title: Janus

text: The uniqueness of Janus in Latium has suggested to L. Adams Holland and J. Gagé the hypothesis of a cult brought from far away by sailors and strictly linked to the amphibious life of the primitive communities living on the banks of the Tiber. In the myth of Janus, the ship of Saturn, as well as the myth of Carmenta and Evander are reminiscent of an ancient pre-Roman sailing life. The elements that seem to connect Janus to sailing are presented in two articles by J. Gagé summarised here below.


title: Janus

text: Trees as the wild olive, and the Greek or Italic lotus ("Celtis australis"), have analogous religious qualities to those of corniolum and wild fig for sailing communities: its wood does not rot in sea water, thence it was used in shipbuilding and in the making of rolls for hauling of ships overland.


title: Janus

text: The relationship between Janus and Juno is defined by the closeness of the notions of beginning and transition and the functions of conception and delivery. The reader is referred to the above sections "Cult epithets" and "Tigillum Sororium" of this article and the corresponding section of article Juno.


title: Janus

text: Quirinus is a god that incarnates the "quirites", i.e. the Romans in their civil capacity of producers and fathers. He is surnamed "Mars tranquillus" (peaceful Mars), "Mars qui praeest paci" (Mars who presides on peace). His function of "custos" guardian is highlighted by the location of his temple inside the pomerium but not far from the gate of Porta Collina or Quirinalis, near the shrines of Sancus and Salus.


title: Janus

text: As a protector of peace he is nevertheless armed, in the same way as the "quirites" are, as they are potentially "milites" soldiers: his statue represents him is holding a spear. For this reason Janus, god of gates, is concerned with his function of protector of the civil community. For the same reason the flamen Portunalis oiled the arms of Quirinus, implying that they were to be kept in good order and ready even though they were not to be used immediately.


title: Janus

text: Dumézil and Schilling remark that as a god of the third function Quirinus is peaceful and represents the ideal of the "pax romana" i. e. a peace resting on victory.


title: Janus

text: Portunus may be defined as a sort of duplication inside the scope of the powers and attributes of Janus. His original definition shows he was the god of gates and doors and of harbours. In fact it is debated whether his original function was only that of god of gates and the function of god of harbours was a later addition: Paul the Deacon writes:


title: Janus

text: Varro would have stated that he was the god of harbours and patron of gates. His festival day named Portunalia fell on 17 August, and he was venerated on that day in a temple "ad pontem Aemilium" and "ad pontem Sublicium" that had been dedicated on that date.


title: Janus

text: Portunus, unlike Janus, had his own flamen, named "Portunalis". It is noteworthy that the temple of Janus in the Forum Holitorium had been consecrated on the day of the Portunalia, and that the flamen Portunalis was in charge of oiling the arms of the statue of Quirinus.


title: Janus

text: The relationship between Janus and Vesta touches on the question of the nature and function of the gods of beginning and ending in Indo-European religion. While Janus has the first place, Vesta has the last, both in theology and in ritual ("Ianus primus, Vesta extrema").


title: Janus

text: The last place implies a direct connexion with the situation of the worshipper, in space and in time. Vesta is thence the goddess of the hearth of homes as well as of the city. Her inextinguishable fire is a means for men (as individuals and as a community) to keep in touch with the realm of gods. Thus there is a reciprocal link between the god of beginnings and unending motion, who bestows life to the beings of this world (Cerus Manus) as well as presiding over its end, and the goddess of the hearth of man, which symbolises through fire the presence of life. Vesta is a virgin goddess, but at the same time she is called a 'mother' of Rome: She is thought to be indispensable to the existence and survival of the community.


title: Janus

text: It has long been believed that Janus was present among the theonyms on the outer rim of the Piacenza Liver in case 3, under the name of Aaron. This fact created a problem as the god of beginnings looked to be located in a situation other than the initial, i.e. the first case. After the new readings proposed by A. Maggiani, in case 3 one should read TINS: the difficulty has thus dissolved. Aaron has thence been eliminated from Franciscan theology as this was his only attestation. Maggiani remarks that this earlier identification was in contradiction with the testimony ascribed to Varro by Johannes Lydus that Janus was named "caelum" among the Etruscans.


title: Janus

text: On the other hand, as expected Janus is present in region I of Martianus Capella's division of Heaven and in region XVI, the last one, are to be found the "" (along with Nocturnus), perhaps to be identified in Forculus, Limentinus and Cardea, deities strictly related to Janus as his auxiliaries (or perhaps even no more than concrete subdivisions of his functions) as the meaning of their names implies: Forculus is the god of the "forca", a "iugum", low passage, Limentinus the guardian of the "limes", boundary, Cardea the goddess of hinges, here of the gates separating Earth and Heaven.


title: Janus

text: The problem posed by the qualifying adjective "terrestres" earthly, can be addressed in two different ways.


title: Janus

text: One hypothesis is that Martianus's depiction implies a descent from Heaven onto Earth. However Martianus's depiction does not look to be confined to a division Heaven-Earth as it includes the Underworld and other obscure regions or remote recesses of Heaven. Thence one may argue that the articulation Ianus-Ianitores could be interpreted as connected to the idea of the Gates of Heaven (the "Synplegades") which open on the Heaven on one side and on Earth or the Underworld on the other.


title: Janus

text: From other archaeological documents though it has become clear that the Etruscans had another god who was double-faced like Janus: Culśanś, of which there is a bronze statuette from Cortona (now at Cortona Museum). While Janus is a bearded adult, Culśans is an unbearded youth, making his identification with Hermes look possible. However, his name is also connected with the Etruscan word for doors and gates.


title: Janus

text: According to Capdeville, Culśans may also be found on the outer rim of the Piacenza Liver, on case 14, in the compound form "CULALP", i.e., "of Culśanś and of Alpan(u)" on the authority of Pfiffig, but perhaps here it indicates instead the female goddess Culśu, the guardian of the door of the Underworld. Although the location is not strictly identical, there is some approximation in his situations on the Liver and in Martianus' system.


title: Janus

text: A. Audin connects the figure of Janus to Culśanś and Turms (Etruscan rendering of Hermes, the Greek god mediator between the different worlds, brought by the Etruscan from the Aegean Sea), considering these last two Etruscan deities as the same. This interpretation would then identify Janus with Greek god Hermes. Etruscan medals from Volterra too show the double-headed god and the Janus Quadrifrons from Falerii may have an Etruscan origin.


title: Janus

text: Roman and Greek authors maintained Janus was an exclusively Roman god. This claim is excessive according to R. Schilling, at least as far as iconography is concerned. A god with two faces appears repeatedly in Sumerian and Babylonian art.


title: Janus

text: The ancient Sumerian deity Isimud was commonly portrayed with two faces facing in opposite directions. Sumerian depictions of Isimud are often very similar to the typical portrayals of Janus in ancient Roman art. Unlike Janus, however, Isimud is not a god of doorways. Instead, he is the messenger of Enki, the ancient Sumerian god of water and civilization. Reproductions of the image of Isimud, whose Babylonian name was Usimu, on cylinders in Sumero-Accadic art can to be found in H. Frankfort's work "Cylinder seals" (London 1939) especially in plates at p. 106, 123, 132, 133, 137, 165, 245, 247, 254. On plate XXI, c, Usmu is seen while introducing worshippers to a seated god.


title: Janus

text: Janus-like heads of gods related to Hermes have been found in Greece, perhaps suggesting a compound god.


title: Janus

text: William Betham argued that the cult arrived from the Middle East and that Janus corresponds to the "Baal-ianus" or Belinus of the Chaldeans, sharing a common origin with the Oannes of Berosus.


title: Janus

text: P. Grimal considers Janus a conflation of a Roman god of doorways and an ancient Syro-Hittite uranic cosmogonic god.


title: Janus

text: The Roman statue of the Janus of the Argiletum, traditionally ascribed to Numa, was possibly very ancient, perhaps a sort of xoanon, like the Greek ones of the 8th century BC.


title: Janus

text: In Hinduism the image of double or four faced gods is quite common, as it is a symbolic depiction of the divine power of seeing through space and time. The supreme god Brahma is represented with four faces. Another instance of a four faced god is the Slavic god Svetovid.


title: Janus

text: Other analogous or comparable deities of the "prima" in Indo-European religions have been analysed by G. Dumézil. They include the Indian goddess Aditi who is called "two-faced" as she is the one who starts and concludes ceremonies, and Scandinavian god Heimdallr. The theological features of Heimdallr look similar to Janus's: both in space and time he stands at the limits. His abode is at the limits of Earth, at the extremity of Heaven; he is the protector of the gods; his birth is at the beginning of time; he is the forefather of mankind, the generator of classes and the founder of the social order. Nonetheless he is inferior to the sovereign god Oðinn: the "Minor Völuspá" defines his relationship to Oðinn almost with the same terms as those in which Varro defines that of Janus, god of the "prima" to Jupiter, god of the "summa": Heimdallr is born as the "firstborn " ("primigenius", "var einn borinn í árdaga"), Oðinn is born as the "greatest" ("maximus", "var einn borinn öllum meiri"). Analogous Iranian "formulae" are to be found in an Avestic "gāthā" (Gathas). In other towns of ancient Latium the function of presiding over beginnings was probably performed by other deities of feminine sex, notably the "Fortuna Primigenia" of Praeneste.


