A History of the Chola Empire of India

A History of the Chola Empire of India Nobody knows exactly when the first Chola kings took power in the southern point of India, but certainly, the Chola Dynasty was established by the third century BCE, because they are mentioned in one of Ashoka the Greats stelae.  Not only did the Cholas outlast Ashokas Mauryan Empire, they continued to rule until 1279 CE- more than 1,500 years.   Fun Fact The Cholas ruled for more than 1,500 years, making them one of the longest-ruling families in human history, if not the longest. The Chola Empire was based in the Kaveri River Valley, which runs southeast through Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and the southern Deccan Plateau to the Bay of Bengal.  At its height, the Chola Empire controlled not only southern India and Sri Lanka, but also the Maldives.  It took key maritime trading posts from the Srivijaya Empire in what is now Indonesia, enabling a rich cultural transfusion in both directions, and sent diplomatic and trading missions to Chinas Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 CE). Chola History The origins of the Chola Dynasty are lost to history.  The kingdom is mentioned, however, in early Tamil literature, and on one of the Pillars of Ashoka (273 - 232 BCE).  It also appears in the Greco-Roman Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (c. 40 - 60 CE), and in Ptolemys Geography (c. 150 CE).  The ruling family came from the Tamil ethnic group. Around the year 300 CE, the Pallava and Pandya Kingdoms spread their influence over most of the Tamil heartlands of southern India, and the Cholas went into a decline.  They likely served as sub-rulers under the new powers, yet they retained  enough prestige that their daughters often married in to the Pallava and Pandya families. When war broke out between the Pallava and Pandya kingdoms in about 850 CE, the Cholas seized their chance.  King Vijayalaya renounced his Pallava overlord and captured the city of Thanjavur (Tanjore), making it his new capital.  This marked the start of the Medieval Chola period  and the peak of Chola power. Vijayalayas son, Aditya I, went on to defeat  the Pandyan Kingdom in 885 and the  Pallava Kingdom in 897 CE.  His son followed up with the conquest of Sri Lanka in 925; by 985, the Chola Dynasty ruled all of the Tamil-speaking regions of southern India.  The next two kings, Rajaraja Chola I (r. 985 - 1014 CE) and Rajendra Chola I (r. 1012 - 1044 CE) extended the empire still further.   Rajaraja Cholas reign marked the emergence of the Chola Empire as a multi-ethnic trading colossus.  He pushed the empires northern boundary out of Tamil lands to Kalinga in the northeast of India  and sent his navy to capture the Maldives and the rich Malabar Coast along the subcontinents southwestern shore.  These territories were key points along the  Indian Ocean trade routes.   By 1044, Rajendra Chola had pushed the borders north to the Ganges River (Ganga), conquering the rulers of Bihar and Bengal, and he had also taken coastal Myanmar (Burma), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and key ports in the Indonesian archipelago and Malay Peninsula.  It was the first true maritime empire based in India.  The Chola Empire under Rajendra even exacted tribute from Siam (Thailand) and Cambodia.  Cultural and artistic influences flowed in both directions between Indochina and the Indian mainland.   Throughout the medieval period, however, the Cholas had one major thorn in their side.  The Chalukya Empire, in the  western Deccan Plateau,  rose up periodically and tried to throw off Chola control.  After decades of intermittent warfare, the Chalukya kingdom collapsed in 1190.  The Chola Empire, however, did not long outlast its gadfly. It was an ancient rival that finally did in the Cholas for good.  Between 1150 and 1279, the Pandya family gathered its armies and launched a number of bids for independence in their traditional lands.  The Cholas under Rajendra III  fell to the Pandyan Empire  in 1279  and ceased to exist. The Chola Empire left a rich legacy in the Tamil country.  It saw majestic architectural accomplishments such as the Thanjavur Temple, amazing artwork including particularly graceful  bronze sculpture, and a golden age of Tamil literature and poetry.  All of these cultural properties also found their way into the Southeast Asian artistic lexicon, influencing religious art and literature from Cambodia to Java.

