title: Panzerfaust

text: To use the "Panzerfaust", the soldier removed the safety, tucked the tube under their arm and aimed by aligning the target, the sight and the top of the warhead. Unlike the Americans' original M1 60 mm bazooka and the Germans' own heavier 88 mm "Panzerschreck" tube-type rocket launchers based on the American ordnance piece, the "Panzerfaust" did not have the usual trigger. It had a pedal-like lever near the projectile that ignited the propellant when squeezed. Because of the weapon's short range, not only enemy tanks and infantry, but also pieces of the exploding vehicle, posed dangers to its operator. As such, the usage of "Panzerfäuste" required relatively great personal courage. The backblast from firing went back around 2 m behind the operator.


title: Panzerfaust

text: When used against tanks, the "Panzerfaust" had an impressive beyond-armour effect. Compared to the bazooka and the "Panzerschreck", it made a larger hole and produced massive spalling that killed or injured (via burns and shrapnel) the crew and destroyed equipment. One informal test found that the "Panzerfaust" made an entry hole in diameter, whereas the "Panzerschreck" made an entry hole at least in diameter; contrastingly, the bazooka made an entry hole that was only in diameter). Much of this can be attributed not only to the size of the "Panzerfaust"s warhead but also its horn-like shape, as opposed to the traditional cone-shaped warheads of rockets used in the bazooka and "Panzerschreck". This design was later copied in the modern-day AT-4 anti-tank weapon to produce the same effect against modern main battle tanks.


title: Panzerfaust

text: In the Battle of Normandy, only 6% of British tank losses were from "Panzerfaust" fire despite the close-range combat in the thick "bocage" landscape. However, the threat from the "Panzerfaust" forced Allied tank forces to wait for infantry support before advancing. The portion of British tanks taken out of action by "Panzerfäuste" later rose to 34%, a rise probably explained by the lack of German anti-tank guns late in the war and the increased numbers of "Panzerfäuste" that were available to defending German troops.


title: Panzerfaust

text: In urban combat later in the war in eastern Germany, about 70% of tanks destroyed were hit by "Panzerfäuste" or "Panzerschreck"s. Soviet and Western Allied tank crews modified their tanks in the field so as to provide some kind of protection against Panzerfaust attacks. These included logs, sandbags, track links, concrete and wire mesh, along with bed frames with springs (bedsprings), similar to expanded metal-type German tank sideskirts. In practice, about 1 metre of air gap was required to substantially reduce the penetrating capability of the warhead, thus sideskirts and sandbags, along with other improvised armor, were virtually entirely ineffective against both the Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust. Moreover, the added weight from such add-on armor overburdened the vehicle's engine, transmission and suspension systems.


title: Panzerfaust

text: Later on, each Soviet heavy tank (IS) and assault gun (ISU-152) company were assigned a platoon of infantry in urban battles to protect them from such infantry-wielded anti-tank weapons, often supported by flamethrowers. This order remained intact even during 1950s and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.


title: Panzerfaust

text: During the last stages of the war, due to the lack of available weapons, many poorly-trained conscripts (mainly elderly men) and teenage Hitler Youth members were often given a single "Panzerfaust", plus any type of obsolete pistols or rifles (some only had a Panzerfaust and nothing else). This caused several German generals and officers to comment sarcastically that the empty launch-tubes could then be used as clubs in hand-to-hand combat.


title: Panzerfaust

text: Many "Panzerfäuste" were sold to Finland, which urgently needed them, as Finnish forces did not have enough anti-tank weapons that could penetrate heavily-armoured Soviet tanks like the T-34 and IS-2. The Finnish experience with the weapon and its adaptability to Finnish needs was mixed, with only 4,000 of 25,000 "Panzerfäuste" delivered expended in combat. The manual that came with the weapon upon delivery to the Finns included depictions of where to aim the weapon on the Soviet T-34 and US Sherman tank (which also saw service with Soviet troops from US Lend-Lease-supplied stocks).


title: Panzerfaust

text: The Italian Social Republic (RSI) and the Government of National Unity (Hungary) also used the "Panzerfaust". Several RSI army units became skilled in anti-tank warfare and the Hungarians themselves used the "Panzerfaust" extensively, especially during the Siege of Budapest. During this brutal siege, an arms factory, the Hungarian Manfred Weiss Steel and Metal Works, located on Csepel Island (within the city) kept up production of various light armaments and ammunition, "Panzerfäuste" included, all the way until the very last moment, when attacking Soviet troops seized the factory by the first days of 1945.


title: Panzerfaust

text: The US 82nd Airborne Division captured some "Panzerfäuste" in the Allied invasion of Sicily and later during the fighting in Normandy. Finding them more effective than their own bazookas, they held onto them and used them during the later stages of the French Campaign, even dropping with them into the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden. They captured an ammunition dump of "Panzerfäuste" near Nijmegen and used them through the Ardennes Offensive toward the end of the war.


title: Panzerfaust

text: The Soviet Red Army only incidentally used captured "Panzerfäuste" in 1944, but from the beginning of 1945, many became available and were actively used during the Soviet offensives of 1945, mostly in street fighting against buildings and protective covers. In February 1945, such use of captured "Panzerfäuste" was recommended in a directive by Marshal Georgy Zhukov. Similarly, they were used by the Polish People's Army. After the war, some 4,000 "Panzerfäuste" were adopted by the Polish Army in 1949, which designated them as PG-49.


title: Panzerfaust

text: Plans and technical materials on the Panzerfaust were supplied to the Empire of Japan to assist with their development of an effective anti-tank weapon. However, the Japanese went with a different design, the Type 4, loosely based upon the American bazooka. Examples of the American weapon were captured by the Japanese at Leyte in 1944.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage, special law enforcement, and counter-terrorism agency appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in "Strange Tales" #135 (August 1965), it often deals with paranormal and superhuman threats to international security.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: The acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division. It was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Within the various films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as multiple animated and live-action television series, the backronym stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: The organization has heavily appeared in media adaptations as well as films and shows that take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s introduction in the "Strange Tales" featuring "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." occurred during a trend for action series about secret international intelligence agencies with catchy acronyms, such as television's "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", which Stan Lee stated in a 2014 interview, was the basis for him to create the organization. Colonel Fury (initially the lead character of Marvel Comics' World War II series "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos") was reimagined as a slightly older character with an eyepatch (which he lacked in his wartime adventures) and appointed head of the organization. Some characters from the "Sgt. Fury" series reappeared as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., most notably Timothy "Dum-Dum" Dugan, Fury's bowler hat-wearing aide-de-camp.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Its most persistent enemy is Hydra, a criminal organization founded (after some retcon) by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. was presented as an extant, full-blown entity in its first appearance, with Tony Stark in charge of the Special Weaponry section and Fury seeing "some of the most famous joes from every nation" (then "half the leaders of the free world" a page later) at a meeting of the Supreme International Council. Much was revealed over the years to fill in its labyrinthine organizational history. Stan Lee wrote each story, abetted by artist Kirby's co-plotting or full plotting, through "Strange Tales" #152 (January 1967), except for two issues, one scripted by Kirby himself (#148) and one by Dennis O'Neil (#149). Following an issue scripted by Roy Thomas (#153), and one co-written by Thomas and new series artist Jim Steranko, came the sole-writer debut of soon-to-become industry legend Steranko—who had begun on the feature as a penciller-inker of Kirby layouts in #151 (December 1966), taken over the every-other-issue "Nick Fury" cover art with #153 two months later, and full writing with #155 (April 1967).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Steranko quickly established the feature as one of comics history's most groundbreaking, innovative, and acclaimed. Ron Goulart wrote,


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Larry Hama said Steranko "combined the figurative dynamism of Jack Kirby with modern design concepts. The graphic influences of Peter Max, Op Art, and Andy Warhol were embedded into the design of the pages — and the pages were designed as a whole, not just as a series of panels. All this, executed in a crisp, hard-edged style, seething with drama and anatomical tension".


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: The series won 1967 and 1968 Alley Awards and was inducted in the latter year to the awards' Hall of Fame. Steranko himself was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006. The 12-page feature ran through "Strange Tales" #168 (sharing that "split book" with the occult feature "Doctor Strange" each issue), after which it was spun off onto its own series of the same title, running 15 issues (June 1968–Nov. 1969), followed by three all-reprint issues beginning a year later (Nov. 1970–March 1971). Steranko wrote and drew issues #1–3 and #5, and drew the covers of #1–7.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: New S.H.I.E.L.D. stories would not appear for nearly two decades after the first solo title. A six-issue miniseries, "Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D." (June–November 1988) was followed by "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." (vol. 2). This second series lasted 47 issues (September 1989–May 1993); its pivotal story arc was "the Deltite Affair", in which many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were replaced with Life Model Decoy androids in a takeover attempt.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: A year after that series ended, the one-shot "Fury" (May 1994) retconned the events of those previous two series, recasting them as a series of staged events designed to distract Fury from the resurrection plans of Hydra head von Strucker. The following year, writer Howard Chaykin and penciler Corky Lehmkuhl produced the four-issue miniseries "Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D." (April–July 1995). Various publications have additionally focused on Nick Fury's solo adventures, such as the graphic novels and one-shots "" (1989), "" (October 1994), "" and "" (both February 1995), and "" (October 2001).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics, that first premiered in "Strange Tales" and later became several ongoing series.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book miniseries published by Marvel Comics, that first premiered in 1988.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book miniseries published by Marvel Comics, that first premiered in 1995.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "Kitty Pryde, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics, that first premiered in 1997.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book title published by Marvel Comics. The first series premiering with a first issue cover dated June 2010. It details the secret history of the occult organization S.H.I.E.L.D. aka "The Brotherhood of the Shield". The series is written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Dustin Weaver. The second series premiering with a first issue cover dated December 2014. Loosely based on the TV series "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", it was written by Mark Waid. It was superseded by "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics, premiering with a first issue cover dated in 2015.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the organization's creation, Marvel in 2015 released five one-shots each focusing on different aspects of S.H.I.E.L.D.: "", "The Cavalry: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary", "", "Mockingbird: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary" and "Quake: S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th Anniversary".


