Life and career.

1946–1961: Early life.

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian-American truck driver with drug and gambling problems; her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), was an occasional model and bit-part actress who claimed Irish, English, German, and Cherokee ancestry. Cher's father was rarely home when she was an infant, and her parents divorced when Cher was ten months old. Her mother later married actor John Southall, with whom she had another daughter, Georganne, Cher's half-sister.  Now living in Los

1962–1965: Solo career breakthrough.

At age 16, Cher dropped out of school, left her mother's house, and moved to Los Angeles with a friend. She took acting classes and worked to support herself, dancing in small clubs along Hollywood's Sunset Strip and introducing herself to performers, managers, and agents. According to Berman, "[Cher] did not hesitate to approach anyone she thought could help her get a break, make a new contact, or get an audition." Cher met performer Sonny Bono in November 1962 when he was working for record producer Phil Spector. Cher's friend moved out, and Cher accepted Sonny's offer to be his housekeeper. Sonny introduced Cher to Spector, who used her as a backup singer on many recordings, including the Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". Spector produced her first single, the commercially unsuccessful "Ringo, I Love You", which Cher recorded under the name Bonnie Jo Mason.  Cher and Sonny became close friends, eventual lovers, and performed their own unofficial wedding ceremony in a hotel room

1965–1967: Sonny and Cher's rise to pop stardom.

In early 1965, Caesar and Cleo began calling themselves Sonny & Cher. Following the recording of "I Got You Babe", they traveled to England in July 1965 at the Rolling Stones' advice; Cher recalled, "[they] had told us... that Americans just didn't get us and that if we were going to make it big, we were going to have to go to England." According to writer Cintra Wilson, "English newspaper photographers showed up when S&C were thrown out of the London

1967–1970: Backlash from the younger generation, first marriage.

By the end of the 1960s, Sonny and Cher's music had ceased to chart. According to Berman, "the heavy, loud sound of groups like Jefferson Airplane and Cream made the folk-rock music of Sonny and Cher seem too bland." Cher later said, "I loved the new sound of Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the electric-guitar oriented bands. Left to myself, I would have changed with the times because the music really turned me on. But [Sonny] didn't like it—and that was

1971–1974: Television career breakthrough, first musical comeback.

CBS head of programming Fred Silverman offered Sonny and Cher their own television program after he noticed them as guest-hosts on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1971. "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" premiered as a summer replacement series on August 1, 1971, and had six episodes. Because it was a ratings success, the couple returned that December with a full-time show.  Watched by more than 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" was praised for the comedic timing, and deadpan Cher mocked Sonny about his looks and short stature. According to Berman, they "exuded an aura of warmth, playfulness, and caring that only enhanced

1974–1979: Divorce from Sonny Bono, second marriage, decline of popularity.

Cher and Sonny had marital problems since late 1972, but appearances were maintained until 1974. "The public still thinks we are married," Sonny wrote in his diary at the time, "[and] that's the way it has to be." In February 1974, Sonny filed for a separation, citing "irreconcilable differences". A week later, Cher countered with a divorce suit and charged Sonny with "involuntary servitude", claiming that he withheld money from her and deprived her of her rightful share of their earnings. The couple battled in court over finances and the custody of Chastity, which was eventually granted to Cher. Their divorce was finalized on June 26, 1975.  In 1974, Cher won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for "The Sonny

1979–1982: Second musical comeback, shift from disco music to rock.

A single mother with two children, Cher realized that she had to make a choice about the direction of her singing career. Deciding to temporarily abandon her desire to be a rock singer, she signed with Casablanca Records and launched a comeback with the single "Take Me Home" and the album of the same name, both of which capitalized on the disco craze. Both the album and the single became instant successes, remained bestsellers for more than half of 1979, and were certified gold by the RIAA. Sales of the album may have been boosted by the image of a scantily clad Cher in a Viking outfit on its cover. Despite her initial lack of enthusiasm for disco music, she changed her mind after the success, commenting, "I never thought I would want to do disco... [but] it's terrific! It's great music to dance to. I think that danceable music is what everybody wants."  Encouraged by the popularity of "Take Me Home", Cher planned to return to rock music in her next album, "Prisoner" (1979). The album's cover features Cher draped in chains as a "prisoner of the press", which caused controversy among feminist groups

1982–1987: Film career breakthrough, musical hiatus.

With decreasing album sales and a lack of commercially successful singles, Cher decided to further develop her acting career. While she had previously aspired to venture into film, she had only the critically and commercially unsuccessful movies "Good Times" and "Chastity" to her credit, and the Hollywood establishment did not take her seriously as an actress. She moved to New York in 1982 to take acting lessons with Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors Studio, but never enrolled after her plans changed. She auditioned for and was signed by director Robert Altman for the

1987–1992: Film stardom, third musical comeback.

Cher starred in three films in 1987. In "Suspect", she played a public defender who is both helped and romanced by one of the jurors in the homicide case she is handling. Along with Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer, she starred as one of three divorcees involved with a mysterious and wealthy visitor from hell who comes to a small New England town in the comedy horror "The Witches of Eastwick". In Norman Jewison's romantic comedy "Moonstruck", she played an Italian widow in love with her fiancé's younger brother. The two latter films ranked among the top ten highest-grossing films of 1987, at number ten and five, respectively.  "The New

1992–1997: Health and professional struggles, directing debut.

Partially due to her experiences filming "Mermaids", Cher turned down leading roles in such films as "The War of the Roses" and "Thelma & Louise". According to Berman, "After the success of "Moonstruck", she was so worried about her next career move that she was overly cautious." In the early 1990s, she contracted the Epstein–Barr virus and developed chronic fatigue syndrome, which left her too exhausted to sustain her music and film careers. Because she needed to earn money and was not healthy enough to work on

1998–1999: Death of Sonny Bono, fourth musical comeback.

Following Sonny Bono's death in a skiing accident in 1998, Cher delivered a tearful eulogy at his funeral, calling him "the most unforgettable character" she had met. She paid tribute to him by hosting the CBS special "Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers", which aired on May 20, 1998. That month, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Later that year, Cher published "The First Time", a collection of autobiographical essays of "first-time" events in her life, which critics praised as down-to-earth and genuine. Although the manuscript was almost finished when Sonny died, she could not decide whether to

2000–2009: Touring success, retirement, Vegas residency.

"Not.com.mercial" (2000) was written mostly by Cher after she had attended a songwriters' conference in 1994; it marked her first attempt at writing most of the tracks for an album. As the album was rejected by her record label for being uncommercial, she chose to sell it only on her website. In the song "Sisters of Mercy", she criticized as "cruel, heartless and wicked" the nuns who prevented her mother from retrieving her from a Catholic orphanage. The Catholic church denounced the

2010–2017: Musical film debut, return to music and touring.

In "Burlesque" (2010), Cher's first musical film, the actress plays a nightclub impresario whom a young Hollywood hopeful is looking to impress. One of the two songs she recorded for the film's soundtrack, the power ballad "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me", reached number one on the "Billboard" Dance Club Songs chart in January 2011, making Cher the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a "Billboard" chart in six consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s. In November 2010, she received the honor of placing her

2018–present: Return to film, "Dancing Queen", upcoming projects.

In 2018, Cher returned to film for the romantic musical comedy film "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again". "New York" magazine's Viviana Olen and Matt Harkins commented that "it's only at the climax of the movie when its true promise is fulfilled: Cher arrives... It becomes clear that every single movie—no matter how flawless—would be infinitely better if it included Cher." She stars as Ruby Sheridan, who is the grandmother of Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried, and the mother of Donna, portrayed by Meryl Streep. Cher recorded two ABBA

Artistry.

Music and voice.

Cher has employed various musical styles, including folk rock, pop rock, power ballads, disco, new wave music, rock music, punk rock, arena rock, and hip hop; she said she has done this to "remain relevant and do work that strikes a chord". Her music has mainly dealt with themes of heartbreak, independence, and self-empowerment for women; by doing so, she became "a brokenhearted symbol of a strong but decidedly single woman", according to "Out" magazine's Judy Wieder. "Goldmine" magazine's Phill Marder credited Cher's "nearly flawless" song selection as what made her a notorious rock singer; while several of her early songs were penned by or sung with Sonny Bono, most of her solo successes, which outnumbered Sonny and Cher's successes, were

Films, music videos, and stage.

"Maclean's" magazine's Barbara Wickens wrote, "Cher has emerged as probably the most fascinating movie star of her generation... [because] she has managed to be at once boldly shocking and ultimately enigmatic." "New York Post" movie critic David Edelstein attributes Cher's "top-ranking star quality" to her ability of projecting "honesty, rawness and emotionality. She wears her vulnerability on her sleeve." Jeff Yarbrough of "The Advocate" wrote that Cher was "one of the first superstars to 'play gay' with compassion and without a hint of stereotyping", as she portrays a lesbian in the 1983 film "Silkwood".  Author Yvonne Tasker, in her book "Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema" (2002), notes that Cher's film roles often mirrors her public image as a rebellious, sexually autonomous, and self-made woman. In her films, she recurrently serves as a social intermediary to disenfranchised male characters, such as Eric Stoltz's Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia victim in "Mask" (1985), Liam Neeson's mute homeless veteran in "Suspect" (1987), and Nicolas Cage's socially isolated baker with a wooden hand in "Moonstruck" (1987). Film critic Kathleen Rowe wrote of "Moonstruck" that the depiction of Cher's character as "a 'woman on top' [is] enhanced

Public image.

Fashion.

