Description.

It is a medium-size to large deciduous coniferous tree reaching 20–50 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter. The crown is conic when young, becoming broad with age; the main branches are level to upswept, with the side branches often pendulous. The shoots are dimorphic, with growth divided into long shoots (typically 10–50 cm long) and bearing several buds, and short shoots only 1–2 mm long with only a single bud. It has bimorphic needles, with needles on new growth borne singly and arranged in a spiral around the branch and needles on older wood borne in clusters of 15-40 needles on short spurs. It is most easily distinguished from the closely related European larch by the shoots being downy (hairless in European larch). The leaves are needle-like, light green, 2–5 cm long, and turn bright yellow before they fall in the autumn, leaving the pale yellow-buff shoots bare until the next spring.  The male and female cones are borne separately on the same tree; pollination is in early spring. The male cones are solitary, yellow, globose to oblong, 4–8 mm diameter, and produce wingless pollen. The mature female cones are erect, ovoid-conic, 2–5 cm long, with 30-70 erect or slightly incurved (not reflexed) and downy seed scales; they are green variably flushed red when immature, turning brown and opening to release the winged seeds when mature, 4–6 months after pollination. The old cones commonly remain on the tree for many years, turning dull grey-black. The minimum seed-bearing age is 10–15 years.

Uses.

Because of its rot resistance, larch wood is especially valuable for posts, poles, railroad tie sleepers, and mine props.  It is also used in many velodromes around the world as the track surface including the Manchester Velodrome and the Velodrome Krylatskoye in Moscow.  It is grown in Canada and the northern United States to a limited extent, first cultivated there in 1806. It was also introduced to Iceland and Greenland.  It is faster-growing than many other coniferous trees in cold regions, but requires full sunlight. When grown in plantations it should be kept widely spaced, and intensive thinning is required.  Resin of siberian larch (as well as of siberian cedar) is used as a natural chewing gum, which is commercially produced by several manufacturers in Russia.  "Larix sibirica" cone scales are used as food by the caterpillars of the tortrix moth "Cydia illutana".

Larix sibirica, the Siberian larch or Russian larch, is a frost-hardy tree native to western Russia, from close to the Finnish border east to the Yenisei valley in central Siberia, where it hybridises with the Dahurian larch "L. gmelinii" of eastern Siberia; the hybrid is known as "Larix × czekanowskii".

新疆落叶松(学名:)是松科落叶松属的植物。分布于蒙古、俄罗斯以及中国大陆的新疆等地,生长于海拔1,000米至3,500米的地区,多生在混交林下以及林中,目前尚未由人工引种栽培。


Name.

If analyzed quantitatively in terms of flatness and thickness, the discovered "mono-monostatic" body (defined in §History) body is the most sphere-like, apart from the sphere itself. Because of this, it was named gömböc, a diminutive form of "gömb" ("sphere" in Hungarian). The word "gömböc" referred originally to a sausage-like food: seasoned pork filled in pig-stomach, similar to haggis. There is a Hungarian folk tale about an anthropomorphic gömböc that swallows several people whole.

History.

In geometry, a body with a single stable resting position is called "monostatic", and the term "mono-monostatic" has been coined to describe a body which additionally has only one unstable point of balance. (The previously known monostatic polyhedron does not qualify, as it has three unstable equilibria.) A sphere weighted so that its center of mass is shifted from the geometrical center is a mono-monostatic body. A more common example is the Comeback Kid, Weeble or roly-poly toy (see left figure). Not only does it have a low center of mass, but it also has a specific shape. At equilibrium, the center of mass and the contact point are on the line perpendicular to the ground. When the toy is pushed, its center of mass rises and also shifts away from that line. This produces a righting moment which returns the toy to the equilibrium position.  The above examples of mono-monostatic objects are necessarily inhomogeneous, that is, the density of their material varies across their body. The question of whether it is possible to construct a three-dimensional body which is mono-monostatic but also homogeneous and convex was raised by Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold in 1995. The requirement of being convex is essential as it is trivial to construct a mono-monostatic non-convex body (an example would be a ball with a cavity inside it). Convex means that a straight line between any two points on a body lies inside the body, or, in other words, that the surface has no sunken regions but instead bulges outward (or is at least flat) at every point. It was already well known, from a geometrical and topological generalization of the classical four-vertex theorem, that a plane curve has at least four extrema of curvature, specifically, at least two local maxima and at least two local minima (see right figure), meaning that a (convex) mono-monostatic object does not exist in two dimensions. Whereas a common anticipation was that a three-dimensional body should also have at least four extrema, Arnold conjectured that this number could be smaller.

Mathematical solution.

The problem was solved in 2006 by Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi. Domokos is an engineer and is the head of Mechanics, Materials and Structures at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Since 2004, he has been the youngest member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Várkonyi was trained as an architect; he was a student of Domokos and a silver medalist at the International Physics Olympiad in 1997. After staying as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University in 2006–2007, he assumed an assistant professor position at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Domokos had previously been working on mono-monostatic bodies. In 1995 he met Arnold at a major mathematics conference in Hamburg, where Arnold presented a plenary talk illustrating that most geometrical problems have four solutions or extremal points. In a personal discussion, however, Arnold questioned whether four is a requirement for mono-monostatic bodies and encouraged Domokos to seek examples with fewer equilibria.  The rigorous proof of the solution can be found in references of their work. The summary of the results is that the three-dimensional homogeneous convex (mono-monostatic) body, which has one stable and one unstable equilibrium point, does exist and is not unique. Such bodies are hard to visualize, describe or identify. Their form is dissimilar to any typical representative of any other equilibrium geometrical class. They should have minimal "flatness", and, to avoid having two unstable equilibria, must also have minimal "thinness". They are the only non-degenerate objects having simultaneously minimal flatness and thinness. The shape of those bodies is very sensitive to small variation, outside which it is no longer mono-monostatic. For example, the first solution of Domokos and Várkonyi closely resembled a sphere, with a shape deviation of only 10. It was dismissed, as it was extremely hard to test experimentally. Their published solution was less sensitive; yet it has a shape tolerance of 10, that is 0.1 mm for a 10 cm size.  Domokos and his wife developed a classification system for shapes based on their points of equilibrium by analyzing pebbles and noting their equilibrium points. In one experiment, they tried 2,000 pebbles collected on the beaches of the Greek island of Rhodes and found not a single mono-monostatic body among them, illustrating the difficulty of finding or constructing such a body.  The solution of Domokos and Várkonyi has curved edges and resembles a sphere with a squashed top. In the top figure, it rests in its stable equilibrium. Its unstable equilibrium position is obtained by rotating the figure 180° about a horizontal axis. Theoretically, it will rest there, but the smallest perturbation will bring it back to the stable point. The mathematical gömböc has sphere-like properties. In particular, its flatness and thinness are minimal, and this is the only type of nondegenerate object with this property. Domokos and Várkonyi are interested to find a polyhedral solution with the surface consisting of a minimal number of flat planes. Therefore, they offer a prize to anyone who finds such solution, which amounts to $10,000 divided by the number of planes in the solution. Obviously, one can approximate a curvilinear gömböc with a finite number of discrete surfaces; however, their estimate is that it would take thousands of planes to achieve that. They hope, by offering this prize, to stimulate finding a radically different solution from their own.

Relation to animals.

The balancing properties of the gömböc are associated with the "righting response"  — the ability to turn back when placed upside down  — of shelled animals such as tortoises and beetles. This may happen in a fight or predator attack and is crucial for their survival. The presence of only one stable and unstable point in a gömböc means that it would return to one equilibrium position no matter how it is pushed or turned around. Whereas relatively flat animals (such as beetles) heavily rely on momentum and thrust developed by moving their limbs and wings, the limbs of many dome-shaped tortoises are too short to be of use in righting themselves.  Domokos and Várkonyi spent a year measuring tortoises in the Budapest Zoo, Hungarian Museum of Natural History and various pet shops in Budapest, digitizing and analyzing their shells, and attempting to "explain" their body shapes and functions from their geometry work. Their first biology paper was rejected five times, but finally accepted by the biology journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society". It was then immediately popularized in several science news reports, including those of the most prestigious science journals "Nature" and "Science". The reported model can be summarized as flat shells in tortoises are advantageous for swimming and digging. However, the sharp shell edges hinder the rolling. Those tortoises usually have long legs and neck and actively use them to push the ground, in order to return to the normal position if placed upside down. On the contrary, "rounder" tortoises easily roll on their own; those have shorter limbs and use them little when recovering lost balance. (Some limb movement would always be needed because of imperfect shell shape, ground conditions, etc.) Round shells also resist better the crushing jaws of a predator and are better for thermal regulation.  The explanation of tortoise body shape, using the gömböc theory, has already been accepted by some biologists. For example, Robert McNeill Alexander, one of the pioneers of modern biomechanics, used it in his plenary lecture on optimization in evolution in 2008.

Relation to pebbles.

The gömböc has motivated research about the evolution of natural shapes: while gömböc-shaped pebbles are rare, the connection between geometric shape and the number of static balance points appears to be a key to understand natural shape evolution: both experimental and numerical evidence indicates that the number of static equilibrium points of sedimentary particles is being reduced in natural abrasion. This observation helped to identify the geometric partial differential equations governing this process and these models provided key evidence not only on the provenance of Martian pebbles, but also on the shape of the interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua.

