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National Fascist Party

2019-03-10T17:27:23Z

NicoAlberti5: created the page

The National Fascist Party was the only legal Italian political party during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, between 1925 and 1943.

Nazi Party

2019-03-10T03:29:08Z

NicoAlberti5: I corrected information

{{PoliticalParty
| party_name = National Socialist German Workers' Party
| party_logo =[[Image:Flag of Nazi Germany.png|center|thumb|upright]]
| website =
| leader = [[Adolf Hitler]]
| Parleader = Anton Drexler
| foundation = 1920
| ideology = [[Fascism]] [[National Socialism]] 
| position = ''Fiscal'': [[Socialism]] ''Social'': [[Racism]] [[Anti-Semitism]] 
| international =
| colors = red, black, white and brown
| footnotes =
}}
The '''Nazi Party''' ('''NSDAP''', formally the ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or in English ''National Socialist German Workers' Party''<ref>"Nazi" comes from the first word in the party's name, '''Na'''tionalso'''zi'''alistische.
</ref>) was a [[totalitarian]] movement and [[political party]] in [[Germany]] from 1920–1945. After 1921, it was controlled by [[Adolf Hitler]]. In January 1933 the Nazis came to national power in Germany and took control of the government and most sectors of Germany's society and economy. The Nazi regime in Germany 1933–45 called itself the '''[[Third Reich]]'''.<ref>The German ''Drittes Reich'' means "Third Empire", after the [[Holy Roman Empire]] of 900–1806 and the [[German Empire]] of 1871–1918.</ref>

The Nazis rearmed Germany, started [[World War II]] in Europe, conquered its neighboring countries, murdered between 5.5 and 6 million Jews and an additional five million non-Jewish victims in the [[Holocaust]] and was finally destroyed by the [[Allies]] (the [[United States]], [[Britain]] and the [[Soviet Union]], along with smaller countries) in 1945. Like Hitler, the Nazis have since become synonymous with evil in the modern world.

Despite being called National Socialist, Hitler condemned the Soviet Union and Communism, and after rising to power, outlawed Germany's Communist Party and imprisoned and executed Communists, as he saw the Communists as a rival to the Nazis for control of the far-Left.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080410211317/http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/ Hitler was a Leftist]</ref> Hitler advocated a form of fascism, and in fact, the National Fascist Party, an Italian political party, led by Hitler's future ally, Benito Mussolini, at the same time, had similar policies.

==Foundations==
[[File:Nazi German leaders.jpg|thumb|225px|From left to right: [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Hermann Goering]] [[Joseph Goebbels]], and [[Rudolf Hess]]. Photo taken around 1933–34.]]
[[File:Nuremberg Rally, 1938.jpg|thumb|225px|Nazi rally in [[Nuremberg]], 1938.]]
[[Adolf Hitler]] exploited the myth of the "Stab in the Back," the belief that the [[World War I]] had been lost because "disloyal" elements within Germany – [[Jews]] and [[Marxism|Marxists]] – had undermined the war effort. As [[William Shirer]] put it in ''The Rise and Fall of the [[Third Reich]]'',

<blockquote>
"To him, as to almost all Germans, it was 'monstrous' and undeserved. The German army had not been defeated in the field. It had been stabbed in the back by the traitors at home.

Thus emerged for [[Hitler]], as or so many Germans, a fanatical belief in the legend of the 'stab in the back' which, more than anything else, was to undermine the Weimar Republic and pave the way for Hitler’s ultimate triumph."
<ref name=rise>''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', Book One, "The Rise of Adolf Hitler".</ref>
</blockquote>

The origin of the Nazi Party was a small group originally called the "Committee of Independent Workmen", founded by a toolmaker and locksmith named [[Anton Drexler]] in 1918. It had been set up in reaction to the [[Marxism]] of the free trade unions.<ref name=rise /> A year later in January 1919, Drexler's group merged with another group, the "Political Workers' Circle" to form a new party known as the "German Workers' Party" (''Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or DAP).<ref>Shoah Resource Center, http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205946.pdf</ref><ref>Germanculture.com, http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa012400b.htm</ref>

Adolf Hitler joined the DAP in September 1919 and was put in charge of propaganda in early 1920. Hitler transformed this small group into what we now know as the Nazi Party through his great skill in politics and public speaking. In February 1920, the words "National Socialist" were added to the party name and it became the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" (''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or NSDAP).<ref>McNab, Chris (2009). ''The Third Reich''</ref> This is proof that the Nazis were [[liberal]], despite liberals' claims otherwise. The Storm Troopers (''Sturmabteilung'', [[Brownshirts|SA]]) in their distinctive brown uniforms, were organized first to keep order and kick out hecklers at Nazi meetings, then to break up the meetings of other parties and to protect Nazi Party meetings. The ''hakenkreuz'' (literally: "hooked cross"), or [[swastika]], was adopted as the party's symbol which was used in their blood red flag. In July 1921, Hitler became party chairman, and declared himself leader (''Führer'') of the party.<ref>McNab, (2009). ''The Third Reich''</ref>

*Here we have the core of Nazism: (i) a very strong dose of German anti-semitism (with a paranoid belief in a conspiracy between Jewish financiers who control the capitalist economy and steal from the Germans, Jewish liberal intellectuals who preach humanism and enfeeble the Germans, and Jewish communists who seek to enslave the Germans; (ii) a belief in the German nation and the "aryan" German race as an entity with a special, heroic destiny; (iii) war as the ultimate test of national strength and worth; and (iv) conquest—with extermination or removal of the resident population—to create more "living space" for the German people and larger fields for the German farmers. Add to this (a) the "leadership principle" (''Führerprinzip'') --a hatred of parliamentary institutions, and a belief that a good political order sees an inspired leader giving people vision and commands (rather than see parliamentarians haggle and compromise on behalf of interest groups)--(b) the use of terror to obtain obedience, and (c) the desire to make sure that all of society's organizations serve the national cause, and you have Nazism.<ref>http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Alternatives12.html</ref>

==Anti-Semitism==

The Nazis were highly [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] and blamed the Jews for many of the problems in Germany, such as the defeat in [[World War I]].
The Nazis passed the [[Nuremberg Laws]] in 1935 which stated that:
* Young German women could not work for Jews in the domestic services.
* Jews were no longer citizens of Germany (this meant that they had no protection from the police and so were susceptible to attack)
* Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Germans/Aryans
* Jews could not marry Germans/Aryans
They made laws against Jews ("Rassengesetze", ''race laws'') which places successively tighter restrictions on the rights of Jews to own property, use public services, live in some areas, enter public spaces and eventually required Jews to wear a [[Star of David]] on their clothing.
The Jews were mistreated, persecuted, and killed by the Nazis.
The Nazi state also persecuted other political opponents, such as [[Jehovah's Witnesses]]. State-run hospitals secretly euthanized the very old, the sick, mentally ill and the disabled. Some [[homosexuality|homosexuals]]<ref>Hans Peter Bleuel, ''Sex and Society in Nazi Germany'', (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1973).</ref> came under increasing scrutiny and persecution in the later years of the regime, although other homosexuals were ardent supporters of Adolf Hitler and played an important role in his regime.<ref>[http://www.whale.to/b/reisman.html The Pink Swastika as Holocaust Revisionist History by Judith A. Reisman]</ref>
The Nazis exterminated at least 11 million civilians by rounding them up, transporting them to concentration camps and then murdering them there. About 6 million of these were Jews (see [[Holocaust]]).

==Religion==
Hitler rejected Christianity as spoiled by Judaism, but did support a new pro-Nazi Protestant church that had some followers. The German Army had traditionally used the phrase "Gott mit uns" or "God with us", which was commonly used on their armor and helmets. By World War II it was still used on the army uniform belt-buckles. Hitler in the future, however, planned to minimize the influence of the Christian Protestant churches and Catholic churches, while promoting nationalism and pre-Christian German paganism. Adolf Hitler was raised Roman Catholic as a youth, but he began to despise the church and all of Christianity as too pacifist or a "religion for weaklings".

=== Alfred Rosenberg ===
Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, the party's official philosopher, announced the philosophic basis of the Nazi campaign. In his ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' he scorns the Old Testament, and while he takes Jesus more seriously, he concludes,<ref>Time (Sept 03, 1934)</ref>
:The religion of Jesus was undoubtedly the preaching of love . . . but the German religious movement, which wishes to develop into a people's church, must declare that it unconditionally subordinates the ideal of neighborly love to the ideal of national honor . . . The churches, handed over to it again, will, little by little, put the fiery spirit of the hero . . . in place of the crucifixion."

The outspoken [[pagan]] Rosenberg drew up a thirty-point program for the ''National Reich Church'', created in 1936, which contains the following statements,

*"The National Reich Church of Germany categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich: it declares these to be national churches of the German Reich.
*"The National Church is determined to exterminate irrevocably...the strange and foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800...
*"The National Church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains or priests, but National Reich orators are to speak in them.
*"The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany...'"
*"On the altars there must be nothing but 'Mein Kampf' (to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book) and to the left of the altar a sword.
*"On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels...and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika."<ref>Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', p. 240</ref>

When a Manchester Guardian correspondent attended a Berlin meeting of the German People's Church, he found it a noisy, enthusiastic, a theological free-for-all. One Dr. Krause exclaimed, "The lives and utterances of great Germans must be considered equal to the Bible as revelations..."

=== Pagan cults ===
Throughout Germany strange little [[pagan]] cults were seen to arise, such as the pantheistic Nordic Religious Community.

Youth Leader Hartmann-Lautenbacher stated, "Besides the rock of Jesus Christ there is another: Adolf Hitler. It remains to be seen which of the two is stronger. On the one sit the old women. On the other stands the young generation."

Youth Press Agent August Hoppe exhorted war against Christianity, and a return to [[pagan]] roots.

Similar to what some see today in the West, Youth Leader Joachim Benedicte stated, "...The religious faith of the German people must be decided by political elements, the Storm Troops and the Hitler Youth."<ref>Religion: Nazis v. Jesus Christ, Time. 9-03-1934</ref>

As in Communism, the State, or ''Fatherland'' came to be deified, in the name of which Hitler justified his autocratic decision to kill - for political purposes - a large number of S.A. leaders while they were at a resort, during the "[[Night of the Long Knives]]" (June 30 to July 2, 1934).

Rather than initially attacking Christian faith outright, the Nazi Party deceitfully promoted itself as "positive Christianity," and vigorously opposed what they call "negative Christianity", both terms being Nazi inventions which could mean whatever the local Nazi leader chooses them to mean. In their Manifesto of their "anxieties and fears", the German Evangelical Church quoted Rosenberg as saying, "The general ideas of the Roman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our soul." The Manifesto concludes: "When, within the compass of the Nazi view of life, an anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian that binds him to hatred of the Jew, the Christian injunction to love one's neighbor still stands...The Evangelical conscience is most heavily burdened by the fact that there are still concentration camps in Germany that describes itself as a country in which Justice is administered..."<ref>Time magazine, Aug. 10, 1936, Foreign News: Churchmen to Hitler</ref>

=== Religious persecution ===
Overall however, the spiritual condition of Germany may be seen to have been weak by and during the time of Hitler's rise to power. Protestant churches in Germany had become largely institutionalized, and its power to effect political change decreased. The Catholic Institution had been pressured into a concordant with Hitler, which the latter continually broke. Loyalties were torn as [[National Socialism]] became the cause, and churches were pressured to submit to its ethos.<ref>''A history of national socialism, Cross against Swastika'', by Konrad Heiden</ref><ref>''Pius XII and the Nazis'', by Darlene Shelton</ref> Jews were overall seen negatively, stubborn and ungrateful.<ref>''Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal'', by Dr. Christopher Probst</ref> After their rise to power the Nazis sought to purge the national German Evangelical Church of converted Jews, as well to make the church ideologically submissive to the state. By entertaining the Nazi doctrine of Aryan racial superiority and persecution of Jews, they militated against the authoritative position of the Scriptures. Largely in reaction to such the [[Confessing Church]] emerged. This Protestant church was not recognized by the Nazis, and was persecuted and finally forced underground, as many members and leaders, such as [[Martin Niemöller]], were particularly active in protesting against euthanasia and the persecution of the Jews.<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008; Confessing Church</ref><ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009, Confessing Church</ref>

Measures taken against the Christian Churches were an integral part of National Socialism. An [[OSS]] report to the [[Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal]] Stated,
:"The Nazi conspirators, by promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teaching, sought to subvert the influence of the Churches over the people and in particular over the youth of Germany. They avowed their aim to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany and sought to substitute therefore Nazi institutions and Nazi beliefs and pursued a programme of persecution of priests, clergy and members of monastic orders whom they deemed opposed to their purposes and confiscated Church property."<ref>Claire Hulme & Dr. Michael Salter, [http://www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/articles/RJLR_3_1_2.pdf ''The Nazi's Persecution as a War Crime: The OSS Response Within the Nuremeberg Trial's Process''], Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, n.d.</ref>

Though Christians sometime hold Hitler to be an atheist, and atheists often assert he was a Christian, the best evidence shows him to be neither, in particular failing to be the latter, especially in the Biblical sense of the word (being both the source and most authoritative definition of it). In contrast, evidence reveals that while Hitler shared with many atheists a dramatically skewed idea of what Christianity is, and/or made political use of the term, he was quite the contrary to being a Christian.<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/Hitler-Holocaust-Bible-Scriptural-Anti-Semitism/dp/0982277601 Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis..., by Joe Keysor]</ref>

The resource site Adherents.com states,

There is no question that Hitler was a Nazi. Nazism was clearly his most important religious affiliation, not in the positive way the word "religion" is often defined, but in the general sense that any philosophy or belief system which is most important in a person's life is that person's "religion," regardless of whether or not it is universally labelled as a "religion." Hitler was also born into a Catholic family, but he rejected Catholicism and in most ways he rejected Christianity in general. On occasion we have read people claim that "Hitler was a Catholic" or "Hitler was a Christian" in a meaningful way, implying that Christianity or Catholicism was the primary impetus for his Nazi reign. Such claims are simply vitriolic attacks occasionally voiced by ideologically-inclined anti-Christian, anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi people. Historians agree that Hitler was pointedly anti-Christian. We are not aware of any published sources from acknowledged academic historians or writers that identify Adolf Hitler as significantly Catholic or Christian in his motivations as an adult.”<ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/ph/Adolf_Hitler.html</ref>

=== Hossbach Memorandum ===
In the Hossbach Memorandum, Hitler blamed Christianity for the fall of Rome (rather than such being a judgment due to its degradation, and persecution of Christians and its message), stating: "It was only the disintegrating effect of Christianity, and the symptoms of age which appear in every country, which caused ancient Rome to succumb to the onslaught of the Germans." <ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/hossbach.asp]</ref>

Additionally, Albert Speer records that Hitler lamented, "You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion." and that Islam would have more compatible for them than Christianity.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XLSa_RIDHMUC&dq=Albert+Speer,+Inside+the+Third+Reich,&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=551HSrzDDcm0twf6x7TbBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5 Inside the Third Reich, p. 96]</ref>

In another statement attributed to Hitler, he predicts, "I’m going to become a religious figure. Soon I’ll be the great chief of the Tartars. Already Arabs and Moroccans are mingling my name with their prayers."<ref>Adolf Hitler, cited in Waite, Robert, Adolf Hitler: The Psychopathic God (NY: Basic Books, 1977) p. 261) (Lutzer, pp. 62-63.)</ref>[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2132855/posts?page=101#101]

=== Hitler's Table Talk ===
Clear but disputable evidence reveals Hitler as promoting a form of paganism, which the Nazi Party clearly sought to promote. ''Hitler's Table Talk'' is a series of informal, private conversations among Hitler and his closest associates, as recorded by [[Martin Bormann]] (himself one who was vehemently against Christianity). The ''ex tempore'' remarks excerpted below are attributed to Hitler:<ref>Adolf Hitler, London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1953</ref>

Night of 11–12 July 1941

*"[[National Socialism]] and religion cannot exist together....

"The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity....

*"Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things." (p 6 & 7)

10 October 1941, midday

*"Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure." (p 43)

14 October 1941, midday

*"The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death.... When understanding of the universe has become widespread... Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity....
"Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity.... And that's why someday its structure will collapse....

*"...the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little....
"Christianity <is> the liar...

*"We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State." (p 49-52)

19 October 1941, night

*"The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity."

21 October 1941, midday

*"Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer....

*"The decisive falsification of Jesus' [who he asserts many times was never a Jew] doctrine was the work of St.Paul. He gave himself to this work... for the purposes of personal exploitation....

*"When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who are immunized against the disease." (p 118-119)

14 December 1941, midday

*"Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I don't believe the thing's possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself....

*"Pure Christianity-- the Christianity of the catacombs-- is concerned with translating Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics." (p 119 & 120)

9 April 1942, dinner

*"There is something very unhealthy about Christianity." (p 339)

27 February 1942, midday

*"Our epoch in the next 200 years will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity.... My regret will have been that I couldn't... behold <its demise>." (p 278)

Miscellaneous other quotes include,

*"So it's not opportune to hurl ourselves now into a struggle with the churches. The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has something comforting about it."

*"Christianity, of course, has reached the peak of absurdity in this respect. And that's why one day its structure will collapse. Science has already impregnated humanity. Consequently, the more Christianity clings to its dogmas, the quicker it will decline."

*"We'll see to it that the churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. We shall continue to preach the doctrine of National Socialism, and the young will no longer be taught anything but the truth."

*"Indeed, it's most important that the higher belief should be well established in them before the lower belief has been removed. We must finally achieve this."

*"We do not want to educate anyone in atheism."

*"The observatory I'll have built at Linz, on the Pöstlingberg, I can see it in my mind ... In future, thousands of excursionists will make a pilgrimage there every Sunday. They'll thus have access to the greatness of our universe. The pediment will bear this motto: 'The heavens proclaim the glory of the everlasting.' It will be our way of giving men a religious spirit, of teaching them humility — but without the priests."

*"The final state must be: in St. Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, as gaga and as poor in spirit as anyone could wish."

*"For my part, in his place [the Duce] I'd have taken the path of revolution. I'd have entered the Vatican and thrown everybody out — reserving the right to apologize later: 'Excuse me, it was a mistake!' But the result would have been, they'd have been outside!"
[[Image:Nazi.jpg|thumb|right|250px|"With our flags is our victory"]]
*"But a pope, even a criminal one, who protects great artists and spreads beauty around him, is nevertheless more sympathetic to me than the protestant minister who drinks from the poisoned spring."

*"I have six Divisions of SS composed of men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn't prevent them from going to their deaths with serenity in their souls."

*"The soul and the mind migrate, just as the body returns to nature. Thus life is eternally reborn from life. As for the 'why' of all that, I feel no need to rack my brains on the subject. The soul is unplumbable."<ref>Hitler on Religion: http://library.flawlesslogic.com/religion.htm</ref>

Hitler, much like atheists, is seen to not only have scorned corruptions of Christian faith, but the whole faith as well. Having loosed himself from the moral authority of the Bible (though misappropriating it's "badge" at times for his own purposes) he was much free to be guided by his own "golden compass", which is ultimately the atheistic basis for determining morality. Tragically however, while an innate sense of right can be right, Hitler's compass pointed south rather than north.

==Economic planning==
[[James Burnham]], a former [[Trotskyite]] who served with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) during the World War II and later contributed to the ''[[National Review]]'', described the Nazi regime's [[economic planning]]. Burnham pointed out how the original "workers revolution" of [[Marxism]] had in fact become a managerial revolution in all societies where Socialism had been embraced. Writing in 1940, Burnham noted,

{{Cquote|Outright state ownership and operation, advancing in all fields, are particularly ascendant in the extensive areas of new enterprise opened up during the Nazi rule....virtually all economic enterprise is subject to rigid state control; and it is control which we have seen to be decisive in relation to the instruments of production. Legal forms, even income privileges, are in the end subordinate to ''de facto'' control.

Even where private owners still exist in Germany, the decisions about "their" property are not in their hands. They do not decide what to make or not to make. They do not establish prices or bargain about wages. They are not at liberty to buy the raw materials they might choose nor to seek the most profitable markets. They cannot, as a rule, decide how to invest or not invest their surplus funds. In short, they are no longer owners, no longer effective [[capitalist]]s...

The regulation of production in Germany is no longer left to the market. What is to be produced, and how much, is decided, deliberately, by groups of men, by the state boards and bureaus and commissions. It is they that decide whether a new plant shall be built or an old plant retired, how raw materials shall be allotted and orders distributed, what quotas must be fulfilled by various branches of industry, what goods shall be put aside for export, how prices shall be fixed and credit and exchange extended. There is no requirement that these decisions of the bureaus must be based on any profit aim in the capitalist sense. If it is thought expedient, for whatever reason, to produce, for example, an ersatz rubber or wool or food, this will be done even if the production entails, from a capitalist point of view, a heavy loss. Similarly, in order to accumulate foreign exchange or to stimulate some political effect in a foreign nation, goods will be exported regardless of loss. A factory may be compelled to shut down, even though it could operate at a high profit. Banks and individuals are forced to invest their funds with no reference to the private and voluntary opinions about "risks" from a profit standpoint. It is literally true to say that the Nazi economy, already, is not a "profit economy."

The workers, on their side, are no longer the "free proletarians" of capitalism. Under Nazism the workers are indeed, free from unemployment. At the same time they cannot, as individuals or through their own independent organizations, bargain for wages or change jobs at will. They are assigned to their tasks, and their labor conditions are fixed, by the decisions of the state bureaus and commissions. Millions of them are allotted to the vast state enterprises. ...With the reduction in the area of private enterprise and the increase of state enterprise, goes also a corresponding reduction in the social position of the private capitalists. So far as control over the instruments of production goes, the capitalists are already near the bottom. As to income privilege: a recent estimate by a New York statistician gives as a mere 5% the share of the German national income going to profits and interest. This is a substantial reduction from the 1933 figures, in spite of a huge increase in the total national income, which, under capitalism, would normally be accompanied by a percentage increase in profits. ...f the German capitalists' 5%, the greater part is appropriated by the state as taxes and "contributions." ...

...how seldom we find a manager among the voluntary or forced exiles from Nazi Germany! There are artists and writers among the exiles, ideologists and politicians, unassailable foes of the new regime, storekeepers and professionals and teachers, and not a few capitalists, both Jews and Christians. But almost never a manager....Germany is to-day a managerial state in an early stage. Structurally, it is less advanced along managerial lines than Russia; ...though structurally less advanced...Its industrial and technological foundation is far stronger; the rising managerial class is much larger, better trained, more able...