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics, premiering with a first issue cover dated in 2016.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Usually led by Nick Fury as executive director (although he reports to a twelve-member council, whose identities even he does not know), this organization often operates as much as a covert agency as a quasi-military one, initially depicted as affiliated with the United States government. Later, S.H.I.E.L.D. was depicted as under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, with vast technological resources at its disposal, with U.N. General Assembly Resolutions and legislation passed in signatory nations aiding many of their operations. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been inconsistently portrayed as under U.S., rather than U.N., control - for instance, in "Astonishing X-Men" (vol. 3) #3, Nick Fury explains S.H.I.E.L.D.'s inaction during an incident of genocide by stating that it did not occur on American soil.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. started off as a top-secret international organization (Fury was unaware of them when he was in the CIA) with a Supreme International Council made up of top officials and minds from across the world, including Tony Stark. Its first director was Rick Stoner, former head of the CIA, but he was quickly assassinated by Hydra, and the President of the United States recommended Nick Fury take the role. Later on, the ultimate authority of S.H.I.E.L.D. is revealed to be a cabal of 12 mysterious men and women who give Fury his orders and operational structure, leaving Fury to manage the actual implementation of these orders and stratagems.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: One of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s unique technological innovations, the LMD (Life Model Decoy) — an extremely lifelike android used to replace people in imminent danger of being killed — was the basis for two major upheavals. First, the supervillain Scorpio stole the technology and used it to create the second team of villains called the Zodiac. Later, some LMDs known as the Deltites achieved sentience and infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra both, replacing key members until Fury defeated them. This led to the disbanding of the original organization and its replacement by a new task force with the same acronym under the control of the U.N. ("Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate") The new S.H.I.E.L.D. was meant to be more streamlined so Fury could personally oversee it, but would soon become a large organization again.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In the wake of a disastrous unauthorized mission in Latveria, Fury effectively resigned as executive director, with international warrants out for his arrest. His first successor was not one of his closer associates but a relatively unknown newcomer to the S.H.I.E.L.D. hierarchy, Maria Hill. A transcript of a conversation between Hill and the President of the United States revealed she was chosen for the post by United Nations consensus to keep Fury loyalists out of the job and to keep relations with the superhero community to a minimum. The President also expected Hill — an American — to be loyal first to the U.S., despite S.H.I.E.L.D. being a U.N.-chartered organization.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: The passage of the United States Superhuman Registration Act and the subsequent superhero "Civil War" created an additional political and ethical irritant between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the superhuman community, with S.H.I.E.L.D. tasked to lead enforcement and to take on registered superheroes as operatives.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Toward the end of the conflict, Hill concluded she had been made director with the intent that she fails at the job, and she proposes to Tony Stark that he assume the post himself, with her as deputy. Stark accepts the appointment as director upon the conclusion of the superhuman Civil War and undertakes a series of initiatives, including the construction of a new gold-and-red Helicarrier in the motif of his Iron Man armor designs, the introduction of a daycare center in the Helicarrier, and an employee suggestion-box. While accused of treating S.H.I.E.L.D. as a Stark Industries subsidiary, he succeeded in streamlining the organization and raising morale. S.H.I.E.L.D. fought a wave of global superhuman terrorism and was manipulated into two international incidents that almost saw Director Stark arrested until they revealed the Mandarin to be behind it and stopped him from committing genocide with an Extremis pathogen.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: At the start of the "Secret Invasion" by the extraterrestrial shape-shifting race the Skrulls, the Helicarrier is disabled by a Skrull virus and left floating and disabled in the Bermuda Triangle. The Skrulls by this point have already replaced a large number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including the high-ranking Timothy "Dum-Dum" Dugan. After the invasion is repelled, the President of the United States decides to dissolve S.H.I.E.L.D., and has it, the Fifty State Initiative, and the Avengers replaced by the Thunderbolts Initiative, which is placed under the supervision of Norman Osborn.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Osborn uses the opportunity to transform S.H.I.E.L.D. into a new organization called "H.A.M.M.E.R.", formed by loyal agents of the Thunderbolts Initiative as well as former agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra. The Thunderbolts are officially disbanded in the process as well and turned into a black-ops force that answers only to Osborn. Meanwhile, H.A.M.M.E.R. also operates alongside the newest, and only government-sponsored Avengers team, the Dark Avengers.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: After the Invasion, Fury discovers that S.H.I.E.L.D. itself had been under the control of the terrorist organization Hydra ostensibly from its very beginning.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: After the conclusion of the "Secret Warriors" ongoing series, S.H.I.E.L.D. was reformed with Fury leaving it under the control of its new director, Daisy Johnson. The new S.H.I.E.L.D. subsequently saved US Army Ranger Marcus Johnson from mercenaries hired by the Leviathan. When he discovered he was the son of Nick Fury, Marcus (whose birth name was Nick Fury Jr.) and his army friend Phil Coulson joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. later formed their incarnation of the Secret Avengers.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: During the "" storyline, S.H.I.E.L.D. establishes a gated community called Pleasant Hills to serve as a supervillain prison. Using technology derived from the Cosmic Cube called Kobik, S.H.I.E.L.D. converts the inmates into the mild-mannered residents of Pleasant Hills.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Following the "Avengers: Standoff" storyline, the organization is given broad new powers under the S.H.I.E.L.D. Act, including a clause that allows the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to gain control of the United States in the event of an emergency. Soon after Steve Rogers is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., however during the Secret Empire story line we learn that Steve Rogers was replaced with a Hydra sleeper agent who uses the S.H.I.E.L.D. Act to become dictator of the United States. After he is defeated, S.H.I.E.L.D. is once again disbanded.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. has remained out of action since its disbandment, though individual members have been active. Its assets were divided among various U.S. government agencies such as a War Machine armor given to the Air Force and later stolen by Nick Fury Jr. and Frank Castle.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Over the decades, various writers have depicted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s organizational structure in several different ways. "The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" (first edition) describes an eight-level ranking structure (technician, administrator, field agent, regional officer, special officer, regional director, special director, executive director), although providing almost no detail on other aspects of the Directorate's internal makeup. Years later, the miniseries "Agents of Atlas" mentioned a position of "sub-director", and seemed to indicate that the administrative department of S.H.I.E.L.D. it itself referred to simply as "Directorate".


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s agents are normal humans. At one point the organization attempted to set up a team of superhuman agents, composed of Marvel Man (the future Quasar), Texas Twister, Blue Streak and the Vamp but the latter two were secretly agents of the criminal organization The Corporation, and the team broke apart before it had its first official mission. A second-team organized years later also lasted only a short while.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. does employ some superhumans, including in its Psi-Division, composed of telepathic agents who deal with like menaces. S.H.I.E.L.D. also obtains help from independent heroes when their special abilities are needed. It has also accepted some superheroes and supervillains as members, but not in a separate unit. (See "Membership")


