1.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
2.
Minnesota
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Minnesota is a state in the midwestern and northern regions of the United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U. S. state on May 11,1858, the state has a large number of lakes, and is known by the slogan Land of 10,000 Lakes. Its official motto is LÉtoile du Nord, Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U. S. Minnesota is known for its progressive political orientation and its high rate of civic participation and voter turnout. Until European settlement, Minnesota was inhabited by the Dakota and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe, in recent decades, immigration from Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Latin America has broadened its historic demographic and cultural composition. Minnesotas standard of living index is among the highest in the United States, Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it mnisota. Many places in the state have similar names, such as Minnehaha Falls, Minneiska, Minneota, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, and Minneapolis, a combination of mni and polis, Minnesota is the second northernmost U. S. state. Its isolated Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods county is the part of the 48 contiguous states lying north of the 49th parallel. The state is part of the U. S. region known as the Upper Midwest and it shares a Lake Superior water border with Michigan and a land and water border with Wisconsin to the east. Iowa is to the south, North Dakota and South Dakota are to the west, with 86,943 square miles, or approximately 2.25 percent of the United States, Minnesota is the 12th-largest state. Minnesota has some of the Earths oldest rocks, gneisses that are about 3.6 billion years old. About 2.7 billion years ago, basaltic lava poured out of cracks in the floor of the primordial ocean, the roots of these volcanic mountains and the action of Precambrian seas formed the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. Following a period of volcanism 1, in more recent times, massive ice sheets at least one kilometer thick ravaged the landscape of the state and sculpted its terrain. The Wisconsin glaciation left 12,000 years ago and these glaciers covered all of Minnesota except the far southeast, an area characterized by steep hills and streams that cut into the bedrock. This area is known as the Driftless Zone for its absence of glacial drift, much of the remainder of the state outside the northeast has 50 feet or more of glacial till left behind as the last glaciers retreated. Gigantic Lake Agassiz formed in the northwest 13,000 years ago and its bed created the fertile Red River valley, and its outflow, glacial River Warren, carved the valley of the Minnesota River and the Upper Mississippi downstream from Fort Snelling. Minnesota is geologically quiet today, it experiences earthquakes infrequently, the states high point is Eagle Mountain at 2,301 feet, which is only 13 miles away from the low of 601 feet at the shore of Lake Superior. Notwithstanding dramatic local differences in elevation, much of the state is a rolling peneplain. Two major drainage divides meet in Minnesotas northeast in rural Hibbing, forming a triple watershed, precipitation can follow the Mississippi River south to the Gulf of Mexico, the Saint Lawrence Seaway east to the Atlantic Ocean, or the Hudson Bay watershed to the Arctic Ocean
3.
Wisconsin
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Wisconsin is a U. S. state located in the north-central United States, in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state by total area and the 20th most populous. The state capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee, the state is divided into 72 counties. Wisconsin is second to Michigan in the length of its Great Lakes coastline, Wisconsin is known as Americas Dairyland because it is one of the nations leading dairy producers, particularly famous for its cheese. Manufacturing, especially paper products, information technology, and tourism are major contributors to the states economy. The word Wisconsin originates from the given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian-speaking Native American groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River, arriving in 1673, subsequent French writers changed the spelling from Meskousing to Ouisconsin, and over time this became the name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling from Ouisconsin to Wisconsin when they began to arrive in numbers during the early 19th century. The legislature of Wisconsin Territory made the current spelling official in 1845, the Algonquin word for Wisconsin and its original meaning have both grown obscure. Interpretations vary, but most implicate the river and the red sandstone that lines its banks, other theories include claims that the name originated from one of a variety of Ojibwa words meaning red stone place, where the waters gather, or great rock. Wisconsin has been home to a variety of cultures over the past 12,000 years. The first people arrived around 10,000 BCE during the Wisconsin Glaciation and these early inhabitants, called Paleo-Indians, hunted now-extinct ice age animals such as the Boaz mastodon, a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed along with spear points in southwest Wisconsin. After the ice age ended around 8000 BCE, people in the subsequent Archaic period lived by hunting, fishing, agricultural societies emerged gradually over the Woodland period between 1000 BCE to 1000 CE. Toward the end of period, Wisconsin was the heartland of the Effigy Mound culture. Later, between 1000 and 1500 CE, the Mississippian and Oneota cultures built substantial settlements including the village at Aztalan in southeast Wisconsin. The Oneota may be the ancestors of the modern Ioway and Ho-Chunk tribes who shared the Wisconsin region with the Menominee at the time of European contact, the first European to visit what became Wisconsin was probably the French explorer Jean Nicolet. He canoed west from Georgian Bay through the Great Lakes in 1634, pierre Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers visited Green Bay again in 1654–1666 and Chequamegon Bay in 1659–1660, where they traded for fur with local Native Americans. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet became the first to record a journey on the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway all the way to the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien
4.
North Carolina
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North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second largest banking center in the United States after New York City. The state has a range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell. The climate of the plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a highland climate. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, the United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the most famous of these is the Queen Annes Revenge, which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the states most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 feet in elevation in the east to about 1,500 feet in the west, the western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, the Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, the five basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins,11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the states border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin. Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, the climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, the coastal plain averages around 1 inch of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all. North Carolina experiences severe weather in summer and winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rain
5.
Mandarin Chinese
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Mandarin is a group of related varieties of Chinese spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of Standard Mandarin or Standard Chinese, because most Mandarin dialects are found in the north, the group is sometimes referred to as the Northern dialects. Many local Mandarin varieties are not mutually intelligible, nevertheless, Mandarin is often placed first in any list of languages by number of native speakers. Most Mandarin varieties have four tones, the final stops of Middle Chinese have disappeared in most of these varieties, but some have merged them as a final glottal stop. Many Mandarin varieties, including the Beijing dialect, retain retroflex initial consonants, the capital has been within the Mandarin area for most of the last millennium, making these dialects very influential. Some form of Mandarin has served as a lingua franca since the 14th century. In the early 20th century, a form based on the Beijing dialect. Standard Chinese is the language of the Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan. It is also one of the most frequently used varieties of Chinese among Chinese diaspora communities internationally, the English word mandarin originally meant an official of the Ming and Qing empires. Since their native varieties were often mutually unintelligible, these officials communicated using a Koiné language based on various northern varieties, when Jesuit missionaries learned this standard language in the 16th century, they called it Mandarin, from its Chinese name Guānhuà, or language of the officials. In everyday English, Mandarin refers to Standard Chinese, which is called simply Chinese. Standard Chinese is based on the particular Mandarin dialect spoken in Beijing, with some lexical and it is the official spoken language of the Peoples Republic of China, the official language of the Republic of China, and one of the four official languages of the Republic of Singapore. It also functions as the language of instruction in Mainland China and it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, under the name Chinese. Chinese speakers refer to the standard language as Pǔtōnghuà in Mainland China, Guóyǔ in Taiwan, or Huáyǔ in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Linguists use the term Mandarin to refer to the group of dialects spoken in northern and southwestern China. The alternative term Běifānghuà, or Northern dialects, is used less and less among Chinese linguists, by extension, the term Old Mandarin or Early Mandarin is used by linguists to refer to the northern dialects recorded in materials from the Yuan dynasty. Native speakers who are not academic linguists may not recognize that the variants they speak are classified in linguistics as members of Mandarin in a broader sense, the hundreds of modern local varieties of Chinese developed from regional variants of Old Chinese and Middle Chinese. Traditionally, seven groups of dialects have been recognized
6.
Lao language
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Lao, also referred to as Laotian, Thai Noi, is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand. The Lao language serves as an important lingua franca as the country of Laos consists of ethnic groups. Spoken Lao is mutually intelligible with the Thai language, Lao, like many languages in Laos, is written in the Lao script, an abugida. Although there is no standard, the Vientiane dialect has become the de facto standard. Oral history of the migrations is preserved in the legends of Khun Borom, Tai speakers in what is now Laos pushed out or absorbed earlier groups of Mon–Khmer and Austronesian languages. These Tai peoples are classified by the Lao government as Lao Loum or lowland Lao, Lao and Thai are also very similar and share most of their basic vocabulary, but differences in many basic words limit inter-comprehension. The Lao language consists primarily of native Lao words, because of Buddhism, however, Pali has contributed numerous terms, especially relating to religion and in conversation with members of the Sangha. Due to their proximity, Lao has influenced the Khmer and Thai languages. Formal writing has an amount of foreign loanwords, especially Pali and Sanskrit terms, much as Latin. For politeness, pronouns are used, plus ending statements with ແດ່ or ເດີ້, negative statements are made more polite by ending with ດອກ. The following are formal register examples, many consonants in Lao make a phonemic contrast between labialized and plain versions. The complete inventory of Lao consonants is as shown in the table below, hence, final /p/, /t/, and /k/ sounds are pronounced as, and respectively. * The glottal stop appears at the end when no final follows a short vowel, All vowels make a phonemic length distinction. The vowels are as shown in the table, Diphthongs are all centering diphthongs with falling sonority. There are six tones in unchecked syllables, that is. The number of tones is reduced to four in checked syllables. The only consonant clusters allowed are syllable initial clusters /kw/ or /kʰw/, any consonant may appear in the onset, but the labialized consonants do not occur before rounded vowels
7.