...The first part of the second world war, up to the fall of France in June, 1940, was in reality the continuation of the strategic extension begun in 1935. This phase, the consolidation of the European base, was completed with France's surrender. It is completed irreversibly and can no longer be undone whatever the outcome of the succeeding phases of the war, which are really other wars. This consolidation fundamental to the world politics of managerial society, is not going to be dissolved, not even if the present German regime is utterly defeated. The day of a Europe carved into a score of sovereign states is over; if the states remain, they will be little more than administrative units in a larger collectivity.<ref>Burnham, James (1966). ''The Managerial Revolution'', Indiana University Press, Bloomingham, pp. 222-226, 232.</ref>}}

==See also==
*[[Anti-Semitism]]
*[[National Socialism]]
*[[Nazi Germany and homosexuality]]
*[[Communism]]
*[[Far Left]]
*[[Health care in Nazi Germany]]
*[[Hugo Boss]] - supplier of party uniforms

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Alternatives12.html Marxism, Fascism, Nazism] - Brad DeLong, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley
*Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis of Anti-Semitism, National Socialism, and the Churches in Nazi Germany, by Joe Keysor
{{Liberalism}}
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:German History]]
[[Category:Holocaust]]
[[Category:Political Parties in Germany]]
[[Category:Fascist States]]
[[Category:Nazis]]
[[Category:Anti-Christianity]]
[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]
[[Category:Racist Organizations]]
[[Category:Oppression]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Police State]]

Nazi Party

2019-03-10T03:26:47Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

{{PoliticalParty
| party_name = National Socialist German Workers' Party
| party_logo =[[Image:Flag of Nazi Germany.png|center|thumb|upright]]
| website =
| leader = [[Adolf Hitler]]
| Parleader = Anton Drexler
| foundation = 1920
| ideology = [[Fascism]] [[National Socialism]] 
| position = ''Fiscal'': [[Socialism]] ''Social'': [[Racism]] , [[Anti-Semitism]] 
| international =
| colors = red, black, white and brown
| footnotes =
}}
The '''Nazi Party''' ('''NSDAP''', formally the ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or in English ''National Socialist German Workers' Party''<ref>"Nazi" comes from the first word in the party's name, '''Na'''tionalso'''zi'''alistische.
</ref>) was a [[totalitarian]] movement and [[political party]] in [[Germany]] from 1920–1945. After 1921, it was controlled by [[Adolf Hitler]]. In January 1933 the Nazis came to national power in Germany and took control of the government and most sectors of Germany's society and economy. The Nazi regime in Germany 1933–45 called itself the '''[[Third Reich]]'''.<ref>The German ''Drittes Reich'' means "Third Empire", after the [[Holy Roman Empire]] of 900–1806 and the [[German Empire]] of 1871–1918.</ref>

The Nazis rearmed Germany, started [[World War II]] in Europe, conquered its neighboring countries, murdered between 5.5 and 6 million Jews and an additional five million non-Jewish victims in the [[Holocaust]] and was finally destroyed by the [[Allies]] (the [[United States]], [[Britain]] and the [[Soviet Union]], along with smaller countries) in 1945. Like Hitler, the Nazis have since become synonymous with evil in the modern world.

Despite being called National Socialist, Hitler condemned the Soviet Union and Communism, and after rising to power, outlawed Germany's Communist Party and imprisoned and executed Communists, as he saw the Communists as a rival to the Nazis for control of the far-Left.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080410211317/http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/ Hitler was a Leftist]</ref> Hitler advocated a form of fascism, and in fact, the National Fascist Party, an Italian political party, led by Hitler's future ally, Benito Mussolini, at the same time, had similar policies.

==Foundations==
[[File:Nazi German leaders.jpg|thumb|225px|From left to right: [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Hermann Goering]] [[Joseph Goebbels]], and [[Rudolf Hess]]. Photo taken around 1933–34.]]
[[File:Nuremberg Rally, 1938.jpg|thumb|225px|Nazi rally in [[Nuremberg]], 1938.]]
[[Adolf Hitler]] exploited the myth of the "Stab in the Back," the belief that the [[World War I]] had been lost because "disloyal" elements within Germany – [[Jews]] and [[Marxism|Marxists]] – had undermined the war effort. As [[William Shirer]] put it in ''The Rise and Fall of the [[Third Reich]]'',

<blockquote>
"To him, as to almost all Germans, it was 'monstrous' and undeserved. The German army had not been defeated in the field. It had been stabbed in the back by the traitors at home.

Thus emerged for [[Hitler]], as or so many Germans, a fanatical belief in the legend of the 'stab in the back' which, more than anything else, was to undermine the Weimar Republic and pave the way for Hitler’s ultimate triumph."
<ref name=rise>''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', Book One, "The Rise of Adolf Hitler".</ref>
</blockquote>

The origin of the Nazi Party was a small group originally called the "Committee of Independent Workmen", founded by a toolmaker and locksmith named [[Anton Drexler]] in 1918. It had been set up in reaction to the [[Marxism]] of the free trade unions.<ref name=rise /> A year later in January 1919, Drexler's group merged with another group, the "Political Workers' Circle" to form a new party known as the "German Workers' Party" (''Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or DAP).<ref>Shoah Resource Center, http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205946.pdf</ref><ref>Germanculture.com, http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa012400b.htm</ref>

Adolf Hitler joined the DAP in September 1919 and was put in charge of propaganda in early 1920. Hitler transformed this small group into what we now know as the Nazi Party through his great skill in politics and public speaking. In February 1920, the words "National Socialist" were added to the party name and it became the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" (''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or NSDAP).<ref>McNab, Chris (2009). ''The Third Reich''</ref> This is proof that the Nazis were [[liberal]], despite liberals' claims otherwise. The Storm Troopers (''Sturmabteilung'', [[Brownshirts|SA]]) in their distinctive brown uniforms, were organized first to keep order and kick out hecklers at Nazi meetings, then to break up the meetings of other parties and to protect Nazi Party meetings. The ''hakenkreuz'' (literally: "hooked cross"), or [[swastika]], was adopted as the party's symbol which was used in their blood red flag. In July 1921, Hitler became party chairman, and declared himself leader (''Führer'') of the party.<ref>McNab, (2009). ''The Third Reich''</ref>

*Here we have the core of Nazism: (i) a very strong dose of German anti-semitism (with a paranoid belief in a conspiracy between Jewish financiers who control the capitalist economy and steal from the Germans, Jewish liberal intellectuals who preach humanism and enfeeble the Germans, and Jewish communists who seek to enslave the Germans; (ii) a belief in the German nation and the "aryan" German race as an entity with a special, heroic destiny; (iii) war as the ultimate test of national strength and worth; and (iv) conquest—with extermination or removal of the resident population—to create more "living space" for the German people and larger fields for the German farmers. Add to this (a) the "leadership principle" (''Führerprinzip'') --a hatred of parliamentary institutions, and a belief that a good political order sees an inspired leader giving people vision and commands (rather than see parliamentarians haggle and compromise on behalf of interest groups)--(b) the use of terror to obtain obedience, and (c) the desire to make sure that all of society's organizations serve the national cause, and you have Nazism.<ref>http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Alternatives12.html</ref>

==Anti-Semitism==

The Nazis were highly [[Anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] and blamed the Jews for many of the problems in Germany, such as the defeat in [[World War I]].
The Nazis passed the [[Nuremberg Laws]] in 1935 which stated that:
* Young German women could not work for Jews in the domestic services.
* Jews were no longer citizens of Germany (this meant that they had no protection from the police and so were susceptible to attack)
* Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Germans/Aryans
* Jews could not marry Germans/Aryans
They made laws against Jews ("Rassengesetze", ''race laws'') which places successively tighter restrictions on the rights of Jews to own property, use public services, live in some areas, enter public spaces and eventually required Jews to wear a [[Star of David]] on their clothing.
The Jews were mistreated, persecuted, and killed by the Nazis.
The Nazi state also persecuted other political opponents, such as [[Jehovah's Witnesses]]. State-run hospitals secretly euthanized the very old, the sick, mentally ill and the disabled. Some [[homosexuality|homosexuals]]<ref>Hans Peter Bleuel, ''Sex and Society in Nazi Germany'', (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1973).</ref> came under increasing scrutiny and persecution in the later years of the regime, although other homosexuals were ardent supporters of Adolf Hitler and played an important role in his regime.<ref>[http://www.whale.to/b/reisman.html The Pink Swastika as Holocaust Revisionist History by Judith A. Reisman]</ref>
The Nazis exterminated at least 11 million civilians by rounding them up, transporting them to concentration camps and then murdering them there. About 6 million of these were Jews (see [[Holocaust]]).

==Religion==
Hitler rejected Christianity as spoiled by Judaism, but did support a new pro-Nazi Protestant church that had some followers. The German Army had traditionally used the phrase "Gott mit uns" or "God with us", which was commonly used on their armor and helmets. By World War II it was still used on the army uniform belt-buckles. Hitler in the future, however, planned to minimize the influence of the Christian Protestant churches and Catholic churches, while promoting nationalism and pre-Christian German paganism. Adolf Hitler was raised Roman Catholic as a youth, but he began to despise the church and all of Christianity as too pacifist or a "religion for weaklings".

=== Alfred Rosenberg ===
Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, the party's official philosopher, announced the philosophic basis of the Nazi campaign. In his ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' he scorns the Old Testament, and while he takes Jesus more seriously, he concludes,<ref>Time (Sept 03, 1934)</ref>
:The religion of Jesus was undoubtedly the preaching of love . . . but the German religious movement, which wishes to develop into a people's church, must declare that it unconditionally subordinates the ideal of neighborly love to the ideal of national honor . . . The churches, handed over to it again, will, little by little, put the fiery spirit of the hero . . . in place of the crucifixion."

The outspoken [[pagan]] Rosenberg drew up a thirty-point program for the ''National Reich Church'', created in 1936, which contains the following statements,

*"The National Reich Church of Germany categorically claims the exclusive right and the exclusive power to control all churches within the borders of the Reich: it declares these to be national churches of the German Reich.
*"The National Church is determined to exterminate irrevocably...the strange and foreign Christian faiths imported into Germany in the ill-omened year 800...
*"The National Church has no scribes, pastors, chaplains or priests, but National Reich orators are to speak in them.
*"The National Church demands immediate cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany...'"
*"On the altars there must be nothing but 'Mein Kampf' (to the German nation and therefore to God the most sacred book) and to the left of the altar a sword.
*"On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels...and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika."<ref>Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', p. 240</ref>

When a Manchester Guardian correspondent attended a Berlin meeting of the German People's Church, he found it a noisy, enthusiastic, a theological free-for-all. One Dr. Krause exclaimed, "The lives and utterances of great Germans must be considered equal to the Bible as revelations..."

=== Pagan cults ===
Throughout Germany strange little [[pagan]] cults were seen to arise, such as the pantheistic Nordic Religious Community.

Youth Leader Hartmann-Lautenbacher stated, "Besides the rock of Jesus Christ there is another: Adolf Hitler. It remains to be seen which of the two is stronger. On the one sit the old women. On the other stands the young generation."

Youth Press Agent August Hoppe exhorted war against Christianity, and a return to [[pagan]] roots.

Similar to what some see today in the West, Youth Leader Joachim Benedicte stated, "...The religious faith of the German people must be decided by political elements, the Storm Troops and the Hitler Youth."<ref>Religion: Nazis v. Jesus Christ, Time. 9-03-1934</ref>

As in Communism, the State, or ''Fatherland'' came to be deified, in the name of which Hitler justified his autocratic decision to kill - for political purposes - a large number of S.A. leaders while they were at a resort, during the "[[Night of the Long Knives]]" (June 30 to July 2, 1934).

Rather than initially attacking Christian faith outright, the Nazi Party deceitfully promoted itself as "positive Christianity," and vigorously opposed what they call "negative Christianity", both terms being Nazi inventions which could mean whatever the local Nazi leader chooses them to mean. In their Manifesto of their "anxieties and fears", the German Evangelical Church quoted Rosenberg as saying, "The general ideas of the Roman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our soul." The Manifesto concludes: "When, within the compass of the Nazi view of life, an anti-Semitism is forced on the Christian that binds him to hatred of the Jew, the Christian injunction to love one's neighbor still stands...The Evangelical conscience is most heavily burdened by the fact that there are still concentration camps in Germany that describes itself as a country in which Justice is administered..."<ref>Time magazine, Aug. 10, 1936, Foreign News: Churchmen to Hitler</ref>

=== Religious persecution ===
Overall however, the spiritual condition of Germany may be seen to have been weak by and during the time of Hitler's rise to power. Protestant churches in Germany had become largely institutionalized, and its power to effect political change decreased. The Catholic Institution had been pressured into a concordant with Hitler, which the latter continually broke. Loyalties were torn as [[National Socialism]] became the cause, and churches were pressured to submit to its ethos.<ref>''A history of national socialism, Cross against Swastika'', by Konrad Heiden</ref><ref>''Pius XII and the Nazis'', by Darlene Shelton</ref> Jews were overall seen negatively, stubborn and ungrateful.<ref>''Martin Luther and "The Jews" A Reappraisal'', by Dr. Christopher Probst</ref> After their rise to power the Nazis sought to purge the national German Evangelical Church of converted Jews, as well to make the church ideologically submissive to the state. By entertaining the Nazi doctrine of Aryan racial superiority and persecution of Jews, they militated against the authoritative position of the Scriptures. Largely in reaction to such the [[Confessing Church]] emerged. This Protestant church was not recognized by the Nazis, and was persecuted and finally forced underground, as many members and leaders, such as [[Martin Niemöller]], were particularly active in protesting against euthanasia and the persecution of the Jews.<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008; Confessing Church</ref><ref>Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009, Confessing Church</ref>

Measures taken against the Christian Churches were an integral part of National Socialism. An [[OSS]] report to the [[Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal]] Stated,
:"The Nazi conspirators, by promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teaching, sought to subvert the influence of the Churches over the people and in particular over the youth of Germany. They avowed their aim to eliminate the Christian Churches in Germany and sought to substitute therefore Nazi institutions and Nazi beliefs and pursued a programme of persecution of priests, clergy and members of monastic orders whom they deemed opposed to their purposes and confiscated Church property."<ref>Claire Hulme & Dr. Michael Salter, [http://www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/articles/RJLR_3_1_2.pdf ''The Nazi's Persecution as a War Crime: The OSS Response Within the Nuremeberg Trial's Process''], Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, n.d.</ref>

Though Christians sometime hold Hitler to be an atheist, and atheists often assert he was a Christian, the best evidence shows him to be neither, in particular failing to be the latter, especially in the Biblical sense of the word (being both the source and most authoritative definition of it). In contrast, evidence reveals that while Hitler shared with many atheists a dramatically skewed idea of what Christianity is, and/or made political use of the term, he was quite the contrary to being a Christian.<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/Hitler-Holocaust-Bible-Scriptural-Anti-Semitism/dp/0982277601 Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis..., by Joe Keysor]</ref>

The resource site Adherents.com states,

There is no question that Hitler was a Nazi. Nazism was clearly his most important religious affiliation, not in the positive way the word "religion" is often defined, but in the general sense that any philosophy or belief system which is most important in a person's life is that person's "religion," regardless of whether or not it is universally labelled as a "religion." Hitler was also born into a Catholic family, but he rejected Catholicism and in most ways he rejected Christianity in general. On occasion we have read people claim that "Hitler was a Catholic" or "Hitler was a Christian" in a meaningful way, implying that Christianity or Catholicism was the primary impetus for his Nazi reign. Such claims are simply vitriolic attacks occasionally voiced by ideologically-inclined anti-Christian, anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi people. Historians agree that Hitler was pointedly anti-Christian. We are not aware of any published sources from acknowledged academic historians or writers that identify Adolf Hitler as significantly Catholic or Christian in his motivations as an adult.”<ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/ph/Adolf_Hitler.html</ref>

=== Hossbach Memorandum ===
In the Hossbach Memorandum, Hitler blamed Christianity for the fall of Rome (rather than such being a judgment due to its degradation, and persecution of Christians and its message), stating: "It was only the disintegrating effect of Christianity, and the symptoms of age which appear in every country, which caused ancient Rome to succumb to the onslaught of the Germans." <ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/hossbach.asp]</ref>

Additionally, Albert Speer records that Hitler lamented, "You see, it’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion." and that Islam would have more compatible for them than Christianity.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XLSa_RIDHMUC&dq=Albert+Speer,+Inside+the+Third+Reich,&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=551HSrzDDcm0twf6x7TbBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5 Inside the Third Reich, p. 96]</ref>

In another statement attributed to Hitler, he predicts, "I’m going to become a religious figure. Soon I’ll be the great chief of the Tartars. Already Arabs and Moroccans are mingling my name with their prayers."<ref>Adolf Hitler, cited in Waite, Robert, Adolf Hitler: The Psychopathic God (NY: Basic Books, 1977) p. 261) (Lutzer, pp. 62-63.)</ref>[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2132855/posts?page=101#101]

=== Hitler's Table Talk ===
Clear but disputable evidence reveals Hitler as promoting a form of paganism, which the Nazi Party clearly sought to promote. ''Hitler's Table Talk'' is a series of informal, private conversations among Hitler and his closest associates, as recorded by [[Martin Bormann]] (himself one who was vehemently against Christianity). The ''ex tempore'' remarks excerpted below are attributed to Hitler:<ref>Adolf Hitler, London, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1953</ref>

Night of 11–12 July 1941

*"[[National Socialism]] and religion cannot exist together....

"The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity....

*"Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things." (p 6 & 7)

10 October 1941, midday

*"Christianity is a rebellion against natural law, a protest against nature. Taken to its logical extreme, Christianity would mean the systematic cultivation of the human failure." (p 43)

14 October 1941, midday

*"The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death.... When understanding of the universe has become widespread... Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity....
"Christianity has reached the peak of absurdity.... And that's why someday its structure will collapse....

*"...the only way to get rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little....
"Christianity <is> the liar...

*"We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State." (p 49-52)

19 October 1941, night

*"The reason why the ancient world was so pure, light and serene was that it knew nothing of the two great scourges: the pox and Christianity."

21 October 1941, midday

*"Originally, Christianity was merely an incarnation of Bolshevism, the destroyer....

*"The decisive falsification of Jesus' [who he asserts many times was never a Jew] doctrine was the work of St.Paul. He gave himself to this work... for the purposes of personal exploitation....

*"When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let's be the only people who are immunized against the disease." (p 118-119)

14 December 1941, midday

*"Kerrl, with noblest of intentions, wanted to attempt a synthesis between National Socialism and Christianity. I don't believe the thing's possible, and I see the obstacle in Christianity itself....

*"Pure Christianity-- the Christianity of the catacombs-- is concerned with translating Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics." (p 119 & 120)

9 April 1942, dinner

*"There is something very unhealthy about Christianity." (p 339)

27 February 1942, midday

*"Our epoch in the next 200 years will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity.... My regret will have been that I couldn't... behold <its demise>." (p 278)

Miscellaneous other quotes include,

*"So it's not opportune to hurl ourselves now into a struggle with the churches. The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has something comforting about it."

*"Christianity, of course, has reached the peak of absurdity in this respect. And that's why one day its structure will collapse. Science has already impregnated humanity. Consequently, the more Christianity clings to its dogmas, the quicker it will decline."

*"We'll see to it that the churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. We shall continue to preach the doctrine of National Socialism, and the young will no longer be taught anything but the truth."

*"Indeed, it's most important that the higher belief should be well established in them before the lower belief has been removed. We must finally achieve this."

*"We do not want to educate anyone in atheism."

*"The observatory I'll have built at Linz, on the Pöstlingberg, I can see it in my mind ... In future, thousands of excursionists will make a pilgrimage there every Sunday. They'll thus have access to the greatness of our universe. The pediment will bear this motto: 'The heavens proclaim the glory of the everlasting.' It will be our way of giving men a religious spirit, of teaching them humility — but without the priests."

*"The final state must be: in St. Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, as gaga and as poor in spirit as anyone could wish."

*"For my part, in his place [the Duce] I'd have taken the path of revolution. I'd have entered the Vatican and thrown everybody out — reserving the right to apologize later: 'Excuse me, it was a mistake!' But the result would have been, they'd have been outside!"
[[Image:Nazi.jpg|thumb|right|250px|"With our flags is our victory"]]
*"But a pope, even a criminal one, who protects great artists and spreads beauty around him, is nevertheless more sympathetic to me than the protestant minister who drinks from the poisoned spring."

*"I have six Divisions of SS composed of men absolutely indifferent in matters of religion. It doesn't prevent them from going to their deaths with serenity in their souls."

*"The soul and the mind migrate, just as the body returns to nature. Thus life is eternally reborn from life. As for the 'why' of all that, I feel no need to rack my brains on the subject. The soul is unplumbable."<ref>Hitler on Religion: http://library.flawlesslogic.com/religion.htm</ref>

Hitler, much like atheists, is seen to not only have scorned corruptions of Christian faith, but the whole faith as well. Having loosed himself from the moral authority of the Bible (though misappropriating it's "badge" at times for his own purposes) he was much free to be guided by his own "golden compass", which is ultimately the atheistic basis for determining morality. Tragically however, while an innate sense of right can be right, Hitler's compass pointed south rather than north.

==Economic planning==
[[James Burnham]], a former [[Trotskyite]] who served with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (OSS) during the World War II and later contributed to the ''[[National Review]]'', described the Nazi regime's [[economic planning]]. Burnham pointed out how the original "workers revolution" of [[Marxism]] had in fact become a managerial revolution in all societies where Socialism had been embraced. Writing in 1940, Burnham noted,

{{Cquote|Outright state ownership and operation, advancing in all fields, are particularly ascendant in the extensive areas of new enterprise opened up during the Nazi rule....virtually all economic enterprise is subject to rigid state control; and it is control which we have seen to be decisive in relation to the instruments of production. Legal forms, even income privileges, are in the end subordinate to ''de facto'' control.

Even where private owners still exist in Germany, the decisions about "their" property are not in their hands. They do not decide what to make or not to make. They do not establish prices or bargain about wages. They are not at liberty to buy the raw materials they might choose nor to seek the most profitable markets. They cannot, as a rule, decide how to invest or not invest their surplus funds. In short, they are no longer owners, no longer effective [[capitalist]]s...

The regulation of production in Germany is no longer left to the market. What is to be produced, and how much, is decided, deliberately, by groups of men, by the state boards and bureaus and commissions. It is they that decide whether a new plant shall be built or an old plant retired, how raw materials shall be allotted and orders distributed, what quotas must be fulfilled by various branches of industry, what goods shall be put aside for export, how prices shall be fixed and credit and exchange extended. There is no requirement that these decisions of the bureaus must be based on any profit aim in the capitalist sense. If it is thought expedient, for whatever reason, to produce, for example, an ersatz rubber or wool or food, this will be done even if the production entails, from a capitalist point of view, a heavy loss. Similarly, in order to accumulate foreign exchange or to stimulate some political effect in a foreign nation, goods will be exported regardless of loss. A factory may be compelled to shut down, even though it could operate at a high profit. Banks and individuals are forced to invest their funds with no reference to the private and voluntary opinions about "risks" from a profit standpoint. It is literally true to say that the Nazi economy, already, is not a "profit economy."

The workers, on their side, are no longer the "free proletarians" of capitalism. Under Nazism the workers are indeed, free from unemployment. At the same time they cannot, as individuals or through their own independent organizations, bargain for wages or change jobs at will. They are assigned to their tasks, and their labor conditions are fixed, by the decisions of the state bureaus and commissions. Millions of them are allotted to the vast state enterprises. ...With the reduction in the area of private enterprise and the increase of state enterprise, goes also a corresponding reduction in the social position of the private capitalists. So far as control over the instruments of production goes, the capitalists are already near the bottom. As to income privilege: a recent estimate by a New York statistician gives as a mere 5% the share of the German national income going to profits and interest. This is a substantial reduction from the 1933 figures, in spite of a huge increase in the total national income, which, under capitalism, would normally be accompanied by a percentage increase in profits. ...f the German capitalists' 5%, the greater part is appropriated by the state as taxes and "contributions." ...

