotten (Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, 1989); and Jane Hamilton-Merrit, ''Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos'' (Indiana University Press, 1999)</ref> The Communists killed over 184,000 people in Laos altogether.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat5.htm#Lao75</ref>

More than 3 million people fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos as “boat people,” about half of whom have been resettled by the United States.

After repeated border clashes in 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ousted the Khmer Rouge, installing a puppet government headed by Khmer Rouge defector Heng Samrin. From January until July 1979, according to [[CIA]] estimates, around 350,000 people were killed, primarily by Vietnam's refusal to allow foreign aid for a time. In addition, a comparable number of people fled Cambodia for [[Thailand]].<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/demcat.htm</ref> The toll from the entire famine over the years 1979-81 is estimated at about 500,000 dead (according to Etcheson).<ref name="hawaii.edu">http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB4.1A.GIF</ref> Some 25-50,000 Vietnamese died in combat,<ref name="users.erols.com">http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm</ref> while perhaps 100,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians died in the war itself.<ref name="hawaii.edu"/><ref name="users.erols.com"/> Tens of thousands more were killed by the Khmer Rouge, which controlled parts of the country late into 1979 and waged a guerilla war against the Vietnamese-backed government.<ref name="hawaii.edu"/> The total number of people killed by the Samrin regime in democide has never been clearly documented. Rummel estimates 230,000;<ref name="hawaii.edu"/> but this is mere guesswork. As noted, scores of thousands more were killed in the civil war that followed the invasion and by Khmer Rouge guerillas. Rummel believes that the full toll from this period could be in excess of one million.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP4.HTM</ref> This claim may be an exaggeration, but as is common in post-genocide societies, the population growth rate for Cambodia in the eighties was exceptionally high—which could have masked the full extent of the democide.

In response to the Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as the Third Indochina War, which cost over 200,000 casualties, including some 30,000 deaths.

In 1981, Pol Pot made his famous declaration denying guilt for the brutalities committed by the organization he led:

<blockquote>
Pol Pot said that he knows that many people in the country hate him and think he’s responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn’t keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house he didn’t know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much. For example, he allowed [one person] to take care of central committee business for him, [another person] to take care of intellectuals, and [a third person] to take care of political education.... These were the people to whom he felt very close, and he trusted them completely. Then in the end ... they made a mess of everything.... They would tell him things that were not true, that everything was fine, that this person or that was a traitor. In the end they were the real traitors. The major problem had been cadres formed by the Vietnamese.
</blockquote>

Communist Vietnam's refusal to allow international food aid into Cambodia after 1979 so as to starve out whatever remained of the Khmer Rouge resistance nearly led to the mass death of millions of people from starvation and disease.<ref name="time.com"/>

Vietnam fought three more wars after 1975 and armed Communist insurgencies with billions of dollars in an attempt to overrun [[Thailand]] and [[Malaysia]]. In South Vietnam, a nightmarish police state was established based on the Stalinist model: Political parties were outlawed; all music, books, literature, movies, and other media published prior to 1975 were banned completely; rationing, malnutrition, and famine ensued; ongoing class discrimination, xenophobic ethnic cleansing, and religious persecution continue to this day.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/toai.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan.html</ref><ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/morris.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982</ref><ref>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/SRV-Discrimination-1990</ref>

The US and other Western countries covertly armed the non-Communist forces of Son Sann and Prince Sihanouk in an attempt to force out the Vietnamese troops occupying Cambodia. These brave guerillas also engaged in extensive fighting with the Khmer Rouge.<ref>Far Eastern Economic Review, December 22, 1988</ref> (See [[Reagan Doctrine]])

Far from bringing peace, American defeat vastly increased the scale of the bloodshed in Indochina, as 3-4 million people were slaughtered in a bloodbath far surpassing the expectations of even the most fervent supporters of the war. Although North Vietnam agreed to "peace" in 1973; no one protested its subsequent invasion of South Vietnam, let alone Vietnam's wars with China, Laos, and Cambodia. The campuses were silent on the Holocaust in Cambodia, despite their hysterical response to the limited US incursion in 1970. The bloodbath received little media coverage at the time.

Evidence exists that the United States left behind POWs in Vietnam when it withdrew, even though the government denied such claims.<ref>Kirkwood, R. Cort (September 1, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/29825-evidence-of-pows-from-vietnam Evidence of POWs From Vietnam]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 1, 2018. See also:
*Kirkwood, R. Cort (August 26, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/29882-mccain-was-no-maverick-on-pows McCain Was No Maverick on POWs]. ''The New American''. Retrieved August 26, 2018.</ref>

===Failure of US campaign to help the South===
Military, political, and social historians have ever after debated why the United States was unable to defeat the North Vietnamese.

James Q. Wilson wrote: "First, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson both wanted to avoid losing Vietnam without waging a major war in Asia." <ref>When Richard Nixon became president, he wanted to end the war by pulling out American troops, and he did so. None of the three presidents wanted to win, but all wanted to report "progress." All three administrations instructed military commanders always to report gains and rely on suspect body counts as a way of measuring progress. [http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110009203]</ref>

Another factor was careerism of the officer corps. The number of officers in the US army grew disproportionately from the end of World War II, with a 1-in-15 ratio dropping to 1 in 6. Competition for promotions was handled badly by General Westmoreland, who permitted a six-month tour of duty for officers. This was hardly enough time to learn how to engage the enemy successfully, and gave rise to resentment among the largely working-class enlisted men. {{fact}}

America at first operated on the assumption that victory by body count was possible and would eventually bring the North Vietnamese to the peace table. There were in fact peace negotiations following Operation Linebacker II in December 1972, but these succeeded mostly in giving the United States its prisoners back and time to withdraw from the fight. It was simply impossible for the North Vietnamese leadership, which had been fighting in some form for 30 years, to imagine the indefinite existence of South Vietnam apart from unification under their rule.

==Cost of the War==
195,000-430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name="Lewy">Lewy, Guenter (1978). ''America in Vietnam''. New York: Oxford University Press. Appendix 1, pp.450-453</ref><ref>Thayer, Thomas C (1985). ''War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam''. Boulder: Westview Press. Ch. 12.</ref> 50,000-65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name="Lewy"/><ref>Wiesner, Louis A. (1988). ''Victims and Survivors Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam''. New York: Greenwood Press. p.310</ref> The Army of the Republic of Vietnam lost between 171,331 and 220,357 men during the war.<ref name="Lewy"/><ref>Thayer, Thomas C (1985). ''War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam''. Boulder: Westview Press. p.106.</ref> The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 communist forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Defense Department officials believed that these body count figures need to be deflated by 30 percent. In addition, Guenter Lewy assumes that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of communist military forces was probably closer to 444,000.<ref name="Lewy"/> During the peak war years, almost a third of civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.<ref>Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.</ref> Between 200,000 and 300,000 Cambodians died in the war,<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001"/><ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995)</ref><ref>Banister, Judith, and Paige Johnson (1993). "After the Nightmare: The Population of Cambodia." In Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community, ed. Ben Kiernan. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.</ref> as well as 20,000 Laotians.<ref>Small, Melvin & Joel David Singer, ''Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars 1816–1980''.</ref>

Over the course of the war, the United States suffered 46,226 battle deaths with 153,311 wounded 5,486 missing and 10,326 non-battle deaths. 3.3 million troops fought over the course of the war, with the largest number of 625,866 reached on March 27, 1969. The North Vietnamese claimed to have lost 1 million men.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979, Chart Page 1221</ref> Such a casualty rate, if applied to the United States, would have meant 13 million Americans killed and 3.9 million missing in action.<ref>Who Lost Vietnam?, by Joseph L. Galloway, a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report</ref>

{{cquote|'''They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam -- boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.'''

'''And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong. ---[[President Ronald Reagan]], 1986'''}}

The death toll from US defeat far surpassed that exacted by the war itself.

==Controversies about the War==

Max Boot wrote:
<blockquote>
Numerous bits of conventional wisdom have accreted around the Vietnam War. It is commonly held that [[Ho Chi Minh]] was a Vietnamese nationalist above all, not a true [[communist]], and that his victory was inevitable. That [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] was an unpopular and repressive [[reactionary]]. That the United States had no vital strategic interest in defending South Vietnam. That the ‘[[domino theory]]’ was a myth. That the U.S. was right not to invade North Vietnam or Laos for fear of triggering Chinese intervention. [[Mark Moyar]], a young, bold, and iconoclastic historian, takes a sledge hammer to these hoary beliefs. [His book] is ‘revisionist’ in the best sense of the word.” [https://web.archive.org/web/20061125071028/http://www.triumphforsaken.com/]
</blockquote>

Jeffrey Record contends that the military was relegated, as a result of its constitutional position, to the role of an accomplice in what Record states was the ''most strategically reckless American enterprise of the 20th century.'' He charges President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara with harshly suppressing their military advisers, with Johnson believing that his hawkish Joint Chiefs of Staff were out to destroy his Great Society by their wild-eyed schemes.<ref>The wrong war. Why We Lost in Vietnam, by Jeffrey Record.</ref>

Many politically correct "history books" make the My Lai Massacre into an important event of the war. In March 1968 in the hamlet of [[My Lai]], approximately 400 civilians were killed by American troops under the command of 2nd Lt. William Calley. Many troops present that day protested and did not take part in the event. After the event, the U.S. Army conducted an investigation and concluded there had been poor training in the Laws and Rules of Engagement, poor discipline and poor leadership up to the brigade commander. Atrocities on some level occur in every war. Since the 19th century, the U.S. is one of the few nations who prosecute its soldiers for such acts when they happen. The enemy in Viet Nam "conveniently" overlooked their far more numerous acts of atrocities and used this event for propaganda.<ref>Dunnigan & Nofi, ''Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War'' (1999)</ref> This does not justify the massacre, but 3 to 5,000 civilians were killed and found in mass graves after the retaking of Hue following the [[Tet Offensive]], a point not often noted. Other atrocities are listed in other sections of this article.

Largely because of misreporting during the war (see Media Bias below) as well as the [[anti-war]] movement, various returning veterans in Vietnam were treated horribly by the anti-war crowd, where they often were spat upon and denounced as "baby killers. Ironically, as [[Leftists]], many of the anti-war protestors tended to support [[abortion]].<ref>https://americanhistory2013vietnamwar.weebly.com/treatment-of-returning-troops.html</ref>

==Media Bias==

Charges of western [[media bias]] in favor of the Communist side have often been made by critics,<ref>Leonard Magruder, “I was there and that’s not the way it was”</ref> who see such alleged bias as being crucial in turning military victories by America into a loss of the war, much by means of propaganda. Underlying the importance of such is the often quoted exchange between Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. and his North Vietnamese counterpart, Colonel Tu. During one of his liaison trips to Hanoi, Colonel Summers, Jr. told Tu, "You know, you never beat us on the battlefield," Colonel Tu responded, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."<ref>On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War, Harry G. Summers</ref>

The success of the propaganda war has seemed enigmatic to many. “If there is to be an inquiry related to the Vietnam War, it should be into the reasons why enemy propaganda was so widespread in this country, and why the enemy was able to condition the public to such an extent that the best educated segments of our population (that is, media and university elite) gave credence to the most incredible allegations.” (Final Report - Chief of Military History - U.S. Government)

British "Encounter" journalist Robert Elegant stated,
<blockquote>
For the first time in modern history, the outcome of a war was determined not on the battlefield but on the printed page and, above all, on the television screen. Looking back coolly, I believe it can be said (surprising as it may still sound) that South Vietnamese and American forces actually won the limited military struggle. They virtually crushed the Viet Cong in the South, the "native" guerrillas who were directed, reinforced, and equipped from Hanoi; and thereafter they threw back the invasion by regular North Vietnamese divisions. Nonetheless, the war was finally lost to the invaders after the U.S. disengagement because the political pressures built up by the media had made it quite impossible for Washington to maintain even the minimal material and moral support that would have enabled the Saigon regime to continue effective resistance....Never before Vietnam had the collective policy of the media sought by graphic and unremitting distortion, the victory of the enemies of the correspondents own side.<ref>[http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/Vietnam/Readings/elegant.htm How to Lose A War: The Press and Viet Nam]; Encounter (London), vol. LVII, No. 2, August 1981, pp. 73-90</ref>
</blockquote>

Some journalists have admitted that their reporting was decidedly biased, and had profound effects on history. West German correspondent Uwe Siemon-Netto confessed, "Having covered the Viet Nam war over a period of five years for West German publications, I am now haunted by the role we journalists have played over there.