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Its headquarters is the Helicarrier, a massive flying aircraft carrier kept airborne at all times and, among other things, containing a squadron of jet fighters and housing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In addition, S.H.I.E.L.D. maintains strong ties to the superhero community, especially Captain America, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four, and often calls upon that community for aid on particular missions.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In the 2000s, depictions of S.H.I.E.L.D. imply a hierarchy of security clearance levels used either in place of or alongside, the previously described rank structure. The security-clearance hierarchy operates on a scale ranging from "Level One", the lowest, to "Level Ten", described by Maria Hill, executive director at the time, as the highest security clearance anyone of any government can have. Hill's own clearance, cited in the "New Avengers" ongoing series, was Level Eight.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Throughout its existence, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been most prominently led by Nick Fury, with Maria Hill succeeding him in mid-2000s stories. She voluntarily stepped down in a 2007 story, becoming deputy director to Tony Stark. Other historically prominent members, who have appeared from the earliest stories to the modern-day, include Thaddeus "Dum Dum" Dugan and Gabriel "Gabe" Jones, both veterans of Fury's World War II Howling Commandos, though their youthful longevity has not, unlike Fury's, been explained in Marvel continuity; Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine; Clay Quartermain (Agent 9); Jasper Sitwell (Agent 12); and Sharon Carter (Agent 13), all introduced in the 1960s; and Jimmy Woo, introduced in the 1950s comic "Yellow Claw" and reintroduced in the ' 60s.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Prior to the events of the Civil War, Captain America estimated there to be 3,000 agents on active duty.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Although the various Helicarriers built over the years have long been considered S.H.I.E.L.D.'s primary mobile home base, the Directorate also maintains a number of land bases throughout the world, most notably "S.H.I.E.L.D. Central" in New York City. While some of these bases are publicly accessible on a limited basis, most are not publicly disclosed for reasons of planetary security. There are several fully equipped S.H.I.E.L.D. fall-out shelters scattered around the world, with twenty-eight of these being known only to Nick Fury. During the events of "Civil War", Nick Fury was hiding in an American-based shelter. He also divulged the location of one to Captain America, so the Resistance to the Superhuman Registration Act could use it as a safe house.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: A.R.M.O.R. (Altered-Reality Monitoring and Operational Response Agency) is a sister agency to S.H.I.E.L.D. that monitors alternate reality incursions into Earth-616, and is directed by Charles Little Sky. It was introduced in the "Marvel Zombies 3" limited series, written by Fred Van Lente. Van Lente stated that A.R.M.O.R. "has existed with them this whole time, but it's been so incredibly secret that no one at Marvel knew about it". In the comics it is stated that A.R.M.O.R. is so secret that it 'makes S.W.O.R.D. look like S.H.I.E.L.D., and S.H.I.E.L.D. look like the Post Office'. During "Dark Reign", A.R.M.O.R. operates under the oversight of H.A.M.M.E.R. but Osborn wanted to fully absorb A.R.M.O.R. into H.A.M.M.E.R. They were able to keep out of Osborn's clutches when their newest agent, Lyra downloaded incriminating evidence against him.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: H.A.M.M.E.R. replaces S.H.I.E.L.D. after it is dissolved when Norman Osborn is appointed the new head following the conclusion of the Skrull attack. It was not established what H.A.M.M.E.R. stands for; in "Dark Avengers" #1, Osborn told Victoria Hand, the new deputy director, that it does stand for something, and when she asked what it stands for, he told her, "Get to work on it for me. That is one of the many things on your 'To Do' list." Former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and members of Hydra are hired as agents. H.A.M.M.E.R. promotes Osborn's personal team of Avengers, a group composed mostly of former Thunderbolts members and former members of the Mighty Avengers. Osborn also eliminates all of Tony Stark's influence on S.H.I.E.L.D., including the Cape-Killer Armor and the Red and Gold Helicarrier. He also replaces all agents loyal to Nick Fury, Captain America, or Iron Man with agents loyal to himself. Also, in the "" Prelude, when Sin, who is captured by H.A.M.M.E.R, asks what it stands for, the agent present says that it's classified and she does not have security clearance.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.P.E.A.R.—in the pages of "Avengers World"—is a Chinese intelligence-gathering organization created for homeland security and has a flying headquarters called the Circle. It was created by the Chinese government to be on the same level as S.H.I.E.L.D. following Thanos' invasion of Earth. Falcon first encountered S.P.E.A.R. and their director, Xian Zheng, at the time when Gorgon planned to launch an attack on China using the giant dragon whose head is where Madripoor grows out of. When the Hand attacked the Circle, they deployed their own superhuman response team called the Ascendants which consists of Devastator III, Monkey King, Sabre III, Vector II, and Weather Witch.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.T.R.I.K.E. (Special Tactical Response for International Key Emergencies) was a British agency, unrelated to but run along similar lines to S.H.I.E.L.D. Disbanded after being infiltrated and taken over by a criminal organization, one of its members was the future X-Man Psylocke. It was introduced in Marvel UK's "Captain Britain" #17 (February 2, 1977).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: EuroM.I.N.D. (European Monitoring Investigation and Enforcement Division) is a European subdivision of S.H.I.E.L.D. that later fell under the control of the S.H.A.P.E. (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) council. EuroM.I.N.D.'s director is François Borillon. Its agents include the science reconnaissance group Eurolab and the combat specialist Task Force group, who both then merged into one group known as Euroforce.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.T.A.K.E. (Special Threat Assessment for Known Extranormalities) is a S.H.I.E.L.D. subsidiary that specializes in dealing with supernatural occurrences.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), works with S.H.I.E.L.D. but specializes in extraterrestrial threats. It is first introduced in "Astonishing X-Men" (vol. 3) #6 (December 2004), written by Joss Whedon. Dialogue in the stories depicting both organizations has been ambiguous on whether S.W.O.R.D. is a branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. or a sister agency.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Agent Abigail Brand, the S.W.O.R.D. agent the X-Men encountered, has green hair, a trait typical of agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s archenemy, Hydra. This unusual characteristic did not go unremarked; Wolverine referred to her as "Hydra-Hair" in "Astonishing X-Men" (vol. 3) #6.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: A similar group as S.W.O.R.D., likewise affiliated with the U.N., is Starcore, which has worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. on several projects of joint interest, including establishing and maintaining a crewed facility on Earth's Moon.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: W.A.N.D. (Wizardry, Alchemy and Necromancy Department) is a division of S.H.I.E.L.D that specializes in matters relating to magic. It is directed by Pandora Peters. First appearing in "Thunderbolts Annual" Vol.2 (2014), in which the Thunderbolts are recruited to assassinate Doctor Strange, who is eventually revealed as a faerie impostor called King Oberoth'm'gozz.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: Orchis is an organization dedicated to stopping the rapid rise of the mutant population and prevent humanity's impending extinction scenario with their theory that humans only have a limited number of years left before they become an endangered species. Formed by a human coalition of former scientists and espionage agents from the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., S.W.O.R.D., A.R.M.O.R., A.I.M., Alpha Flight, H.A.M.M.E.R., Hydra, and even aspects of Damage Control, this organization truly believes itself as the only hope humanity has to keep mutants from ascending to control of the Earth within the next few generations. That belief has allowed Orchis to salvage the remains of Sol's Hammer and retrofit it into the Orchis Forge, a site for the creation of a Mother Mold. A strike force of X-Men led by Cyclops successfully destroyed the Mother Mold, which was believed to be the site of the creation of Nimrod, with heavy casualties on both sides.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate) is the Amalgam Comics equivalent of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Marvel Comics. They first appeared in "Bruce Wayne Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." #1, though, in Amalgam continuity, they first appeared in the metafictional "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." strip. S.H.I.E.L.D. was first created by Nick Fury and Sgt. Rock after World War II in order to tackle the danger posed by Hydra. Both founders later trained and recruited Bruce Wayne into their ranks, who would become the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In an alternate reality where mutants rule over humans, S.H.I.E.L.D. was staffed completely with mutants, all serving the House of Magnus on Genosha. Sebastian Shaw is the executive director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolverine is in charge of the House of Magnus' Red Guard (Agents Rogue, Jessica Drew, Kurt Wagner, Mortimer Toynbee, and Raven Darkholme) and the Marauders are S.H.I.E.L.D.'s black ops unit.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. was mentioned briefly in the "Mutant X" alternate universe series as a murderous anti-mutant group. S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for Saviours of Humanity by Intervention in the Evolution of Life-form Deviants. Their story is elaborated on later as one of their own gains powers.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Ultimate Marvel parallel universe was first led by General "Thunderbolt" Ross. During the Gulf War, the Weapon X Project, headed by Colonel John Wraith, was sanctioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. and resulted in the creation of Wolverine.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: After Ross stepped down and retired, Nick Fury was then selected as the organization's executive director. His first actions were to shut down Weapon X and resurrect the Super Soldier program, commissioning Richard Parker, Dr. Bruce Banner, Franklin Storm, and young intern Hank Pym to try to recreate the formula that made Captain America. This failed and resulted in the creation of the Hulk when Banner injected his serum into himself, leading to various "Hulk Outs" by Banner, yet still under Fury's service for his brilliance, as well as Pym re-hired. It was later revealed that the chemical called Oz, which turned Norman Osborn into the Green Goblin, was also created in hopes of recreating the Super-Soldier formula. Spider-Man was also a product of the Oz formula. Also, the creation of the supervillains Sandman and Electro are due to Hammer Industries attempting to recreate the Super Soldier formula for S.H.I.E.L.D. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. created its own superhero team, the Ultimates. Later still, it brought the X-Men and Spider-Man under S.H.I.E.L.D. jurisdiction. In "Ultimate X-Men" #65 (January 2006), S.H.I.E.L.D. severed ties with the X-Men. After the events of "Ultimate Power", S.H.I.E.L.D. is under the directorship of Carol Danvers, as Nick Fury was temporarily stranded in the Supreme Power Universe. After "Ultimatum", the returned Nick Fury becomes head of the Black-Ops division in "". It is also revealed he is plotting to take back his position as director, from Danvers. After a mysterious force frames Danvers for selling super-soldiers to rival nations, it was revealed to be a ploy by Gregory Stark to become Director, until Fury, the Avengers, and Ultimates stop him, resulting in Thor electrocuting Dr. Stark to death. After the Death of Spider-Man, Marvin Flumm was promoted to Director by the U.S. President. After an arc called "Divided We Stand", a crossover involving "", "", and "", Monica Chang (one of Nick Fury's ex-wives and 2nd Black Widow) was promoted by Captain America to Director after Agent Flumm was dismissed. S.H.I.E.L.D. is later disassembled after the events of Cataclysm, for although the Ultimates were able to defeat Galactus, the destruction caused by Galactus's attack and the loss of Captain America and Thor make it the last straw for the United States Government, who immediately decide to shut S.H.I.E.L.D. down, resulting in villains such as Norman Osborn (Green Goblin) and Victor Van Damme (Doctor Doom), who are revealed to be alive, being released into the custody of other federal agencies.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In the Ultimate Marvel universe, S.H.I.E.L.D. is controlled entirely by the United States but maintains ties with the European Defense Initiative and the British-operated S.T.R.I.K.E.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.A.F.E. (Strategic Action For Emergencies)—introduced in Marvel's line of novels in the mid-1990s—is the United States' answer to S.H.I.E.L.D. It first appeared in "Spider-Man & the Incredible Hulk: Rampage" (Doom's Day Book 1), and may not be part of the comics canon, although the novels it appears in have been referred to several times in Marvel's Handbooks. Whereas S.H.I.E.L.D. is a U.N.-chartered organization dealing with international incidents, S.A.F.E. is tasked with similar duties inside America's borders. It is run by Colonel Sean Morgan. A prominently featured agent is Joshua Ballard, who, among other things, survived an encounter with Doctor Doom and later Baron Zemo.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In the novel "Secret of the Sinister Six", S.A.F.E. agent Clyde Fury (no relation to Nick Fury) distinguishes between espionage agencies (such as S.H.I.E.L.D.) and strategic action specialists such as S.A.F.E.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti Terrorism Effort) is a parody of S.H.I.E.L.D. created for Marvel Comics' 12-issue series Nextwave by comics author Warren Ellis. The leader of H.A.T.E., General Dirk Anger is a parody of Nick Fury. This series depicts H.A.T.E. as being a secretive organization with suspect motives led by the madman, Anger, who has self-control and sexual issues.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. was featured in the "Marvel One-Shots" films (which tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe):