"Time" magazine's Cady Lang described Cher as a "cultural phenomenon [who] has forever changed the way we see celebrity fashion." Cher emerged as a fashion trendsetter in the 1960s, popularizing "hippie fashion with bell-bottoms, bandanas, and Cherokee-inspired tunics". She began working as a model in 1967 for photographer Richard Avedon after then-"Vogue" magazine editor Diana Vreeland discovered her at a party for Jacqueline Kennedy that year. Avedon took the controversial photo of Cher in a beaded and feathered nude gown designed by Bob Mackie for the cover of "Time" magazine in 1975; "Billboard" magazine's Brooke Mazurek described it as "one of the most recreated and monumental looks of all time." Cher first wore the gown to the 1974 Met Gala. According to "Vogue" magazine's André Leon Talley, "it was really the first time a Hollywood celebrity attended, and it changed everything. We are still seeing versions of that look on The Met red carpet 40 years later." "Billboard" wrote that Cher has "transformed fashion and [become] one of the most influential style icons in red carpet history".  Through her 1970s television shows, Cher became a sex symbol with her inventive and revealing Mackie-designed outfits, and fought the

Physical appearance.

Cher has attracted media attention for her physical appearance—particularly her youthful looks and her tattoos. Journalists have often called her the "poster girl" of plastic surgery. Author Grant McCracken, in his book "Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture" (2008), draws a parallel between Cher's plastic surgeries and the transformations in her career: "Her plastic surgery is not merely cosmetic. It is hyperbolic, extreme, over the top... Cher has engaged in a transformational technology that is dramatic and irreversible." Caroline Ramazanoglu, author of "Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism" (1993), wrote that "Cher's operations have gradually replaced a strong, decidedly 'ethnic' look with a more symmetrical, delicate, 'conventional'... and ever-youthful version of female beauty... Her normalised image... now acts as a standard against which other women will measure, judge, discipline and 'correct' themselves."  Cher has six tattoos. "The Baltimore Sun" called her the

Social media presence.

Cher's presence on social media has drawn analysis from journalists. "Time" named her "Twitter's most outspoken (and beloved) commentator". "The New York Times" writer Jenna Wortham commended Cher on her social media usage, saying "Most celebrities' social-media feeds feel painfully self-aware and thirsty... In her own way, Cher is an outlier, perhaps the

As a gay icon.

The reverence held for Cher by members of the LGBT community has been attributed to her career accomplishments, her sense of style, and her longevity. Cher is considered a gay icon, and has often been imitated by drag queens. According to "Salon" magazine's Thomas Rogers, "[d]rag queens imitate women like Judy Garland, Dolly Parton and Cher because they overcame insult and hardship on their path to success, and because their narratives mirror the pain that many gay men suffer on their way

Other interests.

Philanthropy.

Cher's primary philanthropic endeavors have included support of health research and patients' quality of life, anti-poverty initiatives, veterans rights, and vulnerable children. The Cher Charitable Foundation supports international projects such as the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, Operation Helmet, and the Children's Craniofacial Association.  Beginning in 1990, Cher served as a donor and as the National Chairperson and Honorary Spokesperson for the Children's Craniofacial Association, whose mission is to "empower and give hope to facially disfigured children and their families". The annual Cher's Family Retreat is held each June to provide craniofacial patients, their siblings and parents

Politics.

Cher has said that she is not a registered Democrat, but has attended many Democratic conventions and events. Over the years, Cher's political views have attracted media attention, and she has been an outspoken critic of the conservative movement. In an interview with "Vanity Fair", she was critical of a variety of political topics, including Republican politicians like Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer. She has commented that she did not understand why anyone would be a Republican because eight years under the administration of George W. Bush "almost killed [her]".  During the 2000 United States presidential election, ABC News wrote that she was determined to do "whatever

Legacy.

"Forbes" declared Cher as "the most famous chanteuse and performer of our time". According to "Goldmine" magazine's Phill Marder, Cher "has been and remains today one of the Rock Era's most dominant figures". He described her as the leader of an effort in the 1960s to "advance feminine rebellion in the rock world [and] the prototype of the female rock star, setting the standard for appearance, from her early hippie days to her later outlandish outfits, and her attitude—the perfect female punk long before punk even was a rock term." "Billboard"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> Joe Lynch described Cher as "a woman who pioneered an androgynous musical identity in the mid '60s", and who by doing so "teed things up for people like Bowie and Patti Smith".  "Billboard"s Keith Caulfield wrote that "There's divas, and then there's Cher." "Dazed" magazine's Shon Faye elaborates: "If Madonna and Lady Gaga and Kylie and Cyndi Lauper were playing football, Cher would be the stadium they played on, and the sun that shone down on them." According to Jeff Miers from "The Buffalo News", "Her music has changed with the times over the decades, rather than changing those times through groundbreaking work"; however, he felt that subsequent female pop singers were heavily inspired by Cher's abilities to combine "showmanship with deep musicality... to make valid statements in a wide variety of trend-driven idioms... to ease effortlessly between pop subgenres [and] to shock without alienating her fans", as well as by her charismatic stage presence and the strong LGBT support among her fan base. Cher's work has influenced artists including Beyoncé, Bonnie McKee, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Cyndi Lauper, Drew Barrymore, Garbage, Gwen Stefani, Helena Vondráčková, Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo, Paulina Rubio, Pink, Madonna, Marc Jacobs, Tina Turner, and Lady Gaga. Gaga studied Cher's performance in "Moonstruck" in preparation for her role as Ally in the 2018 film "A Star Is Born". Cher is commonly referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop." Cher has repeatedly reinvented herself through various personas, for which Professor Richard Aquila from Ball State University called her "the ultimate pop chameleon". According to "Entertainment Weekly" Marc Snetiker, "Cher has floated through generation after generation, scooping up new fans, thrilling old ones, reinventing her own myth and glittering splendidly through it all." "Billboard" magazine's Brooke Mazurek credited Cher as having "revolutionized the idea of what a pop star could visually accomplish, the way they could create multiple personas that live on and off-stage." James Reed from "The Boston Globe" elaborates: "Along with David Bowie, she is one of the original chameleons in pop music, constantly in flux and challenging our perceptions of her[.]" "The New York Times" declared Cher as the "Queen of the Comeback". According to author Lucy O'Brien, "Cher adheres to the American Dream of reinvention of self: 'Getting old does not have to mean getting obsolete.'"  Author Craig Crawford, in his book "The Politics of Life: 25 Rules for Survival in a Brutal and Manipulative World" (2007), describes Cher as

Achievements.

As a solo artist, Cher has sold 100 million records worldwide (in addition to 40 million as Sonny & Cher), making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She is one of the few artists to win three of the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT—Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), and one of five actor-singers to have had a US number-one single and won an acting Academy Award. Her breakthrough single, Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe", is a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee and was featured on "Rolling Stone" "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list compiled in 2003. Her 1971 single "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was called "one of the 20th century's greatest songs" by "Billboard" magazine. Her 1998 song "Believe" was voted the world's eighth favorite song in a poll conducted by BBC in 2003—the only American song to be named on the list. In 1988, she became the first performer to receive an Academy Award for acting and a RIAA-certified gold album in the same year since the inception of gold awards in 1958.  Cher is the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a "Billboard" chart in six consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s. She has held US "Billboard" Hot 100 number-one singles over the longest period of time in history: 33 years, seven months and three weeks between "I Got You Babe", which topped the chart for the first time on August 14, 1965, and

Discography.

Studio albums

Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Commonly referred to by the media as the Goddess of Pop, she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. Cher is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety of styles and appearances throughout her six-decade-long career.

Cher (* 20. Mai 1946 in El Centro, Kalifornien als "Cherilyn Sarkisian") ist eine US-amerikanische Sängerin und Schauspielerin. Durch ihr Auftreten und Wirken in Musik, Film und Fernsehen wie auch in der Mode wurde sie zu einer popkulturellen Medienikone. Ihr wird der Einzug weiblicher Eigenständigkeit und Selbstverwirklichung in die Unterhaltungsindustrie zugeschrieben. Dafür bekannt, kontinuierlich sowohl ihre Musik als auch ihr Image neu zu erfinden, wird sie auch als "Goddess of Pop" bezeichnet. Von Folk über Disco und Rockmusik bis hin zu Electropop wandte sich Cher im Verlauf ihrer Karriere diversen Genres zu, die sie zum Teil auch prägte.


Origins.

The origins of the lance lie in the retinues of medieval knights (Chaucer's Knight in the "Canterbury Tales", with his son the Squire and his archer Yeoman has similarities to a lance). When called by the liege, the knight would command men from his fief and possibly those of his liege lord or in this later's stead. Out of the Frankish concept of knighthood, associated with horsemanship and its arms, a correlation slowly evolved between the signature weapon of this rank, the horseman's lance, and the military value of the rank. In other words, when a noble spoke of his ability to field forces, the terms knights and lances became interchangeable.  The lance had no consistent strength of arms throughout its usage as a unit. Different centuries and different states gave it a fluctuating character. However, the basic lance of three men; a knight, a squire who served as a fighting auxiliary and a non-combatant squire, primarily concerned on the battlefield with looking after the knight's spare horses or lances, seems to evolve in the 13th century An excellent description to convey its relevance is in Howard, "a team of half a dozen men, like the crew of some enormous battle tank". The 13th-century French rule of the Templars had specified that a brother knight should have one squire if he had one warhorse, two if he had an extra one. In addition, he had a riding horse and a packhorse. In battle the squires would follow the brothers with the spare warhorses. A similar arrangement was also seen in Spain in the 1270s, according to Ramon Llull:  Neither horse, nor armor, nor even being chosen by others is sufficient to show forth the high honor that pertains to a Knight. Instead he must be given a squire and a servant to look after his horse

Organisation.

France.

The term "lances fournies" itself appeared much the same way as the "compagnies d'ordonnance" ""Les lances fournies pour les compagnies d'ordenance du Roi."" or The lances furnished for the companies ordered by the King. Upon the original establishment of the French "compagnies d'ordonnance", the "lances fournies" were formed around a man-at-arms (a fully armored man on an armored horse) with a retinue of a page or squire, two or three archers, and a (slightly) lighter horseman known as the serjeant-at-arms or coutilier (literally "dagger man," a contemporary term for mounted bandits and brigands). All members in a lance were mounted for travel but only the man-at-arms and the coutilier were regularly expected to fight on horseback, though of course both members were also trained and equipped for dismounted action. Lances would be further organized as companies, each company numbering about 100 "lances", effectively 400 plus fighting men and servants. These companies were sustained even in peace, and became the first standing army in modern Europe.

