Prompt Research Paper: The Pentagon Papers

In June 1971, the New York Times began publishing material from what came to be known as “The Pentagon Papers.” The material was part of a 47-volume study by the Department of Defense that was labeled Top Secret, and related to American’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The papers were given to the newspaper by a man named Daniel Ellsberg, who had as a civilian employee of the DoD had worked on the research for the study in 1967, when it was compiled.

Ellsberg said his expose was a matter of conscience; that he could no longer know about the lies and not do something about the situation. The impact on the country of Ellsberg’s leak was sensational. The nation was tired and injured by the war. Thousands of Americans had been killed and millions of Vietnamese lives had been sacrificed. Billions of dollars had been poured into the fight. The Papers showed that most of the stated reasons for US involvement were lies.

The Papers revealed that the U.S. had expanded its war with bombing of Cambodia and Laos and made unauthorized coastal raids on North Vietnam. None of this had been acknowledged by the government or reported by media in the US. The most damaging revelations in the papers revealed that four administrations, from Truman to Johnson, had misled the public regarding their intentions regarding Vietnam. The U.S. wanted to exploit Southeast Asian resources, and to contain China and Russia from influencing the region. The administration challenged the publication of the papers. Eventually a US Senator opposed to the war read 4,100 pages into the Congressional Record to make sure they could not be missed, and Times went ahead with publication.

After a government challenge was defeated by the Supreme Court - a crucial victory for freedom of the press - the Times went public. As a result, Ellsberg was charged with espionage, conspiracy, and theft, and faced 115 years in jail if convicted. In 1973, after the government’s lies were thoroughly exposed, the charges against Ellsberg were dropped.

In this paper, you must research the Pentagon Papers. What were they? Discover what they exposed, and why was the information so controversial. Then, based on what your research tells you, decide if you think Ellsberg did the right thing. You must base your opinion on your research.Keep in mind that recently an NSA contractor named Edward Snowden did essentially the same thing with respect to government spying on citizens around the world and at home. He is currently in exile in Russia, because he'll be arrested and tried if he comes home to the U.S.

Facts about your research paper:

1. This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.   You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.  
2. You need to research and cite from at least five sources.  You must use at least 3 different types of sources.  At least one source must be from a library database. At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook. At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
3. The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
4. This paper will be approximately 2000 words in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required.  (use the word count function to check the length) The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.  
5. You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
6. You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.  
7. You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
8. our paper must be logically organized and focused.

REVISED Prompt, Essay 3: How to Tell a True War Story

English 103
Essay 3: “How to Tell a True War Story”
Mr. Tompkins
April 29, 2015

The Things They Carried is a work of fiction set during the Vietnam War. It’s a war story, one that’s so believable that a reader unconsciously reads it as a piece of non-fiction. The chapter “How To Tell a True War Story” - despite its title - is definitely not a by-the-book explanation of how to share the facts of wartime experience. Instead, it creates a company of young American soldiers who remember examine, bend, boast, invent, mourn, worry, and argue about their experiences. The stories they share are entertaining, ambiguous, heartbreaking, bitter, and bursting with life. Truth and lies and right and wrong turn out to be as elusive as the relationship between feelings and facts.

Near the end of the chapter, you’ll find the following paragraphs:

“To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true. At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life…

“Mitchell Sanders was right. For the common soldier, at least, war has the feel - the spiritual texture - of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity. Everything swirls. The old rules are no longer binding, the old truths no longer true. Right spills over into wrong. Order blends into chaos, love into hate, ugliness into beauty, law into anarchy, civility into savagery. The vapors suck you in. You can't tell where you are, or why you're there, and the only certainty is the absolute ambiguity. 

In war you lose your sense of the definite, hence your sense of truth itself, and therefore it's safe to say that in a true war story, nothing much is ever very true.”

Write a 700-1000 word essay, using “How To Tell a True War Story” to examine the role of storytelling in The Things They Carried. Use the section quoted above as the launching pad for your paper. With those paragraphs in mind, ask yourself what we learn about war from the chapter’s stories: 

-Rat Kiley’s letter to Lemon’s sister

-Mitchell Sanders’s story - second-hand, since he wasn’t there - about the six-man patrol into the mountains

-Sanders’s additions to the story.

-The “drop dead” moral of the story: nobody’s listens (ask yourself: was there anyone in the world more isolated and insignificant than a grunt in the jungle of Vietnam) 

-The death of Curt Lemon - the narrator admits he’s told it many times with many different versions - a story about two boys playing catch in the sunlight, followed by sadistic, cruel payback. 

Use MLA formatting and citation standards.

April 29: Outline and write thesis statement

May 4: Limited discussion of rough drafts/progress

May 6: Paper due. Deliver your paper via turnitin.com

MESSAGE 4/28 to students (Tuesday night)

Message to students, Eng 103  April 28

Students, 

I said I’d have the prompt for our next essay available by dinner time tonight. I’m running a bit behind schedule, so please give me a bit more time.

When I finish, I will post it and also email it to you at the address you gave to school when you registered.

