Alors certes on peut dire que ça va obliger les joueurs à se mettre dans des cases , ce qui est effectivement exact en plus , mais n'est-ce point déjà le cas ? Si c'est déjà le cas , pourquoi ne pas le récompenser ? Je ne vois pas l’intérêt de s'autoflageller : de toutes façons , de par l'humaine nature même nos RP's vont plutôt s'orienter vers un duo/trio de matières principales .
Parce qu'il n'est pas possible de tout faire à la fois : le multitasking est un mensonge .
Qu'est-ce que vous préférer ? Le désespoir de la nullité absolue dans nos petites cases mais en étant content parce que l'on ne le voit pas et que l'on en tire aucun bénéfice , ou recevoir des marques de reconnaissance pour votre travail ? Quite à être nul dans ma case , je préfère autant que ça soit avec une lumière au bout du tunnel .
Textes HRP
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A) This opening sentence is an important signal of hope and strength for MLK because it is the incarnation of black rigorous self-reliance . The Great March of Detroit has involved (-) people and as he says there has not been a single reported incident of violence .
On the black side it proves that they are not a factor of disorder and delinquency which is at this time , with the segregation fading away, the new Trojan horse of the radical right-wing political discourse . Blacks are reputed among those people as prone to criminality and violence and the fearful white minority plays on that string . And on the white side it mean that they have understood they have not to repress this movement by savage cop violence .
B) At this time , though a number of decrees from the Supreme Court are progressively dismantling segregation it is still not formally forbidden on a federal executive level .
Moreover, even without racial and political segregation , economical and cultural discrimination isn’t and will most probably not cease right away. He emphasizes on the long timespan that separates the Civil War from the early sixties , and thus reinforcing the idea of paradoxical similitude saying “ still isn’t “ , and as such the unfairness of the situation .
C) The “ events of Birmingham “ are a series of civil protestations that took place in this city just a few weeks before , from 3 April to 10 May, mainly from the black communities in order to obtain the end of the segregation system in the region and draw attention to the situation to publicize the problem on a national scale . The revolt then disseminated itself throughout the region and the country, in “ more than 60 communities “ according to MLK .
The Birmingham civil unrest period saw multiple bomb attacks against MLK’s network and himself , outstanding resistance of the black students against cop violence . As such it is still very vivid in his mind of the audience .
D) It replies to the Constitution , which says that men are born equals . MLK is here refusing to concede on a constitutional right , thus calling the spirit of the Founding Fathers for help in his argumentation ; “ no longer “ marks a clear rupture between then and now, and forces the whites to accept the needs of the black community, because it affirms that it won’t tolerate any lingering refusal .
E) He there clearly announces that the rise of the black community means that segregation is already finished in the spirits of the black people .
On the black side it proves that they are not a factor of disorder and delinquency which is at this time , with the segregation fading away, the new Trojan horse of the radical right-wing political discourse . Blacks are reputed among those people as prone to criminality and violence and the fearful white minority plays on that string . And on the white side it mean that they have understood they have not to repress this movement by savage cop violence .
B) At this time , though a number of decrees from the Supreme Court are progressively dismantling segregation it is still not formally forbidden on a federal executive level .
Moreover, even without racial and political segregation , economical and cultural discrimination isn’t and will most probably not cease right away. He emphasizes on the long timespan that separates the Civil War from the early sixties , and thus reinforcing the idea of paradoxical similitude saying “ still isn’t “ , and as such the unfairness of the situation .
C) The “ events of Birmingham “ are a series of civil protestations that took place in this city just a few weeks before , from 3 April to 10 May, mainly from the black communities in order to obtain the end of the segregation system in the region and draw attention to the situation to publicize the problem on a national scale . The revolt then disseminated itself throughout the region and the country, in “ more than 60 communities “ according to MLK .
The Birmingham civil unrest period saw multiple bomb attacks against MLK’s network and himself , outstanding resistance of the black students against cop violence . As such it is still very vivid in his mind of the audience .
D) It replies to the Constitution , which says that men are born equals . MLK is here refusing to concede on a constitutional right , thus calling the spirit of the Founding Fathers for help in his argumentation ; “ no longer “ marks a clear rupture between then and now, and forces the whites to accept the needs of the black community, because it affirms that it won’t tolerate any lingering refusal .
E) He there clearly announces that the rise of the black community means that segregation is already finished in the spirits of the black people .
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A) This opening sentence is an important signal of hope and strength for MLK because it is the incarnation of black rigorous self-reliance . The Great March of Detroit has involved (-) people and as he says there has not been a single reported incident of violence .
On the black side it proves that they are not a factor of disorder and delinquency which is at this time , with the segregation fading away, the new Trojan horse of the radical right-wing political discourse . Blacks are reputed among those people as prone to criminality and violence and the fearful white minority plays on that string . And on the white side it mean that they have understood they have not to repress this movement by savage cop violence .
B) At this time , though a number of decrees from the Supreme Court are progressively dismantling segregation it is still not formally forbidden on a federal executive level .
Moreover, even without racial and political segregation , economical and cultural discrimination isn’t and will most probably not cease right away. He emphasizes on the long timespan that separates the Civil War from the early sixties , and thus reinforcing the idea of paradoxical similitude saying “ still isn’t “ , and as such the unfairness of the situation . It puts segregation in the continuity of slavery.
C) The “ events of Birmingham “ are a series of civil protestations that took place in this city just a few weeks before , from 3 April to 10 May, mainly from the black communities in order to obtain the end of the segregation system in the region and draw attention to the situation to publicize the problem on a national scale . The revolt then disseminated itself throughout the region and the country, in “ more than 60 communities “ according to MLK .
The Birmingham civil unrest period saw multiple bomb attacks against MLK’s network and himself , outstanding resistance of the black students against cop violence . As such it is still very vivid in his mind of the audience .
D) It replies to the Constitution , which says that men are born equals . MLK is here refusing to concede on a constitutional right , thus calling the spirit of the Founding Fathers for help in his argumentation ; “ no longer “ marks a clear rupture between then and now, and forces the whites to accept the needs of the black community, because it affirms that it won’t tolerate any lingering refusal .
E) He there clearly announces that the rise of the black community means that segregation is already finished in the spirits of the black people and the use of three terms combined , even more with the term forevermore shows the eternality of the immorality of segregation.
F) This passage serves to induce the moral aspects of segregation , including the effects on the human relationships . The term soul is important as it always has a spiritual or even religious connotation which is highly probable in that case as MLK himself is a preacher. Calling for all the audience and mentioning the segregator reinforces the universality of his message , and helps to build a consensus around him , across the boundaries of race and wealth . He insists on the moral degradation that segregation is with " most damaging effect [...] to the soul " .
G) This sentence recalls the Great Migration of the black people from the South toward the North into the United States during the twenties and the thirties for a first part and during the post-war economical boom . In just twenty years from 1910 to 1930 according to the census , more than a million and a half of black men and women left the states of the former Confederation to go to the states without a formal racial-political segregation . Many black people found political liberty there but rarely gained their economical independence , faced as they were with chronic rejection from a strong minority of the northern white communities .
H) MLK , when speaking about " they " , is taking the question that most of those who were the most temperate toward segregation , have asked , and demonstrates that it is mostly a tool to slow down progress to the point of what he's calling " do-nothingism " , which is precisely what a relative majority of the white population wanted in this time : not to have any change at all .