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: S.H.I.E.L.D. stories have been translated into several other languages, including French, Finnish and Italian. Occasionally, these translations will show S.H.I.E.L.D. with an altered name.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In the case of selected French editions, the name of the agency was depicted as S.E.R.V.O., which sounds like "brain" ("cerveau") in French. In later editions, S.H.I.E.L.D is maintained, with the acronym translated as Stratégie, Habilité, Intervention, Exécution et Logistique Défensive (Strategy, Empowered, Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Defensive).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Finnish the name that applies to S.H.I.E.L.D. in mainstream Marvel continuity is Y.P.K.V.V. (Ylimmäisen Päämajan Kansainvälisen Vakoilun Vastustamisjaos), a direct translation of the original English. In translations of the Ultimate Marvel comics, the name is K.I.L.P.I., with "kilpi" being the translation for the word (as opposed to the acronym) "shield".


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Greek, the organization name is Α.Σ.Π.Ι.Δ.Α. (pronounced ASPIDA, meaning "shield" in Greek). The initials stand for Supreme Military and Political Foundation of International Counter-espionage (Ανώτατο Στρατιωτικό Πολιτικό Ίδρυμα Διεθνούς Αντικατασκοπείας).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Portuguese, the name S.H.I.E.L.D. remains, but it is translated as "Superintendência Humana de Intervenção, Espionagem, Logística e Dissuasão", i. e., Human Superintendence for Intervention, Espionage, Logistics and Dissuasion.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Dutch the name S.C.H.I.L.D. (schild = shield) has been used by the publisher Williams, but was dropped by Junior Press in favor of S.H.I.E.L.D.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Mexico, it was translated by La Prensa and later Novedades, as C.I.D.E.L., Centro Internacional De Espionaje Legal (International Center of Legal Espionage), but later Novedades changed the acronym to C.S.E.I., Cuartel Supremo de Espionaje e Inteligencia (Supreme Headquarters of Espionage and Intelligence).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Spain, the initial publisher Vértice translated S.H.I.E.L.D. as "Escudo" (always without a determinant), but never showed the meaning. Later publisher Planeta DeAgostini used the name S.H.I.E.L.D., but translating the acronym as "Organización Internacional para la Ejecución y el Cumplimiento de la Ley" (international organisation for implementation and fulfillment of law). It has been suggested, as a joke, that the acronym does not correspond to the meaning because the acronym itself is undercover. Now, Panini translates the acronym as "Servicio Homologado de Inteligencia, Espionaje, Logística y Defensa" (Accredited Service of Intelligence, Espionage, Logistics, and Defense) to keep the original acronym; being this the name used in the current movies or series.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Danish, S.H.I.E.L.D. was originally known as S.K.J.O.L.D., "Skjold" being the Danish word for a shield, though the meaning of the abbreviation would differ.


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Russian, S.H.I.E.L.D. is named Щ.И.Т. (pronounced SCHIT; "shield" in Russian) or З.А.Щ.И.Т.А. (ZASCHITA, meaning "protection"). This name often describes as Sixth Intervention Logistics Agency (Шестая Интервенционная Тактико-оперативная логистическая служба).


title: S.H.I.E.L.D.

text: In Poland, S.H.I.E.L.D. is known as T.A.R.C.Z.A. ("shield" in Polish). This name describes as Secret Agency of Anti-terrorist Cybernetics Applications Development (Tajna Agencja Rozwoju Cybernetycznych Zastosowań Antyterrorystycznych).