title: Janus

text: In the Middle Ages, Janus was taken as the symbol of Genoa, whose Medieval Latin name was "Ianua", as well as of other European communes. The "comune" of Selvazzano di Dentro near Padua has a grove and an altar of Janus depicted on its standard, but their existence is unproved.


title: Janus

text: In demonology, Janus is corrupted into Bifrons, and is described by grimoires such as "The Lesser Key of Solomon" as a demonic earl in charge of moving bodies into graves and lighting candles over them, possibly suggesting the retention of Janus' role as a deity of endings and guardian of passages.


title: Janus

text: In Act I Scene 1 of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" Salarino refers to the two headed Janus while failing to find the reason of Antonio's melancholy. As well, in Act I Scene 2 of Shakespeare's "Othello", Iago invokes the name of Janus after the failure of his plot to undo the titular character.


title: Janus

text: In her 1921 book "The Witch-Cult in Western Europe", folklorist Margaret Murray claimed that evidence found in records of the early modern witch trials showed the witches' god, usually identified in the records as the Devil, was in fact often a male priest dressed in a double mask representing Janus. Murray traced the presence of a man dressed with a mask on the back of his head at some witch meetings to confessions of accused witches in the Pyrenees region, and one statement in particular that the leader of the witches appeared ""comme le dieu Janus"" ("as the god Janus"). Via the etymology given by James Frazier, Murray further connected the figure on Janus or Dianus in the witch-cult with the more well known goddess of witchcraft, Diana. Both Murray's contemporaries and modern scholars have argued that Murray's hypothesis and the connections she drew between Janus and Diana, and linking the early modern witch trials with ancient pagan beliefs, are dubious.


title: Janus

text: The Janus Society was an early homophile organization founded in 1962 and based in Philadelphia. It is notable as the publisher of "DRUM" magazine, one of the earliest gay-interest publications in the United States and most widely circulated in the 1960s, and for its role in organizing many of the nation's earliest gay rights demonstrations. The organization focused on a policy of militant respectability, a strategy demanding respect by showing the public gay individuals conforming to hetero-normative standards of dress at protests.


title: Janus

text: The Society of Janus is the second BDSM organization founded in the United States (after The Eulenspiegel Society), and is a San Francisco, California based BDSM education and support group. It was founded in August 1974 by the late Cynthia Slater and Larry Olsen. According to the Leather Hall of Fame biography of Slater, she said of the Society of Janus:There were three basic reasons why we chose Janus. First of all, Janus has two faces, which we interpreted as the duality of SM (one’s dominant and submissive sides). Second, he’s the Roman god of portals, and more importantly, of beginnings and endings. To us, it represents the beginning of one’s acceptance of self, the beginning of freedom from guilt, and the eventual ending of self-loathing and fear over one’s SM desires. And third, Janus is the Roman god of war—the war we fight against stereotypes commonly held against us.In the 1987 thriller novel "The Janus Man" by British novelist Raymond Harold Sawkins, Janus is used as a metaphor for a Soviet agent infiltrated into British Secret Intelligence Service – "The Janus Man who faces both East and West".


title: Janus

text: In the 1995 spy film "GoldenEye" in the James Bond film series, main antagonist Alec Trevelyan calls himself code name "Janus" after he betrays Bond and subsequently MI6 after learning he is a Lienz Cossack. Bond, portrayed by Pierce Brosnan, goes on to state "Hence, Janus. The two-faced Roman god come to life" after learning of Trevelyan's betrayal.


title: Janus

text: Cats with the congenital disorder Diprosopus, which causes the face to be partly or completely duplicated on the head, are known as Janus cats.


title: Janus

text: In 2020, the character Deceit from the series "Sanders Sides", created by Thomas Sanders, in the episode "Putting Others First", revealed his name to be Janus.


title: Janus

text: In Cassandra Clare's "The Shadowhunter Chronicles", the counterpart of Jace Herondale from an alternate dimension called Thule, chooses the name "Janus" for himself after the Roman god Janus.


title: Janus

text: Janus particles are engineered micro- or nano-scopic particles possessing two distinct faces which have distinct physical or chemical properties.


title: Janus

text: "Janus" is the name of a time-reversible programming language. It is also the name of a concurrent constraint programming language.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The Gulf of Tonkin incident () was an international confrontation that led to the United States engaging more directly in the Vietnam War. It involved both a proven confrontation on August 2, 1964, carried out by North Vietnamese forces in response to covert operations in the coastal region of the gulf, and a second, claimed confrontation on August 4, 1964, between ships of North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Originally American claims blamed North Vietnam for both attacks. Later investigation revealed that the second attack never happened; the American claim is that it was based mostly on erroneously interpreted communications intercepts.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: On August 2, 1964, the destroyer , while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, was approached by three Vietnam People's Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. The "Maddox" fired warning shots and the North Vietnamese boats attacked with torpedoes and machine gun fire. In the ensuing engagement, one U.S. aircraft (which had been launched from aircraft carrier ) was damaged, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed, with six more wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. "Maddox" was "unscathed except for a single bullet hole from a Vietnamese machine gun round".


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: On August 4, 1964, destroyer joined "Maddox" on another DESOTO mission. That evening, the ships opened fire on radar and sonar returns that had been preceded by communications intercepts which US forces claimed meant an attack was imminent. The commander of the "Maddox" task force, Captain John Herrick, reported that the ships were being attacked by North Vietnamese boats when in fact, there were no North Vietnamese boats present. While Herrick soon reported doubts regarding the task force’s initial perceptions of the attack, the Johnson administration relied on wrongly interpreted National Security Agency communications intercepts to conclude that the attack was real.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: While doubts regarding the perceived second attack have been expressed since 1964, it was not until years later that it was shown conclusively never to have happened. In the 2003 documentary "The Fog of War", the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that an attack on the USS "Maddox" happened on August 2, but the supposed August 4 attack, for which Washington authorized retaliation, never happened. In 1995, McNamara met with former People's Army of Vietnam General Võ Nguyên Giáp to ask what happened on August 4, 1964. "Absolutely nothing", Giáp replied. Giáp claimed that the attack had been imaginary. In 2005, an internal National Security Agency historical study was declassified; it concluded that "Maddox" had engaged the North Vietnamese Navy on August 2, but that the incident of August 4 was based on bad Naval intelligence and misrepresentations of North Vietnamese communications.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The outcome of these two confrontations was the passage by U.S. Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces to South Vietnam and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The Geneva Conference in 1954 was intended to settle outstanding issues following the end of hostilities between France and the Viet Minh at the end of the First Indochina War. Neither the United States nor State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. The accords, which were signed by other participants including the Viet Minh, mandated a temporary ceasefire line, which separated southern and northern Vietnam to be governed by the State of Vietnam and the Viet Minh respectively. The accords called for a general election by July 1956 to create a unified Vietnamese state. The accords allowed free movement of the population between the north and south for three hundred days. They also forbade the political interference of other countries in the area, the creation of new governments without the stipulated elections, and foreign military presence. By 1961, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem faced significant discontent among some quarters of the southern population, including some Buddhists who were opposed to the rule of Diem's Catholic supporters. Viet Minh political cadres, who were legally campaigning for the promised elections between 1955 and 1957, were suppressed by the government. In March 1956, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956. A communist-led uprising began against Diem's government in April 1957. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959, and on July 28, North Vietnamese forces invaded Laos to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, in support of insurgents in the south. The rebellion, headed by the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong) under the direction of North Vietnam, had intensified by 1961. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred during the first year of the Johnson administration. While U.S. President John F. Kennedy had originally supported the policy of sending military advisers to Diem, he had begun to alter his thinking by September 1963, because of what he perceived to be the ineptitude of the Saigon government and its inability and unwillingness to make needed reforms (which led to a U.S.-supported coup which resulted in the death of Diem). Shortly before Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, he had begun a limited withdrawal of 1,000 U.S. forces before the end of 1963. Johnson's views were likewise complex, but he had supported military escalation as a means of challenging what was perceived to be the Soviet Union's expansionist policies. The Cold War policy of containment was to be applied to prevent the fall of Southeast Asia to communism under the precepts of the domino theory. After Kennedy's assassination, Johnson ordered in more U.S. forces to support the Saigon government, beginning a protracted United States presence in Southeast Asia.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: A highly classified program of covert actions against North Vietnam, known as Operation Plan 34-Alpha, in conjunction with the DESOTO operations, had begun under the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1961. In 1964, the program was transferred to the Defense Department and conducted by the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG). For the maritime portion of the covert operation, a set of fast patrol boats had been purchased quietly from Norway and sent to South Vietnam. In 1963, three young Norwegian skippers traveled on a mission in South Vietnam. They were recruited for the job by the Norwegian intelligence officer Alf Martens Meyer. Martens Meyer, who was head of department at the military intelligence staff, operated on behalf of U.S. intelligence. The three skippers did not know who Meyer really was when they agreed to a job that involved them in sabotage missions against North Vietnam.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Although the boats were crewed by South Vietnamese naval personnel, approval for each mission conducted under the plan came directly from Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp Jr., CINCPAC in Honolulu, who received his orders from the White House. After the coastal attacks began, Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, lodged a complaint with the International Control Commission (ICC), which had been established in 1954 to oversee the terms of the Geneva Accords, but the U.S. denied any involvement. Four years later, Secretary McNamara admitted to Congress that the U.S. ships had in fact been cooperating in the South Vietnamese attacks against North Vietnam.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In 1962, the U.S. Navy began an electronic warfare support measures (intelligence gathering) program, conducted by destroyer patrols in the western Pacific, with the cover name DESOTO. The first missions in the Tonkin Gulf began in February 1964. While intelligence collected by DESOTO missions could be used by OPLAN-34A planners and commanders, they were separate programs not known to coordinate mission planning except to warn DESOTO patrols to stay clear of 34A operational areas.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: On July 29, 1964, the night before it launched actions against North Vietnamese facilities on Hòn Mê and Hòn Ngư islands, the MACV-SOG had launched a covert long-term agent team into North Vietnam, which was promptly captured. On August 1 and 2, flights of CIA-sponsored Laotian fighter-bombers (piloted by Thai mercenaries) attacked border outposts well within southwestern North Vietnam. According to Edwin Moïse, the Hanoi government (which, unlike the U.S. government, had to give permission at the highest levels for the conduct of such missions) probably assumed that they were all a coordinated effort to escalate military actions against North Vietnam.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Daniel Ellsberg, who was on duty in the Pentagon the night of August 4, receiving messages from , reported that she was on a DESOTO mission near Northern Vietnamese territorial waters. On July 31, 1964, "Maddox" had begun her mission in the Gulf of Tonkin. Captain George Stephen Morrison was in command of local American forces from his flagship . "Maddox" was under orders not to approach closer than eight miles (13 km) from North Vietnam's coast and four miles (6 km) from Hon Nieu island. When a MACV-SOG commando raid was being carried out against Hon Nieu, the ship was away from the attacked area.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In July 1964, "the situation along North Vietnam's territorial waters had reached a near boil", because of South Vietnamese commando raids and airborne operations that inserted intelligence teams into North Vietnam, as well as North Vietnam's military response to these operations. On the night of July 30, 1964, South Vietnamese commandos attacked a North Vietnamese radar station on Hòn Mê island. According to Hanyok, "it would be attacks on these islands, especially Hòn Mê, by South Vietnamese commandos, along with the proximity of the "Maddox", that would set off the confrontation", although the "Maddox" did not participate in the commando attacks. In this context, on July 31, "Maddox" began patrols of the North Vietnamese coast to collect intelligence, coming within a few miles of Hòn Mê island. A U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS "Ticonderoga", was also stationed nearby.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: By August 1, North Vietnamese patrol boats were tracking "Maddox", and several intercepted communications indicated that they were preparing to attack. "Maddox" retreated, but the next day, August 2, "Maddox", which had a top speed of 28 knots, resumed her routine patrol, and three North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats with a top speed of 50 knots began to follow "Maddox". The boats were from Squadron 135, commanded by Le Duy Khoai, with the boats commanded by brothers Van Bot, Van Tu, and Van Gian. Intercepted communications indicated that the vessels intended to attack "Maddox". As the ships approached from the southwest, "Maddox" changed course from northeasterly to southeasterly and increased speed to 25 knots.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: As the torpedo boats neared, "Maddox" fired three warning shots. The North Vietnamese boats then attacked, and "Maddox" radioed she was under attack from the three boats, closing to within , while located away from the North Vietnamese coast in international waters. "Maddox" stated she had evaded a torpedo attack and opened fire with its five-inch (127 mm) guns, forcing the torpedo boats away. Two of the torpedo boats had come as close as and released one torpedo each, but neither one was effective, coming no closer than about after "Maddox" evaded them. Another P-4 received a direct hit from a five-inch shell from "Maddox"; its torpedo malfunctioned at launch. Four USN F-8 Crusader jets launched from "Ticonderoga" and 15 minutes after "Maddox" had fired her initial warning shots, attacked the retiring P-4s, claiming one was sunk and one heavily damaged. "Maddox" suffered only minor damage from a single 14.5 mm bullet from a P-4's KPV heavy machine gun into her superstructure. Retiring to South Vietnamese waters, "Maddox" was joined by the destroyer .


