prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What side-scrolling platform game had Christian Whitehead as project lead?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Pop'n TwinBee
Pop'n Twinbee (ポップンツインビー) is a top-view shoot-'em-up game originally released in 1993 by Konami for the Super Famicom in Japan  The game was also released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the PAL region  It is the sixth game in the TwinBee series and a direct follow-up to the arcade game Detana!! TwinBee (Bells & Whistles)  The European version was published by Konami's Palcom Software division and was the first of three TwinBee games localized for the European market, followed by a Game Boy version of Pop'n TwinBee (which was actually an earlier game titled TwinBee Da!! in Japan) and the side-scrolling platform game Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures  It was released in North America 27 years after its Super Famicom launch through a February 2020 update to the Nintendo Switch Online Super NES library 

Plot
The game's opening sequence shows TwinBee and WinBee patrolling the skies of Donburi Island when they suddenly receive a distress signal from a young girl named Madoka  Madoka reveals that she is the granddaughter of Dr  Mardock, who was once a benevolent scientist until a bump in the head turned him insane  Dr  Mardock now seeks to conquer the world with an army of Acorn Men and only TwinBee and WinBee can stop him 

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to Detana!! TwinBee, the second coin-op game in the series, but with a few notable additions and changes  Like in previous TwinBee, up to two players can play simultaneously, Player 1 controls TwinBee (the blue aircraft), while Player 2 controls WinBee (the pink aircraft)  When the player begins the game, they'll be asked to enter their name and choose between three types of companion ships (whether their companions will follow their ship, engulf them, or surround them)  The player's objective is to maneuver their spacecraft through a series of seven stages and defeat every enemy who gets in the way, facing a boss at the end of each stage  Unlike previous games, instead of extra lives, the player has a life meter that determines how much damage the player's ship can take before losing  When the player loses, they will be given a chance to restart at the stage where they left off, but only limited chances are given to continue 
Like in previous TwinBee games, the player shoots at airborne enemies with their gun and drops bombs to the land  The player can also attack airborne enemies with their ship's punches as well at close range  The player can shoot tiny-sized replicas of their ship that will fly and attack all on-screen enemies  The player can only perform this attack based on the number of stocks they have  During a 2-player game, one player can give the other player a bit of their life energy to replenish it or even use the other player's ship as a projectile against the enemy  As usual, the main power-up items are bells that can change colors by shooting them in the air, giving the player a different upgrade when one is retrieved depending on the bell's color 
On the game's option settings, the player can adjust the game's difficulty, controls, and sound, as well as switch between "normal" and "couple" mode  During couple mode, the enemy attacks will aim primarily at Player 1 if two players are playing together  This feature is intended to allow less experienced players enjoy the game if they're playing with a more experience partner 

Soundtrack
The upbeat and light hearted soundtrack, composed by Kazuhiko Uehara among others, takes influence from Japanese Idol songs 

Reception
The game was reviewed by Weekly Famitsu, and was given a score of 30 out of 40 
Passage 2:
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, known in Japan as Super Demon World Village, is a platform video game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991  As the third game in the Ghosts 'n Goblins series and the first not to be released for the arcade, it again depicts knight Arthur saving Princess Guinevere and the kingdom from Emperor Sardius, who has cast a spell that has revived the Ghoul Realm 
The game has been included in multiple compilations of Capcom classics  A remake was released for the Game Boy Advance which features an additional game mode with new stages 

Gameplay
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a side-scrolling platform game with reduced emphasis on run and gun and more on platforming  As in the predecessor Ghosts 'n Goblins, the player takes the role of the knight Arthur, who must save Princess Guinevere and rid the kingdom of the Ghoul Realm which is revived under a spell of Emperor Sardius (known as Samael in the Japanese version), who has kidnapped Guinevere in the Phantom Zone  The game has four difficulty settings (easy, normal, difficult, and professional), and the player can set up to nine lives  However, there are also only six continues In each of the eight levels (named Quests), four of them consisting of two sections, Arthur, has a time limit to fight ghouls before defeating a Foul Guardian that protects the gate to the next stage  The first five Quests (The Dead Place, The Rotting Sea, Vermilion Horror, The Ghoul's Stomach, and The Deep Chill) take place in a variety of locations, such as graveyards, abandoned ships on sea, flame-filled caverns, and locales consisting of ice and snow  The final three Quests (The Castle of the Emperor, Hallway of Ghouls, and The Throne Room) are areas of Sardius's castle  Parts of the environment, such as earth ground lifting caused by earthquakes, blizzards, heavy sea waves, and avalanches, are also threats to Arthur  Ice Wall, the second section of the fifth level, depicts Arthur scaling a rotating palace as in Nebulus (1987) Arthur starts in the Steel Armor with a lance  If he gets hit by an enemy or projectile, he loses his armor and is reduced to his underpants; getting hit again results in the loss of a life  An ability not present in previous series entries is the double jump, which allows Arthur to leap, then jump again when in mid-air  Although there is no control of momentum during a single jump, Arthur can change direction through a double jump  Other weapons can be picked up along the way, such as a faster-speed knife, hatchets, cross bows, daggers, and torches with short arcs that explode on contact  However, only one can be held at a time  Like in Ghouls n' Ghosts, hidden treasure chests can be found for weapons, armor upgrades, and bonus points  Chests have unwanted deadly traps, and an magician, the Conjurer, transforms Arthur into one of four weaker forms temporarily: a baby, a girl, a seal or a wasp  Chests only appear when moving through specific areas of the screen Bronze and Gold armor is collectable  A bronze armor equips Arthur with a Weapon of Enchantment, a more powerful version of the weapon he's holding, such as flamed lances, lightning bolt daggers, and even more fiery torches  A gold armor, a new feature for the series, provides him the enchanted weapon plus a Moon Shield, which protects him from one hit and only works while standing still, and magic that can power up his weapon even more Sticking with tradition, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts must be defeated twice; after beating the last Foul Guardian before Sardius in the first playthrough, Guinevere informs Arthur that he cannot kill Sardius without a mysterious weapon named the Goddess's Bracelet, for which Sardius captured the Princess because she once wore it  The Goddess's Bracelet must be found in the second playthrough and used to beat Sardius 

Development
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is the third entry of Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins series, following Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985) and Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988), it is also the series' first entry to not be released to the arcade  Leading the 50-member staff, in his first time managing a team, was Tatsuya Minami, who by then already took on positions as artist and producer for console ports of Rush & Crash (1986), Final Fight (1989), and Street Fighter 2 (1991)  Capcom's boss assigned Minami to Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts following a two-week break that began after completing Final Fight  By then, the project was stagnant with only the first level completed  The following two years were very turbulent, and the master ROM was remade several times near the end of the deadline  The favorable reviews following a very difficult process inspired Minami to run future projects for Capcom 

Regional differences
The crosses in the game were modified from the original Chō Makaimura, where they resemble church crosses; in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, they appear as ankhs  The final boss was also renamed from Samael to Sardius 
The European version removed certain enemies and obstacles in the game to reduce the difficulty and potential slowdown 

Release
A port of the Super NES version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is featured alongside the arcade versions of Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls 'n Ghosts in the video game compilation Capcom Generation: Chronicles of Arthur for PlayStation, which was also released for the Sega Saturn in Japan as Capcom Generation 2  This version is also included in Capcom Classics Collection for PlayStation 2 and Xbox and in Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded for PlayStation Portable 
The Game Boy Advance version, titled Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts in North America and Europe and Chō Makaimura R in Japan, features an "Arrange Mode" that enables the player to choose from redesigned levels and bosses based on Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, depending on success in keeping the bronze armor, or a higher difficulty tier of the standard levels set upon keeping the golden armor  Unlike the Normal Mode, in Arrange Mode, the Goddess's Bracelet is already accessible during the first playthrough 
The SNES version was released for the Virtual Console on the Wii on March 5, 2007, the Wii U on May 16, 2013, and New Nintendo 3DS on June 23, 2016  The GBA version was also released for the Wii U on October 22, 2015 
Nintendo re-released Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts in the United States and Europe in September 2017 for the Super NES Classic Edition Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was also available as one of the classic games included as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service 

Reception
Critics from Electronic Gaming Monthly and the German Video Games magazine called it the best entry in the Ghosts 'n Goblin series As with prior Ghosts 'n Goblins games, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts's very high difficulty was discussed, with Nintendo Life's Damien McFerran declaring it "16-bit gaming at its most unforgiving"  Most reviewers opined the challenge was never unfair  A minor criticism was directed at the lack of shooting flexibility, specifically that the player couldn't shoot up or down Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead was in the minority on finding the challenge proper  He opined it "relies far too heavily on cheap tricks and blatantly unfair game mechanics to turn an otherwise pleasant platformer into an exercise in cruel frustration", his rationales including inability to change directions during a jump, and superior enemy advantages in terms of movement and ability for foes to shoot through certain objects Arthur could not  Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report and Nadia Oxford of USgamer wrote the player had to be perfect starting at level one  According to Oxford, "every pixel of every level" had to be memorized, such as enemy patterns, power-up locations, platform movement, and the best power-up weapons to kill each enemy  Oxford, as well as reviewers from Nintendo World Report and Super Play, stated the difficulty level was so high some players, even those of average skill, wouldn't enjoy it  Super Play claimed it was hard to beat even a single section without the power-up armors, made worse by how easy it is to lose it  The magazine and Nadia also condemned the absence of a save feature, such as a password or the console's save battery, meaning the game had to be beat in one sitting Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was praised for its replay value  Wrote ACE magazine's David Upchurch, the game was "tough but rarely frustrating, and will keep you coming back again and again until it's been cracked"  Upchurch called the control "superb", writing the SNES joypad was so well-designed it made jumping and shooting possible  Super Pro felt it had more depth and replay-a-bility than other arcade ports due to its "exciting" graphics and sound and the "variety and imagination" in its level design  Wrote McFerran, "the fantastic level design, inventive enemies and gripping gameplay lock you in for hours, despite the fact that for a large portion of that time you'll feel like you're banging your head against a wall" The graphics, sound and level design was lauded, especially by retrospective reviews that called the game the best example of the 16-bit console's capabilities  In Video Games, Julian Eggebrecht found the graphics the best he'd seen on a home console  James Mielke of GameSpot considered the game's color palette ahead of its time  Claimed Super Gamer, "there's a multitude of power-ups, hideously imaginative monsters and fantastic settings, including a beautifully drawn sunken ship " Mean Machines writer Rich, calling the graphics "exceptional", stated the game superseded another one of Capcom's arcade ports to the SNES, U N  Squadron, in term of backdrops  He and Upchurch highlighted the ice level, particularly its parallax scrolling, layers of snow, and tower section  Nintendo Life staff, in addition to noting the "outstanding sprite work" and "lots of neat little touches in the background", also focused on Mode 7 effects such as the zooming of enemy sprites and rotating platforms Martin Gaksch of Video Games described the game as a mixture of "modern action entertainment and a hodgepodge of innovative ideas"  The diversity in gameplay was noted by Upchurch: "One minute Arthur's avoiding showers of skulls from giant stone monoliths, the next he's clambering on top of a stone pillar to avoid being washed away by a giant tidal wave, then he's dodging careening trolleys of flame - and this is all on the first level alone!" On the other hand, Tim Boone, although amazed by the look and sound, found the game just another side-scrolling platformer, which he was already tired of due to the amount of similar titles that existed since the original Ghost 'n Goblins A frequent criticism was the slowdown, occurring when several sprites appeared on the screen  Upchurch and McFerran argued it helped in defeating harder enemies  On the other hand, Super Play opined it negatively affected the experience in general, and Craig Harris of IGN found it harder to control Arthur when the game slowed down As of June 30, 2017, 1 09 million units of the SNES version were sold since its release in October 1991, making it Capcom's 75th best-selling game of all time  In later years, it was ranked the 76th best all-time Nintendo game by Official Nintendo Magazine, the 231st best by Nintendo Power, and the 22nd best console video game of all time by Electronic Gaming Monthly  The Game Boy Advance version was nominated for GameSpot's 2002 "Best Port of a 16-Bit Classic" award  GamesRadar ranked the game at number 25 in their "the Best SNES games of all time"  In 2018, Complex listed the game 22nd in its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time" and opining that Super Ghouls'n Ghosts is "Probably the most difficult game in the SNES library " In 1995, Total! placed the game 26th on its Top 100 SNES Games  They praised the game's graphics as "Top notch" and gave praise for the game's classic arcade gameplay concluding: "It's constantly challenging but also has a wonderfully friendly learning curve " IGN listed the game 51st in their Top 100 SNES Games 

Notes
Passage 3:
Plok
Plok! is a side-scrolling platform game developed by British studio Software Creations and its concepts and characters created and owned by Ste and John Pickford  It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in late 1993 by Tradewest in North America, Nintendo in Europe, and Activision in Japan  Players portray the hood-headed titular protagonist, the king of the island Akrillic who is protecting it from fleas spawned by the Flea Queen, who is under the island's ground, as well as other bosses trying to overthrow Plok's power  His versatility lies in his four separable limbs, which can be used to shoot at targets and enemies, and several power-ups scattered throughout its colorful stages as "presents "
Plok!'s history began in the late 1980s as a self-funded coin-op project by the two Pickford brothers named Fleapit; they worked on it while at Zippo Games and programmed it for Rare's 'Razz Board' hardware  It was cancelled in 1990 following the closure of Zippo Games, but was revived as a SNES game developed at Software Creations after the Pickfords were promoted to higher positions, with Ste becoming an art director and John a producer  Software Creations self-funded the game with the Pickfords owning intellectual property rights 
Plok! was positively received by critics, who praised its innovative ideas, variety, presentation, versatile playable character, and level design; however, some expressed skepticism of it being the same cutesy colorful platform title as many others, and the Pickfords attributed its underwhelming sales to market saturation of mascot platformers 

Gameplay
Plok! has two difficulty modes: "Normal" which features the entire game, and "Child's Play" which omits the harder stages and decreases the speed and hit points of enemies  "Plokontinues" are earned if four P-L-O-K tokens are collected, and a token is garnered if a level is finished without dying; if a Game Over occurs, the player will restart with a score of 0, three lives, and at the place the Plokontinue was received  Saving is limited to two "Permanent Continue Positions" after the completion of the Bobbins Brothers and Rockyfella boss fights which the player can return to even after the game is reset, and there is no password feature 
Plok can launch any of his four limbs (two arms and two legs) at will to damage enemies as projectiles from his arms and feet  While a limb instantly returns to Plok's body if it hits an enemy, it takes longer if it does not collide with anything  Limbs can also fire through certain barriers like rock pillars  The only limitation is that he cannot shoot limbs while somersaulting  In later levels, some puzzles involve having to "sacrifice" one of Plok's limbs to activate scenery-changing targets  Once a limb hits a switch, it is placed on a hanger that is usually next to the target  Some targets also require certain limbs  Once Plok is limbless, he moves by bouncing and becomes harder to control Plok's secondary attack takes the form of "Speed Blade," a buzzsaw-like jump that not only gives him increased speed as items but also dispatches enemies at the highest damage possible  Plok can pick up shells, which award extra lives and serve as ammunition for a special amulet received partway through the game  The amulet converts shells into power for Plok's secondary attack  There are also "Magic Fruits" that can heal Plok's health; the more he punches a fruit, the bigger it gets and more health he receives  Less frequent are bigger "Golden Fruits" that increase Plok's energy to its fullest  In some levels, some fruits can either send Plok to a timed bonus stage where he must reach a goal or a strange room where he must collect all the shells to progress  Completing these will have Plok warp to the next level with some of them being able to skip boss fights 
"Presents" temporarily upgrades Plok into a character from his favourite movies, such as "Plocky" which equips him with boxing gloves, "Vigilante Plok" which makes him a flamethrower-equipped character a la the "Ploxterminator," the Deerstalker-wearing "Squire Plok" equipped with a blunderbuss, a gun-slinging "Cowboy Plok" based on westerns, and "Rocket Plok" where is equipped with multiple rocket launchers  Presents in the Fleapit yield high-tech, futuristic vehicles with weapons, such as a unicycle with a water cannon, an "off-road truck" with a rocket launcher, a jetpack with lasers, a motorbike with grenades, a tank, a bomb-dropping helicopter, a flying saucer with plasma cannons, and a pair of spring pogo shoes The player encounters several different enemies, such as the aforementioned fleas  For fleas, for the player to complete the level, Plok must destroy every single one of them in every level (with the exceptions of Cotton Island, Legacy Island, and Fleapit), where the last one drops a flag which levitates to its flag pole and allows the player to progress 

Plot
As king, Plok dwells on Akrillic, a large island in the fictional archipelago of Polyesta  Plok wakes up one morning and notices his big square flag on the pole on his house's rooftop has been stolen, and goes out searching for it  He spots the flag on Cotton Island from far away and sails to it to find the flag  Plok mistakes some imposter flags for his own, becoming irritated in the process  Plok encounters the two giant creatures who are responsible for placing the fake flags, the Bobbins Brothers, whom Plok's grandpappy had warned him about, and fights them Although successfully defeating the Bobbins Brothers and getting his big square flag back, Plok sails back to Akrillic to find the island has been infested and overtaken by "fleas", two-legged blue insects that hatch from eggs and hop around; Plok learns that the theft of his large flag was simply a decoy to lure him away from Akrillic  Plok travels through Akrillic, defeating every single flea on the surface to reclaim his island  
Partway through the game, Plok places the big square flag back where it belongs outside his home, and then takes a break as he sits on a foot of the statue of his grandfather, Grandpappy Plok, wishing he had found an amulet to help him deal with the fleas  He takes a nap and has an odd dream of his grandfather's search for an amulet 50 years ago  In the dream, the player plays as Grandpappy Plok as he sails from Akrillic to Legacy Island, and shares the same experience as what his grandson is doing now, traveling through bizarre obstacles, discovering artifacts (including Rockyfella), and dealing with the same Bobbin Brothers as well as their third brother Irving  Having defeated them, Grandpappy finally dug up an amulet and sailed back to Akrillic victoriously  Back to the present day, Plok wakes up and discovers that the amulet is located at the bottom of the statue  Plok's mission on getting his island back continues, now with the ability to "charge" a buzzsaw jump ability by sacrificing the shells he has collected Plok then heads into various locations around the island while facing other creatures trying to overthrow Akrillic: Penkinos, a group of inflatable, floating magicians of mysterious origin living in the North of the island; Womack, a spider living in the island's center with its long legs being weak points; and Rockyfella, the spirit of the island's soil residing under in the mountains of the island's southeast who is vengeful against Plok for the flagpoles he dug in the ground  After clearing out all the enemies on the island, Plok journeys into the source of the fleas, the Fleapit, where he uses various weapon vehicles  He faces off with the leader of the fleas who hatched them, the Flea Queen, using a high-tech "secret Super-Vehicle" armed with bug spray to defeat her  After the showdown, he returns home to sleep on his green chair 

Development
1988: Rare hires Zippo Games
In the summer of 1988, Ste and John Pickford, workers at Zippo Games which was owned by John and their friend Steve Hughes, were struggling to complete games for 16-bit Atari ST and Amiga computers, many getting canceled  They learned Rare was looking for developers of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) titles, which the console had yet to gain steam in the United Kingdom; despite finding the 8-bit system "horribly overpriced and terribly underpowered", the Pickfords took the offer due to financial necessity and their love of the works of Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper's previous company Ultimate Play the Game  Zippo Games was the only company to have been consulted by Rare for NES work  Despite initial skepticism against the NES, the Pickfords' experience working on Ironsword, as well as playing Mario and Zelda games on the console as required by the Stamper brothers, gained them an appreciation for the console and changed their development focus from being on technical finesse to the player's experience, which is what they had for Plok! 

1988–1989: Fleapit
John, while Ste was drawing the shop screen for Ironsword, came up with an idea of a character with a hangman's hood; Ste doodled it in a small margin of the layout  The detachable limbs were also conceived in the sketch, as below the character was an arrow pointing to a pile of his parts  John then thought of a game where the player had to capture all jumping fleas in a land, which the two decided to have the hangman be the playable character  Plok's name was then spontaneously coined when John was placing letters from a cassette tape cover on his computer mouse; his full name was "Plok the Exploding Man" to describe his separable design  After more motivation from John, Ste moved to clear sheets of paper to do more sketches, where the character's colors, poses, size (32x40) and "extreme expressions" involving an opening mouth were conceived After the formation of these ideas, Chris Stamper went to Zippo Games to introduce a coin-op hardware he designed named the Razz Board  In addition to being impressed by the hardware's innovative graphics system, the Pickfords also saw an opportunity to make a "real arcade game" like the ones in their youth; they previously worked on an Amiga-based coin-op system for World Darts, but never a "real" arcade title  As a result, the Pickfords made a deal with Rare to use the hardware to produce their dream game as well as to own the game property and receive a big chunk of revenue from board sales; however, the deal also made all of the funding up to the brothers  The project was named Fleapit Ste vaguely recalled Fleapit in a 2014 interview, comparing its gameplay to Excitebots: Trick Racing (2009) in that the player had to catch one of several flying footballs to score a touchdown in the middle of a level; he reported the product being only a little more "primitive" than Plok!, featuring stages only scrolling horizontal and vertically, more "set pieces or one-off levels," backgrounds made of food like sausages and doughnuts, and a space level As development went on, Rare was profiting mostly from selling NES titles, making them less focused on Razz Board games such as Fleapit  In 1989, Rare, the first company outside of Japan to have a Game Boy, instructed Zippo Games to develop a game for the handheld console; however, this meant stopping the development of Fleapit  Rare and Zippo Games' relationship worsened; Zippo never completed a Game Boy product as instructed and was bought out by Rare in 1990 to be renamed Rare Manchester, which was shut down  Fleapit was cancelled half-completed in 1990 as a result of Zippo Games closing and funds running out; Ste admitted in 2014 a desire to produce a coin-op caused improper business decisions, such as rejecting more financially-rewarding console work Late in Fleapit's development, the brothers obtained comedian Chris Sievey to voice Plok, contacting him in 1990 via the number on the name of one of his songs, "969 1909 " He encountered Sievey in his Frank Sidebottom costume at The Ritz venue, and offered to work for free; however, a short time later, Fleapit was cancelled, and Sievey never voiced the character 

1990–1993: From Zippo to Software Creations
After leaving Zippo, John phoned Richard Hay, the head of Software Creations, the first company outside of Japan to have a development kit for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)  Hay hired the Pickfords right away to use it to design and program Equinox (1993), a sequel to the NES title Solstice (1990)  The Pickfords were eventually promoted to higher positions, with Ste becoming an art director and John a producer On the side, the Pickfords continued working on Fleapit, coming up with new characters and locations as well as doing more pitch illustrations  Near the completion of Equinox, the Pickfords showcased Fleapit to Hay, pitching it under a new name: Plok! While the brothers and Hay considered many consoles, such as the NES, Super NES, and Game Boy, only a Super NES title came into fruition  Development once again involved self-funding, albeit on the part of Software Creations instead of just the Pickfords Plok!'s team consisted of the two brothers as producers, art directors, and designers; John Buckley as programmer; Lyndon Brooke as graphic artist; another set of brothers, Tim and Geoff Follin, developing the music and sound; Kevin Edwards and Stephen Ruddy as compressors; Dan Whitworth creating additional graphics; and an 18-year-old Chun Wah Kong joining in spring 1993 as a tester  Software Creations, for some of their games, hired animators recently laid-off from a Manchester studio, and Whitworth was no exception; he animated the title screen (where Plok plays a harmonica to the theme song) while Ste was on a two-week holiday, and Whitworth's work was enthusiastically-received by the staff Plok! was the Pickford brothers' first experience as project managers, as well as the first time they collaborated with other developers to turn their ideas into a finished product  Buckley later admitted to Plok! being his most "proud" work  and Kong admittined that his experience as the game's tester prepared him for being lead designer on Team Soho's PlayStation 2 title The Getaway (2002): "QA is great grounding for designers  It makes you think critically about how players approach your level; how to reward curiosity if the player wanders off the beaten track; how different approaches could break the game "Although Pickfords allowed Buckley and Brooke to offer many contributions, development was not without conflict, the biggest argument occurring late in development regarding difficulty; while Buckley and Brooks felt it was proper, the Pickfords found it overbearing  To settle the dispute, the first eight stages which were originally for Cotton Island were moved later as the Grandpappy Plok dream stages, with eight new easier Cotton Island stages created  According to Buckley, dream levels were conceived to vary the pacing, particularly with the Amulet  Kong also reported one of the publishers wanted the first level's difficulty decreased, so the staff decreased the bouncing sprouts' hit points from two to one; however, in the tutorial segment of the final game, the sprouts take two hits as Plok fires an extra arm  While Software Creations did have collectible continues (named "Plokontinues") for Plok!, it did not produce a save battery due to being too costly, and passwords were scrapped out of fear gaming magazines would spread them around Kong recalled most of the game was completed close to the end of Equinox's testing 

