Reconnaissance
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration outside an area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about natural features and other activities in the area. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops, ships or submarines, manned/unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, or by setting up covert observation posts. Espionage is not reconnaissance, because reconnaissance is a military's special forces operating ahead of its main forces. Called "recce" or "recon", the associated verb is reconnoitre. Traditionally, reconnaissance was a role, adopted by the cavalry. Speed was key in these maneuvers, thus infantry was ill-suited to the task. From horses to vehicles, for warriors throughout history, commanders procured their ability to have speed and mobility, to mount and dismount, during maneuver warfare. Military commanders favored specialized small units for speed and mobility, to gain valuable information about the terrain and enemy before sending the main troops into the area, covering force and exploitation roles.
Skirmishing is a traditional skill of reconnaissance, as well as harassment of the enemy. Reconnaissance conducted by ground forces includes special reconnaissance, armored reconnaissance, amphibious reconnaissance and civil reconnaissance. Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance carried out by aircraft; the purpose is to survey weather conditions, map terrain, may include military purposes such as observing tangible structures, particular areas, movement of enemy forces. Naval forces use aerial and satellite reconnaissance to observe enemy forces. Navies undertake hydrographic surveys and intelligence gathering. Reconnaissance satellites provide military commanders with photographs of enemy forces and other intelligence. Military forces use geographical and meteorological information from Earth observation satellites. A tracker needs to pay close attention to the psychology of his enemy. Knowledge of human psychology and cultural backgrounds is necessary to know the actions of the enemy and where the enemy is heading.
The celebrated Chief of Scouts Frederick Russell Burnham had this to say: It is imperative that a scout should know the history, religion, social customs, superstitions of whatever country or people he is called on to work in or among. This is as necessary as to know the physical character of the country, its climate and products. Certain people will do certain things without fail. Certain other things feasible, they will not do. There is no danger of knowing too much of the mental habits of an enemy. One should neither underestimate the credit him with superhuman powers. Fear and courage are latent in every human being, though roused into activity by diverse means. Types of reconnaissance: Terrain-oriented reconnaissance is a survey of the terrain. Force-oriented reconnaissance may include target acquisition. Civil-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the civil dimension of the battlespace; the techniques and objectives are not mutually exclusive. Units tasked with reconnaissance are armed only for self-defense, rely on stealth to gather information.
Others are well-enough armed to deny information to the enemy by destroying their reconnaissance elements. Reconnaissance-in-force is a type of military operation or military tactics used to probe an enemy's disposition. By mounting an offensive with considerable force, the commander hopes to elicit a strong reaction by the enemy that reveals its own strength and other tactical data; the RIF commander retains the option to fall back with the data or expand the conflict into a full engagement. Other methods consist of hit-and-run tactics using rapid mobility, in some cases light-armored vehicles for added fire superiority, as the need arises. Nazi Germany's reconnaissance during world war II is described in the following way: The purpose of reconnaissance and the types of units employed to obtain information are similar in the U. S. and the German Armies. German tactical principles of reconnaissance, diverge somewhat from those of the U. S; the Germans stress aggressiveness, attempt to obtain superiority in the area to be reconnoitered, strive for continuous observation of the enemy.
They believe in employing reconnaissance units in force as a rule. They are prepared to fight to obtain the desired information, they assign supplementary tasks to their reconnaissance units, such as sabotage behind enemy lines, harassment, or counter-reconnaissance. Only enough reconnaissance troops are sent on a mission to assure superiority in the area to be reconnoitred. Reserves are kept on hand to be committed when the reconnaissance must be intensified, when the original force meets strong enemy opposition, or when the direction and area to be reconnoitred are changed; the Germans encourage aggressive action against enemy security forces. When their reconnaissance units meet superior enemy forces, they fight a delaying action while other units attempt to flank the enemy. Reconnaissance by fire is the act of firing
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had expanded slavery into U. S. territories. The party subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States; the Party was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After the 1912 election, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right; the liberal Republican element in the GOP was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 that continued during the Reagan Era in the 1980s. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.