Burgundy.

The last Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, made a number of ordinances prescribing the organisation of his forces in the 1460s and 1470s. In the first ordinance of 1468, the army is clearly organised in three man lances; a man-at-arms, a "coustillier" and a "valet". In the Abbeville Ordinance of 1471, the army is re-organised into 1250 lances of nine men each : a man-at-arms, a "coustillier", a non-combatant page, three mounted archers and three foot soldiers (a crossbowman, handgunner, and pikeman). This organisation is repeated in the 1472 and 1473 ordinances.

Brittany.

The Duchy of Brittany also ordered the equivalent of the lance in an ordinance of 1450. While the basic lance was the familiar three man structure of man-at-arms, coutilier and page, dependent on the wealth of the man-at-arms, additional archers or "juzarmiers" (that is, men equipped with a guisarme) were added. At the highest income band specified (600–700 livres), either four archers, or three archers and a juzarmier, were added to the basic unit.

Italy.

In Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, mercenary soldiers were recruited in units known variously as "barbuta", lance or "corazza", consisting of two to six men. Although it is traditionally thought that the three man lance was introduced to Italy by the mercenaries of the White Company in the 1360s, in fact they had evolved somewhat earlier The three man lance consisted of two combatants, a man-at-arms and an armed squire, plus a page. Occasionally, a mounted archer could be substituted for the squire.  In the mid 15th century, soldiers called "lanze spezzate" (literally broken lances) evolved. These were men who, for some reason, had become detached from their mercenary companies and their lances and were now hired as individuals. They were then placed in new companies and lances under a new commander.

Germany.

In Germany, an indigenous form of the lance known as a "gleve" (pl. "gleven") developed. A gleve may have consisted of as many as ten men - both horse and foot soldiers - supporting the knight. The three man gleve may have existed in the early 14th century, with a knight supported by two sergeants. Later the sergeants were replaced by mercenaries. The equivalent of the lance of two combatants with page is seen in Germany in the later 14th century, when the second combatant can be a spearman or an archer. However, in various regions, other sizes of gleven existed of up to ten men, including up to three mounted archers (who would dismount to fight) and armed servants who acted as infantry.

Poland.

"Kopia" (Polish for lance) was the basic military formation in medieval Poland, identical to the lance-unit employed elsewhere in Western Europe. A "Kopia" was composed of a knight and his retinue (of 3–12 soldiers). On campaign, several kopias were combined to form a larger unit, the "chorągiew (pl: banner)."  From the 15th century the term kopia was replaced by "Poczet".

See also.

Re-enacting Charles the Bold's ordinances.

The lance fournie (French: "equipped lance") was a medieval equivalent to the modern army squad that would have accompanied and supported a man-at-arms (a heavily armoured horseman popularly known as a "knight") in battle. These units formed companies under a captain either as mercenary bands or in the retinue of wealthy nobles and royalty. Each lance was supposed to include a mixture of troop types (the men-at-arms themselves, lighter cavalry, infantry, and even noncombatant pages) that would have guaranteed a desirable balance between the various components of the company at large; however, it is often difficult to determine the exact composition of the lance in any given company as the available sources are few and often centuries apart.

Die Lanze – benannt nach der Hauptwaffe des Anführers – war die kleinste organisatorische Einheit in den Ritterheeren des Mittelalters. Angeführt von einem Ritter, gehörten zur Lanze sechs bis zehn bewaffnete Reiter. Darüber hinaus waren Fußsoldaten nicht selten. Lanzen wurden nicht als kämpfende Einheiten eingesetzt, sondern spätestens vor einer Schlacht auf die jeweiligen Waffengattungen aufgeteilt, also Panzerreiter, Schützen und dergleichen jeweils gemeinsam.


Style.

A-frame buildings are an old form known in Europe, China, and the South Pacific islands sometimes called a "roof hut" and were simple structures used for utilitarian purposes until the 1950s. In 1934, R.M. Schindler built the first modern A-frame house, for owner Gisela Bennati, in Lake Arrowhead, California. Architects Walter Reemelin, John Campbell, George Rockrise, Henrik H Bull, and Andrew Geller helped to popularize Schindler's idea in the early 1950s, designing A-frame vacation homes. In 1955, Andrew Geller built an A-frame house on the beach in Long Island, New York, known as the Elizabeth Reese House. Geller's design won international attention when it was featured in "The New York Times" on May 5, 1957. Before long, thousands of A-frame homes were being built around the world.  The Abbey Resort in Fontana-on-Geneva Lake, Wisconsin claims to have the world's tallest wooden A-frame.

Rise in popularity.

The post–World War II popularity of the A-frame has been attributed to a combination of factors including Americans' extra disposable income, the inexpensiveness of building an A-frame structure, and a new interest in acquiring a second home for vacationing.  Another factor contributing to the rise of the A-frame included the adaptability of the structure itself, which enabled architects to experiment with more modern designs. A-frames were a useful medium in which architects could explore their creative side since they were relatively cheap to build.  Additionally, many people preferred the idea of a "modern-style" vacation home to that of a "modern-style" primary home. A-frames became available as prefabricated kits, lowering the cost even more, and were sold by Macy's department stores.  After the rise of the archetypal A-frame, architects soon began experimenting with new designs, which led to what became known as the modified A-frame style.

An A-frame house or other A-frame building is an architectural house or building style featuring steeply-angled sides (roofline) that usually begin at or near the foundation line, and meet at the top in the shape of the letter A. An A-frame ceiling can be open to the top rafters.

Ein Nurdachhaus ist eine vielgestaltige Architektur-Form für Häuser, bei denen die Dachflächen weit herabreichen und die Dachtraufe entsprechend knapp über dem Erdboden liegt. Dabei ruht das Dach meist auf einem kurzen Kniestock. Es entsteht jedoch insbesondere von außen der Eindruck, dass neben den Giebelseiten keine senkrechten Seitenwände bestehen. Der Haustyp ist bereits seit der Jungsteinzeit bekannt und immer wieder modifiziert worden. Durch Fortschritte im Stahl- und Holzbau (insbesondere Einsatz von Brettschichtholzbindern) ist die Architektur der Nurdachhäuser seit dem Beginn des neuen Jahrtausends deutlich vielfältiger geworden.


History.

In the sixth year of his father's reign, he was ordered to live at He () and study under Gan Pan (). These early years spent among the common people allowed him to become familiar with their daily problems.  In the "Records of the Grand Historian" he was listed by Sima Qian as the twenty-second Shang king, succeeding his father Xiao Yi (). The oracle bone script inscriptions unearthed at Yinxu (Ruins of Yin) alternatively record that he was the twenty-first Shang king. He was enthroned in the year of Dingwei () with Gan Pan () as his prime minister and Yin () as his capital.  He cultivated the allegiance of neighbouring tribes by marrying one woman from each of them. His favoured consort Fu Hao entered the royal household through such a marriage and took advantage of the slave society hierarchy to rise through the ranks to military general and high priestess. Another of Wu Ding's wives, Fu Jing, was responsible for overseeing agricultural production, as this was the subject she divined about most frequently.  In the twenty-fifth year of his reign, his son Zu Ji () died at a remote area after being exiled.  In the twenty-ninth year of his reign, he conducted rituals in honour of his ancestor King Tang, the first king of the Shang dynasty, at the Royal Temple. Angered by the presence of a wild chicken standing on one of the ceremonial bronze vessels, he condemned his vassals and wrote an article called "Day of the Supplementary Sacrifice to Gao Zong" (, presently in the "Book of Documents" ).  In the thirty-second year of his reign, he sent troops to Guifang () and after three years of fighting he conquered it. The Di () and Qiang () barbarians immediately sent envoys to Shang to negotiate. His armies went on to conquer Dapeng () in the forty-third year of his reign, and Tunwei () in the 50th year of his reign.  He died in the fifty-ninth year of his reign according to all the sources available. Widely regarded as one of the best kings of the Shang dynasty, he was given the posthumous name Wu Ding () and was succeeded by his son Zu Geng ().

Wu Ding (; Wu Ding) was a king of the Shang dynasty in ancient China, whose reign lasted from approximately 1250–1192 BC. According to the traditional chronology, his reign was 1324–1266 BC.

König Wǔ Dīng () (*? v. Chr.; † 1266 v. Chr.) herrschte als der 22. oder 23. König der Shang-Dynastie für 59 Jahre über China.


Basic features of Dimotiki.