Engineering applications.

Due to their vicinity to the sphere, all mono-monostatic shapes have very small tolerance for imperfections and even for the physical gömböc design this tolerance is daunting (<0.01%). Nevertheless, if we drop the requirement of homogeneity, the gömböc design serves as a good starting geometry if we want to find the optimal shape for self-righting objects carrying bottom weights. This inspired engineers designing gömböc-like cages for drones exposed to mid-air collisions. A team from MIT and Harvard proposed a Gömböc-inspired capsule that releases insulin in the stomach and could replace injections for patients with type-1 diabetes. The key element of the new capsule is its ability to find a unique position in the stomach, and this ability is based on its bottom weight and its overall geometry, optimized for self-righting. According to the article, after studying the papers on the gömböc and the geometry of turtles, the authors ran an optimization, which produced a mono-monostatic capsule with a contour almost identical to the frontal view of the gömböc.

Production.

The strict shape tolerance of gömböcs hindered production. The first prototype of a gömböc was manufactured in summer 2006 using three-dimensional rapid prototyping technology. Its accuracy, however, was below requirements, and the gömböc would often get stuck in an intermediate position rather than returning to the stable equilibrium. The technology was improved by using numerical control milling to increase the spatial accuracy to the required level and to use various construction materials. In particular, transparent (especially lightly colored) solids are visually appealing, as they demonstrate the homogeneous composition. Current materials for gömböcs include various metals and alloys, plastics such as Plexiglass. Beyond computer-controlled milling, a special hybrid technology (using milling and molding) has been developed to produce functional but light and more affordable gömböc models. The balancing properties of a gömböc are affected by mechanical defects and dust both on its body and on the surface on which it rests. If damaged, the process of restoring the original shape is more complex than producing a new one. Although in theory the balancing properties should not depend on the material and object size, in practice, both larger and heavier gömböcs have better chances to return to equilibrium in case of defects.

Individual gömböc models.

In 2007, a series of individual gömböc models has been launched. These models carry a unique number "N" in the range where "Y" denotes the current year. Each number is produced only once, however, the order of production is not according to N, rather, at request. Initially these models were produced by rapid prototyping, with the serial number appearing inside, printed with a different material having the same density. Now all individual models are made by Numerical control (CNC) machining and the production process of each individual gömböc model includes the manufacturing of individual tools which are subsequently discarded. The first individually numbered Gömböc model (Gömböc 001) was presented by Domokos and Várkonyi as a gift to Vladimir Arnold on occasion of his 70th birthday. and Professor Arnold later donated this piece to the Steklov Institute of Mathematics where it is on exhibit. While the majority of the existing numbered pieces are owned by private individuals, many pieces are public at renowned institutions worldwide.  There are two types of gömböc models which do not carry a serial number. Eleven pieces were manufactured for the World Expo 2010, and the logo of the Hungarian Pavilion was engraved into these pieces. The other non-numbered type of individual gömböc models are the insignia of the Stephen Smale Prize in Mathematics, awarded by the Foundations of Computational Mathematics every third year.  For more information on individual Gömböc pieces see the table below, click on the interactive version of the accompanying map or see the online booklet.

Art.

The gömböc has inspired a number of artists.  The award-winning short movie "Gömböc" (2010), directed by Ulrike Vahl, is a character sketch about four misfits who fight with everyday setbacks and barriers and who have one thing in common: if they fall down, then they rise again.  The short film "The Beauty of Thinking" (2012), directed by Márton Szirmai, was a finalist at the GE Focus Forward festival. It tells the story of the discovery of the gömböc.  The characteristic shape of the gömböc is curiously reflected in the critically acclaimed novel "Climbing Days" (2016) by Dan Richards as he describes scenery: "All over Montserrat the landscape reared as gömböc domes and pillars."  A recent solo exhibition of conceptual artist Ryan Gander evolved around the theme of self-righting and featured seven large gömböc shapes gradually covered by black volcanic sand.  The gömböc has also appeared around the globe in art galleries as a recurrent motive in the paintings of Vivien Zhang.

Media.

The invention of the gömböc has been in the focus of public and media attention, repeating the success of another Hungarian Ernő Rubik when he designed his cube-shaped puzzle in 1974. For their discovery, Domokos and Várkonyi were decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Republic of Hungary. "The New York Times Magazine" selected the gömböc as one of the 70 most interesting ideas of the year 2007.  The Stamp News website shows the new stamps issued on 30 April 2010, by Hungary, which illustrate a gömböc in different positions. The stamp booklets are arranged in such a manner that the gömböc appears to come to life when the booklet is flipped. The stamps were issued in association with the gömböc on display at the World Expo 2010 (1 May to 31 October). This was also covered by the "Linn's Stamp News" magazine.  In the internet series "Video Game High School", an anthropomorphized gömböc is the antagonist of a children's game being made by the character Ki Swan in the Season 1 episode "Any Game In The House".  The role playing game webcomic "Darths and Droids" featured (but did not picture) a gömböc as a one-sided die in September of 2018.

The gömböc () is a convex three-dimensional homogeneous body that when resting on a flat surface has just one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium. Its existence was conjectured by the Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold in 1995 and proven in 2006 by the Hungarian scientists Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi. The gömböc shape is not unique; it has countless varieties, most of which are very close to a sphere and all with a very strict shape tolerance (about one part in a thousand).

冈布茨(Gömböc,匈牙利语读音:)是一类特殊的三维凸均匀体,仅有一个稳定和一个不稳定平衡点。这类物体形状非但不是唯一,反而数之不尽。大多数都很接近球体。最为人所知的形状有一个尖顶,即图中所示者。


Biography.

Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. He was the second of three sons whose parents were both artists—his father was the potter Michael Cardew. The family moved to Wenford Bridge Pottery Cornwall a few years after his birth where he was first nurtured as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, and later at The King's School, Canterbury which had evacuated to the nearby Carlyon Bay Hotel for the war. His musical career thus began as a chorister. From 1953 to 1957, Cardew studied piano, cello, and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Career.

Having won a scholarship to study at the recently established Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne, Cardew served as an assistant to Karlheinz Stockhausen from 1958 to 1960. He was given the task of independently working out the composition plans for the German composer's score "Carré", and Stockhausen noted:  As a musician he was outstanding because he was not only a good pianist but also a good improviser and I hired him to become my assistant in the late 50s and he worked with me for over three years. I gave him work to do which I have never given to any other musician, which means to work with me on the score I was composing. He was one of the best examples that you can find among musicians because he was well informed about the latest theories of composition as well as being a performer.

Indeterminacy and American experimentalists.

In 1958, Cardew witnessed a series of concerts in Cologne by John Cage and David Tudor which had a considerable influence on him, leading him to abandon post-Schönbergian serial composition and develop the indeterminate and experimental scores for which he is best known. He was particularly prominent in introducing the works of American experimental composers such as Morton Feldman, La Monte Young, Earle Brown, Christian Wolff, and Cage to an English audience during the early to mid sixties and came to have a considerable impact on the development of English music from the late sixties onwards.  Cardew's most important scores from his experimental period are "Treatise" (1963–67), a 193-page graphic score which allows for considerable freedom of interpretation, and "The Great Learning", a work in seven parts or "Paragraphs," based on translations of Confucius by Ezra Pound. "The Great Learning" instigated the formation of the Scratch Orchestra. During those years, he took a course in graphic design and he made his living as a graphic designer at Aldus Books in London.  In 1966, Cardew joined the free improvisation group AMM as cellist and pianist. AMM had formed the previous year and included English jazz musicians Lou Gare, Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe, and one of his first students at the Royal Academy Christopher Hobbs. Performing with the group allowed Cardew to explore music in a completely democratic environment, freely improvising without recourse to scores.  While teaching an experimental music class at London's Morley College in 1968, Cardew, along with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons formed the Scratch Orchestra, a large experimental ensemble, initially for the purposes of interpreting Cardew's "The Great Learning". The Scratch Orchestra gave performances throughout Britain and elsewhere until its demise in 1972. It was during this period that the question of "art for whom" was hotly debated within the context of the Orchestra, which Cardew came to see as elitist despite its numerous attempts to make socially accessible music.

Political involvements.

Cardew became a member of the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) in the 1970s, and in 1979 was a co-founder and member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). His creative output from the demise of the Scratch Orchestra until his death reflected his political commitment.  At a meeting of the Central London branch of the Musicians Union, he tabled a controversial motion denouncing David Bowie as a fascist, after Bowie said that "Britain was ready for a fascist leader". The motion read:  Although the vote was a tie, At twelve for and twelve against, a second motion was passed with a majority of 15–2. the time of the punk explosion, he wrote a tract called "Punk Rock Is Fascist", where he called The Clash "reactionary".

Death.