...how seldom we find a manager among the voluntary or forced exiles from Nazi Germany! There are artists and writers among the exiles, ideologists and politicians, unassailable foes of the new regime, storekeepers and professionals and teachers, and not a few capitalists, both Jews and Christians. But almost never a manager....Germany is to-day a managerial state in an early stage. Structurally, it is less advanced along managerial lines than Russia; ...though structurally less advanced...Its industrial and technological foundation is far stronger; the rising managerial class is much larger, better trained, more able...

...The first part of the second world war, up to the fall of France in June, 1940, was in reality the continuation of the strategic extension begun in 1935. This phase, the consolidation of the European base, was completed with France's surrender. It is completed irreversibly and can no longer be undone whatever the outcome of the succeeding phases of the war, which are really other wars. This consolidation fundamental to the world politics of managerial society, is not going to be dissolved, not even if the present German regime is utterly defeated. The day of a Europe carved into a score of sovereign states is over; if the states remain, they will be little more than administrative units in a larger collectivity.<ref>Burnham, James (1966). ''The Managerial Revolution'', Indiana University Press, Bloomingham, pp. 222-226, 232.</ref>}}

==See also==
*[[Anti-Semitism]]
*[[National Socialism]]
*[[Nazi Germany and homosexuality]]
*[[Communism]]
*[[Far Left]]
*[[Health care in Nazi Germany]]
*[[Hugo Boss]] - supplier of party uniforms

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Alternatives12.html Marxism, Fascism, Nazism] - Brad DeLong, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley
*Hitler, the Holocaust, and the Bible: A Scriptural Analysis of Anti-Semitism, National Socialism, and the Churches in Nazi Germany, by Joe Keysor
{{Liberalism}}
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:German History]]
[[Category:Holocaust]]
[[Category:Political Parties in Germany]]
[[Category:Fascist States]]
[[Category:Nazis]]
[[Category:Anti-Christianity]]
[[Category:Anti-Semitism]]
[[Category:Racist Organizations]]
[[Category:Oppression]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Police State]]

Juan Peron

2019-03-06T03:24:39Z

NicoAlberti5:

'''Juan Perón''' (1895–1974) was the brutal dictator of [[Argentina]] from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974. As head of an army group, he helped to overthrow [[Ramon Castillo]] in 1943. During his first Presidency, he was married to [[Eva Peron|Eva Perón]], the subject of the musical ''[[Evita (musical)|Evita]],'' who was very popular with the people.

Peron was very [[Anti-Americanism|anti-American]] and hat close ties to [[Nazi Germany]]. He was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in case of his anti-Christian laws. Peron legalized divorce and [[Prostitution]] and he banned religious instruction in public schools.<ref>http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/juan-per%C3%B3n-overthrown</ref>

Church and army opposition to [[corruption]] and [[repression]] forced Perón into exile in 1955, but he returned in 1973 to serve briefly as President once again.

He was a member of the [[Justicialist Party]].

After the bombing of the Plaza de Mayo in 1955, Perón was overthrown that same year.

Perón went into exile in Paraguay, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and finally in Spain.

His second wife, a fascist named Eva Perón, supported him from 1946 to 1952, when he died of uterine cancer.

In 1961 he married María Estela Martínez in Spain, who later accompanied him as vice president in 1973 and succeeded him in his death.

== Sources ==
*The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peron, Juan}}
[[Category:Heads of State]]
[[Category:Argentina]]
[[Category:Dictators]]

Juan Peron

2019-03-06T03:22:43Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

'''Juan Perón''' (1895–1974) was the brutal dictator of [[Argentina]] from 1946 to 1955 and from 1973 to 1974. As head of an army group, he helped to overthrow [[Ramon Castillo]] in 1943. During his first Presidency, he was married to [[Eva Peron|Eva Perón]], the subject of the musical ''[[Evita (musical)|Evita]],'' who was very popular with the people. She died in 1952.

Peron was very [[Anti-Americanism|anti-American]] and hat close ties to [[Nazi Germany]]. He was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in case of his anti-Christian laws. Peron legalized divorce and [[Prostitution]] and he banned religious instruction in public schools.<ref>http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/juan-per%C3%B3n-overthrown</ref>

Church and army opposition to [[corruption]] and [[repression]] forced Perón into exile in 1955, but he returned in 1973 to serve briefly as President once again.

He was a member of the [[Justicialist Party]].

After the bombing of the Plaza de Mayo in 1955, Perón was overthrown that same year.

Perón went into exile in Paraguay, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and finally in Spain.

His second wife, a fascist named Eva Perón, supported him from 1946 to 1952, when he died of uterine cancer.

In 1961 he married María Estela Martínez in Spain, who later accompanied him as vice president in 1973 and succeeded him in his death

== Sources ==
*The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peron, Juan}}
[[Category:Heads of State]]
[[Category:Argentina]]
[[Category:Dictators]]

Justicialist Party

2019-03-06T03:12:32Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

The Justicialista Party is an Argentine political party founded by General Juan Domingo Perón in 1946.

Its ideals are the defense of social justice, the rights of workers and the Third Position (anti-capitalist and anti-marxist).

He came to the Presidency nine times: Juan Domingo Perón, with three terms; Carlos Saúl Menem, with two mandates; Néstor Kirchner with one mandate and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with two terms.

These people were also Presidents, but for short periods: María Estela Martínez de Perón (for the death of Perón in 1974), Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (interim for the resignation of Fernando de la Rúa in 2001) and Eduardo Duhalde (by election of the Congress after the resignation of Adolfo Rodríguez Saá in 2002).

He was overthrown twice: in 1955, to remove the tyrant of Juan Perón, and in 1976 by an anti-Communist coup.

He was banned from 1955 to 1973 by the Armed Forces.

It is the Argentine party with the largest number of members, with 3,533,407 members. His followers are known as "Peronists."

Argentina

2019-03-05T23:29:21Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

{{Country
|name =''República Argentina''
|map =Argentina rel96.jpg
|map2 =Argentina1.png
|flag =Flag of Argentina.png
|arms =Arms of Argentina.png
|capital =Buenos Aires
|capital-raw =
|government =Federal republic
|government-raw =
|language =Spanish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Mauricio Macri
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =
|pm-raw =
|area =2.780.400 km
|pop =44.494.502
|pop-basis =2011
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$637.6 billion (2019)
|gdp-pc =$14,401.97(2018)
|currency =peso
|idd =
|tld =
}}

The second largest country in [[South America]] (after [[Brazil]]). The form of government is republican, democratic, representative and federal.

==People==
[[File:Tipical dance Mataderos Buenos Aires.jpg|left|250px]]
Argentines are a fusion of diverse national and ethnic groups, with descendants of Italian and Spanish immigrants predominant (97%). Waves of immigrants from many European countries arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Syrian, Lebanese, and other Middle Eastern immigrants number about 500,000 to 600,000, mainly in urban areas. Argentina's population is overwhelmingly Catholic, but it also has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, estimated at between 280,000 and 300,000. In recent years, there has been a substantial influx of immigrants from neighboring countries, particularly Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. The indigenous population, estimated at 700,000, is concentrated in the provinces of the north, northwest, and south. The Argentine population has one of Latin America's lowest growth rates. Eighty percent of the population resides in cities or towns of more than 2,000, and over one-third lives in the greater Buenos Aires area.

Globally, Argentina is well known for its successful national [[soccer|football]] team, which won the [[FIFA World Cup]] in 1978 and 1986.

==Government and Political Conditions==
Argentina's constitution of 1853, as revised in 1994, mandates a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches at the national and provincial level. Each province also has its own constitution, roughly mirroring the structure of the national constitution. The president and vice president are directly elected to 4-year terms. Both are limited to two consecutive terms; they are allowed to stand for a third term or more after an interval of at least one term. The president appoints cabinet ministers, and the constitution grants him considerable power, including authority to enact laws by presidential decree under conditions of "urgency and necessity" and the line-item veto.
[[File:Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|left|Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.]]

Since 2001, senators have been directly elected, with each province and the Federal Capital represented by three senators. Senators serve 6-year terms. One-third of the Senate stands for reelection every 2 years. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are directly elected to 4-year terms. Voters elect half the members of the lower house every 2 years. Both houses are elected via a system of proportional representation. Female representation in Congress—at nearly one-third of total seats—ranks among the world's highest, with representation comparable to European Union (EU) countries such as Austria and Germany. Female senators include Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was a nationally known member of the Senate for the Province of Santa Cruz before her husband was elected President, and was reelected on October 23, 2005 as a Senator for the Province of Buenos Aires.

The constitution establishes the judiciary as an independent government entity. The president appoints members of the Supreme Court with the consent of the Senate. The president on the recommendation of a magistrates' council appoints other federal judges. The Supreme Court has the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional.

===Political Parties===
[[File:Obelisco Buenos Aires Argentina.jpg|right|thumb|Obelisco by night, Buenos Aires.]]
The two largest political parties are the Justicialist Party (PJ—also called Peronist), founded in 1945 by Juan Domingo Perón, and the Union Civica Radical (UCR), or Radical Civic Union, founded in 1891. Traditionally, the UCR has had more urban middle-class support and the PJ more labor support, but both parties have become more broadly based. The PJ does not currently have a recognized national committee or leader due to internal differences. President Kirchner, a Peronist by origin, nominally is head of his Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) coalition that includes Peronists and non-Peronists aligned with him. Kirchner announced in July 2007 that he would not run for reelection in presidential elections in October 2007, and publicly supported the candidacy of his wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Fernandez de Kirchner formally announced her campaign for the presidency in July.

While the national leadership of the UCR remains in opposition to the Kirchner government, many of its governors, mayors, and other representatives have allied with President Kirchner. In the April 2003 presidential elections, the UCR received only 2% of the national vote, the lowest tally in the party's history. The UCR continues to retain significant strength in many parts of the country, and persons identifying with the party govern roughly one-third of the provinces. The UCR is the only opposition political party with a nationwide structure.

Smaller parties, such as the center-right Propuesta Republicana (PRO) and the left-leaning Afirmacion para una Republica Igalitaria (ARI) represent various positions on the political spectrum, and are strongest in Buenos Aires. PRO's candidate for mayor of Buenos Aires city, businessman Mauricio Macri, won a strong majority in elections in June 2007. He defeated Education Minister Daniel Filmus, who was supported by President Kirchner, in a high-visibility second round vote.

Historically, organized labor—largely tied to the Peronist Party—and the armed forces also have played significant roles in national life. However, the Argentine military's public standing suffered as a result of its perpetration of human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, and defeat by the United Kingdom during the period of military rule (1976–83). The Argentine military today is a downsized, volunteer force fully subordinate to civilian authority.

===Principal Government Officials===
*President: Mauricio Macri.
*Vicepresident: Gabriela Michetti.
*Minister of Economy: Nicolás Dujovne.
*Minister of Foreign Affairs: Jorge Faurie.
*Ambassador to the United States: Edward C. Prado.

===Foreign Relations===
[[File:Evo Morales C Fernandez y F Lugo.jpg|left|150px]]
[[File:Cumbre Iberoamericana 2008.jpg|right|200px]]
Argentina's foreign policy priorities are focused on increasing regional partnerships, including expanding the MERCOSUR regional trade bloc by integrating Venezuela and Bolivia as new full members. Argentina has played a positive role in promoting human rights and democratic institutions in the hemisphere, particularly in Haiti. Argentina currently has nearly 600 peacekeeping troops in Haiti in support of MINUSTAH, reflecting its traditionally strong support of UN peacekeeping operations. As a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Argentina has been a strong voice in support of nuclear non-proliferation issues.

 

==Defense==
The president and a civilian minister of defense control the Argentine armed forces. The Interior Ministry controls the paramilitary Gendarmeria (border police), the Federal Police, the Prefectura Naval (coast guard), and the Airport Security Police. The Argentine armed forces maintain close defense cooperation and military supply relationships with the United States. Other countries also have military relationships with the Argentine forces, principally [[Israel]], [[Germany]], [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Italy]], [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and [[Venezuela]].

The current Minister of Defense has pursued an aggressive restructuring program based on the Argentine 1988 defense law. Priorities include emphasis on joint operations and peacekeeping. There has been minimal recapitalization due to budget constraints experienced over the past 5 years.

==Economy==
[[Image:Patagonia Agentina.jpg|right|300px|Patagonia, Argentina]]
Argentina's economy has sustained a robust recovery following the severe 2001/2002 economic crisis, with 4 consecutive years of over 8% growth in real gross domestic product (GDP). Argentine GDP reached U.S. $213 billion in 2006, approximately U.S. $5,460 per capita, with real investment up 18.7%. Economic expansion is creating jobs, with unemployment down from 20.4% in the first quarter of 2003 to 9.8% in the first quarter of 2007. Poverty levels have also dropped dramatically; 26.9% of the population in the 28 largest urban areas remained below the poverty line in the last half of 2006, down from over 50% in the immediate aftermath of the economic crisis.

Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. Its post-crisis move to a flexible exchange rate regime and favorable international commodity and interest rate trends were catalytic factors in supporting renewed growth, allowing the government to accumulate a reserve cushion (over $40 billion as of June 2007) to help insulate the economy from external shocks. A higher tax burden and the recovery's strong impact on revenues allowed the government to record a primary fiscal surplus in 2006 equivalent to 3.5% of GDP. Argentina should continue to perform well in 2007 with GDP growth projected in the 7.5%-8% range. A range of economic experts have identified challenges to sustaining high levels of economic growth in the future, including capacity constraints; the need for substantial new investment in primary infrastructure; potential energy shortages in the face of high growth and energy prices below international market levels; and inflation (9.8% in 2006) and the government's heterodox policies to contain it, including pressure on the private sector to limit price increases.

Argentina's exchange rate policy is based on a managed float that appears to be targeting a nominal exchange rate in the 3 Argentine pesos (ARP) per U.S. dollar range. Market analysts consider the peso's real exchange rate broadly undervalued. This, along with historically high global commodity prices, has helped lift export volumes and value to record levels, resulting in a $12 billion trade surplus in 2006. Foreign trade equaled approximately 38% of GDP in 2006 (up from only 11% in 1990) and plays an increasingly important role in Argentina's economic development. Exports totaled approximately 22% of GDP in 2006 (up from 14% in 2002), and key export markets included MERCOSUR (21% of exports), the EU (18%), and NAFTA countries (13%). Total two-way trade with the U.S. in 2006 totaled almost $9 billion. The production of grains, cattle, and other agricultural goods continues to be the backbone of Argentina's export economy. Energy products, high technology goods, and services are emerging as significant export sectors.

Over 450 U.S. companies are currently operating in Argentina and employ over 150,000 Argentine workers. U.S. investment in Argentina is concentrated in the manufacturing, information, and financial sectors. Other major sources of investment include Spain, Chile, Italy, France, Canada, and Japan. Continuing Argentine arrears to international creditors (including over $20 billion in default claims by international bondholders and over $6 billion owed to official creditors, including the U.S. Government) and a large number of arbitration claims filed by foreign companies are legacies of the 2001/2002 economic crisis that remain to be resolved and adversely impact Argentina's investment climate.

==History==
[[File:Gaucho 1868 Argentina.jpg|thumb|Gaucho, 1868.]]
Europeans arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solias visited what is now Argentina in 1516. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, although initial settlement was primarily overland from Peru. The Spanish further integrated Argentina into their empire by establishing the Vice Royalty of Rio de la Plata in 1776, and Buenos Aires became a flourishing port. Buenos Aires formally declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816. Argentines revere Gen. Jose de San Martin—who campaigned in Argentina, Chile, and Peru—as the hero of their national independence. Following the defeat of the Spanish, centralist and federalist groups waged a lengthy conflict between themselves to determine the future of the nation. A modern constitution was promulgated in 1853, and a national unity government was established in 1861.

Two forces combined to create the modern Argentine nation in the late 19th century: the introduction of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy. Foreign investment and immigration from Europe aided this economic revolution. Investment, primarily from Britain, came in such fields as railroads and ports. As in the United States, the migrants who worked to develop Argentina's resources—especially the western pampas—came from throughout Europe.

From 1880 to 1930, Argentina became one of the world's 10 wealthiest nations based on rapid expansion of agriculture and foreign investment in infrastructure. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The Radicals, with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, opened their doors to Argentina's rapidly expanding middle class as well as to groups previously excluded from power. The Argentine military forced aged Radical President Hipolito Yrigoyen from power in 1930 and ushered in another decade of Conservative rule. Using fraud and force when necessary, the governments of the 1930s attempted to contain the currents of economic and political change that eventually led to the ascendance of Juan Domingo Perón (b. 1897). New social and political forces were seeking political power, including a modern military and labor movements that emerged from the growing urban working class.

The military ousted Argentina's constitutional government in 1943. Peron, then an army colonel, was one of the coup's leaders, and he soon became the government's dominant figure as Minister of Labor. Elections carried him to the presidency in 1946. He created the Partido Unico de la Revolucion, which became more commonly known as the Peronist or Justicialista party (PJ). He aggressively pursued policies aimed at empowering the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionized workers. In 1947, Peron announced the first 5-year plan based on the growth of industries he nationalized. He helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Peron's dynamic wife, Eva Duarte de Peron, known as Evita (1919–52), played a key role in developing support for her husband. Peron won reelection in 1952, but the military sent him into exile in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, military and civilian administrations traded power, trying, with limited success, to deal with diminished economic growth and continued social and labor demands. When military governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Peron's return.
[[File:Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd, Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd, Buenos Aires.]]
On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections for the first time in 10 years. Peron was prevented from running, but voters elected his stand-in, Dr. Hector Campora, as President. Peron's followers also commanded strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Campora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections. Peron won a decisive victory and returned as President in October 1973 with his third wife, Maria Estela Isabel Martinez de Peron, as Vice President. During this period, extremists on the left and right carried out violent acts with a frequency that threatened public order. The government resorted to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of special executive authority to deal with violence. This allowed the government to imprison persons indefinitely without charge.

Peron died on July 1, 1974. His wife succeeded him in office, but a military coup, led by [[Jorge Rafael Videla]], removed her from office on March 24, 1976, and the armed forces formally exercised power through a junta composed of the three service commanders until December 10, 1983. The armed forces applied harsh measures against those they considered extremists and many suspected of being their sympathizers. While they were able to gradually restore basic order, the human costs of what became known as "El Proceso," or the "Dirty War" were high. Conservative counts list between 10,000 and 30,000 persons as "disappeared" during the 1976-83 period. Serious economic problems, mounting charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat by the [[United Kingdom]] in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the [[Falkland Islands]] (Islas Malvinas) all combined to discredit the Argentine military regime. The junta lifted bans on political parties and gradually restored basic political liberties.

Democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, with Raul Alfonsin of the country's oldest political party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), winning the presidency in elections that took place on October 30, 1983. He began a 6-year term of office on December 10, 1983. In 1985 and 1987, large turnouts for mid-term elections demonstrated continued public support for a strong and vigorous democratic system. The UCR-led government took steps to resolve some of the nation's most pressing problems, including accounting for those who disappeared during military rule, establishing civilian control of the armed forces, and consolidating democratic institutions. However, failure to resolve endemic economic problems, and an inability to maintain public confidence undermined the effectiveness of the Alfonsin government, which left office 6 months early after Justicialista Party (PJ) candidate Carlos Saul Menem won the 1989 presidential elections.

President Menem imposed peso-dollar parity (convertibility) in 1992 to break the back of hyperinflation and adopted far-reaching market-based policies. Menem's accomplishments included dismantling a web of protectionist trade and business regulations, and reversing a half-century of statism by implementing an ambitious privatization program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s. Unfortunately, widespread corruption in the administrations of President Menem and his successor President Fernando De la Rua, who won election in 1999 at the head of a UCR-led coalition of center and center-left parties known as the "Alianza", shook confidence and weakened the recovery. Also, while convertibility defeated inflation, its permanence undermined Argentina's export competitiveness and created chronic deficits in the current account of the balance of payments, which were financed by massive borrowing. The contagion effect of the Asian financial crisis of 1998 precipitated an outflow of capital that gradually mushroomed into a 4-year depression that culminated in a financial panic in November 2001. In December 2001, amidst bloody riots, President De la Rua resigned.

A legislative assembly on December 23, 2001, elected Adolfo Rodriguez Saa (PJ) to serve as President and called for general elections to choose a new president within 3 months. Rodriguez Saa announced immediately Argentina's default on $88 billion in debt (the largest sovereign debt default in history), but expressed his commitment to maintain the currency board and the peso's 1-to-1 peg to the dollar. Rodriguez Saa, however, was unable to rally support from within his own party for his temporary administration and this, combined with renewed violence in the Federal Capital, led to his resignation on December 30. Yet another legislative assembly elected Eduardo Duhalde (PJ) President on January 1, 2002 to complete the term of former President De la Rua. Duhalde assumed office in the midst of a widespread public rejection of the "political class" in Argentina. Duhalde—differentiating himself from his three predecessors—quickly abandoned the peso's 10-year-old link with the dollar, a move that was followed by a sharp currency depreciation and rising inflation. In the face of increasing poverty and continued social unrest, Duhalde moved to bolster the government's social programs and to contain inflation. He was able to stabilize the social situation, but advanced presidential elections by 6 months in order to pave the way for a president elected with a popular mandate.
[[Image:Cristina Fernández y gobernadores.jpg|thumb|220px|Cristina Fernández and governors.]]
In the first round of the presidential election on April 27, 2003, former President Carlos Menem (-PJ) won 24.3% of the vote, Santa Cruz Governor Nestor Kirchner (PJ) won 22%, followed by RECREAR candidate Ricardo Lopez Murphy with 16.4% and Affirmation for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI) candidate Elisa Carrio with 14.2%. Menem withdrew from the May 25 runoff election after polls showed overwhelming support for Kirchner in the second round of elections. President Kirchner assumed the presidency on May 25, 2003. He took office following the immense social and economic upheaval stemming from the financial crisis caused by a failed currency convertibility regime. Despite widespread concern, democracy and democratic institutions survived the crisis, and Nestor Kirchner took firm control as President. After taking office, Kirchner focused on consolidating his political strength and alleviating social problems. He pushed for changes in the Supreme Court and military and undertook popular measures, such as raising government salaries, pensions, and the minimum wage. On October 23, 2005, President Kirchner, bolstered by Argentina's rapid economic growth and recovery from its 2001/2002 crisis, won a major victory in the midterm legislative elections, giving him a strengthened mandate and control of a legislative majority in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. President Kirchner is considered by many experts to be the most powerful Argentine president since democracy was restored in 1983.

== See also ==
* [[Gallery of South-American painting]]
* [[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.presidencia.gov.ar/ Presidencia de Argentina] In Spanish.

 
{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35640.htm]

{{Nb countries south america}}
{{Economic preparedness topics}}

[[Category:Argentina|!]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Economic Preparedness]]
[[Category:Inflation]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Argentina

2019-03-05T23:19:14Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

{{Country
|name =''República Argentina''
|map =Argentina rel96.jpg
|map2 =Argentina1.png
|flag =Flag of Argentina.png
|arms =Arms of Argentina.png
|capital =Buenos Aires
|capital-raw =
|government =Federal republic
|government-raw =
|language =Spanish
|king =
|queen =
|monarch-raw =
|president =Mauricio Macri
|president-raw =
|chancellor =
|chancellor-raw =
|pm =
|pm-raw =
|area =2.780.400 km
|pop =44.494.502
|pop-basis =2011
|gdp =
|gdp-year =$637.6 billion (2019)
|gdp-pc =$14,401.97(2018)
|currency =peso
|idd =
|tld =
}}

The second largest country in [[South America]] (after [[Brazil]]), '''Argentina''' is a multi-party democracy.