Demotic Greek differs from varieties of Ancient Greek and learned forms inherited from the same in several important ways. Syntactically, it favors parataxis over subordination. It also heavily employs redundancy, such as ("small little-girl") and ("he-went-back-to-sleep again"). Somewhat in connection with this, Demotic employs the diminutive with great frequency, to the point that many Demotic forms are in effect neuter diminutives of ancient words, especially irregular ones, e.g. or ("island") from ancient ("island").  Greek noun declensions underwent considerable alteration, with irregular and less productive forms being gradually replaced by more regular forms based on the old one: ("man") for ancient. Another feature was the merging of classical accusative and nominative forms, distinguishing them only by their definite articles, which continued to be declined as in Ancient Greek. This was especially common with nouns of the third declension, such as ("hometown", "fatherland") which became nominative, accusative in Demotic. Another feature of the evolution of Demotic was the near-extinction of the genitive plural, which was revived in Katharevousa and is now productive again in Demotic.  A derivative feature of this regularization of noun forms in Demotic is that the words of most native vocabulary end in a vowel, or in a very restricted set of consonants: "s" and "n" (). Exceptions are foreign loans like ("bar"), and learned forms (from Ancient Greek, "water"), and exclamations like ("ach!", "oh!") Many dialects go so far as to append the vowel -"e" () to third-person verb forms: instead of ("they write"). Word-final consonant clusters are also rare, again mainly occurring in learned discourse and via foreign loans: ("coal" – scientific) and ("boxing" – sport).  Indirect object is usually expressed by with the accusative where Ancient Greek had for accusative of motion toward; bare is used without the article to express indefiniteness duration of time, or contracted with the definite article for definiteness especially with regard to place where or motion toward; or with the genitive, especially with regard to means or instrument. Using one noun with an unmarked accusative article-noun phrase followed by contracted with the definite article of a second noun distinguishes between definite direct and indirect objects, whether real or figurative, e.g. «» or «...» (lit. "I put my hand upon the Gospel" or "...in the fire", i.e. "I swear it's true", "I'm sure of it"). By contrast, Katharevousa continued to employ the ancestral form,, in place of.  The verb system inherited from Ancient Greek gradually evolved, with the old future, perfect and pluperfect tenses gradually disappearing; they were replaced with conjugated forms of the verb ("I have") to denote these tenses instead. The future tenses and the subjunctive and optative moods, and eventually the infinitive, were replaced by the modal/tense auxiliaries and used with new simplified and fused future/subjunctive forms. In contrast to this, Katharevousa employed older perfective forms and infinitives that had been for the most part lost in the spoken language, but in other cases it employed the same aorist or perfective forms as the spoken language, but preferred an archaizing form of the present indicative, e.g. for Demotic ("I hide"), which both have the same aorist form.  Demotic Greek also borrowed a significant number of words from other languages such as Italian and Turkish, something which katharevousa avoided.

Dimotiki and "Standard Modern Greek".

Dimotiki is sometimes used interchangeably with "Standard Modern Greek" (""), but these two terms are not necessarily synonymous. While in Greek the term () can describe any naturally evolved colloquial language of the Greeks, today's Standard Modern Greek language can be thought of specifically as a fusion of Katharevousa and the specific Dimotiki spoken by in Greece in the 20th century. It is not wrong to call the Greek language of today "a demotic Greek", but such terminology may lead to confusion with the semi-standardized Dimotiki which was in use during the period of diglossia in Greece and is not identical to today's Standard Modern Greek.  Referring to Standard Modern Greek as Dimotiki or Demotic Greek (with a capital "D") also ignores the fact that today's Greek contains—especially in its written form and formal registers—numerous words, grammatical forms, and phonetical features that did not exist in the Dimotiki and which only entered the language through Dimotiki's merger with Katharevousa as part of the resolution of the Greek language question.

Examples of Modern Greek features that did not exist in Dimotiki.

The following examples are intended to demonstrate Katharevousa's features in Modern Greek. They were not present in traditional Demotic and only entered the modern language through Katharevousa (sometimes as neologisms), where they are used mostly in writing (for instance, in newspapers), but also orally, especially words and fixed expressions are both understood and actively used also by non-educated speakers. In some cases, the Demotic form is used for literal or practical meanings, while the "Katharevousa" is used for figurative or specialized meanings: e.g. for the wing or feather of a bird, but for the wing of a building or airplane or arm of an organisation.  Special dative forms:

Phonological features.

Modern Greek features many letter combinations that were avoided in classical Demotic:  Native Greek speakers often make mistakes in these "educated" aspects of their language; one can often see mistakes like instead of ("I've been promoted"), instead of (""), instead of ("the interesting person"), instead of ("the interesting women"), instead of ("the vote"). However, the educated ones do not make mistakes often.

Radical demoticism.

One of the most radical proponents of a language that was to be cleansed of all "educated" elements was Giannis Psycharis, who lived in France and gained fame through his work "My Voyage" ("", 1888). Not only did Psycharis propagate the exclusive use of the naturally grown colloquial language, but he actually opted for simplifying the morphology of Katharevousa forms prescription.  For instance, Psycharis proposed changing the form of the neuter noun "light"'(gen. ') into'(gen. '). Such radical forms had occasional precedent in Renaissance attempts to write in Demotic, and reflected Psycharis' linguistic training as a Neogrammarian, mistrusting the possibility of exceptions in linguistic evolution. Moreover, Psycharis also advocated spelling reform, which would have meant abolishing most of the six different ways to write the vowel /i/ and all instances of double consonants. Therefore, he wrote his own name as, instead of.  As written and spoken Dimotiki became standardized over the next few decades, many compromises were made with Katharevousa (as is reflected in contemporary standard Greek) despite the loud objections of Psycharis and the radical "psycharist" () camp within the proponents of Dimotiki's use. Eventually these ideas of radical demoticism were largely marginalized and when a standardized Dimotiki was made the official language of the Greek state in 1976, the legislation stated that Dimotiki would be used "without dialectal and extremist forms"—an explicit rejection of Psycharis' ideals.

Demotic Greek or Dimotiki (,,, "language of the people") is a term used in contrast with Katharevousa to describe the colloquial vernacular form of Modern Greek which had evolved naturally from Koine Greek and was spoken by the vast majority of Greeks in Greece during the time of diglossia in the modern Greek state from the time of its founding in 1821 until the resolution of the Greek language question in 1976. In this context Dimotiki describes the specific non-standardized vernacular forms of Greek used by the vast majority of Greeks throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. During this long period of diglossia Katharevousa and Dimotiki complemented and influenced each other, as is typical of diglossic situations. Dimotiki became standardized over time and it was this standardized from of Dimotiki which in 1976 was made the official language of Greece. This standardized form of Dimotiki is today known formally as Standard Modern Greek. The term demotic Greek (with a lowercased d) is also a term used generally to refer to any variety of the Greek language which has evolved naturally from Ancient Greek and is popularly spoken.

Unter Dimotiki [] ( „Volkssprache“) versteht man die historisch gewachsene und in direkter Kontinuität aus dem Altgriechischen entstandene neugriechische Volkssprache. Der Begriff als solcher ist seit 1818 belegt. Die Dimotiki war (bzw. ist) die natürliche Muttersprache der Griechen. Sie stand zu Zeiten der Diglossie als Umgangssprache der Katharevousa (wörtlich „die Reine“) als offizieller Staats- und Bildungssprache gegenüber, die sich als Fortsetzerin der antiken und byzantinischen Literatursprache (Koine) gerierte. Begrifflich bilden "Dimotiki" und "Katharevousa" ein Komplementpaar.


Extensibility.

The product is extensible through the use of the.NET framework, which allows developers and network administrators to extend out-of-the-box capabilities and perform complex tasks.

History.

MIIS has its origins in two Canadian companies' products, Linkage Software's metadirectory product LinkAge Directory Exchange (LDE) which Microsoft acquired on June 30, 1997 and Zoomit Corporation's metadirectory product, Via, which Microsoft acquired on July 7, 1999.  LDE was strongly email system oriented but traces of it and its field mapping technology remain through MIIS 2003.  After acquiring Zoomit Via Microsoft renamed it to MMS (Microsoft Metadirectory Services) and offered this product for free; however they will strongly encourage customers to hire Microsoft Consulting Services to install and configure product.  Microsoft Identity Integration Server 2003 was completely re-written from ground up. No original Zoomit Via code was moved into MIIS. However Microsoft preserved methodology and original idea of the Via product. MIIS 2003 no longer uses ZScript (proprietary scripting language of Zoomit Via), instead it offered.NET framework support. With this upgrade Microsoft did not offer a migration path from MMS to MIIS due to the significant differences in the products.  Currently Service Pack 2 is available for MIIS 2003.  IIFP is a slimmed-down version of MIIS that is limited to synchronization between AD, ADAM, and exchange datastores.  In fall 2007 MIIS 2003 was incorporated into a new offering called Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) 2007. This product was announced at the RSA Conference in February 2007 and made available to customers in May 2007. Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 includes not only the original MIIS 2003 product, but also a component called Certificate Lifecycle Manager (CLM) which is used to manage X.509 digital certificate and smart card issuance.

Future developments.

Future releases of MIIS/ILM are expected to be x64 only; x86 support expected to be dropped, following suite of Exchange Server Public Release Candidate (RC) version for Identity Lifecycle Manager '2' is available now (December 2008) The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is a new back-end dependency of ILM '2'

Supported data sources.

MIIS 2003, Enterprise Edition, includes support for a wide variety of identity repositories including the following.  Network operating systems and directory services : Microsoft Windows NT, Active Directory, Active Directory Application Mode, IBM Directory Server, Novell eDirectory, Resource Access Control Facility (RACF), SunONE/iPlanet Directory, X.500 systems and other network directory products E-mail : Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2010, & 2013. Application : PeopleSoft, SAP AG products, ERP1, telephone switches PBX, XML- and Directory Service Markup Language DSML-based systems Database : Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle RDBMS, IBM Informix, dBase, IBM DB2  File-based : DSMLv2, LDIF, Comma-separated values CSV, delimited, fixed width, attribute value pairs Other: MIIS provides developers with well defined framework to create additional management agents (in any.NET framework languages currently available on the market) that are not available out-of-the box. Microsoft itself as well as third party vendors provide a wide array of additional management agents, such as OpenLDAP, IBM UniData, PeopleSoft, Windows Live ID/Hotmail, MySQL etc.

Limitations.

While MIIS appears to support DSML, there is currently no out-of-the-box support for SPML version 1 or version 2.0. Standardization in the service provisioning space would benefit consumers and assist in avoiding costly lock-in to proprietary systems.

Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) is an identity management (IdM) product offered by Microsoft. It is a service that aggregates identity-related information from multiple data-sources. The goal of MIIS is to provide organizations with a unified view of a user's/resources identity across the heterogeneous enterprise and provide methods to automate routine tasks.

Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) ist eine Metaverzeichnisdienst-Software von Microsoft. MIIS ist ein zentraler Dienst, der Identity-Informationen aus mehreren Datenquellen zusammenführt, speichert und synchronisiert. Ziel von MIIS ist es, Identity-Informationen zu verwalten und konsistent zu halten.


Plot.