In relation to not reporting the true nature of the Hanoi regime and its actions resulting from the American withdrawal, he stated,

"Those of us who had wanted to find out knew of the evil nature of the Hanoi regime. We knew that, in 1956, close to 50,000 peasants were executed in North Viet Nam. We knew that after the division of the country nearly one million North Vietnamese had fled to the South. Many of us have seen the tortured and carved-up bodies of men, women, and children executed by the Viet Cong in the early phases of the war. And many of us saw, in 1968, the mass graves of Hue, saw the corpses of thousands of civilians still festively dressed for Tet, the Vietnamese New Year."

"Why, for heaven's sake, did we not report about these expressions of deliberate North Vietnamese strategy at least as extensively as of the My Lai massacre and other such isolated incidents that were definitely not part of the U.S. policy in Viet Nam?. What prompted us to make our readers believe that the Communists, once in power in all of Viet Nam, would behave benignly? What made us, first and foremost Anthony Lewis, belittle warnings by U.S. officials that a Communist victory would result in a massacre?

Why did we ignore the fact that the man responsible for the executions of 50,000 peasants, Truong Chinh, was—and still is—one of the most powerful figures in Hanoi. What made us think that he and his comrades would have mercy for the vanquished South Vietnamese? What compelled, for example, Anthony Lewis shortly after the fall of Saigon to pat himself on the shoulder and write, "so much for the talk of a massacre?"

"...Are we journalists not in part responsible for the death of the tens of thousands who drowned? And are we not in part responsible for the hostile reception accorded to those who survive?...However, the media have been rather coy; they have not declared that they played a key role in the conflict. They have not proudly trumpeted Hanoi's repeated expressions of gratitude to the mass media of the non-Communist world, although Hanoi has indeed affirmed that it could not have won "without the Western press."<ref>Uwe Siemon-Netto in the International Herald Tribune, reprinted in Encounter, October 1979</ref>

''CBS Evening News with [[Walter Cronkite]]'' regularly carried news reports from its [[Moscow]] Bureau Chief, [[Bernard Redmont]]. When peace negotiations commenced with North Vietnam in Paris, Redmont became ''CBS News'' [[Paris]] Bureau Chief. What Redmont never reported during the ten year conflict was, Redmont had been a [[KGB]] operative since the 1930s, and member of the notorious [[Silvermaster group]].<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55], Alexander Vassiliev, Notes on A. Gorsky’s Report to Savchenko S.R., 23 December 1949. Original document from KGB Archives [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page46.html].</ref> Redmont was the only journalist to whom his fellow [[Comintern]] party member, and North Vietnamese chief negotiator, Mai Van Bo, granted an interview to bring the Communist point of view into American living rooms in what has been called, "the living room war."

The most manifest example of such biased reporting is held to be the portrayal of the TET offensive, in which western media was charged with inspiring and aiding the propaganda war of the communists.

Truong Nhu Tang stated years later,

The Tet Offensive proved catastrophic to our plans. It is a major irony of the Vietnam War that our propaganda transformed this debacle into a brilliant victory. The truth was that Tet cost us half our forces. Our losses were so immense that we were unable to replace them with new recruits. (Truong Nhu Tang - Minister of Justice - Viet Cong Provisional Revolutionary Government - The New York Review, October 21, 1982)

In addition to his biased reporting, FBI documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act by [[Yahoo]] news, evidence that legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even promising that CBS News would rent a helicopter to take liberal Senator [[Edmund Muskie]] to and from the site of an anti-war rally.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2067/print</ref>

An ongoing example of such liberal bias is the work on Vietnam by the extreme left-wing propagandist, historical revisionist and genocide-denier Marilyn Young, which is required reading in many universities, even though she denies the North Vietnamese "land reform" bloodbath by relying entirely on official Communist press releases (as well as Moise and Porter, who in turn rely entirely on official North Vietnamese press releases). According to her, Communist Vietnam killed only 15,000(!) people at most during the "reform" and all other accounts of its atrocities were fabrications made up by the Western media (hence North Vietnamese media is a more reliable source than any in the West—a point she quite explicitly argues); ''even though official North Vietnamese government records document over 172,000 executions of individuals named as landowners during the 1954-6 period alone''.<ref name="rfa.org"/>

Young ignores the testimony of former North Vietnamese government officials like Hoang Van Chi, as well as foreign witnesses like Gerard Tongas; she denies the irrefutable evidence of the "disappearance" of at least 150,000 landowners from 1953-6;<ref name="ReferenceA">http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html</ref> she dismisses US intelligence; accuses Vietnamese experts like Lam Thanh Liem of lying; and mocks the survivors of Communist genocide as CIA propagandists. She endorses [[Noam Chomsky]]'s nonsensical lies, ''supports'' the North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam, paints a glowing picture of the concentration camps, and reduces the role of Khmer Rouge atrocities to 500-1,000,000 by citing the obscure and unknown Pol Pot apologist Michael Vickery—despite the 1,386,734 victims of execution in the mass graves!

Young further blames America for Pol Pot's rise, attributes all of the deaths in the entire war solely to the United States, and (on page 310) argues that the "boat people" really fled Vietnam not due to Communist repression, but rather the US trade embargo. She also simply denies the Hue Massacre.

Finally, Young claims that South Vietnam was the aggressor and that its imaginary “violation” of the 1973 cease-fire prompted the invasion from the “peace-loving” North—which is not surprising in the light of her reliance on official Communist sources, although it suggests quite a chasm between their claims and reality.<ref>Vietnam Wars, 1945-90 by Marilyn Young.</ref>

Notably, all of Young's sources on North Vietnamese crimes come from the North Vietnamese government itself, and she fails to cite a single dissident Vietnamese publication independent of that government in her entire work, while casting suspicion on the honesty of Vietnamese refugees. That she is a respected Professor indoctrinating American youth is consistent with the overall liberal propaganda that has come to characterize American higher education.

Paul Bogdanor notes: "The bloodbath deniers simply ignore or dismiss the evidence from dissident publications, communist defectors and foreign witnesses. They rely on official North Vietnamese publications, which they take at face value. This is what passes for scholarship on the 'anti-imperialist' left."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> And Young is but one gulag-denying professor out of many.

Young's denial of the "land reform" bloodbath is not unique. Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy, wrote the key bloodbath-denial work, titled simply "The Myth of the Bloodbath." Professor Robert F. Turner, drawing on his knowledge of thousands of captured Viet Cong documents, scores of interviews with Communist defectors, and extensive research on the "land reform;" carefully refuted all of Porter's charges, demonstrating that they could not withstand any serious critical scrutiny and that some 300,000 people were, in fact, killed during the genocide.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/turner.pdf</ref>

Porter is shown repeatedly contradicting himself, lying, making judgments that lack evidence and credibility, and accusing others of mistranslating a language he could barely speak. Although Porter's work was apparently sufficient to convince Young, its manifest sloppiness is contrary to honest scholarship. Vietnamese scholar Hoang Van Chi (1913-1988), who worked as a revolutionary and diplomat writing history and political science, also responded to Porter, who accused him of being a CIA propagandist in a ridiculous ad hominem attack.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/chi.pdf</ref> Porter would later deny the Cambodian genocide and express admiration and outspoken support for Pol Pot in the infamous ''Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution.''

Many US reporters admired the Khmer Rouge, while prominent intellectuals openly denied the Cambodian genocide. During the genocide, human rights abuses in Chile and South Korea got more coverage than Cambodia.<ref>"Irvine derived from the Television News Index and Abstracts a statistical table on media coverage of human rights in Chile, South Korea, North Korea, Cuba and Cambodia. The news organizations covered were the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC in 1976. The findings were startling. In table 4.1, the reader will see that, contrary to the Porter-Hildebrand-Chomsky-Herman claims, the New York Times and Washington Post published four and nine stories on human rights in Cambodia, respectively. According to table 4.1, Chile received more than eight times the coverage "on human rights problems" as did Cambodia. South Korea was covered merely 5.6 times more often. The total allocation of media resources to Cambodia paled in comparison to the massive campaign against Chile and South Korea, two non-communist countries. Perhaps the reason why Chomsky and Herman used anecdotal evidence to prove their theories was because they knew that aggregate analysis would show they were wrong." Sophal Ear. "The Khmer Rouge Canon." http://jim.com/canon.htm</ref> Some journalists, mocking the claims of a bloodbath, were so bold as to sing the following lyrics to the tune of "She Was Poor But She Was Honest": "Oh will there be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town?/ Aye, there'll be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town."<ref>http://jim.com/canon.htm#ch2</ref>

==Vietnam War in Popular Culture==
The war and its aftermath were the inspiration for several films, including ''The Green Berets'', ''The Deer Hunter'', ''Platoon'', ''Hamburger Hill'', and ''We Were Soldiers''.

The TV series ''Tour of Duty'' was about a U.S. Army platoon in country around the time of the [[Tet Offensive]]. The series ''Magnum, P.I'', ''Night Court'', ''Airwolf'', and ''Area 88'' all had Vietnam veterans as main or major characters. In the military drama series ''JAG,'' the main character's father was a US Navy pilot lost over North Vietnam, and the main character's desire to find out what happened to him is the focus of a major story arc over the first few seasons. In addition, the spinoff ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' has the major character Henrietta Lang having conducted operations during Vietnam, and at least two arcs during the 8th and 9th seasons involving her dealt with the Vietnam War, or more accurately, the aftermath.

===Quotes===
See: [[Vietnam War Quotes]].