Sorry for the delay, I hope to have it finished in a couple of hours (it’s a little before 6 pm now). Thanks, I’ll see everyone tomorrow.

Mr. Tompkins

Question for Reading Presentation Book IV

The Gods are particularly meddlesome in Book IV of The Iliad. Describe how Zeus and Hera argue about the war at the start of the book. Then note what happens as things unfold, where the important and lesser gods all try to influence the fate of one side or another.

Prompt, Essay #2: Gods and Men in The Iliad

Gods and Men in Books I-IV of The Iliad.

The gods play a crucial role in The Iliad. These Olympian gods stir up trouble, they play favorites, and they sometimes scheme, trick, and lie.  They have passions, desires, and intense rivalries with each other. They often seem to regard mortals as so many chess pieces in the games Gods play. They are most predictable when considering - and being part of - the affairs of their mortal sons and daughters, but even then their powers can be thwarted and their selfish interests frustrated. Mortals regard the gods as powerful, but they rarely count on them for anything. Mortals might appeal to the gods’ sense of right and wrong or fair play, but those standards apply more to humanity than to the gods. 

Using Books I-IV in The Iliad, examine the role of the gods in the confrontation between Agamemnon and Achilles. The gods had favorites, and they played favorites. The made deals, they lied, and they changed their minds. Meanwhile, the Trojans and the Greeks had to play the hands they were dealt - even when they couldn't see all the cards. Discuss the relationship between gods and men. Examine the gods’ behavior as they argued or colluded with each other, and discuss what they did to interfere (or not) in affairs of man. Examine how mortals on both sides of the war tried to influence the gods in order to gain advantage, and how the gods responded.

Respond to this prompt in a 700-100 paper, using specific details from the text to prove your point (your citations must note the book and line number). Use MLA format standards.

Book II and III Reading Presentation Questions for April 8

Book II: Write a paragraph discussing how Agamemnon's speech in which he tells the Greek warriors to cut and run backfired. Discuss what was his intention, what happened, and why that happened.

Book III: Homer tells us that Paris was hated by the Trojans. Why was he hated? If he was indeed the cause of all their troubles, why were they fighting a war for him? (How would Homer have answered these questions?) Do you think this system of values is peculiar (or particularly well adapted) to a world of small city-states?

Agenda and notes for April 6 (if you missed class)

April 6

Agenda

Quiz

(character names)

(where is Troy)

Announcements:

  -I agree, too much reading. However, students need to be clever. What might that mean in the case of one of the most widely read poems/stories in the history of Western civilization?

(a little research please)

-tonight we’re going to tear apart chapter 1. 

General Discussion of The Iliad

HERE’S WHERE IT FITS INTO THE WORLD - PAST AND PRESENT

a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccdneMYVVVo

Today:

Here is as good a summary - background and all - as you’ll find: http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/iliad/IliadGuide00.html

-compare the role of warriors in the Iliad with today’s NBA stars (team sucks? change team).

-who was P?

-what is “the judgment of Paris? 

story background: Paris the golden apple (Athena, Hera, Aphrodite) 

Agamemnon is the Greek king (Thracian), but Achilles is superstar warrior. The destroyed a Trojan town, and each got a woman for the effort. Ag - Chryseis, Achl -Briseis

Play the "K-Dot" summary: http://tompkins.websitesdepotla.com/eng103/

BOOK 1

-Achilles rage (god-like - it doesn’t really peak until Patroc dies - note that he really goes for B. but his love is reserved for P chapt 18)

  -what’s happened to provoke it (find lines)

-That rage and the course it runs is the driving force throughout the book

-Compare earthbound desires with those of the Gods. Who plays by what rules? for example examine the battle between hector and achilles (zeus - urged by athena - played a trick on hector in chapt 22)

-how do the mortals look at the gods? do they appeal to the gods ethics, their sense of right and wrong? describe how mortals might have looked at fate?

-What motivates mortals? Honor

-Hector vs. Achilles: bk. 6, lines 390-502 (Hector, Andromache, and Astyanax scene)

Book 1 questions:

Chapter 1: The Petulance of Achilles

1.1. Where did the “treasures” come from that the Greeks are squabbling over? Explain. 

1.2. What is Agamemnon’s relation to the other Greek leaders? (If he is in charge, why do people disobey him sometimes) - examine honor as the glue between leaders, sometimes it works, sometimes not

1.3. What is the relationship between the seer Kalchas and (1) the Greek forces in general and (2) Agamemnon in this instance? Why is Kalchas worried about his oracle? Should he be? 

1.4. Why is Agamemnon unwilling to settle for Achilles’ proposal that he get a girl from the next town they take to replace Chryseis? 

1.5. To what extent are women viewed by Homeric men as “property”? Are they like other “property”? How did they probably view themselves, under the circumstances? Why? How could we find out? 

1.6. Why does Hera love Agamemnon and Achilles both? 

1.7. Why do Athena and Hera, who show little affection for each other, both support the Greeks? 

1.8. What seems to be the political order that the Greeks are trying to maintain? How successful are they? Explain. 

1.9. Why is Achilles participating in the war? What arguments would be likely to persuade him that he should continue or ought to withdraw? Why?