Aging town constable Bob Valdez (Burt Lancaster) is tricked into killing an innocent man by powerful rancher Frank Tanner (Jon Cypher), whose hired gun R.L. Davis (Richard Jordan) shot up the hovel where the wrongly accused man and his Indian wife were trapped. Valdez believes it would be a fair gesture to raise $200 for the widow, $100 from Tanner and the rest from others in town.  Tanner is livid at the old man's suggestion. He orders ranch hand El Segundo (Barton Heyman) and his men to tie Valdez to a heavy wooden cross and drive him into the desert. The central pole is so long that Valdez must walk bent over. He finds an oasis blocked by two trees that he repeatedly tries to ram with the ends of the cross. When it finally breaks, the jagged ends are driven into Valdez's back.  Davis finds him and cuts the ropes, freeing the unconscious man. The badly injured Valdez is able to crawl to the ranch of his friend Diego (Frank Silvera), where he is nursed back to health. Unfortunately for Tanner, he has picked on the wrong man: Valdez is a wily, experienced Indian fighter and a marksman with a rifle. He dons his old cavalry uniform and sends Tanner a message via one of the rancher's wounded men (Héctor Elizondo): "Valdez is coming."  Valdez sneaks into the compound and, during the ensuing gun battle and his escape, kidnaps Tanner's woman, Gay Erin (Susan Clark), for whose favors it is rumored that Tanner had her husband killed. With her in restraints, Valdez proceeds to systematically do away with the men Tanner sends after him with his long-range Sharps rifle. The only one he shows mercy to is Davis, after the gunman screams, "I cut you loose! I cut you loose!" and reveals that the cut on the left wrist of Valdez concealed under his glove came when his knife slipped as he cut the ropes off.  Now he has two hostages. While hiding from Tanner's posse, Valdez realizes that Gay Erin knows who killed her husband. Valdez confronts her and she admits that it was she who killed her own husband in order to be with Tanner, not the other way around. He sets her free, but by now Tanner's woman is sympathetic to his cause, feeling guilty because she was the cause of all the deaths so far.  Despite Gay Erin's help, Valdez is finally surrounded and captured. Tanner and his men ride up. The men are ordered to shoot, but R.L. Davis backs off, showing he has no gun, and El Segundo calls his men aside, refusing to obey orders. That leaves Tanner to do his own dirty work—if he can.  Tanner turns out to be a coward one-on-one. Valdez tells him he should have paid the $100 The woman makes it clear she will not return to Tanner.

Production.

The film was filmed in southern Spain in locales used by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone in his European "spaghetti" Westerns. The desert-like terrain of this isolated region of Spain resembles the U.S. southwest and parts of Sonora, Mexico, though the vegetation is not the same.  When director Sydney Pollack was attached to the property, Lancaster was originally slated to play Frank Tanner with Marlon Brando as Valdez. These plans failed to materialize when Lancaster got involved in the 1970 movie "Airport".

Reception.

The film received primarily mediocre to negative reviews. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" praised Lancaster's on-screen presence but wrote that, "A lot of fancy flourishes, which I associate with Mr. Sherin's stage work, are apparent in the film, as in its picturesque groupings of picturesque characters, and in a musical score that's much given to comment on the action."  When the film was released to video, Ty Burr of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that, "Slow and choppy, "Valdez" manages an astounding feat: It drains Lancaster of personality."

Valdez Is Coming is a 1971 American Western film directed by Edwin Sherin and starring Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Richard Jordan and Jon Cypher. The film is based on the 1970 Elmore Leonard novel of the same name.

Ruth Felicitas Weiss (chinesischer Name:, * 11. Dezember 1908 in Wien; † 6. März 2006 in Peking) war eine aus Österreich stammende, chinesische Lehrerin, Journalistin und Lektorin. Ruth Weiss war die letzte europäische Augenzeugin des chinesischen Bürgerkriegs und der Aufbaujahre der Volksrepublik China.


Origin.

Live rock is harvested for use in the aquarium trade from collections in the wild near reefs, where parts may become detached from the central body of coral by storms. It may also be "seeded" from small coralline rocks by an aquaculturalist in warm ocean water, to be harvested later. Live rock can also be seeded by adding base rock to an active reef aquarium that already has live rock. Live rock harbors a wide variety of corals, algae, sponges, and other invertebrates, when they are collected. Corals added to the aquarium later will often become attached to the rock.

Purpose.

Live rock is highly valued in the aquarium trade. It introduces a diverse array of bacteria, algae, and invertebrates to the closed marine environment and functions as a superior biological filter that hosts aerobic and anaerobic nitrifying bacteria required for the nitrogen cycle that processes waste. Live rock becomes the main biological nitrification base or biological filter of a saltwater aquarium. Additionally, live rocks have a stabilizing effect on the water chemistry, in particular on helping to maintain constant pH by release of calcium carbonate. Lastly, live rock, especially when encrusted with multiple colors of coralline algae, becomes a major decorative element of the aquarium and provides shelter for the inhabitants. It is often used to build caves, arches, overhangs, or other structures in the tank, a practice known as aquascaping.  In J. Charles Delbeek's article "Your First Reef Aquarium", he states,

Types.

There are many different types of live rock. Each is named after the area from which it originated. A large amount of live rock comes from the Southern Pacific region, in areas such as Fiji, Tonga, and the Marshall Islands, as well as from the Caribbean. Each has its own distinct qualities that make it preferable to certain reef aquarists. For instance, live rock from the Fiji region is often porous and large, and rock from the Tonga region is often dense and elongated.

Base rock.

Base rock, or dry rock, is a generic term for aragonite rock that has no organisms growing in or on the rock. Base rock is often used as filler rock in the aquarium as it is much cheaper to purchase than live rock. In time, base rock will become colonized by living organisms.  Recently base rock that is mined from inland ancient reefs has become a popular way to keep the aquarium trade going sustainably. This rock is either maricultured and sold as live rock, or can be purchased and grown in the home aquarium.  Base rock can also be made from artificial rock called aragocrete, which is a hand made concrete from combining crushed aragonite, sand, and Portland cement. After allowing the cement to dry, the pieces are sometimes acid washed to counteract the high pH of the materials, and then allowed to soak in clean water for one or more months. They generally tend to be heavier and less attractive when compared to natural base rock.

Collection ban.

As of August 4, 2008 CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) banned the collection of live rock from Tonga, the Marshall Islands, and the Cook Islands. This is due to the over-collecting of rock in these areas. This ban remains in effect as of 2020.

Live rock is rock from the ocean that has been introduced into a saltwater aquarium. Along with live sand, it confers to the closed marine system multiple benefits desired by the saltwater aquarium hobbyist. The name sometimes leads to misunderstandings, as the "live rock" itself is not actually alive, but rather is simply made from the aragonite skeletons of long dead corals, or other calcareous organisms, which in the ocean form the majority of coral reefs. When taken from the ocean it is usually encrusted with coralline algae and inhabited by a multitude of marine organisms. The many forms of micro and macroscopic marine life that live on and inside of the rock, which acts as an ideal habitat, give it the name "live rock".

Lebendgestein ist ein Begriff aus der Aquaristik, mit dem vor allem in Meerwasseraquarien gearbeitet wird, die nach dem Berliner System betrieben werden. Lebendgestein besteht aus Korallenskeletten, Muschelschalen und anderem, kalkhaltigen Material, welches von Organismen besiedelt ist. Es wird in der Regel der Riffgeröllzone in tropischen Meeren entnommen.


History.

Ufa period (1980-85).

The band was formed in 1980 and originally consisted of five members:  In 1982, the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" paper sponsored a competition for young musicians called "Zolotoy Kamerton" (Golden Tuning Fork). DDT submitted three compositions - "Inoplanetyane" (Aliens), "Chyornoye solntse" (Black Sun), and "Ne strelyai!" (Don't Shoot!). During the long-running competition, the group published their first album (on tape), "Svinya na raduge" ("Pig on a Rainbow"). The album contained elements of rock and roll, blues and country music. During this time, popular music in the former Soviet Union was split between sanctioned "official" performers who were admitted to the musicians' union, and underground artists. Such underground artists were often highly trained musicians who also had other jobs. A complex underground network evolved in the 1980s and "unofficial" music became widely distributed (although the compensation for the artists was very limited), by "magnitizdat", i.e., in a similar way to the underground channels that had existed for non-state sanctioned literature (samizdat). Such "underground" artists became widely known, and their unofficial albums were sometimes mentioned in the press. In the 1980s, DDT straddled the line between underground and sanctioned artists, but was close to the underground in their musical, lyrical, and performing styles.  DDT's submission to "Zolotoy Kamerton" reached the final round of the competition and the group was invited to perform in concert at Moscow's Orlyonok complex, together with the other finalist, Rok-sentyabr (Rock-September) from Cherepovets. DDT and three members of Rock-September, Vyacheslav Kobrin, Yevgeny Belozyorov and Andrey Maslennikov, soon produced a collaborative album (on tape), "Monolog v Saigone" ("Monologue in Saigon"), later renamed to "Kompromiss" ("Compromise"). After recording the album, Sigachyov and Shevchuk returned to Ufa.  Sigachyov distanced himself from the group, while Shevchuk recruited new members including Rodin, drummer Sergey Rudoy, guitarist Rustam Rezvanov and keyboard player Vladislav Senchillo.  In May 1983, DDT successfully performed at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, as part of a three-day, sanctioned festival, "Rok za mir" (Rock for Peace). Their performance, however, was edited out of the official television program covering the event.  The new collective produced the album "Periferia" ("Periphery") in April 1984. After recording this album, some members of the group landed on a KGB watch list and were subjected to government persecution. The band's music was banned, forcing them to go underground. Ironically, this served to increase their popularity among young Russian music fans.  Although they never considered themselves political activists, Shevchuk always felt it his duty as a citizen and a songwriter to address not only the strengths but the weaknesses of his country's government, a dangerous stance to take in the former Soviet Union. DDT continued to work as a "non-conformist" group, producing albums and giving concerts throughout the Soviet Union. This was no easy feat, as they received little if any money for the records they produced during this period, and very little for their concerts. Like other dissident artists, they survived through a combination of cleverness, perseverance, and unofficial help from their fan base.  Shevchuk spent some time in Sverdlovsk (present-day Yekaterinburg), performing with the group Urfin Juis. In November 1985, DDT covertly recorded the album "Vremya" ("Time") in Moscow with additional musicians; recording process was very difficult.