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The original account from the "Pentagon Papers" has been revised in light of a 2005 internal NSA historical study, which stated on page 17:


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: "Maddox", when confronted, was approaching Hòn Mê Island, three to four nautical miles (nmi) (6 to 7 km) inside the limit claimed by North Vietnam. This territorial limit was unrecognized by the United States. After the skirmish, Johnson ordered "Maddox" and "Turner Joy" to stage daylight runs into North Vietnamese waters, testing the limit and North Vietnamese resolve. These runs into North Vietnamese territorial waters coincided with South Vietnamese coastal raids and were interpreted as coordinated operations by the North, which officially acknowledged the engagements of August 2, 1964.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Others, such as Admiral Sharp, maintained that U.S. actions did not provoke the August 2 incident. He claimed that the North Vietnamese had tracked "Maddox" along the coast by radar and were thus aware that the destroyer had not actually attacked North Vietnam and that Hanoi (or the local commander) had ordered its craft to engage "Maddox" anyway. North Vietnamese general Phùng Thế Tài later claimed that "Maddox" had been tracked since July 31 and that she had attacked fishing boats on August 2 forcing the North Vietnamese Navy to "fight back".


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Sharp also noted that orders given to "Maddox" to stay off the North Vietnamese coast put the ship in international waters, as North Vietnam claimed only a limit as its territory (or off of its off-shore islands). In addition, many nations had previously carried out similar missions all over the world, and the destroyer had earlier conducted an intelligence-gathering mission in similar circumstances without incident.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Sharp's claims, however, included some factually incorrect statements. North Vietnam did not adhere to an 8-kilometer (5 mi) limit for its territorial waters; instead it adhered to a limit claimed by French Indochina in 1936. Moreover it officially claimed a 12 nmi limit, which is practically identical to the old 20 km French claim, after the incidents of August, in September 1964. The North Vietnamese stance is that they always considered a 12 nautical mile limit, consistent with the positions regarding the law of the sea of both the Soviet Union and China, their main allies.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: On August 4, another DESOTO patrol off the North Vietnamese coast was launched by "Maddox" and "Turner Joy", in order to "show the flag" after the first incident. This time their orders indicated that the ships were to close to no less than from the coast of North Vietnam. During an evening of rough weather and heavy seas, the destroyers received radar, sonar, and radio signals that they believed signaled another attack by the North Vietnamese navy. For some two hours (from about 21:40 to about 23:35, local time) the ships fired on radar targets and maneuvered vigorously amid electronic and visual reports of enemies. Despite the Navy's claim that two attacking torpedo boats had been sunk, there was no wreckage, bodies of dead North Vietnamese sailors, or other physical evidence present at the scene of the alleged engagement.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: At 01:27 local time (13:27 Washington time), Herrick sent a cable in which he acknowledged that the second attack may not have happened and that there may actually have been no Vietnamese craft in the area: "Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful. Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonarmen may have accounted for many reports. No actual visual sightings by "Maddox". Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken."


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: One hour later, Herrick sent another cable, stating, "Entire action leaves many doubts except for apparent ambush at beginning. Suggest thorough reconnaissance in daylight by aircraft." In response to requests for confirmation, at around 16:00 Washington time, Herrick cabled, "Details of action present a confusing picture although certain that the original ambush was bona fide." It is likely that McNamara did not inform either the president or Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp Jr. about Herrick's misgivings or Herrick's recommendation for further investigation. At 18:00 Washington time (05:00 in the Gulf of Tonkin), Herrick cabled yet again, this time stating, "the first boat to close the "Maddox" probably launched a torpedo at the "Maddox" which was heard but not seen. All subsequent "Maddox" torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing the ship's own propeller beat".


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In the face of growing uncertainties over the course of the day regarding whether the attack had occurred, the Johnson administration ended up basing its conclusion that it had mostly on communications intercepts erroneously assessed to be North Vietnamese preparations to carry out an attack and a North Vietnamese after action report. Later analysis showed those communications to have concerned the recovery of torpedo boats damaged in the August 2 attack and North Vietnamese observations of (but not participation in) the August 4 U.S. actions.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Shortly before midnight, on August 4, Johnson interrupted national television to make an announcement in which he described an attack by North Vietnamese vessels on two U.S. Navy warships, "Maddox" and "Turner Joy", and requested authority to undertake a military response. Johnson's speech repeated the theme that "dramatized Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh as the aggressor and which put the United States into a more acceptable defensive posture." Johnson also referred to the attacks as having taken place "on the high seas", suggesting that they had occurred in international waters.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: He emphasized commitment to both the American people, and the South Vietnamese government. He also reminded Americans that there was no desire for war. "A close scrutiny of Johnson's public statements ... reveals no mention of preparations for overt warfare and no indication of the nature and extent of covert land and air measures that already were operational." Johnson's statements were short to "minimize the U.S. role in the conflict; a clear inconsistency existed between Johnson's actions and his public discourse."