White voters identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party made opposition to abortion a key plank of its national party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. By 2000, the Republican Party was aligned with Christian conservatism; the Party's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States and rural areas in the North. The 21st century Republican Party ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats' liberal platform and progressive wing; the GOP supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest, but has grown more supportive of free trade since 1952. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party is conservative.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the popular Know Nothing Party. The party grew out of opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states; the Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party, was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin; the name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. At the 1856 Republican National Convention, the party adopted a national platform emphasizing opposition to the expansion of slavery into U. S. territories. While Republican candidate John C.
Frémont lost the 1856 United States presidential election to James Buchanan, he did win 11 of the 16 northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. Under Republican congressional leadership, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; the party's success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished, was continued to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant, ran Horace Greeley for the presidency; the Stalwart faction defended Grant and the spoils system, whereas the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1883.
The Republican Party supported hard money, high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans had strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition; as the Northern postwar economy boomed with heavy and light industry, mines, fast-growing cities, prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth. The GOP was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers; the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932.
McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Pa
DESOTO patrol
DESOTO patrols were patrols conducted by U. S. Navy destroyers equipped with a mobile "van" of signals intelligence equipment used for intelligence collection in hostile waters; the USS De Haven is the namesake for these patrols. De Haven performed the first patrol off the coast of China in April 1962; the first patrol to target North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin was the USS Agerholm in December 1962. These patrols were a response to the Chinese Communists' unexpected re-definition of their territorial waters to include all waters shoreward from lines drawn tangentially to, between, twelve mile circles drawn around their offshore islands; such a declaration represented a huge expansion of their claims. This inhibited the lawful navigation of international waters as defined by US interests and increased the likelihood and frequency of formal diplomatic "serious warnings" issued by Beijing when any Seventh Fleet units navigated through these areas; this became a situation. These types of patrols had been conducted off the coasts of the Soviet Union and North Korea, but are recognized for their role in the Vietnam War.
There were three components to the purpose of these patrols. First, they would establish and maintain the presence of the U. S. Seventh Fleet in the international waters off the China coast and the Vietnamese coast. Second, they would serve as a minor Cold War irritant to the Chinese Communists. Third, they would collect as much intelligence as possible during the patrols; the tactical purpose of the patrols in Vietnam was to intercept North Vietnamese Army intelligence and relay it to South Vietnamese Army forces. With the intercepted communications, the South Vietnamese were able to more coordinate their raids; the destroyers taking part in the DESOTO patrols in Vietnam were accompanied by air support provided by the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga. The DESOTO patrols were part of a larger scheme known as Operation 34A. Run by the Department of Defense at the time, Operation 34A, or "OPLAN 34Alpha" was a top secret program consisting of covert actions against the North Vietnamese; the naval Direct Support Units based out of The U.
S. Naval Communication Station Philippines in San Miguel, Philippines used the SIGAD USN-467 as a generic designator for their missions; each specific patrol received a letter suffix for its duration. The subsequent mission would receive the next letter in an alphabetic sequence; the following table lists the patrols. SIGAD USN-467N designates the DSU aboard USS Maddox during the patrol involved with the Gulf of Tonkin incident; this patrol was 18th DESOTO type patrol conducted since 1962. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer Maddox, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. A sea battle resulted, in which Maddox expended over two hundred and eighty 3-inch and 5-inch shells, in which four USN F-8 Crusader jet fighter bombers strafed the torpedo boats. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5-millimeter round hit the destroyer, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, four North Vietnamese sailors were killed and six were wounded. S. casualties. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the DESOTO patrols continued.
On 11 September 1964 the Director of the Naval Security Group, Pacific informed the Director of the NSA of plans for an intercept team, SIGAD USN-467P, to be aboard USS Morton. The patrol was conducted by USS Morton and USS Richard S. Edwards one month after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. During this patrol Morton fired upon five fast closing targets, but was unable to confirm the targets visually. Based on radar surveillance the patrol claimed hits on three of the targets. Gulf of Tonkin Incident National Security Agency Naval Security Group Signals Intelligence USS Liberty Incident USS Pueblo Incident
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China and Japan, east of India, west of Papua New Guinea, north of Australia. Southeast Asia is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean; the region is the only part of Asia that lies within the Southern Hemisphere, although the majority of it is in the Northern Hemisphere. In contemporary definition, Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: Mainland Southeast Asia known as Indochina, comprising parts of Northeast India, Laos, Thailand and West Malaysia. Maritime Southeast Asia known as Nusantara, the East Indies and Malay Archipelago, comprises the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India, East Malaysia, the Philippines, East Timor, Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands. Taiwan is included in this grouping by many anthropologists; the region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with both heavy seismic and volcanic activities.
