“I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur…Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it.”

President of the United States from 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt is considered the “Father of Conservation,” a lifelong naturalist and avid explorer. In his 1903 speech–set amidst the backdrop of the Grand Canyon–Roosevelt urges the preservation of the canyon as he addresses his former soldiers from the Spanish-American War of 1898. In 1908, Roosevelt proclaimed a large portion of the Grand Canyon as a national monument along with several other terrains throughout the country. His speech was given in Arizona on May 6, 1903:

Mr. Governor, and you, my Fellow-Citizens:

I am glad to be in Arizona to-day. From Arizona many gallant men came into the regiment which I had the honor to command. Arizona sent men who won glory on fought fields, and men to whom came a glorious and an honorable death fighting for the flag of their country. As long as I live it will be to me an inspiration to have served with Bucky O Neill. I have met so many comrades whom I prize, for whom I feel respect and admiration and affection, that I shall not particularize among them except to say that there is none for whom I feel all of respect and admiration and affection more than for your Governor.

I have never been in Arizona before. It is one of the regions from which I expect most development through the wise action of the National Congress in passing the irrigation act. The first and biggest experiment now in view under that act is the one that we are trying in Arizona. I look forward to the effects of irrigation partly as applied by and through the government, still more as applied by individuals, and especially by associations of individuals, profiting by the example of the government, and possibly by help from it I look forward to the effects of irrigation as being of greater consequence to all this region of country in the next fifty years than any other material movement whatsoever.

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the
country to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I was delighted to learn of the wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build their hotel on
the brink of the canyon. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see. We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as some thing to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children’s children will get the benefit of it. If you deal with irrigation, apply it under circumstances that will make it of benefit, not to the speculator who hopes to get profit out of it for two or three years, but handle it so that it will be of use to the home-maker, to the man who comes to live here, and to have his children stay after him. Keep the forests in the same way. Preserve the forests by use; preserve them for the ranchman and the stockman, for the people of the Territory, for the people of the region round about. Preserve them for that use, but use them so that they will not be squandered, that they will not be wasted, so that they will be of benefit to the Arizona of 1953 as well as the Arizona of 1903.

To the Indians here I want to say a word of welcome. In my regiment I had a good many Indians. They were good enough to fight and to die, and they are good enough to have me treat them exactly as squarely as any white man. There are many problems in connection with them. We must save them from corruption and from brutality; and I regret to say that at times we must save them from unregulated Eastern philanthropy. All I ask is a square
deal for every man. Give him a fair chance. Do not let him wrong any one, and do not let him be wronged.

I believe in you. I am glad to see you. I wish you well with all my heart, and I know that your future will justify all the hopes we have.

Source: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt Roosevelt, Memorial Edition.

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Frank B. Wood recalls going to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903 where he talked to Wilbur Wright about his “flying machine.” It was sticking outside of a barn and looked like a big kite. He watched the Wright Brothers’ first flight that day.

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Lieutenant colonel John E. Mann discusses some of his experiences training local militias with the Special Forces in Vietnam. He describes instructing farmers how to “Fire weapons…throw grenades, and generally protect themselves” from Viet Cong raids. Mann and his unit were part of President Kennedy’s attempt at resolving the conflict with minimal U.S. casualties by sending select military personal to advise and train South Vietnamese forces, though the escalation of the war would incite far greater and more direct involvement than Kennedy initially planned.

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A few Germans who knew Adolf Hitler discuss his methods, affects on humanity and his personality. One describes Hitler as a meteor because he suddenly struck, and then was suddenly gone, taking with him the entire German nation in his doom. A different German involved in Hitler’s army talks about a time when he had a face-to-face conversation with the dictator. He said that Hitler was not looking forward to fighting the English because of the fact that the English citizens reminded him so much of the perfect “Aryan master race” he was hoping to fill the world with.

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Colleagues of Hitler Call Him ‘A Genius of Evil’ appeared first on Witnify.

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Manfred Gelersen, a German soldier who fought during World War II for the Germans on Hitler: “Hitler was from the devil!” Gelersen comments on Hitler’s political agenda and the series of events that unfolded within the country that allowed Hitler to rise to power so quickly. He talks about the weak democracy in Germany that was established after World War I and the fall of that democratic government after Germany found itself in huge economic trouble since they had to pay for the first world war. According to Gelersen, it was because of this economic strife that people were so willing to follow Hitler and his radical ideologies as he promised them “a job and something to eat.”

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A German Veteran’s View of Hitler appeared first on Witnify.

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Rahan Kachian, an Armenian immigrant that came to the United States during the Armenian Genocide that began in 1915 and occurred in present-day Turkey, remembers the events of that time in her life. She recalls rebuilding her family and community in America and the terrifying events of what happened to her family–especially her father–as Turkish soldiers ran Armenians out of their villages. Kachian describes her house being surrounded by soldiers as they took everything they could carry and how they burned the surrounding churches and homes. Also investigated in this video are the feelings that present-day Turkish experts have towards the tragic event.

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BBC reporter travels to Turkey, formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, to get facts and opinions from Turkish natives and experts that reflect how they feel about the Armenian Genocide that occurred in 1915. Doctor Yusuf Halacoglu, the president of the Turkish Historical Society, believes that the event cannot be categorized as a genocide because the Ottoman Empire had no explicit intentions of destroying the entire Armenian race. Another professor comments on a document from that time that claims the deportation and massacre of the Armenians had only to do with state security during World War I. Various citizens are also asked about what they have learned about the tragedy as they were growing up in Turkey. Along with this, methods and tactics that the Ottomans used to carry out the deportation of the Armenians are explained in this video.

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Forensic anthropologist Anthony Falsetti travels to Russia in order to investigate what happened to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family on July 17, 1918, the night of their execution by Bolshevik party members. Falsetti gains access to various documents and recorded testimonies of the executioners of the firing squad, and even Vladimir Lenin himself. Along with this, he hears insight into how Anastasia Romanov could have possibly survived the execution. A current leader of the Romanov Investigation also takes Falsetti through an experiment to see if the allegations of Anastasia surviving could have possibly been true.

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Greg King and Penny Wilson, co-authors of “The Fate of the Romanovs,” explain the way that Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were depicted throughout his empire. According to the authors, the Tsar was known to live a “fairytale” lifestyle and was also seen as controlling. A play-by-play about the night of the execution, as well as the secret and life-threatening condition of the heir to the throne, the Tsar’s son Alexi, is also explained.

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Forensic anthropologist Anthony Falsetti, accompanied by the Pentagon’s leading forensic DNA expert, travels to Siberia, Russia in order to investigate bodies that have been unearthed. The bodies have the possibility of being the two children of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia–these two Romanov children were never discovered after the royal family was murdered by the Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918. Here, the experts talk with the people who found the remains and give background information on the abduction and exile of the royal family once tensions between the Bolsheviks and Tsar Loyalists reached a fever pitch. The night that the Romanovs were murdered under the command of chief executioner Yakov Yurovsky is also detailed in this video.

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