Cardew died on 13 December 1981, the victim of a hit-and-run car accident near his London home in Leyton. The driver was never found.  Musician John Tilbury, in his book "Cornelius Cardew—A Life Unfinished" suggests that the possibility that Cardew was killed because of his prominent Marxist-Leninist involvement "cannot be ruled out". Tilbury quotes a friend of Cardew's, John Maharg; "MI5 are quite ruthless; people don't realise it. And they kill pre-emptively".  A 70th Birthday Anniversary Festival, including live music from all phases of Cardew's career and a symposium on his music, took place on 7 May 2006 at the Cecil Sharp House in London.

Cornelius Cardew (7 May 193613 December 1981) was an English experimental music composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, explaining why he had "discontinued composing in an avantgarde idiom" in his own programme notes to his Piano Album 1973.

科内利乌斯·卡迪尤(英语:Cornelius Cardew;1936年-5月7日-1981年-12月13日),英国先锋派作曲家。生于格洛斯特郡温什科姆,早年通过参加教堂唱诗班接触音乐,1953年至1957年就读于英国皇家音乐学院,1958年至1960年成为施托克豪森的助手,这一时期他的创作上受到施托克豪森和布列兹的影响。后来则受凯奇等人影响进行各类偶然音乐实验。60年代曾在意大利师从佩特拉西。1969年在英国与其他人一同成立“拼凑乐团(Scratch Orchestra)”。卡迪尤在60年代后成为共产主义者,受毛泽东思想影响。70年代起经常参加激进左翼运动,是不列颠革命共产党(马列)的党员。他的音乐理念也因此产生转变,转向平民主义风格,他于1974年写作《施托克豪森为帝国主义服务》一书,对自己参与西方先锋派音乐圈子的经历进行批判。1981年,他在伦敦的一场交通事故中遇难。卡迪尤的代表作包括以图表式乐谱表现的《专论》、表现孔子学说的《大学》、根据中国歌曲《东方红》改编的小提琴与钢琴《东方红》,钢琴曲《台尔曼变奏曲》《越南奏鸣曲》《三只冬土豆》等。


Early life.

Benjamin Sumner Welles was born in New York City, the son of Benjamin Sumner Welles Jr. (1857–1935) and Frances Wyeth Swan (1863–1911). He preferred to be called Sumner after his famous relative Charles Sumner, a leading Senator from Massachusetts during the Civil War and Reconstruction. His family was wealthy and was connected to the era's most prominent families. He was a grandnephew of Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, known as ""the" Mrs. Astor". Among his ancestors were Thomas Welles, a colonial Governor of Connecticut, and Increase Sumner, Governor of Massachusetts from 1797 to 1799. Although the two men were occasionally mistaken for cousins, Welles was no relation to director Orson Welles.  The Welles family was also connected to the Roosevelts. A cousin of Sumner Welles married James "Rosy" Roosevelt, Jr., half brother of future President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). At the age of 10, Welles was entered in Miss Kearny's Day School for Boys in New York City. In September 1904, he entered Groton School in Massachusetts, where he remained for six years. There he roomed with Hall Roosevelt, the brother of Eleanor Roosevelt. At the age of 12 served as a page at Franklin D. Roosevelt's wedding to Eleanor in March 1905.  Welles attended Harvard College where he studied "economics, Iberian literature and culture", and graduated after three years in 1914.

Diplomatic career.

After graduating from Harvard, Welles followed the advice of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and entered into the Foreign Service. A "New York Times" profile described him at the time he joined the foreign service: "Tall, slender, blond, and always correctly tailored, he concealed a natural shyness under an appearance of dignified firmness. Although intolerant of inefficiency, he brought to bear unusual tact and a self-imposed patience." He secured an assignment to Tokyo, where he served in the embassy as third secretary only briefly.

Latin America.

Welles soon became a specialist in Latin American affairs. He served in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1919 and became fluent in Spanish. In 1921, Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes appointed him to head the Division of Latin American Affairs.  In March 1922, Welles briefly resigned from the State Department. He was unsympathetic to the view held by American diplomacy that military might was meant to protect the overseas interests of American business. Hughes brought him back the next year as a special commissioner to the Dominican Republic. His particular assignment was to oversee the withdrawal of American forces and to negotiate protection for overseas investors in the Dominican Republic's debt. Welles remained in that post for three years and his work was accomplished after his departure in a 1924 treaty.  In 1924, President Coolidge sent Welles to act as mediator between disputing parties in Honduras. The country had lacked a legitimate government since the election of 1923 failed to produce a majority for any candidate and the legislature had failed to exercise its power to appoint a new president. Negotiations managed by Welles from April 23 to 28 produced an interim government under General Vicente Tosta, who promised to appoint a cabinet representing all factions and to schedule a presidential election as soon as possible in which he would not be a candidate. Negotiations ended with the signing of an agreement aboard the USS Milwaukee in the port of Amapala.

Years out of government service.

Coolidge, however, disapproved of Welles' 1925 marriage to Mathilde Scott Townsend, who had only recently divorced the President's friend, Senator Peter Gerry of Rhode Island. He promptly ended Welles' diplomatic career.  Welles then retired to his estate at Oxon Hill, Maryland. He devoted himself to writing and his two-volume history of the Dominican Republic, "Naboth's Vineyard: The Dominican Republic, 1844–1924" appeared in 1928. "Time" described the work as "a ponderous, lifeless, two-volume work which was technically a history of Santo Domingo, actually a careful indictment of U.S. foreign policy in the Hemisphere". James Reston summarized its thesis: "we should keep in our own back yard and stop claiming rights for ourselves that we denied to other sovereign States".  He served as an unofficial adviser to Dominican President Horacio Vásquez.  During the presidential election of 1932, Welles provided foreign policy expertise to the Roosevelt campaign. He was a major contributor to the campaign as well.

Cuba.

In April 1933, FDR appointed Welles Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, but when a revolution in Cuba against President Gerardo Machado left its government divided and uncertain, he became instead the President's special envoy to Cuba. He arrived in Havana in May 1933. His mission was to negotiate a settlement so that the U.S. could avoid intervening as U.S. law, namely the Platt Amendment of 1901, required.  His instructions were to mediate "in any form most suitable" an end to the Cuban situation. Welles promised Machado a new commercial treaty to relieve economic distress if Machado reached a political settlement with his opponents. Machado believed the U.S. would help him survive politically. Welles promised the opponents of Machado's government a change of government and participation in the subsequent administration, if they joined the mediation process and supported an orderly transfer of power. One crucial step was persuading Machado to issue an amnesty for political prisoners so that the opposition leaders could appear in public. Machado soon lost faith in Welles and denounced American interference as a colonialist adventure. Welles' mediation process conferred political legitimacy on sectors of the opposition that participated and allowed the U.S. to assess their viability as long-term political allies. Unable to influence Machado, Welles met with Rafael Guas Inclan, president of the Chamber of Representatives, at the home of newspaper publisher Alfredo Hornedo, and requested that he initiate impeachment proceedings against the president. When Guas harshly refuted him, Wells then negotiated an end to his presidency, with support from General Alberto Herrera, Colonels Julio Sanguily, Rafael del Castillo and Erasmo Delgado after threatening U.S. intervention under the Platt Amendment and the restructuring of the Cuban army high command.  In 1937, FDR promoted Welles to Under Secretary, and the Senate promptly confirmed the appointment. Indicative of ongoing rivalries within the State Department, Robert Walton Moore, an ally of Secretary of State Hull was appointed the department's Counselor at the same time, a position equal in rank to that of Under Secretary.

World War II.

In the week following Kristallnacht, in November 1938, the British government offered to give the major part of its quota of 65,000 British citizens eligible for emigration to the United States to Jews fleeing Hitler. Under-Secretary Welles opposed this idea, as he later recounted:  I reminded the Ambassador that the President stated there was no intention on the part of his government to increase the quota for German nationals. I added that it was my strong impression that the responsible leaders among American Jews would be the first to urge that no change in the present quota for German Jews be made...The influential Sam Rosenman, one of the "responsible" Jewish leaders sent Roosevelt a memorandum telling him that an "increase of quotas is wholly inadvisable. It will merely produce a 'Jewish problem' in the countries increasing the quota."  Welles headed the American delegation to the 21-nation Pan American conference that met in Panama in September 1939. He said the conference had been planned in earlier hemispheric meetings in Buenos Aires and Lima and he emphasized the need for consultation on economic issues to "cushion the shock of the dislocation of inter-American commerce arising from the war" in Europe.  In February and March 1940 Welles visited Italy, Germany, France (he visited President Albert Lebrun on March 7) and England to discuss peacemaking proposals. Hitler feared that the purpose of his visits was to drive a wedge between Germany and Italy.

Soviet occupation of the Baltics.

On July 23, 1940, following the principles of the Stimson Doctrine, Welles issued a statement that became known as the Welles Declaration. In the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 23, 1939, Germany agreed to allow the Soviet Union to annex the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Welles condemned those actions and refused to recognize the legitimacy of Soviet rule in those countries. More than 50 countries later followed the U.S. in this position.  The Declaration was a source of contention during the subsequent alliance between the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union, but Welles persistently defended it. In a discussion with the media he asserted that the USSR had maneuvered to give "an odor of legality to acts of aggression for purposes of the record".  In a 1942 memorandum describing his conversations with British Ambassador Lord Halifax, Welles stated that he would have preferred to characterize the plebiscites supporting the annexations as "faked". In April 1942 he wrote that the annexation was "not only indefensible from every moral standpoint, but likewise extraordinarily stupid". He believed any concession on the Baltic issue would set a precedent that would lead to additional border struggles in eastern Poland and elsewhere.