I) He then illustrates his position against stillness with a rather funny but thoughtful metaphor that plays on the idea of speed . At the time of his speech , Algeria gained its independence just a year and a half before after 8 years of a dramatic civil war. But the rest of Africa is largely gaining its independence rapidly and peacefully, while Nasser in Egypt has become the leader of this world of new sovereign nations , with Soekarno in Indonesia for South-East Asia . And this constellation have a rather appreciable economic growth ! In the meantime segregation in the South of the US is still keeping the black community away from a large part of the southern cities , thus factually enforcing the ghettoes . Highlighting this paradox forces the whites to question themselves about the true level of democracy in the US at the time .
J) The Freedom Rides have been a series of judicial challenges and violent civil unrests during the spring and summer of 1961 , when a handful of black activists began to exercise their rights for desegregated buses by using coaches and buses in the southern states from which they were banned by illegal local laws , as the Supreme Court ruled in 1946 and 1960 that segregation is unlawful in public transportations . Considering the decisions of the Supreme Court as the ultimate law and valuable on the federal level , thus encompassing all states including the Southern states , these activists challenged the local governments for several months . In the end , the pressure upon the local governments was so high that by June of 1963 , when MLK gives this speech , there is already almost no segregation anymore in the states of the former CSA .
K) Here this sequence is clearly sent to Malcolm X , whose movement has became more active in the political spectrum . Among his most controversial policies he affirmed that black and white communities could not get along together, and that segregation was not the problem , that it's the direction of this segregation which is to be blamed . Proud of its Islamic culture and religion , he said that the blacks need to take the power in their own hands with a segregation turned against the white people . Malcolm X was thus also for a moment a fervent partisan of a trip back to Africa for the black people , in a move to stab economically the whites while at the same time gaining their political independence . The movement grew so much recently that MLK says he can understand the logics of these thoughts , yet he warns those who may be tempted that this is not the way.
Indeed , if the black community was to engage in violent resistance , then the administration would have uncontestable reasons to treat them as criminals , delegitimizing the struggle for desegregation in the way, and thus putting them even more aside of the American society. It somehow echoes the first key point of his speech , encouraging the blacks to remain calms against the temptations of violence and delinquency.
This speech has been given by Martin Luther King Jr, at the age of 34, in the city of Detroit in front of an audience of more than a hundred thousand of people , as the end of a long march toward the city that symbolized the ongoing gathering process of the black communities in the US in the early sixties.
On June 23 in 1963 , the segregation is at a turning point where it is still very present in the country but in a critic situation , as it is condemned by both the Supreme Court and the executive power but neither of them try to implement the new desegregation policies . As a preparation for the next and much bigger rally, the one of Washington DC , this speech is given in an effort to raise awareness of the situation to the northern states populations and to give more echo to the cause by having MLK joining the rally for that speech .
On the black side it proves that they are not a factor of disorder and delinquency which is at this time , with the segregation fading away, the new Trojan horse of the radical right-wing political discourse . Blacks are reputed among those people as prone to criminality and violence and the fearful white minority plays on that string . And on the white side it mean that they have understood they have not to repress this movement by savage cop violence .
B) At this time , though a number of decrees from the Supreme Court are progressively dismantling segregation it is still not formally forbidden on a federal executive level .
Moreover, even without racial and political segregation , economical and cultural discrimination isn’t and will most probably not cease right away. He emphasizes on the long timespan that separates the Civil War from the early sixties , and thus reinforcing the idea of paradoxical similitude saying “ still isn’t “ , and as such the unfairness of the situation . It puts segregation in the continuity of slavery.
C) The “ events of Birmingham “ are a series of civil protestations that took place in this city just a few weeks before , from 3 April to 10 May, mainly from the black communities in order to obtain the end of the segregation system in the region and draw attention to the situation to publicize the problem on a national scale . The revolt then disseminated itself throughout the region and the country, in “ more than 60 communities “ according to MLK .
The Birmingham civil unrest period saw multiple bomb attacks against MLK’s network and himself , outstanding resistance of the black students against cop violence . As such it is still very vivid in his mind of the audience .
D) It replies to the Constitution , which says that men are born equals . MLK is here refusing to concede on a constitutional right , thus calling the spirit of the Founding Fathers for help in his argumentation ; “ no longer “ marks a clear rupture between then and now, and forces the whites to accept the needs of the black community, because it affirms that it won’t tolerate any lingering refusal .
E) He there clearly announces that the rise of the black community means that segregation is already finished in the spirits of the black people and the use of three terms combined , even more with the term forevermore shows the eternality of the immorality of segregation.
F) This passage serves to induce the moral aspects of segregation , including the effects on the human relationships . The term soul is important as it always has a spiritual or even religious connotation which is highly probable in that case as MLK himself is a preacher. Calling for all the audience and mentioning the segregator reinforces the universality of his message , and helps to build a consensus around him , across the boundaries of race and wealth . He insists on the moral degradation that segregation is with " most damaging effect [...] to the soul " .
G) This sentence recalls the Great Migration of the black people from the South toward the North into the United States during the twenties and the thirties for a first part and during the post-war economical boom . In just twenty years from 1910 to 1930 according to the census , more than a million and a half of black men and women left the states of the former Confederation to go to the states without a formal racial-political segregation . Many black people found political liberty there but rarely gained their economical independence , faced as they were with chronic rejection from a strong minority of the northern white communities .
H) MLK , when speaking about " they " , is taking the question that most of those who were the most temperate toward segregation , have asked , and demonstrates that it is mostly a tool to slow down progress to the point of what he's calling " do-nothingism " , which is precisely what a relative majority of the white population wanted in this time : not to have any change at all .
I) He then illustrates his position against stillness with a rather funny but thoughtful metaphor that plays on the idea of speed . At the time of his speech , Algeria gained its independence just a year and a half before after 8 years of a dramatic civil war. But the rest of Africa is largely gaining its independence rapidly and peacefully, while Nasser in Egypt has become the leader of this world of new sovereign nations , with Soekarno in Indonesia for South-East Asia . And this constellation have a rather appreciable economic growth ! In the meantime segregation in the South of the US is still keeping the black community away from a large part of the southern cities , thus factually enforcing the ghettoes . Highlighting this paradox forces the whites to question themselves about the true level of democracy in the US at the time .
J) The Freedom Rides have been a series of judicial challenges and violent civil unrests during the spring and summer of 1961 , when a handful of black activists began to exercise their rights for desegregated buses by using coaches and buses in the southern states from which they were banned by illegal local laws , as the Supreme Court ruled in 1946 and 1960 that segregation is unlawful in public transportations . Considering the decisions of the Supreme Court as the ultimate law and valuable on the federal level , thus encompassing all states including the Southern states , these activists challenged the local governments for several months . In the end , the pressure upon the local governments was so high that by June of 1963 , when MLK gives this speech , there is already almost no segregation anymore in the states of the former CSA .
K) Here this sequence is clearly sent to Malcolm X , whose movement has became more active in the political spectrum . Among his most controversial policies he affirmed that black and white communities could not get along together, and that segregation was not the problem , that it's the direction of this segregation which is to be blamed . Proud of its Islamic culture and religion , he said that the blacks need to take the power in their own hands with a segregation turned against the white people . Malcolm X was thus also for a moment a fervent partisan of a trip back to Africa for the black people , in a move to stab economically the whites while at the same time gaining their political independence . The movement grew so much recently that MLK says he can understand the logics of these thoughts , yet he warns those who may be tempted that this is not the way.
Indeed , if the black community was to engage in violent resistance , then the administration would have uncontestable reasons to treat them as criminals , delegitimizing the struggle for desegregation in the way, and thus putting them even more aside of the American society. It somehow echoes the first key point of his speech , encouraging the blacks to remain calms against the temptations of violence and delinquency.