==See also==
* [[Allen Ross Culpepper]]
* [[M-16]] and [[M-14]] rifles used by America and the [[South Vietnamese]]
* [[Kalashnikov]] ([[AK-47]]) and [[SKS]] rifles used by [[Viet Cong]]
* [[List of wars involving the United States]]
* [[Battle of Hamburger Hill]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Prados, John. ''Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975'' (2009) 704 pages
* Jennings, Phillip. ''America's victory in Vietnam'' 244 pages "A well-researched, brisk review of the central myths of the Vietnam War, set in historical context." (James S. Robbins, Washington Times)

==External links==
* [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/vietnam.html Vietnam War Bibliography by Richard Jensen]
*Larry Berman, [http://hnn.us/articles/37934.html ''Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An''], Time Magazine (Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins, 2007). [http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060888381/Perfect_Spy/index.aspx]
*[http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/almanac-saigon.pdf SIGINT and the Fall of Saigon, April 1975].
*[http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?eventID=6 "Secrecy, Freedom and Empire: Lessons for Today from Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers"].
*[http://www.onpower.org/foreign_regional_Asia.html#10 Vietnam War].
*[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2391209/posts?page=3 Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.) Capt. Scott Beaton, Vietnam (Fact vs Fiction)]
*[http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part01.html Vietnam and the Media, part 1] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071005220621/http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part01.html archived])
*[http://www.viet-myths.net/Turner.htm Myths and Realities in the Vietnam Debate]
*[http://www.rjsmith.com/war_myth.html Vietnam War Myths]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67C8yzww_Y How the Vietnam War Was Won and Lost by Prager University]
*[http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/goldwater-on-vietnam#.YH9ZLyWSmUk Goldwater on Vietnam]
[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Veterans]]

Don't ask, don't tell

2022-03-10T23:07:13Z

Jfedrov: grammer

'''Don't ask, don't tell''' (Pub.L. 103-160 (10 U.S.C. § 654)) is the common name given to the law proposed by President [[Bill Clinton]], passed by a [[Democrat]]ically-controlled Congress, and signed in 1993 to prohibit openly homosexual soldiers from serving in the military. It was repeatedly challenged, and repeatedly upheld, in the court system, but its repeal was a goal of the [[homosexual agenda]] for nearly two decades.

The premise of the policy is that a gay person will not be dismissed from active duty if they do not bring up their sexuality. At the same time, the military is legally enjoined from "asking" about a soldier's sexuality, or (in the oft forgotten third part of the phrase, "don't pursue") to investigate rumors of a soldier's sexuality. However, if a soldier does "come out," or if, without investigation, evidence is found of a soldier's sexuality, that soldier can be and generally is dismissed from active duty. This policy also changed the dismissal from "Dishonorably discharged", to "Honorably discharged" or simply "discharged" as the situation warrants, depending on the merits of the soldier's service.

On December 18, 2010, the [[lame duck]] Senate passed a law repealing it, and sent it to President [[Barack Obama]] for signature, who officially signed the bill on December 22, 2010. Of the six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, three opposed the repeal while three supported repeal.<ref>[http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/3-of-4-service-chiefs-oppose-dadt-repeal/ 3 of 4 Service Chiefs Oppose DADT Repeal]</ref> The repeal has been cited by some as a liberal effort to sabotage America's Military; Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association says it caused our military to become "feminized and neutered beyond repair" <ref>http://www.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147501318</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}
{{homosexualityb}}
[[Category:Military]]
[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Clinton Administration]]

Woodwind

2022-03-09T07:05:36Z

Jfedrov: added more common woodwinds

A '''woodwind''' is any instrument played by blowing (excluding brass instruments), usually involving one or more [[reed]]s in the mouthpiece. As the name implies, many woodwinds are or were made of wood. Common woodwinds include the [[flute]], [[oboe]], [[bassoon]], [[clarinet]], and [[saxophone]].

[[Category:Musical Instruments]]

Vietnam War

2022-03-09T07:02:03Z

Jfedrov: removed claim with no source

{{War
| image =SaigonFall.jpg
| conflict =
| date =1959-1975
| location =[[Vietnam]]
| combatant1 ='''Anticommunist Forces''' [[South Vietnam]] [[United States]]
| combatant2 ='''Communist Forces''' [[North Vietnam]] [[Khmer Rouge]] [[Pathet Lao]] [[Viet Cong]]
| commander1 = [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] [[John F. Kennedy]] [[Lyndon Johnson]] [[Robert McNamara]] [[William Westmoreland]] [[Richard Nixon]] Nguyen Van Thieu
| commander2 = [[Ho Chi Minh]] Le Duan Hoang Van Thai
| strength1 = around 1,420,000 (1968)
| strength2 = around 860,000 (1968)
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}

[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]
The '''Vietnam War,''' also known as the Second Indochina War or The American War (in Vietnam), was fought principally between [[North Vietnamese]] [[Communist]] troops and [[South Vietnamese]] forces supported by American soldiers. The war was basically a fight over whether South Vietnam should have an [[Atheism|atheistic]], Communist government, a "hot war" in the ongoing [[Cold War]] between the US and the Soviets. Officially, Vietnam is an atheist state.<ref>Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis, Ron Emmons. The Rough Guide to Vietnam, Vol. 4, 2003. p. 509: "After 1975, the Marxist-Leninist government of reunified Vietnam declared the state atheist while theoretically allowing people the right to practice their religion under the constitution."</ref>

The war was in progress more or less continuously since the surrender of [[Japan]], which occupied Vietnam during [[World War II]], in 1945. [[Ho Chi Minh]], an operative of the [[Comintern]] (the Soviet organization charged with promoting Marxist–Leninist revolution around the world),<ref>[http://www.triumphforsaken.com/index.php?pr=Excerpt Triumph Forsaken], book by [[Mike Moyar]]</ref> led the movement for a unified, [[Communist]] Vietnam from 1941 on. He served as the dictator of North Vietnam until the late fifties, though he remained the figurehead president. He remained a popular icon of the New Left around the world, despite heading a totalitarian dictatorship and murdering hundreds of thousands of people.

==Prelude==
During World War II the Japanese occupied Vietnam and disarmed the French. With the vacuum caused by the defeat of Japan, an opportunity arose for the Communists to declare the "independence" of Vietnam in 1945. No nation recognized the new regime and the French returned and swept it away, with remnants hiding in the mountains. The [[United States]] backed France and its puppet emperor Bao Dai. [[Ho Chi Minh]] began a campaign to fight a weakened France and seize independence through force. France's economy was shattered by the war and so by 1953, 80% of the money and material used by Bao Dai's troops came from the United States. Nonetheless, in early 1954 French were defeated at the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] over many months when the fortress was overrun by a well-forged Vietnamese fighting force. More than 500,000 Vietnamese died in this conflict with France (the First Indochina War).

The French sued for peace at talks in [[Geneva]], the upshot of which was the creation of four independent countries in their former colony of [[Indochina]]: [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]]. North Vietnam was run by Ho Chi Minh as a totalitarian Communist dictatorship, while the South was run based on the Western model. Neither side respected the legitimacy of the other; as a consequence, the division was widely regarded as temporary. A British diplomat suggested that free elections be held in the North and South to determine the future of a unified Vietnam. South Vietnam consistently opposed such arguments on the grounds that free elections were impossible in the communist North. The United States was willing to accept free elections and a reunified Vietnam, Communist-led and hostile to China. Indeed, US officials ''favored'' such a default outcome; they listed it in secret communications never intended for public consumption (but released in the Pentagon Papers) under the heading "advantages."<ref>The Pentagon Papers (Beacon Press, 1971), vol. 3, p661.</ref> The US gradually intervened, due to the insistence of the North on a campaign of military aggression, as part of its wider Cold War strategy of containment.

A unity government was established in Laos, and the US was firmly committed to defending South Vietnam from conquest. Huge numbers of North Vietnamese desperately fled to the South for freedom. Cambodia was neutral and united behind the rule of Sihanouk. Despite repeated diplomatic efforts by the US to bring about a peaceful regional settlement; Hanoi became increasingly convinced that the revolution could be spread throughout Indochina only by force.

===The North Vietnamese Terror===
During the twenties and thirties, Communist forces waged an insurrection of mass murder and terrorism in an effort to seize power in Vietnam. The communist Viet Minh collaborated with French colonial forces to massacre supporters of the Vietnamese nationalist movements in the forties. When the Viet Minh went to war against France they continued their campaign to wipe out the nationalist groups. (America refused to back the French against the communists until 1950.)<ref>Robert F. Turner, Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development (Hoover Institution Press, 1975), pp57-9, 67-9, 74 and “Myths of the Vietnam War,” Southeast Asian Perspectives, September 1972, pp14-8</ref> The Japanese invasion of French Indochina proved to be a catalyst for Vietnamese independence, as it united the Vietnamese people behind the Communist resistance to imperial domination. In 1953, Ho launched a "rent reduction" campaign in which communist planners decided to massacre 1 out of every 1,000 North Vietnamese.<ref>Alec Holcombe, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.243?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000660%26Query%3Drent%2Breduction%26wc%3Don%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0&Search=yes&uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672198221 Politburo's Directive Issued on May 4, 1953, on Some Special Issues regarding Mass Mobilization] ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 243-247, quoting a translated Politburo directive from May 4, 1953. This directive was published in Complete Collection of Party Documents (Van Kien Dang Toan Tap), a 54 volume work authorized by the Vietnamese Communist Party.</ref>

From mid 1953 to early 1956, the North Vietnamese Communists embarked on a ruthless "land reform" in which landowners, dissidents, and French collaborators were slaughtered en masse in a "genocide triggered by class discrimination."<ref name="rfa.org">http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam_landreform-20060608.html</ref> Declassified Politburo documents confirm that 1 in 1,000 North Vietnamese (i.e., about 14,000 people) were the minimum quota targeted for execution during the earlier "rent reduction" campaign; the number killed during the multiple stages of the considerably more radical "land reform" was probably many times greater.<ref>Alec Holcombe, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.243?searchUrl=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3Ffilter%3Djid%253A10.2307%252Fj50000660%26Query%3Drent%2Breduction%26wc%3Don%26Search.x%3D0%26Search.y%3D0&Search=yes&uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672198221 Politburo's Directive Issued on May 4, 1953, on Some Special Issues regarding Mass Mobilization] ''Journal of Vietnamese Studies'', Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer 2010), pp. 243-247, quoting a translated Politburo directive from May 4, 1953. This directive was published in [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/vs.2010.5.2.225?uid=3739656&uid=367529381&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101672298091 Complete Collection of Party Documents] (Van Kien Dang Toan Tap), a 54 volume work authorized by the Vietnamese Communist Party.</ref> In 1957, during its "Rectification of Errors" campaign, North Vietnam admitted that it had wrongly executed about 15,000 communist cadre during the "land reform", and that 30% of the "landlords" executed were party members; i.e., that about 50,000 people were executed in total.<ref>''Nhan Dan,'' August 13, 1957.</ref><ref>''Time,'' July 1, 1957, p. 13, says they were given a proper burial.</ref><ref>Gittinger, J. Price, [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3024603?uid=3739656&uid=2134&uid=367529391&uid=2&uid=70&uid=3&uid=367529381&uid=3739256&uid=60&sid=21101618662091 "Communist Land Policy in Viet Nam"], ''Far Eastern Survey'', Vol. 29, No. 8, 1957, p. 118.</ref><ref>Lam Thanh Liem (1990), [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?"] in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214. "Vo Nhan Tri found and read a top-secret report on the number of communist cadres falsely accused and executed: 15,000."</ref> Lam Thanh Liem, a major authority on land issues in Vietnam, conducted multiple interviews in which communist cadres independently confirmed that 20-30% of those executed were actually fellow communists, but gave higher estimates for executions ranging from 120,000 to 200,000. Such figures match the "nearly 150,000 houses and huts which were allocated to new occupants".<ref>Lam Thanh Liem (1990), [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html "Chinh sach cai cach ruong dat cua Ho Chi Minh: sai lam hay toi ac?"] in Jean-Francois Revel et al., ''Ho Chi Minh'', Nam A, pp. 179-214.</ref><ref>Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), [https://books.google.com/books?id=MauWlUjuWNsC&pg=PA340#v=onepage&q&f=false ''The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans''], Indiana University Press, p. 340, quotes comparable figures for communist cadre executed.</ref> Official records from the time suggest that 172,008 "landlords" were killed during the "land reform", of whom 123,266 (71.66%) were later found to be wrongly classified.<ref>''The History of the Vietnamese Economy'' (2005), Vol. 2, edited by Dang Phong of the Institute of Economy, Vietnamese Institute of Social Sciences. Landlords were classified as 5.68% of the population, but only a fraction of them were killed. These figures are proportionally comparable to those for China's land reform, in which millions of "landlords" were slaughtered.</ref> The full death toll was even greater because victims' families starved to death under the "policy of isolation."<ref>''Nhan Vhan,'' November 5, 1956: "In the agrarian reform, illegal arrests, imprisonments, investigations (with barbarous torture), executions, requisitions of property, and '''the quarantining of landowners’ houses''' (or houses of peasants wrongly classified as landowners), which left innocent children to die of starvation, are not exclusively due to the shortcomings of the leadership, but also due to the lack of a complete legal code. If the cadres had felt that they were closely observed by the god of justice... calamities might have been avoided for the masses." Nhan Vhan was one of the best-known opposition periodicals that was allowed during the three-month period of relative intellectual freedom in the fall of 1956, modeled on Mao's "Hundred Flowers" campaign.</ref> As communist defector Le Xuan Giao explained: "There was nothing worse than the starvation of the children in a family whose parents were under the control of a land reform team. They isolated the house, and the people who lived there would starve. The children were all innocent. There was nothing worse than that. They wanted to see the whole family dead."<ref name="Turner">Turner, Robert F. [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/turner.pdf "Expert Punctures 'No Bloodbath' Myth"]. ''[[Human Events]],'' November 11, 1972.</ref>