Rivalries.

A "New York Times" profile described Welles in 1941: "Tall and erect, never without his cane... he has enough dignity to be Viceroy of India and... enough influence in this critical era to make his ideas, principles, and dreams count."  He appeared on the cover of "Time" on August 11, 1941, and in that issue "Time" assessed Welles' role within Hull's Department of State:  Sumner Welles is one of the very few career men ever to become Under Secretary of State, and as matters now stand may eventually become Secretary...Grave, saintly Mr. Hull, never an expert at paper-shuffling, has long left the actual administration of the Department to his chief aide, Sumner Welles. And Cordell Hull may choose not to retire. But even if Welles never becomes Secretary, he will still hold his present power: through Presidential choice, his own ability, background and natural stamina, he is the chief administrative officer of U.S. foreign policy.  Roosevelt was always close to Welles and made him the central figure in the State Department, much to the chagrin of secretary Cordell Hull, who could not be removed because he had a powerful political base.  The clash became more public in mid-1943, when "Time" reported "a flare-up of long-smoldering hates and jealousies in the State Department". After Welles was forced out of office, journalists noted that two men who shared "aims and goals" were at odds because of a "clash of temperament and ambitions".

Resignation.

Welles was a closeted bisexual. In September 1940, Welles accompanied Roosevelt to the funeral of former Speaker of the House William B. Bankhead in Huntsville, Alabama. While returning to Washington by train, Welles solicited sex from two male African-American Pullman car porters. Cordell Hull dispatched his confidant, former Ambassador William Bullitt, to provide details of the incident to Republican Senator Owen Brewster of Maine. Brewster, in turn, gave the information to journalist Arthur Krock, a Roosevelt critic; and to Senators Styles Bridges and Burton K. Wheeler. When FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover would not release the file on Welles, Brewster threatened to initiate a senatorial investigation into the incident. Roosevelt was embittered by the attack on his friend, believing they were ruining a good man, but he was obliged to accept Welles's resignation in 1943. Roosevelt particularly blamed Bullitt.  In August 1943, reports that Welles had resigned as Under-Secretary of State circulated for more than a week. The press reported it as fact on August 24, despite the lack of an official announcement. Writing in "The New York Times", Arthur Krock said that opinion in Washington saw Welles's departure as an attempt to end factionalism in the State Department: "The long-existing struggle disorganized the department, bred Hull and Welles factions among its officials, confused those having business with the department and finally produced pressure on the President to eliminate the causes." Despite the "personal fondness" of the President and his wife for Welles, he continued, the President sided with Hull because supporting a subordinate would promote revolts in other government agencies, Hull was politically connected and popular with Congress, and the Senate, he was told, would not support Welles for Secretary of State or any other office. Krock added a cryptic explanation: "Other incidents arising made the disagreements between the two men even more personal. It was those which aroused the Senate to opposition to Mr. Welles that was reported to the President."  While Welles vacationed in Bar Harbor, Maine, "where he held to diplomatically correct silence", speculation continued for another month without official word from the White House or the State Department. Observers continued to focus on the Hull-Welles relationship and believed that Hull forced the President to choose between them to end "departmental cleavage". Others read the situation politically and blamed FDR's "appeasement of Southern Democrats". Without confirming his resignation or speaking on the record, Welles indicated he would accept any new assignment the President proposed. Finally, on September 26, 1943, the President announced the resignation of Welles and the appointment of Edward R. Stettinius as the new Under-Secretary of State. He accepted Welles' resignation with regret and explained that Welles was prompted to leave government service because of "his wife's poor health". Welles' letter of resignation was not made public as was customary and one report concluded, "The facts of this situation remained obscure tonight." "Time" summarized the reaction of the press: "Its endorsement of Sumner Welles was surprisingly widespread, its condemnation of Franklin Roosevelt and Cordell Hull surprisingly severe." It also described the resignation's impact: "In dropping Sumner Welles [Hull] had dropped the chief architect of the US's Good Neighbor Policy in South America, an opponent of those who would do business with Fascists on the basis of expediency, a known and respected advocate of U.S. cooperation in international affairs. The U.S. still awaits a clarification of its foreign policy and the forced resignation of Sumner Welles made an already murky issue even more obscure."

Later years.

Welles made his first public appearance following his resignation in October 1943. Speaking to the Foreign Policy Association, he sketched his views of the postwar world, including American participation in a world organization with military capability. He also proposed the creation of regional organizations. He also called on the President to express his opinions and help shape public opinion, praising him at length as "rightly regarded throughout the world as the paladin of the forces of liberal democracy" without once mentioning Hull.  Continuing his career-long focus on Latin America, he said that "if we are to achieve our own security every nation of the Western Hemisphere must also obtain the same ample measure of assurance as ourselves in the world of the future." He also foresaw the end to colonialism as a guiding principle of the new world order:  Can the peaceful, the stable, and the free world for which we hope be created if it is envisioned from the outset as half slave and half free?-if hundreds of millions of human beings are told that they are destined to remain indefinitely under alien subjection? New and powerful nationalistic forces are breaking into life throughout the earth, and in particular in the vast regions of Africa, of the Near East, and of the Far East. Must not these forces, unless they are to be permitted to start new and devastating inundations, be canalized through the channels of liberty into the great stream of constructive and cooperative human endeavor?  In 1944, Welles lent his name to a fund-raising campaign by the United Jewish Appeal to bring Jewish refugees from the Balkans to Palestine.  The same year, he authored "The Time for Decision". His proposals for the war's end included modifications in Germany's borders to transfer East Prussia to Poland and to extend Germany's eastern border to include German-speaking populations farther east. Then he suggested dividing Germany into three states, all of which would be included in a new European customs union. A politically-divided Germany would be integrated into an economically-cohesive Europe. He also "favoured the transfer of populations to bring ethnic distributions into conformity with international boundaries". With the public engaged in the debate over America's postwar role, "The Time for Decision" sold half a million copies.  Welles became a prominent commentator and author on foreign affairs. In 1945, he joined the American Broadcasting Company to guide the organization of the "Sumner Welles Peace Forum", a series of four radio broadcasts providing expert commentary on the San Francisco Conference, which wrote the founding document of the United Nations. He undertook a project to edit a series of volumes on foreign relations for Harvard University Press.  In 1948, Welles authored "We Need Not Fail", a short book that first presented a history and evaluated the competing claims to Palestine. He argued that American policy should insist on the fulfillment of the 1947 promise of the United Nations General Assembly to establish two independent states within an economic union and policed by a United Nations force. He criticized American officials whose obsession with Russia required submission to Arab and oil interests. Enforcing the decision of the UN was his overarching concern because it was an opportunity to establish the organization's role on the international stage that no other interest could trump.  Later that year, the American Jewish Congress presented Welles with a citation that praised his "courageous championing of the cause of Israel among the nations of the world".  On December 7, 1948, Welles appeared before HUAC as part of its investigation into allegations between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss (part of the Hiss Case). Later in the month (and after the death of his friend Laurence Duggan), he suffered a serious heart attack.  In April 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy repeatedly charged that the Institute of Pacific Relations or IPR, an organization that fostered the study of the Far East and the Pacific, was a Communist front. Welles was a member of IPR's American branch.  He remained always in the public eye. For example, his departure on the "Île de France" for Europe was noted even as he declined to comment on charges made by Senator Joseph McCarthy about Communists in the State Department.  He sold his estate outside Washington in 1952, and Oxon Hill Manor then became the home of a "huge collection of Americana".  In 1956, "Confidential", a scandal magazine, published a report of the 1940 Pullman incident and linked it to his resignation from the State Department, along with additional instances of inappropriate sexual behavior or drunkenness. Welles had explained the 1940 incident to his family as nothing more than drunken conversation with the train staff. His son Benjamin Welles, devoted to his father, wrote of the incident in his father's biography as drunken advances to several porters at about 4 a.m. that were rejected and subsequently reported to government and railway officials.

Personal life.

On April 14, 1915, Sumner Welles married Esther "Hope" Slater of Boston, the sister of a Harvard roommate, in Webster, Massachusetts. She came from a similarly prominent family that owned a textile empire based in Massachusetts. She was descended from industrialist Samuel Slater and granddaughter of the Boston painter William Morris Hunt. Welles and his wife had two sons:  In 1923, Slater obtained a divorce from Welles in Paris "on grounds of abandonment and refusal to live with his wife".  Welles occasionally gained public notice for his art dealings. In 1925, for example, he sold a collection of Japanese screens that had been on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for several years.  On June 27, 1925, Welles married Mathilde Scott Townsend (1885–1949), "a noted international beauty" whose portrait had been painted by John Singer Sargent, in upstate New York. Until World War II, the Welles' lived on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., in the landmark Townsend Mansion, which later became the home of the Cosmos Club. Mathilde died of peritonitis in 1949 while vacationing in Switzerland with Welles.  Welles spent the bulk of his time a few miles outside of Washington in the Maryland countryside at a 49-room "country cottage" known as Oxon Hill Manor designed for him by Jules Henri de Sibour and built on a 245-acre property in 1929. He entertained foreign dignitaries and diplomats there and hosted informal meetings of senior officials. FDR used the site as an occasional escape from the city as well.  On January 8, 1952, Welles married Harriette Appleton Post, a childhood friend (and a granddaughter of architect George B. Post, designer of the New York Stock Exchange) who had previously married and divorced twice, and had resumed the use of her maiden name, in New York City at the bride's home on Fifth Avenue.  He died on September 24, 1961 at age 68 in Bernardsville, New Jersey. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Legacy.