This speech has been given by Martin Luther King Jr, at the age of 34, in the city of Detroit in front of an audience of more than a hundred thousand of people , as the end of a long march toward the city that symbolized the ongoing gathering process of the black communities in the US in the early sixties.
On June 23 in 1963 , the segregation is at a turning point where it is still very present in the country but in a critic situation , as it is condemned by both the Supreme Court and the executive power but neither of them try to implement the new desegregation policies . As a preparation for the next and much bigger rally, the one of Washington DC , this speech is given in an effort to raise awareness of the situation to the northern states populations and to give more echo to the cause by having MLK joining the rally for that speech .
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A) It is a reference to the amplification of their dispossession in the US . They were financially put in a critical situation , notably with the lost of the buffaloes in the Plains , to give them no other choice than to sell their lands to the white American settlers . As it said later in the speech the Indians lost around 42 % of all their lands from 1887 to 1938 , which represents 50 years of dispossession and a true humiliation for these fragile populations .
B) This acerb comment is an almost unveiled critic against those who promoted the cultural alienation of the Amerindians , through the means of boarding schools , forced language shift and economical dependency. It was believed that the suppression of their religious beliefs , their languages and their consuming habits would then allow them to embrace Christianity and the western modernist way of life .
The fact is that while these means were intended to make true Americans from the Indians ( and only for those who duly believed in that ) it most surely have destroyed the Amerindian identity without giving them a civilization of which they would be parts of . The incongruity, if not the blatant racism , of the thoughts behind proved inefficient , even in the way that it was planned .
C) Throughout the USA history, from the beginning of the colonization process to the second half of the XXth century, there have been numerous laws that were implemented by the white settlers to deprive the Indians from their dignity and their rights as a people . The most prominent of these laws and treaties are the Indian Removal Act of 1830 ( allowing the President to " negotiate " with the Indians for their departure toward the West ) that in fact allowed the intervention of the federal armies and local militias to chase away the South-East tribes ; the Treaty of Doak's Stand of 1820 that deprived the Choctaws from one-half of their reservation ;
D) John Collier reaffirms here the dignity of the Amerindian peoples and proves that they were already " civilized " by 1620 , when the Mayflower's passengers had set foot in Massachusetts as they are plethoric archeological evidences , even more today, of this fact : numerous Amerindian tribes mastered agriculture , urbanization like in the western desert . Recognized as having what we would qualify as strong romanticist values , Collier reminds the complex and harmonious spirituality of the Indians and if to admire Nature is contemplating God's creation , then there is no doubt that they were very religious . Moreover, as he says decades before Wyoming implemented voting rights for women , the Iroquois already have a fully equal devolution of powers between men and women .
In our times , with equal rights for women are seen as a mark of progress , it is even more blatant that the Indians were already incredibly civilized , far before the white man came .
E) Though this phrase is a general condemnation of the white settler way of thinking it might be a more direct critic of the term " Manifest Destiny " that meant that it was natural for the white settlers to go deeper and deeper in the hinterland , in a slow but unstoppable way toward the East and thus the Pacific ( " the advance " ) and to bring with them " civilization " , i.e. capitalism , liberal democracy and Christianity, to the Amerindians .
F) Boarding schools are unfortunately a " great classic " of the western colonization processes in Australia , South Africa , Canada and of course the USA , such as in this case .
In those institutes , often managed by religious figures , children were forced to renounce to their traditional clothing , their religious beliefs , their languages and so on , for everything that linked them to their Indian roots . The rough conditions were an ideal ground for institutionalized bullying from their peers and/or the white masters , unfair treatments , sexual abuses and child labor.
After a century of tragic cultural and emotional deprivation , the Meriam Report of 1928 , which was already dating back from a decade ago at the time of our studied document , recommended the immediate end of this system . But the damages were already very profound and irreversible at this time for a large majority of Amerindians .
G) The Dawes " General Allotment " Act of 1887 that gave American nationality only to the Indians that accepted to live apart from their tribes and to own land individually, while in fact this law served as a tool to finish the complete breakdown of the traditional social order among the Indians it only contributed to add more uprooted people to the general population , weaker and poorer than the majority of the white persons , putting the Indians in dire straits to an unprecedented level .
H) From 1824 to 1947, everything that was related to the Indians has to go through an authority, that in fact was under the direct commandment of the President : the Office of Indian Affairs .
This authority was , and still is somehow, highly criticized for its quasi-chronic mismanagement .
In 1834, the OIA is said by a House report to be " expensive, inefficient, and irresponsible " and according from an editorial of the New York Times , published in 1868 , " dishonesty pervades the whole bureau " . Its policies toward the Amerindians , from massacring the buffaloes to the systemic use of boarding schools , were already highly controversial at the beginning of the XXth century. It is said to have autocratic powers by the narrator of this extract because it is true : the Indians were unable to do anything without the previous approbation from the OIA , resulting in widespread corruption and inefficiency.
I) The Indian New Deal initiated by John Collier, though controversial in some points , has been a great progress at least in the way the federal government envisioned its relations with the Amerindians . As the narrator predicted it in 1938 , It has paved the way for the transformation of the reservations into new, highly autonomous entities : the Indian Nations including the two best examples : the Navajo Nation , and the Cherokee Nation .
A drastic reduction in the number of acts for which the approval of the BIA is now needed lowered a little bit corruption while increasing the efficiency of local administrations . Moreover it stimulated a linguistic revival , as now the Navajo and the Cherokee , the most advanced models of what means an Indian Nation , have the two most vivid of all the Native American languages , which is part of a more global effort to revitalize their cultures and as such their sense of pride and dignity.
Though the Amerindian population in the US is among the most fragile minorities of the country, their situation is now incomparably better than what was in 1937.
B) This acerb comment is an almost unveiled critic against those who promoted the cultural alienation of the Amerindians , through the means of boarding schools , forced language shift and economical dependency. It was believed that the suppression of their religious beliefs , their languages and their consuming habits would then allow them to embrace Christianity and the western modernist way of life .
The fact is that while these means were intended to make true Americans from the Indians ( and only for those who duly believed in that ) it most surely have destroyed the Amerindian identity without giving them a civilization of which they would be parts of . The incongruity, if not the blatant racism , of the thoughts behind proved inefficient , even in the way that it was planned .
C) Throughout the USA history, from the beginning of the colonization process to the second half of the XXth century, there have been numerous laws that were implemented by the white settlers to deprive the Indians from their dignity and their rights as a people . The most prominent of these laws and treaties are the Indian Removal Act of 1830 ( allowing the President to " negotiate " with the Indians for their departure toward the West ) that in fact allowed the intervention of the federal armies and local militias to chase away the South-East tribes ; the Treaty of Doak's Stand of 1820 that deprived the Choctaws from one-half of their reservation ;
D) John Collier reaffirms here the dignity of the Amerindian peoples and proves that they were already " civilized " by 1620 , when the Mayflower's passengers had set foot in Massachusetts as they are plethoric archeological evidences , even more today, of this fact : numerous Amerindian tribes mastered agriculture , urbanization like in the western desert . Recognized as having what we would qualify as strong romanticist values , Collier reminds the complex and harmonious spirituality of the Indians and if to admire Nature is contemplating God's creation , then there is no doubt that they were very religious . Moreover, as he says decades before Wyoming implemented voting rights for women , the Iroquois already have a fully equal devolution of powers between men and women .
In our times , with equal rights for women are seen as a mark of progress , it is even more blatant that the Indians were already incredibly civilized , far before the white man came .