In 1959, Hanoi's politburo received a series of reports indicating that even though the North had been directing a phase one guerrilla insurgency in the South for two years, the South was socially and economically out-pacing the North. "By Tet of 1959," [[William Colby]] writes in his book, ''Lost Victory'', "it was plain that a nationalist and non-Communist Vietnam was firmly established. It was also becoming apparent that its future was, if anything, more promising than the gray and regimented society in the North."<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu">http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/story.htm</ref>

In response, the North decided to rapidly escalate the campaign to conquer South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia using the Ho Chi Minh trail. To "hide" the fact that "there had been an invasion from the North," as one North Vietnamese commander openly admitted, seemingly indigenous forces were deployed in the initial phases of the conflict. Originally part of the [[Vietminh]] and honorary branches of the North Vietnamese army; groups of Cambodian (the [[Khmer Rouge]]), Laotian (the Pathet Lao), and South Vietnamese (the [[Vietcong]]) Communists were dispatched by the North to overthrow the governments of their respective countries. Thousands of North Vietnamese troops overtly aided them by providing arms and training, and by invading and occupying large chunks of Cambodia and Laos to assist them. By 1961 northern Communists were assassinating one hundred southern hamlet, village, and/or district officials each month. By 1962 that figure had grown to one thousand per month.<ref name="vietnam.ttu.edu"/>

The atrocities escalated rapidly with no end in sight. By 1965, the guerilla war was largely over, and the army of North Vietnam was using conventional warfare to try and overrun Cambodia and South Vietnam. The US began sending military advisors to South Vietnam in 1950. By 1965, it reluctantly decided to commit combat troops to prevent a Communist takeover.

The Viet Cong massacres were described as follows:
<blockquote>
The village chief and his wife were distraught. One of their children, a seven-year-old boy, had been missing for four days. They were terrified, they explained to Marine Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt, because they believed he had been captured by the Vietcong.

Suddenly, the boy came out of the jungle and ran across the rice paddies toward the village. He was crying. His mother ran to him and swept him up in her arms. Both of his hands had been cut off, and there was a sign around his neck, a message to his father: if he or anyone else in the village dared go to the polls during the upcoming elections, something worse would happen to the rest of his children.

The VC delivered a similar warning to the residents of a hamlet not far from Danang. All were herded before the home of their chief. While they and the chief’s pregnant wife and four children were forced to look on, the chief’s tongue was cut out. Then his genital organs were sliced off and sewn inside his bloody mouth. As he died, the VC went to work on his wife, slashing open her womb. Then, the nine-year-old son: a bamboo lance was rammed through one ear and out the other. Two more of the chief’s children were murdered the same way. The VC did not harm the five-year-old daughter — not physically: they simply left her crying, holding her dead mother’s hand.

General Walt tells of his arrival at a district headquarters the day after it had been overrun by VC and North Vietnamese army troops. Those South Vietnamese soldiers not killed in the battle had been tied up and shot through their mouths or the backs of their heads. Then their wives and children, including a number of two- and three-year-olds, had been brought into the street, disrobed, tortured and finally executed: their throats were cut; they were shot, beheaded, disemboweled. The mutilated bodies were draped on fences and hung with signs telling the rest of the community that if they continued to support the Saigon government and allied forces, they could look forward to the same fate.

These atrocities are not isolated cases; they are typical. For this is the enemy’s way of warfare, clearly expressed in his combat policy in Vietnam. While the naive and anti-American throughout the world, cued by communist propaganda; have trumpeted against American “immorality” in the Vietnam war — aerial bombing, the use of [[napalm]], casualties caused by American combat action — daily and nightly for years, the communists have systematically authored history’s grisliest catalogue of barbarism. By the end of 1967, they had committed at least 100,000 acts of terror against the South Vietnamese people. The record is an endless litany of tortures, mutilations and murders that would have been instructive even to such as Adolf Hitler.
</blockquote>

In 1960, some 1,500 South Vietnamese civilians were killed and 700 abducted. By early 1965, the communists’ Radio Hanoi and Radio Liberation were able to boast that the VC had destroyed 7,559 South Vietnamese hamlets. By the end of 1967, 15,138 South Vietnamese civilians had been killed, 45,929 kidnapped. Few of the kidnapped were ever seen again.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hochiminh.html</ref>

==The War==
In 1958, North Vietnam launched an invasion of Laos.<ref>http://countrystudies.us/laos/24.htm</ref>

In 1959, by its own admission, North Vietnam decided on war in South Vietnam.
North Vietnam created the Viet Cong and sent 20,000 men to attack the South. In 1961, North
Vietnam used 30,000 troops to build invasion routes via Laos and Cambodia. North Vietnam
later admitted that it “played a decisive role” in bringing to power the Pathet Lao in Laos and
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.<ref>The Economist, February 26, 1983; Washington Post, April 23, 1985.</ref>

The [[Kennedy]] administration, which had repeatedly intervened to halt right-wing coups, acquiesced in November 1963 to the overthrow of the weak South Vietnam leader Diem by a coalition of generals. President Nixon would later characterize this decision as a catastrophic betrayal of an ally that contributed to the ultimate disintegration of South Vietnam. The ''casus belli'' for full combat intervention by the United States was an exaggerated confrontation between North Vietnamese P4 torpedo boats and the USS ''Maddox'' on August 2, 1964 and a second alleged attack by North Vietnam on August 4, 1964 which involved both the USS ''Maddox'' and USS ''Turner Joy''; the events became known as the "[[Gulf of Tonkin incident]]". Shortly thereafter, President Johnson got Congress to pass the "[[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]]". President Johnson then deployed US military forces for warfare against North Vietnam. He had the US respond with a massive bombing campaign called "Operation Rolling Thunder". Although a swift victory over North Vietnam would have taken a matter of months, the risk of Chinese intervention was considered too great to accept. Thus, Vietnam was fought to avoid "another Korea".

President Johnson, a tormented but ultimately sincere man, could not bear the burden of the war. His incoherent war policy, combined with the lies and deceptions he employed to sell it, resulted in a loss of public faith in his honesty. He began to doubt himself, while his incompetent administration, exemplified by [[Robert McNamara]], began to have doubts about the morality of US policy. Many of them would join the anti-war movement.

Richard Nixon was subsequently elected President on a pledge to end the war by ''prosecuting'' it. His shrewd diplomacy, backed with the immense intellect of his National Security Advisor and Secretary of State, [[Henry Kissinger]], hoped to negotiate an end to the war through a show of force.

Although Sihanouk designated all insurgents "red Khmers," or "Khmer Rouge," in reality there were two main indigenous insurgent groups. One was the Khmer Viet Minh, modeled on the Pathet Lao, that Hanoi held total political authority over. The other was called the Khmer Krahom, a fanatical Maoist cult that would soon be led by one Saloth Sar, who would later become infamous for his genocidal brutality under his assumed name, Pol Pot. Both traced their roots back to a common cadre trained by Ho Chi Minh in China from 1925-30. At Geneva, Hanoi had attempted to secure a KVM "zone" in northeastern Cambodia that would have been modeled on the Pathet Lao zone they secured in Laos. This amounted to an attempt to divide Cambodia into Communist and non-Communist halves, like Vietnam.

By 1968, the KK had 14-15,000 fighters, while the KVM had 12,000. North Vietnam had invaded and occupied large chunks of Cambodia. Nearly half of the country was faced with North Vietnamese or other Communist occupation. The Viet Cong was active in the country with about 30,000 troops, and worked with the KVM to launch invasions of Cambodia from North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese had 60,000 troops on Cambodian soil. This would be the equivalent in the United States of nearly 4 million armed and organized troops from Mexico and Canada overrunning most of the country. These figures are from 10 months prior to the start of any US bombing, which began in late 1968 under President Johnson.

By 1969, the North had accelerated its long-term plan, dubbed "Campaign X," to conquer Cambodia. By 1970, it had the supply lines, troops, and logistical support necessary to force the collapse of Cambodia. Sihanouk had long done little to disguise his support for the North Vietnamese Communists, but now he grew afraid. "Hanoi," he said, "could easily force the collapse of both Cambodia and what is left of Laos if it was not faced with American opposition." Therefore, he encouraged the Americans to bomb KK, KVM, VC, and North Vietnamese "sanctuaries" in Cambodia so as to send Hanoi a message that it had better back down immediately. Demographic evidence indicates that the US bombings of Cambodia, especially the Menu bombings, ultimately killed about 40,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians.<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995), pp41-8.</ref> Some estimates go as high as 100,000 killed by the bombing.<ref>http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf</ref> Many leftists opposed to the war considered the bombing to be a war crime. The Khmer Rouge claimed that 600-800,000 died in the war,<ref name="paulbogdanor.com">http://www.paulbogdanor.com/200chomskylies.pdf</ref> which is about three times the real figure,<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique</ref> and [[far-left]] activists such as [[Noam Chomsky]] have not only embraced these numbers but also attributed all of the deaths to American bombing and thus implied that the Khmer Rouge ''underestimated'' the full toll from the war<ref name="paulbogdanor.com"/>—despite the demographic impossibility of their assertions.