1986-1997.

In 1986, Shevchuk moved to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) with his wife, son and mother. The move helped him to establish himself at the forefront of the Russian rock scene as St. Petersburg was a center of musical resurgence. In 1987, he rebuilt DDT. Its new members included:  On January 23, 1987, the new lineup debuted on the stage of the Leningrad Rock Club. In June 1987, DDT performed at a "Leningrad rock festival" in front of an overflowing crowd of 3,000 crammed into a venue with a capacity of 1,000.  In the summer of 1988, DDT toured across Russia and recorded a new album, "Ya poluchil etu rol" ("I was given this role"), which contained some songs from the old albums re-recorded in a professional studio. In 1988, the band also made their first visit to the U.S.; their concert in Los Angeles was covered by MTV.  In 1989, they went on another tour with the band Alisa, performing at a rock festival in Hungary. In 1990, DDT performed several concerts in the U.S. and Japan. Also in 1990 DDT released "Ottepel" ("Thaw"), which presented the band's first concert program from the St. Petersburg period. They also participate in the Viktor Tsoi tribute concert, after the renowned singer-songwriter died in a car accident on August 15, 1990.  After the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, DDT attracted an even greater following both at home and abroad, as their albums and concerts began to be broadcast and publicized more widely. In 1991, DDT recorded another album, the bleak and keyboards-heavy "Plastun" ("A crawling soldier", originally the name of Cossack infantrymen), but after many months of work Shevchuk decided to shelve it and the album was not released until 1995, four years later.  In 1992 DDT released the album "Aktrisa Vesna" ("Spring the Actress"). This lyrical album, which was dedicated to Shevchuk's deceased wife, Elmira, met with great popular success. It contained some of the band's greatest hits, include "Shto takoe osen'" (What is autumn), "Dozhd'" (Rain), and "Rodina" (Motherland). After releasing the album, the band toured extensively. Soon afterwards the group began to change their sound and performance strategy by adding "programmes" - conceptually prepared concerts - to its repertoire. During December 1992 and January 1993, DDT presented its first program, "Chyorny Pyos Peterburg" (Black Mongrel Petersburg), and toured widely in CIS countries. On May 27, 1993, on the anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, DDT performed a free concert in Dvortsovaya Square. 120,000 people attended. In the beginning of 1994, a new album, "Eto vsyo..." ("That's all..."), was recorded. Musicians planned to make a double album, however because of challenging deadlines and the instability of the lineup, a significant amount of early musical material and recordings did not make it into the final version. Years later, these songs would be included in the band's "Rozhdyonny v SSSR" ("Born in the USSR") album.  During the summer of 1994, DDT took part in the rock festival White Nights of St. Petersburg in Berlin. That autumn, the group was awarded the prestigious Ovatsiya award (Ovation) for Best Rock Group of the Year. Yuri Shevchuk was also named Best Rock Musician of the Year.  In January 1995, during First Chechen War, Shevchuk went on a peace mission to Chechnya, where he performed 50 concerts for both Russian troops and Chechen citizens alike. On June 25, 1995, DDT performed a 15th anniversary concert in Petrovsky stadium, attracting an audience of tens of thousands of fans. Afterwards, the group toured with its newest programme, "Ot i do" ("From and to"). At the end of the winter of 1995–1996, the group spent time working in the United States.  In February–March 1996, DDT recorded a new album, "Lyubov" ("Love"), at Long View Farm in Massachusetts with two new musicians: bassist I. Tikhomirov (from the group Kino) and keyboard player D. Galitsky.  In the summer of 1996, upon their return from the United States, the group headlined several festivals, including VladiROCKstok, the first large-scale international music festival in the formerly closed city of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan.

1998-2004.

In May 1998, the band released a new album titled "Mir nomer nol'" ("World number zero") - a concept album which contained influences from industrial music and relied heavily on electronic and computer-generated music. With this program DDT had lost a part of their old fans but found a huge success among the young auditory - a fact which DDT were very pleased by. "Mir nomer nol'" tour included about 70 cities in Russia and overseas. A new album, "Metel' avgusta" ("Snowstorm of August"), contained mostly outtakes from "Mir nomer nol" as well as songs with more warm and lyrical atmosphere.  Since then, the band has won a number of Russian music awards and been awarded humanitarian citations for their creative and charitable work. Shevchuk and his group also regularly travel throughout the C.I.S. and other former Soviet republics to give benefit concerts: in the spring and summer of 2002, 10 out of 11 concerts that the band played were benefits for various social and cultural organizations. The band has transcended Russia, reaching an ever-growing audience in the U.S. and Europe, and for the past 20 years have traveled frequently throughout the world, playing concerts and gaining new fans with their unique sound. Shevchuk's music and lyrics are not only influenced by traditional "western" rock music, but also by the entire scope of Russian folk, classical, and religious music. In many respects, Shevchuk's initial years of struggle as an underground musicians shaped his and, by extension, the band's philosophy toward their art. The question of the music's marketability was never part of the song writing process as there was no "market" in which to compete but only an allegiance to the purity of artistic expression.  In 2002 and 2003 DDT released a double album called "Yedinochestvo" ("Loneliness/Singleness"). That duologue had even more experimental sound then "Mir nomer nol". After the following tour Vadim Kurilev, band's guitarist and bass-guitarist from original Piter line-up, had left a group to begin his solo career. One of Kurilev's last performances as DDT member was released on CD and DVD called "Gorod bez okon" ("A city without windows").

2005-present.

In 2005, DDT celebrated their 25th anniversary with an extended tour throughout Russia, Europe, and North America, and the release of a new album entitled "Propavshiy bez vesti" ("Vanished without a trace"), which received a critical acclaim.  In 2007 DDT released the album "Prekrasnaya lyubov" ("Beautiful love"), a collection of previously unreleased songs which had been performed by the group for many years in addition to several new songs. The album differs from the previous albums, showcasing a greater focus on political and social subjects, rather than the more common musical abstraction of their last albums. Many songs are in the chanson style.  On March 3, 2008, DDT performed at the Dissenters' March in St. Petersburg to protest the controversial election of Dmitry Medvedev as President of Russia. Subsequently, in May 2010 Shevchuk received considerable media attention following a pointed dialogue with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in which he openly confronted him (on state television) with questions regarding such controversial topics as democracy, freedom of speech, assembly, and freedom of the press in Russia.  On September 24 and 26, 2008, DDT presented an anti-war program called "Ne strelyay!" ("Don't Shoot!"). These concerts (featuring musical bands from Georgia, South Ossetia and Ukraine) were dedicated to victims of wars, particularly the victims of the war in South Ossetia. The concert in Petersburg was shown on TV by Channel 5 without commercial breaks.  In the summer of 2009, DDT participated in the "Rok nad Volgoy" festival ("Rock above the Volga") in Samara and in the international music festival "Sotvorenie mira" ("World creation") in Kazan. On September 2, 2009, the band performed on VVC Square to protest the demolition of historical buildings in Moscow. By the time DDT started recording a next studio album, Shevchuk had become the only member from original Piter line-up and had brought together a brand new team:  In 2011, DDT released the concept album "Inache" ("Otherwise"). According to Shevchuk, the album's central theme is a freedom in all their forms and the lyrical hero is a Prince Hamlet of the 21st century which has no doubt about the question "To be, or not to be?", he clearly knows: "To be!", but the question - "In which way?" The band embarked on a big and successful tour which lasted from 2011 to 2014. On April 5, 2012, DDT released a film titled "Nebo pod serdtsem" ("Heaven under the Heart") a compilation of behind-the-scenes and concert footage from the band's performance at the "Olympic Stadium". That was the first multiple-camera concert films made in Russia. Later that year, the band took part in the rock festival "The Best City UA" in Dnepropetrovsk. In 2013, the band toured in Germany, performing at Tempodrom in Berlin and at Grugahalle in Essen. A concert in Essen was later released on CD+DVD in 2014.  DDT always was and still is one of the most popular rock groups in Russia, and their concerts typically attract tens of thousands of fans. Shevchuk put together the first incarnation of the band in the summer of 1980, and although its members have changed over the years, he continues to voice the concerns and frustrations of the Russian people in his music today just as he did in the band's infancy. The more than 20 albums in DDT's discography not only chronicle the history of a rock group, but also provide poignant narratives that examine many aspects of life in the Soviet Union and Russia during the past 35 years.

DDT (or ДДТ in Cyrillic) is a popular Russian rock band founded by its lead singer and the only remaining original member, Yuri Shevchuk (Юрий Шевчук), in Ufa (Bashkir ASSR, RSFSR) in 1980. Named after the pesticide DDT, or by other sources, Detskiy Dom Tvorchestva Cyrillic Детский Дом Творчества (Children's Home of Arts), where the group rehearsed in their early days, they are one of the better known and most prolific Russian bands of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

DDT () ist eine russische Rockband. Sie wurde von Juri Schewtschuk, ihrem Leadsänger, 1981 in Ufa gegründet. Mit ihrem in die Singer-Songwriter-Richtung gehenden Stil sind sie, zusammen mit den Bands Aquarium und Kino, bedeutende Exponenten der russischen Rockmusik der Perestroika-Ära und, im allgemeinen Sinn, der modernen russischen Popmusik.


Membership.