==People==
[[File:Tipical dance Mataderos Buenos Aires.jpg|left|250px]]
Argentines are a fusion of diverse national and ethnic groups, with descendants of Italian and Spanish immigrants predominant (97%). Waves of immigrants from many European countries arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Syrian, Lebanese, and other Middle Eastern immigrants number about 500,000 to 600,000, mainly in urban areas. Argentina's population is overwhelmingly Catholic, but it also has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, estimated at between 280,000 and 300,000. In recent years, there has been a substantial influx of immigrants from neighboring countries, particularly Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. The indigenous population, estimated at 700,000, is concentrated in the provinces of the north, northwest, and south. The Argentine population has one of Latin America's lowest growth rates. Eighty percent of the population resides in cities or towns of more than 2,000, and over one-third lives in the greater Buenos Aires area.

Globally, Argentina is well known for its successful national [[soccer|football]] team, which won the [[FIFA World Cup]] in 1978 and 1986.

==Government and Political Conditions==
Argentina's constitution of 1853, as revised in 1994, mandates a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches at the national and provincial level. Each province also has its own constitution, roughly mirroring the structure of the national constitution. The president and vice president are directly elected to 4-year terms. Both are limited to two consecutive terms; they are allowed to stand for a third term or more after an interval of at least one term. The president appoints cabinet ministers, and the constitution grants him considerable power, including authority to enact laws by presidential decree under conditions of "urgency and necessity" and the line-item veto.
[[File:Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|left|Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires.]]

Since 2001, senators have been directly elected, with each province and the Federal Capital represented by three senators. Senators serve 6-year terms. One-third of the Senate stands for reelection every 2 years. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are directly elected to 4-year terms. Voters elect half the members of the lower house every 2 years. Both houses are elected via a system of proportional representation. Female representation in Congress—at nearly one-third of total seats—ranks among the world's highest, with representation comparable to European Union (EU) countries such as Austria and Germany. Female senators include Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was a nationally known member of the Senate for the Province of Santa Cruz before her husband was elected President, and was reelected on October 23, 2005 as a Senator for the Province of Buenos Aires.

The constitution establishes the judiciary as an independent government entity. The president appoints members of the Supreme Court with the consent of the Senate. The president on the recommendation of a magistrates' council appoints other federal judges. The Supreme Court has the power to declare legislative acts unconstitutional.

===Political Parties===
[[File:Obelisco Buenos Aires Argentina.jpg|right|thumb|Obelisco by night, Buenos Aires.]]
The two largest political parties are the Justicialist Party (PJ—also called Peronist), founded in 1945 by Juan Domingo Perón, and the Union Civica Radical (UCR), or Radical Civic Union, founded in 1891. Traditionally, the UCR has had more urban middle-class support and the PJ more labor support, but both parties have become more broadly based. The PJ does not currently have a recognized national committee or leader due to internal differences. President Kirchner, a Peronist by origin, nominally is head of his Frente Para la Victoria (FPV) coalition that includes Peronists and non-Peronists aligned with him. Kirchner announced in July 2007 that he would not run for reelection in presidential elections in October 2007, and publicly supported the candidacy of his wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Fernandez de Kirchner formally announced her campaign for the presidency in July.

While the national leadership of the UCR remains in opposition to the Kirchner government, many of its governors, mayors, and other representatives have allied with President Kirchner. In the April 2003 presidential elections, the UCR received only 2% of the national vote, the lowest tally in the party's history. The UCR continues to retain significant strength in many parts of the country, and persons identifying with the party govern roughly one-third of the provinces. The UCR is the only opposition political party with a nationwide structure.

Smaller parties, such as the center-right Propuesta Republicana (PRO) and the left-leaning Afirmacion para una Republica Igalitaria (ARI) represent various positions on the political spectrum, and are strongest in Buenos Aires. PRO's candidate for mayor of Buenos Aires city, businessman Mauricio Macri, won a strong majority in elections in June 2007. He defeated Education Minister Daniel Filmus, who was supported by President Kirchner, in a high-visibility second round vote.

Historically, organized labor—largely tied to the Peronist Party—and the armed forces also have played significant roles in national life. However, the Argentine military's public standing suffered as a result of its perpetration of human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, and defeat by the United Kingdom during the period of military rule (1976–83). The Argentine military today is a downsized, volunteer force fully subordinate to civilian authority.

===Principal Government Officials===
[[Image:Cristina and Nestor.jpg|thumb|Cristina and Nestor Kirchner.]]
*President—Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
*Minister of Foreign Affairs--
*Ambassador to the United States--
*Ambassador to the Organization of American States--
*Ambassador to the United Nations--
{{Clear}}

===Foreign Relations===
[[File:Evo Morales C Fernandez y F Lugo.jpg|left|150px]]
[[File:Cumbre Iberoamericana 2008.jpg|right|200px]]
Argentina's foreign policy priorities are focused on increasing regional partnerships, including expanding the MERCOSUR regional trade bloc by integrating Venezuela and Bolivia as new full members. Argentina has played a positive role in promoting human rights and democratic institutions in the hemisphere, particularly in Haiti. Argentina currently has nearly 600 peacekeeping troops in Haiti in support of MINUSTAH, reflecting its traditionally strong support of UN peacekeeping operations. As a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Argentina has been a strong voice in support of nuclear non-proliferation issues.

 

==Defense==
The president and a civilian minister of defense control the Argentine armed forces. The Interior Ministry controls the paramilitary Gendarmeria (border police), the Federal Police, the Prefectura Naval (coast guard), and the Airport Security Police. The Argentine armed forces maintain close defense cooperation and military supply relationships with the United States. Other countries also have military relationships with the Argentine forces, principally [[Israel]], [[Germany]], [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Italy]], [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and [[Venezuela]].

The current Minister of Defense has pursued an aggressive restructuring program based on the Argentine 1988 defense law. Priorities include emphasis on joint operations and peacekeeping. There has been minimal recapitalization due to budget constraints experienced over the past 5 years.

==Economy==
[[Image:Patagonia Agentina.jpg|right|300px|Patagonia, Argentina]]
Argentina's economy has sustained a robust recovery following the severe 2001/2002 economic crisis, with 4 consecutive years of over 8% growth in real gross domestic product (GDP). Argentine GDP reached U.S. $213 billion in 2006, approximately U.S. $5,460 per capita, with real investment up 18.7%. Economic expansion is creating jobs, with unemployment down from 20.4% in the first quarter of 2003 to 9.8% in the first quarter of 2007. Poverty levels have also dropped dramatically; 26.9% of the population in the 28 largest urban areas remained below the poverty line in the last half of 2006, down from over 50% in the immediate aftermath of the economic crisis.

Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base. Its post-crisis move to a flexible exchange rate regime and favorable international commodity and interest rate trends were catalytic factors in supporting renewed growth, allowing the government to accumulate a reserve cushion (over $40 billion as of June 2007) to help insulate the economy from external shocks. A higher tax burden and the recovery's strong impact on revenues allowed the government to record a primary fiscal surplus in 2006 equivalent to 3.5% of GDP. Argentina should continue to perform well in 2007 with GDP growth projected in the 7.5%-8% range. A range of economic experts have identified challenges to sustaining high levels of economic growth in the future, including capacity constraints; the need for substantial new investment in primary infrastructure; potential energy shortages in the face of high growth and energy prices below international market levels; and inflation (9.8% in 2006) and the government's heterodox policies to contain it, including pressure on the private sector to limit price increases.

Argentina's exchange rate policy is based on a managed float that appears to be targeting a nominal exchange rate in the 3 Argentine pesos (ARP) per U.S. dollar range. Market analysts consider the peso's real exchange rate broadly undervalued. This, along with historically high global commodity prices, has helped lift export volumes and value to record levels, resulting in a $12 billion trade surplus in 2006. Foreign trade equaled approximately 38% of GDP in 2006 (up from only 11% in 1990) and plays an increasingly important role in Argentina's economic development. Exports totaled approximately 22% of GDP in 2006 (up from 14% in 2002), and key export markets included MERCOSUR (21% of exports), the EU (18%), and NAFTA countries (13%). Total two-way trade with the U.S. in 2006 totaled almost $9 billion. The production of grains, cattle, and other agricultural goods continues to be the backbone of Argentina's export economy. Energy products, high technology goods, and services are emerging as significant export sectors.

Over 450 U.S. companies are currently operating in Argentina and employ over 150,000 Argentine workers. U.S. investment in Argentina is concentrated in the manufacturing, information, and financial sectors. Other major sources of investment include Spain, Chile, Italy, France, Canada, and Japan. Continuing Argentine arrears to international creditors (including over $20 billion in default claims by international bondholders and over $6 billion owed to official creditors, including the U.S. Government) and a large number of arbitration claims filed by foreign companies are legacies of the 2001/2002 economic crisis that remain to be resolved and adversely impact Argentina's investment climate.

==History==
[[File:Gaucho 1868 Argentina.jpg|thumb|Gaucho, 1868.]]
Europeans arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solias visited what is now Argentina in 1516. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, although initial settlement was primarily overland from Peru. The Spanish further integrated Argentina into their empire by establishing the Vice Royalty of Rio de la Plata in 1776, and Buenos Aires became a flourishing port. Buenos Aires formally declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816. Argentines revere Gen. Jose de San Martin—who campaigned in Argentina, Chile, and Peru—as the hero of their national independence. Following the defeat of the Spanish, centralist and federalist groups waged a lengthy conflict between themselves to determine the future of the nation. A modern constitution was promulgated in 1853, and a national unity government was established in 1861.

Two forces combined to create the modern Argentine nation in the late 19th century: the introduction of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy. Foreign investment and immigration from Europe aided this economic revolution. Investment, primarily from Britain, came in such fields as railroads and ports. As in the United States, the migrants who worked to develop Argentina's resources—especially the western pampas—came from throughout Europe.

From 1880 to 1930, Argentina became one of the world's 10 wealthiest nations based on rapid expansion of agriculture and foreign investment in infrastructure. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The Radicals, with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, opened their doors to Argentina's rapidly expanding middle class as well as to groups previously excluded from power. The Argentine military forced aged Radical President Hipolito Yrigoyen from power in 1930 and ushered in another decade of Conservative rule. Using fraud and force when necessary, the governments of the 1930s attempted to contain the currents of economic and political change that eventually led to the ascendance of Juan Domingo Perón (b. 1897). New social and political forces were seeking political power, including a modern military and labor movements that emerged from the growing urban working class.

The military ousted Argentina's constitutional government in 1943. Peron, then an army colonel, was one of the coup's leaders, and he soon became the government's dominant figure as Minister of Labor. Elections carried him to the presidency in 1946. He created the Partido Unico de la Revolucion, which became more commonly known as the Peronist or Justicialista party (PJ). He aggressively pursued policies aimed at empowering the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionized workers. In 1947, Peron announced the first 5-year plan based on the growth of industries he nationalized. He helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Peron's dynamic wife, Eva Duarte de Peron, known as Evita (1919–52), played a key role in developing support for her husband. Peron won reelection in 1952, but the military sent him into exile in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, military and civilian administrations traded power, trying, with limited success, to deal with diminished economic growth and continued social and labor demands. When military governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Peron's return.
[[File:Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd, Buenos Aires.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Centro Cultural Islámico Rey Fahd, Buenos Aires.]]
On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections for the first time in 10 years. Peron was prevented from running, but voters elected his stand-in, Dr. Hector Campora, as President. Peron's followers also commanded strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Campora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections. Peron won a decisive victory and returned as President in October 1973 with his third wife, Maria Estela Isabel Martinez de Peron, as Vice President. During this period, extremists on the left and right carried out violent acts with a frequency that threatened public order. The government resorted to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of special executive authority to deal with violence. This allowed the government to imprison persons indefinitely without charge.

Peron died on July 1, 1974. His wife succeeded him in office, but a military coup, led by [[Jorge Rafael Videla]], removed her from office on March 24, 1976, and the armed forces formally exercised power through a junta composed of the three service commanders until December 10, 1983. The armed forces applied harsh measures against those they considered extremists and many suspected of being their sympathizers. While they were able to gradually restore basic order, the human costs of what became known as "El Proceso," or the "Dirty War" were high. Conservative counts list between 10,000 and 30,000 persons as "disappeared" during the 1976-83 period. Serious economic problems, mounting charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat by the [[United Kingdom]] in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the [[Falkland Islands]] (Islas Malvinas) all combined to discredit the Argentine military regime. The junta lifted bans on political parties and gradually restored basic political liberties.

Democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, with Raul Alfonsin of the country's oldest political party, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), winning the presidency in elections that took place on October 30, 1983. He began a 6-year term of office on December 10, 1983. In 1985 and 1987, large turnouts for mid-term elections demonstrated continued public support for a strong and vigorous democratic system. The UCR-led government took steps to resolve some of the nation's most pressing problems, including accounting for those who disappeared during military rule, establishing civilian control of the armed forces, and consolidating democratic institutions. However, failure to resolve endemic economic problems, and an inability to maintain public confidence undermined the effectiveness of the Alfonsin government, which left office 6 months early after Justicialista Party (PJ) candidate Carlos Saul Menem won the 1989 presidential elections.

President Menem imposed peso-dollar parity (convertibility) in 1992 to break the back of hyperinflation and adopted far-reaching market-based policies. Menem's accomplishments included dismantling a web of protectionist trade and business regulations, and reversing a half-century of statism by implementing an ambitious privatization program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s. Unfortunately, widespread corruption in the administrations of President Menem and his successor President Fernando De la Rua, who won election in 1999 at the head of a UCR-led coalition of center and center-left parties known as the "Alianza", shook confidence and weakened the recovery. Also, while convertibility defeated inflation, its permanence undermined Argentina's export competitiveness and created chronic deficits in the current account of the balance of payments, which were financed by massive borrowing. The contagion effect of the Asian financial crisis of 1998 precipitated an outflow of capital that gradually mushroomed into a 4-year depression that culminated in a financial panic in November 2001. In December 2001, amidst bloody riots, President De la Rua resigned.

A legislative assembly on December 23, 2001, elected Adolfo Rodriguez Saa (PJ) to serve as President and called for general elections to choose a new president within 3 months. Rodriguez Saa announced immediately Argentina's default on $88 billion in debt (the largest sovereign debt default in history), but expressed his commitment to maintain the currency board and the peso's 1-to-1 peg to the dollar. Rodriguez Saa, however, was unable to rally support from within his own party for his temporary administration and this, combined with renewed violence in the Federal Capital, led to his resignation on December 30. Yet another legislative assembly elected Eduardo Duhalde (PJ) President on January 1, 2002 to complete the term of former President De la Rua. Duhalde assumed office in the midst of a widespread public rejection of the "political class" in Argentina. Duhalde—differentiating himself from his three predecessors—quickly abandoned the peso's 10-year-old link with the dollar, a move that was followed by a sharp currency depreciation and rising inflation. In the face of increasing poverty and continued social unrest, Duhalde moved to bolster the government's social programs and to contain inflation. He was able to stabilize the social situation, but advanced presidential elections by 6 months in order to pave the way for a president elected with a popular mandate.
[[Image:Cristina Fernández y gobernadores.jpg|thumb|220px|Cristina Fernández and governors.]]
In the first round of the presidential election on April 27, 2003, former President Carlos Menem (-PJ) won 24.3% of the vote, Santa Cruz Governor Nestor Kirchner (PJ) won 22%, followed by RECREAR candidate Ricardo Lopez Murphy with 16.4% and Affirmation for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI) candidate Elisa Carrio with 14.2%. Menem withdrew from the May 25 runoff election after polls showed overwhelming support for Kirchner in the second round of elections. President Kirchner assumed the presidency on May 25, 2003. He took office following the immense social and economic upheaval stemming from the financial crisis caused by a failed currency convertibility regime. Despite widespread concern, democracy and democratic institutions survived the crisis, and Nestor Kirchner took firm control as President. After taking office, Kirchner focused on consolidating his political strength and alleviating social problems. He pushed for changes in the Supreme Court and military and undertook popular measures, such as raising government salaries, pensions, and the minimum wage. On October 23, 2005, President Kirchner, bolstered by Argentina's rapid economic growth and recovery from its 2001/2002 crisis, won a major victory in the midterm legislative elections, giving him a strengthened mandate and control of a legislative majority in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. President Kirchner is considered by many experts to be the most powerful Argentine president since democracy was restored in 1983.

== See also ==
* [[Gallery of South-American painting]]
* [[Gallery of Latin-American painting]]

== External links ==
* [http://www.presidencia.gov.ar/ Presidencia de Argentina] In Spanish.

 
{{Copyright Details (US Government)}}

Source = [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35640.htm]

{{Nb countries south america}}
{{Economic preparedness topics}}

[[Category:Argentina|!]]
[[Category:Spanish Empire]]
[[Category:Economic Preparedness]]
[[Category:Inflation]]
[[Category:Christian-Majority Countries]]

Isabel Martínez de Perón

2019-03-05T23:12:45Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

Known as Isabelita, she was vice president of Argentina since 1973 and president after the death of Juan Domingo Perón in 1974 until 1976.

She was married to the former Argentine dictator, Perón.

It was overthrown on March 24, 1976 by the National Reorganization Process. The Armed Forces kept her in detention for five years.

In 1981 she was released and went to live in Spain, where she currently remains.

Jorge Rafael Videla

2019-03-05T22:42:16Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

'''Jorge Rafael Videla''' (1925–2013) was the president of [[Argentina]] from 1976 to 1981.

He came in power after [[Corruption|corrupt]] Leftist dictator [[Isabel Martínez de Perón]] was overthrown.
Videla was a military man, appointed the ''de facto'' president of Argentina, by a military junta, during the National Reorganization Process, to fight communism and save the country from the Marxist regime.

Videla was criticized by [[Henry Kissinger]] for killing oppositionals.<ref>http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB133/</ref>

In 1983 he was sentenced to life imprisonment, during the government of Raúl Alfonsín for crimes during the dictatorship. In 1990 Carlos Menem pardoned it. In 1998 he returned to prison after a judge ruled. But he was granted the benefit of house arrest because of his age in the government of Fernando de la Rúa.

In 2008, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sent him permanently to jail. At the end of 2010 he was sentenced to life in prison in a common prison. He died in prison at the Marcos Paz prison on May 17, 2013.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Heads of State]]
[[Category:Argentina]]

Jorge Rafael Videla

2019-03-05T22:29:23Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

'''Jorge Raf
[[File:Ttps://www.google.com/search?q=Jorge+Rafael+Videla&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja78SRhezgAhUhILkGHReEDRUQ AUIDigB|miniatura]]
ael Videla''' (1925–2013) was the president of [[Argentina]] from 1976 to 1981. He came in power after [[Corruption|corrupt]] Leftist dictator [[Isabel Martínez de Perón]] was overthrown.

Videla was a military man, appointed the ''de facto'' president of Argentina, by a military junta between 1976 and 1981, during the National Reorganization Process, to fight communism and save the country from the Marxist regime.

Videla was criticized by [[Henry Kissinger]] for killing oppositionals.<ref>http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB133/</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Heads of State]]
[[Category:Argentina]]

Far-left

2019-02-10T18:23:36Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

'''Far-left''' refers to the [[extremism|extreme]] position on the [[Left]] side of the [[political spectrum]] that is [[collectivist]], [[intolerant]], advocates [[big government]] through [[authoritarianism]] (although in some cases, far-leftists also advocate complete [[anarchy]]), [[fascism]], [[totalitarianism]], [[single party]] advocacy, and [[anti-democratic]] ideals. It is represented through movements such [[Progressivism]], [[Marxism]], and [[Democratic Socialism]].

It is composed of Socialists, Communists, Marxists, Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, Antirevisionists and Anticapitalists.
They defend violent revolutions and the socialization of the means of production. Marxist theory opposes democracy and believes in the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Far leftist groups often adopt names that are [[oxymoron]]ic and contradictory, such as [[National Socialism]], [[Antifascist]], or Democratic Socialism.

==Internecine warfare==

The far left is noted for internecine war.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/liberalisms-failure-and-internecine-conflict-1503088320</ref> Due to its anti-democratic, [[technocrat]]ic and [[elitist]] ideals, competition within the far left to claim the mantle as the [[Revolutionary vanguard|vanguard of the revolutionary elite]] leads them to label each other, and anyone who opposes their singular group, as "[[fascist]]" or "[[right wing]]."<ref>[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schlesinger-notrightleft.html Not Right, Not Left, But a Vital Center], [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.]], ''New York Times Magazine'', April 4, 1948.</ref>

Sectarian disputes are common among far leftist groups. Usually the larger group will claim the label as preeminent among [[leftist]]s; when competing groups move right-ward toward the [[center]] in search of [[moderate]]s, they are labeled [[Nazi]], fascist, and [[racist]] by the dominant far left group. This has the chilling effect of driving members out of competing groups, and a dampening effect on new recruits. The hope is to enlarge the base of the dominant group.<ref>[https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2017/10/16/liberal_intolerance.html How 'Liberal' Became 'Not Far-Left Enough']</ref>

This is not to say they are incapable of forging [[coalition]]s, which they often do, sometimes among disparate groups with absurd sounding names - Environmentalists Against the War, or [[Act Now to Stop War and End Racism]] (A.N.S.W.E.R.). ANSWER is one of the most dangerous and despicable racist organizations in the United States, known for its violent and [[anarchist]] elements.<ref>[https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/news-ranking-the-top-10-anti-israel-groups-in-2013-adl Anti-Defamation League: Top 10 List]</ref>

Forming these groups, and forging these alliances, is what the job of an "organizer" is.

==Beliefs==

Far leftists oppose [[free speech]], [[gun rights]], [[freedom of religion]], fair elections and [[sovereignty]]. Fundamentally, they oppose [[democracy]] and [[human rights]].

While far left language and [[rhetoric]] is deceptively couched in terms such as "democracy," "human rights," "[[equality]]," etc., using [[Marxist dialectics]], words, ideas, historical eras, [[philosophical]] concepts, and broad world views are twisted to mean whatever they want them to mean, to serve the immediate purpose of the self-appointed elites - which is to obtain power for themselves and destroy their enemies, both real and imagined.

Far leftists tend to think of themselves as "intellectual" and "[[enlightened]]," and above the fray of ordinary [[political]] discussion, [[negotiation]], and compromise. They approach their non-democratic task to "save humanity" from itself by promoting themselves as technocrats, [[bureaucrat]]s, [[community organizing|organizers]], agitators, [[activist]]s and elites with missionary [[zeal]].

==Motivation==

[[Envy]] is perhaps the driving motivation behind far left ideology, envy of persons or institutions which have obtained social status and political power by merit or inheritance. They posess a [[You didn't build that|desire for other people's wealth]] coupled with a lust for power. Far leftists consider the only thing resembling [[justice]] on this [[Earth]] is having themselves in power, not through fair elections, but by deception or [[violence]].

Democracy and popular [[consensus]] is not part of far left ideology (barring [[Mobocracy]] and mob rule). Among [[Democratic Socialist]]s, for example, the core value is said to be, to develop a consensus among themselves how to govern [[society]]. However this principle is subject to change with the next historical whim or crisis.