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Within thirty minutes of the August 4 incident, Johnson had decided on retaliatory attacks (dubbed "Operation Pierce Arrow"). That same day he used the "hot line" to Moscow, and assured the Soviets he had no intent in opening a broader war in Vietnam. Early on August 5, Johnson publicly ordered retaliatory measures stating, "The determination of all Americans to carry out our full commitment to the people and to the government of South Vietnam will be redoubled by this outrage." One hour and forty minutes after his speech, aircraft launched from U.S. carriers reached North Vietnamese targets. On August 5, at 10:40, these planes bombed four torpedo boat bases and an oil-storage facility in Vinh.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: While Johnson's final resolution was being drafted, U.S. Senator Wayne Morse attempted to hold a fundraiser to raise awareness about possible faulty records of the incident involving "Maddox". Morse supposedly received a call from an informant who has remained anonymous urging Morse to investigate official logbooks of "Maddox". These logs were not available before Johnson's resolution was presented to Congress. After urging Congress that they should be wary of Johnson's coming attempt to convince Congress of his resolution, Morse failed to gain enough cooperation and support from his colleagues to mount any sort of movement to stop it. Immediately after the resolution was read and presented to Congress, Morse began to fight it. He contended in speeches to Congress that the actions taken by the United States were actions outside the constitution and were "acts of war rather than acts of defense." Morse's efforts were not immediately met with support, largely because he revealed no sources and was working with very limited information. It was not until after the United States became more involved in the war that his claim began to gain support throughout the United States government.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The U.S. government was still seeking evidence on the night of August 4 when Johnson gave his address to the American public on the incident; messages recorded that day indicate that neither Johnson nor McNamara was certain of an attack. Various news sources, including "Time", "Life" and "Newsweek", published articles throughout August on the Tonkin Gulf incident. "Time" reported: "Through the darkness, from the West and south ... intruders boldly sped ... at least six of them ... they opened fire on the destroyers with automatic weapons, this time from as close as 2,000 yards." "Time" stated that there was "no doubt in Sharp's mind that the U.S. would now have to answer this attack", and that there was no debate or confusion within the administration regarding the incident.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: The use of the set of incidents as a pretext for escalation of U.S. involvement followed the issuance of public threats against North Vietnam, as well as calls from American politicians in favor of escalating the war. On May 4, 1964, William Bundy had called for the U.S. to "drive the communists out of South Vietnam", even if that meant attacking both North Vietnam and communist China. Even so, the Johnson administration in the second half of 1964 focused on convincing the American public that there was no chance of war between the United States and North Vietnam.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: North Vietnam's General Giáp suggested that the DESOTO patrol had been sent into the gulf to provoke North Vietnam into giving the U.S. an excuse for escalation of the war. Various government officials and men aboard "Maddox" have suggested similar theories. U.S. Undersecretary of State George Ball told a British journalist after the war that "at that time ... many people ... were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing". George Ball stated that the mission of the destroyer warship involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident "was primarily for provocation."


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: According to Ray McGovern, CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, the CIA, "not to mention President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy all knew full well that the evidence of any armed attack on the evening of Aug. 4, 1964, the so-called 'second' Tonkin Gulf incident, was highly dubious. ... During the summer of 1964, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to widen the war in Vietnam. They stepped up sabotage and hit-and-run attacks on the coast of North Vietnam." "Maddox", carrying electronic spying gear, was to collect signals intelligence from the North Vietnamese coast, and the coastal attacks were seen as a helpful way to get the North Vietnamese to turn on their coastal radars. For this purpose, it was authorized to approach the coast as close as 13 kilometers (8 mi) and the offshore islands as close as four; the latter had already been subjected to shelling from the sea.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In his book, "Body of Secrets", James Bamford, who spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst, writes that the primary purpose of the "Maddox" "was to act as a seagoing provocateur—to poke its sharp gray bow and the American flag as close to the belly of North Vietnam as possible, in effect shoving its five-inch cannons up the nose of the communist navy. ... The "Maddox" mission was made even more provocative by being timed to coincide with commando raids, creating the impression that the Maddox was directing those missions ..." Thus, the North Vietnamese had every reason to believe that "Maddox" was involved in these actions.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: John McNaughton suggested in September 1964 that the U.S. prepare to take actions to provoke a North Vietnamese military reaction, including plans to use DESOTO patrols North. William Bundy's paper dated September 8, 1964, suggested more DESOTO patrols as well.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: By early afternoon of August 4, Washington time, Herrick had reported to the Commander in Chief Pacific in Honolulu that "freak weather effects" on the ship's radar had made such an attack questionable. In fact, Herrick stated in a message sent at 1:27 pm Washington time that no North Vietnamese patrol boats had actually been sighted. Herrick proposed a "complete evaluation before any further action taken."


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: McNamara later testified that he had read the message after his return to the Pentagon that afternoon. But he did not immediately call Johnson to tell him that the whole premise of his decision at lunch to approve McNamara's recommendation for retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam was highly questionable. Johnson had fended off proposals from McNamara and other advisers for a policy of bombing North Vietnam on four occasions since becoming president.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Although "Maddox" had been involved in providing intelligence support for South Vietnamese attacks at Hòn Mê and Hòn Ngư, Johnson denied, in his testimony before Congress, that the U.S. Navy had supported South Vietnamese military operations in the Gulf. He thus characterized the attack as "unprovoked" since the ship had been in international waters. As a result of his testimony, on August 7, Congress passed a joint resolution (H.J. RES 1145), titled the Southeast Asia Resolution, which granted Johnson the authority to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without the benefit of a declaration of war. The resolution gave Johnson approval "to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom."


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In 1967, former naval officer John White wrote a letter to the editor of the "New Haven (CT) Register". He asserts "I maintain that President Johnson, Secretary McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave false information to Congress in their report about US destroyers being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin." White continued his whistleblowing activities in the 1968 documentary "In the Year of the Pig".


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In 1981, Captain Herrick and journalist Robert Scheer re-examined Herrick's ship's log and determined that the first torpedo report from August 4, which Herrick had maintained had occurred—the "apparent ambush"—was in fact unfounded. Although information obtained well after the fact supported Captain Herrick's statements about the inaccuracy of the later torpedo reports as well as the 1981 Herrick and Scheer conclusion about the inaccuracy of the first, indicating that there was no North Vietnamese attack that night, at the time U.S. authorities and all of the "Maddox"s crew stated that they were convinced that an attack had taken place. As a result, planes from the aircraft carriers "Ticonderoga" and were sent to hit North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases and fuel facilities during Operation Pierce Arrow.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Squadron Commander James Stockdale was one of the U.S. pilots flying overhead during the second alleged attack. Stockdale writes in his 1984 book "Love and War": "[I] had the best seat in the house to watch that event, and our destroyers were just shooting at phantom targets—there were no PT boats there ... There was nothing there but black water and American fire power." Stockdale at one point recounts seeing "Turner Joy" pointing her guns at "Maddox". Stockdale said his superiors ordered him to keep quiet about this. After he was captured, this knowledge became a heavy burden. He later said he was concerned that his captors would eventually force him to reveal what he knew about the second incident.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In 1995, retired Vietnamese Defense Minister, Võ Nguyên Giáp, meeting with former Secretary McNamara, denied that Vietnamese gunboats had attacked American destroyers on August 4, while admitting to the attack on August 2. A taped conversation of a meeting several weeks after passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was released in 2001, revealing that McNamara expressed doubts to Johnson that the attack had even occurred.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In the fall of 1999, retired Senior CIA Engineering Executive S. Eugene Poteat wrote that he was asked in early August 1964 to determine if the radar operator's report showed a real torpedo boat attack or an imagined one. He asked for further details on time, weather and surface conditions. No further details were forthcoming. In the end he concluded that there were no torpedo boats on the night in question, and that the White House was interested only in confirmation of an attack, not that there was no such attack.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In October 2012, retired Rear Admiral Lloyd "Joe" Vasey was interviewed by David Day on Asia Review and gave a detailed account of the August 4 incident. According to Admiral Vasey, who was aboard , a guided missile cruiser, in the Gulf of Tonkin and serving as chief of staff to Commander Seventh Fleet, "Turner Joy" intercepted an NVA radio transmission ordering a torpedo boat attack on "Turner Joy" and "Maddox". Shortly thereafter, radar contact of "several high speed contacts closing in on them" was acquired by the USS "Turner Joy", which locked on to one of the contacts, fired and struck the torpedo boat. There were 18 witnesses, both enlisted and officers, who reported various aspects of the attack; smoke from the stricken torpedo boat, torpedo wakes (reported by four individuals on each destroyer), sightings of the torpedo boats moving through the water and searchlights. All 18 of the witnesses testified at a hearing in Olongapo, Philippines, and their testimony is a matter of public record.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In 2014, as the incident's 50th anniversary approached, John White wrote "The Gulf of Tonkin Events—Fifty Years Later: A Footnote to the History of the Vietnam War". In the foreword, he notes "Among the many books written on the Vietnamese war, half a dozen note a 1967 letter to the editor of a Connecticut newspaper which was instrumental in pressuring the Johnson administration to tell the truth about how the war started. The letter was mine." The story discusses Lt. White reading Admiral Stockdale's "In Love and War" in the mid 1980s, then contacting Stockdale who connected White with Joseph Schaperjahn, chief sonarman on "Turner Joy". Schaperjahn confirmed White's assertions that "Maddox"s sonar reports were faulty and the Johnson administration knew it prior to going to Congress to request support for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. White's book explains the difference between lies of commission and lies of omission. Johnson was guilty of willful lies of omission. White was featured in the August 2014 issue of "Connecticut Magazine".