The Sunda Plate is the main plate of the region, featuring all Southeast Asian countries except Myanmar, northern Thailand, northern Laos, northern Vietnam, northern Luzon of the Philippines. The mountain ranges in Myanmar and peninsular Malaysia are part of the Alpide belt, while the islands of the Philippines are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Both seismic belts meet in Indonesia, causing the region to have high occurrences of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Southeast Asia covers about 4.5 million km2, 10.5% of Asia or 3% of earth's total land area. Its total population is about 8.5 % of the world's population. It is the third most populous geographical region in the world after East Asia; the region is culturally and ethnically diverse, with hundreds of languages spoken by different ethnic groups. Ten countries in the region are members of ASEAN, a regional organization established for economic, military and cultural integration amongst its members; the region, together with part of South Asia, was well known by Europeans as the East Indies or the Indies until the 20th century.
Chinese sources referred the region as 南洋, which means the "Southern Ocean." The mainland section of Southeast Asia was referred to as Indochina by European geographers due to its location between China and the Indian subcontinent and its having cultural influences from both neighboring regions. In the 20th century, the term became more restricted to territories of the former French Indochina; the maritime section of Southeast Asia is known as the Malay Archipelago, a term derived from the European concept of a Malay race. Another term for Maritime Southeast Asia is Insulindia, used to describe the region between Indochina and Australasia; the term "Southeast Asia" was first used in 1839 by American pastor Howard Malcolm in his book Travels in South-Eastern Asia. Malcolm only included the Mainland section and excluded the Maritime section in his definition of Southeast Asia; the term was used in the midst of World War II by the Allies, through the formation of South East Asia Command in 1943.
SEAC popularised the use of the term "Southeast Asia," although what constituted Southeast Asia was not fixed. However, by the late 1970s, a standard usage of the term "Southeast Asia" and the territories it encompasses had emerged. Although from a cultural or linguistic perspective the definitions of "Southeast Asia" may vary, the most common definitions nowadays include the area represented by the countries listed below. Ten of the eleven states of Southeast Asia are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, while East Timor is an observer state. Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, is an observer. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea; some southern parts of Mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan, are considered as part of Southeast Asia by some authors. * Administrative centre in Putrajaya. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia. Mainland Southeast Asia includes: Maritime Southeast Asia includes: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Maritime Southeast Asia.
Eastern Bangladesh and Northeast India have strong cultural ties with Southeast Asia and sometimes considered both South Asian and Southeast Asian. Sri Lanka has on some occasions been considered a part of Southeast Asia because of its cultural ties to mainland Southeast Asia; the rest of the island of New Guinea, not part of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, is sometimes included, so are Palau and the Northern Mariana Islands, which were all part of the Spanish East Indies with strong cultural and linguistic ties to the region the Philippines. The eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania due to its distinctive faunal features. New Guinea and its surrounding islands are geologically considered as a part of Australian continent, connected via the Sahul Shelf; the region
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was an international organization for collective defense in Southeast Asia created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, signed in September 1954 in Manila, Philippines. The formal institution of SEATO was established on 19 February 1955 at a meeting of treaty partners in Bangkok, Thailand; the organization's headquarters were in Bangkok. Eight members joined the organization. Created to block further communist gains in Southeast Asia, SEATO is considered a failure because internal conflict and dispute hindered general use of the SEATO military. SEATO was dissolved on 30 June 1977 after many members withdrew; the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, or Manila Pact, was signed on 8 September 1954 in Manila, as part of the American Truman Doctrine of creating anti-communist bilateral and collective defense treaties. These treaties and agreements were intended to create alliances; this policy was considered to have been developed by American diplomat and Soviet expert George F. Kennan.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State John Foster Dulles is considered to be the primary force behind the creation of SEATO, which expanded the concept of anti-communist collective defense to Southeast Asia, then-Vice President Richard Nixon advocated an Asian equivalent of NATO upon returning from his late-1953 Asia trip; the organization, headquartered in Bangkok, was created in 1955 at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers set up by the treaty, contrary to Dulles's preference to call the organization "ManPac". SEATO was intended to be a Southeast Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in which the military forces of each member would be coordinated to provide for the collective defense of the members' country. Organizationally, SEATO was headed by the Secretary General, whose office was created in 1957 at a meeting in Canberra, with a council of representatives from member nations and an international staff. Present were committees for economics and information.