Thai language
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Thai, also known as Siamese or Central Thai, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people and the vast majority of Thai Chinese. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family, over half of the words in Thai are borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit and Old Khmer. It is a tonal and analytic language, Thai also has a complex orthography and relational markers. Spoken Thai is mutually intelligible with Laotian, Thai is the official language of Thailand, natively spoken by over 20 million people. Standard Thai is based on the register of the classes of Bangkok. In addition to Central Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages, Isan, the language of the Isan region of Thailand, a collective term for the various Lao dialects spoken in Thailand that show some Siamese Thai influences, which is written with the Thai script. It is spoken by about 20 million people, Thais from both inside and outside the Isan region often simply call this variant Lao when speaking informally. Northern Thai, spoken by about 6 million in the independent kingdom of Lanna. Shares strong similarities with Lao to the point that in the past the Siamese Thais referred to it as Lao. Southern Thai, spoken by about 4.5 million Phu Thai, spoken by half a million around Nakhon Phanom Province. Phuan, spoken by 200,000 in central Thailand and Isan, Shan, spoken by about 100,000 in north-west Thailand along the border with the Shan States of Burma, and by 3.2 million in Burma. Lü, spoken by about 1,000,000 in northern Thailand, and 600,000 more in Sipsong Panna, Burma, nyaw language, spoken by 50,000 in Nakhon Phanom Province, Sakhon Nakhon Province, Udon Thani Province of Northeast Thailand. Song, spoken by about 30,000 in central and northern Thailand, Elegant or Formal Thai, official and written version, includes respectful terms of address, used in simplified form in newspapers. Rhetorical Thai, used for public speaking, religious Thai, used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks. Royal Thai, influenced by Khmer, this is used when addressing members of the family or describing their activities. Most Thais can speak and understand all of these contexts, street and Elegant Thai are the basis of all conversations. Rhetorical, religious, and royal Thai are taught in schools as the national curriculum, many scholars believe that the Thai script is derived from the Khmer script, which is modeled after the Brahmic script from the Indic family. However, in appearance, Thai is closer to Thai Dam script, the language and its script are closely related to the Lao language and script
8.
Vietnamese language
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Vietnamese /ˌviɛtnəˈmiːz/ is an Austroasiatic language that originated in the north of modern-day Vietnam, where it is the national and official language. It is the language of the Vietnamese people, as well as a first or second language for the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. As the result of Vietnamese emigration and cultural influence, Vietnamese speakers are found throughout the world, notably in East and Southeast Asia, North America, Australia, Vietnamese has also been officially recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family of which it has by far the most speakers, Vietnamese vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese, and it formerly used a modified set of Chinese characters called chữ nôm given vernacular pronunciation. The Vietnamese alphabet in use today is a Latin alphabet with diacritics for tones. As the national language, Vietnamese is spoken throughout Vietnam by ethnic Vietnamese, Vietnamese is also the native language of the Gin minority group in southern Guangxi Province in China. A significant number of speakers also reside in neighboring Cambodia. In the United States, Vietnamese is the sixth most spoken language, with over 1.5 million speakers and it is the third most spoken language in Texas, fourth in Arkansas and Louisiana, and fifth in California. Vietnamese is the seventh most spoken language in Australia, in France, it is the most spoken Asian language and the eighth most spoken immigrant language at home. Vietnamese is the official and national language of Vietnam. It is the first language of the majority of the Vietnamese population, in the Czech Republic, Vietnamese has been recognized as one of 14 minority languages, on the basis of communities that have either traditionally or on a long-term basis resided in the country. This status grants Czech citizens from the Vietnamese community the right to use Vietnamese with public authorities, Vietnamese is increasingly being taught in schools and institutions outside of Vietnam. Since the 1980s, Vietnamese language schools have been established for youth in many Vietnamese-speaking communities around the world, furthermore, there has also been a number of Germans studying Vietnamese due to increased economic investment in Vietnam. Vietnamese is taught in schools in the form of immersion to a varying degree in Cambodia, Laos. Classes teach students subjects in Vietnamese and another language, furthermore, in Thailand, Vietnamese is one of the most popular foreign languages in schools and colleges. Vietnamese was identified more than 150 years ago as part of the Mon–Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family. Later, Muong was found to be closely related to Vietnamese than other Mon–Khmer languages. The term Vietic was proposed by Hayes, who proposed to redefine Viet–Muong as referring to a subbranch of Vietic containing only Vietnamese and Muong
9.
Miao folk religion
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Miao folk religion or Hmong folk religion is the common ethnic religion of Miao peoples, primarily consisting in the practice of ua dab. The religion is also called Hmongism by a Hmong American church established in 2012 to organise it among Hmong people in the United States and it has a pantheist theology, centered on worship of deities and progenitors of the Miao peoples. The highest god of Hmong traditional religion is called Saub or Yawm Saub, the Saub god may be called in times of need and he can manifest in points of crisis throughout the course of history. The first shaman was Siv Yis, Hmong shamans refer to themselves as Siv Yis when they are in ecstasy, the shamanic spirits include wild spirits of untamed nature and the tamed and friendly spirits of the house. Ancestral spirits who reside in the world of the dead form another category, the frog god Nplooj Lwg is considered the creator of humans. Ntxwj Nyug and Nyuj Vaj Tuam Teem are the lords of the otherworld, determining life, death, while Ntxwj Nyug is an indigenous deity, Nyuj Vaj Tuam Teem is thought to derive from the Jade Lord of Taoism. Every house has an altar for the Dab Xwm Kab, Dab Pog is the goddess of babies. Zaj Laug is the Old Dragon or Dragon King, poj Ntxoog is a fearful female spirit associated with the tiger. Yaj Yuam is a hero, the Heavenly Archer, corresponding to the Chinese Houyi. Other gods are of nature, such as Xob, the god of thunder and lightning, chiyou is worshipped as an ancestral god of the Hmong nation. The Hmong house is a reflection of the cosmos and it is constructed around a central post representing the world tree, axis of the spirits, which god is Dab Ncej Tas. The roofs represent the heaven and the floor symbolises nature, the axis of the building represents the male head of the household and his ancestral spirit, the ancestral unity. Man is in the between of heaven and earth, the Hmong believe in various household spirits called dab nyeg, meaning tamed spirits, such as Dab Qhovcub, Dab Qhovtxos, Dab Nthab, Dab Roog. The Dab Txhiaj Meej is the god of wealth and richness, spirits of nature are called dab qus, wild spirits. Yeeb and Yaj is the Hmong equivalent of the yin and yang found in Chinese traditional religion, differently from the context of Chinese thought, the Hmong yeeb and yaj is not represented by symbols such as the taijitu. The concept represents the world of the living and the world of the gods, yeeb ceeb is the spiritual world, the Hmong also practice looj mem, the Chinese feng shui. Shaman practice is called ua neeb, while the shaman is called txiv neeb, the position of a shaman is not inherited as shamans are chosen by the neeb class of gods, manifesting through trails experienced by those chosen. Chosen people are guided by elder shamans until they are able to perform the rituals themselves
10.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
11.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
12.
Americans
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Americans are citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, although citizens make up the majority of Americans, non-citizen residents, dual citizens, and expatriates may also claim an American identity. See Names for United States citizens. S, virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands in the 20th century. It also includes influences of African-American culture, westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements, immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics, in addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as seven million Americans are estimated to be living abroad, the United States of America is a diverse country, racially, and ethnically. Some other race is also an option in the census and other surveys, people of European descent, or White Americans, constitute the majority of the 308 million people living in the United States, with 72. 4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. They are considered people who trace their ancestry to the peoples of Europe, the Middle East. Of those reporting to be White American,7,487,133 reported to be Multiracial, with largest combination being white, additionally, there are 29,184,290 White Hispanics or Latinos. Non-Hispanic Whites are the majority in 46 states, there are four minority-majority states, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority, the state with the highest percentage of non-Hispanic White Americans is Maine. The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are that of Europeans who have origins in any of the peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations that have a large European diaspora, the Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States. Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents. 8% of the total population, Hispanic or Latino Americans constitute the largest ethnic minority in the United States. They form the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites in the United States, hispanic/Latino Americans are very racially diverse, and as a result form an ethnic category, rather than a race
13.
Hmong people
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The Hmong/Mong is an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in China, the Hmong began a gradual southward migration in China in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land. This CIA operation is known as the Secret War, which occurred during the Vietnam War, following the war, hundreds of thousands of Hmong refugees fled to Thailand to seek political asylum. Thousands of these refugees have resettled in Western countries in two separate waves, the first wave resettled in the late 1970s, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia, France, French Guiana, Canada, and Argentina. Others have returned to Laos under United Nations-sponsored repatriation programs and those who resisted resettlement in the West actively fought against government officials to be left alone in Thailand. The remnant from the first wave managed to ask for protection from Wat Thamkrabok and this second wave, an approximation of 15,000 Hmong refugees including children at Wat Thamkrabok, resettled mainly in the U. S. since Summer 2004. Hmong people have their own terms for their subcultural divisions, Hmong Der and Hmong Leng are the terms for two of the largest groups in the United States and Southeast Asia. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet, developed in the 1950s in Laos, the final consonants indicate with which of the eight lexical tones the word is pronounced. White Hmong and Leng Hmong speak mutually intelligible dialects of the Hmong language, with differences in pronunciation. One of the most characteristic differences is the use of the voiceless /m̥/ in White Hmong, voiceless nasals are not found in the Leng Hmong dialect. Hmong groups are named after the dominant colors or patterns of their traditional clothing, style of head-dress. The Hmong groups in Laos, from the 18th century to the present day, are known as Black Hmong, Striped Hmong, White Hmong, Leng Hmong and Green Hmong. In other places in Asia, groups are known as Black Hmong, Striped Hmong, Hmong Shi, Hmong Pe, Hmong Pua. These include the Flower Hmong or the Variegated Hmong, so named because of the bright colorful embroidery, many Hmong people migrated from Laos to Thailand following the victory of the Pathet Lao in 1975. While some ended up in camps, others settled in mountainous areas becoming one of the ethnic groups in Thailand referred to as Hill Tribes in that country. Since 1949, Miao has been a term for one of the 55 official minority groups recognized by the government of the Peoples Republic of China. The Miao live mainly in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, according to the 2000 censuses, the number of Miao in China was estimated to be about 9.6 million. The Miao nationality includes Hmong people as well as culturally and linguistically related ethnic groups who do not call themselves Hmong
14.