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: In October 2005, "The New York Times" reported that Robert J. Hanyok, a historian for the NSA, concluded that the NSA distorted intelligence reports passed to policy makers regarding the August 4 incident. The NSA historian said agency staff "deliberately skewed" the evidence to make it appear that an attack had occurred. Hanyok's conclusions were initially published in the Winter 2000/Spring 2001 Edition of "Cryptologic Quarterly" about five years before the "Times" article. According to intelligence officials, the view of government historians that Hanyok's report should become public was rebuffed by policy makers concerned that comparisons might be made to intelligence used to justify the Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) which commenced in 2003.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Reviewing the NSA's archives, Hanyok concluded that the August 4 incident began at Phu Bai Combat Base, where intelligence analysts mistakenly believed the destroyers would soon be attacked. This would have been communicated back to the NSA along with evidence supporting such a conclusion, but in fact the evidence did not do that. Hanyok attributed this to the deference that the NSA would have likely given to the analysts who were closer to the event. As the evening progressed, further signals intelligence (SIGINT) did not support any such ambush, but the NSA personnel were apparently so convinced of an attack that they ignored the 90% of SIGINT that did not support that conclusion, and that was also excluded from any reports they produced for the consumption by the president. There was no political motive to their action.


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: On November 30, 2005, the NSA released a first installment of previously classified information regarding the Gulf of Tonkin incident, including a moderately sanitized version of Hanyok's article. The Hanyok article states that intelligence information was presented to the Johnson administration "in such a manner as to preclude responsible decision makers in the Johnson administration from having the complete and objective narrative of events." Instead, "only information that supported the claim that the communists had attacked the two destroyers was given to Johnson administration officials."


title: Gulf of Tonkin incident

text: Hanyok included his study of Tonkin Gulf as one chapter in an overall history of NSA involvement and American SIGINT, in the Indochina Wars. A moderately sanitized version of the overall history was released in January 2008 by the National Security Agency and published by the Federation of American Scientists.


title: Black billionaires

text: Black billionaires are individuals who are of predominantly African ancestry with a net worth of at least US$1 billion.


title: Black billionaires

text: According to the 2021 "Forbes" ranking of the world's billionaires, Nigerian business magnate Aliko Dangote had a net worth of $11.5 billion and was the world's richest black man.


title: Black billionaires

text: Other black billionaires on the 2021 "Forbes" list included Nigerian businessman Mike Adenuga with $6.1 billion, American investor Robert Smith with $6 billion, American businessman David Steward with $3.7 billion, American media mogul Oprah Winfrey with $2.7 billion, South African gold magnate Patrice Motsepe with $2.9 billion, Byaruhanga Kimberly Junior Southern African mining magnate, entrepreneur and investor with $2.8 billion, Tiger Woods, Barbadian music artist/entrepreneur Rihanna with $1.7 billion, American sports executive Michael Jordan with $1.6 billion, Jamaican-Canadian businessman Michael Lee-Chin with $1.6 billion, Nigerian businessman Abdul Samad Rabiu with $1.6 billion, American rapper Jay-Z with $1.4 billion, Nigerian businesswoman Folorunsho Alakija with $1.1 billion, Mo Ibrahim of the United Kingdom with $1.1 billion, and American media mogul Tyler Perry with $1 billion.


title: Black billionaires

text: From 2001 to 2003, Forbes listed American television network executive Bob Johnson as a billionaire, but dropped him after his fortune was split in his divorce. He returned to the "Forbes" Billionaire list in 2007 with a net worth of $1.1 billion. In 2008 Johnson's wealth dropped again, this time to approximately $1.0 billion and by 2009 he fell off the list again. Nigerian petroleum executive Femi Otedola briefly emerged as a billionaire in 2009, but did not remain one in subsequent years. He returned to the list in the company of a fellow Nigerian, sugar tycoon Abdul Samad Rabiu, in 2016, but both were dropped from the rankings the following year.


title: Black billionaires

text: Multiracial billionaires with significant African ancestry have been identified over the years. Saudi Arabian billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi, of Hadhrami Yemeni and Ethiopian descent, has been on the "Forbes" billionaire list since 2002 and in 2012 had a net worth of $12.5 billion. Michael Lee-Chin of Canada, who is Jamaican of Chinese and Black ancestry, was on the list from 2001 to 2010 but dropped off in 2011. Isabel dos Santos is of both Angolan and Russian ancestry. Alex Karp, cofounder and CEO of Palantir Technologies, has an African-American mother. Rihanna is of both Guyanese and Irish descent.


title: Black billionaires

text: Of all the above-mentioned billionaires identified by "Forbes," only Oprah Winfrey qualified for "Forbes" 2009's list of the world's 20 most powerful billionaires, a list which considered not only wealth, but also market sway and political clout. Winfrey was considered especially powerful because of her influence on American consumer choices and her pivotal role in Barack Obama's successful 2008 U.S. presidential campaign.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: It was published just after the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), whose general lines were well known at the time. It assumes the reader knows that the war was between the government of the Second Spanish Republic, which many foreigners went to Spain to help and which was supported by the Communist Soviet Union, and the Nationalist faction, which was supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In 1940, the year the book was published, the United States had not yet entered the Second World War, which had begun on September 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The novel is regarded as one of Hemingway's best works, along with "The Sun Also Rises", "A Farewell to Arms", and "The Old Man and the Sea".


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: Ernest Hemingway wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" in Havana, Cuba; Key West, Florida; and Sun Valley, Idaho, in 1939. In Cuba, he lived in the Hotel Ambos Mundos where he worked on the manuscript. The novel was finished in July 1940 at the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel in New York City and published in October. The story is based on Hemingway's experiences during the Spanish Civil War and features an American who fights alongside Spanish guerillas for the Republicans. The novel graphically describes the brutality of the war and is told primarily through the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist, Robert Jordan. It draws on Hemingway's own experiences in the Spanish Civil War as a reporter for the North American Newspaper Alliance.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The characters in the novel include those who are purely fictional, those based on real people but fictionalized, and those who were actual figures in the war. Set in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range between Madrid and Segovia, the action takes place during four days and three nights. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" became a Book of the Month Club choice, sold half a million copies within months, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and became a literary triumph for Hemingway. Published on 21 October 1940, the first edition print run was 75,000 copies priced at $2.75.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The book's title is taken from the metaphysical poet John Donne's series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness (written while Donne was convalescing from a nearly fatal illness) published in 1624 as "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions", specifically . Hemingway quotes part of the meditation (using Donne's original spelling) in the book's epigraph. Donne refers to the practice of funeral tolling, universal in his time.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: No man is an "Island", intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the "Continent", a part of the "maine"; if a "Clod" bee washed away by the "Sea", "Europe" is the lesse, as well as if a "Promontorie" were, as well as if a "Mannor" of thy "friends" or of "thine" "owne " were; any mans "death" diminishes "me", because I am involved in "Mankinde"; And therefore never send to know for whom the "bell" tolls; It tolls for "thee".


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: Robert Jordan is an American, formerly a professor of Spanish language at the University of Montana. He had lived in prewar Spain, and fights as an irregular soldier for the Republic against Francisco Franco's fascist forces. An experienced dynamiter, he is ordered by a Soviet general to travel behind enemy lines and destroy a bridge with the aid of a band of local anti-fascist guerrillas to prevent enemy troops from responding to an upcoming offensive. On his mission, Jordan meets the rebel Anselmo, the "old man", who brings him to the hidden guerrilla camp in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains between Madrid and Segovia. Anselmo initially acts as an intermediary between Jordan and the other guerrilla fighters. They include Agustín, Primitivo, Fernando, brothers Andrés and Eladio, and Rafael, often referred to pejoratively as "the gypsy".