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading writers of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. In 2010 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." He also won the 1967 Rómulo Gallegos Prize, the 1986 Prince of Asturias Award, the 1994 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1995 Jerusalem Prize, the 2012 Carlos Fuentes International Prize, and the 2018 Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa rose to international fame in the 1960s with novels such as "The Time of the Hero" ("La ciudad y los perros", literally "The City and the Dogs", 1963/1966), "The Green House" ("La casa verde", 1965/1968), and the monumental "Conversation in the Cathedral" ("Conversación en la catedral", 1969/1975). He writes prolifically across an array of literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. Several, such as "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service" (1973/1978) and "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" (1977/1982), have been adapted as feature films.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, he has expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the world. In his essays, Vargas Llosa has made many criticisms of nationalism in different parts of the world. Another change over the course of his career has been a shift from a style and approach associated with literary modernism, to a sometimes playful postmodernism.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Like many Latin American writers, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career. While he initially supported the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa later became disenchanted with its policies, particularly after the imprisonment of Cuban poet Heberto Padilla in 1971, and now identifies as a liberal. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right "Frente Democrático" coalition, advocating classical liberal reforms, but lost the election to Alberto Fujimori. He is the person who, in 1990, "coined the phrase that circled the globe", declaring on Mexican television, "Mexico is the perfect dictatorship", a statement that became an adage during the following decade.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Mario Vargas Llosa was born to a middle-class family on 28 March 1936, in the southern Peruvian provincial city of Arequipa. He was the only child of Ernesto Vargas Maldonado and Dora Llosa Ureta (the former a radio operator in an aviation company, the latter the daughter of an old criollo family), who separated a few months before his birth. Shortly after Mario's birth, his father revealed that he was having an affair with a German woman; consequently, Mario has two younger half-brothers: Enrique and Ernesto Vargas.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa lived with his maternal family in Arequipa until a year after his parents' divorce, when his maternal grandfather was named honorary consul for Peru in Bolivia. With his mother and her family, Vargas Llosa then moved to Cochabamba, Bolivia, where he spent the early years of his childhood. His maternal family, the Llosas, were sustained by his grandfather, who managed a cotton farm. As a child, Vargas Llosa was led to believe that his father had died—his mother and her family did not want to explain that his parents had separated. During the government of Peruvian President José Bustamante y Rivero, Vargas Llosa's maternal grandfather obtained a diplomatic post in the northern Peruvian coastal city of Piura and the entire family returned to Peru. While in Piura, Vargas Llosa attended elementary school at the religious academy "Colegio Salesiano". In 1946, at the age of ten, he moved to Lima and met his father for the first time. His parents re-established their relationship and lived in Magdalena del Mar, a middle-class Lima suburb, during his teenage years. While in Lima, he studied at the "Colegio La Salle", a Christian middle school, from 1947 to 1949.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: When Vargas Llosa was fourteen, his father sent him to the Leoncio Prado Military Academy in Lima. At the age of 16, before his graduation, Vargas Llosa began working as an amateur journalist for local newspapers. He withdrew from the military academy and finished his studies in Piura, where he worked for the local newspaper, "La Industria", and witnessed the theatrical performance of his first dramatic work, "La huida del Inca".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 1953, during the government of Manuel A. Odría, Vargas Llosa enrolled in Lima's National University of San Marcos, to study law and literature. He married Julia Urquidi, his maternal uncle's sister-in-law, in 1955 at the age of 19; she was 10 years older. Vargas Llosa began his literary career in earnest in 1957 with the publication of his first short stories, "The Leaders" ("Los jefes") and "The Grandfather" ("El abuelo"), while working for two Peruvian newspapers. Upon his graduation from the National University of San Marcos in 1958, he received a scholarship to study at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain. In 1960, after his scholarship in Madrid had expired, Vargas Llosa moved to France under the impression that he would receive a scholarship to study there; however, upon arriving in Paris, he learned that his scholarship request was denied. Despite Mario and Julia's unexpected financial status, the couple decided to remain in Paris where he began to write prolifically —even as a ghostwriter. Their marriage lasted only a few more years, ending in divorce in 1964. A year later, Vargas Llosa married his first cousin, Patricia Llosa, with whom he had three children: Álvaro Vargas Llosa (born 1966), a writer and editor; Gonzalo (born 1967), an international civil servant; and Morgana (born 1974), a photographer.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa's first novel, "The Time of the Hero" ("La ciudad y los perros"), was published in 1963. The book is set among a community of cadets in a Lima military school, and the plot is based on the author's own experiences at Lima's Leoncio Prado Military Academy. This early piece gained wide public attention and immediate success. Its vitality and adept use of sophisticated literary techniques immediately impressed critics, and it won the "Premio de la Crítica Española" award. Nevertheless, its sharp criticism of the Peruvian military establishment led to controversy in Peru. Several Peruvian generals attacked the novel, claiming that it was the work of a "degenerate mind" and stating that Vargas Llosa was "paid by Ecuador" to undermine the prestige of the Peruvian Army.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 1965, Vargas Llosa published his second novel, "The Green House" ("La casa verde"), about a brothel called "The Green House" and how its quasi-mythical presence affects the lives of the characters. The main plot follows Bonifacia, a girl who is about to receive the vows of the church, and her transformation into "la Selvatica", the best-known prostitute of "The Green House". The novel was immediately acclaimed, confirming Vargas Llosa as an important voice of Latin American narrative. "The Green House" won the first edition of the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize in 1967, contending with works by veteran Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti and by Gabriel García Márquez. This novel alone accumulated enough awards to place the author among the leading figures of the Latin American Boom. Some critics still consider "The Green House" to be Vargas Llosa's finest and most important achievement. Indeed, Latin American literary critic Gerald Martin suggests that "The Green House" is "one of the greatest novels to have emerged from Latin America".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa's third novel, "Conversation in the Cathedral" ("Conversación en la catedral"), was published in 1969, when he was 33. This ambitious narrative is the story of Santiago Zavala, the son of a government minister, and Ambrosio, his chauffeur. A random meeting at a dog pound leads the pair to a riveting conversation at a nearby bar known as "The Cathedral". During the encounter, Zavala searches for the truth about his father's role in the murder of a notorious Peruvian underworld figure, shedding light on the workings of a dictatorship along the way. Unfortunately for Zavala, his quest results in a dead end with no answers and no sign of a better future. The novel attacks the dictatorial government of Odría by showing how a dictatorship controls and destroys lives. The persistent theme of hopelessness makes "Conversation in the Cathedral" Vargas Llosa's most bitter novel.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 1971, Vargas Llosa published "García Márquez: Story of a Deicide" ("García Márquez: historia de un deicidio"), which was his doctoral thesis for the Complutense University of Madrid. Although Vargas Llosa wrote this book-length study about his then friend, the Colombian Nobel laureate writer Gabriel García Márquez, they did not speak to each other again. In 1976, Vargas Llosa punched García Márquez in the face in Mexico City at the "Palacio de Bellas Artes", ending the friendship. Neither writer had publicly stated the underlying reasons for the quarrel. A photograph of García Márquez sporting a black eye was published in 2007, reigniting public interest in the feud. Despite the decades of silence, in 2007, Vargas Llosa agreed to allow part of his book to be used as the introduction to a 40th-anniversary edition of García Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude", which was re-released in Spain and throughout Latin America that year. "Historia de un Deicidio" was also reissued in that year, as part of Vargas Llosa's complete works.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Following the monumental work "Conversation in the Cathedral", Vargas Llosa's output shifted away from more serious themes such as politics and problems with society. Latin American literary scholar Raymond L. Williams describes this phase in his writing career as "the discovery of humor". His first attempt at a satirical novel was "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service" ("Pantaleón y las visitadoras"), published in 1973. This short, comic novel offers vignettes of dialogues and documents about the Peruvian armed forces and a corps of prostitutes assigned to visit military outposts in remote jungle areas. These plot elements are similar to Vargas Llosa's earlier novel "The Green House", but in a different form. "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service" is, therefore, essentially a parody of both "The Green House" and the literary approach that novel represents. Vargas Llosa's motivation to write the novel came from actually witnessing prostitutes being hired by the Peruvian Army and brought to serve soldiers in the jungle.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: From 1974 to 1987, Vargas Llosa focused on his writing, but also took the time to pursue other endeavors. In 1975, he co-directed an unsuccessful motion-picture adaptation of his novel, "Captain Pantoja and the Secret Service". In 1976 he was elected President of PEN International, the worldwide association of writers and oldest human rights organisation, a position he held until 1979. During this time, Vargas Llosa constantly traveled to speak at conferences organized by international institutions such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Cambridge, where he was Simón Bolívar Professor and an Overseas Fellow of Churchill College in 1977–78.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 1977, Vargas Llosa was elected as a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language, a membership he still holds today. That year, he also published "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" ("La tía Julia y el escribidor"), based in part on his marriage to his first wife, Julia Urquidi, to whom he dedicated the novel. She later wrote a memoir, "Lo que Varguitas no dijo" ("What Little Vargas Didn't Say"), in which she gives her personal account of their relationship. She states that Vargas Llosa's account exaggerates many negative points in their courtship and marriage while minimizing her role of assisting his literary career. "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" is considered one of the most striking examples of how the language and imagery of popular culture can be used in literature. The novel was adapted in 1990 into a Hollywood feature film, "Tune in Tomorrow".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa's fourth major novel, "The War of the End of the World" ("La guerra del fin del mundo"), was published in 1981 and was his first attempt at a historical novel. This work initiated a radical change in Vargas Llosa's style towards themes such as messianism and irrational human behaviour. It recreates the War of Canudos, an incident in 19th-century Brazil in which an armed millenarian cult held off a siege by the national army for months. As in Vargas Llosa's earliest work, this novel carries a sober and serious theme, and its tone is dark. Vargas Llosa's bold exploration of humanity's propensity to idealize violence, and his account of a man-made catastrophe brought on by fanaticism on all sides, earned the novel substantial recognition.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Because of the book's ambition and execution, critics have argued that this is one of Vargas Llosa's greatest literary pieces.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Even though the novel has been acclaimed in Brazil, it was initially poorly received because a foreigner was writing about a Brazilian theme. The book was also criticized as revolutionary and anti-socialist. Vargas Llosa says that this book is his favorite and was his most difficult accomplishment.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: After completing "The War of the End of the World", Vargas Llosa began to write novels that were significantly shorter than many of his earlier books. In 1983, he finished "The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta" ("Historia de Mayta", 1984). The novel focuses on a leftist insurrection that took place on 29 May 1962, in the Andean city of Jauja. Later the same year, during the Sendero Luminoso uprising, Vargas Llosa was asked by the Peruvian President Fernando Belaúnde Terry to join the Investigatory Commission, a task force to inquire into the massacre of eight journalists at the hands of the villagers of Uchuraccay. The commission's main purpose was to investigate the murders in order to provide information regarding the incident to the public. Following his involvement with the Investigatory Commission, Vargas Llosa published a series of articles to defend his position in the affair. In 1986, he completed his next novel, "Who Killed Palomino Molero" ("¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero?"), which he began writing shortly after the end of the Uchuraccay investigation. Though the plot of this mystery novel is similar to the tragic events at Uchuraccay, literary critic Roy Boland points out that it was not an attempt to reconstruct the murders, but rather a "literary exorcism" of Vargas Llosa's own experiences during the commission. The experience also inspired one of Vargas Llosa's later novels, "Death in the Andes" ("Lituma en los Andes"), originally published in 1993 in Barcelona.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: It was almost 20 years before Vargas Llosa wrote another major work: "The Feast of the Goat" ("La fiesta del chivo"), a political thriller, was published in 2000 (and in English in 2001). According to Williams, it is Vargas Llosa's most complete and most ambitious novel since "The War of the End of the World". Critic Sabine Koellmann sees it in the line of his earlier novels such as "Conversación en la catedral" depicting the effects of authoritarianism, violence and the abuse of power on the individual. Based on the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, who governed the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, the novel has three main strands: one concerns Urania Cabral, the daughter of a former politician and Trujillo loyalist, who returns for the first time since leaving the Dominican Republic after Trujillo's assassination 30 years earlier; the second concentrates on the assassination itself, the conspirators who carry it out, and its consequences; and the third and final strand deals with Trujillo himself in scenes from the end of his regime. The book quickly received positive reviews in Spain and Latin America, and has had a significant impact in Latin America, being regarded as one of Vargas Llosa's best works.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 1995, he wrote and published a children's book called "Hitos y Mitos Literarios" ("The Milestones and the Stories of Greatest Literary Works"), illustrated by Willi Glasauer. The book includes fun facts, trivia, and information accompanied by photos and Willi Glasauer's illustrations of the likes of "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, "Manhattan Transfer" by John Dos Passos, "The Stranger" by Albert Camus, "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Herzog" by Saul Bellow, "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck, "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse, and "A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemingway.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 2006, Vargas Llosa wrote "The Bad Girl" ("Travesuras de la niña mala"), which journalist Kathryn Harrison argues is a rewrite (rather than simply a recycling) of Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" (1856). In Vargas Llosa's version, the plot relates the decades-long obsession of its narrator, a Peruvian expatriate in Paris, with a woman with whom he first fell in love when both were teenagers.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Like many other Latin American intellectuals, Vargas Llosa was initially a supporter of the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro. He studied Marxism in depth as a university student and was later persuaded by communist ideals after the success of the Cuban Revolution. Gradually, Vargas Llosa came to believe that socialism was incompatible with what he considered to be general liberties and freedoms. The official rupture between the writer and the policies of the Cuban government occurred with the so-called 'Padilla Affair', when the Castro regime imprisoned the poet Heberto Padilla for a month in 1971. Vargas Llosa, along with other intellectuals of the time, wrote to Castro protesting the Cuban political system and its imprisonment of the artist. Vargas Llosa has identified himself with liberalism rather than extreme left-wing political ideologies ever since. Since he relinquished his earlier leftism, he has opposed both left- and right-wing authoritarian regimes.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: With his appointment to the Investigatory Commission on the in 1983, he experienced what literary critic Jean Franco calls "the most uncomfortable event in [his] political career". Unfortunately for Vargas Llosa, his involvement with the Investigatory Commission led to immediate negative reactions and defamation from the Peruvian press; many suggested that the massacre was a conspiracy to keep the journalists from reporting the presence of government paramilitary forces in Uchuraccay. The commission concluded that it was the indigenous villagers who had been responsible for the killings; for Vargas Llosa the incident showed "how vulnerable democracy is in Latin America and how easily it dies under dictatorships of the right and left". These conclusions, and Vargas Llosa personally, came under intense criticism: anthropologist Enrique Mayer, for instance, accused him of "paternalism", while fellow anthropologist Carlos Iván Degregori criticized him for his ignorance of the Andean world. Vargas Llosa was accused of actively colluding in a government cover-up of army involvement in the massacre. American Latin American literature scholar Misha Kokotovic summarizes that the novelist was charged with seeing "indigenous cultures as a 'primitive' obstacle to the full realization of his Western model of modernity". Shocked both by the atrocity itself and then by the reaction his report had provoked, Vargas Llosa responded that his critics were apparently more concerned with his report than with the hundreds of peasants who later died at the hands of the Sendero Luminoso guerrilla organization.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In 1987, he helped form and soon became a leader of the center-right party Movimiento Libertad. The following year his party entered a coalition with the parties of Peru's two principal conservative politicians at the time, ex-president Fernando Belaúnde Terry (of the Popular Action party) and Luis Bedoya Reyes (of the "Partido Popular Cristiano"), to form the tripartite center-right coalition known as "Frente Democrático" (FREDEMO). He ran for the presidency of Peru in 1990 as the candidate of the FREDEMO coalition with the support of the United States. He proposed neoliberal policies similar to Fujimori that included a drastic economic austerity program that frightened most of the country's poor; this program emphasized the need for privatization, a market economy, free trade, and most importantly, the dissemination of private property. Although he won the first round with 34% of the vote, Vargas Llosa was defeated by a then-unknown agricultural engineer, Alberto Fujimori, in the subsequent run-off. Vargas Llosa included an account of his run for the presidency in the memoir "A Fish in the Water" ("El pez en el agua", 1993). Since his political defeat, he has focused mainly on his writing, with only occasional political involvement.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: A month after losing the election, at the invitation of Octavio Paz, Vargas Llosa attended a conference in Mexico entitled, "The 20th Century: The Experience of Freedom". Focused on the collapse of communist rule in central and eastern Europe, it was broadcast on Mexican television from 27 August to 2 September. Addressing the conference on 30 August 1990, Vargas Llosa embarrassed his hosts by condemning the Mexican system of power based on the rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had been in power for 61 years. Criticizing the PRI by name, he commented, "I don't believe that there has been in Latin America any case of a system of dictatorship which has so efficiently recruited the intellectual milieu, bribing it with great subtlety." He declared, "Mexico is the perfect dictatorship. The perfect dictatorship is not communism, not the USSR, not Fidel Castro; the perfect dictatorship is Mexico. Because it is a camouflaged dictatorship." The statement, "Mexico is the perfect dictatorship" became a cliché in Mexico and internationally, until the PRI fell from power in 2000.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa has mainly lived in Madrid since the 1990s, but spends roughly three months of the year in Peru with his extended family. He also frequently visits London where he occasionally spends long periods. Vargas Llosa acquired Spanish citizenship in 1993, though he still holds Peruvian nationality. The writer often reiterates his love for both countries. In his Nobel speech he observed: "I carry Peru deep inside me because that is where I was born, grew up, was formed, and lived those experiences of childhood and youth that shaped my personality and forged my calling". He then added: "I love Spain as much as Peru, and my debt to her is as great as my gratitude. If not for Spain, I never would have reached this podium or become a known writer".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Mario Vargas Llosa served as a visiting professor of Latin American studies at Harvard University during the 1992–1993 academic year. Harvard later recognized Vargas Llosa by conferring upon him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1999. In 1994 he was elected a member of the "Real Academia Española" (Royal Spanish Academy), he took up seat L on 15 January 1996. Vargas Llosa joined the Mont Pelerin Society in 2014. He is also a member of Washington, D.C. based think tank, the Inter-American Dialogue.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: He has been involved in the Spain's political arena. In February 2008 he stopped supporting the People's Party in favor of the recently created Union, Progress and Democracy, claiming that certain conservative views held by the former party are at odds with his classical liberal beliefs. His political ideologies appear in the book "Política razonable", written with Fernando Savater, Rosa Díez, Álvaro Pombo, Albert Boadella and Carlos Martínez Gorriarán. He continues to write, both journalism and fiction, and to travel extensively. He has also taught as a visiting professor at a number of prominent universities.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In April 2011, the writer took part in the 2011 Peruvian general election by saying he was going to vote for Alejandro Toledo (Peruvian former president 2001–2006). After casting his vote, he said his country should stay in the path of legality and freedom.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa is opposed to Catalan independence from Spain. Attending an anti-independence rally in October 2017, he said: "Spanish democracy is here to stay. No separatist conspiracy can destroy it." In 2021 he attended a rally against the pardon of the Catalan independence leaders in Madrid.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Since her introduction into politics, Vargas Llosa has had a complex opinion on far-right politician Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the authoritarian president of Peru Alberto Fujimori. During her candidacy in the 2011 Peruvian general election, Vargas Llosa said "the worst option is that of Keiko Fujimori because it means the legitimation of one of the worst dictatorships that Peru has had in its history". After Fujimori announced her candidacy for the 2016 Peruvian general election, Vargas Llosa said in 2014 "Keiko is the daughter of a murderer and a thief who is imprisoned, tried by civil courts with international observers, sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and theft. I do not want her to win the elections". However, in the second round of the 2021 Peruvian general election, Vargas Llosa expressed support for Keiko, sharing opposition to far-left candidate Pedro Castillo and describing Fujimori as the "lesser of two evils".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: During the 2021 Chilean general elections, Vargas Llosa expressed support for José Antonio Kast, the far-right candidate for president who defended the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa was named in both the Panama Papers (2016) and Pandora Papers (2021) released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. According to IDL-Reporteros, the British Virgin Islands company Melek Investing Inc. was documented to be owned by Vargas Llosa was used for book royalty profits and the sale of real estate in London and Madrid. Following the Panama Papers leak in 2016, Carmen Balcells said on behalf of Vargas Llosa that investments were made "without the consent of Messrs. Vargas Llosa" while in the 2021 Pandora Papers leaks, Javier Martín, a representative of Vargas Llosa, said the writer "was not aware of the ownership of that company". IDL-Reporteros provided a document showing Vargas Llosa's signature on a "Consent to Act as Director" form for Melek Investing Inc. as part of the 2021 leak.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa's style encompasses historical material as well as his own personal experiences. For example, in his first novel, "The Time of the Hero", his own experiences at the Leoncio Prado military school informed his depiction of the corrupt social institution which mocked the moral standards it was supposed to uphold. Furthermore, the corruption of the book's school is a reflection of the corruption of Peruvian society at the time the novel was written. Vargas Llosa frequently uses his writing to challenge the inadequacies of society, such as demoralization and oppression by those in political power towards those who challenge this power. One of the main themes he has explored in his writing is the individual's struggle for freedom within an oppressive reality. For example, his two-volume novel "Conversation in the Cathedral" is based on the tyrannical dictatorship of Peruvian President Manuel A. Odría. The protagonist, Santiago, rebels against the suffocating dictatorship by participating in the subversive activities of leftist political groups. In addition to themes such as corruption and oppression, Vargas Llosa's second novel, "The Green House", explores "a denunciation of Peru's basic institutions", dealing with issues of abuse and exploitation of the workers in the brothel by corrupt military officers.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Many of Vargas Llosa's earlier novels were set in Peru, while in more recent work he has expanded to other regions of Latin America, such as Brazil and the Dominican Republic. His responsibilities as a writer and lecturer have allowed him to travel frequently and led to settings for his novels in regions outside of Peru. "The War of the End of the World" was his first major work set outside Peru. Though the plot deals with historical events of the Canudos revolt against the Brazilian government, the novel is not based directly on historical fact; rather, its main inspiration is the non-fiction account of those events published by Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha in 1902. "The Feast of the Goat", based on the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, takes place in the Dominican Republic; in preparation for this novel, Vargas Llosa undertook a comprehensive study of Dominican history. The novel was characteristically realist, and Vargas Llosa underscores that he "respected the basic facts, ... I have not exaggerated", but at the same time he points out "It's a novel, not a history book, so I took many, many liberties."