Miao people
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The Miao is an ethnic group recognized by the government of China as one of the 55 official minority groups. Miao is a Chinese term and does not reflect the self-designations of the component groups of people, which include Hmong, Hmub, Xong, and A-Hmao. Because of the given reasons, many Miao peoples cannot communicate with each other in their mother tongues. The Miao live primarily in southern Chinas mountains, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, some members of the Miao sub-groups, most notably the Hmong people, have migrated out of China into Southeast Asia. Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France. There has been a recent tendency by Hmong Americans to group all Miao peoples together under the term Hmong because of their disdain for the Chinese term Miao, the term Miao gained official status in 1949 as a minzu encompassing a group of linguistically-related ethnic minorities in Southwest China. Historically, the term Miao had been applied inconsistently to a variety of non-Han peoples, early Western writers used Chinese-based names in various transcriptions, Miao, Miao-tse, Miao-tsze, Meau, Meo, mo, miao-tseu etc. In Southeast Asian contexts words derived from the Chinese Miao took on a sense which was perceived as derogatory by the Hmong subgroup living in that region, in China, however, the term has no such context and is used by the Miao people themselves, of every group. The later prominence of Hmong people in the West has led to a situation where the entire Miao linguistic/cultural family is referred to as Hmong in English language sources. Following the recent increased interaction of Hmong in the West with Miao in China it is reported that some upwardly aspiring non-Hmong Miao have even begun to identify themselves as Hmong. However, most non-Hmong Miao in China are unfamiliar with the term as referring to their group and continue to use Miao. Though the Miao themselves use various self-designations, the Chinese traditionally classify them according to the most characteristic colour of the womens clothes.6 million. Outside of China, members of the Miao linguistic/cultural family sub-group or nations of the Hmong live in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Burma due to outward migrations starting in the 18th century. As a result of recent migrations in the aftermath of the Indochina and Vietnam Wars from 1949–75, many Hmong people now live in the United States, French Guiana, France, altogether, there are approximately 8 million speakers in the Miao language family. This language family, which consists of 6 languages and around 35 dialects belongs to the Hmong/Miao branch of the Hmong–Mien language family, there are about 1. 5–2 million Hmong in China. Note, The Miao areas of Sichuan province became part of the newly created Chongqing Municipality in 1997, most Miao currently live in China. Miao population growth in China,1953,2,510,0001964,2,780,0001982,5,030,0001990,7,390,0003,600,000 Miao, about half of the entire Chinese Miao population, were in Guizhou in 1990. There are 2,000,000 Hmong spread throughout northern Vietnam, Laos, Burma,174,000 live in Thailand, where they are one of the six main hill tribes
15.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
16.
Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
17.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
18.
Laos
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Present day Laos traces its historic and cultural identity to the kingdom of Lan Xang Hom Khao, which existed for four centuries as one of the largest kingdoms in Southeast Asia. Due to Lan Xangs central geographical location in Southeast Asia, the kingdom was able to become a hub for overland trade. After a period of conflict, Lan Xang broke off into three separate kingdoms— Luang Phabang, Vientiane and Champasak. In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three territories uniting to form what is now known as the country of Laos and it briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but returned to French rule until it was granted autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a monarchy under Sisavang Vong. Shortly after independence, a civil war ended the monarchy. Laos is a one-party socialist republic and it espouses Marxism and is governed by the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party, in which the party leadership is dominated by military figures. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Vietnam Peoples Army continue to have significant influence in Laos, other large cities include Luang Prabang, Savannakhet, and Pakse. Laos is a country with the politically and culturally dominant Lao people making up approximately 60 percent of the population. Mon-Khmer groups, the Hmong, and other hill tribes, accounting for 40 percent of the population, live in the foothills. It is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, East Asia Summit, Laos applied for membership of the World Trade Organization in 1997, on 2 February 2013, it was granted full membership. According to the anti-corruption non-governmental organisation Transparency International, Laos remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world and this has deterred foreign investment and created major problems with the rule of law, including the nations ability to enforce contract and business regulation. This has contributed to a third of the population of Laos currently living below the poverty line. Laos has an economy, with one of the lowest annual incomes in the world. In 2014, the country ranked 141st on the Human Development Index, according to the Global Hunger Index, Laos ranks as the 29th hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 52 nations with the worst hunger situation. Laos has also had a human rights record. In the Lao language, the name is Muang Lao or Pathet Lao. Stone artefacts including Hoabinhian types have been found at sites dating to the Late Pleistocene in northern Laos, archaeological evidence suggests agriculturist society developed during the 4th millennium BC
19.
Asian Americans
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Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The term refers to a group that includes diverse populations who have ancestral origins in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia. This includes people who indicate their race on the census as Asian or reported entries such as Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Other Asian. Asian Americans with no other ancestry comprise 4. 8% of the U. S. population, although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-18th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s-1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States, after immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s-60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial or ethnic minority in the United States, starting in the first few years of the 2000 decade, Asian American earnings began exceeding all other racial groups for both men and women. For example, in 2008 Asian Americans had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic, in 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level and median household income of any racial demographic in the country. In 2015, Asian American men were the highest earning racial group as they earned 117% as much as white American men, once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, Asian Americans are no more likely than non-Hispanic whites to live in poverty. As with other racial and ethnicity based terms, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the history of this term. Prior to the late 1960s, people of Asian ancestry were referred to as Oriental, Asiatic. Today, Asian American is the term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research. The most commonly used definition of Asian American is the US Census Bureau definition, which all people with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia. This is chiefly because the census definitions determine many government classifications, notably for equal opportunity programs, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Asian person in the United States is sometimes thought of as a person of East Asian descent. In vernacular usage, Asian is often used to refer to those of East Asian descent or anyone else of Asian descent with epicanthic eyefolds. This differs from the U. S. Census definition and the Asian American Studies departments in many universities consider all those of East, before 1980, Census forms listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups, along with white and black or negro. Asian Americans had also been classified as other, in 1977, the federal Office of Management and Budget issued a directive requiring government agencies to maintain statistics on racial groups, including on Asian or Pacific Islander. The 1980 census marked the first classification of Asians as a large group, by the 1990 census, Asian or Pacific Islander was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry as a subcategory. The 2000 census onwards separated the category into two separate ones, Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, the definition of Asian American has variations that derive from the use of the word American in different contexts
20.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
21.
North Vietnamese invasion of Laos
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North Vietnam supported the Pathet Lao to fight against the Kingdom of Laos between 1958–1959. Control over Laos allowed for the construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that would serve as the main supply route for enhanced NLF. It also helped the Pathet Lao win the Kingdom of Laos, phoui, less scrupulous about preserving Laoss neutrality than his predecessor, angered Moscow and Hanoi by admitting diplomats from Taipei and Saigon. The Soviet Union and North Vietnam, already upset by the departure of the ICC, the Laos government immediately protested the flying of the North Vietnamese flag on Laotian territory. Hanoi claimed the villages had historically been part of Vietnam, phoui received extraordinary powers from the National Assembly to deal with the crisis. But the failure to regain their lost territory rankled the Laotian nationalists, one of Washingtons major preoccupations was the danger that the Royal Lao Army would integrate the Pathet Lao troops without the safeguard of screening and reindoctrinating them. The embassy was instructed to tell the government that it would be difficult to obtain approval of aid to Laos with communists in the Royal Lao Army. Before the final integration of 1,500 Pathet Lao troops into the Royal Lao Army could take place as planned in May 1959, the Pathet Lao used a quibble about officer ranks to delay the final ceremony. As monsoon rains swept over the Plain of Jars one night, the event signaled a resumption of hostilities. Fighting broke out all along the border with North Vietnam, North Vietnamese Army regular units participated in attacks on July 28–31,1959. The tactic had the advantage of concealing the North Vietnamese presence from view, rumors of North Vietnamese in the vicinity often had a terrifying effect. Among the men who heard rumors in the mountains of Houaphan Province that summer was a young Royal Lao Army captain named Kong Le. Kong Le had two companies of the Second Paratroop Battalion out on patrol almost on the North Vietnamese border, when they returned to Xam Nua without encountering the enemy, they found that the garrison had decamped, leaving the town undefended. Direct North Vietnamese involvement in Laos began taking another form wherein aggression was difficult to prove, two months after the 1954 Geneva Conference on Indochina, the North Vietnamese established a small support group known as Group 100, on the Thanh Hoa-Houaphan border at Ban Namèo. This unit provided logistical and other support to Pathet Lao forces, in view of the reversion to a fighting strategy, the North Vietnamese and Lao parties decided to establish an upgraded unit. The new unit, known as Group 959, headquartered at Na Kai, just inside the Houaphan border and its establishment coincided with a major effort to expand the hitherto small Pathet Lao forces. These actions were in violation of the obligation Ho Chi Minhs government had assumed as a participant in the 1954 Geneva Conference to refrain from any interference in the affairs of Laos. The Vietnamese partys strategy was by now decided with regard to South Vietnam, at the same time, the party outlined a role for the LPP that was supportive of North Vietnam, in addition to the LPPs role as leader of the revolution in Laos
22.
