1.
Cold War
–
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
2.
Chinese Civil War
–
The Chinese Civil War was fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China, and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China. The civil war began in August 1927, with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-sheks Northern Expedition and it can generally be divided into two stages, the first being from 1927 to 1937, and the second being from 1946 to 1950 with the Second Sino-Japanese War separating them. The war represented a split between the Communist CPC and the KMTs brand of Nationalism. It continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two came together to form the Second United Front to counter the Japanese threat and prevent the country from crumbling. Chinas full-scale civil war resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with Japan, to this day no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, and there is debate about whether the Civil War has legally ended. The ROC mutually claims mainland China, and they continue the fight over diplomatic recognition. The Qing Dynasty, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911 and finally fell in 1912 with the abdication of the last emperor, Puyi. China fell into what became known as the era, when control of much of the country was divided among a group of powerful independent warlords. Sun Yat-sens efforts to aid from the Western countries were ignored, however. Thus the struggle for power in China began between the KMT and the CPC, in 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance for Chinas unification. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration of cooperation among the Comintern, KMT, Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPC joined the KMT to form the First United Front, in 1923, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants from his Tongmeng Hui days, for several months of military and political study in Moscow. By 1924 Chiang became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy, the Soviets provided the academy with much educational material, organization and equipment, including munitions. They also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization, with this aid, Sun Yat-sen was able to raise a dedicated army of the party, with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CPC members were present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai. Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis, the CPC itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. The KMT in 1923 had 50,000 members, however, after Sun died, the KMT split into left- and right-wing movements. KMT members worried that the Soviets were trying to destroy the KMT from inside using the CPC, the CPC then began movements in opposition of the Northern Expedition, passing a resolution against it at a party meeting
3.
Taiwan
–
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
4.
United States
–
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
5.
China
–
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
6.
Chiang Kai-shek
–
Chiang Kai-shek, also romanized as Jiang Jieshi and known as Jiang Zhongzheng, was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. Chiang was an member of the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party. He became the Commandant of the Kuomintangs Whampoa Military Academy and took Suns place as leader of the KMT, having neutralized the partys left wing, Chiang then led Suns long-postponed Northern Expedition, conquering or reaching accommodations with Chinas many warlords. From 1928 to 1948, he served as chairman of the National Military Council of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, unable to maintain Suns good relations with the Communists, he purged them in a massacre at Shanghai and repression of uprisings at Guangzhou and elsewhere. After the defeat of the Japanese, the American-sponsored Marshall Mission, the Chinese Civil War resumed, with the Chinese Communist Party defeating the Nationalists and declaring the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. Chiangs government and army retreated to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law, after evacuating to Taiwan, Chiangs government continued to declare its intention to retake mainland China. Chiang ruled Taiwan securely as President of the Republic of China, like many other Chinese historical figures, Chiang used several names throughout his life. That inscribed in the records of his family is Jiang Zhoutai. This so-called register name is the one under which his relatives knew him. In deference to tradition, family members did not use the name in conversation with people outside of the family. In fact, the concept of real or original name is not as clear-cut in China as it is in the Western world, in honor of tradition, Chinese families waited a number of years before officially naming their offspring. In the meantime, they used a name, given to the infant shortly after his birth. Thus, the name that Chiang received at birth was Jiang Ruiyuan. In 1903, the 16-year-old Chiang went to Ningbo to be a student and this was actually the formal name of a person, used by older people to address him, and the one he would use the most in the first decades of his life. The school name that Chiang chose for himself was Zhiqing, for the next fifteen years or so, Chiang was known as Jiang Zhiqing. This is the name under which Sun Yat-sen knew him when Chiang joined the republicans in Guangzhou in the 1910s. In 1912, when Jiang Zhiqing was in Japan, he started to use the name Chiang Kai-shek as a pen name for the articles that he published in a Chinese magazine he founded, Voice of the Army. Jieshi is the Pinyin romanization of this name, based on Mandarin, kai-shek/Jieshi soon became Chiangs courtesy name
7.
Chiang Ching-kuo
–
He succeeded his father to serve as Premier of the Republic of China between 1972-78 and was the President of the Republic of China from 1978 until his death in 1988. Under his tenure, the government of the Republic of China, while authoritarian, became more open, towards the end of his life, Chiang relaxed government controls on the media and speech and allowed Taiwanese Han into positions of power, including his successor Lee Teng-hui. The son of President Chiang Kai-shek and his first wife, Mao Fumei, Chiang Ching-kuo was born in Fenghua, Zhejiang and he had an adopted brother, Chiang Wei-kuo. Ching literally means longitude while kuo means nation, in his brothers name, while the young Chiang Ching-kuo had a good relationship with his mother and grandmother, his relationship with his father was strict, utilitarian and often rocky. Chiang Kai-shek appeared to his son as a figure, sometimes indifferent to his problems. Even in personal letters between the two, Chiang Kai-shek would sternly order his son to improve his Chinese calligraphy, from 1916 until 1919 Chiang Ching-kuo attended the Grammar School in Wushan in Hsikou. Then, in 1920, his father hired tutors to teach him the four books, on June 4,1921, Ching-kuos grandmother died. What might have been an immense emotional loss was compensated for by Chiang Kai-shek moving his family to Shanghai, Chiang Ching-kuos stepmother, historically known as the Chiang familys Shanghai Mother, went with them. During this period, Chiang Kai-shek concluded that Chiang Ching-kuo was a son to be taught, during his time in Shanghai, Chiang Ching-kuo was supervised by his father by being made to write a weekly letter containing 200-300 Chinese characters. Chiang Kai-shek also underlined the importance of books and of learning English. On March 20,1924, Chiang Ching-kuo was able to present to his famous father a proposal concerning the grass-roots organization of the rural population in Hsikou. Chiang Ching-kuo planned to free education in order to allow people to read. In his own words, I have a suggestion to make about the Wushan School and my suggestion is that the school establish a night school for common people who cannot afford to go to the regular school. My school established a school with great success. At the time of the graduation, the trainees will be able to write simple letters and they will be issued a diploma if they pass the examinations. The textbooks they used were published by the Commercial Press and were entitled One thousand characters for the common people, I do not know whether you will accept my suggestion. If a night school is established at Wushan, it will benefit the local people. In Beijing he attended the school organized by a friend of his father, Wu Zhihui, the school combined classical and modern approaches to education
8.
Hu Lien
–
Hu Lien was a Chinese Nationalist general who participated in the Northern Expedition, anti-communist Encirclement Campaigns, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. He graduated alongside Lin Biao, one of the best Communist commanders, many future commanders also graduated from the academy, including Du Yuming, Fan Hanjie and Sun Yuanliang. Hu was a regiment commander in the 11th division in the Battle of Shanghai and he was wounded several times and was promoted to division commander after the battle was over. As part of their Sichuan invasion plan, the Imperial Japanese Army attacked Western Hubei, under Hus leadership, the newly formed 18th Corps repulsed the Japanese attack. Afterward, he was awarded with the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun, as a result of Hus impressive track record, his unit was deployed around central and eastern China as a firefighting brigade. He was so successful in fighting against the communist forces, even communist commanders like Liu Bocheng, before the Huaihai Campaign of 1948, his father died and he had dental problems, and was absent from the front. After seven days of daring escape, he reached Nanjing and Chiang Kai Shek tasked him with reorganizing the 12th army and he had twice been appointed as commander of Kinmen Defense Command. He was credited to repulse an invasion of Kinmen by the communist force in 1950, Chiang Kai-shek had deep faith in his military leadership and gave an award of a sword with inlaid jewels to Hu. He was finally promoted to general in 1975 after fifty years of army service. Hu died in 1977 of heart failure and was buried in Kinmen, where he had soundly defeated the Communist invasions in 1949 and 1958
9.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
–
Dwight David Ike Eisenhower was an American politician and Army general who served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He was a general in the United States Army during World War II. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43, in 1951, he became the first Supreme Commander of NATO. Eisenhower was of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and was raised in a family in Kansas by parents with a strong religious background. He graduated from West Point in 1915 and later married Mamie Doud, after World War II, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman and then accepted the post of President at Columbia University. Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, campaigning against communism, Korea and he won in a landslide, defeating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson and temporarily upending the New Deal Coalition. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be constitutionally term-limited under the 22nd Amendment, Eisenhowers main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. He ordered coups in Iran and Guatemala, Eisenhower gave major aid to help the French in the First Indochina War, and after the French were defeated he gave strong financial support to the new state of South Vietnam. Congress agreed to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, Eisenhower authorized the establishment of NASA, which led to the space race. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Eisenhower condemned the Israeli, British and French invasion of Egypt and he also condemned the Soviet invasion during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 but took no action. Eisenhower sent 15,000 U. S. troops to Lebanon to prevent the government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution during the 1958 Lebanon crisis. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident. On the domestic front, he covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy and contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking executive privilege and he otherwise left most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower was a conservative who continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security. Eisenhowers two terms saw considerable economic prosperity except for a decline in 1958. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. The Eisenhauer family migrated from Karlsbrunn in the Saarland, to North America, first settling in York, Pennsylvania, in 1741, accounts vary as to how and when the German name Eisenhauer was anglicized to Eisenhower. Eisenhowers Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors, who were farmers, included Hans Nikolaus Eisenhauer of Karlsbrunn
10.
Mao Zedong
–
His Marxist–Leninist theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Mao adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University and became a member of the Communist Party of China. On October 1,1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China, in the following years Mao solidified his control through land reform campaigns against landlords, and perceived enemies of the state he termed as counter-revolutionaries. In 1957, he launched the Great Leap Forward campaign that aimed to rapidly transform Chinas economy from an economy to an industrial one. The campaign contributed to a famine, whose death toll is estimated at between 15 and 45 million. In 1972, Mao welcomed American President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling a policy of opening China, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976, and died in September, aged 82. He was succeeded as Paramount leader by Hua Guofeng, who was sidelined and replaced by Deng. A controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important individuals in modern world history, Mao Zedong was born on December 26,1893 in Shaoshan village, Hunan Province, China. His father, Mao Yichang, was an impoverished peasant who had become one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan. Growing up in rural Hunan, Mao Zedong described his father as a stern disciplinarian, Maos mother, Wen Qimei, was a devout Buddhist who tried to temper her husbands strict attitude. Zedong too became a Buddhist, but abandoned this faith in his mid-teenage years, at age 8, Mao was sent to Shaoshan Primary School. At age 13, Mao finished primary education, and his father united him in a marriage to the 17-year-old Luo Yigu. Mao refused to recognise her as his wife, becoming a critic of arranged marriage. Luo was locally disgraced and died in 1910, interested in history, Mao was inspired by the military prowess and nationalistic fervour of George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte. The famine spread to Shaoshan, where starving peasants seized his fathers grain and he disapproved of their actions as morally wrong, but claimed sympathy for their situation. At age 16, Mao moved to a primary school in nearby Dongshan. In 1911, Mao began middle school in Changsha, Revolutionary sentiment was strong in the city, where there was widespread animosity towards Emperor Puyis absolute monarchy and many were advocating republicanism. The republicans figurehead was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led the Tongmenghui society, in Changsha, Mao was influenced by Suns newspaper, The Peoples Independence, and called for Sun to become president in a school essay
11.