Ruth Benedict essays

Ruth Benedict essays The explorations into the enculturation of human beings and its numerous variations have molded the groundwork of anthropology. A field so entrenched in the comparative study of human societies and cultures, anthropology has facilitated the understanding of how humans have adapted to their environments and themselves. When comparing an advanced institutionalized culture to an isolated primitive one, key similarities and differences can de delineated. What is deemed morally right and deserving of exaltation can conversely be seen as an abomination in another culture. Moreover, inherent to human culture are ethical categories of normalcy (societal acceptance) or abnormality (social deviance). Ethics, the grounds for moral validity, are culturally relative to ones society of enculturation. By studying the similarities and differences amongst cultures, Ruth Benedict, anthropologist and author of Anthropology and the Abnormal, illustrates how morality is culturally distinguished. Additionally, Benedict asserts that normality is culturally defined, or what is considered normal is different in varying societies. The varying definitions of normality and abnormality can be seen in the phenomena of trance, homosexuality, and catalepsy. In India, the extreme psychic manifestations of trance and catalepsy are both regarded not only normal but is sanctified. However, in many modern cultures, this trait is seen as a deviation of the norm and is not valued. Homosexuality, in the contemporary society, is seen by many as abnormal but amongst Native American tribes, men who took on the characteristics and behavior of the female gender were held high on the ethical plane. The institution of the berdache, the men-women served as a tribes leader in womens occupations, good healers , and as genial organizers of social affairs. From a specific human behavior to a mode of thinking can be an abnormality where an indivi...

Response to students post on external Environment Research Paper

Response to students post on external Environment - Research Paper Example This equipment is demanded by the health care consumers who call for the reduction of health care costs by the health care organization, thus striking a balance between the two has been difficult (Studer, 2008). In the political sector, various government bodies have an impact on health care organizations through regulations that are meant to ensure quality and safety in the delivery of health care services. The occupational safety and health administration (OSHA) ensures environmental safety in the health care organization. The US food and drug administration (FDA) approves new drugs that are marketed or sold to the public. These regulatory bodies thus keep a close look on the health care organizations therefore affecting their operation. In Africa, the posting highlights the healthcare organization market being affected by the economic status of the population. The Greater percentage of the population who are low-income earners seeks health care services from the public hospital while the middle and high-income earners seek healthcare services from the private hospitals. The government in this region seeks to increase accessibility to health care through the creation of a national health insurance fund (NHIF). The NHIF will enable increased accessibility of quality healthcare for all population thus expanding the health care market. The article has highlighted how the economic, political and technological factors have impacted on the healthcare organization in the United States and Africa. It does not clearly indicate how sociocultural and financial factors have impacted on the healthcare organization considering that the two have had tremendous trends. This trends ranges from cultural diversification, increased population and increased accessibility to information on health care. Africa is also made up of 53 countries each with the unique external

The development of an export market Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The development of an export market - Assignment Example The emphasis on the sports benefits of the drinks, as an improvement to water and as an aid to intense sports activities that is able to provide adequate hydration and nutrition even to the most demanding and most gifted athletes. It is worth noting that as a product range, the Lucozade brand benefits from insights and inputs from hard core research undertaken on behalf of the brand by universities, sports coaches, practitioners, and nutritionists, under the so-called Lucozade Sports Science Academy. Moreover, the brand is well-known for its marketing tag line, which is about replacing the lost energy from intense physical activities making use of Lucozade. That said, officially the classification is that of Lucozade being a soft drink brand (Answers Corporation 2013; GlaxoSmithKline Group of Companies 2013). In the United States, which is the chosen export market, key competitors in the segment of sports hydration drinks where Lucozade is bound to compete includes Gatorade and Power ade, with the former being the heavyweight brand with the greatest mind share and market share not only in the United States but in many parts of the world, and with the latter being the key competitor brand offered by Coca Cola (Carpenter 2000; Howard 2008; Competitor Group 2013). It is worth noting that those three brands mentioned above remain dominant in the world when it comes to sports drinks, with Lucozade in particular being the most dominant brand in the United Kingdom in terms of both value sales and sales by volume. Annual sales for Lucozade is estimated at 260 million British pounds. Its presence in other markets, on the other hand, is hampered by strong competition from Gatorade and Powerade, even as the overall market for sports drinks is forecasted to reach US 55 billion dollars by 2018, indicating a large opportunity for Lucozade to get a substantial piece of that pie from exporting activities. The US being a large and lucrative market for sports drinks, this export development plant for that export market has potentially great value for the brand and for GlaxoSmithKline. Other statistics meanwhile bolster the case for exports as a lucrative activity given that there is a relatively low penetration level for sports drinks in general, at just 50 percent, even as the segment grew by 64 percent for the five-year period from 2007 all the way to 2012. By product category, all three categories, hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic drinks experienced sustained growth in volumes and dollar value over that given period, with prospects for growth also promising moving forward to 2018 and beyond (Companies and Markets 2013). In the US, moreover, Gatorade and Powerade together account for virtually the entire market for sports drinks with Gatorade owning 69 percent of the market, and Powerade owning 30 percent of the market. Both companies spend heavily on advertising and marketing activities centered on getting star athletes to endorse the brands and produc ts. The trend towards a sustained growth in the sports drink sector is confirmed in the long term, in contrast to the general decline in soda consumption in the United States over the past several decades (Daily Mail Reporter 2013). Other estimates put the market share of Gatorade at an even larger percentage, 75 percent, with Powerade taking 20 percent and the rest of the players in the sports drink market taking up the remaining 5 percent, reflecting the overall dominance of