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: One of Vargas Llosa's more recent novels, "The Way to Paradise" ("El paraíso en la otra esquina"), is set largely in France and Tahiti. Based on the biography of former social reformer Flora Tristan, it demonstrates how Flora and Paul Gauguin were unable to find paradise, but were still able to inspire followers to keep working towards a socialist utopia. Unfortunately, Vargas Llosa was not as successful in transforming these historical figures into fiction. Some critics, such as Barbara Mujica, argue that "The Way to Paradise" lacks the "audacity, energy, political vision, and narrative genius" that was present in his previous works.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: The works of Mario Vargas Llosa are viewed as both modernist and postmodernist novels. Though there is still much debate over the differences between modernist and postmodernist literature, literary scholar M. Keith Booker claims that the difficulty and technical complexity of Vargas Llosa's early works, such as "The Green House" and "Conversation in the Cathedral", are clearly elements of the modern novel. Furthermore, these earlier novels all carry a certain seriousness of attitude—another important defining aspect of modernist art. By contrast, his later novels such as "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service", "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter", "The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta", and "The Storyteller" ("El hablador") appear to follow a postmodernist mode of writing. These novels have a much lighter, farcical, and comic tone, characteristics of postmodernism. Comparing two of Vargas Llosa's novels, "The Green House" and "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service", Booker discusses the contrast between modernism and postmodernism found in the writer's works: while both novels explore the theme of prostitution as well as the workings of the Peruvian military, Booker points out that the former is gravely serious whereas the latter is ridiculously comic.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Literary scholar M. Keith Booker argues that Vargas Llosa perfects the technique of interlacing dialogues in his novel "The Green House". By combining two conversations that occur at different times, he creates the illusion of a flashback. Vargas Llosa also sometimes uses this technique as a means of shifting location by weaving together two concurrent conversations happening in different places. This technique is a staple of his repertoire, which he began using near the end of his first novel, "The Time of the Hero". However, he does not use interlacing dialogues in the same way in all of his novels. For example, in "The Green House" the technique is used in a serious fashion to achieve a sober tone and to focus on the interrelatedness of important events separated in time or space. In contrast, "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service" employs this strategy for comic effects and uses simpler spatial shifts. This device is similar to both Virginia Woolf's mixing of different characters' soliloquies and Gustave Flaubert's counterpoint technique in which he blends together conversation with other events, such as speeches. This was seen to occur yet again in Vargas Llosa's most current work, "Tiempos Recios," as two dialogues, one between Trujillo and Castillo Armas, and another between Trujillo and Abbes García, are juxtaposed.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa's first literary influences were relatively obscure Peruvian writers such as Martín Adán, Carlos Oquendo de Amat, and César Moro. As a young writer, he looked to these revolutionary novelists in search of new narrative structures and techniques in order to delineate a more contemporary, multifaceted experience of urban Peru. He was looking for a style different from the traditional descriptions of land and rural life made famous by Peru's foremost novelist at the time, José María Arguedas. Vargas Llosa wrote of Arguedas's work that it was "an example of old-fashioned regionalism that had already exhausted its imaginary possibilities". Although he did not share Arguedas's passion for indigenous reality, Vargas Llosa admired and respected the novelist for his contributions to Peruvian literature. Indeed, he has published a book-length study on his work, "La utopía arcaica" (1996).