Peng Dehuai
–
Peng Dehuai was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and served as Chinas Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. When he was sixteen, Peng became a professional soldier, over the next ten years Peng served in the armies of several Hunan-based warlord armies, raising himself from the rank of private second class to major. In 1926 Pengs forces joined the Kuomintang, and Peng was first introduced to communism, Peng participated in the Northern Expedition, and supported Wang Jingweis attempt to form a left-leaning Kuomintang government based in Wuhan. After Wang was defeated, Peng briefly rejoined Chiang Kai-sheks forces before joining the Chinese Communist Party, allying himself with Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Peng was one of the most senior generals who defended the Jiangxi Soviet from Chiangs attempts to capture it, Peng participated in the Long March, and supported Mao Zedong at the Zunyi Conference, which was critical to Maos rise to power. Peng was the commander in the combined Kuomintang-Communist efforts to resist the Japanese occupation of Shanxi in 1937. In 1940, Peng conducted the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a massive Communist effort to disrupt Japanese logistical networks across northern China, after the Japanese surrendered, in 1945, Peng was given command of Communist forces in Northwest China. He was the most senior commander responsible for defending the Communist leadership in Shaanxi from Kuomintang forces, the rivalry between Peng and Mao culminated in an open confrontation between the two at the 1959 Lushan Conference. Mao won this confrontation, labeled Peng as a leader of an anti-Party clique, Peng lived in virtual obscurity until 1965, when the reformers Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping supported Pengs limited return to government, developing military industries in Southwest China. In 1966, following the advent of the Cultural Revolution, Peng was arrested by Red Guards, in 1970 Peng was formally tried and sentenced to life imprisonment, and he died in prison in 1974. After Mao died in 1976, Pengs old ally, Deng Xiaoping, Deng led an effort to formally rehabilitate people who had been unjustly persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and Peng was one of the first leaders to be posthumously rehabilitated, in 1978. In modern China, Peng is considered one of the most successful, Peng was born in 1898 in the village of Shixiang, Xiangtan County, Hunan. His personal name at birth was Dehua, Pengs family lived in a thatched-straw hut and owned approximately 1.5 acres of irrigated land, on which the family grew bamboo, sweet potatoes, tea, cotton, and various vegetables. His father also operated a bean curd shop, the income from the land and shop supported an extended family of eight people, including Peng, his three brothers, his parents, his grandmother, and a grand-uncle. Peng later described his own background as lower-middle peasant. From 1905–1907, Peng was enrolled in a traditional Confucian primary school, in 1908 Peng attended a modern primary school, but, at the age of ten, was forced to withdraw from this school due to his familys deteriorating financial situation. In 1905–1906, there was a drought in Hunan. Pengs mother died in 1905, and Pengs six-month-old brother died of hunger, Pengs father was forced to sell most of his family possessions for food, and to pawn most of his familys land
12.
Xu Xiangqian
–
Xu Xiangqian was a Chinese Communist military leader and one of the Ten Marshals of the Peoples Liberation Army. He was the son of a landowner, but joined Chiang Kai-sheks National Revolutionary Army, against his parents wishes. When the Kuomintang began to fight the Communists in 1927, Xu left Chiangs forces, after Zhang was purged in the early 1930s, Xu survived politically and rejoined the Red Army, in a less senior position, under the leadership of Mao Zedong. During the Second Sino-Japanese War Xu served in military units in Communist-controlled areas across North China. When the Chinese Civil War resumed, in 1947, Xu was active in North China, forces under his command were responsible for the capture of the heavily fortified city of Taiyuan in the later stages of the war, in 1949. After the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949 and he held numerous political and military positions, and survived the Cultural Revolution despite attempting to moderate some of its more destructive effects. He was an important supporter of Deng Xiaoping and his return to power in 1976. He continued to serve in a number of political and military positions until he was forced to retire in 1985, Xu was born in Wutai County, Shanxi. He was the son of a landowner and scholar who had passed the Qing civil service examination. He attended the Taiyuan Normal College and graduated in 1923, after graduation he had a short career as school teacher, then despite his parents objections, he joined and attended the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924. After his graduation from the Academy he held various ranks in the National Revolutionary Army between 1925 and 1927. In 1926 he took part in Chiang Kai-sheks Northern Expedition to recover East China from several warlords, after the campaign was successful he moved to Wuchang, where he taught at a military academy. While teaching in Wuchang he joined the Communist Party of China, after the end of the Nationalist-Communist alliance in 1927 Xu went underground. He did not participate in the failed Nanchang Uprising, but led the failed Guangzhou Uprising shortly after and he did not become an associate of Mao Zedong, instead becoming one of the main military commanders of a rival Communist leader, Zhang Guotao. The army Xu commanded under Zhao was called the 4th Front Army and he served as Zhangs principle commander with Ye Jianying as Chief of Staff. Over 100,000 warlord troops were killed in conflicts with Xus forces, in 1934 Chiang Kai-shek defeated the armies associated with Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong, forcing them to undertake the Long March. Zhang Guotao considered attacking them, but Xu refused, Xus refusal to attack Zhangs rivals may have contributed to Maos acceptance of Xu under his own leadership later, after Zhangs 4th Front Army was eventually defeated by Chiang. Zhang was purged after returning to the areas around Yanan controlled by Mao and his first position under Mao, as the deputy commander of the 129th division, was effectively a demotion
13.
Kinmen
–
It is one of two counties under the streamlined Fujian Province of the Republic of China. Due to the issue of the political status of Taiwan. Kinmen was given its name in 1387 when the Hongwu Emperor of Chinas Ming dynasty appointed an officer to administer the island. The name is pronounced Jīnmén in the official Standard Chinese but some of the names used in English for the islands derive from other Chinese varieties. Quemoy is the name for the island in English and in many European languages and it likely began as a Portuguese transcription of the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation of the name, Kim-mûi. This form of the name was used almost exclusively in English until the late 20th century and is still used widely in current English-language contexts that involve historical coverage. For example, current works that deal with the First and Second Taiwan Strait Crises when the islands received prominent worldwide news coverage as Quemoy still use this form, in addition, the former National Kinmen Institute of Technology was renamed National Quemoy University in 2010. Kinmen scholar Wei Jian-feng advocates the use of Quemoy to better connect the island to international society or achieve more recognition in the world, Kinmen is a more recent transcription based on the general rules of the postal romanization system. With some exceptions, this form is used in most current English-language contexts on Kinmen, entities such as the county government, the islands airport, and the national park use this spelling. Chin-men is the Wade–Giles romanization form of the name and appears on some maps using that as their standard. Jinmen is the Hanyu Pinyin form of the name used especially in sources from the Peoples Republic of China. People began settling down in Kinmen during the Tang Dynasty, changing the name from Wuzhou to Kinmen. During the Ming Dynasty, more came to settle down in Kinmen. Koxinga used Kinmen as a base to liberate Kinmen and Penghu from the Dutch and he cut down trees to build his navy, resulting in massive deforestation that made Kinmen vulnerable to soil erosion. The Prince of Lu, a member of the Southern Ming Dynasty, in 1651, he fled to Kinmen, which the Qing dynasty took in 1663. Although Taiwan and Penghu had been ceded to Japan in 1895 via the Treaty of Shimonoseki, after the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Kinmen became part of Fukien Province. Japan did however occupy Kinmen during the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945, after the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in October 1949, it was later claimed by both the ROC and PRC. The Peoples Liberation Army extensively shelled the island during the First, in 1954, the United States considered responding by using nuclear weapons against the PRC
14.
Matsu Islands
–
The Matsu Islands are a minor archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait administered as Lienchiang County under streamlined Fujian Province, Republic of China. It is the smallest county in Taiwan, only a small area of what is historically Lienchiang County is under the control of the ROC. The Peoples Republic of China administers the part of the county on mainland China as Lianjiang County. Kinmen is the other archipelago along the coast of Fujian that is controlled by the ROC, the Matsu Islands are named after the goddess Matsu. The Lienchiang name is derived from the original Lianjiang County of Fujian province in Mainland China, in April 2003, the county government started considering changing the name to Matsu County to avoid confusion with the county of the same name on the mainland. Some local people opposed the change because they felt it reflected the pro-independence viewpoint of the Democratic Progressive Party. Mainlanders from Fujian and Zhejiang started migrating to the islands during the Yuan Dynasty, most of the people on Matsu came from Houguan. The popular net fishing industry had established the base for development of Fuao settlement, some crewmen of Zheng He temporarily stayed on the islands. During the early Qing Dynasty, pirates gathered here and the residents left temporarily, in contrast with Taiwan and Penghu, the Matsu Islands were not ceded to the Japanese Empire via the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Neither were they occupied by Japanese troops during World War II because they were not important militarily, due to its strategic location for the only route for spice road, the British established the Dongyong Lighthouse in Dongyin Island in 1912 to facilitate ships navigation. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was toppled after the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911, Matsu Islands was subsequently governed under the administration of Fukien Province of the ROC. On 1 August 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out between the ruling Nationalist Party of China and Communist Party of China which marked the beginning of Chinese Civil War. After years of war, the CPC finally managed to take over mainland China from KMT, the KMT subsequently retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in end of 1949. After their retreat, the KMT retained the part from the original Lianjiang County located on Matsu Islands. In July 1958 the PRC began massing forces opposite the two islands and began bombarding them on 23 August, triggering the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, on 4 September 1958, the PRC announced the extension of its territorial waters by 12 miles to include the two islands. However, after talks were held between the USA and PRC in Warsaw, Poland later that month, a ceasefire was agreed, the phrase Quemoy and Matsu became part of American political language in the 1960 U. S. presidential election. But the two candidates had different opinions about whether to use American forces to protect Taiwans forward positions, Quemoy and Matsu, also. On the contrary, Vice-President Nixon maintained that since Quemoy and Matsu were in the area of freedom, self governance of the county resumed in 1992 after the normalization of the political warfare with the mainland and the abolishment of Battle Field Administration on 7 November 1992
15.