My opinion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

My opinion - Essay Example By looking at this, the shifting trends of competitive analysis and the sustainability of the organizations have also been possible. I think that the concept of people management and its role in the sustainability and competitiveness of the organization is directly proportional to one another. The example of Southwest airline mentioned in the article clearly suggests that despite of having the best rates of its stock, the company did not achieve success and growth; while, in the later years, it achieved competitive advantage by successfully competing in the industry with the help of its efficient labor force. The example of Nordstrom also suggests that the favorable employee compensation and benefits schemes led the store to success. The factors such as employment security, selectivity in recruiting, high wages, incentive pay, employee ownership, participation and empowerment, and their training and development contribute to the organization big time. I think that, besides the moneta ry benefits, even non monetary enhancements such as promotions and autonomy also helps enriching the employee’s morale.

Language Creativity in Everyday Conversation

Language Creativity in Everyday Conversation Transcribe the extract from CD-ROM1, Band 6: Kitchen Floor. Using this data and relevant concepts and theories from E301, discuss the extent to which language creativity can be identified in everyday conversation in English. Undid the paper ((laughter)) and (like) (.) put a little bit of salt on and I handed them to him you know and he looked at me and he didnt DARE say anything so he had to SIT and eat it with his fingers ((laughter)) which he HATES (.) But I was going to make a point of the fact that I was not going to put it on a plate and do the whole BIT and make a (his tea) [and that [like Charles when I was doing the kitchen floor you seeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ [he totally // was the one who started it // said that I was mad to take on the job (.) I wouldnt do it (.) (Yeah) and he wasnt gonna help (.) LEANING on the door while he said that ((laughter)) (speech inaudible) (.) He said (1.0) Im not gonna help you with this (.) If youre gonna do it youre doing it on your own // yeah // (.) I said yeah okay (.) Theres nothing I like more than a challenge (.) [did he actually SAY it like that (.) And he actually DID do that (.) He actually stood and LEANED // yeah // against the door (.) (*inaudible*) on the other side of the kitchen telling me (.) he was depressed (.) ((laughter)) Im sweating away ((laughter)) he was off his sleeping tablets he was going to take ((laughter)) (speech inaudible) he was gonna do it on the floor ((laughter)) and meanwhile ((xxxxxxxxxxx)) ((laughter)) Its awful isnt it (.) Im laughing too much ((xxxxxxxxxxx)) Transcription conventions: (( )) = background noises (.) = brief pause [ = interruption // = speech overlap (1.0) = pause longer than half a second CAPS = emphasis Xxxxxxxxxxx = inaudible speech In this assignment, I will try to discuss relevant ideas that have come up in the course materials so far, particularly in Carters book, analyse features of this language data and in conclusion summarise my own views on creativity that are found in everyday language with reference to the data sample. First I shall attempt to analyse the transcript from the E301 audio material and later explain how this fits in with the ideas of Carter. From what I can tell, the transcript is basically a chit-chat between three women, who seem to be more than colleagues, so actually three friends. What they are talking about was rather hard to understand because firstly, they all sound the same and secondly as it is informal talk the facilitating of turn-taking is not put very clearly and instances of interruption and laughter add to the confusion. Spoken creativity may be more prevalent in certain types of social context and within certain types of interpersonal relationship. (Carter p. 147) I will also research Carters idea on the CANCODE corpus that he has linked to creativity in verbal repetition and a wide range of figures of speech like idiom, proverbs and hyperbole. According to Carter, it is not possible to define creativity an a wholly formalist way because in spoken interaction, what counts as creative use can vary according to the dynamic established as part of the dialogue. But Sacks argues that ordinary talk has to be achieved and is a human, social and creative accomplishment which is far from being ordinary. Some speech figures pass unnoticed as normal, routine and even pre-formulated units and in some cases, the same figures are drawn to the attention of the speakers. The purpose of creative language in everyday common speech is highly varied and may include: offering a new way of seeing the content of a message; making humorous remarks; underlining what is communicated; expressing a particular attitude; including negative and adversarial attitudes; making the speakers identity more manifest; playing with language form