==Immanent critique and political correctness==
Through the use of [[immanent critique]], the more intellectual far leftists target opponents. Immanent critique is defined as {{quotebox|" a method of discussing culture which aims to locate contradictions in society's rules and systems....The purpose ....is the detection of societal contradictions which suggest possibilities for emancipatory social change.... It highlights the gaps between what something stands for and what is being done in actual terms. Immanent critique tries to find contradictions and indirectly provide alternatives, without constructing an entirely new theory."<ref>Wikipedia/Immanent critique</ref>}} From this is born the ostracism of [[political correctness]].

Nevermind that purveyors of these idea-less theories themselves are caught up in the same [[hypocrisy]], hold the same [[bigot]]ed views and are guilty of the same actions as the people they target. It is "us versus them," the enlightened few against the powers that be and the unwashed masses, who are all bigots and hypocrites until they bow before their new revolutionary masters.

And the intellectual masters of this revolutionary thought turn a blind eye to the [[violence]] of their less-intellectual followers, who join the movement because [[Hollywood values|"it's the hip thing to do."]] Justification of violence is necessary to any revolutionary movement that does not respect the ballot box and free speech.

And the aim is always the same, put themselves in power without any guiding principles and only historically discredited theories to lead them.

==See also==
*[[Leftist]]
*[[Deviationism]]
*[[Wobblies]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Leftism]]
[[Category:Political Ideologies]]

Far-left

2019-02-10T18:20:03Z

NicoAlberti5:

'''Far-left''' refers to the [[extremism|extreme]] position on the [[Left]] side of the [[political spectrum]] that is [[collectivist]], [[intolerant]], advocates [[big government]] through [[authoritarianism]] (although in some cases, far-leftists also advocate complete [[anarchy]]), [[fascism]], [[totalitarianism]], [[single party]] advocacy, and [[anti-democratic]] ideals. It is represented through movements such [[Progressivism]], [[Marxism]], and [[Democratic Socialism]].

It is composed of Socialists, Communists, Marxists, Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists, Antirevisionists and Anticapitalists.

Far leftist groups often adopt names that are [[oxymoron]]ic and contradictory, such as [[National Socialism]], [[Antifascist]], or Democratic Socialism.

==Internecine warfare==

The far left is noted for internecine war.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/liberalisms-failure-and-internecine-conflict-1503088320</ref> Due to its anti-democratic, [[technocrat]]ic and [[elitist]] ideals, competition within the far left to claim the mantle as the [[Revolutionary vanguard|vanguard of the revolutionary elite]] leads them to label each other, and anyone who opposes their singular group, as "[[fascist]]" or "[[right wing]]."<ref>[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schlesinger-notrightleft.html Not Right, Not Left, But a Vital Center], [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.]], ''New York Times Magazine'', April 4, 1948.</ref>

Sectarian disputes are common among far leftist groups. Usually the larger group will claim the label as preeminent among [[leftist]]s; when competing groups move right-ward toward the [[center]] in search of [[moderate]]s, they are labeled [[Nazi]], fascist, and [[racist]] by the dominant far left group. This has the chilling effect of driving members out of competing groups, and a dampening effect on new recruits. The hope is to enlarge the base of the dominant group.<ref>[https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2017/10/16/liberal_intolerance.html How 'Liberal' Became 'Not Far-Left Enough']</ref>

This is not to say they are incapable of forging [[coalition]]s, which they often do, sometimes among disparate groups with absurd sounding names - Environmentalists Against the War, or [[Act Now to Stop War and End Racism]] (A.N.S.W.E.R.). ANSWER is one of the most dangerous and despicable racist organizations in the United States, known for its violent and [[anarchist]] elements.<ref>[https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/news-ranking-the-top-10-anti-israel-groups-in-2013-adl Anti-Defamation League: Top 10 List]</ref>

Forming these groups, and forging these alliances, is what the job of an "organizer" is.

==Beliefs==

Far leftists oppose [[free speech]], [[gun rights]], [[freedom of religion]], fair elections and [[sovereignty]]. Fundamentally, they oppose [[democracy]] and [[human rights]].

While far left language and [[rhetoric]] is deceptively couched in terms such as "democracy," "human rights," "[[equality]]," etc., using [[Marxist dialectics]], words, ideas, historical eras, [[philosophical]] concepts, and broad world views are twisted to mean whatever they want them to mean, to serve the immediate purpose of the self-appointed elites - which is to obtain power for themselves and destroy their enemies, both real and imagined.

Far leftists tend to think of themselves as "intellectual" and "[[enlightened]]," and above the fray of ordinary [[political]] discussion, [[negotiation]], and compromise. They approach their non-democratic task to "save humanity" from itself by promoting themselves as technocrats, [[bureaucrat]]s, [[community organizing|organizers]], agitators, [[activist]]s and elites with missionary [[zeal]].

==Motivation==

[[Envy]] is perhaps the driving motivation behind far left ideology, envy of persons or institutions which have obtained social status and political power by merit or inheritance. They posess a [[You didn't build that|desire for other people's wealth]] coupled with a lust for power. Far leftists consider the only thing resembling [[justice]] on this [[Earth]] is having themselves in power, not through fair elections, but by deception or [[violence]].

Democracy and popular [[consensus]] is not part of far left ideology (barring [[Mobocracy]] and mob rule). Among [[Democratic Socialist]]s, for example, the core value is said to be, to develop a consensus among themselves how to govern [[society]]. However this principle is subject to change with the next historical whim or crisis.

==Immanent critique and political correctness==
Through the use of [[immanent critique]], the more intellectual far leftists target opponents. Immanent critique is defined as {{quotebox|" a method of discussing culture which aims to locate contradictions in society's rules and systems....The purpose ....is the detection of societal contradictions which suggest possibilities for emancipatory social change.... It highlights the gaps between what something stands for and what is being done in actual terms. Immanent critique tries to find contradictions and indirectly provide alternatives, without constructing an entirely new theory."<ref>Wikipedia/Immanent critique</ref>}} From this is born the ostracism of [[political correctness]].

Nevermind that purveyors of these idea-less theories themselves are caught up in the same [[hypocrisy]], hold the same [[bigot]]ed views and are guilty of the same actions as the people they target. It is "us versus them," the enlightened few against the powers that be and the unwashed masses, who are all bigots and hypocrites until they bow before their new revolutionary masters.

And the intellectual masters of this revolutionary thought turn a blind eye to the [[violence]] of their less-intellectual followers, who join the movement because [[Hollywood values|"it's the hip thing to do."]] Justification of violence is necessary to any revolutionary movement that does not respect the ballot box and free speech.

And the aim is always the same, put themselves in power without any guiding principles and only historically discredited theories to lead them.

==See also==
*[[Leftist]]
*[[Deviationism]]
*[[Wobblies]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Leftism]]
[[Category:Political Ideologies]]

Javier Milei

2018-12-08T14:45:20Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

'''Javier Milei''' (born October 22, 1970) is an economist from [[Argentina]]. He takes [[libertarian]] positions and favors the [[Austrian School of Economics]]. He received his degree as an economist from the University of Belgrano.

Defend life, therefore is against abortion. Ensures that God exists and is "AnarchoCapitalista".

His best books are ''Economy readings in Kirchner times'' (2014), ''Economic Policy Time Trial'' (2014), ''The return to the path of the Argentine Decadence'' (2015), ''Maquinita, Infleta and Devaluta'' with Diego Giacomini (2016), ''Once again soup: little machine, infleta and devaluta: essays of monetary economy for the Argentine case'' with Diego Giacomini (2017), and ''Unmasking the Keynesian lie. Keynes, Friedman and the triumph of the Austrian School'' (2018).

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milei, Javier}}
[[Category:Economists]]
[[Category:Libertarians]]
[[Category:Argentine Authors]]

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

2018-12-07T14:01:24Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

[[File:Cristina and Nestor.jpg|thumb|Christina Kirchner with her now-deceased husband Nestor Kirchner]]
'''Cristina Fernández de Kirchner''' was a [[Liberal|left-wing]] president of [[Argentina]] from 2007 to 2015. She is a member of [[Justicialist Party]], a party that was founded by military dictator and [[Nazi]] supporter [[Juan Peron]]. While accusing former president [[Jorge Videla]] of being a "dictator", she remains silent about the crimes by Juan Peron. She was elected in 2007 as president and reelected in 2011.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/24/cristina-kirchner-win-argentina-elections</ref>

Kirchner supports [[same-sex "marriage"]].<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/americas/16argentina.html</ref> She stated her desire to transform her country into an [[Marxist]] state.<ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle2015.aspx?ARTID=35388</ref>{{dead link}}

She is involved in several causes of corruption along with her entire family. Its ideology is the nationalist left, deeply protectionist and anti-capitalist.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez De Kirchner, Cristina}}
[[Category:Argentina]]
[[Category:Leftists]]
[[Category:Former Heads of State]]

Nicolás Márquez

2018-12-07T13:57:28Z

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Nicolás Márquez (Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, April 22, 1975) is a writer, lawyer and political scientist of conservative ideology. He is the author of several books on historical revisionism.

In 2015 he published "Perón, el fetiche de las masas", a book in which he describes Juan Domingo Perón as a dictator and fascist.

Nicolás Márquez

2018-12-07T13:57:04Z

NicoAlberti5: created the page

icolás Márquez (Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, April 22, 1975) is a writer, lawyer and political scientist of conservative ideology. He is the author of several books on historical revisionism.

In 2015 he published "Perón, el fetiche de las masas", a book in which he describes Juan Domingo Perón as a dictator and fascist.

Agustín Laje

2018-12-07T13:51:30Z

NicoAlberti5: created the page

Agustín Laje is a political scientist, journalist and Argentine writer. He was born on January 16, 1989 in Córdoba (Argentina). He has published five books. He is the founder and Director of the LIBRE Center for Free Studies, a non-governmental organization with a liberal-conservative ideology "that seeks to promote respect for individual freedom, private property and republicanism".

Debate against progressives and feminists, who always "destroy" on television or social networks.

Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional

2018-12-07T13:42:42Z

NicoAlberti5: created the page

At 3:10 am on March 24, 1976, General José Rogelio Villarreal initiated the coup by telling President Isabel Martínez de Perón:

Madam, the Armed Forces have decided to take political control of the country and you are arrested.

The proclamation said:
"Exhausted all instances of constitutional mechanism, overcome the possibility of rectifications within the framework of institutions and irrefutably demonstrated the impossibility of recovering the process by natural means, comes to an end a situation that hurts the Nation and compromises Your future Our people have suffered a new frustration. Faced with a tremendous vacuum of power, capable of plunging us into dissolution and anarchy, the lack of capacity of convocation that the national government has demonstrated, the repeated and successive contradictions demonstrated in the measures of all kinds, the lack of a global strategy that, driven by political power, will face subversion, the lack of solutions for the country, whose result has been the permanent increase of all exterminations, the total absence of ethical and moral examples that must be given those who exercise the State's leadership, the manifest irresponsibility in the management of the economy that caused the exhaustion of the productive apparatus, the widespread speculation and corruption, all of which translates into an irreparable loss of the sense of greatness and faith, Armed Forces, in compliance with an unrenounceable obligation, have assumed the leadership of the State. An obligation that arises from serene meditations on the irreparable consequences that could have on the destiny of the Nation, an attitude different from the one adopted. This decision pursues the purpose of ending misgovernment, corruption and the subversive scourge, and is only directed against those who have committed crimes and committed abuses of power. It is a decision for the Homeland, and does not imply, therefore, discrimination against any civic militancy or any social sector. It therefore rejects the dissociative action of all extremes and the corrupting effect of any demagoguery. (...)
(...) For that reason, at the same time that we will continue without a truce fighting against subversive crime, open or covert, all demagogy will be banished. Corruption or venality will not be tolerated under any form or circumstance, nor will any transgression to the law be opposed to the reparation process that is initiated.

The Armed Forces have assumed control of the Republic. Let the country understand the profound and unequivocal meaning of this attitude so that the responsibility and the collective effort accompany this enterprise that, pursuing the common good, will reach with the help of God, the full national recovery."

- Jorge Rafael Videla, General Commander of the Army;
- Emilio Eduardo Massera., General Commander of the Navy;
- Orlando Ramón Agosti, General Commander. of the Air Force.

El Proceso, governed Argentina from March 24, 1976, overthrowing María Estela Martínez de Perón, until December 10, 1983, when Raúl Alfonsín took office, a social democrat who would later cause hyperinflation.

North Korea

2018-12-07T13:27:50Z

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{{Country
|name =조선민주주의인민공화국 Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk ''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''
|map =Korea north rel 2005.jpg
|map2 =NorthKorea location.png
|flag =Flag of North Korea.png
|arms =Arms of North Korea.png
|capital =P'yongyang
|government =Communist totalitarian state
|language =Korean
|area =46,526 sq mi
|pop =25,248,140 (July 2017)<ref>https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html</ref>
|gdp-year =$22.85 billion (2006)
|gdp-pc =$1,300 (2016)
|currency = North Korean won
}}
'''North Korea''' is the world's most severe [[communist]] [[dictatorship]] and one of the poorest and most [[famine]]-stricken nations on earth. It lies in eastern Asia and occupies the Korean peninsula north of a line that roughly follows the 38th parallel.
It was ruled by self-absorbed dictator and "Dear Leader" [[Kim Jong Il]], who succeeded his father the "Great Leader" [[Kim Il Sung]]. Upon Kim Jong-Il's death, his son [[Kim Jong-un]] officially took over.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/world/asia/packaging-of-Kim-Jong-un-in-north-korea.html?pagewanted=all New York Times; 1 February; To Sell a New Leader, North Korea Finds a Mirror Is Handy]</ref>

Its official name is '''Democratic People's Republic of Korea''', but its government does not follow Western ideas of [[democracy]] ([[French Revolution]] aside). Rather, it is organized along [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] lines. Its Supreme People's Assembly is merely a rubber-stamp parliament.<ref>http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/05/21/North-Korea-slammed-over-Cheonan-sinking/UPI-48941274459460/</ref>

The official North Korean ideology is known as [[Juche]] (which roughly translates as "national self-reliance"), and since the mid 1990s, [[Songun]] ("military first"). A cult-like devotion to the "Great Leader" and "Dear Leader" is expected of citizens, and heavily promoted in the North Korean news media which has little actual news and mostly consists of effusive praise toward [[Kim Jong Un]], grandiose and unsubstantiated claims about great feats by him and his father, and repetitious admonitions that the Korean people are totally united as one behind his leadership. In contrast between 600,000 and 3.5 million North Koreans have died of starvation in recent years because the Kim government has so mismanaged the economy, particularly agriculture, and has hampered outside efforts at relief.<ref>https://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071009/COMMENTARY/110090010/1012&template=nextpage</ref>

-1 out of 4 North Koreans suffer from malnutrition.
-Great levels of contamination due to nuclear tests.
-Individual freedoms completely passed over.
-There is no Internet.

-According to the Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, they are number 171 of 180 countries.

Communism in North Korea has already caused 4,600 deaths

The black book of communism figures in 2 million deaths because of North Korean communism. In the chapter devoted to that brutal dictatorship, he gives more detailed estimates:

90,000 deaths from executions for various reasons.
100,000 dead in the purges of the Labor Party.
1.5 million deaths in concentration camps between 1953 and 1998.
To this we must add those who are murdered when they try to flee the country, those killed by starvation (the black book of communism cites estimates of the German Red Cross which calculate 10,000 child deaths per month due to hunger in North Korea) and 500,000 killed by diseases and poor diet.
But we must remember that the black book of communism was published in 1997. In 1999, Pyongyang recognized 220,000 people killed by hunger since 1995 because of the floods that year. A report published in August 1999 by the United States Institute for Peace estimates the effects of that famine on between 2 and 3 million deaths. So, we could be talking about a total of 4.6 million deaths to date, and that without counting those of the Korean War of 1950-1953, caused by the North Koreans.

==People==
*Population (2006): 23.1 million.
*Annual growth rate: About +0.98%.
*Ethnic groups: [[Korean]]; small ethnic Chinese and Japanese populations.
*Religions: [[Buddhism]], [[Confucianism]], [[Shamanism]], [[Chongdogyo]], [[Christian]]; autonomous religious activities have been virtually nonexistent since 1945.
*Language: Korean.
*Education: Years compulsory—11. Attendance—3 million (primary, 1.5 million; secondary, 1.2 million; tertiary, 0.3 million). Literacy—99%.
*Health (1998): Medical treatment is free; one doctor for every 700 inhabitants; one hospital bed for every 350; there are severe shortages of medicines and medical equipment. Infant mortality rate—23.29 /1,000 (2006 est.). Life expectancy—males 68 yrs., females 74 yrs. (2006 est.)

Amnesty International published a report in June 2010 which alleges that the North Korean health care system is "in shambles". Interviews with 40 individuals who defected from that country indicate a widespread shortage of medicine and medical implements; a lack of ambulatory services in major cities; the use of unsterilized needles; major operations and amputations done without anesthesia, on a system which spends the equivalent of one dollar per person per year on health care. This discrepancy is compounded by the fact that many citizens are forced to endure a starvation diet by subsisting on grass, tree bark and roots.<ref>http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100715/Amnesty-International-reveals-the-rotting-health-care-system-in-North-Korea.aspx</ref><ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_crumbling_health_care</ref>

==Religion==
{{Main|Religion and Atheism in North Korea}}

North Korea practices [[state atheism]] and belief in [[God]] is actively discouraged.<ref>Elizabeth Raum. North Korea. Series: Countries Around the World. Heinemann, 2012. ISBN 1432961330. p. 28: «North Korea is an atheist state. This means that people do not pray in public or attend places of worship. Buddhist temples exist from earlier times. They are now preserved as historic buildings, but they are not used for worship. A few Christian churches exist, but few people attend services. North Koreans do not celebrate religious holidays.»</ref> Open Doors, an organization based in the United States, has put North Korea at the very top of its list of countries where [[Christianity|Christians]] face significant persecution - for 12 years in a row.<ref>[http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-22/repressive-atheist-north-korea-has-surprising-relationship-christian-missionaries Repressive, atheist North Korea has a surprising relationship with Christian missionaries]</ref>

The 2007 KINU White Paper indicated that the regime utilizes authorized religious entities for external propaganda and political purposes, and that citizens are strictly barred from entering places of worship. Ordinary citizens consider such sites to be primarily sightseeing spots for foreigners. KINU concluded that the lack of churches or religious facilities in the provinces indicates that ordinary citizens do not enjoy religious freedom.

Little is known about the day-to-day life of religious persons in the country. Members of government-controlled religious groups did not appear to suffer discrimination. Some reports claimed, and circumstantial evidence suggested, that many, if not most of these groups, have been organized by the regime for propaganda and political purposes, including meeting with foreign religious visitors.

The number of religious believers is unknown but was estimated by the Government to be 10,000 Protestants, 10,000 Buddhists, and 4,000 Catholics. Estimates by South Korean and international church-related groups were considerably higher. In addition, the Chondogyo Young Friends Party, a government-approved group based on a traditional religious movement, had approximately 40,000 practitioners, according to the Government.<ref>See [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108410.htm U.S. State Department "International Religious Freedom Report 2008"]</ref>

In Pyongyang there were reportedly four state-controlled Christian churches: two Protestant churches under lay leadership (Bongsu and Chilgol Churches), the Changchung Roman Catholic Church, and the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church. The Chilgol Church is dedicated to the memory of former leader Kim Il-sung's mother, Kang Pan-sok, who was a Presbyterian deaconess. The number of congregants regularly worshiping at these churches is unknown.

The Presbyterian Church of Korea in the South was partnering with the Christian Association in North Korea to rebuild Bongsu Church. In the fall of 2006, a delegation of 90 Christians from South Korea visited the Bongsu church to celebrate completion of its first phase of renovation. According to religious leaders who traveled to the country, there were Protestant pastors at these churches, although it was not known if they were resident or visiting.

In its July 2002 report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, the Government reported the existence of 500 "family worship centers." However, according to the 2007 Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) White Paper, defectors interviewed were unaware of any such centers. Observers stated that "family worship centers" may be part of the state-controlled Korean Christian Federation, while an unknown number of "underground churches" operate apart from the Federation and are not recognized by the Government. Some NGOs and academics estimate there may be up to several hundred thousand underground Christians in the country. Others question the existence of a large-scale underground church or conclude that no reliable estimate of the number of underground religious believers exists. Individual underground congregations are reportedly very small and confined to private homes. At the same time, some NGOs reported that the individual churches are connected to each other through well-established networks. The regime has not allowed outsiders the access necessary to confirm such claims.

There were an estimated 300 Buddhist temples. Most were regarded as cultural relics, but religious activity was permitted in some. A few Buddhist temples and relics have been renovated or restored in recent years under a broad effort aimed at "preserving the Korean nation's cultural heritage." In 2007 reconstruction was completed on the Shingye or Singyesa (Holy Valley) Temple, which was destroyed during the Korean War. The Republic of Korea (ROK) Government and foreign tourists funded the reconstruction. A South Korean monk, the first to permanently reside in North Korea, has lived at the temple since 2004 but serves primarily as a guide for visiting tourists rather than as a pastor caring for Buddhists living in the area.

The Government announced in June 2007 that 500 monks and Buddhist followers were making day-long pilgrimages to the recently renovated Ryongthong temple in Kaesong strictly for religious purposes. Foreign diplomats in Pyongyang who visited the temple were told that the two monks living there may be joined by more. State-controlled press reported on several occasions that Buddhist ceremonies had been carried out in various locations. Official reporting also linked descriptions of such ceremonies with the broader theme of Korean unification.

The Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church opened in Pyongyang in 2006. The church was reportedly commissioned by Kim Jong-il after he visited an Orthodox cathedral in Russia in 2002. Two North Koreans who studied at the Russian Orthodox Seminary in Moscow have been ordained as priests and are serving at the church. The purported aim of the church was primarily to provide pastoral care of Russians in the country, but one religious leader with access to the country speculated that the church likely extended pastoral care to all Orthodox Koreans as well. Similar to other religious groups, no reliable data exists on the number of Orthodox believers.

Several foreigners residing in Pyongyang attended Korean-language services at the Christian churches on a regular basis. Some foreigners who visited the country stated that church services appeared staged and contained political content supportive of the regime, in addition to religious themes. Foreign legislators attending services in Pyongyang in previous years noted that congregations arrived at and departed services as groups on tour buses, and some observed that they did not include any children. Other foreigners noted that they were not permitted to have contact with congregants. Foreign observers had limited ability to ascertain the level of government control over these groups, but it was generally assumed they were monitored closely. According to the 2007 KINU White Paper, defectors reported being unaware of any recognized religious organizations that maintained branches outside of Pyongyang.

Several schools for religious education exist. There are 3-year colleges for training Protestant and Buddhist clergy. A religious studies program also was established at Kim Il-sung University in 1989; its graduates usually worked in the foreign trade sector. In 2000 a Protestant seminary was reopened with assistance from foreign missionary groups. Critics, including at least one foreign sponsor, charged that the Government opened the seminary only to facilitate reception of assistance funds from foreign faith-based NGOs. The Chosun Christian Federation, a religious group believed to be controlled by the Government, contributed to the curriculum used by the seminary. The Chosun Christian League operates the Pyongyang Theological Academy, a graduate institution that trains pastors affiliated with the Korean Christian Federation.

==Government and Political Conditions==
North Korea has a centralized government under the rigid control of the communist [[Workers' Party of Korea]] (WPK), to which all government officials belong. A few minor political parties are allowed to exist in name only. Kim Il-sung ruled North Korea from 1948 until his death in July 1994. Kim served both as Secretary General of the WPK and as President of North Korea.