Taiwan Strait
–
The Taiwan Strait, or Formosa Strait, is a 180 kilometres wide strait separating the island of Taiwan from mainland China. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north, the narrowest part is 130 km wide. The Taiwan Strait is the section of sea between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan, much of mainland Chinas Fujian Province is west of the strait having the main islands of Kinmen, Xiamen, Pingtan and Matsu just off its coast. The Penghu or Pescadores Islands lie in the east of the strait, fishermen use the strait as a fishing resource. All of Fujians rivers run into the strait, except the Ting, taiwans government administers Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. The strait is on the shelf, it is almost entirely less than 150 m deep. It hosts major shipping lanes including over a bank, around 25 m in depth, a theoretical median maritime border known as the cross-strait median also exists on the water to prevent certain transportation from passing. As part of the Peoples Republic of Chinas National Expressway Plan, if such an extreme construction were ever built, it would by far exceed the length of any man-made tunnel in the world today. Engineers in Beijing state that a tunnel is technically feasible, a War Like No Other, The Truth About Chinas Challenge to America. ISBN 0-471-98677-1 Bush, R. Untying the Knot, Making Peace in the Taiwan Strait, ISBN 0-8157-1290-1 Carpenter, T. Americas Coming War with China, A Collision Course over Taiwan. ISBN 0-415-36581-3 Copper, J. Playing with Fire, The Looming War with China over Taiwan, ISBN 0-275-98888-0 Federation of American Scientists et al. Rising Star, Chinas New Security Diplomacy, ISBN 0-8157-3146-9 Shirk, S. China, Fragile Superpower, How Chinas Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise. If China Attacks Taiwan, Military Strategy, Politics and Economics, the Taiwan Strait, From Civil War to Status Quo. The Taiwan Strait, From Civil War to Status Quo Thies, Wallace J. Bratton, when Governments Collide in the Taiwan Strait
16.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
17.
Pinyin
–
Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
18.
People's Liberation Army
–
The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is the armed forces of the Communist Party of China and the Peoples Republic of China. The PLA consists of five service branches, the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force. The PLA is the worlds largest military force, with a strength of approximately 2,183,000 personnel. In September 2015, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the PLAs insignia consists of a roundel with a red star bearing the Chinese characters for Eight One, referring to the Nanchang Uprising which began on August 1,1927. The PLA is under the command of the Central Military Commission of the CPC and its commander in chief is the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Ministry of National Defense, which operates under the State Council and this conception of the role of the PLA requires the promotion of specialised officers who can understand modern weaponry and handle combined arms operations. Units around the country are assigned to one of five Theater commands by geographical location, Military service is compulsory by law, however, compulsory military service in China has never been enforced due to large numbers of military and paramilitary personnel. In times of emergency, the Peoples Armed Police and the Peoples Liberation Army militia act as a reserve. They were then known as the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army, between 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns led against it by Chiang Kai-Shek and engaged in the Long March. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Communist Party merged the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army and they eventually won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. The PLA then saw a reorganisation with the establishment of the Air Force leadership structure in November 1949 followed by the Navy leadership the following April. In 1950, the structures of the artillery, armoured troops, air defence troops, public security forces. The chemical warfare defence forces, the forces, the communications forces. During the 1950s, the PLA with Soviet assistance began to transform itself from a peasant army into a modern one, part of this process was the reorganisation that created thirteen military regions in 1955. The PLA also contained many former National Revolutionary Army units and generals who had defected to the PLA, Ma Hongbin and his son Ma Dunjing were the only two Muslim generals who led a Muslim unit, the 81st corps, to ever serve in the PLA. Han Youwen, a Salar Muslim general, also defected to the PLA, in November 1950, some units of the PLA under the name of the Peoples Volunteer Army intervened in the Korean War as United Nations forces under General Douglas MacArthur approached the Yalu River. Under the weight of offensive, Chinese forces drove MacArthurs forces out of North Korea and captured Seoul. The war also served as a catalyst for the modernisation of the PLAAF
19.
First Taiwan Strait Crisis
–
The PRC seized the Yijiangshan Islands, forcing the ROC to abandon the Tachen Islands. The United States and the ROC Navies joined forces to evacuate ROC military personnel, though the Tachen Islands changed hands during the crisis, American news reports focused almost exclusively on the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which were the sites of frequent artillery duels. Hainan island fell to the Communists in April 1950 and the Choushan islands were evacuated by the Nationalists in May 1950, the islands off the shore of Zhejiang province were seen as a foothold to recover the mainland and housed the reduced provincial government of Chiangs native province. It has defied the orders of the Security Council of the United Nations issued to preserve international peace, accordingly, I have ordered the 7th Fleet to prevent any attack on Formosa. As a corollary of this action, I am calling upon the Chinese Government on Formosa to cease all air, the 7th Fleet will see that this is done. The determination of the status of Formosa must await the restoration of security in the Pacific. According to the author George H. Kerr, a supporter of Taiwanese independence, in his book Formosa Betrayed and it would be the responsibility of the United Nations if this could not be resolved in near future as designed in the peace treaty. The Nationalist China Government maintained as its goal the recovery of control of mainland China, truman, a member of the Democratic Party, did not run for reelection in the presidential election of 1952, even though he was eligible to do so. This election was won by the Republican Dwight Eisenhower, a World War II general, on February 2,1953, the new President lifted the Seventh Fleets blockade in order to fulfill demands by anticommunists to unleash Chiang Kai-shek on mainland China. In August 1954, the Nationalists placed 58,000 troops on Kinmen and 15,000 troops on Matsu, the ROC began building defensive structures and the PRC began shelling ROC installations on Kinmen. Zhou Enlai, Premier of the Peoples Republic of China responded with a declaration on 11 August 1954 and he dispatched the Peoples Liberation Army to the area, and it began shelling both Kinmen and the Matsu Islands. This renewed Cold War fears of Communist expansion in Asia at a time when the PRC was not recognized by the United States Department of State, joint Chiefs of Staff recommended the use of nuclear weapons against mainland China. Eisenhower, however, resisted pressure to use weapons or involve American troops in the conflict. However, on December 2,1954, the United States and the ROC agreed to the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and this treaty was ratified by the U. S. Senate on February 9,1955. After two failed attempts, the PLA seized the Yijiangshan Islands on January 18,1955, fighting continued in nearby islands off the coast of Zhejiang, as well as around Kinmen and the Matsu Islands in Fujian. In response, the NATO foreign ministers warned at a meeting of the alliance against such action, in late March, U. S. Admiral Robert B. Carney said that Eisenhower is planning to destroy Red Chinas military potential. Others see the case as an example of application of extended deterrence by the United States. In any case, the Red Chinese government stated on April 23,1955, on May 1 the PLA temporarily ceased shelling Kinmen and Matsu
20.
Korean War
–
The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, U. S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments, both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union, on that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83, Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation, twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UNs military personnel. After the first two months of war, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter, in September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many North Korean troops. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, at this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951, after these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate, North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in combat for the first time in history. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed, the agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, continue to the present, in the U. S. the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a police action as it was an undeclared military action, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. In South Korea, the war is referred to as 625 or the 6–2–5 Upheaval. In North Korea, the war is referred to as the Fatherland Liberation War or alternatively the Chosǒn War. In China, the war is called the War to Resist U. S
21.
Kuomintang
–
The Kuomintang of China is a major political party in the Republic of China. It is currently the second-largest in the country, the predecessor of the KMT, the Revolutionary Alliance, was one of the major advocates of the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republic. The KMT was founded by Song Jiaoren and Sun Yat-sen shortly after the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, Sun was the provisional president but he did not have military power and ceded the first presidency to the military leader Yuan Shikai. After Yuans death, China was divided by warlords, while the KMT was able to only part of the south. Later led by Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT formed the National Revolutionary Army and it was the ruling party in mainland China from 1928 until its retreat to Taiwan in 1949 after being defeated by the Communist Party of China during the Chinese Civil War. In Taiwan, the KMT continued as the ruling party until the reforms in the late 1970s through the 1990s loosened its grip on power. Since 1987, the Republic of China is no longer a single-party state, however, the KMT is currently the main opposition party in the Legislative Yuan. The guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, advocated by Sun Yat-sen and its party headquarters are located in Taipei. The KMT is a member of the International Democrat Union, the previous president, Ma Ying-jeou, elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, was the seventh KMT member to hold the office of the presidency. Together with the People First Party and New Party, the KMT forms what is known as the Taiwanese Pan-Blue Coalition, however, the KMT has been forced to moderate its stance by advocating the political and legal status quo of modern Taiwan. However, since 2008, in order to ease tensions with the PRC, the group planned and supported the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and the founding of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912. However, Sun did not have power and ceded the provisional presidency of the republic to Yuan Shikai. On 25 August 1912, the Nationalist Party was established at the Huguang Guild Hall in Peking, Sun, the then-President of the ROC, was chosen as the party chairman with Huang Xing as his deputy. The party opposed constitutional monarchists and sought to check the power of Yuan, the Nationalists won an overwhelming majority of the first National Assembly election in December 1912. But Yuan soon began to ignore the parliament in making presidential decisions, Song Jiaoren was assassinated in Shanghai in 1913. Yuan, claiming subversiveness and betrayal, expelled adherents of the KMT from the parliament, Yuan dissolved the Nationalists in November and dismissed the parliament early in 1914. Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor in December 1915, in order tonary Party, members must take an oath of personal loyalty to Sun, which many old revolutionaries regarded as undemocratic and contrary to the spirit of the revolution. Thus, many old revolutionaries did not join Suns new organisation, Sun returned to China in 1917 to establish a military junta at Canton, in order to against the Beiyang government, but was soon forced out of office and exiled to Shanghai
22.