to entertain others; ending one bit of talk and starting another or simply oiling the wheels of the conversation. (Carter, p.148) Creativity almost always depends on interpretation of intentions and inferences of the participants. It is perhaps best to start by explaining how Carters model of literariness is used for the analysis because the results reveal that speech is dependant on itself and includes examples of stylistic and lexical features, words of contrast at text and sound level, parallelism, evocative descriptive language and cross-sentential repetition. The Greece Tourist Guide for example is dependant on medium and carries examples of archaic and syntactic features, emotive action words, evocative descriptive language, polysemy and displaced interaction. To put it bluntly, it is very hard, not to say difficult to measure which text is more literary except if the two texts have an identical genre. At this point I am now going to give a definition of literary language or literariness. Literary language refers to a particular language or language variety used in literature and also refers to a type of language a style or mode of expression associated with literary genres such as poetry, narrative fiction or drama, whilst literariness refers to the quality of literature or literary language. If used to refer to language in more everyday context, these terms will tend to focus on continuity with literature, such as Carters argument about a cline of literariness. (Carter, 2004) There is something in literariness known as clines. This term has a similar meaning to continuum and refers to relations along a particular dimension that are a matter of degree rather than having discrete cut-off points. Therefore this would suggest then that literariness is a matter of degree. However there is a problem suggesting that these are gradations or degrees of literariness in texts and how to measure it. As far as linguistic forms, it would seem unreasonable just to total the number of creative features used in a particular text. Whether the text is considered to be literary will not derive from the presence of more or fewer literary features and the concept of a cline or sets of clines may suggest a level of precision in the identification of literariness that is not able to be attained in practice. I now turn to Carters models of literariness. Discussing the relationship between everyday linguistic creativity and literary language brings forward the question what literary language actually is. Carter (1999) has identified three models: two established models to which he refers to as an inherency model and a socio-cultural model and more recently, a cognitive model. The inherency model sees literariness as embedding in certain properties of language: so literary language is distinct from more practical uses of language where language itself is highlighted. Jakobson (1960:356) has perceived this as the poetic function of language which focuses on the message for its own sake. This will be termed self-referential language and is language that will be referring partly to itself and not simply to entities in the external world that are the object of discussion. Even though the poetic function is quite evident in many of the examples, the researcher from whom I got this information from is of the opinion that it is the dominant, determining function of verbal art. A socio-cultural model sees literariness as socially and culturally determined; meaning it would be drawing attention to the fact that conceptions of literature vary historically and culturally. According to Eagelton, (1996) there is nothing distinctive about literary language and any text can be seen as literature if it declared by institutions or if people read it as such. Anthropological studies of literary performances in various cultural contexts also tend to take a socio-cultural view on literariness. Many studies focus on the performance in its traditional literary or theatrical sense in order to include public displays to artistic activity that are responded to aesthetically by an audience, like story-telling, song, dance or drama. However the notion is not uncommonly extended to more everyday activity in recognition of the fact that there are certain parallels between everyday and literary performance: that this notion of performance can also describe what often is found in the most ordinary of encounters, like when social actors exhibit particular attention in the delivery of a message. Cognitive models relate literary language to mental processes and according to Tannens suggestion (1989) that linguistic repetition derives from a basic human drive to repeat as a kind of cognitive argument. Cook (1994) claims that literary texts have an effect on the mind and help us to think in new ways and refresh and change our mental representations of the world: But such benefits are not confined to established literature and Cook has similar thing to say about everyday creativity or language play. In addition, Gibbs (1994) claims that human language and human understanding often are metaphorical, concluding