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: In the camp, Jordan encounters María, a young Spanish woman whose life has been shattered by her parents' execution and her rape at the hands of the Falangists (part of the fascist coalition) at the outbreak of the war. His strong sense of duty clashes with both the unwillingness of the guerrilla leader Pablo to commit to an operation that would endanger himself and his band and Jordan's own new-found lust for life, which arises from his love for María. Pablo's wife, the strong-willed Pilar, with the support of the other guerrillas, displaces Pablo as the group leader and pledges the allegiance of the guerrillas to Jordan's mission.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: When another band of anti-fascist guerrillas, led by El Sordo, is surrounded and killed during a raid they conducted in support of Jordan's mission, Pablo steals the dynamite detonators and exploder, hoping to prevent the demolition and to avoid fascist reprisals. Although he disposes of the detonators and exploder by throwing them down a gorge into the river, Pablo regrets abandoning his comrades and returns to assist in the operation.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The enemy, apprised of the coming offensive, has prepared to ambush it in force and it seems unlikely that the blown bridge will do much to prevent a rout. However, Jordan understands that he must still demolish the bridge unless he receives explicit orders to the contrary. Lacking the detonation equipment stolen by Pablo, Jordan devises an alternative method: exploding the dynamite by using hand grenades with wires attached so that their pins can be pulled from a distance. The improvised plan is considerably more dangerous as the guerrillas must be nearer to the explosion. While Pilar, Pablo, and other guerrillas attack the posts at the two ends of the bridge, Jordan and Anselmo plant and detonate the dynamite, costing Anselmo his life when he is hit by a piece of shrapnel. While escaping, Jordan is maimed when a tank shoots his horse out from under him. Knowing that his wound is so severe that it is highly unlikely that he will survive and that he would slow the others down, he bids farewell to María and ensures her escape to safety with the surviving guerrillas. He refuses Agustín's offer to shoot him and lies waiting in agony, hoping to kill an enemy officer and delay the pursuit of his comrades before he dies. The narrative ends with Jordan waiting for the perfect opportunity to launch his ambush, if he does not go unconscious (or die) first.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The novel contains imagery of soil and earth. The imagery appears rather famously at the start of chapter 13. Jordan and María have sex in a meadow in the forest. He feels "the earth move out and away from under them." Then afterwards he asks María, "Did thee feel the earth move?", to which she responds affirmatively. Variants of this phrase have become a cultural cliché, often used humorously.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The novel takes place in late May 1937, during the second year of the Spanish Civil War. References made to Valladolid, Segovia, El Escorial, and Madrid suggest the novel takes place within the build-up to the Republican attempt to relieve the siege of Madrid.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The earlier battle of Guadalajara and the general chaos and disorder (and, more generally, the doomed cause of Republican Spain) serve as a backdrop to the novel: Robert Jordan notes, for instance, that he follows the Communists because of their superior discipline, an allusion to the split and infighting between anarchist and communist factions on the Republican side.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: The famous and pivotal scene described in Chapter 10, in which Pilar describes the execution of various fascist figures in her village, is drawn from events that took place in Ronda in 1936. Although Hemingway later claimed (in a 1954 letter to Bernard Berenson) to have completely fabricated the scene, he in fact drew upon the events at Ronda, embellishing the event by imagining an execution line leading up to the cliff face.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: A number of actual figures that played a role in the Spanish Civil War are also referred to in the book, including these:


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: On November 5, 2019, the "BBC News" listed "For Whom the Bell Tolls" on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: In 1973, the book was banned in Turkey because the book included "propaganda unfavorable to the state." On February 21 of that year, eleven Turkish book publishers and eight booksellers "went on trial before an Istanbul martial law tribunal on charges of publishing, possessing, and selling books in violation of an order of the Istanbul martial law command. They faced possible sentences of between one month's and six months’ imprisonment and the confiscation of their books."


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: Since its publication, the prose style and dialogue in Hemingway's novel have been the source of negative critical reaction. For example, Edmund Wilson, in a tepid review, noted the encumbrance of "a strange atmosphere of literary medievalism" in the relationship between Robert Jordan and Maria.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: Additionally, much of the dialogue in the novel is an implied direct translation from Spanish, producing an often strained English equivalent. For example, Hemingway uses the construction "what passes that", which is an implied translation of the Spanish construction "qué pasa que". This translation extends to the use of linguistic "false friends", such as "rare" (from raro) instead of "strange" and "syndicate" (from sindicato) instead of trade union.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize committee for letters unanimously recommended "For Whom the Bell Tolls" be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for that year. The Pulitzer Board agreed. However, Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University and "ex officio" head of the Pulitzer board at that time, found the novel offensive and persuaded the board to reverse its determination; no Pulitzer was given for the category of novel that year.


title: For Whom the Bell Tolls

text: In 1944, the book was first published in Spanish by an Argentinian publishing house, Editorial Claridad, with many subsequent editions produced either in Argentina or in Mexico. In Spain, it was initially viewed very suspiciously by the Francoist censorship office; in 1942–43 the Spanish diplomatic corps went to great lengths in trying to influence the final edit of the Hollywood film based on the novel, which was not permitted to be shown in Spanish cinemas. Since 1953, when "The Old Man and the Sea" was published in Madrid, most of Hemingway's stories and novels had been published in Spain. However, this was not the case with "For Whom the Bell Tolls", although the novel was at times discussed in the press. Prohibition of the book's publishing was rescinded only in late 1968. By the end of the year "Por quién doblan las campanas" had been published by Editorial Planeta.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Lester B. Pearson International Airport , commonly known as Toronto Pearson International Airport, is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surrounding region known as the Golden Horseshoe. The airport is named in honour of Lester B. Pearson, who served as the 14th Prime minister of Canada and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson is located northwest of Downtown Toronto with the majority of the airport situated in Mississauga and a small portion of the airfield, along Silver Dart Drive north of Renforth Drive, extending into Toronto's western district of Etobicoke. It has five runways and two passenger terminals along with numerous cargo and maintenance facilities on a site that covers .


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: It is the largest and busiest airport in Canada, handling 50.5 million passengers in 2019. As of 2019, it was the second-busiest international air passenger gateway in the Americas (behind John F. Kennedy International Airport) and the 30th-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson is the primary hub for Air Canada. It also serves as a hub for WestJet, cargo airline FedEx Express, and as a base of operations for Air Transat and Sunwing Airlines. Toronto Pearson is operated by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) as part of Transport Canada's National Airports System, and is the largest airport in the world with facilities for United States border preclearance.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: An extensive network of non-stop domestic flights is operated from Toronto Pearson by several airlines to all major and many secondary cities across all provinces of Canada. Since 2014, over 75 airlines operated around 1,250 daily departures from the airport to more than 180 destinations across all six of the world's inhabited continents. In July 2022, Toronto Pearson gained notoriety for being ranked as the worst airport in the world for delays.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: In 1937, the Government of Canada agreed to support the building of two airports in the Toronto area. One site selected was on the Toronto Islands, which is the present-day Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The other site selected was an area northwest of Toronto near the town of Malton in what was then Toronto Township (which would later become Mississauga to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Toronto), which was originally intended to serve as an alternate to the downtown airport but instead would become its successor. The first scheduled passenger flight at the Malton Airport was a Trans-Canada Air Lines DC-3 that landed on August 29, 1939. Since Toronto has more than one airport, YTO is used for the area designation, while Pearson is coded YYZ, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport is YTZ and Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport is YKZ. YZ was the code for the station in Malton, Ontario, where Pearson Airport is located and hence the IATA code for Pearson Airport is YYZ. The telegraph station in Toronto itself was coded TZ, which is why Toronto's smaller Billy Bishop Airport is coded YTZ.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: During World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force established a base at the airport as a component of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. "RCAF Station Malton" was home to several training schools and was in operation between 1940 and 1946.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: In 1958, the municipal government of Toronto sold the Malton Airport to the Government of Canada, which subsequently changed the name of the facility to "Toronto International Airport", under the management of Transport Canada. The airport was officially renamed "Lester B. Pearson International Airport" in 1984, in honour of Toronto-born Lester B. Pearson, the 14th prime minister of Canada and recipient of the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) assumed management, operation, and control of the airport in 1996, and has used the name "Toronto Pearson International Airport" for the facility since the transition.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson International Airport has two active public terminals, Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Both terminals are designed to handle all three sectors of travel (domestic, transborder, and international), which results in terminal operations at Toronto Pearson being grouped for airlines and airline alliances, rather than for domestic and international routes.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: A third public terminal, the Infield Concourse (IFC), currently acts as an extension of Terminal 3 providing additional bridged gates.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Terminal 2 was permanently closed and demolished in 2007, replaced by an expanded Terminal 1. Terminal 3 retains its numbering to prevent confusion.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The current Terminal 1 first opened in 2004, replacing "Aeroquay One" and "Terminal 2". Measuring over , Terminal 1 is the largest airport terminal in Canada and the 12th largest in the world by floor space. Air Canada and all other Star Alliance airlines that serve Pearson Airport are based at Terminal 1. Other airlines that use this terminal include Air North,