The biography written by his son Benjamin Welles concludes:  Winston Churchill, who made the phrase "No comment" famous, cited Welles as his source for the cryptic response.  Welles' papers are held by the National Archives at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York.  The street adjacent to the current Embassy of the United States in Riga, Latvia was named after Sumner Welles (as "Samnera Velsa iela") in 2012.

Benjamin Sumner Welles (October 14, 1892 – September 24, 1961) was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. He was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State from 1936 to 1943, during FDR's presidency.

本杰明·萨姆纳·威尔斯(英语:Benjamin Sumner Welles;1892年-10月14日-1961年-9月24日),美国外交官。1914年,哈佛大学毕业,历任国务院拉美司司长、驻古巴大使等职。1933年,任助理国务卿和副国务卿。1940年发表《威尔士宣言》谴责苏联侵略独立的波罗的海三国。1941年,随总统出席大西洋会议,协助起草《大西洋宪章》。1942年,辞职。


蓝岭号两栖指挥舰 (LCC-19)

History.

USS "Blue Ridge" (LCC-19) was put "in commission special" on 14 November 1970, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as an Amphibious Command and Control (LCC) ship, with Captain Kent J. Carroll as the commanding officer. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Gretchen Byrd, wife of the U. S. Senator from Virginia, Harry F. Byrd Jr.. The principal speaker at the ceremony was John W. Warner, Under Secretary of the Navy and later Senator from Virginia.  "Blue Ridge" was the replacement for, but "Estes" was decommissioned earlier than planned in October 1969 due to the budget cuts of the late 1960s.  "Blue Ridge" was the first ship of its class and represented almost seven years of planning and construction work. The result was a ship specifically designed from the keel up as a command and control ship. As designed, "Blue Ridge" was capable of supporting the staff of both the Commander of an Amphibious Task Force and the staff of the Commanding General of the Landing Force. The advanced computer system, extensive communications package and modern surveillance and detection systems was molded into the most advanced joint amphibious command and control center ever constructed. At the time of her commissioning, "Blue Ridge" had the distinction of carrying the world's most sophisticated electronics suite. It was said to be some thirty percent larger than that of the aircraft carrier, which had been the most complex. "Blue Ridge" was armed with a "main battery" of computers, communications gear, and other electronic facilities to fulfill her mission as a command ship. An extremely refined communications system was also an integral part of the ship's radical new design. Through an automated patch panel and computer controlled switching matrix her crew could use any combination of communication equipment desired. The clean topside area is the result of careful design intended to minimize the ship's interference with her own communications system. US Navy long-range communications were heavily reliant on high frequency radio systems in the 1970s and have evolved to predominantly satellite communications in the 2000s. This is illustrated by the long wire antennas and the directional HF yagi or log-periodic antenna initially installed on "Blue Ridge" and later removed and replaced with a number of satellite communications antennas.  Besides small arms, "Blue Ridge" was armed with two twin Mark 33 3"/50 caliber guns at commissioning, though they have since been removed. It also carried two Mark 25 launchers and electronics for the Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS) which was added sometime in the 1970s and removed in the 1990s. Two 20 mm Phalanx CIWS systems were added in the 1980s for point defense. In recent years it has also carried 25 mm Bushmaster cannons.

1971.

In late January 1971, the ship conducted its first INSURV in the North Atlantic, after transiting the Delaware River, from and return to Philadelphia.  On 11 February 1971, "Blue Ridge" steamed on its maiden voyage from the shipyard to its first homeport, San Diego, California, around South America via the Strait of Magellan, making liberty calls at Norfolk, Virginia (15 February), Rio de Janeiro (4–6 March), Lima (20–22 March), Rodman Naval Station, Panama Canal Zone (27–28 March), and Acapulco (2–5 April). "Blue Ridge"s beam is, but the Panama Canal locks at that time were only, creating problems for the "Blue Ridge" class of ship with fenders and barges for the sponsons.  As it crossed the equator on 26 February at 38 degrees and 24 minutes longitude, bound for Rio de Janeiro, "Blue Ridge" performed her first crossing the line ceremony, initiating the "wog" majority of the crew, except for one. Upon entry to the Strait of Magellan, "Blue Ridge" took on a passage pilot from the Chilean Navy for the transit. The Chilean patrol boat lost its mast and damaged one of "Blue Ridge"s basket antennas, just aft of the port sponson, in the boarding operation.  In "Blue Ridge"s transit from Lima to Rodman Naval Station, Panama, it was assigned the duty of going to the aid of any U.S. tuna fishing boat being harassed or captured by the Ecuadorian Navy because they were fishing in a claimed fishing zone that the U.S. did not recognize. It was known as the Tuna War, but no incident occurred.  Arriving at San Diego on 9 April, "with Rear Admiral David M. Rubel, U. S. Navy, Commander Amphibious Group Three and staff embarked. Rear Admiral Rubel is the first Flag Officer embarked on "Blue Ridge"." Amphibious Group Three staff came aboard "Blue Ridge" at the Rodman port call with the next port call being Acapulco.  The rest of the year was "highlighted by Command Post Exercises 3–7 May and 11–13 August. Refresher training was conducted in late June and early July. "Blue Ridge" acted as amphibious task force and landing force flagship for the major amphibious training exercise of the year, ROPEVAL WESTCO (3-71), from 8–16 September."  "Blue Ridge"s first drydock since the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, "...from 11 October to 19 November it was in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for Post Shakedown availability...". "Blue Ridge"s power plant was switched from Navy Standard Oil fuel to Navy Distillate fuel.  From 1972 until 1979, "Blue Ridge" deployed to the Western Pacific on 6 WestPacs, as the flagship of the Commander Amphibious Force, Seventh Fleet.

1972 WestPac I.

After completing degaussing in the deperming facility at Ballast Point, on 7 January 1972, "Blue Ridge" left its home port of San Diego and steamed to Pearl Harbor for deployment on its first WestPac, with port visits at Guam, Sasebo, Japan, White Beach, Okinawa, Subic Bay, Hong Kong and Singapore.  Making the next leg of the transit to WestPac, Guam, with and, During the transit, four Soviet reconnaissance aircraft overflew the convoy to collect data on the new ship.  As the ship crossed the equator on 27 February 1972 at, bound for Singapore, "Blue Ridge" performed its second crossing the line ceremony.  Additional port visits were planned, but in late March 1972, as "Blue Ridge" prepared at White Beach, Okinawa for exercise Golden Dragon, North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam across the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone {DMZ) on 30 March 1972 in their Easter Offensive. This was the largest invasion since the Korean War radically departing from previous offensives. It was designed to strengthen the North Vietnamese position as the Paris Peace Accords drew towards a conclusion.

April 1972.

On 3 April 1972, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) Admiral John S. McCain Jr. cancelled Exercise Golden Dragon. General Miller and the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade (9th MAB) staff were ordered to remain on "Blue Ridge" for combat or evacuation operations. The 9th MAB had various contingency plans from potentially conducting emergency evacuations to building up its forces.  On 5 April 1972, "Blue Ridge" departed for the war zone, the Gulf of Tonkin. "Blue Ridge" was the command ship during April through July for the last major combat amphibious engagement of the Vietnam War. The Easter Counter-Offensive was "the largest concentration of wartime amphibious force since the Inchon and Wonsan landings of the Korean War." Detachment "N" of the 1st Radio Battalion had deployed with the 9th MAB for the exercise in Korea. It was integrated with the Task Force 76 Joint Intelligence Center and operated from the supplemental radio spaces of "Blue Ridge" using input from the service cryptologic agencies in Southeast Asia. However, operating from "Blue Ridge" posed reception problems because of the distance from shore. From 24 April 1972, two or three direct support elements were in operation from naval gunfire ships at any one time, with control remaining at the headquarters element on "Blue Ridge". In July 1972, they moved to and when "Blue Ridge" returned to the United States detachment analysts relocated to the Naval Communications Station, San Miguel, near San Antonio, Zambales, Philippines. As CTU 76.0.1, escorted by, "Blue Ridge" conducted special operations in the Tonkin Gulf in Operation Venture Road.

June 1972.