E) Though this phrase is a general condemnation of the white settler way of thinking it might be a more direct critic of the term " Manifest Destiny " that meant that it was natural for the white settlers to go deeper and deeper in the hinterland , in a slow but unstoppable way toward the East and thus the Pacific ( " the advance " ) and to bring with them " civilization " , i.e. capitalism , liberal democracy and Christianity, to the Amerindians .
F) Boarding schools are unfortunately a " great classic " of the western colonization processes in Australia , South Africa , Canada and of course the USA , such as in this case .
In those institutes , often managed by religious figures , children were forced to renounce to their traditional clothing , their religious beliefs , their languages and so on , for everything that linked them to their Indian roots . The rough conditions were an ideal ground for institutionalized bullying from their peers and/or the white masters , unfair treatments , sexual abuses and child labor.
After a century of tragic cultural and emotional deprivation , the Meriam Report of 1928 , which was already dating back from a decade ago at the time of our studied document , recommended the immediate end of this system . But the damages were already very profound and irreversible at this time for a large majority of Amerindians .
G) The Dawes " General Allotment " Act of 1887 that gave American nationality only to the Indians that accepted to live apart from their tribes and to own land individually, while in fact this law served as a tool to finish the complete breakdown of the traditional social order among the Indians it only contributed to add more uprooted people to the general population , weaker and poorer than the majority of the white persons , putting the Indians in dire straits to an unprecedented level .
H) From 1824 to 1947, everything that was related to the Indians has to go through an authority, that in fact was under the direct commandment of the President : the Office of Indian Affairs .
This authority was , and still is somehow, highly criticized for its quasi-chronic mismanagement .
In 1834, the OIA is said by a House report to be " expensive, inefficient, and irresponsible " and according from an editorial of the New York Times , published in 1868 , " dishonesty pervades the whole bureau " . Its policies toward the Amerindians , from massacring the buffaloes to the systemic use of boarding schools , were already highly controversial at the beginning of the XXth century. It is said to have autocratic powers by the narrator of this extract because it is true : the Indians were unable to do anything without the previous approbation from the OIA , resulting in widespread corruption and inefficiency.
I) The Indian New Deal initiated by John Collier, though controversial in some points , has been a great progress at least in the way the federal government envisioned its relations with the Amerindians . As the narrator predicted it in 1938 , It has paved the way for the transformation of the reservations into new, highly autonomous entities : the Indian Nations including the two best examples : the Navajo Nation , and the Cherokee Nation .
A drastic reduction in the number of acts for which the approval of the BIA is now needed lowered a little bit corruption while increasing the efficiency of local administrations . Moreover it stimulated a linguistic revival , as now the Navajo and the Cherokee , the most advanced models of what means an Indian Nation , have the two most vivid of all the Native American languages , which is part of a more global effort to revitalize their cultures and as such their sense of pride and dignity.
Though the Amerindian population in the US is among the most fragile minorities of the country, their situation is now incomparably better than what was in 1937.
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Thunderoad
First Roosevelt has to reassure the American people that he will respect the lines of the Constitution and respect the institutions in order to gather a consensus around him . He has been elected in 1933 in a landslide victory : 42 out of the 48 states , and 472 of the 531 electoral votes , which he highlights on line 49 of the text when he mentions that " [he has] a clear mandate from the people ".
And that puts him in an even more difficult situation , where he could be accused of a derivation toward personal power, dictatorship , and it is renowned how much the Americans have an encroached fear about that . So he tries to comfort them in the knowledge that he will be the President of all the US citizens , thus the use of the term Nation on at least four occasions that are on lines 13, 31, 60 and 80 . To call for the Nation is something very strong , it is a call to unity and to the founding principles of the country : a people , its culture , its territory. As such , encompassing all the realities and concepts of what makes the US , with the term Nation , he's gathering around him a large majority, in a consensual move as it is for the spirit itself , of the country.
Moreover, because of his program , it could be easy to call him a socialist , even more during this troubled period : in Russia communism more or less says the same things for a non-alert mind , such as more power to the workers and the end of injustices against the poorest , and the most convinced Republicans didn't hesitate to highlight that paradox . But there against Franklin Roosevelt wipes away those fears , recalling in the seventh paragraph the metaphor of an ill man . He affirms that he will not only cure the symptoms but also suppress the causes of the disease , stabbing on the way his predecessor under which the crisis got only worse ; and not kill the man to then say that there is no more ill person . It is a subtle but clear way to confirm his attachment to capitalism , like he says on line 46 when he says " No wise man [would] destroy [...] the << profit motive >> " , while in the process he sets the communists even more aside of the political spectrum .
And indeed he proved that he intended to be a responsible chief executive with the Economy Act of 1933 that had drastically cut government salaries and veterans pensions .
Finally he reminds to all his commitment to respect the Constitution as he says that it " wisely " created the concept of the very principle of his speech there . He confirms his respect for the Congress as he himself has been a member of the New York State Senate for more than seven years .
He therefore recognize its legitimacy, when he mentions on line 5 of his speech " the chosen legislative representatives " , and mentions the Congress at least 6 times during this extract .
And indeed , the most obvious reminder is when he clearly places himself lower than the Constitution and recognize as " the framework " for his policies .
But at the same time , Roosevelt is there paving the way for his new policies : the New Deal .
Compared to what has previously been done and said , it is a rather radical progressive program that is based on a more aggressive intervention of the federal authorities in the economy, the key for all his policy. The challenge is double : he has to immediately compensate the physical and moral loss of millions of Americans , while at the same time giving new basis to the economy to put it back on the rightful track . The strength of the New Deal policy is visible with this : to create something new, and to use it for the people .
To begin his program , he has to break a central taboo of the American mentality, the idea that the whole Administration , and even more the federal government , shouldn't interfere with the economy. And he sort things out in a very clever way, interpreting the Constitution to his own profit as he says that : " Throughout the world " are economic problems , that anyone though it is not said can link to the terrible crisis that began during his predecessor's mandate . And indeed the intensity and the duration of the crisis are in all ways exceptional and it affects all the nations in the world .
But the Constitution previewed that global events , touching the US on a national scale should be administered by the federal government ! Thus it is legitimate for Roosevelt to take immediate steps to crack down the crisis , which he confirms on line 86 and 87 : " The time has come for action by the National Government " . Yet , though it well may be a coincidence , it is interesting to notice that he has used the term national and not federal ...
Now he has the moral basis to accelerate the process : this is shown by the fact that he mentions the 73d session of the Congress as being " extraordinary " .
There comes the social part of his program that he implemented during this session and that he has mentioned at the beginning of his speech as " evident[ly] restor[ing] confidence and faith " .
And the results are there : the GDP and the money stock have significantly increased in 1933 and 1934 and will continue to do so ( though Roosevelt don't know it , of course , when he gave that speech ) up to 1937 with a slight fall in 1938 followed by two other years of sharp growth .
These successes are the consequences of a radical and new policy, the intervention of the state in the economy. The priority is to create jobs and to feed the poorest Americans to avoid starvation and political instability that might follow. Against that are the alphabet acts including :
The Works Progress Administration , which built or repaired 1500 kilometers of runways , a million of kilometers of highways , 124,000 bridges, 8,000 parks and 18,000 sports fields, 135,000 km of pipelines, 69,000 highway street lights, and 125,000 public buildings have been built , rebuilt or expanded, including 41,300 schools. The Grand Coulée Dam gave jobs to 8 000 persons , and the Hoover Dam gave jobs to up to more than 5 000 persons .
For eight years , the CCC guaranteed a revenue of 30 dollars per month to 2 millions of young American men .
The Emergency Banking Act followed by the Glass Steagall Act in 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 calmed down the popular panic of fear and defiance against the banking system .