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Terminal 1 was designed by a joint venture known as Airports Architects Canada made up of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Adamson Associates Architects and Moshe Safdie and Associates. It contains 58 gates, with two of them being able to accommodate the Airbus A380.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Along with the standard customs and immigration facilities, Terminal 1 also contains special customs "B" checkpoints along the international arrivals walkway. Passengers connecting from an international or trans-border arrival to another international (non-U.S.) departure in Terminal 1 go to one of these checkpoints for passport control and immigration checks, then are immediately directed to Pier E for departure. This alleviates the need to recheck bags, pass through security screening, and relieves congestion in the primary customs hall. International-to-domestic passengers use the same corridor and a bus for one-stop security procedures, which avoids having to re-clear security if coming from another country with a mutual agreement.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The terminal has a total of eight lounges, with five of the lounges being Air Canada operated lounges (three Maple Leaf Lounges, one Maple Leaf Express Lounge and one Signature Suite) and three being Plaza Premium operated. Both Air Canada and Plaza Premium have lounges in the Domestic, International and Transborder zones, with the Signature Suite being in the International Zone.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: In addition to the eight lounges, Air Canada operates the Air Canada Cafe, in which premium passengers have the ability to enter into the zone and get premium coffee, tea and grab-and-go snacks.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: An eight-level parking garage with 8,400 public parking spaces (including 700 rental car spaces) across from Terminal 1 is connected to the terminal by several elevated and enclosed pedestrian walkways.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The current Terminal 3 opened in 1991. The building is a facility designed by B+H Architects and Scott Associates Architects Inc.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Originally, Terminal 3 was the base of operations for Canadian Airlines International (defunct since 2001). Today, the terminal is the Toronto hub for WestJet, which is unaffiliated with any airline alliance. It is used by all SkyTeam and Oneworld airlines that serve Pearson Airport, along with Air Transat, Etihad Airways, Pakistan International Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Sunwing Airlines, Canada Jetlines and all other airlines that are unaffiliated with an airline alliance (Air North, Canadian North, Emirates, Eurowings Discover and Lynx Air are the only airlines that are unaffiliated with an airline alliance use Terminal 1). Terminal 3 has 46 gates.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: A five-level parking garage with 3,800 public parking spaces (including 600 rental car spaces) is located directly across from the terminal along with the Sheraton Hotel, both of which are connected to Terminal 3 by an elevated pedestrian walkway.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Since June 2018, the GTAA has used the Infield Terminal to act as an extension of Terminal 3 to provide additional bridged gates. Passengers on flights arriving or departing from gates at the Infield Terminal are transported by bus to/from Terminal 3.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Infield Concourse (IFC) was originally built to handle traffic displaced during the development and construction of the current Terminal 1. Its 11 gates were opened gradually throughout 2002 and 2003, and a business lounge was opened in 2005. In 2009, the Infield Concourse was closed for regular operations in conjunction with the official opening of the newly constructed Terminal 1. However, the GTAA retained plans to reactivate the IFC for regular operations whenever necessary to accommodate seasonal or overflow demand.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The terminal was substantially renovated in late 2015 to serve as a dedicated terminal for incoming government-sponsored refugees of the Syrian Civil War. Further renovations were completed at the Infield Concourse in early 2018 and on June 5, 2018, the terminal was reactivated for summer operations by the GTAA to act as an extension of Terminal 3 with the purpose of providing required additional bridged gates. Passengers are transported by bus between Terminal 3 and the IFC. Effective December 2019, Sunwing Airlines moved their operations from Terminal 3 to the IFC.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Due to its intermittent usage for passenger traffic, the Infield Concourse is frequently used as a location to film major motion pictures and television productions.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Skyservice FBO operates an private VIP terminal at Toronto Pearson on Midfield Road in the infield area of the airport. The terminal handles most private aircraft arriving and departing at Pearson, providing passenger services that include a 24/7 concierge, private customs and immigration facilities, personalized catering, showers, direct handling of baggage, and VIP ground transportation services.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson has five runways, three of which are aligned in the east–west direction, and two in the north–south direction. A large network of taxiways, collectively measuring over in length, provides access between the runways and the passenger terminals, air cargo areas, and airline hangar areas.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson is home to the Toronto Area Control Centre, one of seven area control centres in Canada operated by Nav Canada. The airport uses a Traffic Management Unit (TMU), located in the apron control tower at Terminal 1, to control the movement of aircraft and other airport traffic on the ground. The main air traffic control tower at Pearson is located within the infield operations area of the airport.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The airfield maintenance unit is responsible for general maintenance and repairs at Pearson. During the winter months, the unit expands into a dedicated 24-hour snow removal team of more than 200 workers tasked with ensuring normal operations at the airport, as Pearson regularly experiences of total snow accumulation in a typical winter season. The airport employs over 94 pieces of snow removal equipment, including 11 Vammas PSB series, 4 Oshkosh Corporation Snow Products HT-Series snowplow units, and 14 snowmelters.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Pearson Airport's Central De-icing Facility is the largest in the world, servicing over 10,500 aircraft each winter. The six de-icing bays, covering a total area of , can handle 12 aircraft simultaneously and take between 2 and 19 minutes to de-ice each aircraft dependent on factors such as active weather and aircraft specifications.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) Fire and Emergency Service maintains three stations at the airport, with more than 80 firefighters providing fire and rescue operations at Pearson. They are equipped with six crash tenders as well as several pumpers, aerial ladders, and heavy rescue units. The GTAA Fire and Emergency Service operates in conjunction with the "Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute" (FESTI), located at the northwest end of the airport grounds.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson handles approximately half of all the international air cargo in Canada. The airport has three main cargo facilities, known as Cargo West (Infield), Cargo East (VISTA), and Cargo North (FedEx).


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Cargo West facility (also known as the Infield Cargo Area) is located between runways 15L/33R and 15R/33L. It is a multi-tenant facility including three large buildings with of warehouse space, a common use cargo apron, vehicle parking, and a truck maneuvering area. A four-lane vehicle tunnel connects the Infield Cargo Area to the passenger terminal area of the airport.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Cargo East facility (also known as the VISTA cargo area) is located north of Terminal 3. The VISTA cargo area is a multi-tenant facility of several buildings organized in a U-shape, with of warehouse space and an adjacent common use cargo apron.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Cargo North facility is the Canadian hub for FedEx Express. The site occupies an area on the north side of the airport lands near runway 05/23, and is home to two buildings operated exclusively by FedEx with of warehouse space and a dedicated cargo apron.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Peel Regional Police is the primary law enforcement agency at Pearson Airport. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) also maintain a Toronto Airport Detachment at Pearson Airport, which provides federal law enforcement services.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) is responsible for security screening procedures at Pearson Airport. Other government agencies with security operations at Pearson include the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and Transport Canada. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) also conduct operations at the airport to facilitate United States border preclearance.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Pearson Airport has seven aircraft maintenance hangars, operated by Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet, and the GTAA, which are used for line maintenance and routine aircraft inspections. At the north end of the airfield are numerous independently operated hangars for charter aircraft and personal private aircraft based at Pearson, along with passenger and maintenance facilities to service them.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Greater Toronto Airports Authority maintains administrative offices on Convair Drive, near the southeast corner of the airfield. Gate Gourmet and CLS Catering Services both operate dedicated flight kitchen facilities at Pearson Airport for airline catering services. Aviation fuel is supplied by Esso Avitat (Jet A-1) and Shell Aerocentre (Jet A and A-1), both located in the infield operations area of the airport.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Union Pearson Express (UP Express) is an airport rail link running between Pearson Airport and Union Station in Downtown Toronto, with intermediate stops at and GO Stations. Trains depart every 15 minutes from Toronto Pearson Terminal 1 station and provide a 25-minute travel time to Union Station, the busiest intermodal transportation facility in Canada. Union Station offers connections to numerous GO Transit regional rail and bus services as well as inter-city rail links on Via Rail's Québec City–Windsor Corridor. Combined UP Express and inter-city tickets may be purchased from VIA Rail. The UP Express operates daily between 5:27 am and 12:57 am of the next day.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The Terminal Link is an automated people mover that facilitates inter-terminal transportation at Pearson Airport. It runs between Terminal 1, Terminal 3, and the Viscount Value Park Lot, connecting to the airport terminals at Toronto Pearson Terminal 1 station and Toronto Pearson Terminal 3 station. The Terminal Link train operates daily, 24-hour service with trains departing all stations every 4 to 8 minutes.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Several public transit bus services operate bus routes to Toronto Pearson International Airport. Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates daily, 24-hour public transit bus service from Pearson Airport to various subway stations in Toronto, with route 900 Airport Express being the main express bus service to the airport from station on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth subway line, and route 52 Lawrence West providing rush hour service to and stations on Line 1 Yonge–University subway line. Additionally, route 900 Airport Express buses have a unique airport-themed livery. The TTC Blue Night Network operates local night bus routes to Warden Avenue in Toronto's east end via Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, Eglinton station via Eglinton Avenue and Sunnybrook Hospital. Although the airport terminals are situated outside of the Toronto city limits, TTC bus services at Pearson Airport do not require a supplementary fare. TTC buses serve both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Two public transit operators based in Peel Region also operate routes to the airport: Brampton Transit, and MiWay. Brampton Transit operates all-day public transit bus service from Pearson Airport to the city of Brampton, with express service operating to Bramalea Terminal. Brampton Transit buses arrive and depart from Terminal 1. MiWay operates all-day public transit bus service from Pearson Airport to the city of Mississauga, with express service to City Centre Transit Terminal, Humber College, and Winston Churchill Transitway Station, and local routes to Westwood Square Terminal, Renforth station, and Meadowvale Town Centre Terminal. MiWay buses arrive and depart from Terminal 1, Terminal 3, Toronto Pearson Viscount station, and the infield operations area of the airport.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: GO Transit is another daily, 24-hours public transit service that operates coaches from the airport to cities across the Greater Toronto Area with express service to Richmond Hill Terminal and Hamilton GO Centre, and local service to Finch Terminal. GO Transit coaches arrive and depart from Terminal 1.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: The airport is served by several long-distance coach, van and minibus shuttle operators, which provide transportation from the airport to various municipalities and regional airports throughout Southern Ontario and to select cities and towns in the U.S. states of New York and Michigan.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Coach Canada's Megabus service provides bus service between Pearson Airport and Hamilton International Airport as well as between Pearson Airport and destinations east of Toronto, such as Port Hope, Trenton, Belleville, Napanee, Kingston, and Cornwall.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Toronto Pearson is directly accessible from Highway 427 and Highway 409 with Airport Road and Dixon Road providing local access to the airport. There are 12,200 parking spaces available in parking garages adjacent to Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, in addition to several other parking lots located in the immediate area.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Car rentals are available from various major car rental agencies located in the parking garages adjacent to both terminals. Car rentals are also available from off-airport car rental agencies located near Toronto Pearson Viscount station, accessible from both terminals via the Link Train.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Taxicabs and limousines can be accessed at designated taxi stands located outside of both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Only official airport-licensed taxis and limousines can legally pick up passengers at Pearson, and all airport-licensed taxi and limo companies use GTAA authorized flat rate fares for travel from the airport.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Ridesharing services Uber and Lyft are available at Pearson Airport. Designated rideshare pickup zones are located at both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Terminal 1 pickup is from the ground level, while Terminal 3 pickup is from the arrivals level.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: In February 2017, the GTAA announced a proposed transit hub to be located across from Terminal 3 that would connect with Union Pearson Express and may connect with other transit lines extended to the airport like Line 5 Eglinton LRT and GO Transit Regional Express Rail. This proposal would eliminate the Link Train connecting Terminals 1 and 3 with a bridge from the transit hub to Terminal 3 and another bridge connecting Terminal 3 to Terminal 1.