USS Lexington (CV-16)
–
USS Lexington, nicknamed The Blue Ghost, is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy. Originally intended to be named Cabot, word arrived during construction that the USS Lexington had been lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea and she was renamed while under construction to commemorate the earlier ship. She was the fifth US Navy ship to bear the name in honor of the Revolutionary War Battle of Lexington, Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. For much of her service, she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher and she was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Following the war, Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, later, she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier. In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. Following her decommissioning, she was donated for use as a ship in Corpus Christi. In 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark, the ship was laid down as Cabot on 15 July 1941 by Bethlehem Steel Co. In May 1942, USS Lexington, which had built in the same shipyard two decades earlier, was sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. In June, workers at the shipyard submitted a request to Navy Secretary Frank Knox to change the name of a currently under construction there to Lexington. Knox agreed to the proposal and Cabot was renamed as the fifth USS Lexington on 16 June 1942 and she was launched on 23 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Theodore Douglas Robinson. Lexington was commissioned on 17 February 1943, with Captain Felix Stump USN in command, the Japanese referred to Lexington as a ghost ship for her tendency to reappear after reportedly being sunk. This, coupled with the dark blue camouflage scheme, led the crew to refer to her as The Blue Ghost. After a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Lexington sailed via the Panama Canal to join the Pacific fleet, one of the carriers first casualties was 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick. During the ships voyage in 1943, Kinnick and other naval fliers were conducting training flights off her deck. The Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Kinnick developed an oil leak while airborne and was unable to return to the Lexington. Neither Kinnick nor his plane was ever recovered, from 19–24 November, she made searches and flew sorties in the Marshalls, covering the landings in the Gilberts. Her aviators downed 29 enemy aircraft on 23 and 24 November, Lexington sailed to raid Kwajalein on 4 December
23.
USS Marshall (DD-676)
–
USS Marshall was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Lieutenant Commander Thomas W. Marshall, Jr. Marshall was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. Kearny, N. J.29 April 1943, launched 29 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas W. Marshall, Marshall, and commissioned 16 October 1943, Lt. Comdr. Marshalls first big assignment came while she was still on her shakedown cruise off Bermuda, speeding from that area, she rendezvoused in mid-Atlantic with Iowa,13 December 1943, to escort President Franklin D. Roosevelt back from the Big Three Conference at Tehran. On 6 January 1944, Marshall departed New York for Pearl Harbor and she remained at Pearl Harbor, undergoing further training and providing escort services to battle-damaged ships returning for repairs, until mid-March. Then, with Task Group 58.2, she sailed for Majuro, the Fast Carrier Task Force, with Marshall taking station in the antisubmarine screen, departed Majuro 22 March to conduct aerial sorties against Palau, 30th, and Woleai,1 April. Marshall next participated in TF 58s strikes against Japanese installations at Wakde, on the 29th, Truk was the recipient of the forces aerial message, while on the 30th her battleships commenced the bombardment of Ponape and her cruisers shelled Satawan. In May, the force moved against Wake and Marcus Islands, the next month, the task force was called on to support amphibious operations in the Marianas. On the 17th, the force headed west to intercept a Japanese force reported en route to the Marianas to support troops fighting on Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Rota. On the 19th, the Battle of the Philippine Sea commenced, in the course of the 2-day battle, the Japanese Fleet lost three aircraft carriers and 395 carrier planes. Marshall was credited with an assist in splashing two of those planes, Marshall returned to Eniwetok in mid-August for voyage repairs and upkeep, departing again on the 23rd for operations in the Palau Islands. As a unit of TF38, she took part in the Palau, on 12 September, she picked up 44 Japanese survivors from Natori, sunk 18 August by Hardhead. After repair and replenishment at newly won Ulithi, Marshalls task group got underway 6 October for strikes against Okinawa, 10th, Marshall was then ordered to provide antiaircraft cover for Canberra during airstrikes against enemy strongholds throughout the Philippines. On the 22d, she rejoined her group in a search for the enemy in the Sibuyan Sea. On the 25th, the Task Force moved north towards Cape Engaño, in the first hours of the 26th, Nowaki was sighted and sunk by the group. Returning to the fast carrier force on the 31st, Marshall continued to operate in the Philippines until the end of the year. The new year,1945, brought further strikes against the Philippines and, with operations in the South China Sea, against Formosa and the coast of China. On 10 February, Marshall, with TG58.2, sailed for the home islands. The force then sped southeast to support the landings on Iwo Jima, by 1 March the task force was off Okinawa, commencing strikes in preparation for that campaign
24.
Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower
–
The presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower began on January 20,1953 at noon Eastern Standard Time, when he was inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States, and ended on January 20,1961. Eisenhower, a Republican, took office as president following a win over Democrat Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election. This victory upended the New Deal Coalition that had kept the presidency in the hands of the Democratic Party for 20 years, four years later, in the 1956 presidential election, he defeated Stevenson in a landslide again, winning a second term in office. Eisenhower was the first U. S. president to be limited to two terms in office under the 22nd Amendment. He was succeeded in office by Democrat John F. Kennedy, the nation experienced considerable economic prosperity during the Eisenhower Presidency, except for a sharp recession in 1958–59. It was also, following the conclusion of the Korean War in the summer of 1953, at peace, the Presidents main goals in office were to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. A self-described progressive conservative, he continued New Deal programs and expanded Social Security and he also spurred development of the Interstate Highway System, and after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, authorized the establishment of NASA. Voted Gallups most admired man twelve times, he achieved widespread popular esteem both in and out of office, since the late 20th century, consensus among Western scholars has consistently held Eisenhower as one of the greatest U. S. Presidents. Eisenhower had been a favorite of the New Dealers during the war, especially Franklin D. Roosevelt, rejecting Democratic efforts to nominate him in 1948 and 1952, Eisenhower instead chose to run for the Republican Party nomination in 1952. His goal was to prevent Robert A. Tafts non-interventionism—such as opposition to NATO—from becoming public policy, on domestic issues they were in general agreement, and a compromise was reached after Eisenhower won the nomination that Taft would be dominant in domestic affairs and stay out of foreign affairs. Ike crusaded against Korea—Communism—Corruption, identifying these as failures of the Truman administration and he electrified the country just before the election by promising to personally go to Korea and end that stalemated conflict. Eisenhowers choice for vice-president on his ticket was Richard Nixon and he saw Nixons strong vocal opposition against communism as an asset to his campaign. When Nixons Checkers scandal was revealed to the public, Eisenhower still kept Nixon on the ticket, in the 1952 U. S. presidential election, Eisenhower easily defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and became the first career soldier since Ulysses S. Grant to be elected president. Although many presidents have served in the military, Eisenhower was the general to serve as president in the 20th century. The United States presidential election of 1956 was held on November 6,1956, Eisenhower, the popular incumbent, successfully ran for re-election. The election was a re-match of 1952, as his opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, compared to the 1952 election, Eisenhower gained Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia from Stevenson, while losing Missouri. This was the last presidential election before the admissions of Alaska and Hawaii, Eisenhower created the positions of White House Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor. He expanded the role of the National Security Council and was the first president to conduct televised press conferences, reporters of that time have said that Eisenhower was the first president to employ the non-answer during these events
25.
Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty
–
Some of its content was carried over to the Taiwan Relations Act. Because the politics in Asia ranged from democratic to authoritarian, it would be difficult to find common value base for multilateral relations, furthermore, the countries in Asia did not all face one common threat, like the West did with the Soviet Union. It was therefore considered more beneficial to pursue bilateral relations, the treaty was signed on December 2,1954 in Washington, D. C. and came into force on March 3,1955. The treaty prolonged and assisted the Republic of China in maintaining legitimacy as the government of the whole of mainland China until the early 1970s. During the Cold War, the treaty also helped US policy makers to shape the policy of containment in East Asia together with South Korea, the treaty consists of ten main articles. The content of the treaty included the provision that if one country came under attack, the treaty was limited in application to the defense of the island of Taiwan and the Pescadores only. Kinmen and Matsu were not protected by this treaty, therefore, the US stood aside during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. From the viewpoint of US Senate, in conjunction with the ratification of the MDT, article 10 of the treaty provided that either Party could terminate it one year after notice had been given to the other Party. Accordingly, the treaty came to an end on 1 January 1980, shortly after the United States recognition of the Peoples Republic, the U. S. Congress passed the Taiwan Relations Act. Some of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treatys content, for example the definition of Taiwan and it however falls short of promising Taiwan direct military assistance in case of an invasion. Battle of Kuningtou Political Status of Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of China, December 2,1954
26.
United States Navy
–
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
27.
North American F-100 Super Sabre
–
The North American F-100 Super Sabre was an American supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard until 1979. The first of the Century Series of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of speed in level flight. The F-100 was designed by North American Aviation as a higher performance follow-on to the F-86 Sabre air superiority fighter, adapted as a fighter bomber, the F-100 was supplanted by the Mach two class F-105 Thunderchief for strike missions over North Vietnam. The F-100 flew extensively over South Vietnam as the air forces primary close air support jet until being replaced by the more efficient subsonic LTV A-7 Corsair II, the F-100 also served in other NATO air forces and with other U. S. allies. In its later life, it was referred to as the Hun. In January 1951, North American Aviation delivered an unsolicited proposal for a day fighter to the United States Air Force. Named Sabre 45 because of its 45° wing sweep, it represented an evolution of the F-86 Sabre, the mockup was inspected on 7 July 1951, and after over a hundred modifications, the new aircraft was accepted as the F-100 on 30 November 1951. Extensive use of titanium throughout the aircraft was notable, on 3 January 1952, the USAF ordered two prototypes followed by 23 F-100As in February and an additional 250 F-100As in August. The YF-100A first flew on 25 May 1953, seven ahead of schedule. It reached Mach 1.04 in spite of being fitted with a de-rated XJ57-P-7 engine, the second prototype flew on 14 October 1953, followed by the first production F-100A on 9 October 1953. These findings were confirmed during Project Hot Rod operational suitability tests. Particularly troubling was the yaw instability in certain regimes of flight which produced inertia coupling, the aircraft could develop a sudden yaw and roll which would happen too fast for the pilot to correct and would quickly over-stress the aircraft structure to disintegration. It was under conditions that North Americans chief test pilot. Another control problem stemmed from handling characteristics of the wing at high angles of attack. As the aircraft approached stall speeds, loss of lift on the tips of the caused an violent pitch-up. This particular phenomenon became known as the Sabre dance, nevertheless, delays in the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak program pushed the Tactical Air Command to order the raw F-100A into service. Tactical Air Command also requested that future F-100s be fighter-bombers, with the capability of delivering nuclear bombs, the North American F-107 was a follow-on Mach 2 development of the F-100 with the air intake moved above and behind the cockpit. It was not produced in quantity in favor of the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, the F-100A officially entered USAF service on 27 September 1954, with the 479th Fighter Wing at George AFB, California
28.