It both stabilized the number of banks and drastically reduced the number of banking failures for a decade in the United States .
On the other side , it should be highlighted that for the first time , the idea that to protect the environment could be positive for the economy, and for public health , is for the first time evoked with as he said " the most comprehensive study of our national resources ever made " , and that will help to instill the idea of a stock of resources that is not infinite . It might also refers to the human responsibilities in the apparition of the Dust Bowl , asking for " the sound use " on line 74 and " the better use "on line 83 , of natural resources while recognizing that it is part of what has to be done to relieve the people who can't " have security under the conditions which now surrounds them " .
Finally, Franklin Roosevelt dared to discuss openly at the supreme level , of a potential system of public funding for healthcare and social protection . The very idea that the federal government could pay for unproductive elements of the society, could finance a comprehensive system that would help the people to endure the " major hazards and vicissitudes " as he said on line 66 , was already rarely defended , so the fact the President of the Federation opened the debate was a significant shift for the American political spectrum . And the most important thing is that for the first time something will be done directly, as he says he wants to act " where a beginning can now be made " .
And indeed , as soon as August 1935 is passed the Social Security Act which gave money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals , for unemployment insurance , aid to families with dependent children , maternal and child welfare , public health services and the blind people , but most of all it provided federal funds to retired workers and some unemployed persons .
However, it should be noticed that though Roosevelt talks about the Divine Providence at the end of his speech , in this particular extract there is not a single mention of God nor of religion .
Plus , the extract doesn't not mention much the rest of the world , which is a sign of the isolationist tendancy that was induced by the crisis of 1929. A natural reflex is to try to preserve your own domain and thus enforcing protectionist measures ; it is therefore evident that the President doesn't need or even want to talk about the rest of the world to the American people which is in such dire straits that it probably wouldn't accept any effort for the outer nations . Here we see a President that is only focused on the US and the American people , and the latter is probably satisfied with it as it might induce a sense of dignity to feel yourself as the center of the President's attention .
And that puts him in an even more difficult situation , where he could be accused of a derivation toward personal power, dictatorship , and it is renowned how much the Americans have an encroached fear about that . So he tries to comfort them in the knowledge that he will be the President of all the US citizens , thus the use of the term Nation on at least four occasions that are on lines 13, 31, 60 and 80 . To call for the Nation is something very strong , it is a call to unity and to the founding principles of the country : a people , its culture , its territory. As such , encompassing all the realities and concepts of what makes the US , with the term Nation , he's gathering around him a large majority, in a consensual move as it is for the spirit itself , of the country.
Moreover, because of his program , it could be easy to call him a socialist , even more during this troubled period : in Russia communism more or less says the same things for a non-alert mind , such as more power to the workers and the end of injustices against the poorest , and the most convinced Republicans didn't hesitate to highlight that paradox . But there against Franklin Roosevelt wipes away those fears , recalling in the seventh paragraph the metaphor of an ill man . He affirms that he will not only cure the symptoms but also suppress the causes of the disease , stabbing on the way his predecessor under which the crisis got only worse ; and not kill the man to then say that there is no more ill person . It is a subtle but clear way to confirm his attachment to capitalism , like he says on line 46 when he says " No wise man [would] destroy [...] the << profit motive >> " , while in the process he sets the communists even more aside of the political spectrum .
And indeed he proved that he intended to be a responsible chief executive with the Economy Act of 1933 that had drastically cut government salaries and veterans pensions .
Finally he reminds to all his commitment to respect the Constitution as he says that it " wisely " created the concept of the very principle of his speech there . He confirms his respect for the Congress as he himself has been a member of the New York State Senate for more than seven years .
He therefore recognize its legitimacy, when he mentions on line 5 of his speech " the chosen legislative representatives " , and mentions the Congress at least 6 times during this extract .
And indeed , the most obvious reminder is when he clearly places himself lower than the Constitution and recognize as " the framework " for his policies .
But at the same time , Roosevelt is there paving the way for his new policies : the New Deal .
Compared to what has previously been done and said , it is a rather radical progressive program that is based on a more aggressive intervention of the federal authorities in the economy, the key for all his policy. The challenge is double : he has to immediately compensate the physical and moral loss of millions of Americans , while at the same time giving new basis to the economy to put it back on the rightful track . The strength of the New Deal policy is visible with this : to create something new, and to use it for the people .
To begin his program , he has to break a central taboo of the American mentality, the idea that the whole Administration , and even more the federal government , shouldn't interfere with the economy. And he sort things out in a very clever way, interpreting the Constitution to his own profit as he says that : " Throughout the world " are economic problems , that anyone though it is not said can link to the terrible crisis that began during his predecessor's mandate . And indeed the intensity and the duration of the crisis are in all ways exceptional and it affects all the nations in the world .
But the Constitution previewed that global events , touching the US on a national scale should be administered by the federal government ! Thus it is legitimate for Roosevelt to take immediate steps to crack down the crisis , which he confirms on line 86 and 87 : " The time has come for action by the National Government " . Yet , though it well may be a coincidence , it is interesting to notice that he has used the term national and not federal ...
Now he has the moral basis to accelerate the process : this is shown by the fact that he mentions the 73d session of the Congress as being " extraordinary " .
There comes the social part of his program that he implemented during this session and that he has mentioned at the beginning of his speech as " evident[ly] restor[ing] confidence and faith " .
And the results are there : the GDP and the money stock have significantly increased in 1933 and 1934 and will continue to do so ( though Roosevelt don't know it , of course , when he gave that speech ) up to 1937 with a slight fall in 1938 followed by two other years of sharp growth .
These successes are the consequences of a radical and new policy, the intervention of the state in the economy. The priority is to create jobs and to feed the poorest Americans to avoid starvation and political instability that might follow. Against that are the alphabet acts including :
The Works Progress Administration , which built or repaired 1500 kilometers of runways , a million of kilometers of highways , 124,000 bridges, 8,000 parks and 18,000 sports fields, 135,000 km of pipelines, 69,000 highway street lights, and 125,000 public buildings have been built , rebuilt or expanded, including 41,300 schools. The Grand Coulée Dam gave jobs to 8 000 persons , and the Hoover Dam gave jobs to up to more than 5 000 persons .
For eight years , the CCC guaranteed a revenue of 30 dollars per month to 2 millions of young American men .
The Emergency Banking Act followed by the Glass Steagall Act in 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 calmed down the popular panic of fear and defiance against the banking system .
It both stabilized the number of banks and drastically reduced the number of banking failures for a decade in the United States .
On the other side , it should be highlighted that for the first time , the idea that to protect the environment could be positive for the economy, and for public health , is for the first time evoked with as he said " the most comprehensive study of our national resources ever made " , and that will help to instill the idea of a stock of resources that is not infinite . It might also refers to the human responsibilities in the apparition of the Dust Bowl , asking for " the sound use " on line 74 and " the better use "on line 83 , of natural resources while recognizing that it is part of what has to be done to relieve the people who can't " have security under the conditions which now surrounds them " .
Finally, Franklin Roosevelt dared to discuss openly at the supreme level , of a potential system of public funding for healthcare and social protection . The very idea that the federal government could pay for unproductive elements of the society, could finance a comprehensive system that would help the people to endure the " major hazards and vicissitudes " as he said on line 66 , was already rarely defended , so the fact the President of the Federation opened the debate was a significant shift for the American political spectrum . And the most important thing is that for the first time something will be done directly, as he says he wants to act " where a beginning can now be made " .
And indeed , as soon as August 1935 is passed the Social Security Act which gave money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals , for unemployment insurance , aid to families with dependent children , maternal and child welfare , public health services and the blind people , but most of all it provided federal funds to retired workers and some unemployed persons .
