1953

On the 7th January 1953, Truman announced the US had developed a hydrogen bomb.

The US had already tested the H-bomb. USSR tested the H-bomb in August 1953 only months later.

By the mid 50s both the US and the USSR had developed H-bombs which could be delivered on either B-52s or Bear (some sort of war-plane look it up)  in the case of the Soviets. America built immense fleets of these planes and had over 1000 B-47 in Europe and North Africa.

President Eisenhower

January 20th, Dwight D. Eisenhower, former 5 star army general and WW2 allied commander in Europe, was inaugurated as the 34th President of the USA.

Eisenhower was more of a figurehead, and J F Dulles was the power behind the throne.

He continued Truman's policy of “containment of communism ”.

•             His involvement in South East Asia supporting French?

•             Failed to aid rebels in East Germany in '53 and Hungary in '56

In the concise history Eisenhower's puppet presidency is summed up as follows:

"In fact, Eisenhower's whole method of administration consisted of letting the buck stop in each cabinet office. He wished to be above politics and to appeal to all men. He would not plunge himself into the difficulty of daily decision and personal responsibility. He failed to dominate politics, and, by choosing to appear a good man, he became a bad President, the mere figurehead of the business forces which had filled his campaign chest." And that’s putting a positive spin on things. A puppet of oilmen, big business, and J Edgar Hoover might be more accurate.

He had to continue a modified form of Fair Deal and failed to balance the budget.

I won!

The Cabinet

John Foster Dulles, Sec of State; George M Humphrey, Sec of Treasury; Herbert Brownwell Jr, Attorney General; Arthur E Summerfield, Postmaster General; Douglas McKay, Sec of the Interior; Ezra T Benson, Sec of Agriculture; Sinclair Weeks, Sec of Commerce; Martin P Durkin, Sec of Labor; Charles E Wilson, Sec of Defence; Oveta Cupl Hobby, Sec of Health, Ed and Welfare.

Who’s Arthur S Fleming/ Flemming?

Durkin was later replaced by James P Mitchell during 1953.

Nelson Rockefeller joined the administration. Douglas MacArthur II served as counsellor of the Department of State until 24 November 1956.

Herbert Hoover Jr became Undersecretary of state and former special US emissary.

Eisenhower had no choice but to reappoint Hoover as Director of the FBI. He was Hoover’s puppet. Hoover also had dirt on him in his secret files. Ike had an affair with his female chauffeur during the war – an Irishwoman called Kay Summersby. This secret affair was a time-bomb, which had finally gone off. Summersby’s memoir “Eisenhower was my boss” didn’t contain all the gory details but was embarrassing enough to be removed from the shelves in New York and Washington.

Eisenhower, his family and members of his government were to benefit from considerable bunces thrown at them by their rich oilmen backers .

Robert B Anderson, soon to become Sec of treasury was getting secret payments from Sid Richardson and influenced presidential policy in favour of domestic oil producers. Esienhower issued 60 leases on government reserves during its first term, compared to only 16 in previous 55 years . Sam Rayburn’s comments.

Hoover considered this period to be the happiest 8 years of his career. While Ike and Hoover never particularly liked each other, they did leave each other alone, and had a working relationship. They awarded each other medals. But even so, Ike never used the FBI for personal political intelligence unlike Truman and Roosevelt before him, and on occasion he would level criticism at Hoover.

Another rare source of disagreement between Eisenhower and Hoover was that Eisenhower loathed McCarthyism. He believed it persecuted loyal Americans for alleged communism. However, this was not a problem for Hoover who had kept his support for McCarthy secret, and therefore was ready to withdraw his support whenever necessary. The time for this was fast approaching.

McCarthy chaired the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. They held 169 hearings into communist activity in government departments and private companies 1953 & 1954. His targets included Voice of America, the Govt Printing Office, the Army Signal Corps, General Electric, Allis Chalmers. The Senator identified a few suspicious individuals, but found no communist spies. Ike’s administration quickly became frustrated with McCarthy’s continued attacks on the government.

The German Question

March 10th 1952 the Kremlin had put forward a proposal for reunification and neutralisation of Germany, with no conditions, and with guarantees for rights and basic freedoms. In reply the US and allies insisted that a reunified Germany be free to join NATO, a demand that the Russians could hardly accept a few years after Germany had virtually destroyed the Soviet Union.”