title: Toronto Pearson International Airport

text: Metrolinx is currently planning the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, which is a western extension of the under-construction Line 5 Eglinton to a proposed transit hub at Pearson Airport across the terminals at the site of Viscount Station. The extension is scheduled to open in 2030–31. As of 2020, the segment to Pearson is under study by Metrolinx and the GTAA. The line will connect the airport to Midtown Toronto and Scarborough with additional transfers to Downtown Toronto. Metrolinx is also studying a potential connection with Line 6 Finch West to the transit hub with additional transfers to York University and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. Other connections like the Mississauga Transitway are being studied.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine, sold under the brand name Lamictal among others, is a medication used to treat epilepsy and stabilize mood in bipolar disorder. For epilepsy, this includes focal seizures, tonic-clonic seizures, and seizures in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. In bipolar disorder, lamotrigine has not been shown to reliably treat acute depression; but for patients with bipolar disorder who are not currently symptomatic, it appears to be effective in reducing the risk of future episodes of depression.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Common side effects include nausea, sleepiness, headache, vomiting, trouble with coordination, and rash. Serious side effects include lack of red blood cells, increased risk of suicide, Stevens–Johnson syndrome, and allergic reactions, which can be fatal. Concerns exist that use during pregnancy or breastfeeding may result in harm. Lamotrigine is a phenyltriazine, making it chemically different from other anticonvulsants. Its mechanism of action is not clear, but it appears to inhibit release of excitatory neurotransmitters via voltage-sensitive sodium channels and voltage-gated calcium channels in neurons.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine was first marketed in Ireland in 1991, and approved for use in the United States in 1994. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2020, it was the 62nd most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 10million prescriptions.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is considered a first-line drug for primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures (includes simple partial, complex partial, and secondarily generalized seizures such as focal-onset tonic-clonic seizures). It is also used as an alternative or adjuvant medication for partial seizures, such as absence seizure, myoclonic seizure, and atonic seizures. A 2020 review on the use of Lamotrigine as an add-on therapy for drug resistant generalized tonic-clonic seizures was unable to come to conclusions to inform clinical practice. Although low-certainty evidence suggest that it reduces generalized tonic-clonic seizures by 50% the level of uncertainty indicates that the actual findings could be significantly different. Another 2020 Cochrane review examining the use of lamotrigine as an add-on therapy for drug-resistant focal epilepsy found it to be effective for reducing seizure frequency and was well tolerated.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is one of a small number of FDA-approved therapies for the form of epilepsy known as Lennox–Gastaut syndrome. It reduces the frequency of LGS seizures, and is one of two medications known to decrease the severity of drop attacks. Combination with valproate is common, but this increases the risk of lamotrigine-induced rash, and necessitates reduced dosing due to the interaction of these drugs.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine is approved in the US for maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder. While the anticonvulsants carbamazepine and valproate are predominantly antimanics, lamotrigine has demonstrated efficacy only in preventing or reducing the risk of recurrent depressive episodes of bipolar disorder. The drug seems ineffective in the treatment of current rapid-cycling, acute mania, or acute depression in bipolar disorder.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine has not demonstrated clear efficacy in treating acute mood episodes, either mania or depression. It has not demonstrated effectiveness in treating acute mania, and there is controversy regarding the drug's effectiveness in treating acute bipolar depression. A paper written in 2008 by Nassir et al. reviewed evidence from trials that were unpublished and not referenced in the 2002 APA guidelines, and it concludes that lamotrigine has "very limited, if any, efficacy in the treatment of acute bipolar depression". A 2008 paper by Calabrese et al. examined much of the same data, and found that in five placebo-controlled studies, lamotrigine did not significantly differ from placebo in the treatment of bipolar depression. However, in a meta-analysis of these studies conducted in 2008, Geddes, Calabrese and Goodwin found that lamotrigine was effective in individuals with bipolar depression, with a number needed to treat (NNT) of 11, or 7 in severe depression.


title: Lamotrigine

text: A 2013 review concluded that lamotrigine is recommended in bipolar maintenance when depression is prominent and that more research is needed in regard to its role in the treatment of acute bipolar depression and unipolar depression. No information to recommend its use in other psychiatric disorders was found.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine, as a monotherapy, is not substantially effective against schizophrenia. However; various publications and textbooks have expressed that lamotrigine could be added to clozapine as augmentation therapy against partial or non-responding schizophrenic patients. Patients had statistically significant improvements in positive, negative and affective symptoms. Lamotrigine does not have a statistically significant effect with antipsychotics other than clozapine, such as: olanzapine, risperidone, haloperidol, zuclopenthixol, etc.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Off-label uses include the treatment of peripheral neuropathy, trigeminal neuralgia, cluster headaches, migraines, visual snow, and reducing neuropathic pain, although a systematic review conducted in 2013 concluded that well-designed clinical trials have shown no benefit for lamotrigine in neuropathic pain. Off-label psychiatric usage includes the treatment of treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder, depersonalization disorder, hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and borderline personality disorder. It has not been shown to be useful in post-traumatic stress disorder.


title: Lamotrigine

text: GlaxoSmithKline investigated lamotrigine for the treatment of ADHD with inconclusive results. No detrimental effects on cognitive function were observed; however, the only statistical improvement in core ADHD symptoms was an improvement on a Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test that measures auditory processing speed and calculation ability. Another study reported that lamotrigine might be a safe and effective treatment option for adult ADHD comorbid with bipolar and recurrent depression.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Side effects such as rash, fever, and fatigue are very serious, as they may indicate incipient SJS, TEN, DRESS syndrome, or aseptic meningitis.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine prescribing information has a black box warning about life-threatening skin reactions, including Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS), DRESS syndrome, and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). The manufacturer states that nearly all cases appear in the first two to eight weeks of therapy. Patients should seek medical attention for any unexpected skin rash, as its presence is an indication of a possible serious or even deadly side effect of the drug. Not all rashes that occur while taking lamotrigine progress to SJS or TEN. Between 5 and 10% of patients will develop a rash, but only one in a thousand patients will develop a serious rash. Rash and other skin reactions are more common in children, so this medication is often reserved for adults. For patients whose lamotrigine has been stopped after development of a rash, rechallenge with lamotrigine is also a viable option. However, it is not applicable for very serious cases. The incidence of these eruptions increases in patients who are currently on, or recently discontinued a valproate-type anticonvulsant drug, as these medications interact in such a way that the clearance of both is decreased and the effective dose of lamotrigine is increased.


title: Lamotrigine

text: In 2018, the FDA required a new warning for the risk of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. This serious reaction can occur between days to weeks after starting the treatment.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Other side effects include loss of balance or coordination, double vision, crossed eyes, pupil constriction, blurred vision, dizziness and lack of coordination, drowsiness, insomnia, anxiety, vivid dreams or nightmares, dry mouth, mouth ulcers, memory problems, mood changes, itchiness, runny nose, cough, nausea, indigestion, abdominal pain, weight loss, missed or painful menstrual periods, and vaginitis. The side-effects profile varies for different patient populations. Overall adverse effects in treatment are similar between men, women, geriatric, pediatric and racial groups.


title: Lamotrigine

text: A systematic review of the literature revealed that abnormal movements secondary to lamotrigine are uncommon. The movement disorders associated with lamotrigine were tics, akathisias, dyskinesias, myoclonus, parkinsonism, dystonia, cerebellar syndromes, and stuttering.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Lamotrigine has been associated with a decrease in white blood cell count (leukopenia). Lamotrigine does not prolong QT/QTc in TQT studies in healthy subjects.


title: Lamotrigine

text: In people taking antipsychotics, cases of lamotrigine-precipitated neuroleptic malignant syndrome have been reported.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Some evidence shows interactions between lamotrigine and female hormones, which can be of particular concern for women on estrogen-containing hormonal contraceptives. Ethinylestradiol, an ingredient of such contraceptives, has been shown to decrease serum levels of lamotrigine. Women starting an estrogen-containing oral contraceptive may need to increase the dosage of lamotrigine to maintain its level of efficacy. Likewise, women may experience an increase in lamotrigine side effects upon discontinuation of birth control pills. This may include the "pill-free" week where lamotrigine serum levels have been shown to increase twofold.


title: Lamotrigine

text: Many studies have found no association between lamotrigine exposure "in utero" and birth defects, while those that have found an association have found only slight associations with minor malformations such as cleft palates. Review studies have found that overall rates of congenital malformations in infants exposed to lamotrigine "in utero" are relatively low (1-4%), which is similar to the rate of malformations in the general population. It is known that lamotrigine is a weak inhibitor of human dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and other, more powerful, human DHFR inhibitors such as methotrexate are known to be teratogenic.