that literary metaphor carries on and extends everyday metaphorical notions. For Carter (1999) there was some value in both inherency and socio-cultural models, and in the case of his own examples is identifies formally and in this sense is close to an inherency model. However, there is one way to find examples of verbal art in his corpus, and that is to search for instances of laughter. What people respond to as artful is consistent with a socio-cultural model and in Carters view; a cognitive model is beneficial by helping explain the prevalence of creativity in everyday language. The argument is that literariness should be seen as a cline or a series of clines and is appropriate to see texts as more or less literary rather than in terms of an opposition between literary and non-literary language. There are two main levels of creative interactions. The first is the pattern re-forming feature which is more overt, has presentational uses of figures of speech, open displays of metaphoric invention, punning, uses of idioms and departures from expected idiomatic formulations. The second pattern-forming feature is less overt, may have subconscious and subliminal repetition; parallelisms, echoes and related matchings which often result in expressions of affective convergence in implicit signals of intimacy and symmetries of feelings. Linguistic creativity is less likely to occur in contexts which involve a one-way process of information provision or professional interaction in which the main purpose is transactional and where relations between participants in a particular context might be more asymmetrical. Mapping out probabilistic in creativity onto social context is not easy to capture diagrammatically and it does not seem to allow exceptions. So it is likely that creativity will occur in informal situations. Like when colleagues working together in a department store while decorating a window together or when one discovers that the intimacy of the relationship lighten the task until the discourse becomes more populated with wordplay and creative uses of language. So, what does this tell us about creative language? It tells us four main points. Firstly, creative language use cant be captured or described or evaluated wholly by formalistic definitions. Creative functions will vary according to speakers evolving relationships, the nature of the external task demands and the changing character of social context and speech genres. Secondly, creativity is probabilistic. Creative language is more likely to occur in some contexts and in some kinds of interpersonal contact rather than in others. It would be defined with reference to an account of forms and functions but its purposes and uptake depend on a dynamic of locally negotiated processes and specific instances. These can be seen as from the outside but their meaning can only be speculated upon. This means that paradoxically, creativity is a definitely emergent, instantial category of language. Thirdly, we recognize that creativity in context is valuable but there are also many factors which constitute a context and different contextual frames which are able to work within a single context. For example humour can be a significant strategic figure which crosses over into other categorial boundaries. And fourthly, this would mean that creativity is best captured and discussed with the mind fixed on clines and continua with many points of overlap. Like in the example of the CANCODE corpus: generally speaking it is lacking in examples of language used in a working environment and in the context of business organisations. Humour is used to challenge particular practices and the role of people who have a higher position in a company. The way it works is by allowing a potentially literal statement to be made by non-literal means. But in a preliminary observation, CANCODE and pattern forming is a more female characteristic. Compared to men, women are more spontaneously creative in talk but this need to be researched more as women are not seen as to be openly contestive, adversarial or pattern-reforming in language use or to strategically use humour. As we can see, there are many ways we can identify creativity in spoken language, whether it is chit-chat between friends or in literature or even in literary contexts, creativity had many faces. Creativity can also be seen as a method on how we learn something new, for example in order to remember a progression of numbers you simply recall it by turning it into a song like Mary Had A Little Lamb. That way for example, a child from primary school would be able to remember the number progression of the number 4 by singing the tune of Mary Had A Little Lamb in his head. This method of creativity was made up for me by my mom who tried to help me in my math studies in primary school as it was my worst subject in my entire school career. Needless to say, I passed the math test with that method in primary school and even find myself using similar methods for my Open University study even today, even though it has changed a bit, but the effect has remained the same.