Laotian Civil War
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The Laotian Civil War was fought between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is called the Secret War among the CIA Special Activities Division, the Kingdom of Laos was a covert theatre for other belligerents during the Vietnam War. The Franco–Lao Treaty of Amity and Association transferred remaining French powers to the Royal Lao Government, However, this government did not include representatives from the Lao Issara anti-colonial armed nationalist movement. Several attempts were made to establish coalition governments, and a government was finally seated in Vientiane. The actual fighting in Laos involved the North Vietnamese Army, U. S. Thai, the North Vietnamese Army occupied the area to use for its Ho Chi Minh Trail supply corridor and as staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There was a major theater of action on and near the northern Plain of Jars. The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao eventually emerged victorious in 1975, the Geneva Conference established Laotian neutrality. The Peoples Army of Vietnam, however, continued to operate in northern and southeastern Laos. North Vietnam established the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a highway in the southeast of Laos. The Trail was designed to allow North Vietnamese troops and supplies to infiltrate the Republic of Vietnam, North Vietnam also had a sizable military effort in northern Laos, while sponsoring and maintaining an indigenous communist rebellion, the Pathet Lao, to put pressure on the Royal Lao Government. The U. S. S. interests in the war in Vietnam, the status of the war in the north throughout the year generally depended on the weather. When the rainy season six months later rendered North Vietnamese supply lines inoperable, other air strikes were planned ahead. Overall coordination of the air campaign was directed by an Airborne Command and Control Center, the denials were seen as necessary considering that the North Vietnamese government and the U. S. had both signed agreements specifying the neutrality of Laos. U. S. involvement was considered necessary because the DRV had effectively conquered a large part of the country and was equally obfuscating its role in Laos, despite these denials, however, the Civil War was actually the largest U. S. The end of World War II left Laos in political chaos, the French, who had been displaced from their protectorate by the Japanese, wanted to resume control of Laos, and sponsored guerrilla forces to regain control. The Japanese had proclaimed Laos independent even as they lost the war, though King Sisavang Vong thought Laos was too small for independence he had proclaimed the end of the French protectorate status though he favored the French return. He let it be known he would accept independence if it should occur, thus there was a nascent movement for independence amid the turmoil. Underlying all this was an undercurrent of Vietnamese involvement
23.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
24.
People's Army of Vietnam
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The Peoples Army of Vietnam, also known as the Vietnamese Peoples Army, is the military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The PAVN is a part of Vietnam Peoples Armed Forces and includes, Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Border Defence Force, however, Vietnam does not have a specific separate Ground Force or Army branch. The military flag of the PAVN is the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, during the French Indochina War, the PAVN was often referred to as the Việt Minh. In the context of the Vietnam War, the army was referred to as the North Vietnamese Army and this allowed writers, the US military, and the general public, to distinguish northern communists from the southern communists, or Viet Cong. However, both groups ultimately worked under the command structure. According to Hanois official history, the Viet Cong was a branch of the VPA, in 2010 the PAVN undertook the role of leading the 1, 000th Anniversary Parade in Hanoi by performing their biggest parade in history. Under the guidelines of Hồ Chí Minh, Võ Nguyên Giáp was given the task of establishing the brigades, the first formation was made up of thirty one men and three women, armed with two revolvers, seventeen rifles, one light machine gun, and fourteen breech-loading flintlocks. The group was renamed the Vietnam Liberation Army in May 1945, in September, the army was again renamed the Vietnam National Defence Army. At this point, it had about 1,000 soldiers, in 1950, it officially became the Peoples Army of Vietnam. On 7 January 1947, its first regiment, the 102nd Capital Regiment, was created for operations around Hanoi. Over the next two years, the first division, the 308th Division, later known as the Pioneer Division formed by the 88th Tu Vu Regiment. By late 1950 the 308th Division had a full three infantry regiments, when it was supplemented by the 36th Regiment, at that time, the 308th Division was also backed by the 11th Battalion that later became the main force of the 312th Division. The first six divisions became known as the original PAVN Steel, in 1954 four of these divisions defeated the French Union forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, ending 83 years of French rule in Indochina. At about the time, Group 579 was created as its maritime counterpart to transport supplies into the South by sea. Most of the infiltrators were members of the 338th Division. Those PAVN formations were seen as extremely brave forces by the US forces and we had to change our plan and make it different from when we fought the Saigon regime, because we now had to fight two adversaries — the United States and South Vietnam. We understood that the U. S. Army was superior to our own logistically, in weapons, so strategically we did not hope to defeat the U. S. Army completely. Our intentions were to fight a time and cause heavy casualties to the United States, so the United States would see that the war was unwinnable
25.
Kingdom of Laos
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The Kingdom of Laos was a constitutional monarchy that ruled Laos beginning with its independence on 9 November 1953. The Kingdom of Laos was officially proclaimed when the new Constitution was promulgated in 1947, as part of the colonial French Union, following the Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953, which gave Laos independence, the Royal Lao Government took control of the country. This treaty established a monarchy, with Sisavang Vong as King. Many attempts were made by the Three Princes and King Sisavang Vatthana to establish a coalition government, the First Government of National Unity was established in 1958 under Prince Souvanna Phouma, but collapsed after two months. The Prime Minister, who under the constitution appointed his ministers and received advice from the King, Souvanna Phouma gave the Communists two seats in the Cabinet, and in return Souphanouvong would integrate 1,500 of his 6,000 Communist troops into the royal army. Prince Souphanouvong was given the post of Minister of Planning, Reconstruction and Urbanization, while member of the Communist Party was named Minister of Religion. The Kingdom of Laos was divided into five military regions, the United States supplied the Royal Lao Navy with twenty river patrol boats and sixteen amphibious landing craft. Between 1962 and 1971, the United States provided Laos with an estimated US$500 million in military assistance. The Royal Lao Government had close relations with the United States, which gave the country aid and assisted it in the campaign against the Pathet Lao, during 1957, the United States spent more per capita on foreign aid for Laos than it had on any other nation. That worked out as US$150 per Laotian, twice the average annual income. Some of the went to support pro-American candidates in an election, while other money went to a program to support the local currency. King Savang Vatthana visited the United States in 1963 to meet with President Kennedy, Laos was also supported by France, Australia, Burma, Thailand and Japan. The Pathet Lao were backed militarily by the NVA and Vietcong, Laos was also dragged into the Vietnam War since parts of Laos were invaded and occupied by North Vietnam for use as a supply route for its war against the South. It also provided supplies, training and funding to the central government, in 1968, the North Vietnamese Army launched a multi-division attack to help the Pathet Lao fight the Royal Lao Army. The attack resulted in the army largely demobilizing, leaving the conflict to irregular forces raised by the United States, massive aerial bombardment against Pathet Lao and NVA forces was carried out by the United States. It has been reported that Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bombload every eight minutes,24 hours a day, US bombers dropped more ordnance on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the Second World War. Of the 260 million bombs that rained down, particularly on Xiangkhouang Province on the Plain of Jars, some 80 million failed to explode, Laos is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world. In 1975, the Pathet Lao, along with Vietnam Peoples Army and backed by the Soviet Union, overthrew the royalist Lao government, a ceasefire was finally attained in February 1973, following the Paris Peace Accords between the United States and North Vietnam
26.
Mekong
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The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the worlds 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia and its estimated length is 4,350 km, and it drains an area of 795,000 km2, discharging 475 km3 of water annually. From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through Chinas Yunnan Province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, in 1995, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam established the Mekong River Commission to assist in the management and coordinated use of the Mekongs resources. In 1996 China and Myanmar became dialogue partners of the MRC, the extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a trade route between western China and Southeast Asia. The English name Mekong derives from a form of Thai. In Thai and Lao, mae nam is used for any major river, as such, Thai and Lao locals often refer to it in English as the River Khong. In Khmer, Mékôngk is itself glossed as mother of water, from mé and taking kôngk as a form of kôngkea. The local names for the river include, Burmese, မဲခေါင်မြစ်, IPA, Chinese, 加果空桑贡玛曲, 扎那曲 and 扎曲 Zā Qū, upper reaches, 澜沧江, 瀾滄江 Láncāng Jiāng, middle and lower reaches, Khmer, មេគង្គ Mékôngk, ទន្លេមេគង្គ Tônlé Mékôngk, ទន្លេធំ Tônlé Thum. Tai of Sipsong Panna, น้ำแม่ของ, น้ำของ, the Mekong Basin has one of the worlds largest and most productive inland fisheries. An estimated two million tonnes of fish are landed a year, in addition to almost 500,000 tonnes of aquatic animals. Aquaculture yields about two tonnes of fish a year. Hence, the lower Mekong basin yields about 4.5 million tonnes of fish, the total economic value of the fishery is between US$3.9 and US$7 billion a year. Wild capture fisheries alone have been valued at US$2 billion a year and this value increases considerably when the multiplier effect is included, but estimates vary widely. An estimated 2.56 million tonnes of fish and other aquatic animals are consumed in the lower Mekong every year. Aquatic resources make up between 47 and 80 percent of protein in rural diets for people who live in the Lower Mekong Basin. Fish are the cheapest source of protein in the region and any decline in the fishery is likely to significantly impact nutrition. Fisheries contribute significantly to a diversified livelihood strategy for many people, particularly the poor and they provide a principal form of income for numerous people and act as a safety net and coping strategy in times of poor agricultural harvests or other difficulties
27.