However, it should be noticed that though Roosevelt talks about the Divine Providence at the end of his speech , in this particular extract there is not a single mention of God nor of religion .
Plus , the extract doesn't not mention much the rest of the world , which is a sign of the isolationist tendancy that was induced by the crisis of 1929. A natural reflex is to try to preserve your own domain and thus enforcing protectionist measures ; it is therefore evident that the President doesn't need or even want to talk about the rest of the world to the American people which is in such dire straits that it probably wouldn't accept any effort for the outer nations . Here we see a President that is only focused on the US and the American people , and the latter is probably satisfied with it as it might induce a sense of dignity to feel yourself as the center of the President's attention .
-
Thunderoad
[right]1) The premises of the war[/right]
A) The Falklands
Called Islas Malvinas in Spanish like " Les Iles Malouines " in French , they bared several names depending on who passed by. Small archipelago off the coast of Argentina between 51°S and 53°S upon the Patagonian shelf that is itself part of the American tectonic plaque , it endures a strong cold climate influenced by the Roaring Forties , with everlasting humidity and temperatures that never get above 20°C . Almost all of the population lives on the Eastern Side . Almost two thirds of its 2 840 inhabitants (according to a 2012 estimation) are living in its de facto capital city of Port Stanley .
[center]B) Argentina's problems[/center]
Argentina was plunged into a deep economical crisis that plagued the Argentinean economy.
At the time it was mainly based upon resources and as such was highly dependent upon the stock exchange rates , and even more upon the USA , which were among its best allies .
Its GDP reached its highest point since 1960 in 1980, with a GDP per capita of 5312.95 $US and from there it began to fall : 4933.87 in 1981 , and 4616.41 in 1982 .
It has to be said that during those days Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship, the perfect example of what means a JUNTA : a group of powerful generals took power in a coup d'état in March 1976 and promised a new " ideological war " to the people in order to " save Argentina " , in what has been called the National Reorganisation Process . In fact , this process was mostly the destruction of the democratic and communist opposition through torture , forced disappearances , economical discrimination and absurd policies (While the unemployment rate was of only 4,2 % in 1975, poverty grew faster during the 7 years of the junta than anytime before) with a rude censorship .
Coincidentally, one of the most powerful executioner of the junta , Jorge Oliveira , became the defense attorney of the former SS-member Erich Priebke ...
[right]C) Margaret Thatcher's own problems[/right]
[center]2) The war itself[/center]
On 19 March , Argentina began to occupy South Georgia Islands , according to the British , when two Argentinean civilians raised Argentina's national flag on South Georgia . This act has been carried on by scrap metal merchants that incidentally, were helped in that way by Argentine marines , but it is a very strong symbol , and as such was interpreted by the British authorities as a provocation .
The Argentinean military commanders used a legal trade deal between an Argentinean businessman and a British company as a protection for an operation intended to deliberately provoking a territorial dispute that would give the opportunity for the junta to proclaim Argentina's sovereignty upon those islands . The operation worked well per se , but Argentine was forced to retreat .
The UK responded on 26 March by authorizing the HMS Superb to leave Gibraltar, followed two HMS Splendid and Spartan submarines on 29 March , with the latter two openly sailing to South Georgia .
This event has been important because it proved the capacity of the Argentinean armies to intervene far away from its territory, even further away from the Falklands . On the first of April, 1982, the supreme authority of the Falklands , the Governor Rex Hunt received a telegram from the FCO at 3:30 PM , warning him that the British military and diplomatic system has " reliable evidences " that suggest a potential Argentinean invasion and ask him to prepare the island .
Rex Hunt has taken this signal very seriously, and during the night the British soldiers took every possible precautions , under the military command of Major Mike Norman of the Royal Marines .
According to a Falklands Islander, Mrs Rachel Aspogard , quoted by the BBC : " the Falkland Islands Defense troops were in the streets and quite nervous " , on the 1st of April in the evening .
There were no mistakes : beginning at 21:30 this evening, as previewed , Argentinean troops stormed in with around six hundred soldiers and in just a night, they took control of the most important hub of the Falklands , its economical and political capital-city, Port Stanley, and in fact only around 80 soldiers actually faced a violent opposition .
On the second of April at 8:30 AM , Port Stanley was open to the Argentinean armies : the supreme military authority of the island , Governor Rex Hunt, acknowledged his defeat at 9:30 AM , followed by a last telex discussion at around 16:30 from the Falkland Islands to London which confirmed that the enemy now rules Port Stanley.
At the end of the battle , there were three casualties , all for Argentina , that also lost an helicopter and an armored vehicle . There has been one soldier wounded on the British side .
The next day, the Argentinean armies crushed the British garrison on South Georgia and thus obtained full control over the habitable islands of the Falkland's region .
Also called the battle of Grytviken , the invasion of South Georgia had cost Argentina one Puma helicopter and a soldier, the wreck of the helicopter was still there and fairly preserved in the end of the nineties .
From that point , Argentina began to occupy the islands , in spite of vigorous protestations from the United Kingdom which had the support of France and the UN Council . The Argentinean armies disarmed the British soldiers and separate them : those of the British Isles were sent back to the UK while the Falklands natives were forced to stay at home .
In spite of or thanks to, depending on the point of view, of the strong military capacities of the UK it took the British about 23 days to react militarily. During this time , the British armies organized a vast task force , the biggest in those days since WW2 , with 28 000 soldiers and more than 100 ships .
This task force embodied the spirit of the modern post-WW2 wars , putting the emphasis on the aircraft carriers and using the rapid-reaction units on the forefront . The commander in chief of this task force was John 'Sandy' Woodward , and its GHQ were on the HMS Hermes and Invincible .
The idea of the commandment comity was to isolate the Falklands through a Total Exclusion Zone that is justified by the British government with the UN Resolution 502 , and then to " strike back " as a British newspaper said , with the RAF and the ground forces embarked on the ships .
But this mean was controversial and has been highly criticized , by the Argentinean government of course but also by the USSR . Indeed , the profoundly anticommunist government of Mrs. Thatcher wasn't much surprised by this opposition , but to be persistent in that way, in order to recover these islands put the UK in a tricky situation : it was launching a war against an ally of the US .
The first concrete British action is the bombing of the Islands on 1st May. Bombers and jet fighters respectively left Ascension Island , 3 thousand miles away from the Falklands , and the two British aircraft carriers on zone to conduct a large-scale operation aimed at ravaging the grass airstrips of Goose Green , 55 miles away from Port Stanley, and a gateway to the isles for Argentina .
One Harrier of the RAF has been damaged , but the operation is a total success : it has severely damaged the bond between the Argentinean garrison in Port Stanley and mainland Argentina because it rendered impossible for Argentinean aircrafts to land there , and the Argentinean air forces lost a lot of fuel and ammunitions .
On 2 May, exactly one month after the invasion of the Falklands , the British nuclear-powered HMS Conqueror, the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano, named after a famous figure of Argentina's history, the second largest ship of the Argentinean navy at the time .
With 368 crewmembers killed , it is responsible on itself for around a half of all the Argentinean losses during this conflict , and it was because of that and of the symbolic aspect a terrible tragedy in Argentina , a severe stroke to the morale of the Argentinean people . All the newspaper in Argentina dedicated their frontpages to the ARA Belgrano, sparkling an outburst of hatred , distillated and encouraged by the junta .
The British , on the other side , saw this of course as an encouraging sign for the future .
The tabloid newspaper The Sun entitled its frontpage : GOTCHA , in large capital letters, the next day.