SBVT was formed in 2004. Membership was initially limited to veterans of the Vietnam War who at some point served in a Swift boat unit, as did Kerry.  Of the 3,500 Swift boat sailors who served in Vietnam, the names of some 250 appeared on the group's statement against Kerry; most did not serve at the same time or in the same place as Kerry. Founding members of SBVT include Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann (retired), a former commander of Swift boat forces; Colonel Bud Day, who earned the Medal of Honor; Houston attorney John O'Neill, an officer who became commander of Swift Boat PCF 94 several months after Kerry's departure in 1969 and who appeared opposite Kerry in a televised 1971 debate between them on "The Dick Cavett Show"; and 13 other named veterans. Several of those who joined SBVT during the 2004 campaign were officers who had previously praised Kerry's conduct during the Vietnam War. These included Division Commander Grant Hibbard, who wrote positive evaluations of Kerry, and Commander George Elliott, who submitted Kerry for a Silver Star. SBVT asserted that it included, in total, 16 officers who served with Kerry in Coastal Division 11 as members. Despite SBVT's statements that Kerry's "entire chain of command" belonged to the group, Joseph Streuli, former commander of Coastal Division 13, Charles Horne, former commander of Coastal Squadron 1, and Art Price, former commander CTF 116, who are described in "Unfit for Command" as part of Kerry's chain of command, were not affiliated with the group.  The group's initial letter against Kerry stated "It is our collective judgment that, upon your return from Vietnam, you grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that war (including a betrayal of many of us, without regard for the danger your actions caused us). Further, we believe that you have withheld and/or distorted material facts as to your own conduct in this war." However, Kerry had posted over 100 pages of his military records at his website nearly two weeks before the issuance of the SBVT letter, and had also made his military medical records available for inspection by reporters (and provided a summary from his doctor).  Not all SBVT members said that they were signing the letter for the same reason. For example, from an interview published the day before the letter was made public: "'[Kerry] earned his medals, he did what he was supposed to do in Vietnam,' said retired Coast Guard Captain Adrian Lonsdale, who was in the chain of command above Kerry and oversaw various operations dealing with Navy swift boats of the type Kerry commanded. 'But I was very disappointed in his statements after he got out of the Navy.  Of those who served in Kerry's boat crew, only Stephen Gardner joined SBVT. He was not present on any of the occasions when Kerry earned his medals, including his Purple Hearts. Gardner appeared in two of the group's television advertisements.  All other living members of Kerry's crew supported his presidential bid, and some frequently campaigned with him as his self-described "band of brothers". Kerry crew members have disputed some of SBVT's various allegations, calling them "totally false" (Drew Whitlow), "garbage" (Gene Thorson), and "a pack of lies" (Del Sandusky).  No members of SBVT were aboard Kerry's boat during any of the incidents for which he was decorated. The only member of SBVT who was present at the Silver Star incident, Rood's crew member Larry Clayton Lee, praised Kerry's tactics and stated that he earned his Silver Star. However, he stated that based on discussions with other SBVT members, he came to question whether Kerry deserved other medals for incidents at which he was not present.  On September 29, 2004, SBVT announced that it was joining forces with a group of American prisoners of war who were held captive by the North Vietnamese during the war to form the new group, "Swift Vets and POWs For Truth".

Media activities.

SBVT produced several television advertisements created by Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm attacking Kerry's actions both in and after Vietnam. For a detailed discussion of SBVT's allegations about Kerry's service in Vietnam, see John Kerry military service controversy.

First television advertisement.

SBVT first went public with a May 4, 2004, press conference declaring opposition to Kerry. When the press conference garnered little attention, the organization produced television advertisements. On August 5, 2004, SBVT began airing a one-minute television spot in three hotly contested states in the ongoing presidential election. The advertisement, entitled "Any Questions?", was a collage of short clips of 13 SBVT members, many of whom stated they served with John Kerry or had direct contact with Kerry during his service in Vietnam. The veterans appearing in the ad said Kerry was dishonest, unreliable, unfit to lead, and had dishonored his country and fellow veterans. Only one of the men in the advertisement (Steve Gardner) served under Kerry, but some sailed on other boats grouped with Kerry's.  Among the first to denounce the first ad was Republican Senator John McCain, a Bush supporter, Vietnam veteran, and former POW. He said, "I condemn the [SBVT] ad. It is dishonest and dishonorable. I think it is very, very wrong". Senator McCain would be criticized four years later during his own presidential campaign for accepting money and support from many of the same Swiftboaters.

Book.

SBVT founder and spokesman John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi are listed as coauthors of the book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry", published by Regnery Publishing. A best-seller upon its release in August 2004, it criticized Kerry's judgment in battle, his truthfulness, his entitlement to certain medals, and his later anti-war activities. The book was based in part on interviews with veterans who served in or with Kerry's division, and also on biographies of Kerry. Several members of Kerry's crew stated that O'Neill failed to interview them; some veterans who were interviewed asserted that their statements were edited to strip out material favorable to Kerry. Neither O'Neill nor Corsi had any firsthand knowledge of Kerry's service. O'Neill served on the Swift boats after Kerry left Vietnam, and Corsi never served in Vietnam.  After controversial statements made by Corsi became public, O'Neill denied Corsi's coauthorship of the book, saying that Corsi was "simply an editor and not really any sort of co-author." However, portions of the book contain material also found in articles posted under Corsi's name at a website critical of John Kerry, and O'Neill is cited in a later book as describing Corsi as helping to write "Unfit for Command", and urging him to back out of media appearances after the controversial comments became public.

Second television advertisement.

On August 20, 2004, SBVT released a second television advertisement featuring a portion of Kerry's, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry, testifying as a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), had criticized U.S. policy in Vietnam. He had also described VVAW's 1971 Winter Soldier Investigation, in which more than 100 soldiers and civilians said they had seen or committed atrocities carried out by U.S. forces in Vietnam. Kerry's Senate testimony presented a summary of these men's statements; he did not, however, say that he had any personal knowledge of these atrocities. The SBVT advertisement alternated clips of Kerry's summary of these statements with charges from Vietnam veterans, particularly former POWs, that Kerry's "accusations" had demoralized and "betrayed" soldiers in Vietnam.

Third television advertisement.

A third television advertisement began airing on August 26, 2004, attacking Kerry's past statements that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968. This advertisement featured Stephen Gardner stating, "I spent more time on John Kerry's boat than any other crew member.... John Kerry claims that he spent Christmas in 1968 in Cambodia and that is categorically a lie. Not in December, not in January. We were never in Cambodia on a secret mission, ever."  However, Gardner was only a member of Kerry's crew for a month and a half, from December 6, 1968 to approximately January 22, 1969; crew directories and first hand accounts indicate that other crewmembers served as long or longer under Kerry's four-month-long command.  In addition, Kerry had never said that the Christmas Eve incident was a "secret mission", but happened during a routine patrol; furthermore, he stated at least two weeks prior to the ad's appearance that he had been patrolling at or near the border at the time and subsequently ambushed. The account of the patrol appears in Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty", [pp. 209–219] and Cmdr. Elliott noted in Kerry's fitness report that his boat was ambushed during the Christmas truce of 1968. Moreover, Kerry's biographer, Douglas Brinkley, has stated that Kerry "went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions".

Fourth television advertisement.

On August 31, 2004, a fourth advertisement was released by SBVT. The advertisement described Kerry as a man who "renounced his country's symbols", a reference to a Vietnam War protest where Kerry threw war decorations over the fence of the U.S. Capitol building on April 23, 1971. The advertisement also contained edited video clips of Kerry from a WRC-TV program called "Viewpoints", in which he stated that he gave back "six, seven, eight, nine" (in response to a question: "How many did you give back, John?"); it then included a clip from another part of that interview where Kerry stated "and that was the medals themselves", although in the interview it was not in reference to the decorations he returned.

Controversy.

Truth of allegations.

Early in the advertising campaign, "Time" magazine surveyed public credence in the SBVT advertisements among those who viewed them. The poll, conducted August 24 through 26, showed that about one-third of viewers believed there was at least "some truth" to the allegations. Among swing voters, about one-fourth felt there was any truth to the ads.  A major part of the SBVT controversy centered on the group's testimony. The SBVT statements were accompanied by affidavits. One affiant, Alfred French, acknowledged he had no firsthand knowledge of the events to which he had sworn.  In May 2006, "The New York Times" reported that an early member of the group, Steve Hayes, stated that he came to believe that the group was twisting Kerry's record, and broke with the group and voted for Kerry. Hayes told the Times:  Hayes also told "The New York Times" that he provided a long interview to Kerry's supporters, backing their version of the incident for which Kerry received the Bronze Star.

First television advertisement.

The first SBVT ad was contradicted by the statements of several other veterans who observed the incidents, by the Navy's official records, and, in some instances, by the contemporaneous statements of SBVT members themselves.  Several major newspapers were also skeptical of the SBVT allegations. For example, a "New York Times" news article stated, "on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth prove to be riddled with inconsistencies." Regarding the medal dispute, a "Los Angeles Times" editorial stated, "Not limited by the conventions of our colleagues in the newsroom, we can say it outright: These charges against John Kerry are false." The editorial argued this position on the basis that "Kerry is backed by almost all those who witnessed the events in question, as well as by documentation." On August 22, 2004 "The Washington Post" reported: "An investigation by "The Washington Post" into what happened that day suggests that both sides have withheld information from the public record and provided an incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, picture of what took place. But although Kerry's accusers have succeeded in raising doubts about his war record, they have failed to come up with sufficient evidence to prove him a liar."  The ABC television show "Nightline" traveled to Vietnam and interviewed Vietnamese who were involved in the battle for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star. These witnesses disputed O'Neill's charge that there "was little or no fire" that day; they said that the fighting was fierce. SBVT supporters question whether these witnesses are reliable because they spoke "in the presence of a Communist official", but their account of enemy fire is substantially the same as that previously given by another former Viet Cong to an AP reporter and by the American witnesses, including the only SBVT member who was actually present that day, Larry Clayton Lee. ABC News's "The Note" opined, "the Swift Boat ad and their primary charges about Kerry's medals are personal, negative, extremely suspect, or false."

Book, other media statements.