Little is known about the actual lines of power and authority in the North Korean Government despite the formal structure set forth in the constitution. Following the death of Kim Il-sung, his son—Kim Jong-il—inherited supreme power. Kim Jong-il was named General Secretary of the KWP in October 1997, and in September 1998, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) reconfirmed Kim Jong-il as Chairman of the National Defense Commission and declared that position as the "highest office of state." However, the President of the Presidium of the National Assembly, Kim Yong-nam, serves as the nominal head of state. North Korea's 1972 constitution was amended in late 1992 and in September 1998.

The constitution designates the Central People's Committee (CPC) as the government's top policymaking body. The CPC makes policy decisions and supervises the cabinet, or State Administration Council (SAC). The SAC is headed by a premier and is the dominant administrative and executive agency.

Officially, the legislature, the SPA, is the highest organ of state power. Its members are elected every four years. Usually only two meetings are held annually, each lasting a few days. A standing committee elected by the SPA performs legislative functions when the Assembly is not in session. In reality, the Assembly serves only to ratify decisions made by the ruling KWP.

North Korea's judiciary is "accountable" to the SPA and the president. The SPA's standing committee also appoints judges to the highest court for four-year terms that are concurrent with those of the Assembly.

Administratively, North Korea is divided into nine provinces and four provincial-level municipalities--[[Pyongyang]], [[Chongjin]], [[Nampo]], and [[Kaesong]]. It also appears to be divided into nine military districts.

===Principal Party and Government Officials===
*Kim Il-Sung—Eternal President (deceased since 1995)
*Kim Jong-un—First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, First Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission; grandson of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung
*Kim Yong-nam—President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly; titular head of state
*Pak Gil-yon—Ambassador to DPRK Permanent Mission to the UN
*Pak Ui-chun—Minister of Foreign Affairs

===Propaganda===

The DPRK is notorious for its heavy use of political propaganda, revisionist history and [[cult of personality]] surrounding Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il and Kim il-Sung. The media is heavily controlled and only state-controlled radio and television broadcasts are permitted for public consumption. This control allows the regime to propagate its many lies and perceptions of the country.

==== Cult of Personality ====

The North Korean state maintains an intense cult of personality surrounding Kim, his son, Kim Jong-il and his grandson Kim Jong-un. All North Koreans wear badges with an image of either (or both) Kims and portraits of the deceased leader are voluminous both in cities and the countryside. The capital city of Pyonyang has over 600 statues of Kim, including a 25-metre bronze statue built in 1972 for his sixtieth birthday.

Kim's personality cult is largely based on historical revisionism and many absurd "facts" to emphasize his "divine" abilities and power. Among these:

*He was born under a double rainbow on the sacred Baektul Mountain in 1942. At the moment of his birth, a bright star lit up the sky, the seasons spontaneously changed from winter to spring and a double rainbow appeared in the sky.(In truth, he was born in Vyatskoye, Siberia in 1941.)<ref>http://asianhistory.about.com/od/profilesofasianleaders/p/BioKimJongil.htm</ref>

*During the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, he fought in more than 100,000 battles in 15 years (over 20 battles a day). (While Kim was in the Soviet army, he never participated in actual combat.)<ref>http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/champion/65/pers_cult.htm</ref>

*He scored eleven holes-in-one the first time he ever played a game of golf.<ref>http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/02/16/kim.birthday.reut/</ref>

*He invented the hamburger.<ref>http://listverse.com/2010/05/30/top-10-crazy-facts-about-kim-jong-il/</ref>

*He scored a perfect 300 the first time he went bowling.<ref>http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2011/1222/Kim-Jong-il-Legendary-golfer-and-mythical-powers-even-in-death</ref>

*When he died, "the skies glowed red above Mount Paektu and the impenetrable sheet of ice at the heart of the mystical volcano cracked with a deafening roar." <ref>https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/kim-jong-il-dies-myths_n_1164755.html</ref>

In large part because of this cult of personality aspect to propaganda, the various propaganda films for North Korea, in the exact opposite of how state propaganda is generally used to uphold the people of a nation, usually depicts the North Korean people as being weak while the enemy was depicted as strong to reinforce the need of the Kim Dynasty. A notable example of this is in the animated North Korean propaganda film ''Squirrel and Hedgehog'', where the protagonists (representing North Koreans) are depicted largely as effeminate squirrels and ducks and other assorted prey animals that constantly cry, while the antagonists, demonic wolves (representing Americans) were depicted as extremely competent and given a very imposing appearance.

====Revisionist history====

Despite overwhelming historical and historiographical evidence, North Korean media and schools maintain the myth that the South as well as the United States attacked the North first. They thus responded by counter-attacking to liberate the nation in the "Fatherland Liberation War".<ref>http://www.voanews.com/content/north-koreas-war-history-is-mirror-opposite-world-view-96978424/165902.html</ref> They also claim that the North was victorious despite the face that there is no peace treaty and no historical evidence to back such a claim.

====Anti-American and other propaganda ====

As well as the state-sponsored propaganda served up to its own citizens, the DPRK attempts to push its message onto South Koreans as well.

The best examples are found on the North Korean side of the DMZ, where massive hillside signs point to the U.S. as an enemy of reunification and boast of a prosperous life in the North. More absurd is Jikong-dong, also known as "Propaganda village," a fake town intended to show the fine living conditions in the North.<ref>http://www.nickspics.net/v/Travel/South_Korea_2009/IMG_2075_5DMK2.JPG.html</ref> The town is devoid of human life and was quickly exposed as a sham when Southern officials noticed that all city lights turned on and off at the same time each day, most windows contained no glass and there was no evident civilian life. The town also boasts the world's tallest flagpole, bearing a North Korean flag weighing 600 pounds.<ref>https://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronbrownphotos/3514929586/</ref>

===Censorship===

The North Korean government—which controls and owns all [[mainstream media|media]] and news outlets within its boundaries—censors information going into and out of the country. Television sets and radios distributed within North Korea are set to only allow watching and listening to state controlled programming.<ref name=cjfe>https://cjfe.org/resources/features/north-korea-exposed-censorship-world’s-most-secretive-state</ref> The non-governmental organization Freedom House has rated the regime as "not free" and labeled it as "repressive", due to its censorship of information within its borders.<ref>https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2013/north-korea#.VJn5qaANAA</ref>

Within North Korea, access to the internet is limited to a select few people.<ref name=cjfe/> Other residents of North Korea who are privileged enough to have access to computers can only access a local intranet called Kwangmyong, meaning "bright". Content hosted on the Kwangmyong is tightly restricted, and the email and chat messages sent on it are monitored.<ref>http://globalnews.ca/news/1124882/surfing-the-intranet-north-koreas-authoritarian-alternative-to-the-world-wide-web/</ref>

===Foreign Relations===
North Korea's relationship with the South has determined much of its post-[[World War II]] history and still undergirds much of its foreign policy. North and South Korea have had a difficult and acrimonious relationship from the Korean War. In recent years, North Korea has pursued a mixed policy—seeking to develop economic relations with South Korea and to win the support of the South Korean public for greater North-South engagement while at the same time continuing to denounce the R.O.K.'s security relationship with the United States and maintaining a threatening conventional force posture on the DMZ and in adjacent waters. Technically, neither the North or the South recognizes its counterpart as an official nation, and both declare themselves to be the sole legitimate government of the Korean peninsula.

The military demarcation line (MDL) of separation between the belligerent sides at the close of the Korean War divides North Korea from South Korea. A demilitarized zone (DMZ) extends for 2,000 meters (just over 1 mile) on either side of the MDL. Both the North and South Korean governments hold that the MDL is only a temporary administrative line, not a permanent border.

During the postwar period, both Korean governments have repeatedly affirmed their desire to reunify the Korean Peninsula, but until 1971 the two governments had no direct, official communications or other contact.

====Reunification Efforts Since 1971====
In August 1971, North and South Korea held talks through their respective Red Cross societies with the aim of reuniting the many Korean families separated following the division of Korea and the Korean War. In July 1972, the two sides agreed to work toward peaceful reunification and an end to the hostile atmosphere prevailing on the peninsula. Officials exchanged visits, and regular communications were established through a North-South coordinating committee and the Red Cross. These initial contacts broke down in 1973 following South Korean President Park Chung-hee's announcement that the South would seek separate entry into the United Nations, and after the kidnapping of South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae-jung—perceived as friendly to unified entry into the UN—by South Korean intelligence services. There was no other significant contact between North and South Korea until 1984.

Dialogue was renewed in September 1984, when South Korea accepted the North's offer to provide relief goods to victims of severe flooding in South Korea. Red Cross talks to address the plight of separated families resumed, as did talks on economic and trade issues and parliamentary-level discussions. However, the North then unilaterally suspended all talks in January 1986, arguing that the annual U.S.-ROK "Team Spirit" military exercise was inconsistent with dialogue. There was a brief flurry of negotiations that year on co-hosting the upcoming 1988 Seoul Olympics, which ended in failure and was followed by the 1987 bombing of a South Korean commercial aircraft (KAL 858) by North Korean agents.

In July 1988, South Korean President Roh Tae-woo called for new efforts to promote North-South exchanges, family reunification, inter-Korean trade, and contact in international forums. Roh followed up this initiative in a UN General Assembly speech in which South Korea offered for the first time to discuss security matters with the North. Initial meetings that grew out of Roh's proposals started in September 1989. In September 1990, the first of eight prime minister-level meetings between North Korean and South Korean officials took place in Seoul. The prime ministerial talks resulted in two major agreements: the Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression, Exchanges, and Cooperation (the "Basic Agreement") and the Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (the "Joint Declaration").

The Basic Agreement, signed on December 13, 1991, called for reconciliation and nonaggression and established four joint commissions. These commissions—on South-North reconciliation, South-North military affairs, South-North economic exchanges and cooperation, and South-North social and cultural exchange—were to work out the specifics for implementing the basic agreement. Subcommittees to examine specific issues were created, and liaison offices were established in Panmunjom, but in the fall of 1992 the process came to a halt because of rising tension over North Korea's nuclear program.

The Joint Declaration on denuclearization was initialized on December 31, 1991. It forbade both sides from testing, manufacturing, producing, receiving, possessing, storing, deploying, or using nuclear weapons and forbade the possession of nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities. A procedure for inter-Korean inspection was to be organized and a North-South Joint Nuclear Control Commission (JNCC) was mandated to verify the denuclearization of the peninsula.

On January 30, 1992, the D.P.R.K. finally signed a nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as it had pledged to do in 1985 when it acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This safeguards agreement allowed IAEA inspections to begin in June 1992. In March 1992, the JNCC was established in accordance with the Joint Declaration, but subsequent meetings failed to reach agreement on the main issue of establishing a bilateral inspection regime.

As the 1990s progressed, concern over the North's nuclear program became a major issue in North-South relations and between North Korea and the United States. The lack of progress on implementation of the Joint Declaration's provision for an inter-Korean nuclear inspection regime led to reinstatement of the U.S.-R.O.K. Team Spirit military exercise for 1993. The situation worsened rapidly when North Korea, in January 1993, refused IAEA access to two suspected nuclear waste sites and then announced in March 1993 its intent to withdraw from the NPT. During the next two years, the United States held direct talks with the D.P.R.K. that resulted in a series of agreements on nuclear matters, including the 1994 Agreed Framework (which broke down in 2002 when North Korea was discovered to be pursuing a uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons—see below, Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula).

At his inauguration in February 1998, R.O.K. President Kim Dae-jung enunciated a new policy of engagement with the D.P.R.K., dubbed "the Sunshine Policy." The policy had three fundamental principles: no tolerance of provocations from the North, no intention to absorb the North, and the separation of political cooperation from economic cooperation. Private sector overtures would be based on commercial and humanitarian considerations. The use of government resources would entail reciprocity. This policy set the stage for the first inter-Korean summit, held in Pyongyang June 13–15, 2000.

R.O.K. President Roh Moo-hyun, following his inauguration in February 2003, has continued his predecessor's policy of engagement with the North, though he abandoned the name "Sunshine Policy." The United States supports President Roh's engagement policy and North-South dialogue and cooperation. Major economic reunification projects have included a tourism development in Mt. Geumgang, the re-establishment of road and rail links across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and a joint North-South industrial park near the North Korean city of Kaesong (see further information below in the section on the Economy). In August 2007, the R.O.K. and D.P.R.K. announced plans to hold a second inter-Korean summit, scheduled for October 2–4 in Pyongyang.

===Relations Outside the Korean Peninsula===
Throughout the Cold War, North Korea balanced its relations with China and the Soviet Union to extract the maximum benefit from the relationships at minimum political cost. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, the Soviet-backed Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan created strains between China and the Soviet Union and, in turn, in North Korea's relations with its two major communist allies. North Korea tried to avoid becoming embroiled in the Sino-Soviet split, obtaining aid from both the Soviet Union and China and trying to avoid dependence on either. Following Kim Il-sung's 1984 visit to Moscow, there was an improvement in Soviet-D.P.R.K. relations, resulting in renewed deliveries of Soviet weaponry to North Korea and increases in economic aid.

The establishment of diplomatic relations by South Korea with the Soviet Union in 1990 and with China in 1992 seriously strained relations between North Korea and its traditional allies. Moreover, the fall of communism in eastern Europe in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in a significant drop in communist aid to North Korea. Despite these changes and its past reliance on this military and economic assistance, North Korea continued to proclaim a militantly independent stance in its foreign policy in accordance with its official ideology of "juche," or self-reliance.

Both North and South Korea became parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1987. (North Korea is not a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention, nor is it a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime, or MTCR.)

North Korea has maintained membership in some multilateral organizations. It became a member of the UN in September 1991. North Korea also belongs to the Food and Agriculture Organization; the International Civil Aviation Organization; the International Postal Union; the UN Conference on Trade and Development; the International Telecommunications Union; the UN Development Program; the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization; the World Health Organization; the World Intellectual Property Organization; the World Meteorological Organization; the International Maritime Organization; the International Committee of the Red Cross; and the Nonaligned Movement.

In the mid-1990s, when the economic situation worsened dramatically and following the death of D.P.R.K. founder Kim Il-sung, the North abandoned some of the more extreme manifestations of its "self reliance" ideology to accept foreign humanitarian relief and create the possibility, as noted below, for foreign investment in the North. In subsequent years, the D.P.R.K. has continued to pursue a tightly restricted policy of opening to the world in search of economic aid and development assistance. However, this has been matched by an increased determination to counter perceived external and internal threats by a self-proclaimed "military first" ("Songun") policy.

During the present period of limited, extremely cautious opening, North Korea has sought to broaden its formal diplomatic relationships. In July 2000, North Korea began participating in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), with Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun attending the ARF ministerial meeting in Bangkok. The D.P.R.K. also expanded its bilateral diplomatic ties in that year, establishing diplomatic relations with Italy, Australia, the Philippines, Australia, Canada, the U.K., Germany, and many other European countries.

In the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement issued at the end of the fourth round of Six-Party Talks, the United States and the D.P.R.K. committed to undertake steps to normalize relations (see below, Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula). The D.P.R.K. and Japan also agreed to take steps to normalize relations and to discuss outstanding issues of concern, such as abductions. The U.S.-D.P.R.K. and Japan-D.P.R.K. bilateral working groups on normalization of relations met in March and September 2007.

====Terrorism====
North Korea is not officially known to have sponsored terrorist acts since the 1987 bombing of KAL flight 858. Pyongyang continues to provide sanctuary to members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction (JRA) who participated in the hijacking of a Japan Airlines flight to North Korea in 1970. It has also supplied training, help and weapons to [[Hezbollah]] and other Islamic terrorist groups and maintains relations with Islamic dictatorship and state sponsor of terrorism [[Iran]].<ref>[http://www.forbes.com/sites/claudiarosett/2014/05/12/eyes-wide-shut-to-north-koreas-terror-ties/ Eyes Wide Shut to North Korea's Terror Ties] at Forbes.com</ref><ref>[http://www.weeklystandard.com/north-korea-sponsors-terrorism/article/ North Korea Sponsors Terrorism] at the ''Weekly Standard''</ref>

North Korea has made several statements claiming to condemning terrorism. In October 2000, the United States and North Korea issued a joint statement on terrorism in which "the two sides agreed that international terrorism poses an unacceptable threat to global security and peace, and that terrorism should be opposed in all its forms." The United States and North Korea agreed to support the international legal regime combating international terrorism and to cooperate with each other to fight terrorism. North Korea became a signatory to the Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism and a party to the Convention Against the Taking of Hostages in November 2001. In the February 13, 2007 Initial Actions agreement, the [[United States of America]] agreed to begin the process of removing the designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. On Saturday October 11, 2008. The United States officially removed North Korea from the Terrorism Watch List.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,436382,00.html North Korea no longer a recognized Terrorist sponsor.]</ref>

====Abductions====
In the past, the D.P.R.K. has also been involved in the abduction of foreign citizens. In 2002, Kim Jong-il acknowledged to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi the involvement of D.P.R.K. "special institutions" in the kidnapping of Japanese citizens between 1977 and 1983 and said that those responsible had been punished. While five surviving victims and their families were allowed to leave the D.P.R.K. and resettle in Japan in October 2002, 12 other cases remain unresolved and continue to be a major issue in D.P.R.K.-Japanese relations. In October 2005, the D.P.R.K. acknowledged for the first time having kidnapped R.O.K. citizens in previous decades, claiming that several abductees, as well as several POWs from the Korean War, were still alive. In June 2006, North Korea allowed Kim Young-nam, a South Korean abducted by the North in 1978, to participate in a family reunion.

In 2001, a series of articles in foreign and Russian Federation newspapers, resting on reports from Russian Federation human rights activists and Amnesty International and the New York-based Human Rights Watch alleged the D.P.R.K. abduction of up to 30,000 North Korean dissidents as well as common citizens to work in the Siberian labor and forestry camps in a scheme to pay off billions owed by North Korea to the Russia of both Soviet and Federation times. This forced labor was similar in nature and form to the gulags of Soviet Russia (see [[Essay: KAL 007 Survivors and Gulags of Russia]]).

===United States policy towards North Korea===
====U.S. Support for North-South Dialogue and Reunification====
The United States supports the peaceful reunification of Korea on terms acceptable to the Korean people and recognizes that the future of the Korean Peninsula is primarily a matter for them to decide. The United States believes that a constructive and serious dialogue between the authorities of North and South Korea is necessary to resolve outstanding problems, including the North's nuclear program and human rights abuses, and to encourage the North's integration with the rest of the international community.

====Efforts to Denuclearize the Korean Peninsula====
[[File:DPKR camps and nukes.png|right|200px|thumb|Locations of major hard-labor/re-education camps where the inmate population exceeds 20,000 each, nuclear-related facilities, and the test bomb site]]
North Korea joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons state in 1985. North and South Korean talks begun in 1990 resulted in the 1992 Joint Declaration for a Non-Nuclear Korean Peninsula (see, under Foreign Relations, Reunification Efforts Since 1971). However, the international standoff over the North's failure to implement an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency for the inspection of the North's nuclear facilities led Pyongyang to announce in March 1993 its intention to withdraw from the NPT. A UN Security Council Resolution in May 1993 urged the D.P.R.K. to cooperate with the IAEA and to implement the 1992 North-South Denuclearization Statement. It also urged all UN Member States to encourage the D.P.R.K. to respond positively to this resolution and to facilitate a solution to the nuclear issue.

The United States opened talks with the D.P.R.K. in June 1993 and eventually reached agreement in October 1994 on a diplomatic roadmap, known as the Agreed Framework, for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The Agreed Framework called for the following steps:
*North Korea agreed to freeze its existing nuclear program and allow monitoring by the IAEA.
*Both sides agreed to cooperate to replace the D.P.R.K.'s graphite-moderated reactors with light-water reactor (LWR) power plants, by a target date of 2003, to be financed and supplied by an international consortium (later identified as the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization or KEDO).
*As an interim measure, the United States agreed to provide North Korea with 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil annually until the first reactor was built.
*The United States and D.P.R.K. agreed to work together to store safely the spent fuel from the five-megawatt reactor and dispose of it in a safe manner that did not involve reprocessing in the D.P.R.K.
*The two sides agreed to move toward full normalization of political and economic relations.
*The two sides agreed to work together for peace and security on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
*The two sides agreed to work together to strengthen the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
In accordance with the terms of the Agreed Framework, in January 1995 the U.S. Government eased economic sanctions against North Korea in response to North Korea's freezing its graphite-moderated nuclear program under United States and IAEA verification. North Korea agreed to accept the decisions of KEDO, the financier and supplier of the LWRs, with respect to provision of the reactors. KEDO subsequently identified Sinpo as the LWR project site and held a groundbreaking ceremony in August 1997. In December 1999, KEDO and the (South) Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) signed the Turnkey Contract (TKC), permitting full-scale construction of the LWRs.

In January 1995, as called for in the 1994 Agreed Framework, the United States and D.P.R.K. negotiated a method to store safely the spent fuel from the D.P.R.K.'s five-megawatt nuclear reactor. Under this method, United States and D.P.R.K. operators worked together to can the spent fuel and store the canisters in a spent fuel pond; canning began in 1995. In April 2000, canning of all accessible spent fuel rods and rod fragments was completed.

In 1998, the United States identified an underground site in Kumchang-ni, North Korea, which it suspected of being nuclear-related. In March 1999, after several rounds of negotiations, the United States and D.P.R.K. agreed that the United States would be granted "satisfactory access" to the underground site at Kumchang-ni. In October 2000, during D.P.R.K. Special Envoy Marshal Jo Myong-rok's visit to Washington, and after two visits to the site by teams of U.S. experts, the United States announced in a Joint Communiqué with the D.P.R.K. that U.S. concerns about the site had been resolved.

As called for in former Defense Secretary William Perry's official review of U.S. policy toward North Korea, the United States and the D.P.R.K. launched Agreed Framework Implementation Talks in May 2000 The United States and the D.P.R.K. also began negotiations for a comprehensive missile agreement, pursuant to the Perry recommendations.

In January 2001, the Bush Administration discontinued nuclear and missile talks, specifying that it intended to review the United States' North Korea policy. The Administration announced on June 6, 2001, that it was prepared to resume dialogue with North Korea on a broader agenda of issues—including North Korea's conventional force posture, missile development and export programs, human rights practices, and humanitarian issues.

In October 2002, a U.S. delegation confronted North Korea with the assessment that the D.P.R.K. was pursuing a uranium enrichment program, in violation of North Korea's obligations under the NPT and its commitments in the 1992 North-South Joint Declaration on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the Agreed Framework. North Korean officials asserted to the U.S. delegation, headed by then-Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James A. Kelly, the D.P.R.K.'s "right" to a uranium enrichment program and indicated that that it had such a program. The U.S. side stated that North Korea would have to terminate the program before any further progress could be made in U.S.-D.P.R.K. relations. The United States also made clear that if this program were verifiably eliminated, it would be prepared to work with North Korea on the development of a fundamentally new relationship. Subsequently, the D.P.R.K. has denied the existence of a uranium enrichment program. In November 2002, the member countries of KEDO's Executive Board agreed to suspend heavy fuel oil shipments to North Korea pending a resolution of the nuclear dispute.

