Uniquely, the present work will present in one place the vernacular names of the almost ten thousand birds of the world in about fifty languages. It should thus serve as a valuable reference work and source of information that has been scattered through field guides, scientific journals, coffee-table volumes and across the internet, often buried under all sorts of other data. The compilations draw on official or other generally recognized authority wherever possible, and alternates are given where space permits. While the very fact that such extensive lists may, just by their existence, in future carry some authoritative weight in standardization of bird names, that is not its primary purpose, which is to present in a more useful format the nomenclature that is already in use.

Uniquely, the present work will present in one place the vernacular names of the almost ten thousand birds of the world in about fifty languages. It should thus serve as a valuable reference work and source of information that has been scattered through field guides, scientific journals, coffee-table volumes and across the internet, often buried under all sorts of other data. The compilations draw on official or other generally recognized authority wherever possible, and alternates are given where space permits. While the very fact that such extensive lists may, just by their existence, in future carry some authoritative weight in standardization of bird names, that is not its primary purpose, which is to present in a more useful format the nomenclature that is already in use.

For the first time in modern history, a regime had to wall itself in to keep from bleeding to death. The masses of refugees that had staked their hopes on the Berlin escape route through the Iron Curtain were cut off from freedom by this wall of death erected by a Soviet puppet and tolerated by the new American president and his administration. The United States had witnessed and permitted, even conspired in, the undoing of those human rights to which it was purportedly committed. Contrary to the inaugural address of the young president, the price was not paid, the burden was not borne, the hardship was not met, the friends were not supported, and the foes were not opposed. As a result the survival and success of liberty was not only not assured; it was destroyed. This book examines the 'how' in an attempt to find out 'why.'