Graphics and art
Many of Plok!'s visuals were formulated during its Fleapit stage, where it was being programmed for the Razz Board  The hardware had an unusual system that executed higher-depth graphics and performed better with fewer data  Unlike other hardwares that used bitmap grids that encode colors and transparency through binary numbers, the Razz Board hardware stored pixels as bytes, with the first six bits determining color, the seventh bit setting its vertical position relative to its predecessor, and the eighth its horizontal  For instance, using a bitmap system to create a 32-pixel line requires a grid of 1,024 pixels (32x32) with 992 of them transparent, while making the same line took only 32 bytes in Razz Board  This meant sprites weren't restrained to perfectly square sizes, which Ste took advantage of when creating the text font although setting an arbitrary limit of 22x29  For the SNES game, Brooke designed two new fonts for 16x16 and 8x8 bitmap grids: one based on Ste's font for Fleapit, in turn based on his lettering in concept drawings, and another for the silent movie-esque screens in the Legacy Island levels  Software Creations' leader and Plok! executive producer Mike Webb reported compressing 50% on the game's 16-megabit graphics data (equivalent to Street Fighter II) to eight megabits Fleapit was the Pickfords' first game where Ste created concept art, to be more professional and adapt to an increase in presentation to buyers in the industry; according to Ste, this changed the process of green-lighting a game just by starting programming: "Everyone in the industry was self taught, and there were no standards or expectations of how a new game should progress  I remember it being a struggle to justify spending work time drawing pretty pictures which wouldn't actually contribute to the game " Ste added shades to the concept art using Letratone as an easy method to a businesslike aesthetic  Ste drew the illustrations in black and white, due to being focused more on shape than on color and photocopying technology only allowing monochrome prints  The color scheme was formulated originally for an 8-bit arcade title; to achieve a "natural" look, colors were scrunched into extreme areas of the RGB color wheel  When the project turned into a 16-bit SNES game, the color scheme (although generally the same) was more detailed with a wider palette, and Ste used magic markers to color concept art; it was used not only for the game but also for other titles and products of a potential franchise and as illustrations for the instruction manual John's first plan for taking the most advantage of the Razz Board was with how Plok was animated; since he had separable limbs, all of his six parts were independently-moving static sprites  
The separated limbs of Plok made him easy to animate and took less graphical data, as static parts could be coded to move and rotate instead of creating multiple frames  Ste also had Plok's boots and gloves be gigantic in order for his detachable-limb design to work to its full potential  The fleas, although animated traditionally with frames, were only two legs to make animating extreme poses simpler and for the sprite to not be too busy  Ste reported "5 or 6" frames for all of the fleas' movements  For the SNES console, Brooke altered the design of Plok and the fleas only slightly, but Plok's animation method was transformed; the SNES has the traditional bitmap method of executing pixels, thus he was animated frame-by-frame by Brooke 

Concepts and design
Fleapit characters not in Plok! include Armstrong, a "mini-version" of Rockyfella; and Suki, a manga-style character who ran an item shop  The Bobbins Brothers and Womack were transferred from Fleapit (although Womack went through a massive redesign by Brooke that Ste appreciated) while the Penkinos were originally-conceived for Plok! The "floating" limb movements were coded in John's first prototype of Fleapit, with the idea of removing limbs incorporated later on as the Pickfords experimented  The idea of costume and vehicle power-up had also been around since Fleapit, although the set of power-ups changed with only the helicopter carrying over; Fleapit-only power-ups included "Robo Plok," a robot form that improved maneuverability and was inspired by Ro-Jaws from the 2000 AD comics; "Ninja Plok" which armed him with an endless amount of throwing stars; and "Super Plok," a superhero with flying abilities  Plok also had the "smart bomb," an ability where he enraged himself to the point of exploding and wiping out all enemies on the screen (as well as his own limbs) By the start of the development of the SNES game, Buckley didn't have Fleapit's code; thus, he started programming out of what he saw in the VHS footage, including Plok attacking fleas with his limbs and skid-ing down slanted platforms  Brooke conceived triggering parts of the scenery with limbs, reasoning they "looked a bit rough" when constantly looping; however, carrying it out was difficult due to affecting the collision detection and causing Plok's movements to be jolty  He came up with the limb-holding coat hangers two weeks later  The vehicles were left for the final stages, as incorporating them into earlier levels would've taken too much work to "balance" them with those stages' other aspects 

Audio
When it came to NES and SNES titles, Software Creations was notable for pushing the limits of a hardware's sound, including with Plok! Work on Plok!'s soundtrack, composed by Tim and Geoff Follin, began halfway into development  It was categorized by Nintendo World Report as typical of other kid-friendly platform games, although "a bit manic, deceptively bombastic, and diverse in tone"  Ste reported Geoff doing around 75% of the work and being far more open for discussion with the team, and Tim being more "elusive" Plok! continues the Follin brothers' incorporation of old rock music influences; "Beach," for instance, was inspired by the works of Stevie Wonder, and its guitar solo being influenced by Queen guitarist Brian May  Tim Follin composed the title song out of a guitar-played two-chord progression of "Tequila" by rock and roll group The Champs, as two guitar chord samples could fit within memory  "Lead" instruments such as an electric guitar and harmonicas were made out of simple waveforms, with the guitar's wave identical to a square  A breathing sample in the boss theme was also used in Equinox and Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (1992) The soundtrack has been released to physical formats twice, on July 27, 2019, to cassette by CANVAS Ltd  and as a limited-edition 500-copy double vinyl on Record Store Day (18 April) 2020 by Respawn Records; Respawned's release had notes and artwork by the Pickfords and both 180gram vinyls colored red and yellow  Rare composer David Wise has expressed admiration for Plok!, claiming his work on Donkey Kong Country to be inspired by the Follin brothers' soundtrack 

Release
Publishing
Software Creations was so confident in Plok! the developer tried to persuade Nintendo to publish it; reception from the corporation's Japan and American branches was positive  Shigeru Miyamoto expressed a strong interest in working on the game; when Plok! was only half-finished, he wrote a letter to Hay claiming it was the third-best platform game below Sonic and Mario and that he would make it the second-greatest in the genre above Sonic but below Mario  Tony Harman, product acquisitions and development manager at Nintendo of America, also attended the studio to play Plok! four weeks within its development, and told Kay Miyamoto was amazed by the game's audio to the point of analyzing it  For unknown reasons, however, Nintendo only published Plok! in Europe, while Tradewest published it in North America and Activision in Japan  Although reasons for Nintendo's rejection haven't been disclosed, Ste inductively reasoned Miyamoto found it too similar to a Super Mario World sequel in development, particularly with its mini-race levels 

Promotion
The Pickfords, despite owning the IP and developing Plok!, were never consulted on promotion  Tradewest set Plok!'s primary demographic at gamers six-to-fourteen years old  Although published by Tradewest in the United States, Plok! still received promotion from Nintendo of America; a complete guide and review was published in the October 1993 issue of its magazine Nintendo Power, and a two-page section in a Nintendo Player's Guide book for Mario Paint (1993) included templates of body part stamps to animate Plok and the flea enemies, and a background painting based on one of the Cotton Island levels  In the United Kingdom, Nintendo released a VHS tape, Super Mario All-Stars Video (1993); hosted by Craig Charles, the video features a segment of testers at Nintendo UK promoting upcoming games, including Plok! Club Nintendo, Germany's official Nintendo magazine, ran a comic strip where Plok races with Mario at an Olympic match in space Some print advertising was criticized in later years by Ste for not showing enough of the game itself  Tradewest's US print advertisement depicted the top half taken up by Double Dragon and Battletoads, the bottom half a picture of the Plok character; the only info revealed was that Plok! was published by the two other franchises  Nintendo's UK print ad depicted a faux desktop screenshot with an image of an angry old lady in the house as the wallpaper; the only Plok! visual depicted was its box art, placed in the bottom right and very small-sized However, other print advertisements were much more true to the game, such as Tradewest's series of comic book panel ads named The Adventures of Plok with Plok's origins at the storyline Plok! was first announced in June 1993; upon its announcement, an N-Force journalist called it one of the most "surreal" games in the September 1993 line-up  Tradewest presented Plok! at the summer 1993 Consumer Electronics Show; a GameFan writer called Tradewest "one of the [show's] most impressive third party line-up," highlighting Plok! as a "a colorful new action title with a lead character that hurls his arms and legs at attackers "

Reception
Contemporaneous reviews
Upon release, some critics declared Plok! the best Nintendo release of 1993 as well as another classic by the company, the best platform game of the year, and one of the all-time best in the genre  However, Plok! was compared to many other games of its kind, and even the most favorable reviewers expressed skepticism about playing another average colorful cutesy platform game  Some critics ultimately thought it was and criticized its lack of depth  A frequent comparison was with Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), particularly in its "sugary" tone and Plok's speed ball attack; GameStar's FI derogatorily labeled the titular character as "a puny version" of the Sega franchise's blue hedgehog, criticizing his weird design and calling it names such as "hot pink reddy coloured duck penguin thing" and "freaky pork chop "However, other reviewers opined Plok as distinguished in the genre, noting innovative aspects such as the costume and weapon power-ups and limb mechanics  Reviews also enjoyed its humor, such as with Plok's limbless movements, his power-ups, and nonsensical story; Humphreys felt it would help the game be enjoyed by even the biggest detractors of kid-friendly platformers  The hero was applauded for being charming, more lovable than other mascots of its kind, and versatile, particularly with his limbs and his costume and weapon power-ups  Trenton Webb found the limb mechanic "quite fun to mess around with uselessly," and an Electronic Gaming Monthly critic called it "catchy" with "plenty of situations to test it " Superjuegos writer The Elf called his vehicle power-ups "fantastic and fun," and Hyper magazine Jason Humphreys claimed the cowboy power-up his favourite Some critics were addicted to Plok!'s gameplay and eulogized its playability, perfect control, and variety  Super Play's Jonathan Davies felt it kept adding new concepts as the game went on, and praised some of them, such as patterns of item placements directing the player to off-camera platforms and bouncing off water instead of drowning to death  Plok!'s difficulty was also highlighted, mostly attributed to lack of a password system, save feature, and requirement for continues to be earned  Other contributors to the challenge included long stage lengths and sudden obstacles such as rolling logs  One Total! journalist reported being confused what action to do next in some stages, and another from HobbyConsolas disclosed getting lost in levels and unable to look for targets and fleas required to complete levels  While some reviewers approved how hard Plok was, others disliked not being able to save or use passwords, reasoning it was annoying to replay earlier stages over and over again The cartoony graphics were praised as colorful, surreal, adorable, and featuring "vivid backgrounds"; one reviewer called them some of the best on the Super Nintendo, while another compared it to Equinox  FI appreciated the detail, such as Plok's breathing animation when standing still and the many "little coloured flowers everywhere, looking like real flower power stuff " The music was highlighted (by one critic as the game's best aspect) and noted for pushing the hardware limitations, and sound effects were praised 

Commercial performance and plans for a franchise
John Pickford and Kay had faith in Plok! being commercially successful  The Pickford brothers garnered IP ownership for the Plok character, common in other media economies but rare in the video games industry; and planned a franchise out of it, such as sequels, ports, and merchandise  A Mega Drive version was planned using a Software Creations worker's software for automatically converting SNES titles into Mega Drive games; 80% of the code was automatically converted, according to Ste, with the other 20% requiring hands-on work  Ultimately, however, despite Webb announcing the port's completion in an April 1994 interview, it was never released for unknown reasons Ste, using magic markers, created artwork for future sequels and merchandise, such as style guides of the characters and illustrations of scenes  The Pickfords planned sequels to involve Plok searching for the fleas' home, introduce a setting named Tower Island, and make Plok's comfy chair (which he sleeps on in the end credits of Plok!) a more crucial part of the gameplay  The Pickfords also drew concepts for toys used for pitches of the SNES game, such as a doll where limbs were joined and detached with velcro  During marketing, a Plok model was created in 3D Studio 4 for a promotional photo of Software Creations However, 1992, late in Plok!'s development, saw the beginning of a saturation of colorful platform games starring cute mascots, like Bubsy and Zool  Ste, in 2004, publicly stated developers and producers with more finances knew about previews of the Fleapit coin-op, which may have influenced them to produce games like it; there are no other reports verifying this  Although selling decently over a long period, none of the revenue went to the Pickfords, and Ste suggested the saturation hindered its commercial performance significantly; this plus Software Creations constantly changing publishers between projects rendered a Plok! franchise impossible for several years 

Legacy
In 2009, North American company Super Fighter Team released Zaku, a horizontal shooter for the Atari Lynx which features a special guest appearance by Plok The Pickfords later launched a Plok webcomic  From there, the webcomic takes place 20 years after the game as it features new characters and some returning ones like Rockyfella  The comic sometimes used pop-culture references from other games and other media, in-jokes reference and commentaries on the game's development and its future 
In later years, Plok was ranked the 26th all-time best SNES title (which also named it the best platformer produced in the United Kingdom) in 1996, the 19th best platform game by Gamereactor in 2014, and was listed in Edge editor Tony Mott's 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die in its 2013 edition  Video game elements introduced in Plok! were noted by retrospective journalists to be in more popular platformers released in later years  Games starring characters with floating body parts used as weapons, such as Dynamite Headdy (1994) and Rayman (1995), were released shortly afterwards and garnered much wider exposure  When listing Plok! on a list of "The Most Unappreciated Platformers Of The '90s" for Kotaku, Ben Bertoli wrote it was "influential for portraying a world, named Akrill[ic], based on craft supplies and cloth, a concept that Nintendo itself has come to rely on for many games  The game also provided players with power-ups and vehicles, such as flamethrowers and jetpacks, the likes of which had not been seen in a single game " Sepia-toned flashback stages also made up a chunk of Mickey Mania (1994) 

Notes
Passage 4:
Sonic Mania
Sonic Mania is a 2017 platform game published by Sega for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows  Produced in commemoration of the Sonic the Hedgehog series' 25th anniversary and serving as a prelude to Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania pays homage to the original Sega Genesis Sonic games, featuring speedy side-scrolling gameplay  It takes place over 13 levels, including several redesigned from past games  The story follows Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they venture to defeat their nemesis Doctor Eggman and his robotic henchmen, the Hard-Boiled Heavies 
The development team was composed of members known for their work in the Sonic fangame and ROM hacking community  Development began after lead developer, director and programmer Christian "Taxman" Whitehead, who was previously contracted by Sega to develop enhanced mobile ports of Genesis Sonic games, presented a playable prototype to Sonic Team producer Takashi Iizuka  Art, level design, audio, and additional programming were provided by independent studios PagodaWest Games and Headcannon  The team used Whitehead's Retro Engine and aimed for a graphical quality between Genesis and Sega Saturn games 
Sonic Mania was released in August 2017 and became the highest-rated Sonic game in fifteen years  Many reviewers saw it as a return to form for the Sonic series following a number of poorly received games released after the 1990s  Its presentation, level design, music, and faithfulness to the early Sonic games were praised, but its lack of originality was criticized  Several described it as one of the best Sonic games and one of the best games of 2017  Within a year, it had sold over one million copies worldwide  Sonic Mania Plus, an enhanced version with additional content, was released in July 2018 

Gameplay
Sonic Mania is a side-scrolling platformer similar to the early Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis  Players select one of 3 playable characters, each with their own unique abilities: Sonic can perform a "drop dash" which sends him rolling in a dash after a jump, Tails can fly and swim, and Knuckles can glide and climb walls  As with Sonic 2 (1992), players can play as Sonic and Tails simultaneously, or a second player can control Tails independently  Unlockable options include Sonic's abilities from Sonic CD (1993) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles (1994) in place of the drop dash and "& Knuckles" mode, which allows simultaneous control of any character and Knuckles, including himself Sonic Mania takes place over 13 levels, called zones; the game features eight "remixed" zones, such as Green Hill Zone from the first Sonic game (1991), alongside five original ones  Remixed stages consist of both new elements and recycled gimmicks and ideas from other past Sonic games  Each zone is divided into 2 acts, in which the player must guide their character past various enemies and obstacles to reach the end  At the end of each act, the player takes part in a boss battle against Doctor Eggman, also known as Dr  Robotnik, or one of his robots, including the Hard-Boiled Heavies, elite henchmen based on the EggRobo enemies from Sonic 3 & Knuckles  The player collects golden rings, which serve as a form of health; players survive hits as long as they have at least one ring, but, if hit, their rings scatter and disappear after a short time  Television monitors containing rings, elemental shields, or power-ups such as invincibility and faster running speed are scattered throughout each level  Like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the story is told via short in-game cutscenes between levels Giant rings hidden in each act, a feature of the original games, lead to pseudo-3D special stages similar to those in Sonic CD, where players can attempt to collect a Chaos Emerald  In special stages, players dodge obstacles and collect colored spheres to increase their speed, allowing them to pursue a UFO carrying a Chaos Emerald; collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds allows players to use their character's super transformation and unlocks the game's true ending  Players' ring counters slowly decrease during special stages and must be continually replenished; if the player runs out of rings before they catch the UFO, the special stage ends  The "Blue Sphere" special stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also return, repurposed as bonus stages that are accessed by entering a portal that appears when the player passes a checkpoint while carrying 25 or more rings  Completing bonus stages earns the player a silver or gold medal depending on their performance; collecting medals unlocks features such as a debug mode and sound test In a time attack mode, players must complete levels as quickly as possible, with the best times included on an online leaderboard; players can instantly reload a level to try again at any time  A split-screen competitive multiplayer mode allows two players to race to the end of a level, similar to those of Sonic 2  Players can also unlock "Mean Bean", a 2-player minigame based on Dr  Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine 

Plot
After the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic and Tails detect a powerful energy reading on Angel Island and board their biplane, the Tornado, to investigate  However, Dr  Eggman sends an elite group of EggRobos to reach the signal before Sonic and Tails  The EggRobos excavate the source of the signal, a magical gemstone called the Phantom Ruby, just as Sonic and Tails arrive  The EggRobos gain new powers from the ruby, becoming the Hard-Boiled Heavies, and send Sonic, Tails, and the island's guardian, Knuckles, through zones the trio have previously visited where they pursue Eggman to prevent him from using the ruby's power for evil, clashing with him and the Heavies along the way 
Sonic and his allies discover that Eggman has used the Phantom Ruby's power to retake control of Little Planet from Sonic CD  They board Eggman's robotic fortress, defeat him and the Heavies, and escape just as it explodes  If all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected while playing as Sonic, the Phantom Ruby transports him and Eggman to another dimension  There, the Heavies' leader, Heavy King, betrays Eggman and takes the ruby, imbuing himself with power; Eggman attacks the Heavy to try to reclaim it  Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and fights Eggman and the Heavy King separately to keep the ruby out of their possession  After the battle, the Phantom Ruby reacts with the Emeralds, negating Sonic's super state and creating a wormhole that engulfs itself and Sonic as Little Planet vanishes 

Development
Development of Sonic Mania began in 2015, led by Australian programmer Christian "Taxman" Whitehead  Whitehead was a prominent member of the Sonic fangame community, and had previously been contracted by Sega to develop remastered ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD for mobile phones  After developing the game for a few months, Whitehead presented a prototype, which he called Sonic Discovery, to series producer Takashi Iizuka  Iizuka was receptive, and suggested that it should include old levels from the early Sonic games it was inspired by, "remixed" in a way that felt new  He also gave it the working title of Sonic Mania, which stuck after no one suggested a better one  The title referenced the development team's "maniacal" fandom for the series; Iizuka described the project as being made "by the mania, for the mania", and as a "passion product" driven by the fans' love for the early Sonic games Sonic Mania was produced in commemoration of the series' 25th anniversary  It was developed using Whitehead's Retro Engine, a game engine tailored for creating two-dimensional games, which he also used for the enhanced ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD  The team also included programmer Simon "Stealth" Thomley of the independent studio Headcannon, who assisted Whitehead with those projects and on various Sonic fangames and ROM hacks, as well as level designer Jared Kasl and art director Tom Fry of PagodaWest Games, who had previously independently collaborated on an unofficial high-definition remaster of Sonic 2  Tantalus Media helped develop the Nintendo Switch port  Iizuka and the rest of Sonic Team provided guidance and made sure the team didn't "go off the rails into something that doesn't feel like Sonic"  Iizuka described the visuals as a cross between the graphical capabilities of the Genesis and Sega Saturn, comprising mostly pixel art with some polygonal graphics The developers modeled the gameplay on Sonic 3, with boss fights at the end of each zone  For returning stages, the designers made the first act feel familiar, and introduced new elements in the second act  The team cited Sonic CD and Sonic 3 as major influences on the level design for their "big, wide open" and "streamlined" designs, respectively  According to Thomley, the team typically decided what elements to include in the returning stages prior to designing them, but sometimes came up with new ideas or changed them based on how the development progressed  The first original level designed was the Hollywood-themed Studiopolis Zone  The desert-themed Mirage Saloon Zone was inspired by an unfinished level from Sonic 2 and the Monument Valley region of the United States  The special stages were inspired by more recent games such as Sonic Rush (2005) and Sonic Colors (2010)  The team felt proud of their recreation of classic Sonic gameplay The game features animated opening and ending sequences led by Tyson Hesse, one of the artists of the Sonic comics by Archie Comics  It also features an optional CRT graphical filter, and supports the enhanced features of both the  PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, outputting at a native 4K resolution  The soundtrack was composed by Tee Lopes of PagodaWest Games, consisting of rearranged pieces from previous Sonic games alongside new material  Lopes was chosen due to his popularity on YouTube for producing arrangements of various Sonic tracks, and for his work on the Sonic 2 HD project  Lopes initially wanted his score to resemble the Sonic CD soundtrack, trying to imagine what a sequel to it might have sounded like  As development progressed, he took inspiration from other older Sonic and Sega games, such as The Revenge of Shinobi (1989) and the Sega Rally games, and from 1990s popular music, such as the work of Michael Jackson  The reveal trailer theme, "Checkpoint", was composed by the electronic music groups Hyper Potions and Nitro Fun and the opening theme, "Friends", was composed by Hyper Potions 

Release
Sonic Mania was announced alongside Sonic Forces at the 25th anniversary Sonic event at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) convention in July 2016  The game was also featured at South by Southwest (SXSW), the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and SDCC in 2017; at SDCC 2017, attendees received a promotional instruction manual for the game  The game was announced for the second quarter of 2017, but Sega announced at SXSW that it had been delayed to allow for more development Sonic Mania was released digitally for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 15, 2017  Four days before release, Sega delayed the Windows version for another two weeks for further optimization, releasing it on August 29 as a download on Steam  As compensation, those who had pre-ordered the game received a copy of the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Steam In addition to the standard release, a Sega Genesis-themed collector's edition was also released, containing a 12-inch (30 cm) Sonic statue atop a model Genesis, a game cartridge cast with a golden ring, and a metallic collector's card with a download code for the game  To promote the collector's edition, Sega released a retro-styled infomercial featuring former series art director Kazuyuki Hoshino and social media manager Aaron Webber, based on an American television commercial for Sonic The Hedgehog 2  The music label Data Discs published a vinyl LP featuring the game's original music in late 2017  An expanded soundtrack was released on digital music distribution platforms on January 17, 2018  A five-part animated short mini-series, Sonic Mania Adventures, was released on the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel between March and July 2018, promoting the release of Sonic Mania Plus  The series depicts Sonic's return to his world following the events of Sonic Forces, teaming up with his friends to prevent Eggman and Metal Sonic from collecting the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald  A holiday-themed bonus episode was released in December 2018  The shorts were written and directed by Hesse, with animation production by Neko Productions, and music written by Lopes  All six shorts were later included as part of the Sonic Origins compilation in 2022 

Sonic Mania Plus
An expanded version of the game, Sonic Mania Plus, was released in North America and Europe at retail and as downloadable content for the original version on July 17, 2018, and in Japan on July 19, 2018  A version for Amazon Luna was released on October 20, 2020  It adds playable characters Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel from the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, each with unique abilities: Mighty can slam the ground and is immune to spikes when in ball form, while Ray can glide without losing altitude  Plus also adds an "Encore Mode" with remixed levels and a reworked lives mechanic, a pinball bonus stage, and a four-player competition mode  Additionally, an update released alongside Sonic Mania Plus adds more cutscenes and a reworked Metal Sonic battle based on his appearance in Knuckles' Chaotix (1995)  The physical version was released with a 32-page art book and a reversible cover in the style of Genesis or Mega Drive boxart covers, depending on the region  A soundtrack CD was included with the Japanese physical release In an interview with Famitsu, Iizuka explained that Sonic Mania was not intended to have a physical release; Sega staff requested one, but a retail version would have presented a challenge for the production schedule  After the game launched, fans also expressed interest in a physical version  As a retail release would cost more than the downloadable version, the team added value with new content  Mighty and Ray were included because they were rarely featured in games; to accommodate them, level designs had to be altered  Additionally, the multiplayer mode was updated because of the increased number of selectable characters 