With a lull in the fighting and 64 days at sea, "Blue Ridge" made a port call to Subic, from 7 to 14 June, for supplies and sanity, then returned to the Gulf of Tonkin. Nguyen Van Thieu, president of South Vietnam, came aboard "Blue Ridge" on 28 June 1972 to confer with Vice Admiral Holloway, Admiral Gaddis, General Miller and "to convey his personal thanks to the sailors and Marines of the amphibious forces for 'the preservation of Peace and Freedom' in South Vietnam."  On the first of July, while steaming outside of Da Nang Harbor, in the combat zone and the ship's port 3-inch gun manned, "Blue Ridge" had its first change of command. That day was also the day that "Blue Ridge" earned the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.  The Easter Counter-Offensive was "Blue Ridge"s longest time at sea, 64 days from 5 April to 7 June 1972. After 7 days in Subic, "Blue Ridge" returned to the Gulf of Tonkin until 18 July 1972 and was then ordered to the Philippines for typhoon relief along with "Tripoli", "Juneau", "Alamo", and "Cayuga". "The 33d MAU and subordinate units were awarded the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for their efforts.", but "Blue Ridge" was not.  On 18 August 1972, "Blue Ridge" returned to San Diego. In September it received aboard, CNO, Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. and the Secretary of the Navy, John Warner for visits. From 5 thru 9 October, "Blue Ridge" made a port visit to San Francisco, training and a First Fleet sponsored event.

1973 WestPac II.

From 12 February 1973 until 4 April 1973, Operation Homecoming, returning POWs from Hanoi and VC camps in South Vietnam went to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. With "Blue Ridge" still in its homeport of San Diego, it contributed its current ship's intelligence officer, LCDR Mahoney, and prior ship's intelligence officer, LCDR Curley, to the operation. "The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines each had liaison officers dedicated to prepare for the return of American POWs well in advance of their actual return. These liaison officers worked behind the scenes traveling around the United States assuring the returnees well being. They also were responsible for debriefing POWs to discern relevant intelligence about MIAs and to discern the existence of war crimes committed against them."  On 24 February 1973, "Blue Ridge" left San Diego for Pearl Harbor (2–3 March) and its second WestPac, with liberty port visits of Sasebo (7–14 June), Yokosuka (25 July-5 Aug), White Beach (15–31 March, 11 April, 16 Aug, 4-19 Sept), Hong Kong (7–12 May), Subic (26 March-5 April, 22-26 Sept, 7-8 Oct), Manila, Singapore (24-29 Aug) and Chilung (1–5 June). "Blue Ridge" conducted training exercises: Operation Golden Dragon in early April off South Korea, Operation Pagasa I in middle May off Philippines, Operation Pagasa II in early October off Philippines.  With Operation End Sweep progressing in the coastal waters of North Vietnam for the mines released there, "Blue Ridge" left White Beach again on 10 July 1973 headed for the Gulf of Tonkin. It carried equipment that was needed by U. S. helicopters that were involved in clearing mined North Vietnamese waters. "Blue Ridge" spent two nights in north Vietnamese waters off the coast of Vinh and Hon Matt before departing for Manila in the Philippines.  Because of the problems associated with the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, "Blue Ridge", on its transit back to White Beach, Okinawa from its port call in Singapore, became the first Seventh Fleet combatant ship to refuel at sea with a commercial tanker, taking on some 158,000 gallons of Navy distillate from the "Falcon Princess". Late in "Blue Ridge's" second WestPac, it was conducting a joint exercise with the Philippine Navy in the South China Sea called PAGASA II, as the command ship. One of "Blue Ridge"'s ensigns went overboard unnoticed and when found absent for a watch muster, a compartment search was conducted aboard the ship for the missing officer. With failure to find him on 28 September 1973, a search and rescue operation commenced without success. Two days later the ensign was declared missing at sea and Exercise PAGASA II resumed. On Monday, 1 October 1973, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was notified that the Soviet trawler AGI "Kursograph" found an American sailor in "Blue Ridge's" operation area and the ensign was returned safely to "Blue Ridge" the next day after diplomatic negotiations.  At the end of Pagasa II, bad tropical weather forced the transfer of the staff from "Blue Ridge" to "Denver", after a very short stay in Subic Bay, to occur in White Beach instead, on 7 October. On 8 October, "Blue Ridge" steamed for its homeport San Diego carrying a Patrol Craft Fast on its helicopter deck. "Blue Ridge" arrived in San Diego 23 October [1973].

1975 WestPac III.

Late in March 1975 and late in "Blue Ridge's" third WestPac, the deteriorating military and political situation in Cambodia and South Vietnam disrupted "Blue Ridge's" operational plans as had occurred in late March 1972. "Blue Ridge" was at White Beach, Okinawa when the 9th MAB was alerted on 25 March 1975 for immediate departure to Da Nang to reinforce U.S. facilities, but "Blue Ridge" did not get underway for Vietnam until 27 March. Marines and sailors hastily trained for crowd control, evacuation procedures, and a Vietnamese orientation course. The printing section on board the "Blue Ridge" reproduced thousands of signs in Vietnamese including a simplified instruction card for the small unit leader that included basic Vietnamese phrases and human relations oriented "do's and don'ts. However North Vietnamese forces captured Da Nang on 29 March.  On 12 April, in response to the Cambodian government's crumbling defenses around the capital of Phnom Penh, Operation Eagle Pull evacuated 289 Americans, Cambodians and third country nationals by helicopter to the. After the end of the Battle of Xuân Lộc on 21 April, President Thieu resigned and fled into exile and North Vietnamese forces surrounded Saigon. The fixed wing evacuation from Tan Son Nhut Airport was halted by North Vietnamese artillery fire on the morning of 29 April and the helicopter evacuation Operation Frequent Wind commenced. Admiral Gayler directed USSAG/Seventh Air Force and Seventh Fleet to begin Frequent Wind Option IV at 10:51 (Saigon time), but for some unexplainable reason, dissemination of this message to the participating units had been delayed from 10:52 until 12:15. Evacuation helicopters finally departed with the first wave started landing at 15:06 and returning to fleet at 15:40 with the first load of evacuees.  The commanding officer of ProvMAG 39. Colonel McLenon, exercised control of his Marine aircraft through the Tactical Air Coordination Center (TACC) on board the "Blue Ridge". The Helicopter Direction Center on board the "Okinawa", maintained aircraft spacing and routing. The primary difference between TACC and HDC was that TACC controlled the tactical disposition of the helicopters and HDC controlled the helicopters as long as they were in the Navy's airspace. These areas of responsibility often overlapped and at times even merged. Under the conditions existing on the morning of 29 April 1975, the difference in control responsibilities of TACC and HDC at best seemed blurred, at worst redundant. Coordination and control of the overall embarkation operation suffered from more serious communication problems. Direct communications with Admiral Whitmire and 9th MAB Rear were sporadic, at best, requiring a continuous relay by the C-130 Airborne Battlefield Command and Control Center. The sky over the evacuation fleet was soon filled with Republic of Vietnam Air Force (RVNAF) helicopters, looking for a place to land and unload their passengers. Five helicopters crashed on the ship that day, not counting ones ditched or abandoned overboard. One crashed, causing a near disaster and showering the ship and personnel with debris. An NBC film crew, with reporter George Lewis, filmed this unexpected arrival of RVNAF helicopters on the flight deck of "Blue Ridge", showing the processing of the refugees and two helicopters' rotor blades colliding. To free up space on the flight deck, RVNAF helicopters were ditched by their pilots in the South China Sea after unloading their refugees on ship. Along with the widely-published photo of an RVNAF UH-1 "Huey" being pushed over the side of "Blue Ridge", they filmed one unknown crew member being tossed into a flight deck safety net by the movement of the chopper going over the side.  The evacuation continued until the morning of 30 April with the last helicopter evacuating the Marine Security Guards from the roof of the US Embassy at 07:53 and landing on USS "Okinawa" at 08:30. At 11:30 North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace less than 1 km from the Embassy and raised the flag of the Viet Cong over the building, ending the Vietnam War.

1980s.

With the decommissioning of the 7th Fleet Flagship cruiser in December 1979, "Blue Ridge" became the new flagship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, and has been forward deployed at the Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan ever since.  From 21 July 1979 through 30 June 1984, "Blue Ridge" and other ships in the West Pacific engaged in operation Boat People, receiving the Humanitarian Service Medal, rescuing refugees from Vietnam. For example, on 6 October 1980 while transiting the South China Sea, "Blue Ridge" embarked Vietnamese refugees onboard from two separate small boats. The first being sighted before noon contained 54 total refugees. The second containing 37 were embarked onboard "Blue Ridge" shortly after 1800. Both boats were dangerously overloaded, and adrift when sighted. Of the 54 total refugees aboard the first boat, all were in good health, having been to sea only a few days. Of the 37 total refugees aboard the second boat, all were severely dehydrated, many so weak they could not stand, and had to be hoisted aboard "Blue Ridge". Mechanical failure of the second boat had left the 37 adrift well short of the shipping lane. Initially it was unclear how long they had been at sea, though they had been without potable water for many days. Also on 15 May 1984 "Blue Ridge" rescued 35 refugees in the South China Sea, northeast of Cam Ranh Bay.  In May 1989, "Blue Ridge", "Sterett" and visited Shanghai, China. They were the first US warships to enter Shanghai Harbor in 40 years and it was only the second visit by US warships to the People's Republic of China since 1949.

1990s.