Persecution
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Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution and political persecution, the inflicting of suffering, harassment, imprisonment, internment, fear, or pain are all factors that may establish persecution, but not all suffering will necessarily establish persecution. The suffering experienced by the victim must be sufficiently severe, the threshold level of severity has been a source of much debate. As part of the Nuremberg Principles, crimes against humanity are part of international law, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is binding on 111 states, defines crimes against humanity in Article 7.1. The article criminalises certain acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population and these include, Religious persecution is systematic mistreatment of an individual or group due to their religious affiliation. Not only theorists of secularization would willingly assume that religious persecution is a thing of the past, however, with the rise of fundamentalism and religiously related terrorism, this assumption has become even more controversial. Indeed, in countries of the world today, religious persecution is a Human Rights problem. Atheists have experienced persecution throughout history, Persecution may refer to unwarranted arrest, imprisonment, beating, torture, or execution. It also may refer to the confiscation or destruction of property, the persecution of Baháís refers to the religious persecution of Baháís in various countries, especially in Iran, which has one of the largest Baháí populations in the world. The Baháí Faith originated in Iran, and represents the largest religious minority in that country, the persecution of Christians is religious persecution that Christians may undergo as a consequence of professing their faith, both historically and in the current era. Early in the century, the religion was legalized by the Edict of Milan. Christian missionaries, as well as the people that they converted to Christianity, have been the target of persecution, in the 20th century, Christians have been persecuted by various groups, and by atheistic states such as the USSR and North Korea. During the Second World War members of many Christian churches were persecuted in Germany for resisting the Nazi ideology, in more recent times the Christian missionary organization Open Doors estimates 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in Muslim-dominated countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. According to the International Society for Human Rights, up to 80% of acts of persecution are directed at people of the Christian faith, with the Missouri extermination order Mormons became the only religious group to have a state of the United States legalize the extermination of their religion. This was after a given by Sideny Rigdon called the July 4th Oration which while meant to state that Mormons would defend their lives. Their forcible expulsion from the state caused the death of over a hundred due to exposure, starvation, a government militia slaughtered Mormons in what is now known as the Hauns Mill massacre. Falun Gong was introduced to the public by Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China. For the next few years, Falun Gong was the fastest growing qigong practice in Chinese history and, by 1999, in late 1999, legislation was created to outlaw heterodox religions and retroactively applied to Falun Gong
28.
Human rights
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Human rights are moral principles or norms, which describe certain standards of human behaviour, and are regularly protected as legal rights in municipal and international law. They are applicable everywhere and at time in the sense of being universal. They require empathy and the rule of law and impose an obligation on persons to respect the rights of others. They should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on circumstances, for example, human rights may include freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture. The doctrine of human rights has been influential within international law. Actions by states and non-governmental organizations form a basis of public policy worldwide, the idea of human rights suggests that if the public discourse of peacetime global society can be said to have a common moral language, it is that of human rights. The strong claims made by the doctrine of human rights continue to provoke considerable skepticism and debates about the content, nature, ancient peoples did not have the same modern-day conception of universal human rights. Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the family is the foundation of freedom. All human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights. According to Jack Donnelly, in the ancient world, traditional societies typically have had elaborate systems of duties, conceptions of justice, political legitimacy, and human flourishing that sought to realize human dignity, flourishing, or well-being entirely independent of human rights. These institutions and practices are alternative to, rather than different formulations of, one theory is that human rights were developed during the early Modern period, alongside the European secularization of Judeo-Christian ethics. The most commonly held view is that the concept of human rights evolved in the West, for example, McIntyre argues there is no word for right in any language before 1400. One of the oldest records of rights is the statute of Kalisz, giving privileges to the Jewish minority in the Kingdom of Poland such as protection from discrimination. Samuel Moyn suggests that the concept of rights is intertwined with the modern sense of citizenship. The earliest conceptualization of human rights is credited to ideas about natural rights emanating from natural law, in particular, the issue of universal rights was introduced by the examination of extending rights to indigenous peoples by Spanish clerics, such as Francisco de Vitoria and Bartolomé de Las Casas. In Britain in 1689, the English Bill of Rights and the Scottish Claim of Right each made illegal a range of oppressive governmental actions, additionally, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 encoded into law a number of fundamental civil rights and civil freedoms. These were followed by developments in philosophy of human rights by philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, hegel during the 18th and 19th centuries. Although the term had been used by at least one author as early as 1742, in the 19th century, human rights became a central concern over the issue of slavery
29.
Ethnic cleansing
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Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous. The forces applied may be forms of forced migration, intimidation, as well as mass murder. An antecedent to the term is the Greek word andrapodismos, which was used in ancient texts to describe atrocities that accompanied Alexander the Greats conquest of Thebes in 335 BC. In the early 1900s, regional variants of the term could be found among the Czechs, the Poles, the French, a 1913 Carnegie Endowment report condemning the actions of all participants in the Balkan Wars contained various new terms to describe brutalities committed toward ethnic groups. During World War II, the euphemism čišćenje terena was used by the Croatian Ustaše to describe military actions in which non-Croats were purposely killed or otherwise uprooted from their homes. Viktor Gutić, a senior Ustaše leader, was one of the first Croatian nationalists on record to use the term as a euphemism for committing atrocities against Serbs. This process was repeated on a larger scale in 1939–41. During The Holocaust, Nazi Germany pursued a policy of ensuring that Europe was cleansed of Jews, according to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the term cleansing was used in Israeli military documents dating to the 1948 Israeli–Arab war, referring to the expulsion of Arabs from Israel. In the 1980s, the Soviets used the term ethnic cleansing to describe the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh. At around the time, the Yugoslav media used it to describe what they alleged was an Albanian nationalist plot to force all Serbs to leave Kosovo. It was widely popularized by the Western media during the Bosnian War, the first recorded mention of its use in the Western media can be traced back to an article in The New York Times dated 15 April 1992, in a quote by an anonymous Western diplomat. Those practices constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes, furthermore, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention. As a category, ethnic cleansing encompasses a continuum or spectrum of policies, in the words of Andrew Bell-Fialkoff, thnic cleansing defies easy definition. At one end it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population exchange while at the other it merges with deportation, at the most general level, however, ethnic cleansing can be understood as the expulsion of a population from a given territory. The term ethnic cleansing has frequently employed to refer to the events in Bosnia. General Assembly resolution 47/121 referred in its Preamble to the abhorrent policy of ethnic cleansing and it can only be a form of genocide within the meaning of the Convention, if it corresponds to or falls within one of the categories of acts prohibited by Article II of the Convention. The expulsion of a group or part of a group does not in itself suffice for genocide, there is no international treaty that specifies a specific crime of ethnic cleansing. There are however situations, such as the expulsion of Germans after World War II, timothy V. Waters argues that if similar circumstances arise in the future, this precedent would allow the ethnic cleansing of other populations under international law
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Freedom of religion
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It also includes the freedom to change ones religion or belief. Freedom of religion is considered by people and most of the nations to be a fundamental human right. Historically, freedom of religion has been used to refer to the tolerance of different theological systems of belief, each of these have existed to varying degrees. Compare examples of individual freedom in Italy or the Muslim tradition of dhimmis, in Antiquity, a syncretic point of view often allowed communities of traders to operate under their own customs. When street mobs of separate quarters clashed in a Hellenistic or Roman city, Cyrus the Great established the Achaemenid Empire ca.550 BC, and initiated a general policy of permitting religious freedom throughout the empire, documenting this on the Cyrus Cylinder. Some of the exceptions have been in regions where one of the revealed religions has been in a position of power, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity. This was the core for resentment and the persecution of early Christian communities, Freedom of religious worship was established in the Buddhist Maurya Empire of ancient India by Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BC, which was encapsulated in the Edicts of Ashoka. Greek-Jewish clashes at Cyrene in 73 AD and 117 AD and in Alexandria in 115 AD provide examples of cities as scenes of tumult. Dhimmis were allowed to operate their own courts following their own systems in cases that did not involve other religious groups. ISIS re-established the punitive jizya tax and forbade Christians in Syria from building places of worship, ringing bells, wearing crosses or criticizing Islam, ancient Jews fleeing from persecution in their homeland 2,500 years ago settled in India and never faced anti-Semitism. Freedom of religion edicts have been written during Ashoka the Greats reign in the 3rd century BC. Freedom to practise, preach and propagate any religion is a right in Modern India. Most major religious festivals of the communities are included in the list of national holidays. Although India is an 80% Hindu country, India is a state without any state religions. Many scholars and intellectuals believe that Indias predominant religion, Hinduism, has long been a most tolerant religion, rajni Kothari, founder of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies has written, is a country built on the foundations of a civilisation that is fundamentally non-religious. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader in exile, said that religious tolerance of Aryabhoomi, not only Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism which are the native religions but also Christianity and Islam have flourished here. Religious tolerance is inherent in Indian tradition, the Dalai Lama said, Freedom of religion in the Indian subcontinent is exemplified by the reign of King Piyadasi. One of King Ashokas main concerns was to reform governmental institutes and exercise moral principles in his attempt to create a just and humane society
31.
Marxism
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It originates from the mid-to-late 19th century works of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As the contradiction becomes apparent to the proletariat through the alienation of labor, Marxism has since developed into different branches and schools of thought, and there is now no single definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has been adopted by a number of academics and theorists working in various disciplines. Critics have taken issue with particular Marxist claims or accused Marxism as a whole of being inconsistent, refuted based on new information. The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of the material conditions, the economic system and these social relations form a base and superstructure. As forces of production, most notably technology, improve, existing forms of social organization become inefficient, from forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution and these inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form of class struggle. Under the capitalist mode of production, this struggle materializes between the minority who own the means of production, and the vast majority of the population who produce goods, the socialist system would succeed capitalism as humanitys mode of production through workers revolution. According to Marxism, especially arising from crisis theory, socialism is a historical necessity, in a socialist society private property, in the form of the means of production, would be replaced by co-operative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits, Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand. The historical materialist theory of history analyses the causes of societal development. All constituent features of a society are assumed to stem from economic activity, the base and superstructure metaphor portrays the totality of social relations by which humans produce and re-produce their social existence. According to Marx, The sum total of the forces of production accessible to men determines the condition of society and this relationship is reflexive, at first the base gives rise to the superstructure and remains the foundation of a form of social organization. As Friedrich Engels clarified, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, accordingly, Marx designated human history as encompassing four stages of development in relations of production. Primitive Communism, as in tribal societies. Slave Society, a development of tribal to city-state, aristocracy is born, feudalism, aristocrats are the ruling class, merchants evolve into capitalists. Capitalism, capitalists are the class, who create and employ the proletariat. According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, the content of Marxism was Marxs economic doctrine
32.