Yet it was a dramatic thing , looking back 30 years later, because it may have incited the British to feel too much secured in their victory, forgetting that although there was an undeniable advantage for the UK , Argentina still had a valuable army, the controversial frontpage of the Sun illustrates this overconfidence of the British population .
It was therefore only a matter of time before the British would endure a severe loss .
Human basic behaviour naturally tends toward jealousy and retaliations in the way that when someone suffers a harsh hit , s/he has the need to externalise this pain, ideally by bringing it into the assaulter side , and gregarious behaviors only amplify tremendously this tendency, multiplying it by the number of people encompassed in the same body.
Also the Argentinean governors at the time are a junta , an authoritarian and centralizing power.
To retain control of the population, it needs it, even more than in a liberal-democratic nation, to feel safer, stronger than the enemy. In the immediate aftermath of the sinking of the ARA Belgrano the junta thus had an imperious need of a victory, that would act as a compensation in the minds of the Argentinean people .
Britain was as such in the worst position possible , it was about to get hit , in just a few hours or days.
And indeed , only two days later, at about 10 in the morning, on May the fourth 1982 , the Argentinean Super Etendard 3-A-302 strikes the HMS Sheffield with an Exocet missile , blowing away a large part of the hull . The crew will fight for six days against the damages to save the ship until the unavoidable comes true : she sank East of the Falklands, while going to South Georgia .
Because of the missile and the subsequent fight against the fire, 20 crewmembers died and 24 others were severely injured . It is responsible in itself for about 8 % of all British KIA soldiers .
On 20 May, there have been peace negotiations organized by the UN , but it failed , partly because of the intransigency of Thatcher's representing committee . Bypassing the UN Council , the British army launched an attack less than a day after, and landed at San Carlos on East Falkland .
It then took seven days to the British troops to march down to Goose Green , fifty-five miles away from Port Stanley, where the fiercest land-battle of the war took place . The Argentinean troops were of a still unknown size
To keep the operation running, the British army asked the support of 43 merchant ships totalising more than two thousand crewmembers , costing 5 Million pounds a week .
3) The aftermath of the conflict
[right]1) the fall of the Argentinean dictatorship[/right]
For both countries this war lead to radical political changes . In Argentina , the junta faced a dramatic situation : in the end , the war had cost Argentina around 650 soldiers , killed in action and :
• 1,657 wounded
• 11,313 PoWs
________________________________________
• 1 cruiser
• 1 submarine
• 4 cargo vessels
• 2 patrol boats
• 1 spy trawler
________________________________________
• 25 helicopters
• 35 fighters
• 2 bombers
• 4 cargo aircraft
• 25 COIN aircraft
• 9 armed trainers
for a total defeat : the occupation of Port Stanley, the longest resisting Argentinean hotspot , lasted only two months ; Argentina failed to annex the archipelagoes to its territory as its armies weren't able to give enough time to a real reattachment policy ; the whole liberal-democratic sphere was against Argentina and it even infuriated the US , which were then its best and closest ally.
[center]2) An outburst of popularity for Thatcher[/center]
On the British side , the victory is clear, and militarily undeniable :
The loss ratio between Argentina and Britain is thus of about 3 Argentinean soldiers killed for one British soldier killed .
The rapid and large victory helped Thatcher in many ways : first it proved the efficiency of the British Army, in a time of moving war codes , around forty years after WW2 . For the first and still only time since the apparition of the nuclear submarines , the UK is still the sole country to have used it in a context of war, against an armed ship of another nation's Navy. It demonstrated again , nearly two decades after the Cuban Missiles Crisis , the efficiency of a blockade system based upon the coordination between the aircraft carriers and the submarines , and thus also between the Navy and the Air Forces . Reinforcing the status of the UK as a major military power, it paved the way for its implication in the two Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003 .
On the other hand , it was a very strong political symbol : the message to Argentina was clear, that these islands were parts of the British territory and that it is non-negotiable , putting , at least into the British minds , an end to the territorial dispute for the Falklands . The British people was to rest assured of its sovereignty, no matter how far its territory is , and this war had a powerful effect on the popular morale . It inflamed British neonationalism in all its aspects , the most controversial being the frontpage of the Sun titled " Gotcha " .
3) Still an unsure destiny for the Falklands
A) The Falklands
Called Islas Malvinas in Spanish like " Les Iles Malouines " in French , they bared several names depending on who passed by. Small archipelago off the coast of Argentina between 51°S and 53°S upon the Patagonian shelf that is itself part of the American tectonic plaque , it endures a strong cold climate influenced by the Roaring Forties , with everlasting humidity and temperatures that never get above 20°C . Almost all of the population lives on the Eastern Side . Almost two thirds of its 2 840 inhabitants (according to a 2012 estimation) are living in its de facto capital city of Port Stanley .
[center]B) Argentina's problems[/center]
Argentina was plunged into a deep economical crisis that plagued the Argentinean economy.
At the time it was mainly based upon resources and as such was highly dependent upon the stock exchange rates , and even more upon the USA , which were among its best allies .
Its GDP reached its highest point since 1960 in 1980, with a GDP per capita of 5312.95 $US and from there it began to fall : 4933.87 in 1981 , and 4616.41 in 1982 .
It has to be said that during those days Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship, the perfect example of what means a JUNTA : a group of powerful generals took power in a coup d'état in March 1976 and promised a new " ideological war " to the people in order to " save Argentina " , in what has been called the National Reorganisation Process . In fact , this process was mostly the destruction of the democratic and communist opposition through torture , forced disappearances , economical discrimination and absurd policies (While the unemployment rate was of only 4,2 % in 1975, poverty grew faster during the 7 years of the junta than anytime before) with a rude censorship .
Coincidentally, one of the most powerful executioner of the junta , Jorge Oliveira , became the defense attorney of the former SS-member Erich Priebke ...
[right]C) Margaret Thatcher's own problems[/right]
[center]2) The war itself[/center]
On 19 March , Argentina began to occupy South Georgia Islands , according to the British , when two Argentinean civilians raised Argentina's national flag on South Georgia . This act has been carried on by scrap metal merchants that incidentally, were helped in that way by Argentine marines , but it is a very strong symbol , and as such was interpreted by the British authorities as a provocation .
The Argentinean military commanders used a legal trade deal between an Argentinean businessman and a British company as a protection for an operation intended to deliberately provoking a territorial dispute that would give the opportunity for the junta to proclaim Argentina's sovereignty upon those islands . The operation worked well per se , but Argentine was forced to retreat .
The UK responded on 26 March by authorizing the HMS Superb to leave Gibraltar, followed two HMS Splendid and Spartan submarines on 29 March , with the latter two openly sailing to South Georgia .
This event has been important because it proved the capacity of the Argentinean armies to intervene far away from its territory, even further away from the Falklands . On the first of April, 1982, the supreme authority of the Falklands , the Governor Rex Hunt received a telegram from the FCO at 3:30 PM , warning him that the British military and diplomatic system has " reliable evidences " that suggest a potential Argentinean invasion and ask him to prepare the island .
Rex Hunt has taken this signal very seriously, and during the night the British soldiers took every possible precautions , under the military command of Major Mike Norman of the Royal Marines .
According to a Falklands Islander, Mrs Rachel Aspogard , quoted by the BBC : " the Falkland Islands Defense troops were in the streets and quite nervous " , on the 1st of April in the evening .
There were no mistakes : beginning at 21:30 this evening, as previewed , Argentinean troops stormed in with around six hundred soldiers and in just a night, they took control of the most important hub of the Falklands , its economical and political capital-city, Port Stanley, and in fact only around 80 soldiers actually faced a violent opposition .