In 1970, North Vietnamese troops invaded and attempted to overrun the entire country of Cambodia at the request of the indigenous Communist forces, who had surrounded the capital and hoped one small push would be enough to overthrow the weak Lon Nol regime. Nixon responded forcefully with an incursion and bombing campaign to force the North Vietnamese out. Justifying his actions, he stated:
<blockquote>
"Cambodia, a small country of 7 million [actually 8 million] people, has been a neutral nation since the Geneva agreement of 1954 - an agreement, incidentally, which was signed by the Government of North Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
American policy since then has been to scrupulously respect the neutrality of the Cambodian people. We have maintained a skeleton diplomatic mission of fewer than 15 in Cambodia's capital, and that only since last August. For the previous 4 years, from 1965 to 1969, we did not have any diplomatic mission whatever in Cambodia. And for the past 5 years, we have provided no military assistance whatever and no economic assistance to Cambodia.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
North Vietnam, however, has not respected that neutrality.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For the past 5 years - as indicated on this map that you see here - North Vietnam has occupied military sanctuaries all along the Cambodian frontier with South Vietnam. Some of these extend up to 20 miles into Cambodia. The sanctuaries are in red and, as you note, they are on both sides of the border. They are used for hit and run attacks on American and South Vietnamese forces in South Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
These Communist occupied territories contain major base camps, training sites, logistics facilities, weapons and ammunition factories, airstrips, and prisoner-of-war compounds.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For 5 years, neither the United States nor South Vietnam has moved against these enemy sanctuaries because we did not wish to violate the territory of a neutral nation. Even after the Vietnamese Communists began to expand these sanctuaries 4 weeks ago, we counseled patience to our South Vietnamese allies and imposed restraints on our own commanders.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
In contrast to our policy, the enemy in the past 2 weeks has stepped up his guerrilla actions and he is concentrating his main forces in these sanctuaries that you see on this map where they are building up to launch massive attacks on our forces and those of South Vietnam.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
North Vietnam in the last 2 weeks has stripped away all pretense of respecting the sovereignty or the neutrality of Cambodia. Thousands of their soldiers are invading the country from the sanctuaries; they are encircling the capital of Phnom Penh. Coming from these sanctuaries, as you see here, they have moved into Cambodia and are encircling the capital."<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/nixon430.htm</ref>
</blockquote>

Although North Vietnam would invade and annex South Vietnam and invade, occupy, force the collapse of and establish total political control over Laos; it would ultimately fail to meet this objective in Cambodia. Though it supported, or rather offered support to, the KK; its goal of directly establishing political control over Cambodia would not be reached until 1979. Some commentators, like William Shawcross, have controversially argued that the US bombing, by forcing out the North Vietnamese, helped to create the conditions that allowed Pol Pot to come to power. Shawcross and others have also claimed that the US bombing was the main propaganda tool used to recruit members for the KK, and that it helped radicalize the Cambodian populace and swell the ranks of the Communists.

Documents uncovered from the Soviet archives after 1991 reveal that the North Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1970 was launched at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then second in command, Nuon Chea.<ref>Dmitry Mosyakov, “The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A History of Their Relations as Told in the Soviet Archives,” in Susan E. Cook, ed., Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda (Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series No. 1, 2004), p54ff. Availible online at: http://128.36.236.77/workpaper/pdfs/GS20.pdf "In April–May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: “Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days.”"</ref>

When Nixon came into office, there were more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, and their number was increasing. Hanoi insisted that to obtain a cease-fire, the U.S. had to meet two preconditions: First, the U.S. had to overthrow the South Vietnamese government, disband its police and army and replace it with a communist-dominated government. Second, it had to establish an unconditional timetable for the withdrawal of its forces, to be carried out regardless of subsequent negotiations or how long they might last. The presence of North Vietnamese troops in Laos and Cambodia was declared not an appropriate subject for negotiations. Between 1969 and 1972, he withdrew 515,000 American troops, ended American ground combat in 1971 and reduced American casualties by nearly 90%. According to Kissinger, "a breakthrough occurred in 1972 because the administration's strategic design finally came together in its retaliation for the North Vietnamese spring offensive. When the U.S. mined North Vietnam's harbors, Hanoi found itself isolated because, as a result of the opening to China in 1971 and the summit in 1972, Beijing and the Soviet Union stood aside. Hanoi's offensive was defeated on the ground entirely by South Vietnamese forces assisted by U.S. air power. Faced with a military setback and diplomatic isolation, Le Duc Tho, Hanoi's principal negotiator, abandoned Hanoi's 1969 terms in October 1972. He accepted conditions publicly put forward by Nixon in January 1972 -- and decried as unachievable in the U.S. domestic debate. The terms of the resulting Paris peace agreement were an unconditional cease-fire and release of prisoners; continuation of the existing South Vietnamese government; continued U.S. economic and military help for it; no further infiltration of North Vietnamese forces; withdrawal of the remaining U.S. forces; and withdrawal of North Vietnamese forces from Laos and Cambodia."<ref>http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/31/opinion/oe-kissinger31/2</ref>

Nixon brought about the first peace agreements between [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]], and dramatically lessened the scale of the bloodshed in Indochina. For a time, it seemed peace might be within our reach. Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972.

Meanwhile, the Khmer Krahom fell under the control of its most fanatical members, led by Pol Pot and Ieng Sary. They were beyond the control of Hanoi and sought to completely annihilate Cambodian society and restart from scratch. When they besieged the capital again, the US again launched a bombing raid against Communist forces. The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500 Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city.

The communist leaders had expected that the ceasefire terms would favor their side. But Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Vietcong. The communists responded with a new strategy hammered out in a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of Tran Van Tra.

As the Vietcong's top commander, Trà participated in several of these meetings. With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–1976 dry season. Trà calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained.

In 1974, Congress voted not to enforce the commitments agreed to in the Paris Peace Accords. Air support for Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Laos was cut off. The military aid promised was scaled back or never materialized, and the North was allowed to resume support for the Khmer Rouge. "After Nixon stepped down over Watergate," said one Communist commander, "we knew we would win."<ref name="grunt.com">http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/vietnam/north.asp</ref> Without the logistical support provided by the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North would not have been able to launch an invasion of South Vietnam by 1975, which it predicted would be its "last chance" before the South was self-sufficiently able to defend itself.<ref name="grunt.com"/> The US canceled the bombing of Communist positions on the trail. In Cambodia, last minute efforts on the part of the US to arrange for a peace settlement involving Sihanouk ended in failure. When the US Congress vetoed [[Ford]]'s call for a resumption of air support in Cambodia, panic and a sense of doom filled the capital, which was mercilessly shelled for more than a year by the Communists. President Ford openly predicted a "bloodbath" and stated that the Congress's decision to abandon Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge, in particular, would lead to "an unbelievable horror story".<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/cambodia/bloodbath1.pdf</ref> The US frantically abandoned Saigon, and the Pathet Lao advanced throughout Laos.

==Aftermath==
Professor R.J. Rummel calculates that Communist Vietnam directly killed 1.7 million people from 1945 to 1987 in democide alone (not counting war casualties or boat people),<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM</ref> from a total range of 700,000 to 3.7 million murdered.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF</ref> Some 400,000 to 2.5 million of these were killed after 1975. These figures include Laotians and Cambodians killed by Hanoi.

Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, fell to followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, commonly known as the [[Khmer Rouge]], on April 17, 1975. Over the next four years, the Khmer Rouge enacted a genocidal policy that would kill over one-fourth of all Cambodians, or more than 2 million people. UN investigation reported 2–3 million dead, while UNICEF estimated 3 million had been killed.<ref>William Shawcross, ''The Quality of Mercy: Cambodia, Holocaust, and Modern Conscience'' (Touchstone, 1985), p115-6.</ref> Demographic analysis by Patrick Heuveline suggests that between 1.17 and 3.42 million Cambodians were killed,<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001">Heuveline, Patrick (2001). "The Demographic Analysis of Mortality in Cambodia." In Forced Migration and Mortality, eds. Holly E. Reed and Charles B. Keely. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.</ref> while Marek Sliwinski estimates that 1.8 million is a conservative figure.<ref name="Marek Sliwinski 1995">Marek Sliwinski, ''Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique'' (L'Harmattan, 1995).</ref> Researcher Craig Etcheson of the Documentation Center of Cambodia suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million. After 5 years of researching grave sites, he concluded that "these mass graves contain the remains of 1,386,734 victims of execution".<ref name="Mekong.net_deaths">{{cite web|last=Sharp|first=Bruce|title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia|date = April 1, 2005|url = http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm|accessdate =January 9, 2013}}</ref> Even the Khmer Rouge acknowledged that 2 million had been killed—though they attributed those deaths to a subsequent Vietnamese invasion.<ref>Khieu Samphan, Interview, Time, March 10, 1980</ref> By late 1979, UN and Red Cross officials were warning that another 2.25 million Cambodians faced death by starvation due to "the near destruction of Cambodian society under the regime of ousted Prime Minister Pol Pot,"<ref>New York Times, August 8, 1979.</ref><ref name="time.com">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,947511,00.html</ref><ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,912511,00.html</ref> who were saved by American and international aid.

The Vietnamese Communists, led by Le Duan, perpetrated a huge bloodbath in South Vietnam, murdering hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese men, women, and children in cold blood. Up to 155,000 refugees fleeing the final NVA [[1975 Spring Offensive|Spring Offensive]] were killed or abducted on the road to [[Tuy Hoa]] in 1975.<ref>Wiesner, Louis, ''Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954-1975'' (Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 318-9.</ref> Sources have estimated that 165,000 South Vietnamese died in the re-education camps out of 2.5 million sent,<ref name="Desbarats">Desbarats, Jacqueline. [http://jim.com/repression.htm "Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation"], from ''The Vietnam Debate'' (1990) by John Morton Moore. "We know now from a 1985 statement by Nguyen Co Tach that two and a half million, rather than one million, people went through reeducation....in fact, possibly more than 100,000 Vietnamese people were victims of extrajudicial executions in the last ten years....it is likely that, overall, at least one million Vietnamese were the victims of forced population transfers."</ref><ref>Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan, [http://dartcenter.org/content/camp-z30-d-survivors Camp Z30-D: The Survivors], ''Orange County Register'', April 29, 2001.</ref> while the number executed could have been as high as 200,000<ref>Al Santoli, ed., ''To Bear Any Burden'' (Indiana University Press, 1999), pp272, 292-3.</ref> (Jacqueline Desbarats estimates an absolute minimum of 100,000 executions<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref>Morris, Stephen J. [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/morris.pdf Glastnost and the Gulag: The Numbers Game], ''Vietnam Commentary'', May–June 1988.</ref>). Victims were beheaded, eviscerated or buried alive.<ref>Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson, "Research Among Vietnamese Refugees Reveals a Bloodbath," Wall Street Journal, April 22, 1985.</ref> Rummel estimates that slave labor in the "New Economic Zones" caused 50,000 deaths (out of a total 1 million deported).<ref name="Desbarats"/><ref name="Statistics of Vietnamese Democide">Rummel, Rudolph, [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM Statistics of Vietnamese Democide], in his ''Statistics of Democide''.</ref> The number of [[boat people]] who died is estimated between 200,000 and 400,000, out of the 2.5 million that fled (according to the UN).<ref>Associated Press, June 23, 1979; San Diego Union, July 20, 1986. See generally Nghia M. Vo (2006), ''The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975-1992'', McFarland.</ref> There were also tens of thousands of suicides after the North Vietnamese take-over.<ref>Le Thi Anh, "The New Vietnam", ''[[National Review]]'', April 29, 1977, estimated some 20,000 post-war mass suicides.</ref> In 1988, Vietnam suffered a famine that afflicted millions.<ref>Crossette, Barbara, [https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/15/world/hanoi-citing-famine-fears-seeks-emergency-aid.html?src=pm Hanoi, Citing Famine Fears, Seeks Emergency Aid], ''[[The New York Times]],'' May 15, 1988.</ref>

The Pathet Lao overthrew the Royalist Government of Laos in December 1975. They established a Communist dictatorship known as the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The Pathet Lao waged a campaign of genocide, exterminating an estimated over 100,000 Hmong tribespeople. They inflicted massacres, terror bombing, concentration camps, and mass rape.<ref>Forced Back and Forgotten (Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights, 1989); and Jane Hamilton-Merrit, ''Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos'' (Indiana University Press, 1999)</ref> The Communists killed over 184,000 people in Laos altogether.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat5.htm#Lao75</ref>

More than 3 million people fled Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos as “boat people,” about half of whom have been resettled by the United States.