McDonnell F-101 Voodoo
–
The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo was a supersonic jet fighter which served the United States Air Force and the Royal Canadian Air Force. An F-101A set a number of speed records for jet powered aircraft, including fastest airspeed. They operated in the role until 1979. Delays in the 1954 interceptor project led to demands for an interceptor aircraft design. The F-101B entered service with Air Defense Command in 1959 and the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1961, US examples were handed off to the Air National Guard where they served until 1982. Canadian examples remained in service until 1984, the Voodoos career as a fighter-bomber was relatively brief, but the reconnaissance versions served for some time. Interceptor versions served with the Air National Guard until 1982, initial design on what would eventually become the Voodoo began just after World War II in response to a USAAF Penetration Fighter Competition in 1946. Several companies responded with designs, and the Air Force provided funds for several of them to produce prototypes, after being awarded a contract on 14 February 1947, McDonnell built two prototypes, designated the XF-88 Voodoo. The first prototype, powered by two 3,000 lbf Westinghouse XJ34-WE-13 turbojets, flew from Muroc on 20 October 1948, preliminary testing revealed that while handling and range was adequate, the top speed was a disappointing 641 mph at sea level. Fuel consumption was increased by use of the afterburners, however. Analysis of Korean war missions, however, revealed that contemporary USAF strategic bombers were vulnerable to fighter interception, in 1951, the USAF issued a new requirement for a bomber escort with all major US manufacturers submitting designs. The McDonnell design was a larger and higher powered version of the XF-88, the F-88 was redesignated the F-101 Voodoo in November 1951. The new design was larger, carrying three times the initial fuel load and designed around larger, more powerful Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojets. The greater dimensions of the J57 engines required modifications to the engine bays, the new intake also was designed to be more efficient at higher Mach numbers. In late 1952, the mission of the F-101 was changed from fighter to strategic fighter. The new Voodoo mock-up with the inlets, tail surfaces, landing gear. F-101A serial number 53-2418 was the first production aircraft, its flight was on 29 September 1954 at Edwards AFB where it reached Mach 0. It was previously on display at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum, the end of the war in Korea and the development of the jet-powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress negated the need for fighter escort and Strategic Air Command withdrew from the program
29.
Lockheed F-104 Starfighter
–
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is a single-engine, supersonic interceptor aircraft which later became widely used as an attack aircraft. It was originally developed by Lockheed for the United States Air Force, but became used by US Allies around the world. One of the Century Series of fighter aircraft, it was operated by the air forces of more than a dozen nations from 1958 to 2004. Its design team was led by Kelly Johnson, who went on to lead or contribute to the development of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the F-104 set numerous world records, including both airspeed and altitude records. The poor safety record of the Starfighter also brought the aircraft into the public eye, Fighter ace Erich Hartmann was forced to retire from the Luftwaffe due to his outspoken opposition to selection of the F-104. The ultimate production version of the model was the F-104S, an all-weather interceptor designed by Aeritalia for the Italian Air Force. An advanced F-104 with a wing, known as the CL-1200 Lancer, was considered. In 2018 a privately owned Starfighter is scheduled to launch a group of small cubesat satellites into low orbit by carrying the rocket aloft. Clarence Kelly Johnson, the engineer at Lockheeds Skunk Works, visited Korea in December 1951. At the time, the U. S. pilots were confronting the MiG-15 with North American F-86 Sabres, the pilots requested a small and simple aircraft with excellent performance. Armed with this information, Johnson immediately started the design of such an aircraft on his return to the United States. In March, his team was assembled, they studied several designs, ranging from small designs at 8,000 lb. The engine chosen was the new General Electric J79, an engine of dramatically improved performance in comparison with contemporary designs, the small L-246 design powered by a single J79 remained essentially identical to the L-083 Starfighter as eventually delivered. The design was presented to the Air Force in November 1952, although all were interesting, Lockheed had an insurmountable lead, and was granted a development contract in March 1953 for two prototypes, these were given the designation XF-104. Work progressed quickly, with a ready for inspection at the end of April. Meanwhile, the J79 engine was not ready, both prototypes were designed to use the Wright J65 engine, a licensed-built version of the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire. The first prototype was completed by early 1954 and first flew on 4 March at Edwards AFB, the total time from contract to first flight was less than a year. When the USAF revealed the existence of the XF-104, they gave a vague description of it
30.
Martin B-57 Canberra
–
The Martin B-57 Canberra is an American-built, twinjet tactical bomber and reconnaissance aircraft that entered service with the United States Air Force in 1953. The B-57 is a version of the British English Electric Canberra manufactured by the Glenn L. Martin Company. The B-57 Canberra holds the distinction of being the first jet bomber in U. S. service to drop bombs during combat. The B-57 Canberra was also sold to customers abroad, further combat use was seen by the Pakistani Air Force during the Second Kashmir War. At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the USAF found itself in dire need of an all-weather interdiction aircraft, in response to these needs, the USAF requested the British government to provide a private demonstration of the English Electric Canberra, a newly developed jet-powered bomber. On 16 September 1950, the USAF formally issued a request for a bomber, the sought aircraft had to possess a top speed of 630 mph, ceiling of 40,000 feet. Full all-weather capability and a reconnaissance role also had to be included in the design. The American contenders included the Martin XB-51, the North American B-45 Tornado, to expedite the process, only projects based on existing aircraft were considered and, unusually, the service considered foreign aircraft. These included the Canadian Avro Canada CF-100 and the British English Electric Canberra, as part of the USAF evaluations process, all five aircraft were submitted to a series of fly-offs to determine their performance. On 21 February 1951, a British Canberra B, according to Gunston and Gilchrist, the Canberra proved to be significantly superior to any of the competing aircraft, and that its selection was beyond doubt by the end of the competition. Martin Company, under which it was proposed that Martin would receive a license to build the Canberra in the United States. According to Gunston and Gilchrist, the Americanization of the Canberra program proved effective at dismissing many of the opponents that had opposed the project. On 23 March 1951, the USAF issued a contract to Martin, requesting the manufacturing of a quantity of 250 Canberras. On 3 April 1951, English Electric and Martin both signed a licensing agreement to cover the Canberras production. The crash did lead to design changes in the face of political pressure. As such, more than 30 changes that had been requested by the Wright Air Development Center were rejected on program schedule or cost grounds, in early July 1953, the first US-built production aircraft rolled out, it conducted its maiden flight on 20 July 1953. One month later, this initial production aircraft was accepted by the USAF, in place of the curtailed B-57A, a more refined bomber variant, the B-57B, was developed. The B-57B introduced several major changes.50 cal Browning machine guns installed within the wings
31.
Douglas C-124 Globemaster II
–
The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed Old Shaky, was a heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. The C-124 was the primary transport for United States Air Force Military Air Transport Service during the 1950s and early 1960s. It served in MATS-gained, later Military Airlift Command -gained, units of the Air Force Reserve, Douglas Aircraft developed the C-124 from 1947 to 1949, from a prototype they created from a World War II–design Douglas C-74 Globemaster, and based on lessons learned during the Berlin Airlift. The aircraft was powered by four large Pratt & Whitney R-4360 piston engines producing 3,800 hp each, the C-124s design featured two large clamshell doors and a hydraulically actuated ramp in the nose as well as a cargo elevator under the aft fuselage. The C-124 was capable of carrying 68,500 lb of cargo, and it was the only aircraft of its time capable of transporting heavy equipment such as tanks and bulldozers without disassembly. The C-124 first flew on 27 November 1949, with the C-124A being delivered from May 1950, the C-124C was next, featuring more powerful engines, and an APS-42 weather radar fitted in a thimble-like structure on the nose. Wingtip-mounted combustion heaters were added to heat the cabin, and enable wing, the C-124As were later equipped with these improvements. One C-124C, 52-1069, c/n 43978, was used as a JC-124C, for testing the 15,000 shp Pratt & Whitney XT57 turboprop, first deliveries of the 448 production aircraft began in May 1950 and continued until 1955. The C-124 was operational during the Korean War, and was used to assist supply operations for Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica. They performed heavy lift cargo operations for the US military worldwide, including flights to Southeast Asia, Africa, from 1959 to 1961 they transported Thor missiles across the Atlantic to England. The C-124 was also used extensively during the Vietnam War transporting materiel from the U. S. to Vietnam, until the C-5A became operational, the C-124, and its sister C-133 Cargomaster were the only aircraft available that could transport very large loads. The United States Air Forces Strategic Air Command was the operator of the C-124 Globemaster. Four squadrons operated the type, consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and their primary duty was to transport nuclear weapons between air bases and to provide airlift of SAC personnel and equipment during exercises and overseas deployments. The Military Air Transport Service was the operator until January 1966. The first ANG unit to receive the C-124C, the 165th Tactical Airlift Group of the Georgia Air National Guard, was the last Air Force unit to retire their aircraft in September 1974. YC-124 Prototype rebuilt from a C-74 with a new fuselage and powered by four 3,500 hp R-4360-39 engines, YC-124A Prototype YC-124 re-engined with four 3,800 hp R-4360-35A engines. C-124A Douglas Model 1129A, production version with four 3,500 hp R-4360-20WA engines,204 built, most retrofitted later with nose-radar and combustion heaters in wingtip fairings. C-124C Douglas Model 1317, same as C-124A but with four 3,800 hp R-4360-63A engines, nose radar, wingtip combustion heaters and they began jettisoning the crates and announced they were ditching
32.