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Rather than restrict himself to Peruvian literature, Vargas Llosa also looked abroad for literary inspiration. Two French figures, existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and novelist Gustave Flaubert, influenced both his technique and style. Sartre's influence is most prevalent in Vargas Llosa's extensive use of conversation. The epigraph of "The Time of the Hero", his first novel, is also taken directly from Sartre's work. Flaubert's artistic independence—his novels' disregard of reality and morals—has always been admired by Vargas Llosa, who wrote a book-length study of Flaubert's aesthetics, "The Perpetual Orgy". In his analysis of Flaubert, Vargas Llosa questions the revolutionary power of literature in a political setting; this is in contrast to his earlier view that "literature is an act of rebellion", thus marking a transition in Vargas Llosa's aesthetic beliefs. Other critics such as Sabine Köllmann argue that his belief in the transforming power of literature is one of the great continuities that characterize his fictional and non-fictional work, and link his early statement that 'Literature is Fire' with his Nobel Prize Speech 'In Praise of Reading and Writing'.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: One of Vargas Llosa's favourite novelists, and arguably the most influential on his writing career, is the American William Faulkner. Vargas Llosa considers Faulkner "the writer who perfected the methods of the modern novel". Both writers' styles include intricate changes in time and narration. In "The Time of the Hero", for example, aspects of Vargas Llosa's plot, his main character's development and his use of narrative time are influenced by his favourite Faulkner novel, "Light in August".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: In addition to the studies of Arguedas and Flaubert, Vargas Llosa has written literary criticisms of other authors that he has admired, such as Gabriel García Márquez, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, and Jean-Paul Sartre. The main goals of his non-fiction works are to acknowledge the influence of these authors on his writing, and to recognize a connection between himself and the other writers; critic Sara Castro-Klarén argues that he offers little systematic analysis of these authors' literary techniques. In "The Perpetual Orgy", for example, he discusses the relationship between his own aesthetics and Flaubert's, rather than focusing on Flaubert's alone.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: As of 2015, Vargas Llosa is in a relationship with Filipina Spanish socialite and TV personality Isabel Preysler and seeking a divorce from Patricia Llosa. He is an agnostic, "I was not a believer, nor was I an atheist either, but, rather, an agnostic".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: As for hobbies, he is fond of association football and is a supporter of Universitario de Deportes. The writer himself has confessed in his book "A Fish in the Water" since childhood he has been a fan of the 'cream colored' team from Peru, which was first seen in the field one day in 1946 when he was only 10 years old. In February 2011, Vargas Llosa was awarded an honorary life membership of this football club, in a ceremony which took place in the Monumental Stadium of Lima.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Mario Vargas Llosa is considered a major Latin American writer, alongside other authors such as Octavio Paz, Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Isabel Allende. In his book "The New Novel in Latin America" ("La Nueva Novela"), Fuentes offers an in-depth literary criticism of the positive influence Vargas Llosa's work has had on Latin American literature. Indeed, for the literary critic Gerald Martin, writing in 1987, Vargas Llosa was "perhaps the most successful ... certainly the most controversial Latin American novelist of the past twenty-five years".


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Most of Vargas Llosa's narratives have been translated into multiple languages, marking his international critical success. Vargas Llosa is also noted for his substantial contribution to journalism, an accomplishment characteristic of few other Latin American writers. He is recognized among those who have most consciously promoted literature in general, and more specifically the novel itself, as avenues for meaningful commentary about life. During his career, he has written more than a dozen novels and many other books and stories, and, for decades, he has been a voice for Latin American literature.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: A number of Vargas Llosa's works have been adapted for the screen, including "The Time of the Hero" and "Captain Pantoja and the Special Service" (both by the Peruvian director Francisco Lombardi) and "The Feast of the Goat" (by Vargas Llosa's cousin, Luis Llosa). "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter" was turned into the English-language film, "Tune in Tomorrow". "The Feast of the Goat" has also been adapted as a theatrical play by Jorge Alí Triana, a Colombian playwright and director.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa has won numerous awards for his writing, from the 1959 "Premio Leopoldo Alas" and the 1962 "Premio Biblioteca Breve" to the 1993 "Premio Planeta" (for "Death in the Andes") and the Jerusalem Prize in 1995. The literary critic Harold Bloom has included his novel "The War of the End of the World" in his list of essential literary works in the Western Canon.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: An important distinction he has received is the 1994 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, considered the most important accolade in Spanish-language literature and awarded to authors whose "work has contributed to enrich, in a notable way, the literary patrimony of the Spanish language". In 2002, Vargas was the recipient of the PEN/Nabokov Award. Vargas Llosa also received the 2005 Irving Kristol Award from the American Enterprise Institute and was the 2008 recipient of the Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholar and Writers Award at Dickinson College.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: On 7 October 2010 the Swedish Academy announced that the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat." The decision to award Vargas Llosa the Nobel Prize in Literature was well received around the world.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: On 18 November 2010, Vargas Llosa received the honorary degree Degree of Letters from the City College of New York of the City University of New York, where he also delivered the President's Lecture.


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: On 4 February 2011, Vargas Llosa was raised into the Spanish nobility by King Juan Carlos I with the hereditary title of "Marqués de Vargas Llosa" ("Marquess of Vargas Llosa").


title: Mario Vargas Llosa

text: Vargas Llosa's essays and journalism have been collected as "Contra viento y marea", issued in three volumes (1983, 1986, and 1990). A selection has been edited by John King and translated and published as "Making Waves".


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: Patagonia, Inc. is an American retailer of outdoor clothing. It was founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973 and is based in Ventura, California. Patagonia operates stores in 10+ countries globally, as well as factories in 16 countries.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: Yvon Chouinard, an accomplished rock climber, began selling hand-forged mountain climbing gear in 1957 through his company Chouinard Equipment. He worked alone selling his gear until 1965, when he partnered with Tom Frost in order to improve his products and address the growing supply and demand issue he faced.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In 1970, Chouinard obtained rugby shirts from Scotland that he wore while climbing because the collar kept the climbing sling from hurting his neck.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: Great Pacific Iron Works, Patagonia's first store, opened in 1973 in the former Hobson meat-packing plant at Santa Clara St. in Ventura, near Chouinard's blacksmith shop. In 1981, Patagonia and Chouinard Equipment were incorporated within Great Pacific Iron Works. In 1984, Chouinard changed the name of Great Pacific Iron Works to Lost Arrow Corporation.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: Patagonia has expanded its product line to include apparel targeted towards other sports, such as surfing. In addition to clothing, they offer other related products, including camping food. By the late 2010s, branded Patagonia fleece vests became known for their use by financial executives, and in 2019, Patagonia announced that it would restrict distribution of branded products to firms committed to Environmental, social, and corporate governance initiatives.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In September 2020, Patagonia announced that Rose Marcario would step down as its chief executive officer and be succeeded by Ryan Gellert.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In September 2022, Chouinard transferred ownership of Patagonia to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, a trust overseen by the Chouinard family and advisors. Chouinard's stated goal was for profits to be used to address climate change and protect land. The move allows Chouinard to avoid taxes by gifting his shares to a nonprofit holding company, while effectively maintaining control of the company.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In 2007 and 2011, internal audits revealed that factories in Patagonia's production supply chain were involved in human trafficking, leading to company efforts to address the labor abuses.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In December 2021, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights filed a criminal complaint in a Dutch court against Patagonia and other brands, alleging that they benefited from the use of forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In June 2016, Patagonia released a set of principles for the treatment of animals used to manufacture wool garments, as well as land-use practices and sustainability.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In April 2017, Patagonia announced that merchandise in good condition can be returned for new merchandise credits. The used merchandise is cleaned, repaired and sold on its "Worn Wear" website. In 2019, it launched a program named ReCrafted that creates and sells clothing made from scraps of fabric coming from used Patagonia gear.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: As of 2019, the firm aims to become carbon neutral by 2025. Patagonia uses a circular economy strategy in their product design, In 2021, Patagonia announced that it would no longer produce its clothing with added corporate logos to improve garment life-spans.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: Patagonia commits 1% of its total sales to environmental groups, since 1985 through One Percent for the Planet, an organization of which Yvon Chouinard was a founding member. In 2015, the firm launched Common Threads Partnership, an online auction-style platform that facilitated direct sales of used Patagonia clothing. In 2016, Patagonia pledged to contribute 100% of sales from Black Friday to environmental organizations, totaling $10 million. In June 2018, the company announced that it would donate the $10 million it received from President Trump's 2017 tax cuts to "groups committed to protecting air, land and water and finding solutions to the climate crisis."