After repeated border clashes in 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and ousted the Khmer Rouge, installing a puppet government headed by Khmer Rouge defector Heng Samrin. From January until July 1979, according to [[CIA]] estimates, around 350,000 people were killed, primarily by Vietnam's refusal to allow foreign aid for a time. In addition, a comparable number of people fled Cambodia for [[Thailand]].<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/demcat.htm</ref> The toll from the entire famine over the years 1979-81 is estimated at about 500,000 dead (according to Etcheson).<ref name="hawaii.edu">http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB4.1A.GIF</ref> Some 25-50,000 Vietnamese died in combat,<ref name="users.erols.com">http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm</ref> while perhaps 100,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians died in the war itself.<ref name="hawaii.edu"/><ref name="users.erols.com"/> Tens of thousands more were killed by the Khmer Rouge, which controlled parts of the country late into 1979 and waged a guerilla war against the Vietnamese-backed government.<ref name="hawaii.edu"/> The total number of people killed by the Samrin regime in democide has never been clearly documented. Rummel estimates 230,000;<ref name="hawaii.edu"/> but this is mere guesswork. As noted, scores of thousands more were killed in the civil war that followed the invasion and by Khmer Rouge guerillas. Rummel believes that the full toll from this period could be in excess of one million.<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP4.HTM</ref> This claim may be an exaggeration, but as is common in post-genocide societies, the population growth rate for Cambodia in the eighties was exceptionally high—which could have masked the full extent of the democide.

In response to the Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as the Third Indochina War, which cost over 200,000 casualties, including some 30,000 deaths.

In 1981, Pol Pot made his famous declaration denying guilt for the brutalities committed by the organization he led:

<blockquote>
Pol Pot said that he knows that many people in the country hate him and think he’s responsible for the killings. He said that he knows many people died. When he said this he nearly broke down and cried. He said he must accept responsibility because the line was too far to the left, and because he didn’t keep proper track of what was going on. He said he was like the master in a house he didn’t know what the kids were up to, and that he trusted people too much. For example, he allowed [one person] to take care of central committee business for him, [another person] to take care of intellectuals, and [a third person] to take care of political education.... These were the people to whom he felt very close, and he trusted them completely. Then in the end ... they made a mess of everything.... They would tell him things that were not true, that everything was fine, that this person or that was a traitor. In the end they were the real traitors. The major problem had been cadres formed by the Vietnamese.
</blockquote>

Communist Vietnam's refusal to allow international food aid into Cambodia after 1979 so as to starve out whatever remained of the Khmer Rouge resistance nearly led to the mass death of millions of people from starvation and disease.<ref name="time.com"/>

Vietnam fought three more wars after 1975 and armed Communist insurgencies with billions of dollars in an attempt to overrun [[Thailand]] and [[Malaysia]]. In South Vietnam, a nightmarish police state was established based on the Stalinist model: Political parties were outlawed; all music, books, literature, movies, and other media published prior to 1975 were banned completely; rationing, malnutrition, and famine ensued; ongoing class discrimination, xenophobic ethnic cleansing, and religious persecution continue to this day.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/toai.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan.html</ref><ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/morris.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982</ref><ref>http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/SRV-Discrimination-1990</ref>

The US and other Western countries covertly armed the non-Communist forces of Son Sann and Prince Sihanouk in an attempt to force out the Vietnamese troops occupying Cambodia. These brave guerillas also engaged in extensive fighting with the Khmer Rouge.<ref>Far Eastern Economic Review, December 22, 1988</ref> (See [[Reagan Doctrine]])

Far from bringing peace, American defeat vastly increased the scale of the bloodshed in Indochina, as 3-4 million people were slaughtered in a bloodbath far surpassing the expectations of even the most fervent supporters of the war. Although North Vietnam agreed to "peace" in 1973; no one protested its subsequent invasion of South Vietnam, let alone Vietnam's wars with China, Laos, and Cambodia. The campuses were silent on the Holocaust in Cambodia, despite their hysterical response to the limited US incursion in 1970. The bloodbath received little media coverage at the time.

Evidence exists that the United States left behind POWs in Vietnam when it withdrew, even though the government denied such claims.<ref>Kirkwood, R. Cort (September 1, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/29825-evidence-of-pows-from-vietnam Evidence of POWs From Vietnam]. ''The New American''. Retrieved September 1, 2018. See also:
*Kirkwood, R. Cort (August 26, 2018). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/29882-mccain-was-no-maverick-on-pows McCain Was No Maverick on POWs]. ''The New American''. Retrieved August 26, 2018.</ref>

===Failure of US campaign to help the South===
Military, political, and social historians have ever after debated why the United States was unable to defeat the North Vietnamese.

James Q. Wilson wrote: "First, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson both wanted to avoid losing Vietnam without waging a major war in Asia." <ref>When Richard Nixon became president, he wanted to end the war by pulling out American troops, and he did so. None of the three presidents wanted to win, but all wanted to report "progress." All three administrations instructed military commanders always to report gains and rely on suspect body counts as a way of measuring progress. [http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110009203]</ref>

Another factor was careerism of the officer corps. The number of officers in the US army grew disproportionately from the end of World War II, with a 1-in-15 ratio dropping to 1 in 6. Competition for promotions was handled badly by General Westmoreland, who permitted a six-month tour of duty for officers. This was hardly enough time to learn how to engage the enemy successfully, and gave rise to resentment among the largely working-class enlisted men. {{fact}}

America at first operated on the assumption that victory by body count was possible and would eventually bring the North Vietnamese to the peace table. There were in fact peace negotiations following Operation Linebacker II in December 1972, but these succeeded mostly in giving the United States its prisoners back and time to withdraw from the fight. It was simply impossible for the North Vietnamese leadership, which had been fighting in some form for 30 years, to imagine the indefinite existence of South Vietnam apart from unification under their rule.

==Cost of the War==
195,000-430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name="Lewy">Lewy, Guenter (1978). ''America in Vietnam''. New York: Oxford University Press. Appendix 1, pp.450-453</ref><ref>Thayer, Thomas C (1985). ''War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam''. Boulder: Westview Press. Ch. 12.</ref> 50,000-65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name="Lewy"/><ref>Wiesner, Louis A. (1988). ''Victims and Survivors Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam''. New York: Greenwood Press. p.310</ref> The Army of the Republic of Vietnam lost between 171,331 and 220,357 men during the war.<ref name="Lewy"/><ref>Thayer, Thomas C (1985). ''War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam''. Boulder: Westview Press. p.106.</ref> The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 communist forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Defense Department officials believed that these body count figures need to be deflated by 30 percent. In addition, Guenter Lewy assumes that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of communist military forces was probably closer to 444,000.<ref name="Lewy"/> During the peak war years, almost a third of civilian deaths were the result of Viet Cong atrocities.<ref>Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1978), pp272-3, 448-9.</ref> Between 200,000 and 300,000 Cambodians died in the war,<ref name="Heuveline, Patrick 2001"/><ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995)</ref><ref>Banister, Judith, and Paige Johnson (1993). "After the Nightmare: The Population of Cambodia." In Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community, ed. Ben Kiernan. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.</ref> as well as 20,000 Laotians.<ref>Small, Melvin & Joel David Singer, ''Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars 1816–1980''.</ref>

Over the course of the war, the United States suffered 46,226 battle deaths with 153,311 wounded 5,486 missing and 10,326 non-battle deaths. 3.3 million troops fought over the course of the war, with the largest number of 625,866 reached on March 27, 1969. The North Vietnamese claimed to have lost 1 million men.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1979, Chart Page 1221</ref> Such a casualty rate, if applied to the United States, would have meant 13 million Americans killed and 3.9 million missing in action.<ref>Who Lost Vietnam?, by Joseph L. Galloway, a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report</ref>

{{cquote|'''They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam -- boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.'''

'''And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong. ---[[President Ronald Reagan]], 1986'''}}

The death toll from US defeat far surpassed that exacted by the war itself.

==Controversies about the War==

Max Boot wrote:
<blockquote>
Numerous bits of conventional wisdom have accreted around the Vietnam War. It is commonly held that [[Ho Chi Minh]] was a Vietnamese nationalist above all, not a true [[communist]], and that his victory was inevitable. That [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] was an unpopular and repressive [[reactionary]]. That the United States had no vital strategic interest in defending South Vietnam. That the ‘[[domino theory]]’ was a myth. That the U.S. was right not to invade North Vietnam or Laos for fear of triggering Chinese intervention. [[Mark Moyar]], a young, bold, and iconoclastic historian, takes a sledge hammer to these hoary beliefs. [His book] is ‘revisionist’ in the best sense of the word.” [https://web.archive.org/web/20061125071028/http://www.triumphforsaken.com/]
</blockquote>

Jeffrey Record contends that the military was relegated, as a result of its constitutional position, to the role of an accomplice in what Record states was the ''most strategically reckless American enterprise of the 20th century.'' He charges President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara with harshly suppressing their military advisers, with Johnson believing that his hawkish Joint Chiefs of Staff were out to destroy his Great Society by their wild-eyed schemes.<ref>The wrong war. Why We Lost in Vietnam, by Jeffrey Record.</ref>

Many politically correct "history books" make the My Lai Massacre into an important event of the war. In March 1968 in the hamlet of [[My Lai]], approximately 400 civilians were killed by American troops under the command of 2nd Lt. William Calley. Many troops present that day protested and did not take part in the event. After the event, the U.S. Army conducted an investigation and concluded there had been poor training in the Laws and Rules of Engagement, poor discipline and poor leadership up to the brigade commander. Atrocities on some level occur in every war. Since the 19th century, the U.S. is one of the few nations who prosecute its soldiers for such acts when they happen. The enemy in Viet Nam "conveniently" overlooked their far more numerous acts of atrocities and used this event for propaganda.<ref>Dunnigan & Nofi, ''Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War'' (1999)</ref> This does not justify the massacre, but 3 to 5,000 civilians were killed and found in mass graves after the retaking of Hue following the [[Tet Offensive]], a point not often noted. Other atrocities are listed in other sections of this article.

Largely because of misreporting during the war (see Media Bias below) as well as the [[anti-war]] movement, various returning veterans in Vietnam were treated horribly by the anti-war crowd, where they often were spat upon and denounced as "baby killers."<ref>https://americanhistory2013vietnamwar.weebly.com/treatment-of-returning-troops.html</ref>

==Media Bias==

Charges of western [[media bias]] in favor of the Communist side have often been made by critics,<ref>Leonard Magruder, “I was there and that’s not the way it was”</ref> who see such alleged bias as being crucial in turning military victories by America into a loss of the war, much by means of propaganda. Underlying the importance of such is the often quoted exchange between Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. and his North Vietnamese counterpart, Colonel Tu. During one of his liaison trips to Hanoi, Colonel Summers, Jr. told Tu, "You know, you never beat us on the battlefield," Colonel Tu responded, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."<ref>On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War, Harry G. Summers</ref>

The success of the propaganda war has seemed enigmatic to many. “If there is to be an inquiry related to the Vietnam War, it should be into the reasons why enemy propaganda was so widespread in this country, and why the enemy was able to condition the public to such an extent that the best educated segments of our population (that is, media and university elite) gave credence to the most incredible allegations.” (Final Report - Chief of Military History - U.S. Government)

British "Encounter" journalist Robert Elegant stated,
<blockquote>
For the first time in modern history, the outcome of a war was determined not on the battlefield but on the printed page and, above all, on the television screen. Looking back coolly, I believe it can be said (surprising as it may still sound) that South Vietnamese and American forces actually won the limited military struggle. They virtually crushed the Viet Cong in the South, the "native" guerrillas who were directed, reinforced, and equipped from Hanoi; and thereafter they threw back the invasion by regular North Vietnamese divisions. Nonetheless, the war was finally lost to the invaders after the U.S. disengagement because the political pressures built up by the media had made it quite impossible for Washington to maintain even the minimal material and moral support that would have enabled the Saigon regime to continue effective resistance....Never before Vietnam had the collective policy of the media sought by graphic and unremitting distortion, the victory of the enemies of the correspondents own side.<ref>[http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/Vietnam/Readings/elegant.htm How to Lose A War: The Press and Viet Nam]; Encounter (London), vol. LVII, No. 2, August 1981, pp. 73-90</ref>
</blockquote>

Some journalists have admitted that their reporting was decidedly biased, and had profound effects on history. West German correspondent Uwe Siemon-Netto confessed, "Having covered the Viet Nam war over a period of five years for West German publications, I am now haunted by the role we journalists have played over there.