Reception
Sonic Mania was announced following years of mixed reviews for the Sonic franchise  According to the International Business Times, the series had been "tarnished by years of sub-par games with only the occasional gem"  The Business Times predicted that Sega's approach of releasing Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania in the same year, catering to new and old fans, could repair the series' reputation and lead to a "Sonic renaissance"  Several critics expressed excitement for a return to the style of the early Sonic games, and wrote that Sega's previous efforts to develop games in the "classic" style, such as Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in 2010, had been disappointing According to the review aggregator site Metacritic, Sonic Mania received "generally favorable" reviews  It became the best-reviewed Sonic game in fifteen years, and several critics described it as one of the best 2D platform games  At launch, Sonic Mania was the bestselling Switch game, outselling Minecraft and Overcooked: Special Edition  It greatly increased Sega's third-quarter profits, and helped Sega almost double sales of packaged games compared to the same period in 2016  By April 2018, it had sold over one million copies worldwide across all platforms The presentation attracted acclaim  USGamer described it as the "pinnacle" of the series' pixel graphics  GameSpot called the animations and detail superior to the original games, writing that they added an extra layer of personality  Cubed3 described the levels as stylish and vibrant  Critics also praised the attention to detail in recreating the early games  Game Informer wrote that its gameplay was "nearly indistinguishable" from its Genesis predecessors, but with "extra polish"  Easy Allies wrote that Mania emulated the original games "exceptionally", and that "running, jumping, and spin dashing all work exactly as well as you would hope"  Nintendo World Report wrote that it avoided the physics problems from Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and recaptured the spirit of the 16-bit games The level design and music also received praise  Hardcore Gamer wrote that the remixed versions of older stages felt fresh while staying true to the originals  Game Informer wrote that the new stages matched the quality and captured the spirit of early Sonic games  The A V  Club praised the detail and content in each level; Metro praised the fan service, and likened it to a school project "gone wild, something enthusiastic kids have made while the teacher was away and which far surpasses anything they were actually supposed to be doing"  Like IGN, Venture Beat appreciated the replay value, with branching paths that made multiple playthroughs "fresh"  EGM wrote that the soundtrack was "completely fantastic" and felt nostalgic and new at the same time  Nintendo Life called the soundtrack "one of the best of recent times" The game received some criticism  Polygon commented that frustrations with controls and enemy placement in the original Sonic games were present in Sonic Mania  VideoGamer com wrote that the game relied too much on nostalgia, with minimal innovation and too few original stages, but was a good proof of concept that the development team could expand upon  Nintendo World Report complained about the boss fights, which they felt were poorly executed and too easy  The Windows version was subject to review bombing due to its implementation of the digital rights management (DRM) software Denuvo, which some thought to be the real reason behind the two-week delay  The game could not be played offline on launch day; Sega stated this was a bug unrelated to Denuvo, and released a patch the following day Multiple reviewers saw it as a return to form for the Sonic series after a number of poorly reviewed games after the 1990s  EGMNow commended Sonic Mania as one of the "purest and most enjoyable" Sonic games, expressing excitement for the future of the series  IGN wrote that it was the "classic" throwback that fans had clamored for since the 1990s, but also recommended it for people new to the franchise  Nintendo World Report called it a "must-buy" for fans of the older Sonic games  Waypoint compared it favorably to Donkey Kong Country Returns, describing it as a game that knew "what was fun" about its predecessors  Nintendo Life felt that Mania represented "a true return to form" and was a contender for the best game in the series Sonic Mania Plus received stronger reviews, with the Nintendo Switch version receiving "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregator Metacritic  Multiple reviewers called it the definitive version thanks to its extra game mode and characters  DualShockers' Tomas Franzese praised the "Encore" mode for feeling fresh, as well as the movement options introduced with Mighty and Ray  Michael Leri of Game Revolution, however, found the new partner system more frustrating than the traditional lives system found in classic Sonic games  IGN Spain did not recommend the update for those that own the original game, but commended the physical release and the added value for new players and hardcore fans 

Legacy
Sonic Mania was nominated for the "Best Family Game" at The Game Awards 2017 and the "Best Kids Game" at the 2018 New York Game Awards  The theme song "Friends" was reused for the prologue of the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film 

Notes
Passage 5:
Captain Comic
The Adventures of Captain Comic is a platform game written by Michael Denio for MS-DOS compatible operating systems and released as shareware in 1988  It was one of the first side-scrolling games for IBM PC compatibles reminiscent of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it presaged a trend of shareware platform games in the early 1990s  A version for the NES was later published by Color Dreams as an unlicensed title 
A sequel, Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality, was released in 1990 

Plot
Captain Comic is on a mission to the planet Tambi, where the quest begins  Comic must find three artifacts: the Mystical Gems of Lascorbanos, the Thousand Coins of Tenure, and the Crown of the Ages  To find them, he must travel through many varied environments  The game is completed when Comic is in possession of all three treasures 

Gameplay
The game is divided into eight major areas, and each contains three smaller zones  Transitioning between zones plays a short tune, all enemies are removed from the screen, and Comic's position is saved 
Comic has twelve "shield" points which act as health  Each time an enemy hits him, two points are removed  When at zero, Comic dies on the next hit  Occasionally, shields can be found which instantly replenish the health to full, or if it is already full, give an extra life  Comic starts with four lives, and an extra life is given for each 50,000 points earned if Comic isn't already at the maximum of five extras 
If Comic is killed by either falling off the bottom of the screen, or  hit with no shield points remaining, a life is lost and he is returned to the point where he last entered this zone 
Enemies have different behaviors, from simply bouncing off walls and following preset paths to seeking Comic as he passes by  After picking up a Blastola Cola, Comic can shoot at and destroy enemies for points 

Development
Michael Denio previously wrote an interactive demo of a  platform game called The Adventures of Captain Pixel of the Galactic Security Patrol in 34010 AD for a TMS34010 coprocessor board  The credits screen has a 1987 copyright notice for the graphics  The TMS34010 is a CPU with graphics-oriented instructions which was later used in arcade video games such as Narc and Mortal Kombat  
Denio wrote in the introduction to the Captain Comic manual:

The Adventures of Captain Comic started out as an experiment to test the viability of two theories, the first as to whether a real arcade type game can be done on a standard IBM PC with an EGA card, and secondly, given the first can be done, if it is possible to make any money doing it  Well, I've come to a conclusion on the second point, but I'll let you judge the first point for yourself 

Music
The original theme song for Captain Comic was a rendition of the United States Marine Corps Hymn  The song was replaced in the final revision of the game, released in 1991, by George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite in D Minor, HWV 428, Air  The NES version of the soundtrack is composed entirely of classical music 

Reception
Legacy
A sequel from the same author was published in 1990 as Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality 
In 2012, PC World called Captain Comic the twelfth greatest shareware game of all time, writing that "it inspired many other shareware authors, including the folks who would later create Commander Keen "The original game was cloned for the SAM Coupé  It was also cloned as The Adventures of Pioneer Kseniauk in 1990 by a team of Ukrainian programmers 
Passage 6:
Christian Whitehead
Christian Whitehead, also known by his alias The Taxman, is an Australian video game programmer and designer  He is most recognized for his work creating updated ports of early games in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, as well as being the lead developer of an original game in the series, Sonic Mania  He has also developed multiple remakes of classic Sonic games and most recently, the remasters in Sonic Origins 

Career
In 2006, Whitehead worked as a freelance 3D animator with the company Kine Graffiti  Since 2009, he has focused on game development, developing various fangames based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series  In 2009, Whitehead produced a "proof-of-concept" video of Sonic CD running on an iPhone using his own custom engine, the "Retro Engine"  In an interview with Steven O'Donnell of Good Game: Spawn Point, Whitehead proclaims that he spent "about a year or so" convincing Sega to let him work on the Sonic CD port  In 2009, a video regarding Sonic CD from Whitehead was taken down, leading Eurogamer to report that Whitehead possibly faced a cease and desist letter from Sega, which Whitehead claimed was false  The port was released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPhone and Android in 2011  His remake was so successful that he, along with developer Simon "Stealth" Thomley of the studio Headcannon, would later be commissioned to remaster Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for mobile devices Although he, along with Headcannon, released a proof-of-concept video for a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 remaster in 2014, Sega did not greenlight the port  In 2015, it was announced that Whitehead would be involved in his first non-Sonic game, Freedom Planet 2  In 2017, Whitehead, in collaboration with Headcannon and PagodaWest Games, developed and released their own original title in the Sonic series, titled Sonic Mania  In 2018, Sonic Mania became Sonic Mania Plus, with the release of the Encore DLC  Sonic Mania Plus was developed by Whitehead, Headcannon, PagodaWest Games, and the now included HyperKinetic  Whitehead also contributed to the development of Sonic Origins, providing a new version of the engine used in the remasters  Whitehead is currently working on Freedom Planet 2, built with the Unity engine, for PC, Mac, and Linux In late 2018, Whitehead and other development members behind Sonic Mania founded their own studio Evening Star Studio, where he serves as creative director and lead engine architect 

Works
Context 2: Passage 1:
Bobbie Kilberg
Bobbie Kilberg (born Barbara Greene; October 25, 1944) is an American political advisor who has worked for Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H  W  Bush, and George W  Bush  Kilberg has served as the president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council since 1998  She was briefly an attorney with the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter from 1971 to 1973  She served on the staff of President Richard Nixon's United States Domestic Policy Council, under President Gerald Ford as Associate Counsel, and for President George H W  Bush as Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs 

Career
Bobbie Kilberg is president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, a position she has held since September 1998 As a White House Fellow, she served on the staff of President Nixon's Domestic Policy Council  From 1971 to 1973, she was an attorney with the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter then vice president for academic affairs at Mount Vernon College  In 1971, Kilberg was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board  In 1975 she return to the White House as associate counsel to the president under Gerald Ford Kilberg directed a project on the future of private philanthropy at the Aspen Institute beginning in 1978 then she moved to the Roosevelt Center for American Policy Studies in 1982 as vice president and general counsel She held two consecutive positions for President George H W  Bush, as Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and as director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs In December 2001, she was appointed by President George W  Bush to serve as a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during his term in office In Virginia, Bobbie Kilberg has served on the Speaker's Citizens Advisory Committee on Legislative Compensation, on the Joint Judicial Advisory Committee for the merit selection of judges, on the Attorney General's Task Forces on Identity Theft, Regulatory Reform and Economic Development, and Youth Internet Safety, and on the Governor's Northern Virginia BRAC Working Group  In November 2009, Governor Bob McDonnell named her as one of the five Co-Chairs of his Transition Team  In May 2010, she was named to the Governor's Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring and, in August 2010, she was named to the Governor's Commission on Military and National Security Facilities Kilberg has sought elected political office twice in Virginia, in 1987 as the Republican candidate for the State Senate and in 1993 as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Lieutenant Governor 

Personal life
Kilberg resides in McLean, Virginia with her husband, Bill, a senior partner and member of the executive committee of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP  They have five children and sixteen grandchildren 
Passage 2:
List of domestic buildings by G  E  Street
G  E  Street (1824–81) was an English architect and architectural writer, whose designs were mainly in High Victorian Gothic style   Born the son of a solicitor, he first worked in a law office, but was then articled to the architect Owen Browne Carter in Winchester   Two years later, in 1844, he moved to London and worked in the office of George Gilbert Scott   Here he also worked with George Frederick Bodley and William White   Street established his own architectural practice in 1849, initially in London, and later in Wantage (then in Berkshire)   He was appointed as architect to the diocese of Oxford in 1850, and retained this position until his death  He married in 1852 and in that year moved to Oxford   He returned to London in 1856 and maintained an office there for the remainder of his career   He travelled extensively, visiting the Continent of Europe frequently   Street was also a prolific writer on architectural subjects   He was a member of the Royal Academy, and in 1874 was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, being its president in 1881 Most of Street's works were in relation to churches; designing new churches, restoring and making additions and alterations to existing churches, and designing fittings and furnishings for them   He also designed domestic buildings, especially vicarages, and schools with houses for the schoolmaster   He designed little in the way of public buildings, although towards the end of his life he designed what has been described as his "greatest commission", the Royal Courts of Justice in London   Most of his works were in England, especially within and close to the diocese of Oxford, but examples of his work can be found throughout England, Wales and Ireland   He also designed some buildings abroad, including a church in Constantinople   Almost all his designs are in Gothic Revival style, in particular, in what is known as the High Victorian style   This style came chronologically after the use of "pure" and "correct" use of features of English Gothic architecture, which had been championed by A  W  N  Pugin and the Ecclesiological Society   High Victorian incorporated the use of polychromy, and elements of Continental forms of Gothic architecture   Street died in 1881, and was buried in Westminster Abbey This list contains details of Street's work on domestic buildings in England and Scotland 

Key
Works
See also
List of new churches by G  E  Street
List of church restorations and alterations by G  E  Street
List of miscellaneous works by G  E  Street
Passage 3:
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( RAY-gən; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989  A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent conservative figures in the United States 
Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports broadcaster in Iowa  In 1937, Reagan moved to California, where he became a film actor  From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild  In the 1950s, he worked in television and spoke for General Electric  From 1959 to 1960, he again served as the Screen Actors Guild's president  In 1964, "A Time for Choosing" gave Reagan attention as a new conservative figure  He was elected governor of California in 1966  During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, and cracked down harshly on university protests  After challenging and nearly defeating incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican nomination and then a landslide victory over incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 United States presidential election 
In his first term, Reagan implemented "Reaganomics", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation  He escalated an arms race and transitioned Cold War policy away from détente with the Soviet Union; he also ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983  Additionally, he survived an assassination attempt, fought public sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic in the United States, which began early in his presidency  In the 1984 presidential election, Reagan defeated former vice president Walter Mondale in another landslide victory  Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty 
Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the United States having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion  At the same time, the federal debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending  Reagan's policies also helped contribute to the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet communism  Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan post-presidency, and his physical and mental capacities rapidly deteriorated, ultimately leading to his death in 2004  Historians and scholars have ranked Reagan among the middle to upper tier of American presidents, and he is often viewed favorably among the general public 

Early life
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois, as the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan  Nelle was committed to the Disciples of Christ, which believed in the Social Gospel  She led prayer meetings and ran mid-week prayers at her church when the pastor was out of town  Reagan credited her spiritual influence and he became a Christian  According to Stephen Vaughn, Reagan's values came from his pastor, and the First Christian Church's religious, economic and social positions "coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan"  Jack focused on making money to take care of the family, but this was complicated by his alcoholism  Neil Reagan was Reagan's older brother  Together, they lived in Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth before returning to Tampico  In 1920, they settled in Dixon, Illinois, living in a house near the H  C  Pitney Variety Store Building Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in drama and football  His first job involved working as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park  In 1928, Reagan began attending Eureka College at Nelle's approval on religious grounds  He was a mediocre student that participated in sports, drama, and campus politics  He became student body president and joined a student strike that resulted in the college president's resignation  Reagan recalled a time when two black football teammates were refused service at a segregated hotel; he invited them to his parents' home nearby in Dixon and his parents welcomed them  At the time, his parents' stance on racial questions were unusually progressive in Dixon  Reagan himself had grown up with very few black Americans there and was unaware of a race problem 

Entertainment career
Radio and film
After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan took a job in Davenport, Iowa, as a sports broadcaster for four football games in the Big Ten Conference  He then worked for WHO radio in Des Moines as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs  His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress  Simultaneously, he often expressed his opposition to racism  In 1936, while traveling with the Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros Reagan arrived at Hollywood in 1937, debuting in Love Is on the Air (1937)  Using a simple and direct approach to acting and following his directors' instructions, Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films, before beginning military service in April 1942  He broke out of these types of films by portraying George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), which would be rejuvenated when reporters called Reagan "the Gipper" while he campaigned for president of the United States  Afterward, Reagan starred in Kings Row (1942) as a leg amputee, asking, "Where's the rest of me?" His performance was considered his best by many critics  Reagan became a star, with Gallup polls placing him "in the top 100 stars" from 1941 to 1942 World War II interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again as Warner Bros  became uncertain about his ability to generate ticket sales  Reagan, who had a limited acting range, was dissatisfied with the roles he received  As a result, Lew Wasserman renegotiated his contract with his studio, allowing him to also make films with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures as a freelancer  With this, Reagan appeared in multiple western films, something that had been denied him working at Warner Bros  In 1952, he ended his relationship with Warner Bros , but went on to appear in a total of 53 films, his last being The Killers (1964) 

Military service
In April 1937, Reagan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve  He was assigned as a private in Des Moines' 322nd Cavalry Regiment and reassigned to second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps  He later became a part of the 323rd Cavalry Regiment in California  As relations between the United States and Japan worsened, Reagan was ordered for active duty while he was filming Kings Row  Wasserman and Warner Bros  lawyers successfully sent draft deferments to complete the film in October 1941  However, to avoid accusations of Reagan being a draft dodger, the studio let him go in April 1942 Reagan reported for duty with severe near-sightedness  His first assignment was at Fort Mason as a liaison officer, a role that allowed him to transfer to the United States Army Air Forces (AAF)  Reagan became an AAF public relations officer and was subsequently assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City where he felt that it was "impossible to remove an incompetent or lazy worker" due to what he felt was "the incompetence, the delays, and inefficiencies" of the federal bureaucracy  Despite this, Reagan participated in the Provisional Task Force Show Unit in Burbank and continued to make theatrical films  He was also ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the sixth War Loan Drive before being reassigned to Fort MacArthur until his discharge on December 9, 1945, as a captain  Throughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films 

Screen Actors Guild presidency
When Robert Montgomery resigned as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on March 10, 1947, Reagan was elected to that position, in a special election  Reagan's first tenure saw various labor-management disputes, the Hollywood blacklist, and the Taft–Hartley Act's implementation  On April 10, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Reagan and he provided them with the names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers  During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, Reagan testified that some guild members were associated with the Communist Party and that he was well-informed on a "jurisdictional strike"  When asked if he was aware of communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild, he called the efforts "hearsay"  Reagan would remain SAG president until he resigned on November 10, 1952; Walter Pidgeon succeeded him, but Reagan stayed on the board The SAG fought with film producers over residual payments and on November 16, 1959, the board installed Reagan as SAG president, replacing the resigned Howard Keel  In his second stint, Reagan managed to secure the payments for actors whose theatrical films were released from 1948 to 1959 were televised  The producers were initially required to pay the actors fees, but they ultimately settled for pensions instead  However, they were still required to pay residuals for films after 1959  Reagan resigned from the SAG presidency on June 7, 1960, and also left the board; George Chandler succeeded him as SAG president 

Marriages and children
Reagan married Brother Rat (1938) co-star Jane Wyman in January 1940  Together, they had two biological daughters: Maureen in 1941, and Christine, born prematurely and dead the next day in 1947  They adopted one son, Michael, in 1945  Wyman filed to divorce Reagan in June 1948  She was uninterested in politics, and occasionally recriminated, reconciled and separated with him  Although Reagan was unprepared, the divorce was finalized in July 1949  Reagan would also remain close to his children  Later that year, Reagan met Nancy Davis after she contacted him in his capacity as the SAG president about her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis  They married in March 1952 and had two children, Patti in 1952, and Ron in 1958 

Television
Reagan became the host of MCA Inc  television production General Electric Theater at Wasserman's recommendation  It featured multiple guest stars, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, continuing to use her stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three episodes  When asked how Reagan was able to recruit such stars to appear on the show during television's infancy, he replied, "Good stories, top direction, production quality " However, the viewership declined in the 1960s and the show was canceled in 1962  In 1965, Reagan became the host of another MCA production, Death Valley Days 

Early political activities
Reagan began as a Democrat, viewing Franklin D  Roosevelt as "a true hero"  He joined the American Veterans Committee and Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), worked with the AFL–CIO to fight right-to-work laws, and continued to speak out against racism when he was in Hollywood  In 1945, Reagan planned to lead an HICCASP anti-nuclear rally, but Warner Bros  prevented him from going  In 1946, he appeared in a radio program called Operation Terror to speak out against rising Ku Klux Klan activity in the country, citing the attacks as a "capably organized systematic campaign of fascist violence and intimidation and horror"  Reagan also supported Harry S  Truman in the 1948 presidential election and Helen Gahagan Douglas for the United States Senate in 1950  It was Reagan's belief that communism was a powerful backstage influence in Hollywood that led him to rally his friends against them Reagan began shifting to the right when he supported the presidential campaigns of Dwight D  Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960  When Reagan was contracted by General Electric (GE), he gave speeches to their employees  His speeches had a positive take on free markets  Under GE vice president Lemuel Boulware, a staunch anti-communist, employees were encouraged to vote for business-friendly politicians In 1961, Reagan adapted his speeches into another speech to criticize Medicare  In his view, its legislation would have meant "the end of individual freedom in the United States"  In 1962, Reagan was dropped by GE, and he formally registered as a Republican In 1964, Reagan gave a speech for presidential contender Barry Goldwater that was eventually referred to as "A Time for Choosing"   Reagan argued that the Founding Fathers "knew that governments don't control things  And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose" and that "We've been told increasingly that we must choose between left or right " Even though the speech was not enough to turn around the faltering Goldwater campaign, it increased Reagan's profile among conservatives  David S  Broder and Stephen H  Hess called it "the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with his famous 'Cross of Gold' address" 

1966 California gubernatorial election
In January 1966, Reagan announced his candidacy for the California governorship, repeating his stances on individual freedom and big government  When he met with black Republicans in March, he was criticized for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964  Certain in his own lack of prejudice, Reagan responded resentfully that bigotry was not in his nature and later argued that certain provisions of the act infringed upon the rights of property owners  After the Supreme Court of California ruled that the initiative that repealed the Rumford Act was unconstitutional in May, he voiced his support for the act's repeal, but later preferred amending it  In the Republican primary, Reagan defeated George Christopher, a moderate who William F  Buckley Jr  thought had painted Reagan as extreme Reagan's general election opponent, incumbent governor Pat Brown, attempted to label Reagan as an extremist and tout his own accomplishments  Reagan portrayed himself as a political outsider, and charged Brown as responsible for the Watts riots and lenient on crime  In numerous speeches, Reagan "hit the Brown administration about high taxes, uncontrolled spending, the radicals at the University of California, Berkeley, and the need for accountability in government"  Meanwhile, many in the press perceived Reagan as "monumentally ignorant of state issues", though Lou Cannon said that Reagan benefited from an appearance he and Brown made on Meet the Press in September  Ultimately, Reagan won the governorship with 57 percent of the vote compared to Brown's 42 percent 

1967–1975: California governorship
Brown had spent much of California's funds on new programs, prompting them to use accrual accounting to avoid raising taxes  Consequently, it generated a larger deficit, and Reagan would call for reduced government spending and tax hikes to balance the budget  He worked with Jesse M  Unruh on securing tax increases and promising future property tax cuts  This caused some conservatives to accuse Reagan of betraying his principles  As a result, taxes on sales, banks, corporate profits, inheritances, liquor, and cigarettes jumped  Kevin Starr states, Reagan "gave Californians the biggest tax hike in their history—and got away with it " In the 1970 gubernatorial election, Unruh used Reagan's tax policy against him, saying it disproportionally favored the wealthy  Reagan countered that he was still committed to reducing property taxes  By 1973, the budget had a surplus, which Reagan preferred "to give back to the people" In 1967, Reagan reacted to the Black Panther Party's strategy of copwatching by signing the Mulford Act to prohibit the public carrying of firearms  The act was California's most restrictive piece of gun control legislation, with critics saying that it was "overreacting to the political activism of organizations such as the Black Panthers"  The act marked the beginning of both modern legislation and public attitude studies on gun control  Reagan also signed the 1967 Therapeutic Abortion Act that allowed abortions in the cases of rape and incest when a doctor determined the birth would impair the physical or mental health of the mother  He later expressed regret over signing it, saying that he was unaware of the mental health provision  He believed that doctors were interpreting the provision loosely and more abortions were resulting After Reagan won the 1966 election, he and his advisors planned a run in the 1968 Republican presidential primaries  He ran as an unofficial candidate to cut into Nixon's southern support and be a compromise candidate if there were to be a brokered convention  He won California's delegates, but Nixon secured enough delegates for the nomination Reagan had previously been critical of former governor Brown and university administrators for tolerating student demonstrations in the city of Berkeley, making it a major theme in his campaigning  
On February 5, 1969, Reagan declared a state of emergency in response to ongoing protests and acts of violence at the University of California, Berkeley, and sent in the California Highway Patrol  In May 1969, these officers, along with local officers from Berkeley and Alameda county, clashed with protestors over a site known as the People's Park  One student was shot and killed while many police officers and two reporters were injured  Reagan then commanded the state National Guard troops to occupy Berkeley for seventeen days to subdue the protesters, allowing other students to attend class safely  In February 1970, violent protests broke out near the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he once again deployed the National Guard  On April 7, Reagan defended his policies regarding campus protests, saying, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with  No more appeasement "During his victorious reelection campaign in 1970, Reagan, remaining critical of government, promised to prioritize welfare reform  He was concerned that the programs were disincentivizing work and that the growing welfare rolls would lead to both an unbalanced budget and another big tax hike in 1972  At the same time, the Federal Reserve increased interest rates to combat inflation, putting the American economy in a mild recession  Reagan worked with Bob Moretti to tighten up the eligibility requirements so that the financially needy could continue receiving payments  This was only accomplished after Reagan softened his criticism of Nixon's Family Assistance Plan  Nixon then lifted regulations to shepherd California's experiment  In 1976, the Employment Development Department published a report suggesting that the experiment that ran from 1971 to 1974 was unsuccessful Reagan did not run for the governorship in 1974 and it was won by Pat Brown's son, Jerry  Reagan's governorship, as professor Gary K  Clabaugh writes, saw public schools deteriorate due to his opposition to additional basic education funding  As for higher education, journalist William Trombley believed that the budget cuts Reagan enacted damaged Berkeley's student-faculty ratio and research  Additionally, the homicide rate doubled and armed robbery rates rose as well during Reagan's eight years, even with the many laws Reagan signed to try toughening criminal sentencing and reforming the criminal justice system  Reagan strongly supported capital punishment, but his efforts to enforce it were thwarted by People v  Anderson in 1972  According to his son, Michael, Reagan said that he regretted signing the Family Law Act that granted no-fault divorces 