"Blue Ridge" performed a nine-and-a-half–month deployment as flagship for commander, United States Naval Forces Central Command (ComUSNavCent), during Operations Desert Shield, and Desert Storm from 28 August 1990 through 24 April 1991, receiving a Navy Unit Commendation.  In July 1996, "Blue Ridge" visited Vladivostok for the 300th Anniversary of the Russian Navy.

2000s.

Blue Ridge participated in the international force East Timor (INTERFET) in February of 2000. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Blue_Ridge_in_East_Timor.jpg "Blue Ridge" participates routinely in U.S. and allied training exercises each year with countries throughout the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. For example, in 2009 "Blue Ridge" participated in ANNUALEX 21G (Annual Exercise 21G) with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and PASSEX (Passing Exercise) with the French Navy.

2010s.

"Blue Ridge" was one of several participating in disaster relief in Operation Tomodachi, after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. "Blue Ridge" brought relief supplies from Singapore to Japan but remained in the vicinity of Okinawa where the embarked U.S. Seventh Fleet staff provided command and control for the duration of Operation Tomodachi. The Seventh Fleet Band disembarked from the "Blue Ridge" in order to provide the Japanese public with concerts dedicated to the victims of the tsunami.  The ship is expected to remain in service until 2039.

2020s.

On 25 January 2020, an MH-60S helicopter attached to the ship crashed approximately from Okinawa, Japan. Following search and rescue efforts all five crewmembers were found uninjured.

Awards.

On 18 July 1972, USS "Blue Ridge" was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon for her action at Tiger Island, and on 9 August 1972, the ship was awarded the Battle "E" by the commander Amphibious Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. It was the only one "Blue Ridge" received prior to substantial changes made to the award in 1976 and is not listed as a Navy "E" Ribbon on the unit awards page. "Blue Ridge" received 15 Navy "E" Ribbon awards from 1977 to 2010.  "Blue Ridge" was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal and has two campaign stars one for Consolidation II '72 Campaign and the second for Vietnam Ceasefire '72 Campaign (Easter Counter-Offensive) with a total of 99 days in the combat zone, not counting 18 uncredited days in July 1972. "Blue Ridge" may have earned the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal for six months of service off South Vietnam from February to July 1972 as listed by NavSource.org. However, The Navy Unit awards page does not mention the award and the ship's crew did not paint the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal on the ship's bridge wing in 1993 or 2011.  Operation Eagle Pull (11–13 April 1975), the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia, "Blue Ridge" was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal.  Operation Frequent Wind (29–30 April 1975), the evacuation of Saigon, South Vietnam, "Blue Ridge" was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal.  "Blue Ridge" received Humanitarian Service Medals for two different operations in 1980 and 1984 for rescuing Vietnamese boat people.  "Blue Ridge" received its second Navy Unit Commendation along with the Southwest Asia Service Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia) and Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait) for Desert Shield and Desert Storm.  The ship was also awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Award and the Humanitarian Service Medal during Operation Tomodachi.  "Blue Ridge" earned the Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Award several times, including 2010.

USS "Blue Ridge" (LCC-19) is the first of the two amphibious command ships of the United States Navy, and is the flagship of the Seventh Fleet. Her primary role is to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) support to the commander and staff of the United States Seventh Fleet. She is currently forward-deployed to U.S. Navy Fleet Activities, Yokosuka in Japan, and is the third Navy ship named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range of mountains in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. "Blue Ridge" is the oldest deployable warship of the U.S. Navy, following the decommissioning of. "Blue Ridge", as the U.S. Navy's active commissioned ship having the longest total period as active, flies the First Navy Jack instead of the Jack of the United States. "Blue Ridge" is expected to remain in service until 2039.

蓝岭号两栖作战指挥舰(英语:USS Blue Ridge LCC-19)是一艘隶属于美国海军的两栖作战指挥舰,于1967年兴建,于1970年起服役,为的一号舰,也是美国海军历史上第三艘以蓝岭山脉命名的军舰及第二艘同名的两栖作战指挥舰,自1979年起,被前线部署(forward deployment)在日本横须贺,担任美国海军第七舰队旗舰。


门兴格拉德巴赫-杜塞尔多夫铁路

History.

The Aachen-Neuß-Düsseldorf Railway Company ("Aachen-Neuß-Düsseldorfer Eisenbahngesellschaft", AND) was founded to build a railway line from Aachen via Gladbach (now Mönchengladbach) and Neuss to Düsseldorf. This company depended on Prussian government guarantees and from 1850, it came under the management of the government-controlled "Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company" ("Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrorter Eisenbahn"), along with the "Ruhrort-Crefeld District Gladbach Railway Company", which opened the Duisburg-Ruhrort–Mönchengladbach line in 1849 and 1851.  Prior to the Austro-Prussian War, the Prussian military opposed the building of fixed bridges across the Rhine for military reasons, except in fortified cities such as Cologne, Mainz, Koblenz and Düsseldorf. The line was built from Gladbach to Obercassel (now Oberkassel) and completed on 16 December 1852. Passenger services opened a month later on 17 January 1853. After completion of the line to the Belgian border at Aachen on 16 October 1854, freight traffic ran on the entire line. At the same time, Rhine station ("Rheinstation") in Obercassel was opened.  In 1866, the "Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company" was acquired by the Bergisch-Märkische Railway Company ("Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft", BME). In July 1870, the Hamm Railway Bridge was opened over the Rhine, connecting to the BME’s Rheinknie station in Düsseldorf and bypassing the Neuss Hauptbahnhof–Obercassel section. In 1882, the BME was nationalised and became part of Prussian state railways. In 1891, the new Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof was opened and the line from Mönchengladbach was realigned to run to it. The line from Neuss to Oberkassel was closed in 1996.

Current situation.

Following the establishment of the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn line S 8, part of the line was upgraded. Between Düsseldorf Hbf and Neuss Hbf, there is a separate two-track S-Bahn line next to the two-track main line.

Rail services.

The route is served (as of 2018) by Regional-Express trains on lines RE 4 (Wupper-Express) and RE 13 (Maas-Wupper-Express). It is also served by S-Bahn lines S 8 (on the whole line), S 11 and S 28 (both between Düsseldorf and Neuss).

Planning.

It is planned to establish a new station at Neuss Stadtwald between Neuss Hbf and Büttgen.

The Mönchengladbach–Düsseldorf railway is a 24 km long main line on the left (western) bank of the Rhine in the Lower Rhine region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has at least two tracks with continuous overhead electrification. The line was built by the Aachen-Düsseldorf-Ruhrort Railway Company and is one of the oldest lines in Germany, opened in 1853 and 1854.

门兴格拉德巴赫-杜塞尔多夫铁路()是德国北莱茵-威斯特法伦州的一条干线铁路,位在下莱茵地区的莱茵河左(西)岸,长24公里,全线基本上为双线电化(使用架空线)。本线是由亚琛-杜赛道夫-鲁尔铁路公司兴建,是德国最古老的铁路之一,在1853与1854年间通车。


穆斯塔法·普尔-穆罕默迪

Early life and education.

Pourmohammadi was born in Qom in 1960. However, IRNA reports his birth year as 1959.  He was educated in jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, and philosophy in the Haqqani seminary in Qom. He completed his education in extra-jurisprudence and principles in Mashhad, Qom, and Tehran. He holds a level four jurisprudence and Islamic law degree, which is equivalent of a PhD.

Career.

Pourmohammadi was prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court in Bandar Abbas, Kermanshah and Mashhad from 1979 to 1986. Next he served as prosecutor of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Court in the western regions in 1986.  He was appointed deputy intelligence minister in 1987 under the then intelligence minister Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian during the term of the former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He was also named director the ministry's counterintelligence directorate. From 1997 to 1998 Pourmohammadi served as the director of the ministry's foreign directorate. His term as deputy intelligence minister ended in 1999.  In addition, he was acting deputy minister of information from 1997 to 1999. He also served as member and head of the board of trustees of Center for Islamic Revolution Documents. He was appointed by supreme leader Khamenei as the head of the political and social department of his office in 2003.  On 24 August 2005, Pourmohammadi was appointed interior minister by Ahmadinejad. The Majlis approved him as minister with 153 votes in favor. In an effort to end the plight of refugees, Pourmohammadi attended a meeting of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on 10 October 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland. He was removed from office in a cabinet reshuffle in May 2008. He was dismissed allegedly for informing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about the electoral irregularities without the consent of Ahmedinejad.  Then Pourmohammadi was appointed head of Iran's general inspectorate office. He announced his candidacy for the 2013 presidential election in March 2013 but withdrew in favor of Manouchehr Mottaki. On 4 August 2013, Pourmohammadi was nominated by newly elected President Hassan Rouhani as the minister of justice and was confirmed on 15 August by the Majlis. On 2 August 2017, he was announced that he will not be part of Rouhani's second government.

Controversy.

During his tenure as deputy intelligence minister, Pourmohammadi is reportedly implicated in the 1988 Massacre of Iranian Prisoners based on the orders of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and other key politicians. According to Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, he was "the representative of the Ministry of Information in charge of questioning prisoners in Evin Prison" during the massacre. Montazeri saw Pourmohammadi as being "a central figure" in the mass executions of prisoners in Tehran. In 2016, Mohammadi said: “We are proud to have carried out God’s commandment concerning the People's Mujahedin of Iran... I am at peace and have not lost any sleep all these years because I acted in accordance with law and Islam.”  His nomination as justice minister in August 2013 was criticized by three international organizations, namely Reporters Without Borders, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, and Human Rights Watch, on 8 August and these organizations requested the withdrawal of his nomination for the post of justice minister due to his controversial past tenure.