In late 2002 and early 2003, North Korea terminated the freeze on its existing plutonium-based nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, expelled IAEA inspectors, removed seals and monitoring equipment at Yongbyon, announced its withdrawal from the NPT, and resumed reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel to extract plutonium for weapons purposes. North Korea announced that it was taking these steps to provide itself with a deterrent force in the face of U.S. threats and U.S. "hostile policy." Beginning in mid-2003, the North repeatedly claimed to have completed reprocessing of the spent fuel rods previously frozen at Yongbyon and publicly said that the resulting fissile material would be used to bolster its "nuclear deterrent force." There is no independent confirmation of North Korea's claims. The KEDO Executive Board suspended work on the LWR Project beginning December 1, 2003.

President Bush has made clear that the United States has no intention to invade or attack North Korea. The President has also stressed that the United States seeks a peaceful end to North Korea's nuclear program in cooperation with North Korea's neighbors, who are directly affected by the threat the nuclear program poses to regional stability and security.

In early 2003, the United States proposed multilateral talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. North Korea initially opposed such a process, maintaining that the nuclear dispute was purely a bilateral matter between the United States and the D.P.R.K. However, under pressure from its neighbors and with the active involvement of China, North Korea agreed to three-party talks with China and the United States in Beijing in April 2003 and to Six-Party Talks with the United States, China, R.O.K., Japan and Russia in August 2003, also in Beijing. During the August 2003 round of Six-Party Talks, North Korea agreed to the eventual elimination of its nuclear programs if the United States were first willing to sign a bilateral "non-aggression treaty" and meet various other conditions, including the provision of substantial amounts of aid and normalization of relations. The North Korean proposal was unacceptable to the United States, which insisted on a multilateral resolution to the issue and opposed provision of benefits before the D.P.R.K.'s complete denuclearization. In October 2003, President Bush said he would consider a multilateral written security guarantee in the context of North Korea's complete, verifiable, and irreversible elimination of its nuclear weapons program.

China hosted a second round of Six-Party Talks in Beijing in February 2004. The United States saw the results as positive, including the announced intention of all parties to hold a third round by the end of June and to form a working group to maintain momentum between plenary sessions.

At the third round of Six-Party Talks in Beijing, in June 2004, the United States tabled a comprehensive and substantive proposal aimed at resolving the nuclear issue. All parties agreed to hold a fourth round of talks by the end of September 2004. Despite its commitment, the D.P.R.K. refused to return to the table, and in the months that followed issued a series of provocative statements. In a February 10, 2005, Foreign Ministry statement, the D.P.R.K. declared that it had "manufactured nuclear weapons" and was "indefinitely suspending" its participation in the Six-Party Talks. In Foreign Ministry statements in March, the D.P.R.K. said it would no longer be bound by its voluntary moratorium on ballistic missile launches, and declared itself a nuclear weapons state.

Following intense diplomatic efforts by the United States and other parties, the fourth round of Six-Party Talks were held in Beijing over a period of 20 days from July–September 2005, with a recess period in August. Discussions resulted in all parties agreeing to a Joint Statement of Principles. In the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement, the six parties unanimously reaffirmed the goal of verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner. The D.P.R.K. for the first time committed to abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and to return, at an early date, to the NPT and to IAEA safeguards. The other parties agreed to provide economic cooperation and energy assistance. The United States and the D.P.R.K. agreed to take steps to normalize relations subject to bilateral policies, which for the United States includes our concerns over North Korea's ballistic missile programs and deplorable human rights conditions. While the Joint Statement provides a vision of the end-point of the Six-Party process, much work lies ahead to implement the elements of the agreement.

A fifth round of talks began in November 2005, but ended inconclusively as the D.P.R.K. began a boycott of the Six-Party Talks, citing the "U.S.' hostile policy" and specifically U.S. law enforcement action that had led in September to a freeze of North Korean accounts in Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA). The United States held discussions in Kuala Lumpur (July 2006) and New York in (September 2006) with other Six-Party partners, except North Korea, along with representatives from other regional powers in the Asia-Pacific region, to discuss Northeast Asian security issues, including North Korea. On July 4–5, 2006 (local Korea time), the D.P.R.K. launched seven ballistic missiles, including six short- and medium-range missiles and one of possible intercontinental range. In response, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1695 on July 15, which demands that the D.P.R.K. suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program and reestablish existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching. The resolution also requires all UN Member States, in accordance with their national legal authorities and consistent with international law, to exercise vigilance and prevent missile and missile-related items, materials, goods and technology from being transferred to the D.P.R.K.'s missile or weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs, prevent the procurement of missiles or related items, materials, goods and services from the D.P.R.K., and the transfer of any financial resources in relation to the D.P.R.K.'s missile or WMD programs. The D.P.R.K. immediately rejected the resolution.

On October 9, 2006, North Korea announced the successful test of a nuclear explosive device, verified by the United States on October 11. In response, the United Nations Security Council, citing Chapter VII of the UN Charter, unanimously passed Resolution 1718, condemning North Korea and imposing sanctions on certain luxury goods and trade of military units, WMD and missile-related parts, and technology transfers.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6032525.stm</ref>

The Six-Party Talks resumed in December 2006 after a 13-month hiatus. Following a bilateral meeting between the United States and D.P.R.K. in Berlin in January 2007, another round of Six-Party Talks was held in February 2007. On February 13, 2007, the parties reached an agreement on "Initial Actions for the Implementation of the Joint Statement" in which North Korea agreed to shut down and seal its Yongbyon nuclear facility, including the reprocessing facility and to invite back IAEA personnel to conduct all necessary monitoring and verification of these actions as agreed between the IAEA and the D.P.R.K. The other five parties agreed to provide emergency energy assistance to North Korea in the amount of 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in the initial phase and the equivalent of 950,000 tons of HFO in the next phase of North Korea's denuclearization. The six parties also established five working groups to form specific plans for implementing the Joint Statement in the following areas: denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, normalization of D.P.R.K.-U.S. relations, normalization of D.P.R.K.-Japan relations, economic and energy cooperation, and a Northeast Asia peace and security mechanism. All parties agreed that the working groups would meet within 30 days of the agreement, which they did. The agreement also envisions the directly-related parties negotiating a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula at an appropriate separate forum. As part of the initial actions, North Korea invited IAEA Director General ElBaradei to Pyongyang in early March for preliminary discussions on the return of the IAEA to the D.P.R.K.

The sixth round of Six-Party Talks took place on March 19–23, 2007. The parties reported on the first meetings of the five working groups. At the invitation of the D.P.R.K., Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill visited Pyongyang in June 2007 as part of ongoing consultations with the six parties on implementation of the Initial Actions agreement. In July 2007, the D.P.R.K. shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility, as well as an uncompleted reactor at Taechon, and IAEA personnel returned to the D.P.R.K. to monitor and verify the shut-down and to seal the facility. In July 2007, the R.O.K. provided the first shipment of 50,000 tons of HFO under the Initial Actions agreement. The Six-Party Heads of Delegation met July 18–20, 2007 to discuss implementation of the D.P.R.K.'s next phase commitments, including the D.P.R.K.'s provision of a complete declaration of all nuclear programs and disablement of existing nuclear facilities. All five working groups met in August and September to discuss detailed plans for implementation of the next phase of the Initial Actions agreement, and will report the results of those discussions to the next Six-Party plenary meeting. As part of the denuclearization process, the D.P.R.K. invited a team of experts from the United States, China, and Russia to visit the Yongbyon nuclear facility in September 2007 to discuss specific steps that could be taken to disable the facility.

==Military==

Although North Korea has no enemies, its government says it needs nuclear weapons as a deterrent against "the U.S. nuclear threat".<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_parliament North Korea denounces new Obama nuclear strategy]"</ref>

North Korea now has the fourth-largest army in the world. It has an estimated 1.21 million armed personnel, compared to about 680,000 in the South. Military spending is estimated at as much as a quarter of GNP, with about 20% of men ages 17–54 in the regular armed forces. North Korean forces have a substantial numerical advantage over the South (between 2 and 3 to 1) in several key categories of offensive weapons—tanks, long-range artillery, and armored personnel carriers. The North has perhaps the world's second-largest special operations force, designed for insertion behind the lines in wartime. While the North has a relatively impressive fleet of submarines, its surface fleet has a very limited capability. Its air force has twice the number of aircraft as the South, but, except for a few advanced fighters, the North's air force is obsolete.<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/air-force-equipment.htm North Korea Air Force Equipment]</ref> The North deploys the bulk of its forces well forward, along the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Several North Korean military tunnels under the DMZ were discovered in the 1970s.

Over the last several years, North Korea has moved more of its rear-echelon troops to hardened bunkers closer to the DMZ. Given the proximity of Seoul to the DMZ (some 25 miles), South Korean and U.S. forces are likely to have little warning of any attack. The United States and South Korea continue to believe that the U.S. troop presence in South Korea remains an effective deterrent. North Korea's nuclear weapons program has also been a source of international tension (see below, Reunification Efforts Since 1971; Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula).

In 1953, the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) was created to oversee and enforce the terms of the armistice. Over the past decade, North Korea has sought to dismantle the MAC in a push for a new "peace mechanism" on the peninsula. In April 1994, it declared the MAC void and withdrew its representatives.

=== North Korea the Nuclear-Weapon State: A Likely [[Nuclear target structures|Nuclear Target Structure]]===

North Korea is considered a "nuclear-weapon state" (NWS) since it has [[nuclear weapon]] capabilities making it one of the [[Nuclear target structures#Primary Targets|primary targets]] among the world's major [[nuclear target structures]] in a possible [[nuclear war]].<ref>[http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/north-korea/nuclear/ ''Nuclear Country Profile''], [[Washington, DC]]: Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Last updated: May, 2014. Accessed January 15, 2015</ref>

===Ballistic missiles===
On 7 February 2016, North Korea successfully launched a long-range rocket, carrying the satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, from the Sahoe launching station.<ref>{{Cite web|title = DPRK announces successful launch of Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite - CCTV News - CCTV.com English|url = http://english.cntv.cn/2016/02/07/ARTI98lx135UGjmMIJwXw1FB160207.shtml|website = english.cntv.cn|access-date =}}</ref> Critics suggest that the real purpose of the launch was test a [[ballistic missile]]. The launch was strongly condemned by the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council.]]<ref>{{Cite web|title = UN Security Council vows new sanctions after N Korea's rocket launch|url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35518058|website = BBC News|access-date = 2016-02-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = U.N. Security Council condemns North Korea launch - CNN.com|url = https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/07/asia/north-korea-rocket-launch-window/index.html|website = CNN|access-date =}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title = North Korea rocket launch: UN security council condemns latest violation|url = https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/07/north-korea-launches-long-range-rocket-it-claims-is-carrying-a-satellite|newspaper = The Guardian|date = 2016-02-07|access-date = 2016-02-07|issn = 0261-3077|language = en-GB|first = Justin McCurry Damien|last = Gayle|last2 = agencies}}</ref> A statement broadcast on Korean Central Television said that a new Earth observation satellite, Kwangmyongsong-4, had successfully been put into orbit less than 10 minutes after lift-off from the Sohae space centre in North Phyongan province. North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration stated the launch was "an epochal event in developing the country's science, technology, economy and defence capability by legitimately exercising the right to use space for independent and peaceful purposes".<ref>{{Cite web|title = North Korean rocket puts object into space, angers neighbours, U.S.|url = http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-northkorea-satellite-idUKKCN0VG00L|website = Reuters UK|access-date =}}</ref> The launch prompted South Korea and the United States to discuss the possibility of placing an advanced missile defence system in South Korea,<ref>{{Cite web|title = China worried over US-South Korea plans to deploy THAAD missile system - The Economic Times|url = http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/china-worried-over-us-south-korea-plans-to-deploy-thaad-missile-system/articleshow/50892130.cms|website = The Economic Times|access-date = }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Korea says THAAD 'helpful' to security|url = http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/01/205_196787.html|website = koreatimes|access-date =}}</ref> a move strongly opposed by both China and Russia.

North Korea has fired a number of well-publicized intercontinental ballistic missiles since the beginning of the Trump presidency. Some were aimed at US territory, such as Guam, although they fell harmlessly into the ocean. A couple flew high over Japan.
* The U.S. military has not attempted to shoot down ballistic missiles test-launched by North Korea because they have not been on a trajectory to hit U.S. or allies’ territory.<ref> [http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-u-s-hasn-t-yet-seen-the-need-to-1505768696-htmlstory.html U.S. hasn't yet seen the need to shoot down North Korean missiles] L.A. Times</ref>

==Economy==
North Korea's economy declined sharply in the 1990s with the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of bloc-trading with the countries of the former socialist bloc. Gross national income per capita is estimated to have fallen by about one-third between 1990 and 2002. The economy has since stabilized and shown some modest growth in recent years, which may be reflective of increased inter-Korean economic cooperation. Output and living standards, however, remain far below 1990 levels. Other centrally-planned economies in similar situations opted for domestic economic reform and liberalization of trade and investment. North Korea formalized some modest wage and price reforms in 2002, and has increasingly tolerated markets and a small private sector as the state-run distribution system has deteriorated. The regime, however, seems determined to maintain control. In October 2005, emboldened by an improved harvest and increased food donations from South Korea, the North Korean Government banned private grain sales and announced a return to centralized food rationing. Reports indicate this effort to reassert state control and to control inflation has been largely ineffective. Another factor contributing to the economy's poor performance is the disproportionately large share of GDP (thought to be about one-fourth) that North Korea devotes to its military.

North Korean industry is operating at only a small fraction of capacity due to lack of fuel, spare parts, and other inputs. Agriculture is now 30% of GDP, even though agricultural output has not recovered to early 1990 levels. The infrastructure is generally poor and outdated, and the energy sector has collapsed. About 80% of North Korea's terrain consists of moderately high mountain ranges and partially forested mountains and hills separated by deep, narrow valleys and small, cultivated plains. The most rugged areas are the north and east coasts. Good harbors are found on the eastern coast. Pyongyang, the capital, near the country's west coast, is located on the Taedong River.
*GNI (2004 estimate): $20.8 billion; 26.7% in agriculture and fishery, 27.2% in mining, 13.7% in manufacturing, 32.3% in services (2004).
*Per capita GNI (2004): $914.
*Agriculture: Products--[[rice]], [[potato]]es, [[soybean]]s, [[cattle]], [[pig]]s, [[pork]] and [[egg]]s.
*Mining and manufacturing: Types—military products; machine building; chemicals; mining (gold, coal, iron ore, limestone, magnesite, etc.); metallurgy; textiles; food processing; tourism.
*Trade (2006): Exports--$1.47 billion: minerals, non-ferrous metals, garments, machinery, electric and electronic products, chemicals, precious metals, wood products, and shellfish products. The D.P.R.K. is also thought to earn hundreds of millions of dollars from the unreported sale of missiles, narcotics and counterfeit cigarettes, and other illicit activities. Imports--$2.88 billion: minerals, petroleum, machinery, textiles, chemicals, non-ferrous metals, and animal products.
*Major trading partners (2006): (1) China, (2) R.O.K., (3) Thailand, (4) Russia and (5) Japan.

North Korea experienced a severe famine following record floods in the summer of 1995 and continues to suffer from chronic food shortages and malnutrition. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) provided substantial emergency food assistance beginning in 1995 (2 million tons of which came from the United States), but the North Korean Government suspended the WFP emergency program at the end of 2005. It has since permitted the WFP to resume operations on a greatly reduced scale through a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation. External food aid now comes primarily from China and South Korea in the form of grants and long-term concessional loans. South Korea also donates fertilizer and other materials, while China provides energy. South Korea suspended food and fertilizer shipments to the North in response to North Korea's missile launches in July 2006. However, when severe floods later that month threatened to produce another humanitarian crisis, South Korea announced a one-time donation of 100,000 tons of food, matching contributions from South Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs). South Korea resumed fertilizer shipments to North Korea in late March 2007. In early July, South Korea announced that it would provide $20 million worth of food assistance to the D.P.R.K. through the World Food Program. South Korea also resumed bilateral food aid in June 2007. Following severe flooding in North Korea in August 2007, South Korea announced that it would provide $7.5 million worth of emergency aid materials to North Korea, and $3.2 million to NGOs providing flood assistance in North Korea. The R.O.K. also provided $39.4 million in construction materials to the D.P.R.K. to assist with reconstruction efforts following the floods. The United States provided $100,000 to two U.S. NGOs for antibiotics in the wake of the floods. The United States also announced that is was prepared to engage in discussions with the D.P.R.K. of monitoring arrangements to provide additional substantial humanitarian assistance, including food aid, to the country.

====Development Policy====
In 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and termination of subsidized trade arrangements with Russia, other former Communist states, and China, North Korea announced the creation of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the northeast regions of Najin (sometime rendered "Rajin"), Chongjin, and Sonbong. Problems with infrastructure, bureaucracy, and uncertainties about investment security and viability have hindered growth and development of this SEZ. The government announced in 2002 plans to establish a Special Administrative Region (SAR) in Sinuiju, at the western end of the North Korea-China border. However, the government has taken few concrete steps to establish the Sinuiju SAR, and its future is uncertain. In addition, North Korea and South Korea have established a special economic zone near the city of Kaesong, where about 20 South Korean companies operate manufacturing facilities employing North Korean workers (see further information under North-South Economic Ties).

North Korea implemented limited micro- and macroeconomic reforms in 2002, including increases in prices and wages, changes in foreign investment laws, a steep currency devaluation, and reforms in industry and management. Though the changes have failed to stimulate recovery of the industrial sector, there are reports of changed economic behavior at the enterprise and individual level. One unintended consequence of the 2002 changes has been severe inflation. An increasing number of North Koreans now try to work in the informal sector to cope with growing hardship and reduced government support.

====North-South Economic Ties====
Two-way trade between North and South Korea, legalized in 1988, had risen to more than $1 billion by 2005, much of it related to out-processing or assembly work undertaken by South Korean firms in the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC). A significant portion of the total also includes donated goods provided to the North as humanitarian assistance or as part of inter-Korean cooperation projects. Although business-based and processing-on-commission transactions continued to grow, the bulk of South Korean exports to North Korea in 2006 was still non-commercial.

Since the June 2000 North-South summit, North and South Korea have reconnected their east and west coast railroads and roads where they cross the DMZ and are working to improve these transportation routes. North and South Korea conducted tests of the east and west coast railroads on May 17, 2007. Much of the work done in North Korea has been funded by the South. The west coast rail and road are complete as far north as the KIC (six miles north of the DMZ), but little work is being done north of Kaesong. On the east coast, the road is complete but the rail line is far from operational. Since 2003, tour groups have been using the east coast road to travel from South Korea to Mt. Geumgang in North Korea, where cruise ship-based tours had been permitted since 1998.

As of August 2007, 26 South Korean firms were manufacturing goods in the KIC, employing nearly 17,000 North Korean workers. Most of the goods are sold in South Korea; a small quantity is being exported to foreign markets. Ground was broken on the complex in June 2003, and the first products were shipped from the KIC in December 2004. Plans envision 250 firms employing 350,000 workers by 2012.

==History==
The Korean Peninsula was first populated by peoples of a Tungusic branch of the Ural-Altaic language family, who migrated from the northwestern regions of Asia. Some of these peoples also populated parts of northeast China (Manchuria); Koreans and Manchurians still show physical similarities. Koreans are racially and linguistically homogeneous. Although there are no indigenous minorities in North Korea, there is a small Chinese community (about 50,000) and some 1,800 Japanese wives who accompanied the roughly 93,000 Koreans returning to the North from Japan between 1959 and 1962. Although dialects exist, the Korean spoken throughout the peninsula is mutually comprehensible. In North Korea, the Korean alphabet (hangul) is used exclusively.

Korea's traditional religions are Buddhism and Shamanism. Christian missionaries arrived as early as the 16th century, but it was not until the 19th century that major missionary activity began. Pyongyang was a center of missionary activity, and there was a relatively large Christian population in the north before 1945. Although religious groups exist in North Korea today, the government severely restricts religious activity.

By the first century AD, the Korean Peninsula was divided into the kingdoms of Shilla, Koguryo, and Paekche. In 668 AD, the Shilla kingdom unified the peninsula. The Koryo dynasty—from which Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century derived the Western name "Korea"—succeeded the Shilla kingdom in 935. The Choson dynasty, ruled by members of the Yi clan, supplanted Koryo in 1392 and lasted until Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

Throughout its history, Korea has been invaded, influenced, and fought over by its larger neighbors. Korea was under Mongolian occupation from 1231 until the early 14th century. The unifier of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, launched major invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597. When Western powers focused "gunboat" diplomacy on Korea in the mid-19th century, Korea's rulers adopted a closed-door policy, earning Korea the title of "Hermit Kingdom." Though the Choson dynasty recognized China's hegemony in East Asia, Korea was independent until the late 19th century. At that time, China sought to block growing Japanese influence on the Korean Peninsula and Russian pressure for commercial gains there. The competition produced the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. Japan emerged victorious from both wars and in 1910 annexed Korea as part of the growing Japanese empire. Japanese colonial administration was characterized by tight control from Tokyo and ruthless efforts to supplant Korean language and culture. Organized Korean resistance during the colonial era was generally unsuccessful, and Japan remained firmly in control of the Peninsula until the end of World War II in 1945. The surrender of Japan in August 1945 led to the immediate division of Korea into two occupation zones, with the United States administering the southern half of the peninsula and the U.S.S.R. taking over the area to the north of the 38th parallel. This division was meant to be temporary until the United States, U.K., Soviet Union, and China could arrange a trusteeship administration.

In December 1945, a conference was convened in Moscow to discuss the future of Korea. A five-year trusteeship was discussed, and a joint Soviet-American commission was established. The commission met intermittently in Seoul but deadlocked over the issue of establishing a national government. In September 1947, with no solution in sight, the United States submitted the Korean question to the UN General Assembly. Initial hopes for a unified, independent Korea quickly evaporated as the politics of the Cold War and domestic opposition to the trusteeship plan resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate nations with diametrically opposed political, economic, and social systems. Elections were held in the South under UN observation, and on August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) was established in the South. Syngman Rhee, a nationalist leader, became the Republic's first president. On September 9, 1948, the North established the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.) headed by then-Premier Kim Il-sung, who had been cultivated and supported by the U.S.S.R.

Soviet supervision over the setting up and initial administration of the North Korean government was vested in a Soviet Civil Administration Bureau which carried out policies formulated in the Politburo and passed down through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Political Administration Department of the Sovie [[Red Army]]. Through ministrations of this agency, a veritable flood of Soviet advisors permeated the governmental, economic, social and educational structures of North Korea. Although outwardly maintaining an advisory status, Soviet advisors, in fact, exercised control and supervision over all policy matters. In this manner the USSR created a satellite state which was politically subservient and subject to economic manipulation.

By 1949 nationalization of banking, heavy industry and communications, the agrarian [[redistribution]] program and the political monopoly of unions had taken place and the new regime demonstrated a willingness to lower the standard of living of its people by exporting vitally needed foodstuffs and raw materials in order to obtain the instruments of war.

====Korean War of 1950-53====
{{Main|Korean War}}
Almost immediately after establishment of the D.P.R.K., guerrilla warfare, border clashes, and naval battles erupted between the two Koreas. North Korean forces launched a massive surprise attack and invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950. The United Nations, in accordance with the terms of its Charter, engaged in its first collective action and established the UN Command (UNC), to which 16 member nations sent troops and assistance. Next to South Korea, the United States contributed the largest contingent of forces to this international effort.