Good Morning, Vietnam

Good Morning, Vietnam follows disc jockey Adrian Cronauer as he is reassigned to the Armed Forces Radio Saigon airwaves in Saigon, Vietnam in 1965. Throughout the film Cronauer experiences the bombing of a G. I. bar, and attempts to start a relationship with a Vietnamese woman. However, he runs into trouble as he finds the Vietnamese culture to be very different from his own. He experiences first hand the civilian attacks as buildings are blown up without warning or reason, and the tactics behind guerilla warfare as he befriends Vietnamese citizens who he doesn’t know are actually Vietcong. His radio shows provide comic relief to all the soldiers, but infuriates his superiors as he wants to report actual news about the war to the soldiers and not just what is approved to be aired (Good Morning, Vietnam). This movie is set during the Vietnam war so, it is crucial to understand the war in order to understand this movie. In 1963, Lyndon B. Johnson took office and had to make a crucial decision on America’s limited military involvement in the Vietnam conflict. This was because of the naval incident in the Gulf of Tonkin. North Vietnamese gunboats supposedly shot at U. S. warships in the Gulf of Tonkin allowing Johnson to persuade Congress that this was an act of aggression. Thus, Johnson received a blank check to take â€Å"all necessary measures† needed to aid the United States in Vietnam (Newman). Communist leader Ho Chi Minh led the Vietcong guerillas in the North. He developed an elaborate 9,940 mile network of roads built from the North to the South to aid North Vietnam troops and the Vietcong. This network of roads was referred to as the Ho Chi Minh Trail and was the target of numerous American air strikes (Ho Chi Minh Trail). However, the creation the Ho Chi Minh trail crossed the demilitarized zone, which had been established at the 17th parallel as a combat-free zone during the Potsdam Conference (DMZ Vietnam). With tensions increasing, especially after a car bomb detonates outside the U. S. embassy in Saigon wounding two-hundred and killing two Americans and twenty Vietnamese (Vietnam War Timeline: 1965). Johnson approved the deployment of an additional 18,000 to 20,000 men and, a few months later, increased the number of U. S. troops in Vietnam to 125,000 men (Vietnam War Timeline: 1965). In protest, Buddhist monks set themselves on fire and the Vietcong used guerilla warfare tactics (Newman). In February 1965, the United States mobilized Operation Rolling Thunder, an air war against North Vietnam in an effort to stop their movement South (Vietnam War 1965-1968). Air strikes were coupled with napalm, sticky fuel-gel fire bombs which severely burn their targets, and plastic explosives, a chemical bomb which produces an explosion that is impossible to outrun (Napalm, C-4 Plastic Explosives). By the end of 1965, U. S. roop levels approached 184,300 men, while South Vietnam soldiers abandoned the cause as the North infiltrated and captured Saigon in February of 1968 in the Tet Offensive (Vietnam War Timeline: 1965). This was a surprise attack on many of the South Vietnamese capitals and American bases. The chaos and destruction seen on television on the home front caused much controversy over the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War (Newman). The United States at this time was not just at war abroad, but also faced conflict on the home front. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as leading demonstrations against racial discrimination, especially at the polls (Newman). Anti-war movements also gained momentum in 1965 and peaked in 1968. The first march to Washington took place in 1967 and 1968 and were the largest anti-war movements of the time. This led to extreme pacifists following the Buddhist monk’s public burnings, as well as the public burning of draft cards, an act punishable by law (Vietnam Protest Movement). President Johnson faced dramatic opposition to the war on the home front, which only increased as the war progressed. Some argued that this was due to the relative freedom of television reporters to broadcast whatever they wanted about the war; thus, not only showing the positives, but also the downfalls in the war (Vietnam Protest Movement). Good Morning, Vietnam is entirely focused on the war as seen by those experiencing it first hand in Saigon. Therefore, the film does not greatly reflect any of these home front issues. It does however, contradict the idea of little censorship of war facts. Although on the home front journalists may have been able to report whatever they felt they wanted to share, this was not true on military airwaves (Newman). The film depicts Cronauer constantly fighting to get the true events of the war out for his listeners to hear; however, heavy censorship by the Armed Forces Radio Saigon prevent this from occurring. This creates a source of great conflict especially after a Vietcong bombing. The movie, therefore, reflects the element of surprise which was employed by the Vietcong through their guerilla warfare tactics (Good Morning, Vietnam). Before viewing this film, I knew that unusual war tactics were utilized and that people had strong opposition to the war. Yet, I felt that it was much like every other war the that the United States was involved in. This film reinforced my views as it showed the true devastation which the guerilla tactics cause through the killings of innocent civilians. When the bomb went off at Jimmy Wah’s G. I. bar, Cronauer was lucky to have been tricked into leaving by his new Vietnamese friend (Good Morning, Vietnam). All the innocent people inside, both American and Vietnamese were just unfortunate bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not only did it reinforce my view but it also altered my perceptions. This film added to my views just how much was being kept from the soldiers. This was illustrated through the identical twins who had to officially announce and approve all news which came in to the radio station before it could be read on air by Cronauer (Good Morning, Vietnam). Also, just the complete Americanization that was forced upon many of the Vietnamese was shocking to me. Although they may have been taking English classes from the American troops by themselves, just the presence of so many foreigners in their country and potentially clashing with their culture amazed me. There was no better way to feature this than with Cronauer’s love for Trinh, a Vietnamese girl. The first date with her entire family is something that would never happen in America, yet there it was totally normal (Good Morning, Vietnam). Overall, I did enjoy watching this film. It was a refreshing, yet eye opening view of the Vietnam conflict as it used humor to get the events of the war across, but also highlighted the intensity and chaos of war. It was an unusual way to see war portrayed and I found it very enjoyable. It helped me to feel the anxieties and frustration surrounding the war without focusing on just combat alone. Good Morning, Vietnam showcased the more social component to the Vietnam War which provided a fresh angle.