On the second of April at 8:30 AM , Port Stanley was open to the Argentinean armies : the supreme military authority of the island , Governor Rex Hunt, acknowledged his defeat at 9:30 AM , followed by a last telex discussion at around 16:30 from the Falkland Islands to London which confirmed that the enemy now rules Port Stanley.
At the end of the battle , there were three casualties , all for Argentina , that also lost an helicopter and an armored vehicle . There has been one soldier wounded on the British side .
The next day, the Argentinean armies crushed the British garrison on South Georgia and thus obtained full control over the habitable islands of the Falkland's region .
Also called the battle of Grytviken , the invasion of South Georgia had cost Argentina one Puma helicopter and a soldier, the wreck of the helicopter was still there and fairly preserved in the end of the nineties .
From that point , Argentina began to occupy the islands , in spite of vigorous protestations from the United Kingdom which had the support of France and the UN Council . The Argentinean armies disarmed the British soldiers and separate them : those of the British Isles were sent back to the UK while the Falklands natives were forced to stay at home .
In spite of or thanks to, depending on the point of view, of the strong military capacities of the UK it took the British about 23 days to react militarily. During this time , the British armies organized a vast task force , the biggest in those days since WW2 , with 28 000 soldiers and more than 100 ships .
This task force embodied the spirit of the modern post-WW2 wars , putting the emphasis on the aircraft carriers and using the rapid-reaction units on the forefront . The commander in chief of this task force was John 'Sandy' Woodward , and its GHQ were on the HMS Hermes and Invincible .
The idea of the commandment comity was to isolate the Falklands through a Total Exclusion Zone that is justified by the British government with the UN Resolution 502 , and then to " strike back " as a British newspaper said , with the RAF and the ground forces embarked on the ships .
But this mean was controversial and has been highly criticized , by the Argentinean government of course but also by the USSR . Indeed , the profoundly anticommunist government of Mrs. Thatcher wasn't much surprised by this opposition , but to be persistent in that way, in order to recover these islands put the UK in a tricky situation : it was launching a war against an ally of the US .
The first concrete British action is the bombing of the Islands on 1st May. Bombers and jet fighters respectively left Ascension Island , 3 thousand miles away from the Falklands , and the two British aircraft carriers on zone to conduct a large-scale operation aimed at ravaging the grass airstrips of Goose Green , 55 miles away from Port Stanley, and a gateway to the isles for Argentina .
One Harrier of the RAF has been damaged , but the operation is a total success : it has severely damaged the bond between the Argentinean garrison in Port Stanley and mainland Argentina because it rendered impossible for Argentinean aircrafts to land there , and the Argentinean air forces lost a lot of fuel and ammunitions .
On 2 May, exactly one month after the invasion of the Falklands , the British nuclear-powered HMS Conqueror, the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano, named after a famous figure of Argentina's history, the second largest ship of the Argentinean navy at the time .
With 368 crewmembers killed , it is responsible on itself for around a half of all the Argentinean losses during this conflict , and it was because of that and of the symbolic aspect a terrible tragedy in Argentina , a severe stroke to the morale of the Argentinean people . All the newspaper in Argentina dedicated their frontpages to the ARA Belgrano, sparkling an outburst of hatred , distillated and encouraged by the junta .
The British , on the other side , saw this of course as an encouraging sign for the future .
The tabloid newspaper The Sun entitled its frontpage : GOTCHA , in large capital letters, the next day.
Yet it was a dramatic thing , looking back 30 years later, because it may have incited the British to feel too much secured in their victory, forgetting that although there was an undeniable advantage for the UK , Argentina still had a valuable army, the controversial frontpage of the Sun illustrates this overconfidence of the British population .
It was therefore only a matter of time before the British would endure a severe loss .
Human basic behaviour naturally tends toward jealousy and retaliations in the way that when someone suffers a harsh hit , s/he has the need to externalise this pain, ideally by bringing it into the assaulter side , and gregarious behaviors only amplify tremendously this tendency, multiplying it by the number of people encompassed in the same body.
Also the Argentinean governors at the time are a junta , an authoritarian and centralizing power.
To retain control of the population, it needs it, even more than in a liberal-democratic nation, to feel safer, stronger than the enemy. In the immediate aftermath of the sinking of the ARA Belgrano the junta thus had an imperious need of a victory, that would act as a compensation in the minds of the Argentinean people .
Britain was as such in the worst position possible , it was about to get hit , in just a few hours or days.
And indeed , only two days later, at about 10 in the morning, on May the fourth 1982 , the Argentinean Super Etendard 3-A-302 strikes the HMS Sheffield with an Exocet missile , blowing away a large part of the hull . The crew will fight for six days against the damages to save the ship until the unavoidable comes true : she sank East of the Falklands, while going to South Georgia .
Because of the missile and the subsequent fight against the fire, 20 crewmembers died and 24 others were severely injured . It is responsible in itself for about 8 % of all British KIA soldiers .
On 20 May, there have been peace negotiations organized by the UN , but it failed , partly because of the intransigency of Thatcher's representing committee . Bypassing the UN Council , the British army launched an attack less than a day after, and landed at San Carlos on East Falkland .
It then took seven days to the British troops to march down to Goose Green , fifty-five miles away from Port Stanley, where the fiercest land-battle of the war took place . The Argentinean troops were of a still unknown size
To keep the operation running, the British army asked the support of 43 merchant ships totalising more than two thousand crewmembers , costing 5 Million pounds a week .
3) The aftermath of the conflict
[right]1) the fall of the Argentinean dictatorship[/right]
For both countries this war lead to radical political changes . In Argentina , the junta faced a dramatic situation : in the end , the war had cost Argentina around 650 soldiers , killed in action and :
• 1,657 wounded
• 11,313 PoWs
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• 1 cruiser
• 1 submarine
• 4 cargo vessels
• 2 patrol boats
• 1 spy trawler
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• 25 helicopters
• 35 fighters
• 2 bombers
• 4 cargo aircraft
• 25 COIN aircraft
• 9 armed trainers
for a total defeat : the occupation of Port Stanley, the longest resisting Argentinean hotspot , lasted only two months ; Argentina failed to annex the archipelagoes to its territory as its armies weren't able to give enough time to a real reattachment policy ; the whole liberal-democratic sphere was against Argentina and it even infuriated the US , which were then its best and closest ally.
[center]2) An outburst of popularity for Thatcher[/center]
On the British side , the victory is clear, and militarily undeniable :
The loss ratio between Argentina and Britain is thus of about 3 Argentinean soldiers killed for one British soldier killed .
The rapid and large victory helped Thatcher in many ways : first it proved the efficiency of the British Army, in a time of moving war codes , around forty years after WW2 . For the first and still only time since the apparition of the nuclear submarines , the UK is still the sole country to have used it in a context of war, against an armed ship of another nation's Navy. It demonstrated again , nearly two decades after the Cuban Missiles Crisis , the efficiency of a blockade system based upon the coordination between the aircraft carriers and the submarines , and thus also between the Navy and the Air Forces . Reinforcing the status of the UK as a major military power, it paved the way for its implication in the two Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003 .
On the other hand , it was a very strong political symbol : the message to Argentina was clear, that these islands were parts of the British territory and that it is non-negotiable , putting , at least into the British minds , an end to the territorial dispute for the Falklands . The British people was to rest assured of its sovereignty, no matter how far its territory is , and this war had a powerful effect on the popular morale . It inflamed British neonationalism in all its aspects , the most controversial being the frontpage of the Sun titled " Gotcha " .
3) Still an unsure destiny for the Falklands
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Thunderoad