1975–1981: Seeking the presidency
1976 Republican primaries
Insufficiently conservative to Reagan and many other Republicans, president Gerald Ford suffered from multiple political and economic woes  Ford, running for president, was disappointed to hear him also run  Reagan was strongly critical of détente and Ford's policy of détente with the Soviet Union  He repeated "A Time for Choosing" around the country before announcing his campaign on November 20, 1975, when he discussed economic and social problems, and to a lesser extent, foreign affairs  Both candidates were determined to knock each other out early in the primaries, but Reagan would devastatingly lose the first five primaries beginning with New Hampshire, where he popularized the welfare queen narrative about Linda Taylor, exaggerating her misuse of welfare benefits and igniting voter resentment for welfare reform, but never overtly mentioning her name or race In Florida, Reagan referred to a "strapping young buck", which became an example of dog whistle politics, and accused Ford for handing the Panama Canal to Panama's government while Ford implied that he would end Social Security  Then, in Illinois, he again criticized Ford's policy and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger  Losing the first five primaries prompted Reagan to desperately win North Carolina's by running a grassroots campaign and uniting with the Jesse Helms political machine that viciously attacked Ford  Reagan won an upset victory, convincing party delegates that Ford's nomination was no longer guaranteed  Reagan won subsequent victories in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Indiana with his attacks on social programs, opposition to forced busing, increased support from inclined voters of a declining George Wallace presidential campaign, and repeated criticisms of Ford and Kissinger's policies, including détente The result was a seesaw battle for the 1,130 delegates required for their party's nomination that neither would reach before the Kansas City convention in August and Ford replacing mentions of détente with Reagan's preferred phrase, "peace through strength"  Reagan took John Sears' advice of choosing liberal Richard Schweiker as his running mate, hoping to pry loose of delegates from Pennsylvania and other states, and distract Ford  Instead, conservatives were left alienated, and Ford picked up the remaining uncommitted delegates and prevailed, earning 1,187 to Reagan's 1,070  Before giving his acceptance speech, Ford invited Reagan to address the convention; Reagan emphasized individual freedom and the dangers of nuclear weapons  In 1977, Ford told Cannon that Reagan's primary challenge contributed to his own narrow loss to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 United States presidential election 

1980 election
Reagan emerged as a vocal critic of President Carter in 1977  The Panama Canal Treaty's signing, the 1979 oil crisis, and rise in the inflation, interest and unemployment rates helped set up his 1980 presidential campaign, which he announced on November 13, 1979 with an indictment of the federal government  His announcement stressed his fundamental principles of tax cuts to stimulate the economy and having both a small government and a strong national defense, since he believed the United States was behind the Soviet Union militarily  Heading into 1980, his age became an issue among the press, and the United States was in a severe recession  In the primaries, Reagan lost Iowa to George H  W  Bush, but rebounded in New Hampshire  Soon thereafter, Reagan's opponents began dropping out of the primaries, including John B  Anderson, who left the party to become an independent candidate  Reagan easily captured the presidential nomination and chose Bush as his running mate at the Detroit convention in July The general election pitted Reagan against Carter amid the multitude of domestic concerns and ongoing Iran hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979  Reagan's campaign worried that Carter would be able to secure the release of the American hostages in Iran as part of the October surprise, Carter "suggested that Reagan would wreck Social Security" and portrayed him as a warmonger, and Anderson carried support from liberal Republicans dissatisfied with Reagan's conservatism  One of Reagan's key strengths was his appeal to the rising conservative movement  Though most conservative leaders espoused cutting taxes and budget deficits, many conservatives focused more closely on social issues like abortion and homosexuality  Evangelical Protestants became an increasingly important voting bloc, and they generally supported Reagan  Reagan also won the backing of Reagan Democrats  Though he advocated socially conservative view points, Reagan focused much of his campaign on attacks against Carter's foreign policy In August, Reagan gave a speech at the Neshoba County Fair, stating his belief in states' rights  Joseph Crespino argues that the visit was designed to reach out to Wallace-inclined voters, and some also saw these actions as an extension of the Southern strategy to garner white support for Republican candidates  Reagan's supporters have said that this was his typical anti-big government rhetoric, without racial context or intent  In the October 28 debate, Carter correctly chided Reagan for being against national health insurance  Reagan replied, "There you go again", though the audience laughed and viewers found him more appealing  Reagan later asked the audience if they were better off than they were four years ago, slightly paraphrasing Roosevelt's words in 1934  In 1983, Reagan's campaign managers were revealed to having obtained Carter's debate briefing book before the debates  On November 4, 1980, Reagan won in a decisive victory in the Electoral College over Carter, carrying 44 states and receiving 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 in six states and the District of Columbia  He won the popular vote by a narrower margin, receiving nearly 51 percent to Carter's 41 percent and Anderson's 7 percent  In the United States Congress, Republicans won a majority of seats in the Senate for the first time since 1952 while Democrats retained the House of Representatives 

1981–1989: Presidency
First inauguration
The 40th president of the United States, Reagan was sworn into office for his first term on January 20, 1981  In his inaugural address, he addressed the country's economic malaise, arguing, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem " In a final insult to President Carter, Iran had waited until Reagan had been sworn in before sending the hostages home 

"Reaganomics" and the economy
Reagan advocated a laissez-faire philosophy, and promoted a set of neoliberal reforms dubbed "Reaganomics", which included monetarism and supply-side economics 

Taxation
Reagan worked with the boll weevil Democrats to pass tax and budget legislation in a Congress led by Tip O'Neill, a liberal who strongly criticized Reaganomics  He lifted federal oil and gasoline price controls on January 28, 1981, and in August, he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 to dramatically lower federal income tax rates and require exemptions and brackets to be indexed for inflation starting in 1985  Amid growing concerns about the mounting federal debt, Reagan signed the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, one of the eleven times Reagan raised taxes  The bill doubled the federal cigarette tax, rescinded a portion of the corporate tax cuts from the 1981 tax bill, and according to Paul Krugman, "a third of the 1981 cut" overall  Many of his supporters condemned the bill, but Reagan defended his preservation of cuts on individual income tax rates  By 1983, the amount of federal tax had fallen for all or most taxpayers, but most strongly affected the wealthy The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the number of tax brackets and top tax rate, and almost doubled personal exemptions To Reagan, the tax cuts would not have increased the deficit as long as there was enough economic growth and spending cuts  His policies proposed that economic growth would occur when the tax cuts spur investments, which would result in more spending, consumption, and ergo tax revenue  This theoretical relationship has been illustrated by some with the controversial Laffer curve  Critics labeled this "trickle-down economics", the belief that tax policies that benefit the wealthy will spread to the poor  Milton Friedman and Robert Mundell argued that these policies invigorated America's economy and contributed to the economic boom of the 1990s 

Inflation and unemployment
Reagan took office in the midst of stagflation  The economy briefly experienced growth before plunging into a recession in July 1981  As Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker fought inflation by pursuing a tight money policy of high interest rates, which restricted lending and investment, raised unemployment, and temporarily reduced economic growth  In December 1982, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) measured the unemployment rate at 10 8 percent  Around the same time, economic activity began to rise until its end in 1990, setting the record for the longest peacetime expansion  In 1983, the recession ended and Reagan nominated Volcker to a second term in fear of damaging confidence in the economic recovery Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan to succeed Volcker in 1987  Greenspan raised interest rates in another attempt to curb inflation, setting off the Black Monday although the markets eventually recovered  By 1989, the BLS measured the unemployment rate at 5 3 percent  The inflation rate dropped from 12 percent during the 1980 election to under 5 percent in 1989  Likewise, the interest rate dropped from 15 percent to under 10 percent  Yet, not all shared equally in the economic recovery, and both economic inequality and the number of homeless individuals increased during the 1980s  Critics have contended that a majority of the jobs created during this decade paid the minimum wage 

Government spending
In 1981, in an effort to keep it solvent, Reagan approved a plan for cuts to Social Security  He later backed off of these plans due to public backlash  He then created the Greenspan Commission to keep Social Security financially secure and in 1983, he signed amendments to raise both the program's payroll taxes and retirement age for benefits  He had signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to cut funding for federal assistance such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, subsidized housing and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and would discontinue the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act  On the other side, defense spending doubled between 1981 and 1985  During Reagan's presidency, Project Socrates operated within the Defense Intelligence Agency in order to discover why the United States was unable to maintain its economic competitiveness  According to program director Michael Sekora, their findings helped the country exceed Soviet missile defense technology 

Deregulation
Reagan sought to loosen federal regulation of economic activities, and he appointed key officials who shared this agenda  William Leuchtenburg writes that by 1986, the Reagan administration eliminated almost half of the federal regulations that had existed in 1981  The 1982 Garn–St  Germain Depository Institutions Act deregulated savings and loan associations by letting them make a variety of loans and investments outside of real estate  After the bill's passage, savings and loans associations engaged in riskier activities, and the leaders of some institutions embezzled funds  The administration's inattentiveness toward the industry contributed to the savings and loan crisis and costly bailouts 

Deficits
The deficits were exacerbated by the early 1980s recession, which cut into federal revenue  The national debt tripled between the fiscal years of 1980 and 1989, and the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product rose from 33 percent in 1981 to 53 percent by 1989  During his time in office, Reagan never fulfilled his 1980 campaign promise of submitting a balanced budget  The United States borrowed heavily in order to cover newly spawned federal budget deficits  Reagan described the tripled debt the "greatest disappointment of his presidency"  Jeffrey Frankel opined that the deficits were a major reason why Reagan's successor, Bush, reneged on his campaign promise by raising taxes through the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 

Assassination attempt
On March 30, 1981, Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr  outside the Washington Hilton  Also struck were: James Brady, Thomas Delahanty, and Tim McCarthy  Although "right on the margin of death" upon arrival at George Washington University Hospital, Reagan underwent surgery and recovered quickly from a broken rib, a punctured lung, and internal bleeding  Professor J  David Woodard says that the assassination attempt "created a bond between him and the American people that was never really broken"  Later, Reagan came to believe that God had spared his life "for a chosen mission" 

Supreme Court appointments
Reagan appointed three associate justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Sandra Day O'Connor in July 1981, Antonin Scalia in 1986, and Anthony Kennedy in 1988  He also appointed William Rehnquist as the chief justice in 1986  The direction of the Supreme Court's reshaping has been described as conservative 

Public sector labor union fights
Early in August 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking  On August 3, Reagan said that he would fire air traffic controllers if they did not return to work within 48 hours; according to him, 38 percent did not return  On August 13, Reagan fired roughly 12,000 striking air traffic controllers who ignored his order  He used military controllers and supervisors to handle the nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained  The breaking of the PATCO strike demoralized organized labor, and the number of strikes fell greatly in the 1980s  With the assent of Reagan's sympathetic National Labor Relations Board appointees, many companies also won wage and benefit cutbacks from unions, especially in the manufacturing sector  During Reagan's presidency, the share of employees who were part of a labor union dropped from approximately one-fourth of the total workforce to approximately one-sixth of the total workforce 

Civil rights
Despite Reagan having opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the bill was extended for 25 years in 1982  He initially opposed the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr  Day, but signed a veto-proof bill to create the holiday in 1983, and also alluded to claims that King was associated with communists during his career  In 1984, he signed legislation intended to impose fines for fair housing discrimination offenses  In March 1988, Reagan vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, but Congress overrode his veto  He had argued that the bill unreasonably increased the federal government's power and undermined the rights of churches and business owners  Later in September, legislation was passed to correct loopholes in the Fair Housing Act of 1968 Early in his presidency, Reagan appointed Clarence M  Pendleton Jr  as chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights to criticism for politicizing the agency  Pendleton and Reagan's subsequent appointees steered the commission in line with Reagan's views on civil rights, arousing the ire of civil rights advocates  In 1987, Reagan unsuccessfully nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court as a way to achieve his civil rights policy that could not be fulfilled during his presidency; his administration had opposed affirmative action, particularly in education, federal assistance programs, housing and employment, but Reagan reluctantly continued these policies  In housing, Reagan's administration saw considerably fewer fair housing cases filed than the three previous administrations  Reagan's recasting of civil rights through reduced enforcement of civil rights laws has been regarded by some as the largest since Lyndon B  Johnson's presidency 

War on drugs
In response to concerns about the increasing crack epidemic, Reagan intensified the war on drugs in 1982  While the American public did not see drugs as an important issue then, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Department of Defense all increased their anti-drug funding immensely  Reagan's administration publicized the campaign to gain support after crack became widespread in 1985  Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and 1988 to specify penalties for drug offenses  Both bills have been criticized in the years since for promoting racial disparities  Additionally, Nancy Reagan founded the "Just Say No" campaign to discourage others from engaging in recreational drug use and raise awareness about the dangers of drugs  A 1988 study showed 39 percent of high school seniors using illegal drugs compared to 53 percent in 1980, but Scott Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz say that the success of these types of campaigns have not been found to be affirmatively proven 

Escalation of the Cold War
Reagan ordered a massive defense buildup; he revived the B-1 Lancer program that had been rejected by the Carter administration, and deployed the MX missile  In response to Soviet deployment of the SS-20, he oversaw NATO's deployment of the Pershing missile in Western Europe  In 1982, Reagan tried to cut off the Soviet Union's access to hard currency by impeding its proposed gas line to Western Europe  It hurt the Soviet economy, but it also caused much ill will among American allies in Europe who counted on that revenue; he later retreated on this issue  In March 1983, Reagan introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to protect the United States from space intercontinental ballistic missiles  He believed that this defense shield could protect the country from nuclear destruction in a hypothetical nuclear war with the Soviet Union  There was much disbelief among the scientific community surrounding the program's scientific feasibility, leading opponents to dub the SDI "Star Wars", though Soviet leader Yuri Andropov said it would lead to "an extremely dangerous path" 
In a 1982 address to the British Parliament, Reagan said, "the march of freedom and democracy     will leave Marxism–Leninism on the ash heap of history " Dismissed by the American press as "wishful thinking", Margaret Thatcher called the address a "triumph"  David Cannadine says of Thatcher that "Reagan had been grateful for her interest in him at a time when the British establishment refused to take him seriously" with the two agreeing on "building up stronger defenses against Soviet Russia" and both believing in outfacing "what Reagan would later call 'the evil empire'" in reference to the Soviet Union during a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in March 1983  After Soviet fighters downed Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in September, which included Larry McDonald and 61 other Americans, Reagan expressed outrage towards the Soviet Union  The next day, reports suggested that the Soviets had fired on the plane by mistake  In spite of the harsh, discordant rhetoric, Reagan's administration continued discussions with the Soviet Union on START I Although the Reagan administration agreed with the communist government in China to reduce the sale of arms to Taiwan in 1982, Reagan himself was the first president to reject containment and détente, and to put into practice the concept that the Soviet Union could be defeated rather than simply negotiated with  His covert aid to Afghan mujahideen forces through Pakistan against the Soviets has been given credit for assisting in ending the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan  However, the United States was subjected to blowback in the form of the Taliban that opposed them in the war in Afghanistan  In his 1985 State of the Union Address, Reagan proclaimed, "Support for freedom fighters is self-defense " Through the Reagan Doctrine, his administration supported anti-communist movements that fought against groups backed by the Soviet Union in an effort to rollback Soviet-backed communist governments and reduce Soviet influence across the world  Critics have felt that the administration ignored the human rights violations in the countries they backed, including genocide in Guatemala and mass killings in Chad 

Invasion of Grenada
On October 19, 1983, Maurice Bishop was overthrown and murdered by one of his colleagues  Several days later, Reagan ordered American forces to invade Grenada  Reagan cited a regional threat posed by a Soviet-Cuban military build-up in the Caribbean nation and concern for the safety of hundreds of American medical students at St  George's University as adequate reasons to invade  Two days of fighting commenced, resulting in an American victory  While the invasion enjoyed public support in the United States, it was criticized internationally, with the United Nations General Assembly voting to censure the American government  Cannon later noted that throughout Reagan's 1984 presidential campaign, the invasion overshadowed the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, which killed 241 Americans taking part in an international peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War 

1984 election
Reagan announced his reelection campaign on January 29, 1984, declaring, "America is back and standing tall " In February, his administration reversed the unpopular decision to send the United States Marine Corps to Lebanon, thus eliminating a political liability for him  Reagan faced minimal opposition in the Republican primaries, and he and Bush accepted the nomination at the Dallas convention in August  In the general election, his campaign ran the commercial, "Morning in America"  At a time when the American economy was already recovering, former vice president Walter Mondale was attacked by Reagan's campaign as a "tax-and-spend Democrat", while Mondale criticized the deficit, the SDI, and Reagan's civil rights policy  However, Reagan's age induced his campaign managers to minimize his public appearances  Mondale's campaign believed that Reagan's age and mental health were issues before the October presidential debates Following Reagan's performance in the first debate where he struggled to recall statistics, his age was brought up by the media in negative fashion  Reagan's campaign changed his tactics for the second debate where he quipped, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign  I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience " This remark generated applause and laughter, even from Mondale  At that point, Broder suggested that age was no longer a liability for Reagan, and Mondale's campaign felt that "the election was over"  In November, Reagan won a landslide reelection victory with 59 percent of the popular vote and 525 electoral votes from 49 states  Mondale won 41 percent of the popular vote and 13 electoral votes from the District of Columbia and his home state of Minnesota 

Response to the AIDS epidemic
The AIDS epidemic began to unfold in 1981, and AIDS was initially difficult to understand for physicians and the public  As the epidemic advanced, according to White House physician and later physician to the president, brigadier general John Hutton, Reagan thought of AIDS as though "it was the measles and would go away"  The October 1985 death of the President's friend Rock Hudson affected Reagan's view; Reagan approached Hutton for more information on the disease  Still, between September 18, 1985 and February 4, 1986, Reagan did not mention AIDS in public In 1986, Reagan asked C  Everett Koop to draw up a report on the AIDS issue  Koop angered many evangelical conservatives, both in and out of the Reagan administration, by stressing the importance of sex education including condom usage in schools  A year later, Reagan, who reportedly had not read the report, gave his first speech on the epidemic when 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, and 20,849 had died of it  Reagan called for increased testing (including routine testing for marriage applicants) and mandatory testing of select groups (including federal prisoners)  Even after this speech, however, Reagan remained reluctant to publicly address AIDS Scholars and AIDS activists have argued that the Reagan administration largely ignored the AIDS crisis  Randy Shilts and Michael Bronski said that AIDS research was chronically underfunded during Reagan's administration, and Bronski added that requests for more funding by doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were routinely denied  In a September 1985 press conference, after Hudson announced his AIDS diagnosis, Reagan called a government AIDS research program a "top priority", but also cited budgetary constraints  Between the fiscal years of 1984 and 1989, federal spending on AIDS totaled $5 6 billion  The Reagan administration proposed $2 8 billion during this time period, but pressure from congressional Democrats resulted in the larger amount 

Addressing apartheid
Opposition to apartheid strengthened during Reagan's first term in office as its component disinvestment from South Africa movement, which had been in existence for quite some years  The opposition also gained critical mass following in the United States, particularly on college campuses and among mainline Protestant denominations  President Reagan was opposed to divestiture because, as he wrote in a letter to Sammy Davis Jr , it "would hurt the very people we are trying to help and would leave us no contact within South Africa to try and bring influence to bear on the government"  He also noted the fact that the "American-owned industries there employ more than 80,000 blacks" and that their employment practices were "very different from the normal South African customs"  The anti-communist focus of Reagan's administration lent itself to closer ties with the apartheid regime of South Africa, particularly with regards to matters pertaining to nuclear weapons The Reagan administration developed constructive engagement with the South African government as a means of encouraging it to move away from apartheid gradually  It was part of a larger initiative designed to foster peaceful economic development and political change throughout southern Africa  This policy, however, engendered much public criticism, and renewed calls for the imposition of stringent sanctions  In response, Reagan announced the imposition of new sanctions on the South African government, including an arms embargo in late 1985  These sanctions were seen as weak by anti-apartheid activists and as insufficient by the president's opponents in Congress  In 1986, Congress approved the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which included tougher sanctions; Reagan's veto was overridden by Congress  Afterward, he remained opposed to apartheid and unsure of "how best to oppose it"  Several European countries, as well as Japan, also imposed their sanctions on South Africa soon after 

Libya bombing
Contentious relations between Libya and the United States under President Reagan were revived in the West Berlin discotheque bombing that killed an American soldier and injured dozens of others on April 5, 1986  Stating that there was irrefutable evidence that Libya had a direct role in the bombing, Reagan authorized the use of force against the country  On April 14, the United States launched a series of airstrikes on ground targets in Libya  Thatcher allowed the United States Air Force to use Britain's air bases to launch the attack, on the justification that the United Kingdom was supporting America's right to self-defense under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations  The attack was, according to Reagan, designed to halt Muammar Gaddafi's "ability to export terrorism", offering him "incentives and reasons to alter his criminal behavior"  The attack was condemned by many countries; by an overwhelming vote, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to condemn the attack and deem it a violation of the Charter and international law 

Iran–Contra affair
Reagan authorized William J  Casey to arm the Contras, fearing that Communists would take over Nicaragua if it remained under the leadership of the Sandinistas  Congress passed the 1982 Boland Amendment, prohibiting the CIA and United States Department of Defense from using their budgets to provide aid to the Contras  Still, the Reagan administration raised funds for the Contras from private donors and foreign governments  When Congress learned that the CIA had secretly placed naval mines in Nicaraguan harbors, Congress passed a second Boland Amendment that barred granting any assistance to the Contras  By mid-1985, Hezbollah began to take American hostages in Lebanon, holding seven of them in reaction to the United States' support of Israel Reagan procured the release of seven American hostages held by Hezbollah by selling American arms to Iran, then engaged in the Iran–Iraq War, in hopes that Iran would pressure Hezbollah to release the hostages  The Reagan administration sold over 2,000 missiles to Iran without informing Congress; Hezbollah released four hostages but captured an additional six Americans  On Oliver North's initiative, the administration redirected the proceeds from the missile sales to the Contras  The transactions were exposed by Ash-Shiraa in early November 1986  Reagan initially denied any wrongdoing, but on November 25, he announced that John Poindexter and North had left the administration and that he would form the Tower Commission to investigate the transactions  A few weeks later, Reagan asked a panel of federal judges to appoint a special prosecutor who would conduct a separate investigation The Tower Commission released a report in February 1987 confirming that the administration had traded arms for hostages and sent the proceeds of the weapons sales to the Contras  The report laid most of the blame on North, Poindexter, and Robert McFarlane, but it was also critical of Donald Regan and other White House staffers  Investigators did not find conclusive proof that Reagan had known about the aid provided to the Contras, but the report noted that Reagan had "created the conditions which made possible the crimes committed by others" and had "knowingly participated or acquiesced in covering up the scandal"  The affair damaged the administration and raised questions about Reagan's competency and the wisdom of conservative policies  The administration's credibility was also badly damaged on the international stage as it had violated its own arms embargo on Iran 

Soviet decline and thaw in relations
Although the Soviets did not accelerate military spending in response to Reagan's military buildup, their enormous military expenses, in combination with collectivized agriculture and inefficient planned manufacturing, were a heavy burden for the Soviet economy  At the same time, the prices of oil, the primary source of Soviet export revenues, fell to one third of the previous level in 1985  These factors contributed to a stagnant economy during Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as the Soviet Union's leader Reagan's foreign policy towards the Soviets wavered between brinkmanship and cooperation  Reagan appreciated Gorbachev's revolutionary change in the direction of the Soviet policy and shifted to diplomacy, intending to encourage him to pursue substantial arms agreements  They held four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988  Reagan believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to allow for more democracy and free speech, this would lead to reform and the end of communism  The critical summit was in Reykjavík in 1986, where they agreed to abolish all nuclear weapons  However, Gorbachev added the condition that SDI research must be confined to laboratories during the ten-year period when disarmament would take place  Reagan refused, stating that it was defensive only and that he would share the secrets with the Soviets, thus failing to reach a deal In June 1987, Reagan addressed Gorbachev during a speech at the Berlin Wall, demanding that he "tear down this wall"  The remark was ignored at the time, but after the wall fell in November 1989, it was retroactively recast as a soaring achievement  In December, Reagan and Gorbachev met again at the Washington Summit to sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, committing to the total abolition of their respective short-range and medium-range missile stockpiles  The treaty established an inspections regime designed to ensure that both parties honored the agreement  In May 1988, the U S  Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of ratifying the treaty, providing a major boost to Reagan's popularity in the aftermath of the Iran–Contra affair  A new era of trade and openness between the two powers commenced, and the United States and Soviet Union cooperated on international issues such as the Iran–Iraq War 

1989–2004: Post-presidency
After leaving the presidency on January 20, 1989, Ronald and Nancy Reagan settled in a home in Bel Air, in addition to Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara  He received multiple awards and honors, and received generous payments for speaking engagements  In 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library opened  Reagan also addressed the 1992 Republican National Convention "to inspire allegiance to the party regulars"; publicly favored the Brady Bill, drawing criticism from gun control opponents; a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget; and the repeal of the 22nd Amendment  His final public speech occurred on February 3, 1994, during a tribute to him in Washington, D C ; his last major public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994 In August 1994, Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which he announced through a handwritten letter in November  There was speculation over how long he had demonstrated symptoms of mental degeneration, but lay observations that he suffered from Alzheimer's while still in office have been widely refuted by medical experts; his doctors said that he first began exhibiting overt symptoms of the illness in late 1992 or 1993  Over time, the disease destroyed Reagan's mental capacity  By 1997, he was reported to recognize few people other than his wife, though he continued to walk through parks and on beaches, play golf, and visit his office in nearby Century City  Eventually, his family decided that he would live in quiet semi-isolation with his wife  By the end of 2003, Reagan had lost his ability to speak and was mostly confined to his bed, no longer able to recognize any family members Reagan died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's, at his home in Los Angeles, on June 5, 2004  President George W  Bush called Reagan's death "a sad hour in the life of America"  His public funeral was held in the Washington National Cathedral, where eulogies were given by Margaret Thatcher, Brian Mulroney, George H  W  Bush, and George W  Bush  Other world leaders attended including Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Wałęsa  Reagan was interred at his presidential library 

