Saving Private Ryan Reflection Questions

In 1944, the United States war effort in Europe was just starting to pick up. Even though the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred just three years prior, the growing power of the Third Reich could not be ignored. During this time, France was already occupied by Nazi Germany and Hitler's war machine was on the path of conquering all of Eurasia. In an attempt to combat this immense threat, the U.S. formulated a plan to engage the German forces through an invasion of Normandy. This bloody offensive would be remembered in infamy as D-Day. Shortly before this violent clash of U.S. and German forces, the inexperienced men of the United States Third Army was given an encouraging and inspiring speech by the four star general George S. Patton.

The United States is justified in their entrance into World War II, due to the nature of the country and the world amidst this time. In regards to the country, the attack on Pearl Harbor necessitated said entrance as failure to do such would indicate an isolationist policy which lacerated the boundaries of a country which is designed to protect the people. Despite the elucidations of Charles Lindbergh, the country was placed in a compromising position following the aforementioned attack. The reason being, that the utmost duty of the government is to protect and take into account the best interests of the people. Thus, the country was forced to respond by virtue of the potential future ramifications that a lack of response posed. Moreover, contrary

Lastly, The United States should of joined the World War II because we were attacked after we were trying to stay out of the war. The United States only option was to enter World War because Pearl Harbor was an unprovoked terrorist attack. Also, America had to respond and defend itself. Hitler was also posing a threat to the safety of the entire world. If the United States had not counterattacked Japan, we would have looked weak for the world because we didn't defend ourselves.

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 film directed by Steven Spielberg dealing with the World War II Battle of Normandy. During its intense first twenty minutes, the film depicts the brutal, gruesome realities of what happened on June 6, 1944 on Omaha Beach. The historically accurate portrayal of the D-Day invasion by Allied Forces is the background for the fictional plot of a rescue mission for a single soldier, Private Ryan. The story of Ryan, his family, and his rescue is not true but it is symbolic of the heroism and terrible losses suffered in this crucial military campaign. Historian Steven Ambrose was a consultant on the film and views this kind of fiction as “the kind that illuminates truth rather than diminishing it.”

Britain and France desperately awaited the moment when the US would fully join in the fighting in Europe during World War II, and D-Day brought that full fledged involvement. If not for the efforts of the United States of America, its cooperation and planning with its allies, the invasion would not have been successful. It was successful, however, due to previous planning, the level of supplies and men from the US combined with the European allies, as well as the divided German forces. D-Day was the beginning of liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. Hitler had known that in order for the Allies to be successful, there would have to be an invasion of mainland Europe - which his forces controlled most of - and that it would come from northwestern Europe, with Great Britain being the jumping off point. But if he was expecting the attack, why was he not better prepared? The planning that had gone into the invasion at the beaches of Normandy on the coast of France had been thorough and extensive, with a large part of that planning being the intentional disinformation about the location of the invasion, thus fooling the Nazi leader. These factors explain why Operation Overlord was successful, and thus became the turning point in the world war.

The first would be allies and American blood and casualties being too high. The other most prominent one, in my mind, is the idea of some one else winning the war that we have been most leading warriors in.

During WW2 Truman, the United States President at the time, was asked to make one the toughest decision in History. Choosing between dropping an atomic bomb or invading are both choices that will result in a lot of deaths. The huge diffrence between the two was who died wether it be the Japanese with the bomb, or the American soldiers with the invasion. Trumans decision was supposed to end the war sooner, hence reducing the amount of agony,deaths, stress or any other negative effects that could result in the continous war. Truman's decision on dropping the Atomic Bomb's was an efficient course of action for the Americans, but was deffinantly not the most educated decision. If I had been placed in Truman's shoes and had to make this

eyes when he picks up his helmet and puts it on his head and the

Many see the bombings of Japan as a mistake while others still believe that it was the best course of action available to the military leaders. Despite this, it is not truly a matter of serious contention whether or not it was the necessary option. The public has been told that it saved thousands of American soldiers by making it unnecessary for the army to invade Japan. However, this is simply untrue, as explained by the commander in chief of the U.S. Fleet and chief of Naval Operations during the war, Ernest J. King. “The President in giving his approval for these [atomic] attacks appeared to believe that many thousands of American troops would be

The film The War Room is a documentary about Bill Clinton that has very little to do with Bill Clinton himself. The primary focus of the film is devoted to the team of campaign strategists that got Clinton to the presidency. The two main players the film focuses on are James Carville--the Lead Strategist for the Clinton campaign and George Stephanopoulos the Communications Director. The film follows them and their team of campaign strategists and experts as they try to get Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, to the presidency. The documentary highlights many key moments in Clinton’s campaign, for example the Gennifer Flowers scandal. However, the film showcases what was happening behind closed doors in the War Room, where Clinton’s

was fully justified in dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because of the unprovoked and brutal attacks on civilians, grounded airplanes, and the docked U.S. Pacific fleet by the Japanese. By retaliating with the atomic bomb to end the war the United States showed the world the power and weapons of mass destruction that it possessed and that it was not afraid to use them. This also issued a warning to the Soviet Union, who at the time was our ally, but was slowly turning into an enemy. In addition to showing the world the United States power, the atomic bombs crushed Japan not just physically, but also morally giving them no other option, but to surrender. Japan was on the edge of surrender with a great amount of inner turmoil, but Japans military leaders had declared no surrender and ordered their people to fight to the death of the last man, woman, and child, so in using the atomic bomb we forced them to the breaking point and saved millions of lives. Without the dropping of the atomic bombs the U.S. would have invaded the Japanese homeland in Operation Downfall where a great slaughter would have ensued. Nearly 500,000 Purple Heart medals were pre-made in anticipation of the invasion, but the atomic bombs saved this massive loss of life. The results brought about by the atomic bombs were very devastating and gruesome; they caused thousands of deaths and injuries and should not be employed except in the most dire

Over the years it has been an often heated and debated issue on whether the United States could have entered the war sooner and therefore have saved many lives. To try to understand this we must look both at the people’s and the government’s point of view.

When Captain Miller and his squad are given their suicide mission to find Private Ryan, they, question and resist their mission. This makes one believe that the soldiers at this point have little faith and trust in the political system and are tired war. They do show that they respect the system

Based on their sense of duty to follow the order, Captain Miller and his men used a deontological ethical framework to guide their decision-making process. The University of Texas Business school states that deontology ethics, “requires that people follow the rules and do their duty” (McCombs School of Business, n.d.). The duties of a soldier are to follow the orders of the officers and individuals appointed over them. In this case, Captain Miller and his men fell underneath the command of General Marshall.

Although the film “Saving Private Ryan” can be viewed through several moral views, overall the film can be best viewed through the deontological ethics. The majority of the film is based off of someone intending to do the right thing even when the consequences were high. The company had duties to uphold as soldiers and they did what they had to in order to fulfill them. According to Kant, humans usually know what they ought to do, and that is almost always the opposite of what they want to do (Rosenstand 2013, page 285).