James Warburg had argued that the opportunity should be pursued, but the US never even considered Stalin’s proposal for a unified and demilitarised Germany with free elections in 1952 and was not going to pursue Khrushchev’s call for reciprocal moves after his radical cut backs in Soviet military forces and armaments in 1961 to 1963.

After failure by the US to discuss Germany with the USSR, Soviet tanks were to appear in Berlin. 1954

“Shortly after taking office in January 1953, Eisenhower defined and approved Latin American policy for his new administration. He recognised the need for support from the other American republics in the cold war, provided military and economic assistance in order to strengthen hemispheric solidarity. Both NSC 144/1 (18th March 1953) and NSC 543/11 (3rd September 1954), “united states objectives and course of action with respect to latin America” framed a variety of economic, philosophical and military objectives which the US sought to advance .”

NSC 144/1 (“United States Objectives and Courses of Action with Respect to Latin America”) appeared on 18th March 1953. It laid out economic, political and military objectives which the US sought to advance, including support of US policies in the UN and other international organisations. It wanted orderly political and economic progress, standardisation in organisation, training, doctrine and equipment of military forces along US lines and reduction and elimination of internal communists or other anti-US subversion.  Interference on a Grand Scale.

Hobby became head of the Federal Security Agency, a non-cabinet post, though she was invited to sit in on cabinet meetings. She made the decision to legalize Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. On April 11, 1953, she became the first secretary of the new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, later divided into separate departments of (1) Education and (2) Health and Human Services. This was her second time to organize a new branch of the government.

The end of one Far-off War & The Beginning Of Another

Ike had been to Korea in early December – battlefront and subtly hinted on use of nuclear weapons to break stalemated peace talks. After Stalin died in March, armistice came on July 27th 1953. Korea remained divided. The armistice was seen by many in the international community as a potential model for resolving the ongoing conflict in Vietnam.

Half of all the casualties in Korea were caused by frostbite – for lack of decent boots.

The end of the Korean War brought an economic slump. The only answer was to start another war as soon as possible.  There was an obvious next candidate….

Rosenburghs ere electrocuted on June 19th 1953

Threat to drop Nuke bombs on Manchuria during Korean War.

“The Vietnam War had been going on since the end of the second world war. The US entered after the Korean ceasefire, but basically both the purpose and the reason for these two wars are the same. Military economics demand a theatre of war somewhere, otherwise the system whIch is based on war producton must collapse.” R. in Anarchist Journal Freedom 9th July 1966, extract from “the state is your enemy” pub 1991.

The Chinese and Russian systems also need localised war for the same reason (?) – “fiery speeches” and useful recruitment tool for the communist parties.

If Vietnam had been within the bounds of only one great power then the “Vietnamese would have been crushed by now, just as Hungary was“.

But China “does not ‘play the game’. It has taken on the Soviet Union’s role in this respect. “For the Great Powers the Vietnam skirmish is no more than an outlandish disorder in a far flung province.” “All the efforts of world statesmen are concentrated towards this end: to bring the Soviet Union and China back into the Holy Alliance .”

US military aid to the French in Vietnam was greatly increased by Eisenhower. To justify America’s financial commitment, Eisenhower cited a ‘domino theory’ in which a communist victory in Vietnam would result in surrounding countries falling one after another like a “falling row of dominoes”. The Domino Theory was to be used by a successions of presidents and their advisors to justify ever-deepening US involvement in Vietnam.

Charles E Wilson sought to keep the Pentagon budget under control as Secretary of Defence (former head of General Motors) Wilson said “what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa”. He preferred to appoint Corporate executives. He left Congressional relations to aides such as Sherman Adams, the Whitehouse Chief of Staff.

At the end of his term in office Eisenhower was to warn of a dangerous intimacy between military and industry. He called it the Industrial-military complex and warned of an unhealthy influence of industry on the Pentagon.

McC had got chairmanship of the subcommittee on inv’ns – where he held his hearings. Roy Cohn was chief counsel – also right wing and gay. His popularity was fading fast – powerful people were now distancing themselves from him. Roy Cohn’s arrogance was helping push McC into his slide .