Legacy
Historical reputation
In 2008, British historian M  J  Heale summarized that scholars had reached a broad consensus in which "Reagan rehabilitated conservatism, turned the country to the right, practiced a 'pragmatic conservatism' that balanced ideology with the constraints of government, revived faith in the presidency and American self-respect, and contributed to critically ending the Cold War", which ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991  Many conservative and liberal scholars have agreed that Reagan has been the most influential president since Roosevelt, leaving his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics through his effective communication of his conservative agenda and pragmatic compromising  During the initial years of Reagan's post-presidency, historical rankings placed his presidency in the twenties  Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, his presidency was often placed in the top ten Many proponents, including his Cold War contemporaries, believe that his defense policies, economic policies, military policies, and hard-line rhetoric against the Soviet Union and communism, together with his summits with Gorbachev, played a significant part in ending the Cold War  Professor Jeffrey Knopf argues that while Reagan's practice of referring to the Soviet Union as "evil" probably made no difference to the Soviet leaders, it possibly gave encouragement to Eastern European citizens who opposed their communist regimes  President Truman's policy of containment is also regarded as a force behind the fall of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan undermined the Soviet system itself  Nevertheless, Melvyn P  Leffler called Reagan "Gorbachev's minor, yet indispensable partner, setting the framework for the dramatic changes that neither anticipated happening anytime soon" Critics, for example Paul Krugman, note Reagan's tenure as having begun a period of increased income inequality, sometimes called the "Great Divergence"  Krugman also views Reagan as having initiated the ideology of the current-day Republican Party, which he feels is led by "radicals" who seek to "undo the twentieth century" gains in income equality and unionization  Others, such as Nixon's Secretary of Commerce Peter G  Peterson, also criticize what they feel was not just Reagan's fiscal irresponsibility, but also ushering in an era where tax cutting "became the GOP's core platform"  With resulting deficits and GOP leaders (speciously in Peterson's opinion) arguing supply-side gains would enable the country to "grow" its way out of deficits Reagan was known for storytelling and humor, which involved puns and self-deprecation  Reagan also often emphasized family values, despite being the first president to have been divorced  He showed the ability comfort to Americans during the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster  Reagan's ability to talk about substantive issues with understandable terms and to focus on mainstream American concerns earned him the laudatory moniker the "Great Communicator"  He also earned the nickname "Teflon President" in that public perceptions of him were not substantially tarnished by the multitude of controversies that arose during his administration 

Political influence
Reagan led a new conservative movement, altering the political dynamic of the United States  Conservatism became the dominant ideology for Republicans, displacing the party's faction of liberals and moderates  In his time, men began voting more Republican, and women began voting more Democrat – a gender distinction that has persisted   He was supported by young voters, an allegiance that shifted many of them to the party  He attempted to appeal to black voters in 1980, but would receive the lowest black vote for a Republican presidential candidate at the time  Throughout Reagan's presidency, Republicans were unable to gain complete control of Congress The period of American history most dominated by Reagan and his policies (particularly on taxes, welfare, defense, the federal judiciary, and the Cold War) is known as the Reagan era, which suggests that the "Reagan Revolution" had a lasting impact on the United States in domestic and foreign policy  The Bill Clinton administration is often treated as an extension of the era, as is the George W  Bush administration  Since 1988, Republican presidential candidates have invoked Reagan's policies and beliefs  Carlos Lozada noted Trump's praising of Reagan in a book he published during his 2016 campaign 
Passage 4:
Timeline of the presidency of Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford, a Republican from Michigan, was inaugurated as the nation's 38th president on August 9, 1974, upon the resignation of Richard Nixon,  and ended on January 20, 1977  The following articles cover the timeline of Ford's presidency:

Timeline of the Gerald Ford presidency (1974)
Timeline of the Gerald Ford presidency (1975)
Timeline of the Gerald Ford presidency (1976–January 1977)

See also
Timeline of the Richard Nixon presidency, for his predecessor
Timeline of the Jimmy Carter presidency, for his successor
Passage 5:
Richard Darman
Richard Gordon Darman (May 10, 1943 – January 25, 2008) was an American businessman and government official who served in senior positions during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H  W  Bush 

Early life
Darman was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, the son of Eleanor F  and Morton H  Darman  His father was a textile mill owner 
Darman graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1964 and from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1967 

Career
Darman held several governmental positions under James Baker, including as Assistant Secretary of Commerce (1976–1977)  After the defeat of Gerald Ford, Darman became a member of the faculty of Harvard Kennedy School, to which he would return on two occasions between 1977 and 2002 
When Baker became White House Chief of Staff under President Reagan, Darman returned to serve as Assistant to the President of the United States and White House Staff Secretary (1981–1985), before following Baker to the Treasury Department as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (1985–1987) 
Darman served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the entire presidency of the first President Bush  Darman was regarded as provocative and intelligent by Washington insiders but was criticized by some economists for being too focused on the budget deficit and was sometimes blamed for convincing Bush to renege on his promise of "Read my lips: No new taxes," which is widely believed to have contributed to Bush's defeat in the election of 1992  Darman had previously tried to stop Bush from making the promise during the 1988 campaign From 1993 until his death in 2008, Darman was a partner and managing director of The Carlyle Group  During that period, Carlyle went from being a small firm with 26 employees to one of the world's largest and most successful private equity firms  Darman was a trustee of the Loomis Sayles Funds, the IXIS Funds, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute  He served as Chairman of the Board of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and, in May 2003, became Chairman of the Board of AES Corporation, an electric utility company 

Personal life
He married Kathleen Emmet on September 1, 1967; they had three sons, William T  E , Jonathan W  E  and C  T  Emmet Darman 
Darman died on January 25, 2008, at the age of 64, following a battle with acute myelogenous leukemia 
Passage 6:
President of Vietnam
The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Chủ tịch nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, lit  'Chairman of the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam') is the head of state of Vietnam, elected by the Vietnam National Assembly from delegates of the National Assembly  Since Vietnam is a single-party state, the president is generally considered to hold the second highest position in the political system, formally after the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam  In addition, the president appoints the head of government, the Prime Minister  As head of state, the President represents Vietnam both domestically and internationally, and maintains the regular and coordinated operation and stability of the national government and safeguards the independence and territorial integrity of the country  
The president must be a delegate of the National Assembly and is traditionally a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party  The Central Committee of the Communist Party nominates candidates to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly then confirms and nominates those candidates for official election by all delegates of the National Assembly  
The president appoints the vice president, prime minister, ministers, and other officials with the consent of the National Assembly  The president is furthermore the supreme commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces, chairman of the Council for Defense and Security  Moreover, member of Political Bureau, standing member of the Central Military Commission and the Central Police Party Committee  Since September 2011, the president is also the head of the Central Steering Committee for Judicial Reform  The tenure of the president is five years, and a president can only serve three terms  If the president becomes unable to discharge duties of office, the vice president assumes the office of acting president until the president resumes duty, or until the election of a new president 
The powers and prestige of the office of president have varied over the years  For instance, while the inaugural president, Hồ Chí Minh, was also the chairman of the Communist Party, making him (in that capacity) the first ranking member of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body in Vietnam, his successor, Tôn Đức Thắng, served as a symbolic figure along with General Secretary Lê Duẩn  Since Trường Chinh's ascension to the presidency, the president has been ranked 1st (he was sometimes also chairman of the party) or 2nd in the order of precedence of the Communist Party's Politburo except President Nguyễn Minh Triết ranked fourth and President Võ Chí Công ranked third  Three persons served concurrently as head of both the party and state: Hồ Chí Minh (1951–1969), Trường Chinh (1986) and Nguyễn Phú Trọng (2018–2021) 
Võ Văn Thưởng is the current President of Vietnam after being appointed by the National Assembly on 2 March 2023  He is the youngest person to hold this position since the republic's founding in 1945 

History
Hồ Chí Minh was appointed Vietnam's first president in 1946 by the National Assembly  The 1959 Constitutions stated that the National Assembly had the power to appoint and dismiss the president  The president represented Vietnam both internally and externally  The power and responsibilities of the president in 1946 constitution is very similar to the power and responsibilities of the president of the United States with elements from the president of France being both the head of state and the head of government  The 1959 constitution significantly reduced the power of the president, making the president the de jure leader of Vietnam while handling most of the de facto power to the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam  The 1980 constitution transformed the office of head of state dramatically  The office of president was abolished and replaced with the office of Chairman of the Council of State (CC)  The CC chairmanship was modelled after the Soviet office of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet  The Council of State, as with the Council of Ministers, was a collective decision-making body  Both the Council of State and the Council of Ministers were part of the executive branch; the strengthening of these institutions weakened the role of the legislative branch  The duties, powers and responsibilities of the Council of State were taken from the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, which lost most of its powers and prestige in the 1980 Constitution 
The members of the Council of State were elected by the National Assembly and consisted of a chairman, deputy chairmen, a general secretary and other members  Council of State members could not concurrently be members of the Council of Ministers  The chairman of the Council of State was concurrently chairman of the National Defense Council (later the National Defense and Security Council) and commander-in-chief of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces  The Council of State supervised the works of other institutions, most notably the Council of Ministers, the Supreme People's Organ for Control and the People's Councils at all levels  It also presided over the elections of the National Assembly  The office of Chairman of the Council of State, the head of state, was abolished in the 1992 Constitution and replaced by the office of President 
The importance of the president has not remained constant throughout Vietnamese history  For instance, while Hồ Chí Minh was ranked as first member of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body in Vietnam, his successor, Tôn Đức Thắng, was a symbolic figure with little power  The post of head of state was strengthened in the 1980 Constitution by the appointment of Trường Chinh who was, by order of precedence, the second-highest-ranking member in the Politburo, behind Lê Duẩn  The office of president retained the second highest rank in the Politburo order of precedence until Nguyễn Minh Triết was appointed in 2006; he ranked fourth in the Politburo hierarchy  The Politburo elected in the aftermath of the 11th National Party Congress (held in January 2011) by the Central Committee elected Trương Tấn Sang as the first-ranking member of the Politburo  This was the first time in Vietnamese history where the highest-ranking member of the Politburo does not hold post of either general secretary or chairman (was in existence from 1951 to 1969) of the party  Since Trương Tấn Sang is first-ranked member of the Politburo, he is the body's unofficial head  Politburo meetings are held regularly; decisions within the Politburo are made through collective decision-making, and policies are only enacted if a majority of Politburo members supports them 

Term of office
The president is selected for a term of office of five years  The term of office of the incumbent president continues until the president-elect takes office
On assuming office, the president takes the following oath before the parliament:

In my capacity as President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, I swear complete allegiance to the country, people, and constitution; to fulfill the tasks assigned by the State, and people

Duties, powers and responsibilities
The president is the head of state of Vietnam, and his main priority is to represent Vietnam internally and externally  The officeholder is elected by the National Assembly of Vietnam, is responsible to it and reports to it  The tenure of the president is five years, the same as that of the National Assembly  The president continues to serve in his functions until the National Assembly elects a successor  The president has the following executive and legislative powers:

To promulgate laws, decree-laws and the Constitution,
To suspend the implementation or abrogation of the documents of the prime minister or the deputy prime minister which contravene the Constitution and the Laws
To act as the country's commander-in-chief and holds the office of Chairman of the National Defense and Security Council of Vietnam,
To convene meetings of the National Defense and Security Council of Vietnam,
The president shall take measures to protect the sovereignty of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam its independence and state integrity, and ensure concerted functioning and interaction of all bodies of state power,
To propose to the National Assembly the election or dismissal from office of the vice president, the prime minister, the Chief justice of the Supreme People's Court and the head of the Supreme People's Office of Supervision and Control,
The president has the right to preside over meetings of the Government of Vietnam,
To appoint or dismiss officials, staff and employees of the Office of the President,
To appoint or dismiss deputy prime ministers, ministers and other members of the government,
To proclaim a state of war or amnesty,
On the basis of a Standing Committee resolution, the president can order a general or partial mobilisation, or can proclaim a state of emergency nationwide or in a particular region,
To propose that the Standing Committee review its decree-laws and resolutions on matters stipulated in Points 8 and 9, Article 91, within the space of ten days following their adoption; if those decree-laws and resolutions are again passed by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly with the country's president dissenting, the latter shall report the matter to the National Assembly for it to decide the issue at its nearest session,
To appoint or dismiss the deputy Chief justice and judges of the Supreme People's Court and the Deputy Director of the Supreme People's Office of Supervision and Control,
To appoint or dismiss the chief of general staff, vice chief of general staff, chief of the General Department of Politics and the vice chief of the General Political Department
To confer titles and ranks on senior officers of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces and bestows "diplomatic titles and ranks, and other State titles and ranks; to confer medals, badges and State honours and distinctions",
To appoint and recall ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary, and receive foreign ambassadors extraordinary and plenipotentiary, to negotiate and sign international agreements on behalf of the Socialist Republic with the heads of other states; he can approve or join international agreements, except in cases where a decision by the National Assembly is necessary,
To grant Vietnamese nationality, release from Vietnamese nationality, or deprive of Vietnamese nationality,
To hold Head of Steering Committee of the Central Judicial Reform,
To supervise the detection and handles all corrupt behaviors,
To hold Director of the Economic Council The National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) is composed of the president, the prime minister and other members  The members of the NDSC are proposed by the president and approved by the National Assembly  NDSC members do not need to be members of the National Assembly  The decision-making process of the NDSC is that of a collective leadership  Among its powers is the right to mobilise all forces in the name of national defense, and in case of war the National Assembly can entrust the NDSC with special duties and powers 

Succession
According to Article 93 of the Constitution of Vietnam (2013):
"When the President is incapacitated from work over a long period of time, the Vice President shall succeed as acting President  In case of vacancy of the Presidency, the Vice President shall serve as acting President until a new President is elected by the National Assembly "

See also
List of presidents of Vietnam
List of spouses of Vietnamese presidents
Vice President of Vietnam
Prime Minister of Vietnam
Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam
Council for National Defense and Security (Vietnam)
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam
List of central officeholders in the Communist Party of Vietnam
Air transports of heads of state and government
Context 3: Passage 1:
James Hill (British Army officer)
Brigadier Stanley James Ledger Hill,  (14 March 1911 – 16 March 2006) was a British Army officer, who served as commander of the 3rd Parachute Brigade, part of the 6th Airborne Division, during the Second World War 
Born in Bath, Somerset, in 1911, Hill was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst before joining the British Army in 1931 and being commissioned into the Royal Fusiliers  He commanded a platoon for a short period, and was then attached to the command post of Field Marshal Lord Gort during the Battle of France in May 1940, where he oversaw the evacuation of Brussels as well as the beach at De Panne during the evacuation of Dunkirk  After a brief period of time in the Irish Free State, he volunteered for parachute training and joined the 1st Parachute Battalion, and was its commanding officer when its parent formation, the 1st Parachute Brigade, was deployed to North Africa 
Hill commanded the battalion during its first airborne operation in North Africa, dropping near the towns of Souk el-Arba and Béja, in Tunisia  It secured Beja and then sent out patrols to harass German troops, ambushing a convoy and inflicting numerous German casualties, and defended a bridge at Medjez el Bab, although it was eventually forced to retreat  Hill was wounded during an attack by the battalion on Gue Hill, in which he attempted to capture three Italian tanks using his revolver; the crews of two were successfully subdued without incident, but the third opened fire and hit Hill in the chest several times  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the French Legion of Honour for his service in North Africa and then evacuated back to England  There he took command of the 3rd Parachute Brigade in the newly formed 6th Airborne Division, and jumped with the brigade during Operation Tonga, the British airborne landings in Normandy on the night of 5/6 June 1944  After nearly being killed on D-Day, by an aircraft strafing his position, Hill commanded the brigade throughout the rest of the time it was in Normandy, once leading a counter-attack during a German assault, later being awarded the first Bar to his DSO 
After advancing to the Seine, the 6th Airborne Division was withdrawn to England in September 1944, but briefly served in the Ardennes in December during the Battle of the Bulge  Hill then commanded 3rd Parachute Brigade during Operation Varsity, the Allied airborne assault over the River Rhine, where he was nearly killed by a glider containing his own personal Jeep  He then commandeered a motorcycle and rode alongside the brigade as the 6th Airborne Division advanced from the Rhine to the River Elbe, at the end of which he was awarded a second Bar to his DSO as well as the American Silver Star  After the war, he was briefly military governor of Copenhagen, for which he was awarded the King Haakon VII Liberty Cross, and also raised and commanded the 4th Parachute Brigade (Territorial Army)  Retiring from the British Army in 1949, he became involved in a number of charities and businesses  James Hill died on 16 March 2006, aged 95 

Early life
Hill was born on 14 March 1911, in Bath, Somerset, the son of Major General Walter Hill  He was educated at Marlborough College, where he was the head of the college's Officer Training Corps, and then attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; there he won the Sword of Honour and became captain of athletics  He joined the British Army in 1931, being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant into the Royal Fusiliers (City of London regiment), the regiment which his father commanded  He ran the regimental athletic and boxing associations during his service with the regiment, and in 1936 transferred to the Supplementary Reserve in order to marry his first wife, Denys Gunter-Jones  For the next three years he worked as part of his family's ferry company 

Second World War
When the Second World War began in September 1939, Hill was recalled to his regiment and given command of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers' advance party when the battalion left for France during the same month  The battalion was assigned to the 12th Infantry Brigade, part of the 4th Infantry Division  He then commanded a platoon for several months, when the battalion was stationed along the Maginot Line, before being promoted to the rank of Captain in January 1940 and joining the staff at Allied Headquarters  The Battle of France began in May 1940, by which time Hill was attached to the command post of Field Marshal Lord Gort; during this period he was involved in planning the evacuation of the civilian population of Brussels, and also carried Gort's dispatches to Calais ordering the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF)  At the end of the campaign, he took command of the evacuation of the beach at La Panne, and was on the last destroyer to leave Dunkirk  For these actions, he was awarded the Military Cross  On his return to Britain, he was promoted to Major and travelled to Dublin in the Irish Free State, where he planned for the evacuation of British citizens from the city should German forces land there  When this task was completed, he volunteered for the fledgling Parachute Regiment, part of the British Army's growing airborne forces, and undertook parachute training; when the 1st Parachute Battalion was formed on 15 August 1941, he was appointed as its second-in-command The battalion was part of 1st Parachute Brigade, which by mid-1942 had been expanded into 1st Airborne Division under the command of Major-General F A M  Browning  In July 1942 the 1st Parachute Battalion was selected to participate in the Dieppe Raid, and got as far as being loaded onto transport aircraft before poor weather cancelled the operation; when the raid was planned for a second time the parachute battalion was removed because their deployment was too dependent on there being good weather on the day of the raid  In mid September, as 1st Airborne Division was coming close to reaching full strength, Browning was informed that Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa, would take place in November  After being informed that an American airborne unit, the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was to be used during the invasion, Browning successfully advocated for the 1st Parachute Brigade to also be included  He argued that a larger airborne force should be utilised during the invasion, as the large distances and comparatively light opposition would provide a number of opportunities for airborne operations  The War Office and Commander in Chief, Home Forces were won over by the argument, and agreed to detach the brigade from 1st Airborne Division and place it under the command of General Dwight D  Eisenhower, who would command all Allied troops participating in the invasion  After it had been brought to full operational strength, partly by cross posting personnel from the newly formed 2nd Parachute Brigade, and had been provided with sufficient equipment and resources, the brigade departed for North Africa at the beginning of November 1942 

North Africa
As an insufficient number of transport aircraft were allocated to the brigade, it was only possible to transport the 3rd Parachute Battalion by air  The rest of the brigade arrived at Algiers on 12 November, with some of its stores arriving slightly later  By the evening, reconnaissance parties had travelled to the airfield at Maison Blanche, with the remainder of the brigade following on the morning of 13 November; it was quartered in Maison Blanche, Maison Carree and Rouiba  After several ambitious airborne operations were planned but then cancelled by British First Army, on 14 November it directed that a single parachute battalion would be dropped the next day near Souk el-Arba and Béja; the battalion was to contact French forces at Beja to ascertain whether they would remain neutral, or support the Allies; secure and guard the cross roads and airfield at Soul el Arba; and patrol eastwards to harass German forces  1st Parachute Battalion was selected for the task, to which Hill objected  The battalion had been forced to unload the vessel carrying its supplies and equipment itself, and had also to arrange its own transportation to Maison Blanche as no drivers were provided at Algiers; when it had arrived at Maison Blanche, it had been subjected to several Luftwaffe air raids that targeted the airfield  Hill argued that as a result his men were exhausted, and he did not believe all of the battalion's equipment could be sorted out within twenty four hours; as such he asked for the operation to be postponed for a short period, but this was denied 
Hill faced further problems as he planned for the operation  The American pilots of the Dakota transport aircraft that would transport the battalion were inexperienced and had never conducted a parachute drop before, and there was no time for any training or exercises  There were also no photos of the airfield or the surrounding areas, and only a single, small scale map available for navigation  To ensure that the aircraft found the drop zone and delivered the battalion accurately, Hill sat in the cockpit of the leading Dakota and assisted the pilot  The Dakotas were escorted by four American P-38 Lightning fighters, which engaged and drove off two roving German fighters, but as the Dakotas approached the Tunisian border they encountered thick clouds and were forced to turn back, landing at Maison Blanche at 11:00  It was decided that the battalion would conduct the operation the next day, which allowed the paratroopers to rest for a night  1st Parachute Battalion took off on the morning of 16 November, and enjoyed excellent weather that allowed the transport aircraft to drop the battalion accurately around the airfield at Souk el Arba  Most of the paratroopers landed successfully, but one man was killed when his rigging line twisted around his neck mid drop, throttling him; one officer broke his leg on landing, and four men were wounded when a Sten gun was accidentally fired  The battalion's second in command, Major Alastair Pearson, remained at the airfield with a small detachment that collected the airborne equipment and supervised the burial of the casualty Meanwhile, Hill led the rest of the battalion, approximately 525 strong, in some commandeered trucks towards the town of Béja, an important road and railway centre approximately forty miles from the airfield  The battalion arrived at approximately 18:00 and was welcomed by the local French garrison, 3,000 strong, which Hill persuaded to cooperate with the paratroopers; in order to give the garrison and any German observers the impression that he possessed a larger force than he actually did, Hill arranged for the battalion to march through the town several times, wearing different headgear and holding different equipment each time  A short time after the battalion entered Béja, German aircraft arrived and bombed the town, although they caused little damage and no casualties  The next day, 'S' Company was sent with a detachment of engineers to the village of Sidi N'Sir, about twenty miles away; they were to contact the local French forces, believed to be pro British, and harass German forces  The detachment found the village and made contact with the French, who allowed them to pass through towards the town of Mateur; by nightfall the force had not reached the town, and decided to encamp for the night  At dawn a German convoy of armoured cars passed the detachment, and it was decided to set an ambush for the convoy if it returned, with anti-tank mines being laid on the road and a mortar and Bren guns being set up in concealed positions  When the convoy returned at approximately 10:00 the leading vehicle struck a mine and exploded, blocking the road, and the other vehicles were disabled with mortar fire, Gammon bombs and the remaining anti tank mines  A number of Germans were killed and the rest taken prisoner, with two paratroopers being slightly wounded  The detachment returned to Béja with prisoners and several slightly damaged armoured cars  After the success of the ambush, Hill sent a second patrol to harass local German forces, but it was withdrawn after it encountered a larger German force that inflicted several British casualties; Béja was also bombed by Stuka divebombers, inflicting civilian casualties and destroying a number of houses 
On 19 November, Hill visited the commanding officer of the French forces guarding a vital bridge at Medjez el Bab, and warned him that any attempt by German forces to cross the bridge would be opposed by the battalion  Hill attached 'R' Company to the French forces to ensure the bridge was not captured  German forces soon arrived at the bridge, and their commanding officer demanded that they be allowed to take control of the bridge and cross it to attack the British positions  The French rejected the German demands, and in conjunction with 'R' Company repelled subsequent German attacks that lasted several hours  The battalion was reinforced by the U S  175th Field Artillery Battalion and elements of the Derbyshire Yeomanry, but, despite fierce resistance, the German forces proved to be too strong, and by 04:30 on 20 November the Allied forces had yielded the bridge and the surrounding area to the Germans  Two days later, Hill received information that a strong Italian force, which included a number of tanks, was stationed at Gue Hill  Hill decided to attack the force and attempt to disable the tanks, and the following night moved the battalion, less a small guard detachment that remained at Béja, to Sidi N'Sir where it linked up with a force of French Senegalese infantry  Hill decided that the battalion's section of 3 inch mortars would cover 'R' and 'S' Companies as they advanced up Gue Hill and attacked the Italian force, while a small force of sappers would mine the road at the rear of the hill to ensure the Italian tanks could not retreat The battalion arrived at the hill without incident and began to prepare for the attack; however, just prior to the beginning of the attack there were several loud explosions from the rear of the hill  The anti tank grenades carried by the sappers had accidentally detonated, killing all but two of them  The battalion lost the element of surprise, and Hill immediately ordered the two companies to advance up the hill  The force reached the top and engaged a mixed force of German and Italian soldiers, who were assisted by three light tanks  Hill drew his revolver, and with his adjutant and a small group of paratroopers advanced on the tanks, firing shots through their observation ports in an attempt to persuade the crews to surrender  This tactic worked on two tanks, but upon reaching the third tank Hill and his men were fired upon by the tank's crew; Hill was shot three times in the chest and his adjutant wounded, although the tank crew were swiftly dispatched with small arms fire  Hill survived because of prompt medical treatment, and was replaced as commander of the battalion by Major Pearson, who supervised the routing of the rest of the German and Italian soldiers 

