Essay on Waco

People don’t know how it started but some people think it started by one of their cows kicking over a lantern and other people think it started from meteors. The fire was 4 miles long and 4 miles wide, about 300 people died from the fire and about 100,000 without homes.The fire caused about 200 million dollars in damage.Almost every person didn’t have a job.

It was April 19, 1995 at 9:03 that the lives of thousands were affected by one single

The battle at the Alamo is one of the most significant events in the Texas Revolution, as well as in both Mexican and American history. For Mexican President and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, it was a tale of determination and holding to the principles of a strong, central government. For Americans living in Texas, the Alamo was a venture of small scale Revolutionary ideals; a people should be able to democratically express how they feel their homeland to be governed. As we know, both countries experienced the extreme opposites of their desired outcomes, if only initially. The tales of this specific point in time are many, though some certainly contain many varying details from the next. However, most can hardly be proven, as

The events that began on February 23, 1836 have roots that span as far back as 1808. This exploration into the events and carnage that took place before, during and after the Alamo will only go back to the events immediately leading up to the Alamo. Mainly the frame of mind the Mexican government had regarding the Texas settlers and the reasons leading to the confrontation at the Alamo.

A defining moment in American history, the Watergate scandal, dramatically transformed the way Americans view politicians and government. In the eyes of most Americans, trust, honor and integrity, vanished from the political landscape.

On April 19th, 1995 a homemade bomb made of a concoction of agricultural fertilizer, fuel, and other dangerous chemicals was left in a truck parked outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. At 9:02 in the morning, it’s blast damaged over 300 buildings surrounding the vehicle and even flattened a third of the federal building. (Strom, 2015) The bomb took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children. It was found that two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Lynn Nichols were the ones who planted the device. Both men were found to be associated with a radical militia movement that sought revenge for a siege in Waco, Texas two years prior. The siege killed 82 Branch Davidians, of whom, multiple were related to the militia movement.

The year is 1993, and there had been a deadly fire that consumed the lives of eighty individuals. The fire erupted in Waco, Texas on a compound called Mt. Carmel. There had been a 51 day siege where the ATF and the FBI tried to gain control of the compound and capture the leader, David Koresh. David Koresh was a self-proclaimed prophet and preached a version of Christianity called the Branch Davidians. They were very primitive, in almost all aspects. They had no electronic devices, no plumbing and followed a very strict regime instructed by David Koresh himself. To put it plainly, they were a part of a religious cult. Whether this cult was a suicide cult or not was a hot topic of debate when regarding the Waco Siege. According to the court, and despite the majority of sources, it was concluded that the fire was self-inflicted by an arsonists, stripping the government of responsibility and ruling the deaths as murder-suicides.

scandal and exploded in popularity with the help of the media. After it was all said and done, the

He had an affair with the leader of the cult. When she passed away he was forced out of the community. Koresh returned a year later with seven of his followers and opened fire on those who had kicked him out. After finally becoming the leader of the group, Howell legally changed his name to David Koresh. This name came from his beliefs that he truly was the reincarnation of King David, and King Cyrus of Persia.

The siege, fall and ensuing massacre of nearly two hundred Alamo defenders at the hands of Mexican General, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de Lebron’s army of over five thousand was a defining moment in both Texan, and American history. For 13 days against insurmountable odds, a small, but very determined Texan garrison force fended off an equally determined Mexican Army ordered to capture it. I’ll discuss the events and political climate leading up to the siege, key historic figures involved on both sides, the siege itself, along with events immediately following the battle. The iconic phrase, “Remember the Alamo!” would later go on to become a rallying cry at the Battle of San Jacinto.

On the morning of April 19, 1993, heavily armed FBI and ATF agents moved into the compound puncturing holes in the compound walls so they could pump in tear gas, to flush out the cult members with the least harm. Using loudspeakers, officers told the Branch Davidians no armed assault would be made and to hold their fire. When cult members opened their weapons, the FBI increased the tear gas assault and began firing military grenade launches at the building. At around noon, three fires broke out in different parts of the compound, allegedly set by the Branch Davidians. The fire spread, trapping cult members, while others refused to leave, eventually perishing in the smoke and the blaze (Final 24). In all, only nine people escaped. The remaining 76 cult members, including 17 children, were buried alive by rubble, suffocated by the effects of the fire, or shot/stabbed. Although many people followed this 51 day siege, if someone was to look at the news and see this giant compound on fire with children burning they might wonder, how did this happen? Why was it being aired live? Who shot first? Can you believe this whole incident happened just to serve a search warrant?

Television reviews in the 1990s showed the deaths of more than 86 members of a religious group in Waco, Texas, known as the Branch Davidian. Texas served as a symbol of the then Attorney General Janet Reno’s bravery and heroic efforts after taking responsibility for the deaths. Most members of the Texas Parliament reaffirmed the notion that the leader of the religious sect, David Koresh, was mentally unstable and his followers willingly allowed themselves to be misled. However, was it necessary for the law enforcement agencies in Texas to massacre the members of the Branch Davidian cult? Was there another alternative for solving the issue?

All the President's Men is a book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. The book discussed what happened to President Nixon in the Watergate Scandal from Bernstein and Woodward's point of view. The Watergate Scandal was a significant part of presidential history. This even would result in Nixon's resignation and what would have been his guaranteed impeachment. The Watergate Scandal took an impact on politics as a whole. Politicians are known as "liars" and people who keep secrets from the public. The Watergate Scandal is something Nixon can never make up for, but will always beremembered for.

Koresh and at least 80 of his followers, including 22 children, died during the government’s second assault on their home. The FBI and DOJ maintained there was conclusive evidence that the members ignited the fire. On the subject of gunfire during the fire, the government argued that the Davidians were either killing each other as part of a suicide pact or they were killing dissenters who attempted to escape the ordered suicide by fire. All the surviving member contest this official government position, along with critics in the press and around the world, whose cases against the ATF and FBI’s handling of the Waco standoff range from incompetence to premeditated murder.

President Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal is one of the most controversial court cases to this date. He was the first president to ever resign from office and caused the American trust in the government to suffer. Did Richard Nixon really have something to hide? Did the Supreme court make the right decision? Was the case handled in the most sufficient way? Whether one agrees with the outcome of Nixon vs. United States or not, this case left a mark on American history and shouldn't lessen trust in the American Government. The case was treated just as equally as any other case and went through the long Judicial practice as stated in the Constitution.