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In February 2017, Patagonia led a boycott of the Outdoor Retailer trade show, which traditionally took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, because of the Utah state legislature's introduction of legislation that would transfer federal lands to the state. Patagonia also opposed Utah Governor Gary Herbert's request that the Trump administration revoke the recently designated Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. After several companies joined the Patagonia-led boycott, event organizer Emerald Expositions said it would not accept a proposal from Utah to continue hosting the Outdoor Retailer trade show and would instead move the event to another state.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: On December 6, 2017, Patagonia sued the United States Government and President Donald Trump for his proclamations of reducing the protected land of Bears Ears National Monument by 85% and the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument by almost 50%. Patagonia sued over the interpretation of the in which the country vests Congress with the power to manage federal lands. The company's then-CEO, Rose Marcario, contends that when Congress passed the Antiquities Act of 1906, it did not give any president the power to reverse a prior president's monument designations.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: In July 2020, Patagonia suspended its advertising on Facebook and Facebook's photo-sharing app, Instagram, as part of the "Stop Hate for Profit" campaign, which some U.S. civil rights organizations launched because they believed the social networking company was doing too little to curb hate speech on its sites.


title: Patagonia, Inc.

text: On April 5, 2021, Patagonia pledged $1 million to the activist groups Black Voters Matter and the New Georgia Project, regarding voter registration laws in Georgia.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Albert Kesselring (30 November 1885 – 16 July 1960) was a German "Generalfeldmarschall" of the Luftwaffe during World War II who was subsequently convicted of war crimes. In a military career that spanned both world wars, Kesselring became one of Nazi Germany's most highly decorated commanders, being one of only 27 soldiers awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Kesselring joined the Bavarian Army as an officer cadet in 1904 and served in the artillery branch. He completed training as a balloon observer in 1912. During World War I he served on both the Western and Eastern fronts and was posted to the General Staff, despite not having attended the War Academy. Kesselring remained in the army after the war, but was discharged in 1933 to become head of the Department of Administration at the Reich Commissariat for Aviation, where he became involved in the re-establishment of the German aviation industry and the laying of the foundations for the Luftwaffe, serving as its chief of staff from 1936 to 1938.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: During World War II he commanded air forces in the invasions of Poland and France, the Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa. As "Wehrmacht" Commander-in-Chief South, he was the overall German commander in the Mediterranean theatre, which included the operations in North Africa. Kesselring conducted a defensive campaign against the Allied forces in Italy until he was injured in an accident in October 1944. In his final campaign of the war, he commanded German forces on the Western Front. He won the respect of his Allied opponents for his military accomplishments, but his record also included massacres committed on his orders in Italy.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: After the war, Kesselring was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death for ordering the murder of 335 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine massacre, and for inciting and ordering his troops to kill civilians in reprisals against the Italian resistance movement. The sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. A political and media campaign resulted in his release in 1952, ostensibly on health grounds. He published his memoirs, "Soldat bis zum letzten Tag" ("A Soldier to the Last Day"), in 1953. Kesselring accepted the honorary presidency of three veterans' organisations: the "Luftwaffenring", consisting of Luftwaffe veterans; the "Verband Deutsches Afrikakorps", the veterans' association of the "Afrika Korps"; and, more controversially, the right-wing "Der Stahlhelm".


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Albert Kesselring was born in Marktsteft, Bavaria, on 30 November 1885, the son of Carl Adolf Kesselring, a schoolmaster and town councillor, and his wife Rosina, Carl's second cousin. Albert's early years were spent in Marktsteft, where relatives had operated a brewery since 1688.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Graduating from the Christian Ernestinum Secondary School in Bayreuth in 1904, Kesselring joined the German Army as a "Fahnenjunker" (officer cadet) in the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment. The regiment was based at Metz and was responsible for maintaining its forts. He remained with the regiment until 1915, except for periods at the Military Academy from 1905 to 1906, after which he received his commission as a "Leutnant" (lieutenant), and at the School of Artillery and Engineering in Munich from 1909 to 1910.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: In 1910, Kesselring married Luise Anna Pauline (Liny) Keyssler, the daughter of an apothecary from Bayreuth. Their marriage was childless, but in 1913 they adopted Rainer, the son of Albert's second cousin Kurt Kesselring. In 1912, Kesselring completed training as a balloon observer in a dirigible section – an early sign of an interest in aviation. Kesselring's superiors considered posting him to the School of Artillery and Engineering as an instructor because of his expertise in "the interplay between tactics and technology".


title: Albert Kesselring

text: During World War I, Kesselring served with his regiment in Lorraine until the end of 1914, when he was transferred to the 1st Bavarian Foot Artillery, which formed part of the Sixth Army. On 19 May 1916, he was promoted to "Hauptmann" (captain). In 1916 he was transferred again, to the 3rd Bavarian Foot Artillery. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Arras in 1917, "by his tireless and assiduous work, and by the preparation of clear and carefully constructed orders", despite being on duty for over twenty hours, and succeeded in halting the British advance. For his services on the Western Front, he was decorated with the Iron Cross 2nd Class and 1st Class.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: In 1917, he was posted to the General Staff, despite not having attended the Bavarian War Academy. He served on the Eastern Front on the staff of the 2nd Bavarian "Landwehr" Division. His experience here shaped his subsequent anti-communist political outlook. In January 1918, he returned to the Western Front as a staff officer with the II and III Royal Bavarian Corps.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: After the war, Kesselring was involved in the demobilisation of III Royal Bavarian Corps in the Nuremberg area, as mandated by the Treaty of Versailles. A dispute with the leader of the local right-wing paramilitary "Freikorps" led to the issuance of an arrest warrant for his alleged involvement in a "putsch" against the command of III Bavarian Corps, and Kesselring was thrown into prison. He was soon released, but his superior, Major Hans Seyler, censured him for having "failed to display the requisite discretion".


title: Albert Kesselring

text: From 1919 to 1922, Kesselring served as a battery commander with the 24th Artillery Regiment. He joined the "Reichswehr" on 1 October 1922 and was posted to the Military Training Department at the Ministry of the "Reichswehr" in Berlin. He remained at this post until 1929 when he returned to Bavaria as commander of Wehrkreis VII in Munich. In his time with the "Reichswehr" Ministry, Kesselring was involved in the organisation of the army, trimming staff overheads to produce the best possible army with the limited resources available. He helped re-organise the Ordnance Department, laying the groundwork for the research and development efforts that would produce new weapons. He was involved in secret military manoeuvres held in the Soviet Union in 1924 and the so-called Great Plan for a 102-division army, which was prepared in 1923 and 1924. Following the recommendation of a commission headed by Kesselring in 1929, aviation officers and agencies were consolidated into an inspectorate of aviation. After another brief stint at the Ministry of the "Reichswehr", Kesselring was promoted to "Oberstleutnant" (lieutenant colonel) in 1930 and spent two years in Dresden with the 4th Artillery Regiment.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Kesselring was discharged from the "Reichswehr" in 1933 against his wishes, and appointed head of the Department of Administration at the Reich Commissariat for Aviation ("Reichskommissariat für die Luftfahrt"), the forerunner of the Reich Air Ministry ("Reichsluftfahrtministerium") (RLM), with the rank of "Oberst" (colonel) in 1934. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from establishing an air force, this was nominally a civilian agency. The Luftwaffe was not formally established until 26 February 1935. He was involved in the re-establishment of the aviation industry and the construction of secret factories, forging alliances with industrialists and aviation engineers.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Promotion in the Luftwaffe was rapid; Kesselring was promoted to "Generalmajor" on 1 October 1934, and "Generalleutnant" on 1 April 1936. Like other generals of Nazi Germany, he received personal monthly payments from Adolf Hitler, in Kesselring's case , a considerable sum at the time.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: At the age of 48, Kesselring learned to fly, following the old military doctrine that officers should not ask their men to do anything they would not do themselves. He later stated that first-hand knowledge of all aspects of aviation was essential to being able to command airmen, although he was well aware that latecomers like himself did not impress the old pioneers or the young aviators. He qualified in various single- and multi-engine aircraft and continued flying three or four days per week until March 1945.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Following the death of "Generalleutnant" Walther Wever in an air crash, Kesselring became Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe on 3 June 1936. In that post, Kesselring oversaw the expansion of the Luftwaffe, the acquisition of new aircraft types such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive-bomber, and the development of paratroops.


title: Albert Kesselring

text: Kesselring's main operational task during this time was the support of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War. His tenure was marred by personal and professional conflicts with his superior, "General der Flieger" Erhard Milch, and Kesselring asked to be retired. Kesselring's conflict with Milch was in contrast to his predecessor, Wever. Overall it has been surmised that Kesselring was not an effective chief of staff, primarily because he lacked Wever's strategic insight. Kesselring requested a transfer to a field command, and the head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, gave him command of "Luftgau III" (Air District III) in Dresden. Kesselring was promoted to "General der Flieger" in 1937, and became commander of "Luftflotte 1" in 1938, until January 1940.