Normandy
After his injuries were treated, Hill was evacuated to a hospital in North Africa to recover; although forbidden to do so, he often exercised by climbing out of the window of his hospital ward at night  For his actions in North Africa, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO), which "paid tribute to the brilliant handling of his force and his complete disregard of personal danger," as well as the French Légion d'honneur  By February 1943 he had recovered from his injuries, and was flown back to England where he met up with Brigadier Gerald W  Lathbury, commander of the newly raised 3rd Parachute Brigade  The War Office had authorised the raising of the brigade on 5 November 1942, comprising the 7th, 8th and 9th Parachute Battalions, all converted infantry battalions  The 9th Parachute Battalion was in need of a commanding officer and Lathbury offered the job to Hill, who accepted  His first action was to send the entire unit on a forced march, at the end of which he announced that the battalion would "work a six and a half day week" with Sunday afternoons off, until it was well-trained and fit  The 3rd Parachute Brigade was initially attached to the 1st Airborne Division, but in April 1943 Lathbury was given command of 1st Parachute Brigade, which departed with 1st Airborne Division at the end of April for the Mediterranean theatre and Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily  The 3rd Parachute Brigade was detached from the division in March and remained in England, and on 23 April it was transferred into the newly formed 6th Airborne Division with Hill as the brigade's new commander  On 11 August, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was attached to the 3rd Parachute Brigade; although meant to be assigned to the newly formed 5th Parachute Brigade, also attached to the 6th Airborne Division, it instead replaced the 7th Parachute Battalion, which was transferred to the new parachute brigade 
The 6th Airborne Division, under the command of Major-General Richard Nelson Gale, was fully mobilised by late December 1943, with orders to prepare for airborne operations to be conducted during mid-1944  The division's first airborne operation would also be the first time it saw combat, conducting Operation Tonga, the British airborne landings in Normandy on the night of 5/6 June, D-Day  It was tasked with guarding the left flank of the British amphibious landings by securing the area east of the city of Caen, capturing a number of bridges that spanned several rivers and canals, and then preventing any Axis forces from advancing on the British beaches  The 3rd Parachute Brigade was given several tasks to accomplish  The 9th Parachute Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Terence Otway, was to assault and destroy the Merville Gun Battery, as well as capturing high ground and setting up roadblocks  The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was to destroy two bridges, and the 8th Parachute Battalion had the task of destroying three bridges  When the operation began, the brigade suffered from a combination of poor navigation by the pilots of their C-47 Dakota transport aircraft, heavy cloud cover and incorrectly marked drop zones, which led to all of its units being scattered over a wide area; Hill himself was dropped with several sticks from the 1st Canadian and 9th Parachute Battalions near the River Dives  He landed in a submerged river rank approximately half a mile from Cabourg, and was forced to wade through four feet of water and a number of flooded irrigation ditches before reaching dry land; the same flooded areas claimed the lives of a number of paratroopers from his brigade 
Collecting up a number of his men, he headed for the town of Sallenelles, where he hoped to find out how the 9th Parachute Battalion had fared assaulting the Merville Battery  En route, however, he and his party were strafed by low-flying German aircraft, forcing the paratroopers to dive for cover; when the aircraft had departed Hill stood up again, finding that he had been wounded in the buttocks and the officer next to him had been killed  Most of the other men had either been killed or wounded during the attack, leaving only himself and the commander of his headquarters defence platoon; once first aid had been administered to the wounded, Hill continued on and finally managed reach Ranville, where the headquarters of the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major-General Gale, had been set up  After being informed by Gale that his brigade had successfully completed its objectives, Hill had his wound tended to, and then travelled to his own headquarters; there he found Lieutenant Colonel Pearson in temporary command, who informed him that many the brigade's staff had been killed during the drop  By 00:00 on the night of 6/7 June, the entire division was fully deployed on the eastern flank of the invasion beaches  The 3rd Parachute Brigade was holding a 4-mile (6 4 km) front, with the 9th Parachute Battalion at Le Plein, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion at Les Mesneil and the 8th Parachute Battalion in the southern part of the Bois de Bavent For the rest of its time in Normandy the division acted in an infantry role  From 7 June until 16 August, it first consolidated and then expanded its bridgehead  The 3rd Parachute Brigade was responsible for a section of front around the Chateau Saint Come and a nearby manor, with the latter being used as the brigade's primary defensive position  The brigade was positioned next to the 1st Special Service Brigade, and from 7 June onwards German pressure rapidly increased against both brigade's positions, with a number of attacks being repelled between then and 10 June  On 10 June the decision was taken to expand the bridgehead to the east of the River Orne, with the 6th Airborne Division tasked with achieving this; however, it was deemed not to be strong enough, and the 5th Battalion, Black Watch was placed under the 3rd Parachute Brigade's command; the battalion launched an attack on the town of Breville on 11 June, but was met with extremely heavy resistance and was repulsed after suffering a number of casualties  The next day 3rd Parachute Brigade's entire front was subjected to fierce artillery bombardment and assaults by German tanks and infantry, with the Germans particularly focusing on the positions held by 9th Parachute Battalion  Both the 9th Parachute Battalion and the remnants of the 5th Black Watch defended the Chateau Saint Come but were gradually forced to retreat  Lieutenant Colonel Otway informed brigade headquarters, some 400 metres (1,300 ft) away, that his battalion would be unable to hold its ground for much longer; upon hearing this message, Brigadier Hill gathered together forty paratroopers from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and led a counter-attack that forced the German troops to withdraw German attempts to breach the 9th Parachute Battalion's positions did not end until 12 June, and Hill stated that the period 7–12 June were "five of the toughest days fighting I saw in five years of war " It was during this period that Hill was awarded the first Bar to his Distinguished Service Order, after supervising an assault by 12th Parachute Battalion on the town of Breville; the town dominated a long ridge near the Allied bridgehead, from which the German 346th Infantry Division launched repeated attacks  From then on until mid-August the division remained in static positions, holding the left flank of the Allied bridgehead and conducting vigorous patrolling  Finally, on 7 August the division was ordered to prepare to move over to the offensive, and on the night of 16/17 August it began to advance against stiff German opposition, its ultimate objective being the mouth of the River Seine (see 6th Airborne Division advance to the River Seine)  Hill's 3rd Parachute Brigade led the division's advance, being held up until nightfall at the village of Goustranville, but then securing several bridges and allowing the 5th Parachute Brigade to pass through its positions and continue the division's advance  The brigade remained around the Dives canal for several days, and then on 21 August it advanced towards Pont L'Eveque, but was stalled by German infantry and armour near Annebault until 8th Parachute Battalion secured the village  Fighting continued to be fierce, but by 24 August the entire division had advanced across the River Touques  After another three days of reorganising and patrolling, the division's time in Normandy came to an end; in nine days it had advanced 45 miles, captured 400 square miles (1,000 km2) of occupied territory and taken prisoner over 1,000 German soldiers  Its casualties for the period were 4,457, of which 821 would be killed, 2,709 wounded and 927 missing  It was finally withdrawn from the frontline in the last days of August, and embarked for England at the beginning of September 

Ardennes
On 16 December 1944, the Germans launched a huge offensive in the Ardennes forest, with the German objective to split British and American forces apart and capture the port of Antwerp, an important logistical base for the Allies  The initial assaults were extremely successful, creating a salient some fifty miles wide and forty-five miles deep, and by 23 December German units were advancing towards Dinant  American resistance was fierce, however, and blunted German advances in several areas, particularly the U S  101st Airborne Division around the town of Bastogne  By Christmas Day the offensive had been halted and contained, and an Allied counter-offensive began  Although the majority of the troops committed belonged to the American First and Third Armies, British XXX Corps also participated, with the British 6th Airborne Division as one of its leading divisions  The division had been in England since the beginning of September, and had been due to go on Christmas leave only days before the counter-offensive began; however, it was quickly transported to the Ardennes, arriving on the night of 24 December  By 26 December the 6th Airborne Division, now commanded by Major-General Eric Bols, had positioned itself between the towns of Dinant and Namur, and on 29 December it advanced against the German salient, with the 3rd Parachute Brigade, under James Hill, occupying an area around Rochefort When the German offensive had begun, Hill had been in hospital, undergoing reconstructive plastic surgery; this meant that he was unable to join the 3rd Parachute Brigade for two days  When he had recovered, however, he and his batman were flown to the Ardennes and he was able to rejoin the brigade  The 5th Parachute Brigade launched several attacks against German positions in the village of Bure, which resulted in heavy British casualties, and both brigades conducted a large number of offensive patrols  The 3rd Parachute Brigade did not see any action, as those German units occupying positions opposite to it withdrew without fighting  By the end of January, however, the division was transferred back to the Netherlands and set up new positions along the Maas river, where it conducted more patrolling against elements of the German 7th Parachute Division, which held positions on the other side of the Maas  These operations came to an end in late February, when the 6th Airborne Division was withdrawn back to England to prepare for a major airborne operation in March 

Rhine
On 24 March 1945 Operation Varsity began, an airborne operation to aid in the establishment of a bridgehead on the east bank of the River Rhine which involved the British 6th Airborne Division and the U S  17th Airborne Division, under Major General William Miley  Varsity was the airborne component of Operation Plunder, in which the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C  Dempsey, and the U S  Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William Simpson, crossed the Rhine at Rees, Wesel, and an area south of the Lippe Canal  Both divisions would be dropped near the town of Hamminkeln, and were tasked with a number of objectives: they were to seize the Diersfordter Wald, a forest that overlooked the Rhine, including a road linking several towns together; several bridges over a smaller waterway, the River Issel, were to be seized to facilitate the advance; and the town of Hamminkeln was to be captured  The 6th Airborne Division was specifically tasked with securing the northern portion of the airborne bridgehead, including Hamminkeln, a section of high ground to the east of Bergen, and several bridges over the River Issel  Hill's 3rd Parachute Brigade was to drop at the north-eastern corner of the Diersfordterwald forest and clear the western portion of the forest  It would then seize a hill known as the Schneppenberg, secure a road junction near Bergen and eventually link up with the 5th Parachute Brigade 
The 3rd Parachute Brigade dropped nine minutes later than planned, but otherwise landed accurately on drop zone 'A'  Hill landed near to the Diersfordterwald forest, which was occupied by German soldiers "who are switched-on people," killing a number of paratroopers whose parachutes became tangled up in the trees  His brigade headquarters was positioned by a copse which was supposed to have been immediately cleared, but when he arrived it was still occupied by German troops; Hill immediately ordered a company commander of the 8th Parachute Battalion to clear the copse  The officer did so, but was killed in the process  Hill then moved his headquarters to the copse, but was then nearly killed by an approaching glider which barely managed to pull up in time, landing in the trees above him; upon investigation, Hill discovered that it contained his batman and personal Jeep, which took some time to lower down safely  The brigade suffered a number of casualties as it engaged the German forces in the Diersfordter Wald, but by 11:00 hours the drop zone was all but completely clear of enemy forces and all battalions of the brigade had formed up  The key town of Schnappenberg was captured by the 9th Parachute Battalion in conjunction with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, the latter unit having lost its commanding officer to German small-arms fire only moments after he had landed  Despite taking casualties the brigade cleared the area of German forces, and by 13:45 Hill could report that the brigade had secured all of its objectives 
With Varsity a success, the 6th Airborne Division was ordered by Major General Matthew Ridgway, commander of U S  XVIII Airborne Corps, to advance eastwards  It was supported by the 6th Guards Tank Brigade, and many of the airborne troops used unconventional transport during the advance, including captured German staff cars, prams and even horses  Hill requisitioned a motorcycle for his batman and travelled alongside the 3rd Parachute Brigade as it advanced; at one point his batman stopped the motorcycle and relieved a captured German colonel of his binoculars before driving off again  Hill disapproved of battlefield looting and admonished his batman, although eventually relented by stating "If you can get me a pair [as well], you can keep them!" At midnight, 27/28 March the division came under the control of British VIII Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General Evelyn Barker, and became part of the general Allied advance through Germany towards the Baltic Sea, with the 3rd Parachute Brigade as the division's leading unit  German resistance continued to be heavy, but the division managed to advance at a rapid pace despite this, with the brigade at one point advancing fifteen miles in twenty-four hours, with eighteen of those being spent in combat  By early April the 6th Airborne reached the River Weser, with the brigade approaching it near the town of Minden, accompanied by armoured support; as it did so, the brigade found itself moving parallel to several German tanks, with Hill sitting on the rear of one of the British tanks  Both sides opened fire, but did little damage, the two German tanks managing to outpace the brigade The brigade continued its fast pace of advance, with Hill continuing to ride pillion on his motorcycle, and by 23 April it had reached the River Elbe, having advanced 103 miles in fourteen days; the division had captured more than 19,000 prisoners during this period  After crossing the Elbe, the division once again came under the command of U S  XVIII Airborne Corps, with General Ridgway informing Major General Bols that it was vital the division reach the port of Wismar before the approaching Russian Army did, to ensure that Denmark was not occupied by the Soviet Union  Although the 5th Parachute Brigade was ordered to lead the division's advance, Hill was determined to reach Wismar first; after an extremely rapid advance he succeeded, with troops from the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion being the first to enter Wismar, beating an advancing Russian tank column by only a few miles  A few days later, on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered and the war in Europe came to an end  Hill was awarded a second Bar to his DSO for his command of the 3rd Parachute Brigade during its advance from the Rhine to the Elbe, as well as the American Silver Star 

Post-war career
In May 1945 Hill served as military governor of Copenhagen, for which he was awarded the King Haakon VII Liberty Cross, and then assumed command of the 1st Parachute Brigade and oversaw its demobilisation  He retired from the British Army in July 1945, although he continued to serve as an officer in the Territorial Army, raising the 4th Parachute Brigade (Territorial Army) in 1947 and serving as its commanding officer until 1949  After standing down as commander of the brigade, Hill served on the board of a number of companies, including Lloyds Bank, the Associated Coal and Wharf Companies, and Powell Duffryn of Canada  Hill was an avid birdwatcher, with a particular claim to fame for being only the second person to discover a cuckoo's egg in the nest of a whinchat  He also helped to set up the Parachute Regiment Association and the Airborne Forces Security fund, acting as a trustee of the latter organisation for thirty years and chairman for five years  Hill married for a second time, wedding Joan Patricia Haywood in 1986  On 6 June 2004 he attended the 60th Anniversary of the Normandy landings, and a bronze statue of him was unveiled at Le Mesnil crossroads by Charles, Prince of Wales, Colonel-in-Chief of The Parachute Regiment  He died on 16 March 2006, two days after his 95th birthday  He is survived by his second wife and a daughter from the first marriage, Gillian Bridget Sanda 
Passage 2:
John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort
Field Marshal John Standish Surtees Prendergast Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort,  (10 July 1886 – 31 March 1946) was a senior British Army officer  As a young officer during the First World War, he was decorated with the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Canal du Nord  During the 1930s he served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (the professional head of the British Army)  He is best known for commanding the British Expeditionary Force that was sent to France in the first year of the Second World War, only to be evacuated from Dunkirk the following year  Gort later served as Governor of Gibraltar and Malta, and High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan 

Early life and family
Vereker was born in London  His mother was Eleanor, Viscountess Gort née Surtees (1857–1933; later Eleanor Benson), who was a daughter of the writer Robert Smith Surtees  Vereker's father was John Gage Prendergast Vereker, 5th Viscount Gort (1849–1902) J  S  S  P  Vereker grew up in County Durham and the Isle of Wight  He was educated at Malvern Link Preparatory School, Harrow School, 
and entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in January 1904  As Viscount Gort, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards on 16 August 1905, and promoted to lieutenant on 1 April 1907 In November 1908, Gort visited his uncle, Jeffrey Edward Prendergast Vereker, a retired British army major, who was living in Canada, at Kenora, Ontario  During a moose hunting trip, Gort slipped off a large boulder, causing his rifle to discharge; the bullet injured a local guide, William Prettie, who later died of his wound in Winnipeg  Gort returned immediately to England  While studying at Trinity College, Cambridge he was initiated into Isaac Newton University Lodge Gort commanded the detachment of Grenadier Guards that bore the coffin at the funeral of King Edward VII in May 1910  He was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order for his services in that role On 22 February 1911, Gort married Corinna Katherine Vereker, his second cousin; the couple had two sons and a daughter, before divorcing (1925)  Their elder son, Charles Standish Vereker, was born on 23 February 1912, and served as a lieutenant with the Grenadier Guards, before committing suicide (26 February 1941)  A second son, Jocelyn Cecil Vereker, was born on 27 July 1913, but died before his second birthday  Gort's daughter, Jacqueline Corinne Yvonne Vereker, who was born on 20 October 1914, married (June 1940) The Honourable William Sidney, later the 1st Viscount De L'Isle 

First World War
On 5 August 1914, Gort was promoted to captain  He went to France with the British Expeditionary Force and fought on the Western Front, taking part in the retreat from Mons in August 1914  He became a staff officer with the First Army in December 1914 and then became Brigade Major of the 4th (Guards) Brigade in April 1915  He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1915  Promoted to the brevet rank of major in June 1916, he became a staff officer at the Headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force and fought at the Battle of the Somme throughout the autumn of 1916  He was given the acting rank of lieutenant-colonel in April 1917 on appointment as Commanding Officer of 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards and, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in June 1917, he led his battalion at the Battle of Passchendaele, earning a Bar to his DSO in September 1917  The bar's citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty  Although hit in two places in the shoulder by the bursting of a shell early in the day and in great pain, he refused to leave his battalion, and personally superintended the consolidation subsequent to a successful attack  He remained with them until 5 p m  on the following day, when he was ordered to come out and have his wounds dressed  His conduct set a very fine example of self-sacrifice, and was of great value in maintaining the high morale and offensive spirit of his battalion 
On 27 November 1918, sixteen days after the war came to an end, Gort was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, for his actions on 27 September 1918 at the Battle of the Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres, France Victoria Cross citation

Captain (Brevet Major, Acting Lieutenant-Colonel), 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards
Citation: For most conspicuous bravery, skilful leading and devotion to duty during the attack of the Guards Division on 27th September 1918, across the Canal du Nord, near Flesquieres, when in command of the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, the leading battalion of the 3rd Guards Brigade 
Under heavy artillery and machine-gun fire he led his battalion with great skill and determination to the "forming-up" ground, where very severe fire from artillery and machine guns was again encountered 
Although wounded, he quickly grasped the situation, directed a platoon to proceed down a sunken road to make a flanking attack, and, under terrific fire, went across open ground to obtain the assistance of a Tank, which he personally led and directed to the best possible advantage  While thus fearlessly exposing himself, he was again severely wounded by a shell  Notwithstanding considerable loss of blood, after lying on a stretcher for a while, he insisted on getting up and personally directing the further attack  By his magnificent example of devotion to duty and utter disregard of personal safety all ranks were inspired to exert themselves to the utmost, and the attack resulted in the capture of over 200 prisoners, two batteries of field guns and numerous machine guns  Lt -Col  Viscount Gort then proceeded to organise the defence of the captured position until he collapsed; even then he refused to leave the field until he had seen the "success signal" go up on the final objective 

The successful advance of the battalion was mainly due to the valour, devotion and leadership of this very gallant officer 
Subsequent to this he became known as "Tiger" Gort  He won a second Bar to his DSO in January 1919, with the citation reading:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in command of his battalion  He led his men up by night to relieve a battalion which had attacked and failed to reach its objective



ground_truth: Sonic Mania

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What actor was also a president that Richard Darman worked with when they were in office?

The following are given passages.
Context 4: Passage 1:
Kristof Konrad
Kristof Konrad (born Krzysztof Wojslaw, April 26, 1962) is a Polish-American film, television, theatre, and voice actor, acting coach, voice coach, movement specialist and the Alexander Technique teacher  For over twenty years, he has successfully worked in film and television in both the United States and Europe, working with directors such as Kenneth Branagh, Francis Lawrence, Ron Howard, and Roland Emmerich and working opposite actors such as Jennifer Lawrence, Robin Wright, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Garner, and many more  He currently resides in Los Angeles and works internationally 

Early life
Kristof Konrad (birth name Krzysztof Wojsław) was born on April 26, 1962, in Gizycko, Poland  His father, Mieczyslaw, was a working-class man, and his mother, Jadwiga, a school teacher  He studied to become an electrical engineer, but at the age of 23, he decided to pursue a career in acting  For the next two years (1985-1987), Konrad attended the Alexander Zelwerowicz National Dramatic Academy in Warsaw, Poland  While there, he studied and worked with theatre and film masters Jerzy Grotowski and Andrzej Wajda  Upon graduating, he moved to Rome, Italy, where he studied with Alessandro Fersen at The Fersen Studio until 1992 

Career
Acting
After studying and working in Europe for seven years, Konrad moved to Hollywood in 1992  For over twenty years, he has successfully worked in film and television in the United States and Europe  He began his film career with a role in Independence Day directed by Roland Emmerich, followed by roles in Hotel California, Angels & Demons, Chernobyl Diaries, and many more  Some of his television credits include: Scorpion, Zoo, Agents of S H I E L D , House of Cards, Scandal, Nikita, Alias, and many more Konrad appeared as Dimitri Ustinov, opposite Jennifer Lawrence, in the spy thriller Red Sparrow (2018), directed by Francis Lawrence and based on Jason Matthews' book of the same name  It follows Dominika Egorova (Lawrence), a Russian intelligence rookie who is assigned to seduce a CIA officer; she later falls in love with the officer and considers being a double agent Konrad will play Igor Zavarov in the upcoming Il ragazzo invisibile - Seconda generazione 

Movement specialist and acting coach
Early in his career, Konrad discovered the Alexander Technique while working in the U S  He was fascinated by its "effectiveness in improving the level of acting and helping one cope with the stresses of performing and everyday life " He spent three years training as an Alexander Technique teacher with Jean-Louis Rodrigue and many others at Alexander Training Institute of Los Angeles, where he also received his certification Konrad has taught for the Berlin International Film Festival, Verbier Festival & Academy in Switzerland, and the UBS Verbier Junior Orchestra  He teaches acting in Film and Alexander Technique Intensive Workshops in New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Berlin, Toronto, and Vancouver  He collaborates with Jean-Louis Rodrigue at the Larry Moss Studio, Howard Fine Acting Studio, UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies, Theatricum Botanicum, and Media Access Konrad worked with the cast of King Lear and The Seagull of The Royal Shakespeare Company; helped Sharon Lawrence to create Vivien Leigh in Orson's Shadow at the Pasadena Playhouse; worked with the cast of Electricidad at the Mark Taper Forum, and worked with the artists of Cirque du Soleil’s Ka on improving performance and preventing injuries Konrad coached Lymari Nadal in embodying Eva, the love interest of Denzel Washington in American Gangster 