Communism
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Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence movements
33.
Lao People's Armed Forces
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The Lao Peoples Armed Forces is the name of the armed forces of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, who are charged with protecting the country. The army of 130,000 is equipped with 30 main battle tanks, the army marine section, equipped with 16 patrol craft, has 600 personnel. The air force, with 3,500 personnel, is equipped with missiles and 24 combat aircraft. Militia self-defence forces number approximately 100,000 organised for local defence, the small arms utilised mostly by the Laotian Army are the Soviet AKM Assault rifle, PKM Machine gun, Makarov PM pistol, and the RPD light machine gun. Until 1975, the Royal Lao Army were the forces of the Kingdom of Laos. Serving one of the worlds least developed communist countries, the Lao Peoples Armed Forces is small, poorly funded and its mission focus is border and internal security, primarily in internal suppression of Laotian dissident and opposition groups. The LPA also has upgraded skills to respond to avian influenza outbreaks. At present, there is no perceived external threat to the state. 81mm 82mm M1938 mortar 120mm, M-43 M24, amnesty International is calling for an immediate end to armed attacks on these people. Amnesty International The Centre for Public Policy Analysis The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Washington, Laos Memorial, Memorial to Lao and Hmong Veterans who fought against Lao Peoples Army and Pathet Lao during Vietnam, Arlington National Cemetery, USA, Lao Veterans of America, Inc. Lao and Hmong Veterans who fought against Lao Peoples Army, Pathet Lao, Lao Peoples Liberation Army Air Force Military ranks of the Lao Peoples Armed Forces http, //www. asianmilitaryreview. com/upload/201102172337151. pdf
34.
Refugee
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A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the state or the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations have a second Office for refugees, which is the UNRWA. This however is solely responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees and it refers to shelter or protection from danger or distress, from Latin fugere, to flee, and refugium, a taking refuge, place to flee back to. In Western history, the term was first applied to French Huguenots, after the Edict of Fontainebleau, who again migrated from France after the Edict of Nantes revocation. The word meant one seeking asylum, until around 1914, when it evolved to mean one fleeing home and this legal concept of a refugee was expanded by the Conventions 1967 Protocol. European Unions minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art, in UN parlance, the concept of refugee also includes descendants of refugees but only in the case of two specific groups, viz. Palestinian refugees and Sahrawi refugees. The UN does not consider refugee status to be hereditary for any other group, the UNHCR also protects people in refugee-like situations. It gives credence to the notion that personal individualized ‘fear of being persecuted’ is the reason for needing support. War, upheaval, famine and pestilence do not in the conventional definition make for refugee status. It does not matter that civilian deaths as a proportion of deaths in war escalated to 10% in World War I and it only matters that persons fear the persecution of their state. Furthermore, not all reasons for seeking asylum in another country satisfy the definition of refugee according to article 1A of the 1951 Refugee Convention, fleeing droughts and hunger, fleeing economic hardship, natural disasters and not even war or terror satisfied the definition of 1951. The idea that a person who sought sanctuary in a place could not be harmed without inviting divine retribution was familiar to the ancient Greeks. However, the right to asylum in a church or other holy place was first codified in law by King Æthelberht of Kent in about AD600. Similar laws were implemented throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the related concept of political exile also has a long history, Ovid was sent to Tomis, Voltaire was sent to England. By the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, nations recognized each others sovereignty, the term refugee is sometimes applied to people who might fit the definition outlined by the 1951 Convention, were it to be applied retroactively. The repeated waves of pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the 19th, beginning in the 19th century, Muslim people emigrated to Turkey from Europe. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 caused 800,000 people to leave their homes, various groups of people were officially designated refugees beginning in World War I
35.
Fresno County, California
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Fresno County, officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the northern portion of the U. S. state, California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 930,450, the county seat is Fresno, the fifth-largest city in California. Fresno County comprises the Fresno, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of the Fresno-Madera and it is located in the Central Valley, south of Stockton and north of Bakersfield. The area now known as Fresno County is the homeland of Yokuts and Mono peoples. In 1846, this became part of the United States as a result of the Mexican War. Fresno County was formed in 1856 from parts of Mariposa, Merced, Fresno is Spanish for ash tree and it was in recognition of the abundance of the shrubby local Ash, Fraxinus dipetala, growing along the San Joaquin River that it received its name. Parts of Fresno Countys territory were given to Mono County in 1861, the settling of Fresno County was not without its conflicts, land disputes, and other natural disasters. Floods caused immeasurable damage elsewhere and fires also plagued the settlers of Fresno County, in 1882, the greatest of the early day fires wiped out an entire block of the city of Fresno, and was followed by another devastating blaze in 1883. At the same time residents brought irrigation, electricity, and extensive agriculture to the area, moses Church developed the first canals, called Church Ditches, for irrigation. These canals allowed extensive cultivation of wheat, francis Eisen, leader of the wine industry in Fresno County, also began the raisin industry in 1875, when he accidentally let some of his grapes dry on the vine. Easterby and Clovis Cole developed extensive grain and cattle ranches and these and other citizens laid the groundwork for the cultivation of Fresno County – now one of the nations leading agricultural regions. In more recent times became a major crop in Fresno and the southern San Joaquin Valley. The Coalinga field continues to produce oil, and is currently the eighth-largest field in the state. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 6,011 square miles. Major watercourses are the San Joaquin, Kings River, Delta-Mendota Canal, Big Creek, Friant Kern Canal, Helm Canal and it is bordered on the west by the Coast Range and on the east by the Sierra Nevada. It is the center of an agricultural area, known as the most agriculturally rich county in the United States. The county withdrew 3.7 billion US gallons of water per day in 2000. Fresno County is part of the Madera AVA wine region, Fresno was actually named after two particular ash trees that grew near the town of Minkler on the Kings River, one of which is still alive and standing
36.
General of the Army (United States)
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General of the Army is a five-star general officer and the second highest possible rank in the United States Army. A General of the Army ranks immediately above a general and is equivalent to a fleet admiral, there is no established equivalent five-star rank in the other federal uniformed services. Often called a general, the rank of General of the Army has historically been reserved for wartime use and is not currently active in the U. S. military. The General of the Army insignia consisted of five 3/8th inch stars in a pentagonal pattern, the insignia is paired with the gold and enameled United States Coat of Arms on service coat shoulder loops. The silver colored five-star metal insignia alone would be worn for use as an insignia of grade. Soft shoulder epaulettes with five 7/16th inch stars in silver thread and gold-threaded United States Coat of Arms on green cloth were worn with shirts and sweaters. A special rank of General of the Armies, which ranks above General of the Army, exists but has been conferred only twice, to John J. Pershing and posthumously to George Washington. On July 25,1866, the U. S. Congress established the rank of General of the Army of the United States for General Ulysses S. Grant. His pay was four hundred dollars per month, and his allowance for fuel and quarters except when his headquarters are in Washington, when appointed General of the Army, Grant wore the rank insignia of four stars and coat buttons arranged in three groups of four. Unlike the World War II rank with a title, the 1866 rank of General of the Army was a four-star rank. This rank held all the authority and power of a 1799 proposal for a rank of General of the Armies even though Grant was never called by this title. In contrast to the modern rank of general, only one officer at a time could hold the 1866–1888 rank of General of the Army. After Grant became the U. S. president, he was succeeded as General of the Army by William T. Sherman, in 1872, Sherman ordered the insignia changed to two stars with the coat of arms of the United States in between. By an Act of June 1,1888, the grade was conferred upon Philip Sheridan, the rank of General of the Army ceased to exist with Sheridans death on August 5,1888. As the logistics and military leadership requirements of World War II escalated after the June 1944 Normandy Landings, the five-star rank and authority of General of the Army and equivalent naval fleet admiral was created by an Act of Congress on a temporary basis when Pub. L. 78–482 was passed on 14 December 1944, as a temporary rank, the temporary rank was then declared permanent 23 March 1946 by Pub. L. 79–333, which also awarded full pay and allowances in the grade to those on the retired list and it was created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their British counterparts holding the ranks of field marshal and admiral of the fleet. This second General of the Army rank is not the same as the post-Civil War era version because of its purpose, the insignia for General of the Army, created in 1944, consists of five stars in a pentagonal pattern, with points touching
37.
Vang Pao
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Vang Pao was a Major General in the Royal Lao Army. He was a leader in the Hmong American community in the United States, Vang began his early life as a farmer until Japanese forces invaded and occupied French Indochina in World War II. His father sent him away to school from the age of 10 to 15 before he launched his military career, while taking an entrance examination, the captain who was the proctor realized that Vang knew almost no written French. The captain dictated the answers to Vang so he could join the army, Vang insisted the captain gave him the answers but did not actually guide his hand on the paper. Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, after World War II, French Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés authorities recruited Vang as a lieutenant during the First Indochina War to combat the Viet Minh. He was the only ethnic Hmong to attain the rank of General officer in the Royal Lao Army, Vangs ethnic Hmong and Laotian veterans and their refugee families who served in the U. S. The Lao and Hmong refugees were allowed to resettle in the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Many of Vangs former veterans formed the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. Vang emigrated to the United States after the communists seized power in Laos in 1975. He and his wife, May Song Vang, whom he married in 1973 and he remained widely respected by his fellow Hmong and was an esteemed elder of the American Hmong people, many of whom experienced the war or the reprisals that followed. He was one of the eight founders of the organization in 1981, along with Prince Sisouk na Champassak, General Phoumi Nosavan and General Kouprasith Abhay. Throughout Vangs residence in the U. S. the Hmong leader diplomatically opposed human rights violations by the communist government of Laos against the Hmong and he was invited to speak at the U. S. Congressional Forum on Laos, with Members of Congress, about the persecution of the Laotian, from 1993-2003, Vang relied on Philip Smith for much of his efforts with policymakers in Washington, D. C. and the U. S. Congress. Smith was a friend of Vang Pao and many Laotian. Vang, in cooperation with one of his highly controversial sons, Cha Vang, reversed his long-standing position. This included the Lao Veterans of America, The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, by 2004-05, independent journalists investigating complex financial relations, ethics probes, and scandals surrounding Cha Vang and various lawsuits. The Minnesota Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press reported extensively on these matters, the Vang Pao Foundation was forced to close following investigation by authorities and a lawsuit by the attorney general of Minnesota. S. in 2004-05. Vang Pobzeb, Members of the United States Congress and others, Vietnam Peoples Army forces were also involved with military attacks on the Hmong people in Laos and illegal logging activities driving many Hmong from their mountain homelands. On 15 June 2007, defendants were indicted by a grand jury, the defendants face possible life prison terms for violation of the U. S
38.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
39.