In relation to not reporting the true nature of the Hanoi regime and its actions resulting from the American withdrawal, he stated,

"Those of us who had wanted to find out knew of the evil nature of the Hanoi regime. We knew that, in 1956, close to 50,000 peasants were executed in North Viet Nam. We knew that after the division of the country nearly one million North Vietnamese had fled to the South. Many of us have seen the tortured and carved-up bodies of men, women, and children executed by the Viet Cong in the early phases of the war. And many of us saw, in 1968, the mass graves of Hue, saw the corpses of thousands of civilians still festively dressed for Tet, the Vietnamese New Year."

"Why, for heaven's sake, did we not report about these expressions of deliberate North Vietnamese strategy at least as extensively as of the My Lai massacre and other such isolated incidents that were definitely not part of the U.S. policy in Viet Nam?. What prompted us to make our readers believe that the Communists, once in power in all of Viet Nam, would behave benignly? What made us, first and foremost Anthony Lewis, belittle warnings by U.S. officials that a Communist victory would result in a massacre?

Why did we ignore the fact that the man responsible for the executions of 50,000 peasants, Truong Chinh, was—and still is—one of the most powerful figures in Hanoi. What made us think that he and his comrades would have mercy for the vanquished South Vietnamese? What compelled, for example, Anthony Lewis shortly after the fall of Saigon to pat himself on the shoulder and write, "so much for the talk of a massacre?"

"...Are we journalists not in part responsible for the death of the tens of thousands who drowned? And are we not in part responsible for the hostile reception accorded to those who survive?...However, the media have been rather coy; they have not declared that they played a key role in the conflict. They have not proudly trumpeted Hanoi's repeated expressions of gratitude to the mass media of the non-Communist world, although Hanoi has indeed affirmed that it could not have won "without the Western press."<ref>Uwe Siemon-Netto in the International Herald Tribune, reprinted in Encounter, October 1979</ref>

''CBS Evening News with [[Walter Cronkite]]'' regularly carried news reports from its [[Moscow]] Bureau Chief, [[Bernard Redmont]]. When peace negotiations commenced with North Vietnam in Paris, Redmont became ''CBS News'' [[Paris]] Bureau Chief. What Redmont never reported during the ten year conflict was, Redmont had been a [[KGB]] operative since the 1930s, and member of the notorious [[Silvermaster group]].<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55], Alexander Vassiliev, Notes on A. Gorsky’s Report to Savchenko S.R., 23 December 1949. Original document from KGB Archives [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page46.html].</ref> Redmont was the only journalist to whom his fellow [[Comintern]] party member, and North Vietnamese chief negotiator, Mai Van Bo, granted an interview to bring the Communist point of view into American living rooms in what has been called, "the living room war."

The most manifest example of such biased reporting is held to be the portrayal of the TET offensive, in which western media was charged with inspiring and aiding the propaganda war of the communists.

Truong Nhu Tang stated years later,

The Tet Offensive proved catastrophic to our plans. It is a major irony of the Vietnam War that our propaganda transformed this debacle into a brilliant victory. The truth was that Tet cost us half our forces. Our losses were so immense that we were unable to replace them with new recruits. (Truong Nhu Tang - Minister of Justice - Viet Cong Provisional Revolutionary Government - The New York Review, October 21, 1982)

In addition to his biased reporting, FBI documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act by [[Yahoo]] news, evidence that legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even promising that CBS News would rent a helicopter to take liberal Senator [[Edmund Muskie]] to and from the site of an anti-war rally.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2067/print</ref>

An ongoing example of such liberal bias is the work on Vietnam by the extreme left-wing propagandist, historical revisionist and genocide-denier Marilyn Young, which is required reading in many universities, even though she denies the North Vietnamese "land reform" bloodbath by relying entirely on official Communist press releases (as well as Moise and Porter, who in turn rely entirely on official North Vietnamese press releases). According to her, Communist Vietnam killed only 15,000(!) people at most during the "reform" and all other accounts of its atrocities were fabrications made up by the Western media (hence North Vietnamese media is a more reliable source than any in the West—a point she quite explicitly argues); ''even though official North Vietnamese government records document over 172,000 executions of individuals named as landowners during the 1954-6 period alone''.<ref name="rfa.org"/>

Young ignores the testimony of former North Vietnamese government officials like Hoang Van Chi, as well as foreign witnesses like Gerard Tongas; she denies the irrefutable evidence of the "disappearance" of at least 150,000 landowners from 1953-6;<ref name="ReferenceA">http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/landreform.html</ref> she dismisses US intelligence; accuses Vietnamese experts like Lam Thanh Liem of lying; and mocks the survivors of Communist genocide as CIA propagandists. She endorses [[Noam Chomsky]]'s nonsensical lies, ''supports'' the North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam, paints a glowing picture of the concentration camps, and reduces the role of Khmer Rouge atrocities to 500-1,000,000 by citing the obscure and unknown Pol Pot apologist Michael Vickery—despite the 1,386,734 victims of execution in the mass graves!

Young further blames America for Pol Pot's rise, attributes all of the deaths in the entire war solely to the United States, and (on page 310) argues that the "boat people" really fled Vietnam not due to Communist repression, but rather the US trade embargo. She also simply denies the Hue Massacre.

Finally, Young claims that South Vietnam was the aggressor and that its imaginary “violation” of the 1973 cease-fire prompted the invasion from the “peace-loving” North—which is not surprising in the light of her reliance on official Communist sources, although it suggests quite a chasm between their claims and reality.<ref>Vietnam Wars, 1945-90 by Marilyn Young.</ref>

Notably, all of Young's sources on North Vietnamese crimes come from the North Vietnamese government itself, and she fails to cite a single dissident Vietnamese publication independent of that government in her entire work, while casting suspicion on the honesty of Vietnamese refugees. That she is a respected Professor indoctrinating American youth is consistent with the overall liberal propaganda that has come to characterize American higher education.

Paul Bogdanor notes: "The bloodbath deniers simply ignore or dismiss the evidence from dissident publications, communist defectors and foreign witnesses. They rely on official North Vietnamese publications, which they take at face value. This is what passes for scholarship on the 'anti-imperialist' left."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> And Young is but one gulag-denying professor out of many.

Young's denial of the "land reform" bloodbath is not unique. Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist on U.S. national security policy, wrote the key bloodbath-denial work, titled simply "The Myth of the Bloodbath." Professor Robert F. Turner, drawing on his knowledge of thousands of captured Viet Cong documents, scores of interviews with Communist defectors, and extensive research on the "land reform;" carefully refuted all of Porter's charges, demonstrating that they could not withstand any serious critical scrutiny and that some 300,000 people were, in fact, killed during the genocide.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/turner.pdf</ref>

Porter is shown repeatedly contradicting himself, lying, making judgments that lack evidence and credibility, and accusing others of mistranslating a language he could barely speak. Although Porter's work was apparently sufficient to convince Young, its manifest sloppiness is contrary to honest scholarship. Vietnamese scholar Hoang Van Chi (1913-1988), who worked as a revolutionary and diplomat writing history and political science, also responded to Porter, who accused him of being a CIA propagandist in a ridiculous ad hominem attack.<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers/vietnam/chi.pdf</ref> Porter would later deny the Cambodian genocide and express admiration and outspoken support for Pol Pot in the infamous ''Cambodia: Starvation and Revolution.''

Many US reporters admired the Khmer Rouge, while prominent intellectuals openly denied the Cambodian genocide. During the genocide, human rights abuses in Chile and South Korea got more coverage than Cambodia.<ref>"Irvine derived from the Television News Index and Abstracts a statistical table on media coverage of human rights in Chile, South Korea, North Korea, Cuba and Cambodia. The news organizations covered were the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC in 1976. The findings were startling. In table 4.1, the reader will see that, contrary to the Porter-Hildebrand-Chomsky-Herman claims, the New York Times and Washington Post published four and nine stories on human rights in Cambodia, respectively. According to table 4.1, Chile received more than eight times the coverage "on human rights problems" as did Cambodia. South Korea was covered merely 5.6 times more often. The total allocation of media resources to Cambodia paled in comparison to the massive campaign against Chile and South Korea, two non-communist countries. Perhaps the reason why Chomsky and Herman used anecdotal evidence to prove their theories was because they knew that aggregate analysis would show they were wrong." Sophal Ear. "The Khmer Rouge Canon." http://jim.com/canon.htm</ref> Some journalists, mocking the claims of a bloodbath, were so bold as to sing the following lyrics to the tune of "She Was Poor But She Was Honest": "Oh will there be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town?/ Aye, there'll be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town."<ref>http://jim.com/canon.htm#ch2</ref>

==Vietnam War in Popular Culture==
The war and its aftermath were the inspiration for several films, including ''The Green Berets'', ''The Deer Hunter'', ''Platoon'', ''Hamburger Hill'', and ''We Were Soldiers''.

The TV series ''Tour of Duty'' was about a U.S. Army platoon in country around the time of the [[Tet Offensive]]. The series ''Magnum, P.I'', ''Night Court'', ''Airwolf'', and ''Area 88'' all had Vietnam veterans as main or major characters. In the military drama series ''JAG,'' the main character's father was a US Navy pilot lost over North Vietnam, and the main character's desire to find out what happened to him is the focus of a major story arc over the first few seasons. In addition, the spinoff ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' has the major character Henrietta Lang having conducted operations during Vietnam, and at least two arcs during the 8th and 9th seasons involving her dealt with the Vietnam War, or more accurately, the aftermath.

===Quotes===
See: [[Vietnam War Quotes]].