Filmography (selection)
Film
Television
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (one episode, 1995) - Chip Off The Old Clark as Rebel Leader
High Incident (one episode, 1996) - Christmas Blues as Kronsky
JAG (one episode, 1997) -  Cowboys & Cossacks as Russian Communications Officer
Beverly Hills, 90210 (one episode, 1998) - The Fundamental Things Apply as Alex Veselic
Ryan Caulfield: Year One (one episode, 1999) - Sex and St  Michael as Lako
V I P  (one episode, 2001) - A I  Highrise as Vanderwall
Son of the Beach (one episode, 2001) - From Russia, with Johnson as Sergei
The Agency (one episode, 2001) - Deadline as Major
Alias (two episodes, 2002) - The Box: Part 1 and The Box: Part 2 as Endo
The District (one episode, 2004) - On Guard as Gregor Bukantz
E-Ring (one episode, 2006) - War Crimes as Ivan
Gilmore Girls (one episode, 2007) - I'm a Kayak, Hear Me Roar as Stefan
The Unit (one episode, 2007) - Bedfellows as Customer One
Raising the Bar (one episode, 2008) - Bagels and Locks as Andrei Markova
Burn Notice (one episode, 2009) - Friends Like These as Milovan Dragas
Gigantic (one episode, 2010) - Pilot: Part 2 as Gustav
Nikita (one episode, 2010) - 2: 2 0 as Mirko Dadich
Undercovers (one episode, 2010) - Crashed as Borz
Scandal (one episode, 2012) - Sweet Baby as Polish Ambassador
Intelligence (one episode, 2014) - The Grey Hat as Torbin Salvi
House of Cards (one episode, 2015) - Chapter 32 as Boris Litsky
Agents of S H I E L D  (one episode, 2016) - Parting Shot as General Androvich
Zoo (two episodes, 2016) - The Contingency & The Yellow Brick Road as Leonid Ivankov
Scorpion (one episode, 2017) – Episode #4 2 as Manager Anton Eksteritsky
Homecoming (two episodes, 2018) -Episode #1 2 and Episode 1 10 as Mr  Heidl
I Am the Night (one episode, 2019) - "Episode #1 6" as Rachmaninoff
FBI: Most Wanted (one episode, 2022) - A Man Without a Country as Aleksander Pavlishchev
Chicago Med (four episodes, 2023) as Pawel Wapniarski
Passage 2:
Justin Timberlake videography
American entertainer Justin Timberlake has released four video albums and has been featured in thirty-seven music videos, seventeen films, fifteen television shows, and six commercials  He achieved early fame when he appeared in the Disney Channel television series The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and actor Ryan Gosling  Timberlake rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the boy band NSYNC  In 2002, he launched his solo career and released his solo debut single "Like I Love You", the music video for which was directed by Bucky Chrome  Francis Lawrence directed the video for "Cry Me a River"  The video features Timberlake's character as he spies on a former lover, who according to the director portrays his former romantic interest Spears  At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, the video won the accolades for Best Male Video and Best Pop Video In 2005, Timberlake starred in the thriller Edison alongside Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey  The film received negative reviews from film critics and was a box office bomb  He then portrayed Frankie Ballenbacher in the crime drama Alpha Dog (2006); it received mixed responses from critics and attained box office success  The same year, Timberlake released his second studio album FutureSex/LoveSounds—four music videos for singles from the album were shot  Samuel Bayer directed the music video for "What Goes Around    Comes Around" (2007) in which American actress Scarlett Johansson plays Timberlake's love interest  From 2007 until 2009, he appeared in the music videos for his collaborations with other artists including 50 Cent ("Ayo Technology"), Madonna ("4 Minutes") and T I  ("Dead and Gone") 
Timberlake starred in the 2010 drama The Social Network, in which he portrayed Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook  The film received acclaim from critics and was a box office success  In 2011, he starred in the comedies Bad Teacher and Friends with Benefits alongside Cameron Diaz and Mila Kunis respectively  Both films were financial successes  The music videos for his songs "Mirrors" and "Suit & Tie" were released in 2013  They earned him a MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, respectively  Timberlake has also hosted Saturday Night Live five times, being both host and musical guest three times  In film, he released Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids and voiced Branch in Trolls (2016) as well as its sequel Trolls World Tour (2020) 

Music videos
As a performer
Guest appearances
Video albums
Filmography
Film
Television
Commercials
Notes
Passage 3:
Rich Lee
Richard "Rich" Lee is an American music video and commercial director  He has directed music videos for Eminem, Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5, The Black Eyed Peas, Norah Jones, Michael Bublé and The All-American Rejects  Rich Lee started his professional career as a sculptor and fabricator for Broadway shows in New York City  He later moved on to computer graphics and created 3-D previsualizations for big budget Hollywood feature films such as the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, I Am Legend, Minority Report and Constantine  From the encouragement of feature film directors he moved into directing music videos and commercials  He has directed commercials for brands like Fiat, Hyundai, Honda, Beats by Dre etc 

Videography
Television
NotesA  – Directed with Marc Webb 
B  – Skylar Grey does not appear in the music video 
C  – "Imma Be" and "Rock That Body" combined into one video 
D  - Video currently in production 
Passage 4:
What's So Different?
"What's So Different?" is a song by American R&B singer Ginuwine  It was co-written and produced by Timbaland for his second album 100% Ginuwine (1999)  The song is built around a sample of "Valleri" (1968) by American band The Monkees  Due to the inclusion of the sample, Thomas Boyce and Bobby Hart are also credited as songwriters  Released as the album's second single, "What's So Different?" reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart and entered the top twenty in New Zealand  It the United States, the song peaked at number three on the Rhythmic chart, also reaching number 21 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 

Lyrical content and music video
"What's So Different" lyrically describes the narrator questioning his lover who is cheating on her boyfriend to be with him  He claims that if she is cheating on another man to be with him, she may also cheat on him to be with someone else  The music video was directed by Francis Lawrence  "What's So Different" samples the Monkees' 1968 hit "Valleri" 

Track listing
Notes

^a  denotes additional producerSample credits

"What's So Different?" contains an interpolation of "Valleri" (1968) as performed by The Monkees 

Credits and personnel
Credits lifted from the liner notes of 100% Ginuwine 
Thomas Boyce – writer (sample)
Bobby Hart – writer (sample)
Ginuwine – vocals, writer
Timbaland – producer, writer

Charts
Passage 5:
Constantine (film)
Constantine is a 2005 American superhero horror film directed by Francis Lawrence in his directorial debut  Written by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello from a story by Brodbin, it is loosely based on the DC Comics/Vertigo Comics Hellblazer graphic novels  The film stars Keanu Reeves as John Constantine, a cynical exorcist with the ability to perceive and communicate with half-angels and half-demons in their true forms and to travel between Earth and Hell  Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin Rossdale, and Peter Stormare also feature 
Constantine was released theatrically in the United States on February 18, 2005  It grossed $230 9 million worldwide against a production budget between $70–100 million, but met with a mixed reception from film critics  In the following years, it has been considered as a cult film  In 2022, a sequel was announced and is currently in development 

Plot
In Mexico, a scavenger recovers the tip of the spear that pierced Jesus Christ from a ruined church and, after becoming possessed, takes it to Los Angeles  There, cynical occult expert John Constantine exorcises a demon from a young girl after witnessing its attempt to come through her to Earth, something that should be impossible because of a treaty between Heaven and Hell  Suffering from terminal lung cancer, Constantine meets with the half-breed angel Gabriel to request an extension to his life in exchange for his work deporting Hell's forces  Gabriel responds that performing good deeds for selfish reasons will not secure his way into Heaven 
Elsewhere, detective Angela Dodson is investigating the death of her twin sister Isabel who leaped from a psychiatric hospital roof  Angela refuses to believe her sister, a devout Catholic, would commit suicide and condemn herself to Hell  Watching security footage, Angela hears Isabel say "Constantine", and seeks out his assistance  He refuses to help until he witnesses demons pursuing Angela and fends them off  He uses a ritual to see Isabel in Hell and confirms she killed herself  Constantine tells Angela that he committed suicide as a teenager because he was traumatized by seeing supernatural creatures and, though he was revived, when he dies he is condemned to Hell 
At the morgue, Constantine's friend Father Hennesy discovers a symbol on Isabel's wrist but is killed by the half-breed demon Balthazar  Constantine and Angela discover Hennesy carved the symbol into his hand for them to find  Angela also finds a clue hidden in Isabel's hospital room concerning a chapter of Hell's bible  Before being killed by Balthazar, Constantine's ally Beeman tells the pair the symbol represents the antichrist Mammon, Lucifer's son, and the chapter prophesies him usurping his father and conquering the Earth, using a powerful psychic and divine assistance; the psychic, Isabel, killed herself to stop Mammon  Angela reveals she possessed powers like Isabel's but repressed them to avoid being deemed insane like her sister  Constantine helps Angela reawaken her powers by inducing a near-death experience, and she uses them to find Balthazar 
Constantine interrogates Balthazar and learns that the blood of Christ on the spear tip is Mammon's divine assistance, and Angela has been chosen as his new host  An unseen entity destroys Balthazar and abducts Angela who becomes possessed by Mammon  With the help of witch doctor Papa Midnite, Constantine induces visions to locate Angela at the psychiatric hospital  Alongside his driver and apprentice, Chas Kramer, Constantine arms himself and assaults the building, battling through hordes of demons to Angela  Constantine and Chas seemingly exorcise Mammon from her, but Chas is killed by the unseen force, revealed to be Gabriel  Resentful at God's favoritism for humanity and forgiveness for even the most wicked, Gabriel intends to unleash Hell on Earth so that those who survive will become truly "worthy" of His love  Gabriel tosses Constantine away and prepares to pierce Angela with the spear tip to unleash Mammon 
Desperate, Constantine commits suicide by slitting his wrists, knowing that Lucifer will personally come to collect him  Time pauses and Constantine convinces Lucifer to intervene and stop Mammon  Gabriel ineffectually attempts to smite Lucifer, revealing God has abandoned them, and Lucifer burns away Gabriel's wings before banishing Mammon to Hell  Lucifer offers to restore Constantine to life for his assistance, but he instead asks that Isabel be sent to Heaven  Lucifer releases Isabel, but Constantine begins ascending to Heaven for his selfless sacrifice  Infuriated, Lucifer restores Constantine to life and removes his cancer, believing that, in time, he will prove he belongs in Hell  Constantine punches the now-mortal Gabriel before leaving and entrusts Angela with securing the spear tip  In a post-credits scene, Constantine visits Chas's grave and witnesses Chas in an angelic form 

Cast
Keanu Reeves as John Constantine: A chain-smoking cynic with the ability to perceive the true visage of half-angels and half-demons on the human plane  John believes himself damned to Hell for attempting suicide—a mortal sin—and has terminal lung cancer 
Connor Dylan Wryn as young John Constantine
Quinn Buniel as child John Constantine
Rachel Weisz as Angela Dodson: A troubled LAPD detective investigating the suicide of her twin sister Isabel (also portrayed by Weisz) 
Weisz also portrays Mammon, the son of Lucifer who has no patience for his father's rule of Hell and uses Angela's body as a means of escaping to rule over Earth 
Shia LaBeouf as Chas Kramer: Constantine's driver and apprentice  Chas has a strong interest in the occult and helps Constantine whenever possible in order to gain knowledge and experience from him 
Tilda Swinton as Gabriel: A "half-breed" Archangel with a disdain for humanity who plots to free Mammon as a means to unleash Hell on the Earth 
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Father Hennessy: An insomniac, alcoholic priest with the ability to communicate with the dead  He wears a protective charm in order to "keep the voices out" 
Djimon Hounsou as Papa Midnite: A former witch-doctor who once fought against Hell  After swearing an oath of neutrality—unless one side should tip the balance of power—he opened a nightclub to serve as neutral meeting ground for both sides of the war between Heaven and Hell 
Gavin Rossdale as Balthazar: A "half-breed" demon with a special interest in, and personal history with, Constantine 
Peter Stormare as Lucifer: A fallen Archangel who is in a proxy war with God for the souls of all mankind and ruler of Hell, feared on Earth as Satan or The Devil  Lucifer loathes Constantine with such vigor that Constantine's soul is the only one he would ever come to personally collect 
Max Baker as Beeman: A friend of Constantine's with extensive knowledge of exotic occult materials and insects  He supplies Constantine with both holy objects and information 
Francis Guinan as Father Garret: A priest Angela talks to about getting Isabel a Catholic burial 
José Zúñiga as Det  Weiss: Angela's partner 
Jesse Ramirez as Manuel: A scavenger and treasure hunter who finds the Spear of Destiny in the ruins of a church in Mexico that grants various powers and places him in a trance-like state in which he travels to Los Angeles 
April Grace as Dr  Archer: Constantine's doctor 
Tanoai Reed as the bouncer at Midnite's club Additionally, Michelle Monaghan filmed several scenes as Ellie, a half-breed demon Constantine sleeps with and asks for information, who is based on a succubus of the same name in the Hellblazer comics  In the finished film, however, the role consists of two brief shots and one line of dialogue ("Holy water?") during Constantine's climactic confrontation with the group of half-breeds in the hospital  Director Francis Lawrence said Ellie's relationship with Constantine was cut to make him more of a lonely character 

Production
The character of John Constantine was introduced by comic book writer/creator Alan Moore in The Saga of Swamp Thing #37, released in June 1985  In 1988, the character was given his own comic book title, Hellblazer, published by DC Comics 
Producer Lauren Shuler Donner began developing the film in 1997  Paul Hunter was attached to direct in 1999, and he was replaced by Tarsem Singh in 2001  Warner Bros  hoped to begin filming in 2002 with Nicolas Cage in the lead role, but Singh dropped out, resulting in opposing lawsuits filed by himself and Warner Bros  Keanu Reeves became attached to the film in 2002  Alan Moore, the original creator of John Constantine, was disappointed by the previous adaptations of his comics From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and refused to be credited or associated with this film, asking that his royalties be distributed among the other creators of the character 
Constantine incorporated some elements of Garth Ennis's "Dangerous Habits" story arc from the comic (issues #41–46), and others, such as the inclusion of Papa Midnite, from the Original Sins trade paperback  The film's title was changed from Hellblazer to Constantine to avoid confusion with Clive Barker's Hellraiser films  In fact, the comic series was originally going to be titled Hellraiser, but was also retitled to avoid confusion with the first Hellraiser film, which was released a year before the debut of Hellblazer The film changed several aspects of the source material  For one, it was set in Los Angeles, rather than England, which director Francis Lawrence justified by claiming that the comic book was not exclusively set in London  Reeves played the role of John Constantine with his real-life American accent and black hair, while the character in the comics was drawn to resemble the blond musician Sting and came from Liverpool  For the film, Constantine was also given the psychic ability to see "half-breeds" as they truly are, and this led him to attempt suicide, causing his damnation, which, in the comics, was punishment for summoning a demon that killed a young girl  Additionally, the resolution of the lung cancer plotline in the film was amended so that Lucifer willingly saves the redeemed Constantine to give him a second chance at falling, rather than being tricked into doing so 
Director Lawrence decided to base the film's conception of Hell "on the geography of what's around us now"  He further explained:

That was actually a combination of me and the visual effects supervisor and the production designer sitting down and sort of coming up with the biological growth that's growing all over the cars and what that looks like and the color palette  And we started to look at the nuclear test films from the 1940s of the nuclear blasts and just decided that it would be great if the landscape was not only violent with these creatures, but also the atmosphere  So we decided that it was kind of an eternal nuclear blast except nothing ever really gets obliterated because it's eternal and it's constantly going 

Music
Soundtrack
Constantine: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on February 15, 2005  It is an orchestral compilation of songs from the film, performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony & The Hollywood Film Chorale and composed by Brian Tyler, the composer for films such as Eagle Eye and Fast & Furious, and Klaus Badelt  Two songs heard in the film, "Passive" by A Perfect Circle (heard as Constantine walks through Midnite's bar) and "Take Five" by The Dave Brubeck Quartet (heard on a record played by Constantine), were not included on the soundtrack 
The album was panned by Allmusic, who referred to it as "clichéd and religiously formulaic" 

Release
Theatrical
The original release date for the film was September 17, 2004, but was subsequently pushed back to February 2005  Although the film was intended to be rated PG-13, it received an R-rating from the MPAA, which Lawrence attributed to its religious overtones 

Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD in 2005  Warner Home Video intended to release the film on HD DVD on March 28, 2006, making it one of the earliest titles released on that media format, but, following delays to the launch of HD DVD, it actually debuted on June 6 the same year  It was released on Blu-ray Disc by Warner Home Video on October 14, 2008 

Reception
Box office
Constantine opened in 3,006 theaters in the United States on February 18, 2005, earning $29 8 million in its opening weekend and ranking second behind Hitch's second weekend  It ended its run on June 16, having grossed $76 million in the United States and Canada, and $154 9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $230 9 million, against a production budget of $70–100 million 

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on the reviews of 230 critics, and an average rating of 5 5/10; the site's consensus states: "Despite solid production values and an intriguing premise, Constantine lacks the focus of another spiritual shoot-em-up, The Matrix"  On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, it has a score of 50 out of 100 based on the reviews of 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews"  Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale Richard Corliss of Time magazine called the film "a one-of-a-kind hybrid: a theological noir action film"  He cited Keanu Reeves' ability to "retain his charisma in a weird-silly moment" as proof that he is a "movie star", and referred to Tilda Swinton as "immaculately decadent"  Corliss also praised the variety of camera placements employed by Francis Lawrence  He was, however, critical of the climax of the film, referring to it as "irrevocably goofy" 
Ella Taylor of LA Weekly wrote: "Constantine, which opts in the end for what I can only describe as a kind of supernatural humanism, is not without its spiritual satisfactions"  Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times said that "Keanu Reeves has no peer when it comes to playing these sort of messianic roles—he infuses them with a Zen blankness and serenity that somehow gets him through even the unlikeliest scenes with a quiet, unassuming dignity" Pete Vonder Haar of Film Threat gave the film three stars out of five, writing that "the film (barely) succeeds, thanks to impressive visuals, the idea of an uncaring God wagering with Satan for souls, and two immensely enjoyable scenes (one with Weisz, one with Stormare) in which Reeves actually plays his character as the cynical asshole he really is" Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News gave the film 2 out of 4 stars: "For all its spiritual angst, Constantine is about as silly as fantasies get"  Michael Sragow of The Baltimore Sun also gave the film 2 stars out of 4: "It all comes off as a case of filmmakers wanting to have their communion wafer and eat it, too"  Desson Thomson, a writer for The Washington Post, had similar sentiments of the film, specifically criticizing its differences from the comic book:

If you are a fan of the Hellblazer comic book series, on which this movie is based, you'll definitely need a distraction  The relation between Constantine and its source material is, at best, superfluous  The disparity starts with the original John Constantine (Reeves's character) being from Liverpool, England  Reeves from the city of John and Paul? As if 
Leonard Maltin's annual publication Movie Guide gave the film a BOMB rating, describing it as "dreary, to put it mildly" 
Film critic Roger Ebert gave it 1 5 out of 4 stars, panning the depiction of Hell ("a post-nuclear Los Angeles created by animators with a hangover"), the premise of the film itself ("you would think that God would be the New England Patriots of this contest, but apparently there is a chance that Satan could win"), plot holes, inconsistencies, and general actions depicted throughout the film  He was not particularly critical of the acting, only mentioning it by stating: "Reeves has a deliberately morose energy level in the movie, as befits one who has seen Hell, walks among half-demons, and is dying  He keeps on smoking"  Ebert added the film to his list of "most hated" films 

Novelization and video game
To tie-in to the film's release, a novelization by John Shirley and a video game adaption were produced  The novelization states that the buildings in Hell are built with the souls of the damned, rather than brick, and lined with blood, rather than mortar 

Sequel
In 2011, director Francis Lawrence stated, regarding a sequel:

It's interesting that over the years, Constantine seems like it's become     like it has this sort of cult following, which has been great  It's been embraced  It would be great to figure out a sequel, and if we did, and we've been trying to figure one out, it would be great to do the really dark, scary version  We got caught in that weird PG-13–R no man's land, and we should do the hard-R scary version, which I would love to do 
In November 2012, Guillermo del Toro signed a deal to write and direct a Justice League Dark film centered around DC Comics' supernatural characters, John Constantine among them Reeves said in 2019 and 2021 that he is open to reprise the role in the future In November 2020, Stormare announced in a post on Instagram that a sequel was "in the works", though neither representatives for Warner Bros  nor Reeves immediately responded to requests for comment In September 2022, Deadline Hollywood reported that Warner Bros  will develop a Constantine sequel, with Keanu Reeves set to return in the lead role  Francis Lawrence will return as the film's director, with Akiva Goldsman writing the screenplay  Goldsman will also produce, alongside J  J  Abrams & Hannah Minghella 
Passage 6:
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is a 2014 American dystopian science fiction war film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, based on the 2010 novel Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins  The sequel to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), it is the third installment in The Hunger Games film series  It stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland  In the film, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) joins Alma Coin (Moore), the renegade leader of the underground District 13, in a mass rebellion against the Capitol 
Development on a third Hunger Games film was announced in May 2012, after Lionsgate announced Collins' novel would be split into two parts  Lawrence was confirmed to return to direct the final two installments that November, which would be filmed back-to-back  Most of the main cast was rounded out by September 2013 when principal photography began, lasting until June 2014, with filming locations including Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin  The film faced controversy after its content was used in political protests in 2014 and 2015 
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on November 10, 2014, and was released in the United States on November 21, by Lionsgate  The film generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its acting, music, and political subtext, but criticism for its pacing and the decision to split the novel into two films  It grossed over $755 million worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2014; it set the record for the largest opening day and opening weekend of 2014 
Among its accolades, Mockingjay – Part 1 was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film at the 41st Saturn Awards, while Lawrence was nominated Best Actress in an Action Movie at the 20th Critics' Choice Awards  The song "Yellow Flicker Beat" by Lorde, the lead single from its soundtrack, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and Critics' Choice Awards 
The film was followed by the main series' final film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, in 2015 

Plot
After being rescued from the destroyed arena in the 75th Hunger Games, tributes Katniss Everdeen, Beetee, and Finnick Odair are taken to District 13, a below-ground district isolated from Panem that has been spearheading the rebellion  Katniss is reunited with her mother and sister Prim and is introduced to President Alma Coin, the rebel leader  Katniss is told that her arrow destroying the forcefield led to riots in over half the districts, joining District 13 in the rebellion, which caused Snow to bomb District 12 in retaliation  Coin asks her to become the "Mockingjay"—a symbol of the rebellion—as part of a "hearts and minds" strategy  Katniss reluctantly agrees after seeing Peeta being manipulated on state television to quell the rebellion  She visits the ruins of District 12, her old house somehow untouched with white roses from President Snow inside 
Katniss meets her film team and is given Effie Trinket as a stylist and close friend, Gale, as a bodyguard  They go to District 8 where Katniss is filmed being saluted by dozens of wounded civilians at a hospital; Snow, seeing the footage, orders an airstrike at the hospital, killing everyone inside  The crew films Katniss and Gale shooting down two Capitol hovercraft and Katniss' rage-filled threat: "If we burn, you burn with us " Afterwards, loggers in District 7 revolt, shouting the same phrase and killing Peacekeepers by detonating land mines 
Katniss and her team travel to District 12 to film her sing "The Hanging Tree"  Hundreds of protesters in District 5, singing the same anthem, launch a suicidal human wave attack against a hydroelectric dam that is the Capitol's primary source of electricity  The attack successfully implodes and breaches the dam, causing a blackout that forces the Capitol to revert to secondary generators  That night, Katniss watches Peeta being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, the Games' former presenter, when Coin and Beetee hijack the signal to air a clip of Katniss  After seeing it, Peeta suddenly shouts a warning that the Capitol is about to attack District 13  Coin orders a mass evacuation into deep, underground shelters, and the facility survives the attack  Upon emerging, Katniss discovers the area littered with white roses; she concludes that Snow orchestrated this to inform her that whenever she condemns the Capitol, they will torture Peeta in retaliation 
Coin dispatches an elite special-forces team to rescue Peeta and remaining victors Johanna Mason, Enobaria, and Annie Cresta from their prison  Beetee hijacks the Capitol's defense system with a "propo" narrated by Finnick to convince more districts to side with the rebellion in which Finnick reveals that Snow would force "desirable" tributes (including Finnick himself) into prostitution with the threat of killing their families if they refused (which happened to Johanna) and that Snow only became the leader of Panem because he poisoned his opponents  When the propo proves not to be enough, Katniss communicates directly with Snow as a further distraction to buy enough time  Gale's team rescues the victors and escapes the Capitol easily, indicating the Capitol reduced its security on purpose  When Katniss greets Peeta, he unexpectedly attacks and strangles her into unconsciousness before being knocked out by Boggs 
Katniss wakes up and is informed that Peeta has been "hijacked"—brainwashed into trying to kill her, which explains why the Capitol allowed them to escape with him  Peeta is placed in solitary confinement, while a serum is developed to reverse the hijacking effects  Coin announces that the rebels' next objective is the Capitol's principal military stronghold in District 2—now the only district remaining loyal to the Capitol 

Cast
Production
Pre-production
On July 10, 2012, Lionsgate announced that the third and final installment in the series, Mockingjay, would be split into two parts  The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 was released on November 21, 2014, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 was released on November 20, 2015  Many directors, including Rian Johnson, Francis Lawrence and Alfonso Cuarón were considered for the job  On November 1, 2012, Lawrence, director of Catching Fire, announced he would return to direct both final parts in the series



ground_truth: George H. W. Bush

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Brigadier Stanley James Ledger Hill was attached to the command post of which senior British Army officer born on July 10, 1886?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  Regardless of danger he personally reconnoitred the line ahead of his troops, and got them on to the objective before dawn  During the three following days he again made forward reconnaissances, and leading his battalion gradually on, advanced the line 800 yards and gained a canal bank  It is impossible to speak too highly of this officer's initiative 
He was also mentioned in despatches eight times during the war 