Ho Chi Minh trail
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The Hồ Chí Minh trail was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Vietnam through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. It was named by the Americans after North Vietnamese president Hồ Chí Minh, although the trail was mostly in Laos, the communists called it the Trường Sơn Strategic Supply Route, after the Vietnamese name for the Annamite Range mountains in central Vietnam. According to the United States National Security Agencys official history of the war, parts of what became the trail had existed for centuries as primitive footpaths that facilitated trade. The area through which the system meandered was among the most challenging in Southeast Asia, during the First Indochina War the Việt Minh maintained north/south communication using this system of trails and paths. Originally, the North Vietnamese effort concentrated on infiltration across and immediately below the Demilitarized Zone that separated the two Vietnams, as early as May 1958 PAVN and Pathet Lao forces had seized the transportation hub at Tchepone, on Laotian Route 9. The 559th Group flipped its line of communications to the side of the Trường Sơn mountains. By 1959, the 559th had 6,000 personnel in two regiments alone, the 70th and 71st, not including combat troops in security roles or North Vietnamese, in the early days of the conflict the trail was used strictly for the infiltration of manpower. This was due to the fact that Hanoi could supply its southern allies much more efficiently by sea, after the initiation of U. S. naval interdiction efforts in coastal waters, known as Operation Market Time, the trail had to do double duty. There were five large Base Areas in the panhandle of Laos, BA604 was the main logistical center during the Vietnam War. From there, the coordination and distribution of men and supplies into South Vietnams Military Region I, BA611 facilitated transport from BA604 to BA609 and the supply convoys moving in either direction. It also fed fuel and ammunition to BA607 and on into South Vietnams A Shau Valley, BA612 was used for support of the B-3 Front in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. BA614, between Savannakhet, Laos and Kham Duc, South Vietnam was used primarily for transporting men and materiel into MR2, BA609 was important due to a fine road network that made it possible to transport supplies during the rainy season. Two types of units served under the 559th Group, Binh Trams, a Binh Tram was the equivalent of a regimental logistical headquarters and was responsible for securing a particular section of the network. While separate units were tasked with security, engineer, and signal functions, usually located one days march from one another, commo-liaison units were responsible for providing food, housing, medical care, and guides to the next way-station. The motto of the 559th became Build roads to advance, fight the enemy to travel, the system developed into an intricate maze of 5. 5-metre-wide dirt roads, foot and bicycle paths, and truck parks. By 1973, trucks could drive the length of the trail without emerging from the canopy except to ford streams or cross them on crude bridges built beneath the waters surface. The weather in southeastern Laos came to play a role both in the supply effort and in U. S. /South Vietnamese efforts to interdict it. The southwest monsoon from mid-May to mid-September, brought heavy precipitation, the sky was usually overcast with high temperatures
40.
North Vietnam
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North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was a state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1945 to 1976. Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence from France on 2 September 1945, France reasserted its colonial dominance and a war ensued between France and the Viet Minh, led by Ho. The Viet Minh was a coalition of nationalist groups, mostly led by communists, in February 1951, the communists announced the creation of the Lao Động Party, gradually marginalizing non-communists in the Viet Minh. Between 1946 and 1954, the Viet Minh captured and controlled most of the areas of Vietnam. In 1954, after the French were defeated, the negotiation of the Geneva Accords ended the war between France and the Viet Minh and granted Vietnam independence. The Geneva Accords divided the country provisionally into northern and southern zones, the northern zone was commonly called North Vietnam and the southern zone South Vietnam, or, formally, the Republic of Vietnam. Supervision of the implementation of the Geneva Accords was the responsibility of an International Commission consisting of India, Canada, and Poland. In July 1955, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and he said that South Vietnam had not signed the Geneva accords and was not bound by it. With the failure to reunify Vietnam by elections, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam attempted to unify the country by force in the Vietnam War, North Vietnam also supported indigenous communist rebels in Cambodia and Laos against their respective U. S, -backed governments. The war ended when Democratic Republic of Vietnam forces and the Viet Cong defeated the Republic of Vietnam, Viet Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh became head of the government. U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt had spoken against French rule in Indochina, the Hanoi government of Ho Chi Minh claimed dominion over all of Vietnam, but during this time South Vietnam was in profound political disorder. The successive collapse of French, then Japanese power, followed by the dissension among the factions in Saigon had been accompanied by widespread violence in the countryside. On September 12,1945, the first British troops arrived in Saigon, on September 23,28 days after the people of Saigon seized political power, French troops occupied the police stations, the post office, and other public buildings. In June 1946, Chinese Nationalist troops evacuated Hanoi, and on the 15th of June, after the departure of the British in 1946, the French controlled a part of Cochinchina, South Central Coast, Central Highlands since the end Southern Resistance War. In January 1946, the Viet Minh held an election to establish a National Assembly, when France declared Cochinchina, the southern third of Vietnam, a separate state as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina in June 1946, Vietnamese nationalists reacted with fury. In November, the National Assembly adopted the first Constitution of the Republic, the French reoccupied Hanoi and the First Indochina War followed. Following the Chinese Communist Revolution, Chinese communist forces arrived on the border in 1949, Chinese aid revived the fortunes of the Viet Minh and transformed it from a guerrilla militia into a standing army. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 transformed what had been a struggle into a Cold War battleground
41.
Viet Cong
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It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized peasants in the territory it controlled. Many soldiers were recruited in South Vietnam, but others were attached to the Peoples Army of Vietnam, although the terminology distinguishes northerners from the southerners, communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958. North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front on December 20,1960, many of the Việt Cộngs core members were volunteer regroupees, southern Viet Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord. Hanoi gave the military training and sent them back to the South along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the early 1960s. The NLF called for southern Vietnamese to overthrow the colonial regime of the American imperialists. The offensive riveted the attention of the media for weeks. Later communist offensives were conducted predominantly by the North Vietnamese, the organisation was dissolved in 1976 when North and South Vietnam were officially unified under a communist government. The term Việt cộng appeared in Saigon newspapers beginning in 1956 and it is a contraction of Việt Nam Cộng-sản, or alternatively Việt gian cộng sản. The earliest citation for Việt Cộng in English is from 1957, American soldiers referred to the Viet Cong as Victor Charlie or V-C. Victor and Charlie are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet, Charlie referred to communist forces in general, both Việt Cộng and North Vietnamese. The official Vietnamese history gives the name as the Liberation Army of South Vietnam or the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam. Many writers shorten this to National Liberation Front, in 1969, the Viet Cong created the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, abbreviated PRG. Although the NLF was not officially abolished until 1977, the Viet Cong no longer used the name after PRG was created, members generally referred to the Viet Cong as the Front. Todays Vietnamese media most frequently refers to the group as the Peoples Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam, by the terms of the Geneva Accord, which ended the Indochina War, France and the Viet Minh agreed to a truce and to a separation of forces. The Viet Minh had become the government of Democratic Republic of Vietnam since the Vietnamese 1946 general election, military forces of non-communists regrouped in South Vietnam, which became a separate state. The political forces was not compulsory to regroup, elections on reunification were scheduled for July 1956. A divided Vietnam angered Vietnamese nationalists, but it made the country less of a threat to China, Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the past and Vietnam in the present do not recognise that Vietnam was divided into two countries. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai negotiated the terms of the ceasefire with France, about 90,000 Viet Minh were evacuated to the North while 5,000 to 10,000 cadre remained in the South, most of them with orders to refocus on political activity and agitation
42.
South Vietnam
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South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam, was a state governing the southern half of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. It received international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam, the term South Vietnam became common usage in 1954, when the Geneva Conference provisionally partitioned Vietnam into communist and non-communist parts. The Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed on 26 October 1955, with Ngô Đình Diệm as its first president and its sovereignty was recognized by the United States and eighty-seven other nations. It had membership in several committees of the United Nations. After the Second World War, the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, in 1949, anti-communist Vietnamese politicians formed a rival government in Saigon led by former emperor Bảo Đại. Bảo Đại was deposed by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in 1955, after Diệm was killed in a military coup led by general Dương Văn Minh in 1963, there was a series of short-lived military governments. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu led the country from 1967 until 1975, the Vietnam War began in 1959 with an uprising by Viet Cong forces armed and controlled by Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Fighting reached a climax during the Tet Offensive of 1968, when there were over 1.5 million South Vietnamese soldiers and 500,000 U. S. soldiers in South Vietnam. Despite a peace treaty concluded in January 1973, fighting continued until the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong armies overran Saigon on 30 April 1975, the creation of this republic, during the Indochina War, allowed France to evade a promise to recognise Vietnam as independent. This pre-Vietnam government prepared for a unified Vietnamese state, but the countrys full reunification was delayed for a year because of the problems posed by Cochinchinas legal status, Nguyễn Văn Xuân 1949–55 State of Vietnam. Roughly 60% of Vietnamese territory was controlled by the communist Việt Minh. Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th parallel in 1954, once highly lauded by America, he was ousted and assassinated in a U. S. -backed coup. In 1963–65, there were numerous coups and short-lived governments, several of which were headed by Dương Văn Minh or Nguyễn Khánh, Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ was the top leader in 1965–67. Surrendered to Communists when others abandoned their posts, 1975–76 Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. Huỳnh Tấn Phát Before World War II, the third of Vietnam was the concession of Cochinchina. Between Tonkin in the north and Cochinchina in the south was the protectorate of Annam, Cochinchina had been annexed by France in 1862 and even elected a deputy to the French National Assembly. It was more evolved, and French interests were stronger than in parts of Indochina. During World War II, Indochina was administered by Vichy France, japanese troops overthrew the French administration on 9 March 1945, Emperor Bảo Đại proclaimed Vietnam independent
43.