Jerome Corsi has said that a picture of Kerry's 1993 visit to Vietnam hangs in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City as a gesture of "honor" by the Communists "for his contribution to their victory over [the] United States", and John O'Neill has stated that Kerry "is in the North Vietnamese war museum as a hero.... one of the heroes who caused them to win the war in Vietnam". The statement is also repeated in "Unfit for Command" (pp 167–174). However, Josh Gerstein of the "New York Sun" stated in this regard:  In this connection, the web page Corsi and another anti-Kerry veteran originally published on the Kerry museum photo contained the picture of Robert McNamara's 1995 meeting with General Giáp, who was misidentified as "Mao Tse-tung". (Photo #10).  In addition, John O'Neill said that in 1971 John Kerry "wanted to abandon ship and leave the POWs [in Vietnam]" and that "[o]n the Dick Cavett show and elsewhere, John Kerry‘s position was that we should accept the Madame Binh seven-point proposal, which called for unilateral withdrawal, setting a date after which at some future time, we'd negotiate the return of the POWs. So we would set a date. We would withdraw and then we would begin to discuss how to bring them home". However, in the Cavett debate, Kerry actually said:

Connections with Republicans.

SBVT characterized itself as a non-partisan group both in the legal sense and in spirit, yet several prominent individuals who assisted SBVT also have had close ties to the Republican Party. According to information released by the IRS on February 22, 2005, more than half of the group's reported contributions came from just three sources, all prominent Texas Republican donors: Houston builder Bob J. Perry, a longtime supporter of George W. Bush, donated $4.45 million, Harold Simmons' Contrans donated $3 million, and T. Boone Pickens, Jr. donated $2 million. Other major contributors included Bush fundraiser Carl Lindner ($300,000), Robert Lindner ($260,000), GOP contributor Aubrey McClendon ($250,000), George Matthews Jr. ($250,000), and Crow Holdings ($100,000).  The initial communications consultant for SBVT was Merrie Spaeth, a Reagan administration press officer and a volunteer consultant to Ken Starr in the Clinton impeachment; she was also a spokesperson for "Republicans for Clean Air", a 527 group opposing John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and funded by Bush supporters who also helped fund SBVT. John E. O'Neill — the primary author of "Unfit for Command" and a key player in the formation of SBVT — donated over $14,000 to Republican candidates. He co-operated with the Nixon White House in opposing Kerry in 1971, and seconded Nixon's nomination at the 1972 Republican national convention.  Retired Admiral William Schachte, a principal source for the SBVT allegations about Kerry's first Purple Heart, has donated to both of Bush's presidential campaigns. Schachte was also a lobbyist for FastShip, a firm that recently announced it was receiving $40 million in federal funding for one of its projects. In addition, Schachte's lobbying firm associate, David Norcross, was chairman of the 2004 Republican convention. Chris LaCivita, Political Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002, works as a private contractor providing media advice for SBVT.  The SBVT postal address was registered to Susan Arceneaux, treasurer of the Majority Leader's Fund, a PAC closely tied to the former Congressional leader, Republican Dick Armey.  Republican activist Sam Fox's donation of $50,000 to SBVT during the 2004 campaign caused a controversy when Bush nominated him to the position of ambassador to Belgium. Because the Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee indicated that they would not support his nomination, Bush withdrew the nomination; he appointed Fox to the position on April 4, 2007, while Congress was in recess.<ref name="AP/CNN03283007"></ref>  These ties, along with others (see below), led to suggestions in the popular press that SBVT was a front group for Republicans.

Connections with the Bush campaign.

The Bush campaign became part of the general SBVT controversy when McCain condemned the first SBVT ad, and said, "I hope that the president will also condemn it." The Bush campaign did not condemn SBVT or the SBVT ads. The campaign did not endorse the group either, stating "We have not and we will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam." Kerry was dismissive of this statement, saying, "Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that." Kerry also alleged that SBVT was "a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won’t denounce what they’re up to tells you everything you need to know—he wants them to do his dirty work". When pressed on the issue, President Bush called for an end to all 527 group political advertisements, and challenged Kerry to do the same.  Critics and the Kerry campaign pointed to several specific connections between SBVT and the Bush campaign. The Kerry campaign asserted that Bush campaign headquarters in Florida distributed fliers promoting SBVT events, a charge the Bush campaign denied. Kenneth Cordier, former vice-chair of Veterans for Bush/Cheney (in 2000) and volunteer member of the Bush campaign veterans steering committee, appeared in the second SBVT advertisement. The Bush campaign asked him to resign and stated that it had been unaware of his SBVT involvement.  On August 25, 2004, Benjamin Ginsberg, the top election lawyer to the Bush campaign on campaign finance law, also resigned after it was learned that SBVT was one of his clients. Ginsberg stated that he was withdrawing to avoid being a distraction to the campaign. He declared that he had acted "in a manner that is fully appropriate and legal," arguing that it was not uncommon or illegal for lawyers to represent campaigns or political parties while also representing 527 groups. He also maintained that he did not disclose to the Bush campaign that he was simultaneously representing the SBVT group. After leaving the Bush campaign, Ginsberg retained his status as counsel to SBVT.  In January 2005, Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother and Florida chairman for his 2004 campaign, sent a letter to SBVT member and former POW Bud Day, thanking him for his "personal support of my brother in his re-election." In addition, Governor Bush said of the SBVT:

Federal Election Commission filings.

FEC Cases #5511 and #5525  On August 10, 2004, three campaign finance watchdog groups — Democracy 21, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Center for Responsive Politics — jointly filed an independent complaint with the Federal Election Commission (Case #5511). The complaint alleged that SBVT's sources of funding were in violation of federal election law in that "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) is registered with the IRS as a section 527 group but is not registered with the Commission as a political committee. However, SBVT is, in fact, a federal political committee."  On August 20, 2004, the Kerry campaign filed a complaint with the FEC (Case #5525) alleging that SBVT and 20 additional named respondents had conducted campaign activity that "has been coordinated with the Bush campaign and the Republican Party from the outset." Under federal election law, SBVT, as a nonpartisan 527 group, was barred from coordinating with any political campaign. The complaint, citing the "ties" noted above, claimed a "web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures, and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove".  The Bush campaign dismissed charges of ties and asserted there was no co-ordination between SBVT and the campaign. Editorial opinion on the evidence for co-ordination varied. ABC News' "The Note" stated, "There is no evidence that the Bush campaign is orchestrating the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." In contrast, the "New York Times" opined that the SBVT attacks were "orchestrated by negative-campaign specialists deep in the heart of the Texas Republican machine."  FEC Findings – Cases #5511 and #5525  On December 13, 2006, in a consolidated finding, the FEC ruled against the Kerry campaign allegations (Case #5525) finding that...  In addition, Kerry campaign complaints against 18 other respondents were relegated to "dismissed-other" and 2 relegated to "Reason To Believe/No Further Action" (RTB/NFA) status.  The FEC did, however, find "for" the joint complainants (Case #5511) in that the SBVT failed to register and file disclosure reports as a federal political committee, and accepted contributions in violation of federal limits and source prohibitions. SBVT was assessed a fine of $299,500.  The conciliation agreement between the FEC and the SBVT also stated, in part:  In addition, as part of the conciliation agreement, SBVT stated that upon completing its obligations under the agreement, it "intends to cease operations as an IRC Section 527 organization and to donate the remainder of its funds to a charity supporting the families of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen killed or wounded in the War in Iraq."

Disclosure of documents.

During the campaign, SBVT criticized Kerry for not signing a Standard Form 180 authorizing general public access to his Navy personnel records. Kerry responded that the documents were posted on his website. In May 2005, Kerry confirmed his signing of the SF-180 form permitting release of his service records and medical records to reporters from the "Boston Globe", the "Los Angeles Times", and the Associated Press; he refused a request by the "New York Sun" for access to the records. The "Boston Globe" and "Los Angeles Times" reported that the records largely duplicated what Kerry had released during the campaign.  SBVT members also criticized Kerry for not releasing his own private journals and letters. However, SBVT members themselves refused to release documents. For example, a journal by another of the Swift boat commanders and the relevant Navy records of some of the SBVT members involved in specific allegations have not been released.  The White House refused to release records detailing any Bush administration contacts with prominent individuals associated with SBVT. The denied Freedom of Information Act request was filed on August 24 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Discredited.

The claims of the group were discredited, and most of the Vietnam veterans who served alongside Kerry or under his command disputed the criticisms and supported Kerry's version of events and his presidential aspirations.

"Swift Boating".

Since the 2004 election, the term "Swift Boating" (or "swiftboating") has become a common expression for a campaign attacking opponents by questioning their credibility and patriotism in a dishonest manner. The term is most often used with the pejorative meaning of a smear campaign.

Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, formerly known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), was a political group (527 group) of United States Swift boat veterans and former prisoners of war of the Vietnam War, formed during the 2004 presidential election campaign for the purpose of opposing John Kerry's candidacy for the presidency. The campaign inspired the widely used political pejorative "swiftboating", to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The group disbanded and ceased operations on May 31, 2008.

Die Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (deutsch in etwa: "Schnellboot-Veteranen für die Wahrheit") waren eine Gruppierung ehemaliger US-amerikanischer Soldaten, die im Einsatz in Vietnam waren und sich im Vorfeld der Präsidentschaftswahl 2004 gegen den Präsidentschaftskandidaten der Demokraten, John Kerry, aussprachen. Die Mitglieder der "Veterans for Truth" sind laut eigener Aussage solche Vietnam-Veteranen, die mit Kerry zusammen in seiner "Swift-Boat"-Einheit (mit einem leichten Patrouillenboot) gedient haben und ihn als nicht geeignet einstuften, Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten zu werden. Viele Beobachter nahmen an, dass die vorgeblich unabhängige Gruppe in Wirklichkeit auf eine Initiative des Wahlkampfteams seines Kontrahenten George W. Bush zurückging. Daher ist der Begriff Swiftboating als Synonym für eine Art heimliche politische Schmutzkampagne in die amerikanische Sprache eingegangen.