Fighter aircraft
–
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers, often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, a fighters main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory in conventional warfare, the word fighter did not become the official English-language term for such aircraft until after World War I. In the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force these aircraft were referred to as scouts into the early 1920s, the U. S. Army called their fighters pursuit aircraft from 1916 until the late 1940s. In most languages a fighter aircraft is known as a hunter, exceptions include Russian, where a fighter is an истребитель, meaning exterminator, and Hebrew where it is matose krav. As a part of nomenclature, a letter is often assigned to various types of aircraft to indicate their use. In Russia I was used, while the French continue to use C and this has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other fighting scouts of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. Several aircraft, such as the F-111 and F-117, have received fighter designations but had no fighter capability due to political or other reasons, the F-111B variant was originally intended for a fighter role with the U. S. Navy, but it was cancelled. This blurring follows the use of fighters from their earliest days for attack or strike operations against ground targets by means of strafing or dropping small bombs, versatile multirole fighter-bombers such as the F/A-18 Hornet are a less expensive option than having a range of specialized aircraft types. An interceptor is generally an aircraft intended to target bombers and so often trades maneuverability for climb rate, fighters were developed in World War I to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Early fighters were very small and lightly armed by later standards, and most were built with a wooden frame, covered with fabric. As control of the airspace over armies became increasingly important all of the major powers developed fighters to support their military operations, between the wars, wood was largely replaced by steel tubing, then aluminium tubing, and finally aluminium stressed skin structures began to predominate. By World War II, most fighters were all-metal monoplanes armed with batteries of guns or cannons. By the end of the war, turbojet engines were replacing piston engines as the means of propulsion, further increasing aircraft speed. Since the weight of the engine was so less than on piston engined fighters. This in turn required the development of ejection seats so the pilot could escape, in the 1950s, radar was fitted to day fighters, since pilots could no longer see far enough ahead to prepare for any opposition. Since then, radar capabilities have grown enormously and are now the method of target acquisition
33.
North American F-86 Sabre
–
The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in that war and its success led to an extended production run of more than 7,800 aircraft between 1949 and 1956, in the United States, Japan and Italy. Variants were built in Canada and Australia, the Canadair Sabre added another 1,815 airframes, and the significantly redesigned CAC Sabre, had a production run of 112. The Sabre was by far the most-produced Western jet fighter, with production of all variants at 9,860 units. North American Aviation had produced the propeller-powered P-51 Mustang in World War II, by late 1944, North American proposed its first jet fighter to the U. S. Navy, which became the FJ-1 Fury. It was an unexceptional transitional jet fighter that had a wing derived from the P-51. Initial proposals to meet a United States Army Air Forces requirement for a medium-range, single-seat, in early 1945, North American Aviation submitted four designs. The USAAF selected one design over the others, and granted North American a contract to build three examples of the XP-86, despite the gain in speed, early studies revealed the XP-86 would have the same performance as its rivals, the XP-80 and XP-84. It was also feared that, because these designs were advanced in their development stages. Crucially, the XP-86 would not be able to meet the top speed of 600 mph. The North American F-86 Sabre was the first American aircraft to take advantage of research data seized from the German aerodynamicists at the end of World War II. By 1944, German engineers and designers had established the benefits of swept wings based on designs dating back to 1940. Study of the data showed that a wing would solve their speed problem. Because development of the XP-86 had reached a stage, the idea of changing the sweep of the wing was met with resistance from some senior North American staff. Despite stiff opposition, after results were obtained in wind tunnel tests. Many Sabres had the 6–3 wing retrofitted after combat experience was gained in Korea and this modification changed the wing airfoils to the NACA 0009-64 mod at the root and the NACA0008. 1–64 mod at the tip. Delays caused by the major redesign meant that manufacturing did not begin until after World War II, the XP-86 prototype, which would lead to the F-86 Sabre, was rolled out on 8 August 1947. The maiden flight occurred on 1 October 1947 with George Welch at the controls, flying from Muroc Dry Lake, the United States Air Forces Strategic Air Command had F-86 Sabres in service from 1949 through 1950
34.
AIM-9 Sidewinder
–
The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a short-range air-to-air missile developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s. Entering service in 1956, variants and upgrades remain in service with many air forces after six decades. The United States Air Force purchased the Sidewinder after the missile was developed by the United States Navy at China Lake, the majority of Sidewinder variants utilize infrared homing for guidance, the AIM-9C variant used semi-active radar homing and served as the basis of the AGM-122 Sidearm anti-radar missile. The Sidewinder is the most widely used missile in the West, with more than 110,000 missiles produced for the U. S. and 27 other nations and it has been built under license by some other nations including Sweden. The AIM-9 is one of the oldest, least expensive, and most successful air-to-air missiles, when firing a Sidewinder, American and NATO pilots use the brevity code FOX-2. In addition to fixed-wing aircraft, some helicopters, such as the AH-1 SuperCobra. The missile was designed to be simple to upgrade, the United States Navy hosted a 50th anniversary celebration of its existence in 2002. Boeing won a contract in March 2010 to support Sidewinder operations through to 2055, the AIM-9 is made up of a number of different components manufactured by different companies, including Aerojet and Raytheon. The missile is divided into four sections, guidance, target detector, warhead. The guidance and control unit contains most of the electronics and mechanics that enable the missile to function. At the very front is the IR seeker head utilizing the rotating reticle, mirror, and five CdS cells or pan and scan staring array, electric motor, and armature, all protruding into a glass dome. Directly behind this are the electronics that gather data, interpret signals, an umbilical on the side of the GCU attaches to the launcher, which detaches from the missile at launch. To cool the head, a 5,000 psi argon bottle is carried internally in Air Force AIM-9L/M variants. The AIM-9X model contains a Stirling cryo-engine to cool the seeker elements, two electric servos power the canards to steer the missile. At the back of the GCU is a gas generator or thermal battery to provide electrical power. The AIM-9X features high off-boresight capability, together with JHMCS, this missile is capable of locking on to a target that is in its field of regard said to be up to 90 degrees off boresight. Next is a detector with four IR emitters and detectors that detect whether the target is moving farther away. When it detects this action taking place, it sends a signal to the warhead safe, versions older than the AIM-9L featured an influence fuze that relied on the targets magnetic field as input
35.
Air-to-air missile
–
An air-to-air missile is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying another aircraft. AAMs are typically powered by one or more rocket motors, usually solid fueled, ramjet engines, as used on the Meteor are emerging as propulsion that will enable future medium-range missiles to maintain higher average speed across their engagement envelope. Air-to-air missiles are broadly put in two groups, most use infrared guidance and are called heat-seeking missiles. In contrast, medium- or long-range missiles, which fall under the category of beyond visual range missiles, tend to rely upon radar guidance. Some modern ones use inertial guidance and/or mid-course updates to get the missile close enough to use an active homing sensor, the air-to-air missile grew out of the unguided air-to-air rockets used during the First World War. Le Prieur rockets were attached to the struts of biplanes and fired electrically, usually against observation balloons, by such early pilots as Albert Ball. Post-war research led the Royal Air Force to introduce Fairey Fireflash into service in 1955, the US Navy and US Air Force began equipping guided missiles in 1956, deploying the USAFs AIM-4 Falcon and the USNs AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder. The Soviet Air Force introduced its K-5 into service in 1957, as missile systems have continued to advance, modern air warfare consists almost entirely of missile firing. The use of Beyond Visual Range combat became so pervasive in the US that early F-4 variants were armed only with missiles in the 1960s. High casualty rates during the Vietnam War caused the US to reintroduce autocannons and traditional dogfighting tactics, in the Falklands War British Harriers, using AIM-9L missiles were able to defeat faster Argentinian opponents. Since the late 20th century all-aspect heat-seeking designs can lock-on to a target from angles, not just from behind. Other types rely on radar guidance, a conventional explosive blast warhead, fragmentation warhead, or continuous rod warhead is typically used in the attempt to disable or destroy the target aircraft. Warheads are typically detonated by a proximity fuze or by an impact if it scores a direct hit. Less commonly, nuclear warheads have been mounted on a number of air-to-air missile types although these are not known to have ever been used in combat. Guided missiles operate by detecting their target, and then homing in on the target on a collision course, although the missile may use radar or infra-red guidance to home on the target, the launching aircraft may detect and track the target before launch by other means. Radar guidance is used for medium- or long-range missiles, where the infra-red signature of the target would be too faint for an infra-red detector to track. There are three types of radar-guided missile – active, semi-active, and passive. Radar-guided missiles can be countered by rapid maneuvering, deploying chaff or using electronic counter-measures, active radar -guided missiles carry their own radar system to detect and track their target
36.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
37.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
–
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds, the MiG-15 is often mentioned, along with the F-86 Sabre, as the best fighter aircraft of the Korean War. The MiG-15 is believed to have one of the most widely produced jet aircraft ever made. Licensed foreign production may have raised the total to over 18,000. The MiG-15 remains in service with the North Korean Air Force as an advanced trainer, the first turbojet fighter developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB was the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, which appeared in the years immediately after World War II. It used a pair of reverse-engineered German BMW003 engines, the MiG-9 was a troublesome design that suffered from weak, unreliable engines and control problems. Categorized as a jet fighter, it was designed with the straight-style wings common to piston-engined fighters. Stalin is said to have replied, What fool will sell us his secrets, however, he gave his consent to the proposal and Mikoyan, engine designer Vladimir Klimov, and others travelled to the United Kingdom to request the engines. Sample engines were purchased and delivered with blueprints, following evaluation and adaptation to Russian conditions, the windfall technology was tooled for mass-production as the Klimov RD-45 to be incorporated into the MiG-15. To take advantage of the new engine, the Council of Ministers ordered the Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB to build two prototypes for an advanced high-altitude daytime interceptor to defend against bombers. It was to have a top speed of 1,000 kilometres per hour, designers at MiGs OKB-155 started with the earlier MiG-9 jet fighter. The new fighter used Klimovs British-derived engines, swept wings, further experience and research during World War II later established that swept wings would give better performance at transonic speeds. At the end of World War II, the Soviets seized many of the assets of Germanys aircraft industry, the swept wing later proved to have a decisive performance advantage over straight-winged jet fighters when it was introduced into combat over Korea. The design that emerged had a mid-mounted 35-degree swept wing with a slight anhedral, Western analysts noted that it strongly resembled Kurt Tanks Focke-Wulf Ta 183, a later design than the Me 262 that never progressed beyond the design stage. While the majority of Focke-Wulf engineers were captured by Western armies, the MiG-15 bore a much stronger likeness than the American F-86 Sabre, which also incorporated German research. The MiG-15 does bear a resemblance in layout, sharing the high tailplane and nose mounted intake, although the aircraft are different in structure, details, the new MiG retained the previous straight-winged MiG-9s wing and tailplane placement while the F-86 employed a more conventional low-winged design. To prevent confusion during the height of combat the US painted their planes with bright stripes to distinguish them, the resulting prototypes were designated I-310. The I-310 was a fighter with 35-degree sweep in wings and tail