Lao Veterans of America
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Members of the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. served in the U. S. clandestine war in the Royal Kingdom of Laos during the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and Vietnam conflict. These veterans served in the U. S, secret Army in Laos, as well as the Royal Lao Army, and are largely recruits from the ethnic Hmong people, and other Laotian tribal minority peoples, as well as ethnic lowland Lao. CIA clandestine and U. S. military leaders, officers, operatives, secret Army in Laos included notable U. S. national security figures including, William Colby, Richard Helms, Theodore Shackley, Anthony Poshepny, Lawrence Devlin and others. The Lao Veterans of Americas members worked in cooperation with many of these figures during the Vietnam War in Laos, Philip Smith, serves as the Washington, D. C. Smith has acted as Washington, D. C, director for the LVA since the early 1990s. The Lao Veterans of America, its Washington, D. C, director, Philip Smith, and others, as well as tens of thousands of LVA members and their families, dedicated the monument in Arlington National Cemetery. The LVAs Laotian and Hmong veterans also received recognition at the Vietnam War Memorial for their covert service. It was the first time that the United States acknowledged its role in Laos. Thousands of Lao and Hmong-American veterans from across the United States and their families participated in the Arlington and Washington, armed Services honor guard along with Members of the US Congress and other officials. The ceremony included representatives and Green Berets of the U. S, special Forces Association who served in Laos, Members of Congress and others. The bill was introduced by U. S, Congressman Bruce Vento of St. Paul, Minnesota, with bipartisan support from prominent Republicans, including Congressmen Lamar Smith of Texas and Henry Hyde of Illinois, and others. The legislation took years to gain bipartisan U. S, congressional approval before it was signed into law. The LVA and Philip Smith worked to organize events and rallies on Capitol Hill, Washington. Virginia, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and a bipartisan coalition, introduced the bill in the U. S. Senate. Congressman Vento died of cancer the year the bill was signed into law. The Lao Veterans of America led efforts to memorialize Congressman Ventos legacy and assistance to the Lao- and Hmong veterans and their refugee families. Working with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lao Human Rights Council, and other rights organizations, the Lao Veterans of America. Director Philip Smith, have active in Washington, D. C
44.
Refugee Act
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The act was completed on March 3,1980, was signed by President Jimmy Carter on March 17,1980 and became effective on April 1,1980. This was the first comprehensive amendment of U. S. S, coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Most importantly, it established explicit procedures on how to deal with refugees in the U. S. by creating a uniform and effective resettlement, the goal of the Refugee Act was to create a uniform procedure with which to provide these opportunities to refugees. The annual admission of refugees is set to a 50,000 cap per fiscal year, but in an emergency situation, the President may change the number for a period of twelve months. The Attorney General is also granted power to admit additional refugees and grant asylum to current aliens, the Act created the position of U. S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs who was now responsible to the president for the development of overall US refugee admission, the director must submit a congressional report at the end of each fiscal year to committees on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. The reports should contain information on the location, employment status. The Office was authorized $200,000,000 during 1980 and 1981, early action came in the form of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, and the Refugee-Escapee Act of 1957. Edward Kennedy began writing to propose a bill to reform refugee policy in 1978, at the time, there was an average of 200,000 refugees coming to the United States, most of which were Indochinese and Soviet Jews. The cost of resettlement was close to $4000, but most refugees eventually paid that amount in federal income taxes, the bill was adopted by the Senate by a unanimous vote on September 6,1979, and it remained essentially intact until it was signed in 1980. Refugee Law and Policy US Dept. of Health and Human Services page about the Refugee Act State. gov *Broken Link* Deborah E. Anker, the Forty Year Crisis, A Legislative History of the *Refugee Act of 1980. The San Diego Law Review, 9-89, Kennedy, E. M. Refugee Act of 1980. The U. S. and Refugees, The Refugee Act of 1980, a Journal of Opinion, African Refugees and Human Rights, 4-6
45.
Hmong customs and culture
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The Hmong people are an ethnic group currently native to several countries, believed to have come from the Yangtze River basin area in southern China. The Hmong are known in China as the Miao which encompasses all the subgroups of Hmong. There is debate about usage of term, especially amongst Hmong living in the West, as it is believed by some to be derogatory. Chinese scholars have recorded contact with the Miao as early as the 3rd century BCE, however, after the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty attempted to impose several new taxation systems and continued expansion of their empire, the Hmong are reported to have rebelled. Many wars were fought, and eventually many Hmong were pushed from China into Burma, Laos, Thailand. The history of the Hmong people is difficult to trace, they have an oral tradition, Hmong history has been passed down through legends and ritual ceremonies from one generation to another as well as through Hmong textile art or story cloths sewn by the women. In the 1960s and 1970s many Hmong were secretly recruited by the American CIA to fight against communism during the Vietnam War. After American armed forces pulled out of Vietnam, a communist regime took over in Laos, whilst many Hmong are still left in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and China, since 1975 many Hmong have fled Laos in fear of persecution. In the United States, new generations of Hmong are gradually assimilating into American society while being taught Hmong culture, many fear that as the older generations pass on, the knowledge of the Hmong among Hmong-Americans will die as well. The clan remains a dominant organizing force in Hmong society, there are about eighteen Hmong clans that are known in Laos and Thailand. Clan membership is inherited upon birth or occasionally through adoption, all children are members of the father’s clan, through which they will trace their ancestors. Women become members of their husbands family upon marriage but will retain their name of their father. Members of the same clan consider each other to be kwv tij, translated as brothers, siblings, the term kwv tij is regarded as ones fathers family or in the case of women who are married it refers to her in laws. A related term neej tsa is the family after marriage. However she regards her birth family to be her kwv tij until she is married, also many clans even consider each last name as kwv tij Example, Khang, Kue, and Kong are kwv tij because of helping each other and respect each other. Respected clan leaders are expected to take responsibility for conflict negotiation, members of a clan who share the same ritual practices may identify as a group on the sub-clan level. Clan groups are exogamous, that is, Hmong may not marry within their own clan group, for example, a Xiong may not marry another Xiong. However, they are allowed to marry blood relatives from their mother side, traditionally, when a boy wants to marry a girl, he will make his intentions clear, and will zij her during day light or night at any opportunity that is appropriate
46.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
47.
Bill Clinton
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the Presidency he was the 40th Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, before that, he served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideogically a New Democrat, Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton, who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and U. S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and served the Democratic nominee for President in 2016, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham both earned degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the states education system, Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he was the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. After failing to pass health care reform, the Democratic House was ousted when the Republican Party won control of the Congress in 1994. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term, Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Clinton was acquitted by the U. S. Senate in 1999, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clintons presidency. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U. S. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U. S. President since World War II, since then, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes, such as the prevention of AIDS, in 2004, Clinton published his autobiography, My Life. In 2009, Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U. S. Presidents. Clinton was born on August 19,1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas and he was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy. His parents had married on September 4,1943, but this later proved to be bigamous. Soon after their son was born, his mother traveled to New Orleans to study nursing, leaving her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, in 1950, Bills mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr. who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950, although he immediately assumed use of his stepfathers surname, it was not until Clinton turned fifteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. Johns Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School—where he was a student leader, avid reader
48.
Embassy of the United States, Bangkok
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The Embassy of the United States in Bangkok is the diplomatic mission of the United States in Thailand. It is one of the largest diplomatic missions in the world and contains several sections, the mission of the United States Embassy is to advance the interests of the United States, and to serve and protect U. S. citizens in Thailand. The Embassy reports and analyzes developments in Thailand of concern to the United States, the Embassy promotes the United States economic and commercial interests, the export of American agricultural and industrial products, and services. Moreover, it assists the American businessmen, workers and investors, the Roberts treaty, with subsequent modifications, is still in force. Roberts also negotiated a treaty and exchanged ratifications with the Sultan of Oman, in 2008, Roberts was lauded as the first Deputy U. S. Trade Representative for Asia – and a fine one at that. The United States and Thailand have thus had over 180 years of diplomatic relations, the American Embassy in Bangkok was built by the English businessman Henry Victor Bailey in 1914. After his death in 1920, this house was sold to the Thai finance ministry, as of 1947, this has been the official residence of the U. S. ambassador of Thailand. After WWII, Great Britain sought to punish Thailand for having aided Japan, for this, the Thai government thanked the U. S. by giving them this architectural icon. There were two events in the 20th Century between the two nations. One is the Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations which facilitates U. S. other important agreements address civil uses of atomic energy, sales of agricultural commodities, investment guarantees, and finally military and economic assistance. The other is a Free Trade Agreement between the two nations that was proposed in 2004, the U. S. trimmed military aid to Thailand, the latter which has been courting closer relationships with China and Russia. Principal U. S. Embassy Officials include, Chargé d’affaires ad interim – W. Patrick Murphy Deputy Chief of Mission – Judith B, cefkin Political Affairs Counselor – George P
Hmong diaspora and regions