Wrong Calls, Euphemisms, and Plain Lies #2 Quiz

Answer: tunnel

The efforts Johnson administration and the General Westmoreland to portray the war as nearly won were dashed a few months later when the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) launched the Tet offensive which completely changed the situation. Despite the fact that the VC was virtually destroyed during the operation the NVA took on the bulk of the fighting leading to American disillusionment with the war and their total withdrawal by 1973.

As casualties continued to mount within their ranks the phrase became a bitter joke among the troops forced to fight in a lost cause.

Answer: Ben Tre

'We had to destroy the town in order to save it' was a quote from an army officer reported by a news correspondent referring to the town of Ben Tre which had been bombed and shelled while being recaptured from the Viet Cong in the aftermath of the Tet offensive in 1968.

The quote became more familiar with 'town' being replaced by 'village' after many similar incidents occurred during the Vietnam war.

Answer: Battle Cruisers

Beatty was in a running fight with his battle cruiser squadron against admiral Hipper's battle cruisers off the Jutland peninsular on the afternoon of May 31 1916 in a prelude to the clash of the dreadnaughts of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet. The plunging fire at long range from Hipper's ships fatally exposed a weakness in the design of the British battle cruisers which had been built for speed and hitting power at the expense of protection.

The German shells were able to penetrate the relatively thinly armoured topsides of the ships causing fatal explosions below decks from exploding magazines. 'HMS Invincible' was also blown up later in the battle in similar circumstances with over 1000 crewmen going down with each of these ships. By contrast, 'HMS Warspite' a brand new heavily armoured Super- Dreadnaught, suffered 13 hits during the battle and still remained in fighting trim. Sadly the same lesson was reinforced in May 1941 when the 'Bismarck' sank the Battle cruiser 'HMS Hood' at long range.

Answer: 1948

There is a classic picture of a beaming President Truman holding up this headline as he claimed victory in the 1948 election. The 'Chicago Tribune' made this bold prediction on the basis of early exit polls and rushed out this early edition. One of the more memorable wrong calls of the 20th century!

Answer: 1890

In 1890 this so called 'battle' took place as troops from the US 7th cavalry (of Little Big Horn fame) attempted disarm Sioux Indians in order to move them to Omaha. About 200 Sioux were killed in the subsequent massacre many of them women and children.

The move was in response to overwhelming pressure from white settlers which lead the government to break a treaty they had with the Sioux ordering them to be moved to a reservation. A scuffle took place leading to indiscriminate shooting by the troops with some reportedly yelling "Remember the Little Big Horn" and "Remember Custer" as they fired indiscriminately into the crowd at point blank range. Public reaction to the massacre at the time was generally favourable with 20 medals of Honour being awarded to some of the perpetrators! The attitude is perhaps best summed up by this quote from a contemporary newspaper columnist: 'Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untameable creatures from the face of the earth'.

Answer: 12

'The Thousand Year Reich' lasted just 12 years from 1933-45. It was intended to link the Third Reich with its predecessors, the Holy Roman Empire or First Reich which lasted in various forms from 843-1806, and the German Empire created by Bismarck in 1871 and abolished at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 (the Second Reich).

When the Nazi's forced the Enabling act through the Reichstag in 1933 Hitler had the excuse he needed to transform the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich. Fortunately for the rest of the world this 'Thousand' year Reich collapsed in ruin in 1945.

Answer: Co-Prosperity Sphere

The reality of the 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' was at odds with its grandiose sounding name. These conquered territories became just a resource area for Japan and the brutality and racism dished out to their new subjects was worse than anything the displaced colonialist powers had practiced.

They promoted phrases like 'Asia for the Asians' and the need to liberate their countries from the Imperialist powers in order to create an Asian block led by Japan. The 'Sphere' collapsed with the surrender of Japan in 1945 and the forces of home grown nationalism were unleashed across the region.

Answer: True

Believe it or not it's true. The impotent government in Tokyo collapsed to be replaced by one that sanctioned the Army's action after pressure from public opinion, and labelled the action an 'Incident'. Officers of the Kwantung Army were becoming alarmed at growing signs of Chinese unity which would challenge their presence in the province. (Japan had become the dominant power in the region in 1905 following their victory in the Russo-Japanese War.) A phoney plot was staged when a section railroad near the city of Mukden (the present day city of Shenyang) was blown up and nearby Chinese troops were blamed thus giving the Japanese the excuse they needed to attack them.

The local Chinese commander was ordered not to offer any resistance by Chiang Kai-Shek who was busy subduing warlords elsewhere in the country.

The whole of Manchuria was occupied and the Japanese set up the puppet state of Manchukuo with Henry Pu Yi, the last Qing emperor, as its head of state. The episode is sometimes referred to as 'The Mukden Incident'.

Answer: Sixth

This was another example from Joseph Goebble's propaganda ministry for shameless distortion of the truth. No mention was made of the 130,000 members of the Sixth Army who were captured after weeks of upbeat statements about the progress of the conflict.

There was not even a mention that the Army was encircled in a pocket or Kessel till mid January after the jaws of the Red Army's vast encirclement had slammed shut on Nov 22 trapping the Sixth Army along with Romanian and Italian contingents. The Luftwaffe lost 488 transports in a futile attempt to save the garrison after Goering's boast that it was up to the job and an attempt to break through to the Kessel was frustrated by Hitler's refusal to allow the trapped Army to retreat from Stalingrad.

Answer: Vietnam War

This classic piece if Orwellian doublespeak came into vogue during the Vietnam War. The term was borrowed from French commandos in Algeria by the CIA as part of their Phoenix programme. It meant to hit an area of enemy activity as hard as possible reducing it to rubble - that is, pacified. Along the lines of 'War is Peace' or 'Lies are Truth'.