38.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17
–
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the USSR from 1952 and operated by numerous air forces in many variants. It is a development of the very similar appearing MiG-15 of the Korean War. MiG-17s first saw combat in 1958 in the Taiwan Strait Crisis and it was also briefly known as the Type 38, by U. S. Air Force designation prior to the development of NATO codes. The result was one of the most successful transonic fighters introduced before the advent of true supersonic types such as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 and North American F-100 Super Sabre. While the MiG-15 used a Mach sensor to deploy airbrakes because it could not safely exceed Mach 0.92, early versions which retained the original Soviet copy of the Rolls-Royce Nene VK-1 engine were heavier with equal thrust. Later MiG-17s would be the first Soviet fighter application of an afterburner which offered increased thrust on demand by dumping fuel in the exhaust of the basic engine. Though the MiG-17 still strongly resembles its forebear, it had an entirely new thinner and more highly swept wing, while the F-86 introduced the all-flying tailplane which helped controllability near the speed of sound, this would not be adopted on MiGs until the fully supersonic MiG-19. The wing had a sickle sweep compound shape with a 45° angle like the U. S. F-100 Super Sabre near the fuselage, the stiffer wing resisted the tendency to bend its wingtips and lose aerodynamic symmetry unexpectedly at high speeds and wing loads. Roughly 30% of the accidents of Soviet MiG-17 were attributed to this problem. The MiG-17 shared the same Klimov VK-1 engine, and much of the rest of its construction such as the fuselage, landing gear. The first prototype, designated I-330 SI by the bureau, was flown on the 14 January 1950. In the midst of testing, pilot Ivan Ivashchenko was killed when his aircraft developed flutter which tore off his tail, causing a spin. Lack of wing stiffness also resulted in aileron reversal which was discovered and fixed, construction and tests of additional prototypes SI-2 and experimental series aircraft SI-02 and SI-01 in 1951, were generally successful. On 1 September 1951, the aircraft was accepted for production and it was estimated that with the same engine as the MiG-15s, the MiG-17s maximum speed is higher by 40–50 km/h, and the fighter has greater manoeuvrability at high altitude. Serial production started in August 1951, but large quantity production was delayed in favor of producing more MiG-15s so it was never introduced in the Korean War and it did not enter service until October 1952, when the MiG-19 was almost ready to be flight tested. During production, the aircraft was improved and modified several times, the basic MiG-17 was a general-purpose day fighter, armed with three cannons, one Nudelman N-37 37mm cannon and two 23mm with 80 rounds per gun,160 rounds total. It could also act as a fighter-bomber, but its bombload was considered light relative to aircraft of the time. By 1953, pilots got safer ejection seats with protective face curtain, the combination would prove deadly over the skies of Vietnam against aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom whose pilots lamented that guns and radar gunsights had been omitted as obsolescent
39.
Project Nike
–
Project Nike, was a U. S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States first operational anti-aircraft missile system, a great number of the technologies and rocket systems used for developing the Nike Ajax were re-used for a number of functions, many of which were given the Nike name. The missiles first-stage solid rocket booster became the basis for many types of rocket including the Nike Hercules missile and NASAs Nike Smoke rocket, a much longer-ranged collision-course system was developed by General Electric, named Project Thumper, eventually delivering the BOMARC missile. Bell Labs proposal would have to deal with bombers flying at 500 mph or more, at these speeds, even a supersonic rocket is no longer fast enough to be simply aimed at the target. The missile must lead the target to ensure the target is hit before the missile depletes its fuel and this means that the missile and target cannot be tracked by a single radar, increasing the complexity of the system. By this point, the US had considerable experience with lead-calculating analog computers, starting with the British Kerrison Predictor, for Nike, three radars were used. The acquisition radar searched for a target to be handed over to the Target Tracking Radar for tracking, the Missile Tracking Radar tracked the missile by way of a transponder, as the missiles radar signature alone was not sufficient. The MTR also commanded the missile by way of pulse-position modulation, once the tracking radars were locked the system was able to work automatically following launch, barring any unexpected occurrences. The computer compared the two directions, along with information on the speeds and distances, to calculate the intercept point. The entirety of this system was provided by the Bell Systems electronics firm, the Douglas-built missile was a two-stage missile using a solid fuel booster stage and a liquid fueled second stage. The missile could reach a speed of 1,000 mph. The missile contained an unusual three part payload, with explosive charges at three points down the length of the missile to help ensure a lethal hit. The missiles limited range was seen by critics as a serious flaw, after disputes between the Army and the Air Force, all longer-range systems were assigned to the Air Force during 1948. They merged their own research with Project Thumper, while the Army continued to develop Nike. During 1950 the Army formed the Army Anti-Aircraft Command to operate batteries of anti-aircraft guns, ARAACOM was renamed the US Army Air Defense Command during 1957. It adopted a simpler acronym, ARADCOM, in 1961, the first successful Nike test was during November 1951, intercepting a drone B-17 Flying Fortress. The first type, Nike Ajax, were deployed starting in 1953, the Army initially ordered 1,000 missiles and 60 sets of equipment. They were placed to protect strategic and tactical sites within the US, as a last-line of defense from air attack, they were positioned to protect cities as well as military installations
40.
USS General J. C. Breckinridge (AP-176)
–
Breckinridge was a troopship that served with the United States Navy in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. In October 1949 she was redesignated T-AP-176 but retained her Navy crew, breckinridge, a General John Pope class troop transport, was built under Maritime Commission contract by the Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Company at Kearny, New Jersey. She was commissioned with a United States Coast Guard crew in June 1945 and was en route to Marseille on her first operational voyage when the surrender of Japan ended World War II. The transport made four voyages to France to bring troops home, then was transferred to the Pacific. A Navy crew replaced her Coast Guard crew there in February, following five trans-Pacific voyages, between October 1946 and January 1947 General J. C. Breckinridge was then converted at Philadelphia for peacetime employment, with facilities for military dependents. She retained her armament but lost some of her lifeboats, breckinridge then returned to the Pacific where she maintained a busy schedule of voyages between the west coast of the United States and numerous points in the Western Pacific. In October 1949 all the ships in the Naval Transportation Service were reassigned to the newly created Military Sea Transportation Service. As a ship operationally subordinate to MSTS she was redesignated T-AP-176, breckinridge retained the designation USS instead of becoming USNS. In July 1950, immediately after the outbreak of the Korean War, breckinridge was reconverted to a troop transport at San Francisco and in August carried troops from Seattle to Yokosuka, Japan. She was diverted from her voyage to support the assault on Inchon. In November 1950 she assisted in the evacuation of Wonsan, breckinridge made two more troop voyages in the war in Korea and then returned to regular MSTS transport duty, carrying both military and civilian passengers throughout the Pacific area. In 1955 she was modified, losing her armament and receiving additional lifeboats. Some sources record the ship as having played a role in the Vietnam War in 1965. She landed troops off the coast of Vung Tau in Vietnam in May 1965, in June 1965 she landed troops at Cam Ranh Bay, Nha Trang and Qui Nhon. Breckenridge also made at least one voyage to South Vietnam in 1965, dropping off troops at Cam Ranh Bay. Point of departure was Oakland, Calif. on or about 10 August, breckinridge was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and permanently transferred to the Maritime Administration in December 1966. The Maritime Administration sold her in August 1987 to a Japanese firm for scrapping, breckinridge received four service stars for Korean War service and one for Vietnam War service
41.
National Archives and Records Administration
–
The NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress. The chief administrator of NARA is the Archivist of the United States, the Archivist of the United States is the chief official overseeing the operation of the National Archives and Records Administration. The Archivist not only maintains the official documentation of the passage of amendments to the U. S, Constitution by state legislatures, but has the authority to declare when the constitutional threshold for passage has been reached, and therefore when an act has become an amendment. The Office of the Federal Register publishes the Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations and it also administers the Electoral College. Since 1964, the NHPRC has awarded some 4,500 grants, the Office of Government Information Services is a Freedom of Information Act resource for the public and the government. Congress has charged NARA with reviewing FOIA policies, procedures and compliance of Federal agencies, NARAs mission also includes resolving FOIA disputes between Federal agencies and requesters. Originally, each branch and agency of the U. S. government was responsible for maintaining its own documents, Congress established the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record keeping, with the Archivist of the United States as chief administrator. The National Archives was incorporated with GSA in 1949, in 1985 it became an independent agency as NARA, connor, began serving in 1934, when the National Archives was established by Congress. As a result of a first Hoover Commission recommendation, in 1949 the National Archives was placed within the newly formed General Services Administration. The Archivist served as an official to the GSA Administrator until the National Archives. An audit indicated that more than one third withdrawn since 1999 did not contain sensitive information, the program was originally scheduled to end in 2007. In 2011, a retired employee pleaded guilty to stealing original sound recordings from the archives, Archival Recovery Teams investigate the theft of records. NARAs holdings are classed into record groups reflecting the governmental department or agency from which they originated, Records include paper documents, microfilm, still pictures, motion pictures, and electronic media. Archival descriptions of the permanent holdings of the government in the custody of NARA are stored in the National Archives Catalog. The archival descriptions include information on traditional paper holdings, electronic records, as of December 2012, the catalog consisted of about 10 billion logical data records describing 527,000 artifacts and encompassing 81% of NARAs records. There are also 922,000 digital copies of already digitized materials, most records at NARA are in the public domain, as works of the federal government are excluded from copyright protection. However, records from other sources may still be protected by copyright or donor agreements and its Information Security Oversight Office monitors and sets policy for the U. S. governments security classification system. Many of NARAs most requested records are used for genealogy research
42.
United States Air Force
–
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
43.