Personal life.

Pourmohammadi is married and has four children.

COVID-19 outbreak.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, there were unconfirmed reports about he having been taken to hospital for coronavirus symptoms, and later tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Later he discharged from hospital.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi (; born 9 March 1960, Qom) is an Iranian politician and prosecutor, who has served at different positions and cabinet posts. He was minister of interior from 2005 to 2008 and minister of justice from 2013 until 2017. Pourmohammadi is reportedly implicated in the 1988 Massacre of Iranian Prisoners.

穆斯塔法·普尔-穆罕默迪(;1960年-3月9日),伊朗政治家、检察官。他于2005年至2008年期间在内贾德内阁中担任内政部部长,于2013年至2017年期间在鲁哈尼内阁中担任司法部部长。他被报导与1988年伊朗政治犯大屠杀有关联。


Early life.

Mulally was born in Oakland, California, the son of Lauraine Lizette (Clark) and Charles R. Mulally, who met at a USO dance. Mulally grew up in his mother's hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, where he was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church. He considered Rev. Dale Turner "a mentor and an inspiration". He used to sit at the front of the church to study the minister's influence on the congregation. Mulally said that he found himself motivated at the age of 17 by president John F. Kennedy's challenge to send a man to the moon.

Education.

Mulally graduated from the University of Kansas, also his mother's alma mater, with Bachelor of Science (1968) and Master of Science (1969) degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. He was also a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He received a Master's degree in Management (S.M.) as a Sloan Fellow from MIT's Sloan School of Management in 1982.

Career.

Boeing.

Mulally was hired by Boeing immediately out of college in 1969 as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and Boeing 777 projects. He led the cockpit design team on the 757/767 project. Its revolutionary design featured the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft, the second two-man crew for long range aircraft after the Airbus A300, and a common type rating for pilots on two different aircraft. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering and, from September 1992, as vice-president and general manager.  He was later named as vice President of Engineering for the commercial airplane group. He is known and recognized for elevating Phil Condit's "Working Together" philosophy through and beyond the 777 program. In 1994, Mulally was promoted to senior vice president of Airplane Development and was in charge of all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification, and government technical liaison. In 1997, Mulally became the president of the Boeing Information, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president. He held this position until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Chief Executive Officer duties were added in 2001.  Following the forced resignations of CEOs Phil Condit in 2003 and Harry Stonecipher in 2005 of parent The Boeing Company, Mulally was considered one of the leading internal candidates for the position. When Mulally was passed over in both instances, questions were raised about whether he would remain with the company.  For Mulally's performance at Boeing, "Aviation Week & Space Technology" named him as person of the year for 2006.

Ford Motor Company.

Former Ford CEO Donald Petersen recommended Mulally to Ford, and he was named the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company on September 5, 2006, succeeding Bill Ford, who became executive chairman. Mulally called his Lexus LS430 the 'finest car in the world', just as Ford was about to announce his selection as CEO, making the point that Ford was not then in a leadership position, though he then faced some criticism and switched to driving Ford models. William Clay Ford Jr. had been searching for his successor as Ford CEO for some time, with Daimler AG's Dieter Zetsche and Renault/Nissan Motors's Carlos Ghosn both turning down the offer.  One of Mulally's first decisions at Ford was to bring back the Taurus nameplate. He said that he could not understand why the company previously scrapped the Taurus, which had been one of the company's best sellers until losing ground in the late 1990s.  Mulally took over "The Way Forward" restructuring plan at Ford to turn around its massive losses and declining market share. Mulally's cost-cutting initiatives led to the company's first profitable quarter in two years. Dividends to shareholders were also suspended.  In 2006 Mulally led the effort for Ford to borrow US$23.6 billion by mortgaging all of Ford's assets. Mulally said that he intended to use the money to finance a major overhaul and provide “a cushion to protect for a recession or other unexpected event". At the time, the loan was interpreted as a sign of desperation, but is now widely credited with stabilizing Ford's financial position, compared to crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler, both of whom subsequently went bankrupt during the automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009. Ford was the only one of the Detroit Three that did not ask for a government loan. Mulally did testify before the United States Congress in favor of government loans for General Motors and Chrysler, discussing the impact to the economy and to other automobile manufacturers if parts suppliers were to go bankrupt in the light of a GM or Chrysler collapse. In May 2009, Ford chairman William Clay Ford, who hired Mulally, said that "Alan was the right choice [to be CEO], and it gets more right every day". In 2007, he presided over the sale of Jaguar Cars and Land Rover to Tata Motors, an Indian car and truck manufacturer. Mulally said he had "no regrets" over the sale, preferring to concentrate on the Ford brand, as then-CEO Jacques Nasser was criticized in 2001 for paying too much attention to new overseas acquisitions while letting the main Ford operations in the U.S. decline. Ford received US$2.3 billion on the sale, considerably below what they paid for it under Nasser and Donald Petersen. However, analysts said that Ford would have gotten much less or might not have found a buyer if they had tried to sell it later in 2008, as Jaguar Land Rover sales subsequently plummeted due to high oil prices in the summer, causing Tata to request a bailout from the British government. Mulally also sold off Aston Martin and Volvo Cars, and reduced Ford's stake in Mazda.  In 2008, amid mounting losses during an economic downturn, Ford announced a proposal on December 2, 2008, to cut Mulally's salary to $1 per year if government loans were received and used by Ford. During hearings for government loans to Ford, he and other industry leaders were criticized for flying to Washington, D.C. in corporate jets. During a subsequent meeting, he traveled from Detroit to Washington by a Ford-built hybrid electric vehicle, while selling all but one of the company's corporate jets.  In 2008, Mulally earned a total compensation of $13,565,378, which included a base salary of $2,000,000, stock awards of $1,849,241, and option awards of $8,669,747. His total compensation decreased by 37.4% compared to 2007.  Due to his achievements at Ford, he was included in the 2009 "Time" 100 list. The entry, written by Steve Ballmer, says, "[Mulally] understands the fundamentals of business success as well as any business leader I know".  In 2011, Mulally was named Person of the Year by the "Financial Times" ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business Awards. He was also named the 2011 CEO of the Year by "Chief Executive" magazine.  In 2012, Mulally was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Kansas for his notable contributions to engineering and the transportation industry.  On November 1, 2012, Ford announced that Mulally would stay with the company at least through 2014. It was reported in September 2013 that Mulally might step down earlier than 2014 as he explored other roles. The board would reportedly be sympathetic to this move.  On July 1, 2014, Mullaly resigned as CEO of Ford.

Post-Ford.

On July 9, 2014, he joined the Board of Directors of Google (now Alphabet). Mulally became a senior fellow at Seattle University's Albers School of Business in April 2016.  Mulally was considered for Secretary of State in the Trump Administration but that job went to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.

Management style.

Mulally negotiated four new agreements with United Automobile Workers, which brought down labor costs from $76/hour to $55/hour. He lived within three miles of his office at Ford's global headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. He had a meeting with Ford's executives, called a "Business Plan Review" (BPR) every Thursday at 7 a.m. in the "Thunderbird Room" at Ford's headquarters. At a "town meeting" of 100 information technology staffers in February 2007, Mulally said, "We have been going out of business for 40 years", and repeated his message to other employee groups.

Self-management.

McKinsey & Company asked Mulally how he maintained his mental and physical stamina, to which he responded: "Everybody always talks about how you need to manage your time. You need to manage your energy as well. You first have to ask, 'What gives me energy?' There can be lots of sources: your family, exercise, your spiritual well-being... In our house, we had a family meeting every week—the family BPR ["Business Plan Review"]—where we reviewed what we needed to do and the support required to get us through the week. It is another kind of process step, and a really important one."

Alan Roger Mulally (born August 4, 1945) is an American aerospace engineer and manufacturing executive. He is former President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company. He retired from Ford Motor Company on July 1, 2014. Ford had been struggling during the late-2000s recession, returned to profitability under Mulally, and was the only American major car manufacturer to avoid a bailout fund provided by the government. Mulally's achievements at Ford are chronicled in the book "" by Bryce G. Hoffman, published in 2012. On July 15, 2014, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Google.

艾伦·罗杰·穆拉利(英语:Alan Roger Mulally,1945年-8月4日),美国工程师及行政人员,曾任福特汽车总裁兼首席执行官,于2014年7月1日退休。福特在2000年代末期经济大衰退期间面临倒闭危机,但在穆拉利的带领下转亏为盈,成为美国唯一不需要政府纾困的大型汽车制造商。作家布莱斯·G·霍夫曼(英语:Bryce G. Hoffman)在2012年出版《-{zh-tw:勇者不惧:拯救福特,企业梦幻CEO穆拉利;zh-cn:美国偶像:艾伦•穆拉利与拯救福特之战;}-》一书,记录了穆拉利在福特的成就。2014年7月15日,穆拉利加入Google董事会。