North Korean forces quickly overran Southern ones, capturing almost the entire peninsula save the southern city of Busan. To relieve the Busan perimeter, U.S. General [[Douglas MacArthur]] led a massive amphibious landing at Inchon, over 100 miles behind the North Korean flanks. Kim's forces were pushed back and the battle line fluctuated north and south, and after large numbers of Chinese "People's Volunteers" intervened to assist the North, the battle line stabilized north of Seoul near the 38th parallel.

Armistice negotiations began in July 1951, but hostilities continued until July 27, 1953. On that date, at Panmunjom, the military commanders of the North Korean People's Army, the Chinese People's Volunteers, and the UNC signed an armistice agreement. Neither the United States nor South Korea is a signatory to the armistice per se, although both adhere to it through the UNC. No comprehensive peace agreement has replaced the 1953 armistice pact.

====Atrocities of the Korean War====
[[Fred Schwarz]] wrote:
:''When the Communists retreated in North Korea, they took with them all the able-bodied personnel to serve as laborers. Those who could not stand the rigors of the northward journey-- old men and women, pregnant women, very young children and babies-- they massacred and buried in a [[mass grave]] if they belonged to the untrustworthy social classes. The advancing American troops time and again found mass graves filled with the bodies of those murdered by the Communists.''<ref>[http://www.schwarzreport.org/yct/01ycttc.htm You Can Trust the Communists - To Be Communists]
</ref>

==Books==
*''The Aquariums of Pyong Yang'' by Kang Chol-hwan
*''Eyes of the Tailless Animals'' (1999) by Soon Ok Lee
*''North Korea'' by Bruce Cuming
*[http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,1108801,00.html ''Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea''] (graphic novel) by Guy Deslisle
*[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/124221.Don_Oberdorfer ''The Two Koreas''] by Don Oberdorfer
*''Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World'' (2006) by Gordon G. Chang

==See also==
* [[Communism]]
* [[Nuclear target structures]]
* [[Big government]] [[Welfare state]] leads to [[Nanny state]], leads to [[Police state]]
* [[Liberal totalitarianism]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/korea_north/index.html Korea, North - 2007] Geographic.org
*[http://www.worldchristianministries.org/idop/idop3.asp Testimony of a high-ranking defector]
*[http://bertschlossberg.blogspot.com/ An Open Secret: the Gulags of the Russian Federation (the North Korean camps on Russian territory)]


{{Asian Countries}}
[[Category:Dictatorships]]
[[Category:Communist States]]
[[Category:Korea]]
[[Category:Police State]]
[[Category:Oppression]]
[[Category:Anti-American]]
[[Category:Atheism]]
[[Category:Liberalism]]
[[Category:Welfare State]]
[[Category:Threats]]

Nelson Mandela

2018-12-07T13:16:01Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

{{Officeholder
|name=Nelson Mandela
|image=Mandela2.jpg
|party=[[African National Congress]] 
|spouse=Evelyn Ntoko Mase (1944–1957) Winnie Madikizela (1958–1996) Graça Machel (1998-)
|religion=[[Methodism]]
|offices=
{{Officeholder/president
|country=South Africa
|number=
|terms=10 May 1994 – 14 June 1999
|vp=[[Thabo Mbeki]] [[F. W. de Klerk]]
|preceded=F. W. de Klerk
|former=y
|succeeded=[[Thabo Mbeki]]
}}
}}
'''Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela''' (July 18, 1918 - December 5, 2013) was a [[South Africa]]n anti-apartheid leader and politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994-1999. For his life Mandela received more than 250 honors, including the 1993 [[Nobel Peace Prize]], the US [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] (from [[George W. Bush]]), the [[Sakharov Prize]], the Soviet Order of Lenin and the Bharat Ratna.

He belonged to the African National Congress, a political party from the center left to the ultra-left Leninist, which he presided from 1991 to 1997, after its legalization in 1990. Remember that it was founded in 1912.
He was a member and was general secretary of the MPNA (Movement of Non-Aligned Countries) between 1998 and 2002. This was a coalition of countries that remained "neutral" in the Cold War.

The recorded attacks perpetrated by Mandela:
-1980: Attack against refinery SASOL (Sasolburg)
-1982: Attack on nuclear power plant (Koeberg)
-1983: Attack on Church Street (Pretoria, 19 dead)
-1986: Bomb car attack (Durdan, 3 dead).
-1987: Attempt against court (Johannesburg, 3 dead).
-1988: Attack against Banco Standard (Roodepoort, 6 dead).

Nelson supported with great fervor the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro and all action taken by this murderous regime of homosexuals, women and ironically, blacks.
Speech by Nelson Mandela, July 26, 1991, in Cuba:
http://db.nelsonmandela.org/speeches/pub_view.asp?

Support to Gaddafi: https://youtu.be/G-afUmpGBmw

Support for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: https://youtu.be/wCPlz9-SyPM

Mandela may have done good things, but violence is not the way and he was a terrorist.

==Early life==
Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa,<ref name="AllAfrica"/> a chief of the Thembu people, a subdivision of the Xhosa nation.<ref name="NYT obituary">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/world/africa/nelson-mandela_obit.html?pagewanted=1&ref=international-home|work=The New York Times|author=Keller, Bill|date=December 5, 2013|accessdate=12-10-2013|title=Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95|language=English}}</ref> When his father died at nine Nelson was taken in as a ward to Jongintaba Dalindyebo.<ref name="official biography">{{cite web|work=Nelson Mandela Foundation|title=Biography|language=English|accessdate=12-10-2013|url=http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography}}</ref>

===Education===
Mandela was sent to a [[Methodist]]<ref name="independent biography">{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/nelson-mandela-life-story-a-long-walk-to-immortality--the-life-and-times-of-madiba-8406457.html|work=The Independent|language=English|country=UK|title=Nelson Mandela biography: A long walk to immortality - the life and times of Madiba|author=Sampson, Anthony}}</ref> mission school for his primary education,<ref name="AllAfrica">{{cite web|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/201312091064.html|work=AllAfrica|title=South Africa: Biography of Nelson Mandela|date=12-06-2013|accessdate=12-10-2013|language=English}}</ref> followed by time at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Healdtown.<ref name="official biography"/> He began studying for a [[bachelor's degree]] at University College of Fort Hare, the only residential college for [[blacks]] in South Africa,<ref name="NYT obituary"/> but, along with Oliver Tambo,<ref name="AllAfrica"/> was expelled for joining a student [[protest]].<ref name="official biography"/> Upon returning to his village, as retribution,<ref name="official biography"/> Mandela's family selected a bride for him and his cousin, Justice; the two fled the family - and the prospect of leadership in [[tribal]] government - for [[Johannesburg, South Africa]].<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="NYT obituary"/> There he worked in gold mines as a guard, but was fired when his superior discovered he was a runaway.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="NYT obituary"/> Mandela would complete his bachelor's degree at the University of South Africa in 1943 and return to Fort Hare for his graduation.<ref name="official biography"/>

==Pre-imprisonment career==
===Work experience, early political activism===
In Johannesburg, Mandela was introduced to Walter Sisulu, a [[real estate]] businessman and a prominent member of the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) - a black liberation party opposed the extreme segregation called [[apartheid]];<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/topics/apartheid|title=Apartheid|work=History|publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC|accessdate=December 18, 2013|language=English}}</ref> Sisulu arranged for Mandela to be articled to a white attorney, Lazar Sidelsky, while Mandela studied [[law]] part-time at University of the Witwatersrand - though he would leave the school in 1948.<ref name="official biography"/><ref name="independent biography"/> Mandela began to follow Anton Lembede; he, along with Mandela, Tambo and Sisulu organized the radical A.N.C. Youth League, alienating some white sympathizers with their strong black national rhetoric.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref name="independent biography"/> The Youth League was also critical of the "old guard" leadership of the ANC.<ref name="AllAfrica"/>
{{QuoteBox2|quote=“I was angry at the white man, not at racism ... While I was not prepared to hurl the white man into the sea, I would have been perfectly happy if he climbed aboard his steamships and left the continent of his own volition.”|source=Nelson Mandela<ref name="NYT obituary"/>|align=left|width=300px}}
At this time, Mandela fell strongly onto the side of Africanism is the liberation debate between Africanism and nonracialism
in liberation theology, though his eventual embrace of nonracialism would define his later life and career.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> The ANC Youth League was also fiercely anti-[[communist]]; Mandela would break up Communist Party meetings - regarding Communism as foreign and non-Afircan and believing that blacks should liberate themselves.<ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref name="independent biography"/> This philosophy changed with the victory of the Afrikaner National Party in 1948 in the all-white elections; the National Party had run on a platform of [[apartheid]] and strong anti-communism.<ref name="independent biography"/> The elections sparked the radicalization of the ANC<ref name="telegraph biography">{{cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/nelson-mandela/10503342/Nelson-Mandela-A-life-rich-in-drama-tragedy-triumph-and-reconciliation.html|work=The Telegraph|title=Nelson Mandela: A life rich in drama, tragedy, triumph and reconciliation|language=English|author= Holman, Michael|date=December 7, 2013|accessdate=December 18, 2013}}</ref> - in 1949 the Youth League's tactics of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-co-operation were adopted as official ANC policy, and older members were purged from leadership positions.<ref name="AllAfrica"/> Mandela would assume leadership positions within the party - including President of the Youth League and National Volunteer-in-Chief of the ANC.<ref name="AllAfrica"/>

In 1952, the ANC launched its first passive resistance - the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="independent biography"/> The Defiance Campaign was suppressed with legislation lead by the National Party; protests were met with arrests - including that of Mandela's in 1956 on charges of [[treason]] (one of 156 ANC leaders to be arrested that year).<ref name="independent biography"/> The court found that Mandela had consistently advised his adherers to not resort to violence, but he was found guilty of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act and given a suspended prison sentence.<ref name="AllAfrica"/> Mandela was also confined to Johannesburg for six months and prohibited from attending gatherings; during this time, Mandela, despite not completing his law degree, and Tambo set up the first black law partnership in South Africa;<ref name="NYT obituary"/> the firm helped black clients with their political and other legal difficulties.<ref name="independent biography"/>

In 1953, Mandela created the M-plan (named after him) - a contingency plan in case the ANC - like the Communist Party - was declared illegal. The M-plan detailed how the party could run underground, communicating with members without resorting to public meetings.<ref name="AllAfrica"/> Throughout the fifties Mandela would be consistently banned, arrested and imprisoned.<ref name="AllAfrica"/> In 1960 - the more radical Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) broke away from the ANC; their tactics- though still peaceful - were more aggressive and were met with violence.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="independent biography"/> On March 21, 1961 police killed 69 peaceful protestors in what became known as the Sharpeville Massacre; after this massacre both parties were banned.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref name="independent biography"/>

He also had been a Communist, and even went as far as to give a speech on how to be a good communist.<ref name="web.archive.org">http://web.archive.org/web/20041204063644/http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/goodcom.html</ref> In addition, he also was a senior member of the South African Communist Party by his arrest in 1962.<ref>http://newobserveronline.com/mandela-lied-to-world-south-african-communist-party-admits-he-was-senior-central-committee-member/</ref> In 1990 at Johannesburg, he was also photographed with his then-wife Winnie (who was infamous for her method of execution known as necklacing, which involved putting a tire to a person's neck filled with gasoline and setting them on fire) as well as Stalinist member Joe Slovo during a South African Communist Party rally with the Soviet Star and Hammer and Sickle logos prominently displayed on a red background.<ref>https://timeonhands.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/soviet-support-for-nelson-mandela.jpg</ref>

===Militarist leader===
The Sharpeville Massacre sparked a turning point for Mandela - he became convinced that the ANC needed to adopt a separate military wing, called Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation; Mandela was made commander-in-chief.<ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref name="independent biography"/> There is also evidence that Mandela joined the South African Communist Party and a member the party's Central Committee (though he denied it through his life) - presumably for contacts.<ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/politics/2013/12/06/sacp-confirms-nelson-mandela-was-a-member|work=Business Day Live|title=http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/politics/2013/12/06/sacp-confirms-nelson-mandela-was-a-member|author= Marrian, Natasha|date=December 6, 2013|language=English}}</ref>
The new, violent, methods of the ANC were to destroy power plants and communications systems; the goal was that these acts would limit overseas investment. Mandela was adamant that the group not kill, but by the end of its 20-year campaign 63 people had been killed and 483 injured; the group was declared a [[terrorist]] group by the white South African government and the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/8304153/Nelson-Mandelas-Spear-of-the-Nation-the-ANCs-armed-resistance.html|title=Nelson Mandela's Spear of the Nation: the ANC's armed resistance|author=Laing, Aislinn|work=The Telegraph|language=English|date=February 5, 2011|accessdate=December 18, 2013}}</ref> Mandela left the country soon after the Spear of the Nation began its tactics, hoping to generate worldwide support and economic sanctions so that Pretoria might abandon apartheid.<ref name="independent biography"/> In 1962, Mandela was arrested after 17 months in hiding, charged with incitement to strike and illegally leaving the country.<ref name="independent biography"/> Mandela was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="independent biography"/>
{{QuoteBox2|quote=“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But my lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”|source=Nelson Mandela<ref name="NYT obituary"/>|align=right|width=300px}}
While serving, the South African police raided a farm near Rivonia - finding future plans of sabotage; Mandela and his colleagues were charged with organising sabotage and violent revolution as well as furthering the aims of communism; at his trial, Mandela declared his ideal of democracy in a four-hour speech - concluding, "It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."<ref name="independent biography"/> Mandela acknowledged his crimes - that he was the commander of Spear of the Nation and that he had made alliances with Communists, but declared that he had turned to violence only when nonviolent means were foreclosed and likened his affiliation with Communists to Churchill’s cooperation with Stalin against Hitler.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> Nelson also commented on his political evolution from black nationalist to multiracialist.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> In part due to overwhelming pressure from the international community - including a near-unanimous vote by the [[United Nations]] - the lives of the accused were spared; Mandela and his colleagues were sentenced to life in prison.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> When President Botha offered to have him pardoned if he would renounce terrorism, he refused.<ref name="web.archive.org"/>

==Imprisonment==
Mandela became an elder statesman of the prison on Robben Island<ref name="telegraph biography"/> - where there were frequent clashes with prisoners and guards, he seemed above the fray; he was also singled out for cruelties. He was denied permission to attend the funerals of his mother and oldest son, and his wife endured persecution after being exiled from Johannesburg.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> Mandela and the prisoners initially turned down officers of release; he commented "Prisoners cannot enter into contracts - only free men can negotiate."<ref name="AllAfrica"/> Mandela credited his time in prison with the cessation of his desire for vengeance, speaking of sympathetic white guards and National Party members who would attempt a dialogue.<ref name="NYT obituary"/>

Pretoria began a more stringent crackdown on minority party activities - it detained 20,000 people without trial,<ref name="independent biography"/> but the pressure from the international community was too great. Mandela ultimately decided to negotiate with the white government without telling his fellow inmates and party-members, saying, “My comrades did not have the advantages that I had of brushing shoulders with the V.I.P.’s who came here, the judges, the minister of justice, the commissioner of prisons, and I had come to overcome my own prejudice towards them ... So I decided to present my colleagues with a fait accompli.”<ref name="NYT obituary"/>

In December 1988, as negotiations gathered momentum, and Mandela's health deteriorated (he had prostate surgery while in prison), he was moved to the Victor Verster Prison - where he could be better cared for and live in more comfortable conditions.<ref name="AllAfrica"/><ref name="NYT obituary"/> In February 1990, President Frederik Willem de Klerk legalized the ANC and shortly after released Mandela; two weeks later Mandela became the Deputy President of the ANC.<ref name="independent biography"/>

===Release and election===
Negotiations between Mandela, the ANC and the ruling party continued until eventually free elections were agreed upon, in exchange for a share of power for opposition parties and a guarantee that whites would not be threatened with reprisals.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> In the ensuing elections of April 1994, the ANC won 62% of the vote - ensuring that Mandela would be the next President of South Africa.<ref name="NYT obituary"/><ref name="independent biography"/>

==Presidency==
Though elected leader, Mandela was frequently deferring to others in leadership. De Klerk and Thabo Mbeki - the latter selected by the ANC - were Mandela's deputy presidents, and privately he left most appointments and practical decisions to Mbeki, referring to himself as "head of state" rather than "head of government".<ref name="independent biography"/> When De Klerk left the coalition, Mbeki was allowed more power - sometimes presiding over the cabinet.

Mandela was not as effective in elected office as he was revolutionary leader. Prior to his election - he sought the financial support of 20 industrialists to build up the ANC. When he took office, he allowed the industrialists to have unprecedented access to the executive - and favored his big donors over unions.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> Mandela also made minimal progress towards the modest goals he had set on housing, education and jobs.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> He failed to grab the lead at the dawn of the ensuing crisis of [[AIDS]]; refusing to acknowledge the unpopular subject at a time when contraceptives were considered [[taboo]] in South Africa.<ref name="independent biography"/>

Still, Mandela continued to act as a unifier among races - as in 1995 when he shook the hand of Francois Pienaar - the Springbok [[rugby]] captain - significant due to rugby's strong association with Afrikaners - whose leaders strongly supported apartheid.<ref name="telegraph biography"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Mandela - Francois Pienaar’s tribute: short, simple, apt|work=Daily Maverick|author=Muller, Antoinette|date=December 12, 2013|accessdate=December 18, 2013|url=http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-12-12-mandela-francois-pienaars-tribute-short-simple-apt/#.UrM_sJGilDI}}</ref>

==Post-Presidency==
===Reaction to successor===
Mandela rarely directly criticized his successor, Mbeki, but privately criticized his inability to take criticism and his conspiratorial view of the world.<ref name="NYT obituary"/> When Mbeki publicly doubted the scientifically proven cause of AIDS, Mandela finally spoke out on the issue - citing the importance of condoms and contraceptives.<ref name="NYT obituary"/>

===Reaction to global affairs===
[[File:Gaddafi and Mandela 1.JPG|thumb|Nelson Mandela with [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]]]]

===Health problems and death===
Mandela suffered from a lung infection. From December 2012 to April 2013 he remained in a hospital. He had a procedure to remove a [[gallstone]].<ref>{{cite web|work=Associated Press|publisher=Fox News|url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/31/south-africa-mandela-remains-in-hospital/|title=Mandela remains hospitalized for lung infection, spokesman says|language=English|date=March 31, 2013}}</ref> On April 6, 2013 he left the hospital,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/06/nelson-mandela-discharged-from-hospital-south-africa-says/|title=Nelson Mandela discharged from the hospital, South Africa says|language=English|publisher=Fox News|work=Associated Press|date=April 6, 2013}}</ref> but returned again in June 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/06/08/south-africa-mandela-taken-to-hospital/|work=Associated Press|publisher=Fox News|title=Nelson Mandela remains in hospital with recurring lung infection|language=English|date=June 9, 2013}}</ref> Mandela was in a critical condition for a long time.<ref>{{cite web|work=Associated Press|publisher=TownHall|url=http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2013/06/23/south-africa-mandela-in-critical-condition-n1625432|language=English|title=South Africa: Nelson Mandela in critical condition}}</ref>

On July 4, 2013, it was revealed that court documents indicated that Nelson Mandela was on life support and was being kept alive by a breathing machine and faced "impending death"; he was kept in the hospital from June 8, 2013<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/04/nelson-mandela-africa-apartheid/2489137/|work=Associated Press|publisher=USA Today|author=Straziuso, Jason|date=July 4, 2013|title=Nelson Mandela on life support, court documents show}}</ref> to December 5th, 2013, when he died.

====Global reaction and funeral====
[[George W. Bush]] and [[Barack Obama]] both spoke at Mandela's funeral - which was marred by a fake sign language interpreter, who was later admitted to a psychiatric hospital.<ref>{{cite web|work=NBC News|publisher=NBC|author=Smith, Alexander|title='Fake' interpreter from Mandela event is admitted to psychiatric hospital: report|language=English|url=http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/19/21969085-fake-interpreter-from-mandela-event-is-admitted-to-psychiatric-hospital-report?lite|date=December 19, 2013}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandela, Nelson}}

[[Category:Former Heads of State]]
[[Category:Nobel Laureates in Peace]]
[[Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom award winners]]
[[Category:Sakharov Laureates]]
[[Category:Terrorists]]
[[Category:Communists]]
[[Category:Leftists]]

Javier Milei

2018-12-06T21:48:42Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

Javier Milei is an Argentine libertarian economist who sympathizes with the Austrian School. He became known due to his usual television appearances. His influences are Ludwing Von Mises, Friedirich Hayek, Milton Friedman and Murray Rothbard. He received his degree as an economist from the University of Belgrano and is a growth specialist.

His best books are:
Economy readings in Kirchner times (2014).
Economic Policy Time Trial (2014).
The return to the path of the Argentine Decadence (2015). Maquinita, Infleta and Devaluta (2016), with Diego Giacomini.
Once again soup: little machine, infleta and devaluta: essays of monetary economy for the Argentine case (2017), with Diego Giacomini.
Unmasking the Keynesian lie. Keynes, Friedman and the triumph of the Austrian School. (2018)

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

2018-12-06T21:42:16Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

[[File:Cristina and Nestor.jpg|thumb|Christina Kirchner with her now-deceased husband Nestor Kirchner]]
'''Cristina Fernández de Kirchner''' was a [[Liberal|left-wing]] president of [[Argentina]] from 2007 to 2015. She is a member of [[Justicialist Party]], a party that was founded by military dictator and [[Nazi]] supporter [[Juan Peron]]. While accusing former president [[Jorge Videla]] of being a "dictator", she remains silent about the crimes by Juan Peron. She was elected in 2007 as president and reelected in 2011.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/24/cristina-kirchner-win-argentina-elections</ref>

Kirchner supports [[same-sex "marriage"]].<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/americas/16argentina.html</ref> She stated her desire to transform her country into an [[Marxist]] state.<ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle2015.aspx?ARTID=35388</ref>{{dead link}}

He has many complaints of corruption and his entire family is investigated by the courts.

Its political ideology is left-wing nationalism and economically it is protectionist and deeply anti-capitalist.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez De Kirchner, Cristina}}
[[Category:Argentina]]
[[Category:Leftists]]
[[Category:Former Heads of State]]

Mauricio Macri

2018-12-06T21:27:14Z

NicoAlberti5: create the page

Mauricio Macri is a civil engineer, politician, executive, businessman and Argentine sports leader, who assumed the position of president of the Argentine Nation on December 10, 2015.
He had been a national deputy for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires between 2005 and 2007 and head of government of that same district for two periods (2007-2011, 2011-2015).

He worked in companies in the country such as Citibank, Sevel and the Macri Group and was president of Club Atlético Boca Juniors between 1995 and 2008. His political party is the PRO (Republican Proposal) and was created in 2005. The political ideology of the party is the social democracy

Jorge Rafael Videla

2018-12-06T21:16:42Z

NicoAlberti5: add information

'''Jorge Rafael Videla''' (1925-2013) was the president of [[Argentina]] from 1978 to 1981. He came in power after [[Corruption|Corrupt]] Leftist dictator [[Isabel Martínez de Perón]] was overthrown. He was a military man, appointed de facto president of Argentina, by a military junta between 1976 and 1981, during the National Reorganization Process, to fight communism and save the country from the Marxist regime. He is considered a "murderer" by the left when in reality he was a hero.

Videla was criticized by [[Henry Kissinger]] for killing oppositionals.<ref>http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB133/</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Heads of State]]
[[Category:Argentina]]