M115 howitzer
–
The M115203 mm howitzer, also known as the M1158 inch howitzer, was a towed howitzer developed and used by the United States Army. Until the 1950s it was designated the 8 inch Howitzer M1, the original design started in 1919 but lapsed until resurrected in 1927 as a partner-piece for a new 155 mm gun. It was standardized as 8 inch Howitzer M1 in 1940, the M115/M1 was towed by the M35 Prime Mover gun tractor or a Mack 7⅓ ton 6×6 truck. The M115 was towed with 21 men per gun, and was shipped over to Germany Oct 1961 in response to the Berlin Crisis, like the British BL8 inch Howitzer of the First World War, the M115 uses a Welin screw for its breech. The carriage was the same as used for the US155 mm gun and was adopted by the British for their 7.2 inch Mark 6 howitzer. It consists of equilibrator assemblies, elevating and traversing mechanisms, two single-wheel, single-axle heavy limber, and a bogie with eight tires and two trails. Four spades, carried on the trails, are used to emplace the weapon, the British 8 inch howitzer was produced in England and under license in the US, for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I, as the 8-inch Howitzer MK. It was in service with the US Army till replaced by the M115, there are no reports of the MK. VI or another marks being used during World War II, the first photos of the M115 type 8 inch cannon on its redesign carriage appeared in 1931 but development was slowed by the Great Depression. The M115 saw U. S. service in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It was also adopted as a weapon by a number of nations in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia and saw service in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. United States Republic of China Croatia, former operator,24 systems Denmark, former operator 1953–1992,12 systems Greece, former operator Italy, - Gruppo Artiglieria Pesante Rovigo, 1° Gr. A. Pe. - Gruppo Artiglieria Pesante Adige, Gruppo A. U. C. -T. M, the resulting vehicle was initially designated 8 inch Howitzer Motor Carriage T89 and eventually standardized as 8 inch Howitzer Motor Carriage M43. A total of 48 units were built,8 inch Howitzer Motor Carriage T80 – based on T23 Medium Tank chassis, never advanced past proposal stage. 8 inch Howitzer Motor Carriage T84 – based on T26 Medium Tank chassis, the howitzer was mounted on a purpose-built tracked chassis to become the 8 inch Self-Propelled Howitzer M110. Notably accuracy and rate of fire suffered from having to depress the cannon tube to loading elevation for each round in order to use the track-mounted auto loader, the howitzer fired separate loading, bagged charge ammunition, with seven different propelling charges, from 1 to 7. The M454 Nuclear shell had its own M80 cartridge with three propelling charges, hunnicutt, R. P. Pershing, A History of the Medium Tank T20 Series. Technical Manual TM 9-1901, Artillery Ammunition, missing Lynx TM 9-2300 Standard Artillery and fire Control Material TM 9-335 TM 9-1350 Media related to M115203 mm howitzer at Wikimedia Commons
44.
Howitzer
–
In the taxonomies of artillery pieces used by European armies in the 17th to 20th centuries, the howitzer stood between the gun and the mortar. Howitzers, like other artillery equipment, are organized in groups called batteries. The English word howitzer comes from the Czech word houfnice, from houf, crowd, haufen, sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen, also designated a pike square formation in German. This is particularly true in the forces of the United States. Because of this practice, the howitzer is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire. Thus, artillery pieces that bear resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers. Most other armies in the reserve the word howitzer for guns with barrel lengths 15 to 25 times their caliber. The British had a method of nomenclature. In the 18th century, they adopted projectile weight for guns replacing the old naming system of culverin, saker, mortars had been categorized by calibre in inches in the 17th century and this was inherited by howitzers. The modern howitzers were invented in Sweden towards the end of the 17th century, originally intended for use in siege warfare, they were particularly useful for delivering cast-iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifications. In the middle of the 18th century, a number of European armies began to introduce howitzers that were enough to accompany armies in the field. Though usually fired at the high angles of fire used by contemporary siege howitzers. Rather, as the guns of the day were usually restricted to inert projectiles. Many, for the sake of simplicity and rapidity of fire, the Abus gun was an early form of howitzer in the Ottoman Empire. In 1758 the Russian Empire introduced a type of howitzer, with a conical chamber, called a licorne. The most famous of these gun-howitzers was the Napoleon 12-pounder, a weapon of French design that saw service in the American Civil War. The longest-serving artillery piece of the 19th century was the mountain howitzer, in 1859, the armies of Europe began to rearm field batteries with rifled field guns. These new field pieces used cylindrical projectiles that, while smaller in caliber than the spherical shells of smoothbore field howitzers, moreover, their greater range let them create many of the same effects that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers
45.
United States Marine Corps
–
The U. S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U. S. Department of Defense and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military officer in the U. S. Armed Forces, is a Marine Corps general, the Marine Corps has been a component of the U. S. Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834, working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a service branch of infantry troops capable of fighting for independence both at sea and on shore. The role of the Corps has since grown and evolved, expanding to aerial warfare and earning popular titles such as, Americas third air force, and, second land army. By the mid-20th century, the U. S. Marine Corps had become a major theorist of and its ability to rapidly respond on short notice to expeditionary crises gives it a strong role in the implementation and execution of American foreign policy. As of 2016, the USMC has around 182,000 active duty members and it is the smallest of the U. S. The USMC serves as an expeditionary force-in-readiness and this last clause, while seemingly redundant given the Presidents position as Commander-in-chief, is a codification of the expeditionary responsibilities of the Marine Corps. It derives from similar language in the Congressional acts For the Better Organization of the Marine Corps of 1834, in 1951, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee called the clause one of the most important statutory – and traditional – functions of the Marine Corps. In addition to its duties, the Marine Corps conducts Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure operations, as well as missions in direct support of the White House. The Marine Band, dubbed the Presidents Own by Thomas Jefferson, Marines from Ceremonial Companies A & B, quartered in Marine Barracks, Washington, D. C. The Executive Flight Detachment also provides transport to Cabinet members. The relationship between the Department of State and the U. S. Marine Corps is nearly as old as the corps itself, for over 200 years, Marines have served at the request of various Secretaries of State. After World War II, an alert, disciplined force was needed to protect American embassies, consulates, in 1947, a proposal was made that the Department of War furnish Marine Corps personnel for Foreign Service guard duty under the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946. A formal Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the Department of State and the Secretary of the Navy on December 15,1948, during the first year of the MSG program,36 detachments were deployed worldwide. Continental Marines manned raiding parties, both at sea and ashore, the Advanced Base Doctrine of the early 20th century codified their combat duties ashore, outlining the use of Marines in the seizure of bases and other duties on land to support naval campaigns. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, Marine detachments served aboard Navy cruisers, battleships, Marine detachments served in their traditional duties as a ships landing force, manning the ships weapons and providing shipboard security. Marines would develop tactics and techniques of amphibious assault on defended coastlines in time for use in World War II, during World War II, Marines continued to serve on capital ships
46.
Nuclear weapon
–
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from small amounts of matter. The first test of a bomb released the same amount of energy as approximately 20,000 tons of TNT. The first thermonuclear bomb test released the same amount of energy as approximately 10 million tons of TNT, a thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons of TNT. A nuclear device no larger than traditional bombs can devastate a city by blast, fire. Nuclear weapons are considered weapons of destruction, and their use. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in nuclear warfare, both times by the United States against Japan near the end of World War II, the bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and military personnel from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. The ethics of the bombings and their role in Japans surrender remain the subject of scholarly, since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons have been detonated on over two thousand occasions for the purposes of testing and demonstration. Only a few nations possess such weapons or are suspected of seeking them, israel is also believed to possess nuclear weapons, though in a policy of deliberate ambiguity, it does not acknowledge having them. Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands are nuclear weapons sharing states, south Africa is the only country to have independently developed and then renounced and dismantled its nuclear weapons. Modernisation of weapons continues to occur, all existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as bombs or atom bombs. This has long noted as something of a misnomer, as their energy comes from the nucleus of the atom. The latter approach is considered more sophisticated than the former and only the approach can be used if the fissile material is plutonium. A major challenge in all nuclear weapon designs is to ensure that a significant fraction of the fuel is consumed before the weapon destroys itself. The amount of energy released by fission bombs can range from the equivalent of just under a ton to upwards of 500,000 tons of TNT, all fission reactions necessarily generate fission products, the radioactive remains of the atomic nuclei split by the fission reactions. Many fission products are highly radioactive or moderately radioactive. Fission products are the radioactive component of nuclear fallout
47.
Andrei Gromyko
–
Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko was a Soviet communist politician during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1988. In the 1940s Western pundits called him Mr. Nyet or Grim Grom, Gromykos political career started in 1939 with his employment at the Peoples Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. In 1943 Gromyko became the Soviet ambassador to the United States, upon his return to the Soviet Union he became a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went on to become the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1952, Gromyko played a direct role in the Cuban Missile Crisis in his role as the Soviet Foreign Minister. Gromyko helped negotiate arms limitations treaties such as the ABM Treaty, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, under Leonid Brezhnevs leadership Gromyko helped build the policy of détente between the US and the USSR. He supported Mikhail Gorbachevs candidacy for General Secretary in 1985, Gromyko lost his office as foreign minister when Gorbachev became General Secretary, and was instead appointed to the largely ceremonial office of head of state. Gromyko retired from life in 1988 and died the following year in Moscow. Gromyko was born to a poor semi-peasant, semi-worker family in the Belarusian village of Staryya Gramyki, Gromykos father, Andrei Matveyevich, worked as a seasonal worker in a local factory. Andrei Matveyevich was not an educated man, having only attended four years of school. He had fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Gromykos mother, Olga Yevgenyevna, came from a poor peasant family in the neighbouring city of Zhelezniki. She attended school only for a period of time as. Gromyko grew up near the town of Vetka where most of the inhabitants were devoted Old Believers in the Russian Orthodox Church. Gromykos own village was also religious, but Gromyko started doubting the supernatural at a very early age. His first dialog on the subject was with his grandmother Marfa, then you will understand all this much better. According to Gromyko, Other adults said basically the same thing when talking about religion, Gromykos neighbour at the time, Mikhail Sjeljutov, was a freethinker and introduced Gromyko to new non-religious ideas and told Gromyko that scientists were beginning to doubt the existence of God. From the age of nine, after the Bolshevik revolution, Gromyko started reading atheist propaganda in flyers, at the age of thirteen Gromyko became a member of the Komsomol and held anti-religious speeches in the village with his friends as well as promoting Communist values. The news that Germany had attacked the Russian Empire in August 1914 came without warning to the local population and this was the first time, as Gromyko notes, that he felt love for his country
Republic of China
United States
People's Republic of China
704_underway_during_1958_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis.JPG)