Inter-war years
Gort was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 21 October 1919  After attending a short course at the Staff College, Camberley, in 1919 he joined Headquarters London District and, having been promoted to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 1 January 1921, he returned to the College as an instructor  He left the Staff College in May 1923 Gort was promoted to colonel in April 1926 (with seniority backdated to 1 January 1925)  In 1926 he became a staff officer at London District before becoming a chief instructor at the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness  In January 1927, he went to Shanghai, returning in August to give a first-hand account of the Chinese situation to the King and the Prince of Wales  He returned home to be a staff officer at Headquarters 4th Infantry Division at Colchester in July 1927 In June 1928, Gort was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire  He went on to command the Guards Brigade for two years from 1930 before overseeing training in India with the temporary rank of brigadier  In 1932, he took up flying, buying the de Havilland Moth aircraft Henrietta and being elected chairman of the Household Brigade Flying Club  On 25 November 1935, he was promoted, at the relatively young age (in peacetime, where promotion was painfully slow) of 49, to major-general  He returned to the Staff College in 1936 as its Commandant In May 1937, Gort was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath  In September 1937, he became Military Secretary to the War Minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-general  On 6 December 1937, as part of a purge by Hore-Belisha of senior officers, Gort was appointed to the Army Council, made a general and replaced Field Marshal Sir Cyril Deverell as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS)  On 1 January 1938, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath  His appointment was generally well received in the army, although there was some resentment in his having passed over a number of much older and more senior officers, among them John Dill, Archibald Wavell and Alan Brooke, who would later become an outspoken critic of Gort  He was not especially highly regarded for his intelligence and so Major General Ronald Adam was appointed to be Gort's Deputy Chief of the Imperial General Staff As CIGS, Gort advocated the primacy of building a land army and defending France and the Low Countries over Imperial defence after France had said she would not be able on her own to defend herself against a German attack On 2 December 1938 Gort submitted a report on the readiness of the British Army  He observed that Nazi Germany, as a result of the acquisition of Czechoslovakia, was in a stronger position than the previous year and that as a result of the government's decision in 1937 to create a "general purpose" army, Britain lacked the necessary forces for the defence of France On 21 December Gort recommended to the Chiefs of Staff that Britain would need to help France defend the Netherlands and Belgium and that for that purpose the British Army needed complete equipment for four Regular army infantry divisions and two mobile armoured divisions, with the Territorial army armed with training equipment and then war equipment for four divisions  The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Roger Backhouse, replied that Britain's continental commitment might not be a limited liability  Gort replied: "Lord Kitchener had clearly pointed out that no great country can wage a 'little' war"  He also attacked as a fallacy the theory of strategic mobility by the use of seapower because in modern war land transport was faster and cheaper than transport by sea  The experience of David Lloyd George's 1917 Alexandretta project "proved that [maritime side-shows] invariably led to vast commitments out of all proportion to the value of the object attained"  If a purely defensive position was taken the Maginot Line would be broken, and the British Army (with anti-aircraft defence) was only getting £277 million out of a total £2,000 million spent on defence 

Second World War
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Gort was appointed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France, arriving there on 19 September 1939 During this time Gort played a part in a political manoeuvre, the Pillbox affair, that led to the dismissal of War Minister Leslie Hore-Belisha  Unimpressed by his qualities for command, Hore-Belisha described Gort as: "utterly brainless and unable to grasp the simplest problem"  Gort dismissed his subordinates' critiques of the Allies' Plan D, including his former friend Alan Brooke's correct prediction that it would allow the Wehrmacht to outflank the Allied forces, as defeatist Following the period of the "Phoney War", the Wehrmacht's attack and breakthrough in the Ardennes in May 1940 succeeded in splitting the Allied Armies, and surrounding the French First Army and BEF, Gort took the unilateral decision to abandon his orders received from the British Government for a southward attack to be made to support the French Army, instead on 25 May 1940 ordering a retreat by the BEF northwards to the French coast  On reaching the coast Gort oversaw the en masse retirement of the BEF back to the British Isles, involving the Battle of Dunkirk and the Dunkirk evacuation, while France was defeated and surrendered to Nazi Germany four weeks later With regard to his conduct as C -in-C  in France in 1940, Gort is credited by some historians as reacting efficiently to the crisis and saving the BEF, while others hold a more critical view of his leadership, seeing his decision to abandon France during Germany's attack into the west as defeatist Gort went on to serve in various positions for the remainder of the war, but the chaotic rout of the BEF under his command from France had convinced Winston Churchill, the newly installed British Prime Minister, that he was undesirable as a field commander, and he was side-lined to non-combatant posts  On the day of his return to England from France on 1 June 1940 he was appointed an ADC General to George VI  On 25 June he went by flying boat, with Duff Cooper, to Rabat, Morocco, to rally anti-Nazi French cabinet ministers, but was instead held on his flying boat  He quickly returned to Britain 
Gort was given the post of Inspector of Training and the Home Guard, and with nothing constructive to do visited Iceland, Orkney and Shetland   He went on to serve as Governor of Gibraltar (1941–42)  In 1943 he succeeded Lord Galway as Colonel Commandant of the Honourable Artillery Company, a position he held until his death 
As Governor of Malta (1942–44), Gort's courage and leadership during the siege was recognised by the Maltese giving him the Sword of Honour  He pushed ahead with extending the airfield into land reclaimed from the sea, against the advice of the British government, but was later thanked by the War Cabinet for his foresight when the airfield proved vital to the British Mediterranean campaign  The King gave Gort his field marshal's baton on 20 June 1943 at Malta   On 29 September, Gort, together with Generals Dwight D  Eisenhower and Harold Alexander, witnessed Marshal Pietro Badoglio signing the Italian surrender in Valletta harbour Gort was present when his son-in-law, Major William Sidney, received the Victoria Cross from General Sir Harold Alexander, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the Allied Armies in Italy, on 3 March 1944 in Italy 
Gort ended the war as High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan  He served in this office for only one year  In 1945 he nominated William James Fitzgerald, Chief Justice of Palestine, to enquire into the Jewish-Arab conflict in Jerusalem  Chief Justice Fitzgerald issued his report in which he proposed to divide the city into separate Jewish and Arab Quarters  Despite growing tensions in Palestine, Gort strove to cultivate good personal relations with both Jews and Arabs, and was greatly admired and respected by the Jewish and Arab communities 
During his time in Palestine, Gort's health deteriorated, and he was suffering from great pain and discomfort in his abdomen  He was in fact suffering from liver cancer, but the doctors he consulted in London were unable to properly diagnose his condition  Gort ruled Palestine at the time that the Jewish insurgency was beginning  Despite his efforts, he was unable to stem the growing confrontation between the Yishuv (Jewish community) and British authorities  On 5 November 1945, he stepped down as High Commissioner and returned to Britain  Commenting on his departure, The Palestine Post wrote that "No High Commissioner in the twenty-five years of British rule in Palestine enjoyed greater popular trust and none repaid it with greater personal kindness "

Death
After leaving Palestine and returning to England, Gort was admitted to Guy's Hospital in London, where exploratory surgery revealed that he was dying from inoperable liver cancer  In February 1946 he was created a Viscount in the Peerage of the United Kingdom under the same title as his existing Viscountcy in the Peerage of Ireland  On 31 March 1946, he died in Guy's Hospital at the age of 59 years  As he did not have a surviving son, the Irish Viscountcy of Gort passed to his brother, Standish Vereker, and the British creation became extinct  His body was entombed in the Sidney family vault at St  John the Baptist Church, Penshurst, in the county of Kent 

Film portrayal
Gort was portrayed by Cyril Raymond in the film Dunkirk (1958) 
Passage 3:
Richard O'Connor
General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor,  (21 August 1889 – 17 June 1981) was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars, and commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of the Second World War  He was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which his forces destroyed a much larger Italian army – a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa, and in turn, led Adolf Hitler to send the Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel to try to reverse the situation  O'Connor was captured by a German reconnaissance patrol during the night of 7 April 1941 and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp  He eventually escaped after the fall of Mussolini in the autumn of 1943  In 1944 he commanded VIII Corps in the Battle of Normandy and later during Operation Market Garden  In 1945 he was General Officer in Command of the Eastern Command in India and then, in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent, he headed Northern Command  His final job in the army was Adjutant-General to the Forces in London, in charge of the British Army's administration, personnel and organisation 
In honour of his war service, O'Connor was recognised with the highest level of knighthood in two different orders of chivalry  He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Order (twice), the Military Cross, the French Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour, and served as aide-de-camp to King George VI  He was also mentioned in despatches nine times for actions in the First World War, once in Palestine in 1939 and three times in the Second World War 

Early life
Richard Nugent O'Connor was born in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, on 21 August 1889  His father, Maurice O'Connor, was a major in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and his mother, Lilian Morris, was the daughter of a former governor of India's central provinces  He attended Tonbridge Castle School in 1899 and The Towers School in Crowthorne in 1902  In 1903, aged 13, and after his father's death in an accident, he moved to Wellington College  "His career there was not distinguished in any way", however, although he enjoyed his time there Following this, he went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in January 1908  Despite his success in later life, his time there, as at Wellington (only a few miles away from Sandhurst), was not remarkable, and he did not mention his time there even in his later life   A year ahead of him at the college was a man who would play a significant role in O'Connor's future military career and life  This was Bernard Montgomery, about two years older than O'Connor, although it is unknown if the two men knew of each other at this very early stage of their military careers Passing out 38th in the order of merit, in September of the following year O'Connor, anxious to join a Scottish regiment, was commissioned, as a second lieutenant and posted to the 2nd Battalion of his new regiment, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), the regiment of his choice, recruiting from Glasgow and Lanarkshire, and with which he was to maintain close ties with for the rest of his life  The battalion was initially stationed in Aldershot when O'Connor joined them in October 1909 before being rotated, in January 1910, to Colchester  It was here where he received signals and rifle training, after attending courses for both, resulting in his being appointed a regimental signals officer for the former, and becoming a distinguished marksman after attending the Small Arms School at Hythe, Kent  In September 1911 the battalion sailed for Malta where it was to remain for the next three years as part of a Malta brigade, with O'Connor, now a lieutenant (having been promoted to that rank in May), continuing in his role as regimental signals officer   By now it was becoming obvious that a war in Europe was on the horizon  As a result, for O'Connor, who at some point was appointed the Malta brigade's signal officer, the years of 1913 and 1914 were spent in training the men under his command for the duties that they would one day have to perform in battle 

First World War
During the First World War, O'Connor initially served as signals officer of the 22nd Brigade in the 7th Division and captain in command of the 7th Division's Signals Company  From October 1916, as a captain and later as a brevet major, he served as brigade major of 91st Brigade, 7th Division  He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) in February 1915  In March of that year he saw action at Arras and Bullecourt  O'Connor was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and appointed brevet lieutenant-colonel while he was in command of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Honourable Artillery Company, part of the 7th Division, in June 1917  The citation for his DSO reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and resource  In consequence of a change in the situation a revision of plans became necessary, but, owing to darkness and heavy shelling, confusion arose  By his courage and promptness he quickly restored order, and organised a successful attack 
In November of that year, the division was ordered to support the Italians against the Austro-Hungarian forces at the River Piave which then formed part of the Italian Front  In late October 1918 the 2nd Battalion captured the island of Grave di Papadopoli on the Piave River for which O'Connor received the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valor and a Bar to his DSO At the end of the war, O'Connor reverted to his rank of captain and served as regimental adjutant from April to December 1919 

Between the wars
O'Connor attended the Staff College, Camberley in 1920  O'Connor's other service in the years between the world wars included an appointment from 1921 to 1924 as brigade major of the Experimental Brigade (or 5 Brigade) under the command of J  F  C  Fuller, which was formed to test methods and procedures for using tanks and aircraft in co-ordination with infantry and artillery 
He returned to his old unit, the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), as adjutant from February 1924 to 1925  From 1925 to 1927 he served as a company commander at Sandhurst  He returned to the Staff College, Camberley as an instructor from October 1927 to January 1930  In 1930 O'Connor again served with the 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in Egypt and from 1931 to 1932 in Lucknow, India  From April 1932 to January 1935 he was a general staff officer, grade 2 at the War Office  He attended the Imperial Defence College in London in 1935  In April 1936 O'Connor was promoted to full colonel and appointed temporary brigadier to assume command of the Peshawar Brigade in north west India  In September 1938 O'Connor was promoted to major-general and appointed General Officer Commanding 7th Infantry Division in Palestine, along with the additional responsibility as Military Governor of Jerusalem  For his services in Palestine O'Connor was mentioned in despatches In August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the 7th Division was transferred to the fortress at Mersa Matruh, Egypt, where O'Connor was concerned with defending the area against a potential attack from the massed forces of the Italian Tenth Army over the border in Libya  The 7th Division later converted to become the 6th Division in November 1939  He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in July 1940 

Second World War
Italian Offensive and Operation Compass
Italy declared war on Britain and France on 10 June 1940 and, soon after, O'Connor was appointed commander of the Western Desert Force  He was tasked by Lieutenant-General Henry Maitland Wilson, commander of the British troops in Egypt, to push the Italian force out of Egypt, to protect the Suez Canal and British interests from attack On 13 September, Graziani struck: his leading divisions advanced sixty miles into Egypt where they reached the town of Sidi Barrani and, short of supplies, began to dig in  O'Connor then began to prepare for a counterattack  He had the 7th Armoured Division and the Indian 4th Infantry Division along with two brigades  British and Commonwealth troops in Egypt totalled around 36,000 men  The Italians had nearly five times as many troops along with hundreds more tanks and artillery pieces and the support of a much larger air force  Meanwhile, small raiding columns were sent out from the 7th Armoured and newly formed Long Range Desert Group to probe, harass, and disrupt the Italians (this marked the start of what became the Special Air Service)  The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force supported by bombarding enemy strongpoints, airfields and rear areas 
 During November, O'Connor was appointed an acting lieutenant-general in recognition of the increased size of his command The counteroffensive, Operation Compass, began on 8 December 1940  O'Connor's relatively small force of 31,000 men, 275 tanks and 120 artillery pieces, ably supported by an RAF wing and the Royal Navy, broke through a gap in the Italian defences at Sidi Barrani near the coast  The Desert Force cut a swath through the Italian rear areas, stitching its way between the desert and the coast, capturing strongpoint after strongpoint by cutting off and isolating them  The Italian guns proved to be no match for the heavy British Matilda tanks and their shells bounced off the armour  By mid-December the Italians had been pushed completely out of Egypt, leaving behind 38,000 prisoners and large stores of equipment The Desert Force paused to rest briefly before continuing the assault into Italian Libya against the remainder of Graziani's disorganised army  At that point, the Commander-in-Chief Middle East General Sir Archibald Wavell ordered the 4th Indian Division withdrawn to spearhead the invasion of Italian East Africa  This veteran division was to be replaced by the inexperienced 6th Australian Division, which, although tough, was untrained for desert warfare  Despite this setback, the offensive continued with minimal delay  By the end of 6 December the Australians besieged and took Bardia along with 40,000 more prisoners and 400 guns 
In early January 1941, the Western Desert Force was redesignated XIII Corps  On 9 January, the offensive resumed  By 12 January the strategic fortress port of Tobruk was surrounded  On 22 January it fell and another 27,000 Italian POWs were taken along with valuable supplies, food, and weapons  As Tobruk fell it was decided to have XIII Corps answerable directly to Wavell at HQ Middle East Command, removing HQ British troops Egypt from the chain of command  On 26 January the remaining Italian divisions in eastern Libya began to retreat to the northwest along the coast  O'Connor promptly moved to pursue and cut them off, sending his armour southwest through the desert in a wide flanking movement, while the infantry gave chase along the coast to the north  The lightly armoured advance units of 4th Armoured Brigade arrived at Beda Fomm before the fleeing Italians on 5 February, blocking the main coast road and their route of escape  Two days later, after a costly and failed attempt to break through the blockade, and with the main British infantry force fast bearing down on them from Benghazi to the north, the demoralised, exhausted Italians unconditionally capitulated  O'Connor and Eric Dorman-Smith cabled back to Wavell, "Fox killed in the open   "In two months, the XIII Corps/Western Desert Force had advanced over 800 miles (1,300 km), destroyed an entire Italian army of ten divisions, taken over 130,000 prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,292 guns at the cost of 500 killed and 1,373 wounded  In recognition of this, O'Connor was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath 

Reversal and capture
In a strategic sense, however, the victory of Operation Compass was not yet complete; the Italians still controlled most of Libya and possessed forces which would have to be dealt with  The Axis foothold in North Africa would remain a potential threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal so long as this situation continued  O'Connor was aware of this and urged Wavell to allow him to push on to Tripoli with all due haste to finish off the Italians  Wavell concurred as did Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, now the military governor of Cyrenaica, and XIII Corps resumed its advance  However, O'Connor's new offensive would prove short-lived: when the corps reached El Agheila, just to the southwest of Beda Fomm, Churchill ordered the advance to halt there  The Axis had invaded Greece and Wavell was ordered to send all available forces there as soon as possible to oppose this  Wavell took the 6th Australian Division, along with part of 7th Armoured Division and most of the supplies and air support for this ultimately doomed operation  XIII Corps HQ was wound down and in February 1941 O'Connor was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the British Troops in Egypt Matters were soon to become much worse for the British  By March 1941, Hitler had dispatched General Erwin Rommel along with the Afrika Korps to bolster the Italians in Libya  Wavell and O'Connor now faced a formidable foe under a commander whose cunning, resourcefulness, and daring would earn him the nickname "the Desert Fox"  Rommel wasted little time in launching his own offensive on 31 March  The inexperienced 2nd Armoured Division was soundly defeated and on 2 April Wavell came forward to review matters with Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Neame, by now the commander of British and Commonwealth troops in Cyrenaica (Wilson having left to command the Allied expeditionary force in Greece)  O'Connor was called forward and arrived from Cairo the next day, but declined to assume Neame's command because of his lack of familiarity with the prevailing conditions  However, he agreed to stay to advise On 6 April O'Connor and Neame, while travelling to their headquarters which had been withdrawn from Maraua to Timimi, were captured by a German patrol near Martuba 

Captivity and escape
O'Connor spent the next two and a half years as a prisoner of war, mainly at the Castello di Vincigliata near Florence, Italy  Here he and Neame were in the company of such figures as Major-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart and Air Vice Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd  Although the conditions of their imprisonment were not unpleasant, the officers soon formed an escape club and began planning a break-out  Their first attempt, a simple attempt to climb over the castle walls, resulted in a month's solitary confinement  The second attempt, by an escape tunnel built between October 1942 and March 1943, had some success, with two New Zealander brigadiers, James Hargest and Reginald Miles, reaching Switzerland  O'Connor and Carton de Wiart, travelling on foot, were at large for a week but were captured near Bologna in the Po Valley  Once again, a month's solitary confinement was the result It was only after the Italian surrender in September 1943 that the final, successful, attempt was made  With help from the Italian resistance movement, Boyd, O'Connor and Neame escaped while being transferred from Vincigliati  After a failed rendezvous with a submarine, they arrived by boat at Termoli, then went on to Bari where they were welcomed as guests by General Sir Harold Alexander, commanding the Allied Armies in Italy (AAI), then fighting on the Italian Front, along with the American General Dwight D  Eisenhower, on 21 December 1943  Upon his return to Britain, O'Connor was presented with the knighthood he had been awarded in 1941 and promoted to lieutenant-general  Montgomery suggested that O'Connor be his successor as British Eighth Army commander, but that post was instead given to Oliver Leese and O'Connor was given a corps to command 

VIII Corps and Normandy
On 21 January 1944 O'Connor became commander of VIII Corps, which consisted of the Guards Armoured Division, 11th Armoured Division, 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division, along with 6th Guards Tank Brigade, 8th Army Group Royal Artillery and 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment  The corps formed part of the British Second Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Miles Dempsey, which itself was part of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, commanded by General Sir Bernard Montgomery, a friend who had also been a fellow instructor at the Staff College, Camberley in the 1920s, in addition to having served together in Palestine some years before  O'Connor's new command was to take part in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of German-occupied France, although it was not scheduled for the initial landings as it was to form part of the second wave to go ashore On 11 June 1944, five days after the initial landings in Normandy, O'Connor and the leading elements of VIII Corps arrived in Normandy in the sector around Caen, which would be the scene of much hard fighting during the next few weeks  O'Connor's first mission (with the 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division under command, replacing the Guards Armoured Division) was to mount Operation Epsom, a break out from the bridgehead established by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, cross the Odon and Orne rivers, then secure the high-ground positions northeast of Bretteville-sur-Laize and cut Caen off from the south  The break-out and river crossings were accomplished promptly  The army group commander, Montgomery, congratulated O'Connor and his VIII Corps on their success  But cutting off Caen would prove much harder  VIII Corps was pushed back over the Orne  O'Connor tried to re-establish a bridgehead during Operation Jupiter with the 43rd (Wessex) Division, but met with little success  Although the operation had failed to achieve its tactical objectives, Montgomery was pleased with the strategic benefits in the commitment and fixing of the German armoured reserves to the Caen sector After being withdrawn into reserve on 12 July, the next major action for VIII Corps would be Operation Goodwood, for which the corps was stripped of its infantry divisions but had a third armoured division (7th Armoured Division) attached  The attack began on 18 July with a massive aerial bombardment by the 9th USAAF, and ended on 20 July with a three-pronged drive to capture Bras and Hubert-Folie on the right, Fontenay on the left, and Bourguébus Ridge in the centre  However, the attack ground to a halt in pouring rain, turning the battlefield into a quagmire, with the major objectives still not taken, notably the Bourguebus Ridge which was the key to any break-out 
Restored to its pre-invasion formation but with British 3rd Infantry Division attached, the corps was switched to the southwest of Caen to take part in Operation Bluecoat  15th (Scottish) Division attacked towards Vire to the east and west of Bois du Homme in order to facilitate the American advance in Operation Cobra (O'Connor, 5/3/25 July 29 1944)  A swift drive was followed by fierce fighting to the south during the first two days of the advance, with both sides taking heavy losses As the allies prepared to pursue the Germans from France, O'Connor learned that VIII Corps would not take part in this phase of the campaign  VIII Corps was placed in reserve, and its transport used to supply XXX Corps and XII Corps  His command was reduced in mid-August, with the transfer of the Guards Armoured Divisions and 11th Armoured Division to XXX Corps and 15th (Scottish) Division to XII Corps  While in reserve, O'Connor maintained an active correspondence with Montgomery, Hobart and others, making suggestions for improvements of armoured vehicles and addressing various other problems such as combat fatigue  Some of his recommendations were followed up; such as for mounting "rams" on armoured vehicles in order to cope with the difficult hedgerow country (O'Connor, 5/3/41- 5/3/44 Aug 24, 26 1944) 

Operation Market Garden and India
O'Connor remained in command of VIII Corps, for the time being, and was given the task of supporting Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps in Operation Market Garden, the plan by Montgomery to establish a bridgehead across the Rhine in the Netherlands  Following their entry into Weert at the end of September, VIII Corps prepared for and took part in Operation Aintree, the advance towards Venray and Venlo beginning on 12 October However, on 27 November O'Connor was removed from his post and was ordered to take over from Lieutenant-General Sir Mosley Mayne as GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, India  Smart's account says that Montgomery prompted the move for, "not being ruthless enough with his American subordinates", although Mead states that the initiative was taken by Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), but Montgomery made no attempt to retain O'Connor  He was succeeded as GOC VIII Corps by Major-General Evelyn Barker, a much younger man and formerly the GOC of the 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division who had been one of O'Connor's students at the Staff College at Camberley in the late 1920s  This marked the end of a long and distinguished combat career, although the new job was an important one, controlling the lines of communication of the Fourteenth Army  O'Connor was mentioned in despatches for the thirteenth and final time of his career on 22 March 1945 Having been promoted to full general in April 1945, O'Connor was appointed GOC-in-C North Western Army in India in October that year (the formation was renamed Northern Command in November of that year)  By now the war was over 

Post-war
From 1946 to 1947 he was Adjutant-General to the Forces and aide-de-camp general to the King  His career as adjutant general was to be short-lived, however  After a disagreement over a cancelled demobilisation for troops stationed in the Far East, O'Connor offered his resignation in September 1947, which was accepted  Montgomery, by then the CIGS in succession to Brooke, maintained that he had been sacked, rather than resigned, for being, "not up to the job " Not long after this he was installed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 

Retirement and final years
O'Connor retired in 1948 at the age of fifty-eight  However, he maintained his links with the army and took on other responsibilities  He was Commandant of the Army Cadet Force in Scotland from 1948 to 1959; Colonel of the Cameronians, 1951 to 1954; Lord lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty from 1955 to 1964 and served as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1964  His first wife, Jean, died in 1959, and in 1963 he married Dorothy Russell In July 1971, he was created Knight of the Order of the Thistle  O’Connor was interviewed concerning North African operations in episode 8, "The Desert: North Africa (1940–1943)”, of the acclaimed British documentary television series, The World at War  O'Connor died in London on 17 June 1981, just two months shy of his 92nd birthday  There was a small funeral, attended only by his family  There were also two memorial services, one held in London on 15 July, with O'Connor's great friend and admirer, Field Marshal Lord Harding, as he was now known, giving the address, where he stated the following:

Dick O'Connor was my ideal of a commander in battle; always approachable and ready to listen, yet firm and decisive and always fair in his judgement of people and events; modest to a degree, shunning the limelight and embarassed by praise; calmly resolute and courageously determined 
The second memorial service was held in Edinburgh on 11 August, where Lieutenant General Sir George Collingwood, who had been O'Connor's aide-de-camp in the late 1930s, made the address  Making references to O'Connor's campaign in the desert some forty years earlier, he then mentioned his numerous attempts to escape from captivity, along with his happy private life and his two "wonderful partners in the home", before ending his address with:

So there is in a sense a picture of three different people  The dedicated soldier and brilliant fighting Commander, a prisoner of war exerting all his energies and taking great risks to escape and return to serve his Country, and the quiet, unassuming little country gentleman with the kindly smile and charming manners, who was a wonderful host and a wonderful guest, but of course it was one and the same person and the chief facets of his character were, I think, great courage and determination, an impelling sense of duty, loyalty, extreme personal modesty, kindness and generosity and a delightful sense of humour  I think the jokes he liked best were those against himself 

Notes



ground_truth: Lord Gort