SEATO's first Secretary General was Pote Sarasin, a Thai diplomat and politician who had served as Thailand's ambassador to the U. S. between 1952 and 1957, as Prime Minister of Thailand from September 1957 to 1 January 1958. Unlike the NATO alliance, SEATO had no joint commands with standing forces. In addition, SEATO's response protocol in the event of communism presenting a "common danger" to the member nations was vague and ineffective, though membership in the SEATO alliance did provide a rationale for a large-scale U. S. military intervention in the region during the Vietnam War. Despite its name, SEATO included countries located outside of the region but with an interest either in the region or the organization itself, they were Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Philippines and Thailand were the only Southeast Asian countries that participated in the organization, they shared close ties with the United States the Philippines, they faced incipient communist insurgencies against their own governments.
Thailand became a member upon the discovery of the newly founded "Thai Autonomous Region" in Yunnan – feeling threatened by potential Chinese communist subversion on its land. Other regional countries like Burma and Indonesia were far more mindful of domestic internal stability rather than any communist threat, thus rejected joining it. Malaya chose to not participate formally, though it was kept updated with key developments due to its close relationship with the United Kingdom; the states newly formed from French Indochina were prevented from taking part in any international military alliance as a result of the Geneva Agreements signed 20 July of the same year concluding the end of the First Indochina War. However, with the lingering threat coming from communist North Vietnam and the possibility of the domino theory with Indochina turning into a communist frontier, SEATO got these countries under its protection – an act that would be considered to be one of the main justifications for the U.
S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Cambodia, however rejected the protection in 1956; the majority of SEATO members were not located in Southeast Asia. To Australia and New Zealand, SEATO was seen as a more satisfying organization than ANZUS – a collective defense organization with the U. S; the United Kingdom and France joined due to having long maintained colonies in the region, due to concerns over developments in Indochina. Last but not least, the U. S. upon perceiving Southeast Asia to be a pivotal frontier for Cold War geopolitics saw the establishment of SEATO as essential to its Cold War containment policy. All in all, the membership reflected a mid-1950s combination of anti-communist Western nations and such nations in Southeast Asia; the United Kingdom and the United States, the latter of which joined after the U. S. Senate ratified. Canada considered joining, but decided against it in order to concentrate on its NATO responsibilities. Average of contributions to civil and military budgets between 1958 and 1973: U
United States Senate Committee on Armed Services
The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation’s military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy, benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and other matters related to defense policy. The Armed Services Committee was created as a result of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 following U. S. victory in the Second World War. It merged the responsibilities of the Committee on Naval Affairs and the Committee on Military Affairs. Considered one of the most powerful Senate committees, its broad mandate allowed it to report some of the most extensive and revolutionary legislation during the Cold War years, including the National Security Act of 1947; the committee tends to take a more bipartisan approach than other committees, as many of its members served in the military or have major defense interests located in the states they come from.
According to the Standing Rules of the United States Senate, all proposed legislation, petitions and other matters relating to the following subjects are referred to the Armed Services Committee: Aeronautical and space activities pertaining to or associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations. Common defense. Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Air Force, generally. Maintenance and operation of the Panama Canal, including administration and government of the Canal Zone. Military research and development. National security aspects of nuclear energy. Naval petroleum reserves, except those in Alaska. Pay, promotion and other benefits and privileges of members of the Armed Forces, including overseas education of civilian and military dependents. Selective service system. Strategic and critical materials necessary for the common defense. Source: Source: 2010 Congressional Record, Vol. 156, Page S6226 Source: 2011 Congressional Record, Vol. 157, Page S557 Source: 2013 Congressional Record, Vol. 159, Page S296 United States House Committee on Armed Services List of current United States Senate committees Official website Senate Armed Services Committee Report on Torture released November 20, 2008.
Historic archives at Internet Archive: Works by or about Committee on Armed Services at Internet Archive Works by or about Committee on Naval Affairs at Internet Archive Works by or about Committee on Military Affairs at Internet Archive
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