==See also==
* [[Allen Ross Culpepper]]
* [[M-16]] and [[M-14]] rifles used by America and the [[South Vietnamese]]
* [[Kalashnikov]] ([[AK-47]]) and [[SKS]] rifles used by [[Viet Cong]]
* [[List of wars involving the United States]]
* [[Battle of Hamburger Hill]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Prados, John. ''Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975'' (2009) 704 pages
* Jennings, Phillip. ''America's victory in Vietnam'' 244 pages "A well-researched, brisk review of the central myths of the Vietnam War, set in historical context." (James S. Robbins, Washington Times)

==External links==
* [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/vietnam.html Vietnam War Bibliography by Richard Jensen]
*Larry Berman, [http://hnn.us/articles/37934.html ''Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An''], Time Magazine (Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins, 2007). [http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780060888381/Perfect_Spy/index.aspx]
*[http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/almanac-saigon.pdf SIGINT and the Fall of Saigon, April 1975].
*[http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?eventID=6 "Secrecy, Freedom and Empire: Lessons for Today from Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers"].
*[http://www.onpower.org/foreign_regional_Asia.html#10 Vietnam War].
*[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2391209/posts?page=3 Capt. Marshal Hanson, U.S.N.R (Ret.) Capt. Scott Beaton, Vietnam (Fact vs Fiction)]
*[http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part01.html Vietnam and the Media, part 1] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071005220621/http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part01.html archived])
*[http://www.viet-myths.net/Turner.htm Myths and Realities in the Vietnam Debate]
*[http://www.rjsmith.com/war_myth.html Vietnam War Myths]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67C8yzww_Y How the Vietnam War Was Won and Lost by Prager University]
*[http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/goldwater-on-vietnam#.YH9ZLyWSmUk Goldwater on Vietnam]
[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:Veterans]]

The Sixties

2022-03-09T07:00:23Z

Jfedrov:

[[File:60s-Leaf.jpg|thumb|290px]]
'''The Sixties''' (the '''1960s''') is widely celebrated by [[leftist]]s and [[liberal]]s as a decade of progress and freedom. However, it was in reality a decade that saw the origin or the worsening of some of the gravest ills to afflict modern society. Far from being the decade of 'peace and love' it was a period of left-inspired war and terror, including the escalation of the [[Vietnam War]] and the outbreak of the [[Cultural Revolution]]; the 'events' of 1968 in universities across the western world saw a minority rabble of [[Trotskyist]] and [[Maoist]] students try to impose their views on society; and the so-called social revolution of the period saw a massive upsurge in [[sexual immorality]] and the abuse of [[illegal drugs]]. Leftist and other 'trendy' educational theories began their assault upon the education of our children. As history Professor Gerard DeGroot records, "For too long the Sixties has been a sacred zone... Cast aside the rose-tinted spectacles and we see mindless mayhem, shallow commercialism and unbridled cruelty... [While the '60s brought] flowers, music, love and good times... It also brought hatred, murder, greed, dangerous drugs, needless deaths, ethnic cleansing, neo-colonialist exploitation, sound-bite politics, sensationalism, a warped sense of equality, a bizarre notion of freedom, and the end of innocence." <ref>[https://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/04/09/sixties/ "The Sixties Unplugged," by Gerard DeGroot]</ref> [[Margaret Thatcher]] noted, "We are reaping what was sown in the sixties... fashionable theories and permissive clap-trap set the scene for a society in which the old virtues of discipline and restraint were denigrated." <ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/marwick-sixties.html Arthur Marwick, "The Sixties" Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, 1958-1974]</ref>
==Assault upon religion==
This might be said to be two-pronged. The Sixties saw moves away from revealed to religion amongst young people in favour of a half-baked and quarter-understood mish-mash of eastern mysticism, sexual hedonism and drug abuse of the kind peddled by [[The Beatles]] in their 'Maharishi' phase; [[John Lennon]] of The Beatles went on, in his song ''Imagine'', to celebrate and propagandize a [[Nihilism|nihilistic]] and [[Atheism|atheistic]] view of human life. Simultaneously, many Christian priests and ministers themselves undermined Christianity by a variety of means: from watering down the required standards of Christian behaviour in a misguided attempt to seem 'trendy' and 'relevant', completely overlooking the relevance of Faith; to harnessing the Bible to [[Karl Marx]], in the form of the so-called [[Liberation Theology]] which did much to inspire left-wing [[terrorism]] in [[Latin America]].

==The 'Permissive Society': license unbridled==
[[Chastity]], restraint, and human values of decency were mocked by the 'gurus' of permissiveness. Instead, the increasing availability of artificial contraception in the form of contraceptive pills, fueled a wave of promiscuity and the promotion and practice of all forms of perversity. This was encouraged by the [[fashion]] industry: immodest apparel such as mini-skirts were flaunted by females, while androgynous clothing, eroding the masculine role, was marketed to men (The [[Rolling Stones]]' Mick Jagger notoriously took to a stage in [[London]]'s Hyde Park wearing a lace dress). Restrictions on [[pornography]] were eroded or evaded, a seminal event here being the decision of a UK court in 1963 to allow the publication of an unexpurgated version of [[D.H. Lawrence]]'s novel [[Lady Chatterley's Lover]] despite its overt and explicit sexual content. Legal reforms permitted or loosened restrictions on [[homosexuality]], [[divorce]] and [[abortion]], undermining the very fabric of family life. Feminists such as [[Germaine Greer]] launched assaults on traditional male-female relationships, while [[Lesbian|Lesbian separatists]] argued that women (which they spelled ''wimmin'' or ''womyn'') and men should lead entirely separate lives. The use of foul language and displays of nudity became a commonplace on television in many western nations, with the [[BBC]] in the van.

=='Turn on, tune in, drop out'==

This quotation, by 'counter-culture' guru [[Dr Timothy Leary]], epitomizes the attitude of many 1960s nostalgics towards [[illegal drugs]]. Drugs have been a perennial problem in societies worldwide, but in the 1960s the problem became much worse. This is because drug-taking, which was previously the covert activity of a tiny minority, perceived as immoral as well as illegal by society, suddenly became portrayed as acceptable in the media. Worse, advocates of 'permissiveness' such as Leary openly recommended the use of mind-altering drugs as a means to access a different, supposedly better, reality. Many, if not most, of these advocates had inadequate personalities which prevented them from participating fully in the richness of real life. However, their pernicious effect upon a generation of impressionable young people has been incalculable.

Drug abuse often went hand in hand with [[left wing]] politics, and the 'joint' or 'reefer' became the trademark of the 1960s student leftist plotting world revolution in his bedsit or student dorm.

==Music and Literature==
The Sixties inspired many modern greats in [[music]] and [[literature]] which endure cross generationally, despite grave misgivings about their personal morality, drug use, incipient [[Hollywood values]] and the messages conveyed:

===Music===
*[[The Beatles]]
*[[The Rolling Stones]]
*[[Led Zeppelin]]
*[[The Doors]]
*[[Jimi Hendrix]]
*[[Pink Floyd]]
*[[Jefferson Airplane]]
*[[Janis Joplin]]
*[[Sergeant Barry Sadler]]

===Writers===
*[[Tom Wolfe]]
*[[Hunter S. Thompson]]
*[[Ken Kesey]]
*[[Alan Ginsburg]]
*[[Aldous Huxley]]

==Successes in the Sixties==
The Sixties however did have some good points. The [[Civil Rights Movement]] gained momentum during this period, which saw the end of segregation of [[African Americans]]. The societal problems caused by the erosion of restraint inspired campaigners such as [[Mary Whitehouse]] to take a stand for decency and Christian standards. Also in 1969 the [[United States]] scored a remarkable triumph on behalf of the [[Free World]] in the [[Space Race]], overcoming a [[Soviet]] lead earlier in the decade, with two members of the courageous crew of [[Apollo 11]] becoming the first two humans to step on to the [[Moon]].

==Significant Events==
*[[Apollo 11]] lands on the [[Moon]]
*[[Cuban Missile Crisis]]
*[[Cultural Revolution]]
*[[Prague Spring]]
*[[Vietnam War]]
*[[May 1968 riots]]

==See also==
* [[Hippie]]
*Assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]]
*Assassination of [[Martin Luther King]]
*Assassination of [[Malcolm X]]
*Attempted assassination of [[George Wallace]]
*Assassination of [[Robert F. Kennedy]]
*[[Characterization of 1960s student unrest]]

==Further reading==
* Leaf, Jonathan. ''The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties'' (2009) [https://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Sixties-Guides/dp/1596985720/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249607757&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search] conservative interpretation
* Olson, James S. ''Historical Dictionary of the 1960s.'' (1999) [http://www.questia.com/read/15356518 online edition],

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1960s]]

Ecology

2022-03-09T06:58:14Z

Jfedrov: Greatly expanded on definition, added sections on organization and popualtions

Female

2022-03-09T06:47:54Z

Jfedrov: clarification

The '''female''' sex refers individuals of a sexually reproducing species that produce eggs. In most mammals, the fertilized eggs, or [[zygote]]s, develop into babies inside womb and are expelled to the outside in [[birth]], to be nurtured by [[milk]] produced by [[mammary glands]]. A female human child is called a girl. With the commencement of [[menstruation]] a girl becomes a biological [[woman]].

[[File:4287336112 d3f9126c99.jpg]]

[[Category:Biology]]

Biology

2022-03-09T03:34:43Z

Jfedrov: added information, revised typos and sentence syntax.

'''Biology''' encompasses several fields of study about the living organisms and their environment. Disciplines range over several levels of organization, such as atomic ([[biochemistry]], [[structural biology]], and [[genetics]]), microscopic ([[cellular biology]]), organismal ([[botany]], [[zoology]], [[biophysics]]), and large-scale levels ([[ecology]], [[evolution]], and [[agriculture]]). Human-related fields tend to be the most applied, such as [[genetics]], [[physiology]], and [[medicine]]. Despite having multiple subdisciplines, all fields of biology are deeply related to each other.

An Oxford University book states:
<blockquote>
It is 'the study of living organisms, which includes their structure (gross and microscopical), functioning, origin and evolution, classification, interrelationships, and distribution.' <ref>Martin, E. and Hine, R. (2008) 'A Dictionary of Biology' Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K.</ref>
</blockquote>

==Principles==

The study of biology works from several basic foundations:

1. ''Cell Theory''. Cell theory, as put forth by Schwann and Schleiden in 1838, stipulates that all life is made from cells, that the cell is the fundamental building block of life, and that all cells come from preexisting cells.

2. ''Genetic Theory''. Determined by Griffith in 1928, DNA is the genetic material of all cells. DNA encodes genes, which are transferred from one generation to the next and determine the characterisitcs of an individual.

3. ''Homeostasis''. All living organisms attempt to reach of dynamic equilibrium with their environment - from chemical equilibria, to cellular homeostasis, to organismal regulation, to population dynamics.

4. ''Change''. While evolution is debated to be a core tenant of biology, short-term changes do occur in populations that are important for ecological and genetic interactions that occur. Change is also important in development, population dynamics, mutations, and homeostasis, where nothing remains static and everything is in constatn flux.

==History==

More than ten thousand years ago, Mesopotamia showed evidence of the domestication of goats, sheep, and grains. While most likely unintentional, it can be placed as the first point at which human study of the nature of life itself began.

The discoveries of the nineteenth century spurred the development of modern biology. [[Charles Darwin|Darwin's]] observations began the controversial field of [[evolution]], [[Gregor Mendel|Mendel's]] breeding experiments was the start [[genetics]]; the microscope opened [[microbiology]] for exploration; and the synthesis of urea initiated [[biochemistry]].

In the early twentieth century, [[statistics]], in tandem with the new fields of [[evolution]] and [[genetics]], spurred the development of [[population genetics]]. Advances in [[analytical chemistry]] permitted scientists to determine the structure of important biological molecules, such as DNA. These discoveries lead to the rapid development of [[molecular biology]].

==Modern Research==

Modern biological research is heavily focused on identifying [[gene|genes]] and characterizing their [[gene expression|expression]] and function. [[Structural biology]] has been vital for understanding diseases and health defects. [[Ecology]] has been advancing to better estimate the [[biodiversity]] on the planet as well as how to prevent [[extinction]] events

==See also==
*[[Biology and creation]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Biology]]