In late summer McC turned up in a state of distress and got drunk and abusive at La Jolla, Hoover’s luxurious hidey hole. Crisis meeting between McCarthy and Hoover at Murchison’s hotel – Del Charro at La Jolla.  RECHECK DETAILS

After a series of unsuccessful retaliatory infiltrations by existing IDF units, in the summer of 1953 Ben Gurion pressed Chief of Staff Mordechai Maklef to establish such a special forces unit, Israel's first, and reservist Ariel Sharon was called back to duty. Sharon was given the rank of Major and chosen to command the company-sized unit, with Shlomo Baum as deputy in command. The unit was to comprise 50 men, armed with “non-standard weapons”, and tasked with carrying out “special reprisals across the state’s borders”.[6]

According to Gelber, after one month of training "a patrol of the unit that infiltrated into the Gaza Strip as an exercise, encountered Arabs in al-Burej Palestinian refugee camp, opened fire to rescue itself and left behind about 30 killed Arabs and dozens of wounded."[7] According to Bishara 43 Palestinian civilians with seven women amongst them were killed, and 22 wounded[8] Other estimates put the total at "about 20" killed. Unit 101 suffered two wounded soldiers. Ariel Sharon, who had personally led the attack wrote in his report:

"The enemy opened fire on me from the northwest... I decided that it was better to pass through the camp and slip out the other side than to go back the way I came, because crops, gardens, barbed wire and guards made it difficult to move in that direction... I also decided that offensive action was better than giving the impression that we were attempting to escape... Therefore I invaded the camp with my group."[8]

The raid was heavily condemned by foreign observers, who called it “an appalling case of deliberate mass murder”, and was publicly criticized in the Israeli cabinet by at least one minister. [6]

Two months later, in October, the unit was involved in a raid into the village of Qibya[9] in the northern West Bank, then a part of Jordan. 69 civilians were killed in this operation[9]. According to United Nations observers, “Bullet-riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their homes were blown up over them.” The widely condemned attack on Qibya led to calls by government officials to disband the unit, which was instead merged into the Paratroopers Brigade, in January 1954, and Sharon became the commander of the merged brigade. Wiki

In October 1953 JF Dulles announced US help for French colonial rule had been “his brightest achievement of the year.”

By November 1953? the USA had sent 200 shiploads of materials, 222 warplanes, 225 naval vessels, 1,300 trucks, and paid 1/3 of the war bill in Vietnam.

Harriman machinations

H. Smith Richardson, owner of Vick Chemical Company, established the Smith Richardson Foundation. It became a Bush family dictated private slush fund which was eventually utilised by the CIA, and by vice President Bush during Reagan era for conducting Iran-Contra activities.

The HSR Foundation was organised by Eugene Stetson Jr., Richardson’s son-in-law and Skull & Bones (1934). He worked for BBH as assistant manager of the New York branch.

HSR Foundation took part in CIA’s ‘psychological warfare’ in the late 1950s. MK ULTRA, Bridgewater hospital, Mass. See “Titticut Follies” Movie. FRAGMENT

Thurgood Marshall – a lawyer for the NAACP successfully persuaded the supreme court that segregation in schools is unlawful.

US supreme court ruled against segregated education. In lttle rock on 4th September 57 Eisenhower sent in soldiers to ensure integration of town’s central high school. On 25th September schools were prevented from opening as integrated by local authorities. The supreme court ruled these actions as illegal. 2002 white ‘Christian academies’ in the southeast have increased segregation to the highest levels in 40 years.

Woodrow Mann overturned ‘Jim Crow’ laws – a referendum threw him out fo office.

CHECK DATES AND THAT

IQ Racists – Brown v Board of Education provoked a wave of race inferiority work designed to demonstrate that there was no point in trying to educate the negro.

After NAACP campaign against segregation in schools (see 1950). “1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Kansas) declared segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.

The decision was greeted with bitter hostility in the south, and among the reactions was a concerted attack – using both legal and illegal methods – on local NAACP branches. By 1957, its membership in the south had dropped from nearly half of the organisation to 28%.

Http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_063000_nationalasso.htm

•Viva Zapata! By Elia kazan, starring Marlon Brando

Chaplin – Limelight – filmed in USA set in England – whilst in America before exile.

At the height of the black-list era, Chaplin, on a six month tour of England and Europe, was barred from returning to the USA on grounds of morals or communist affiliation – he’d never applied for US citizenship and was still British. Disney said that the country was better off without the “little commie”.

3D made its movie debut with “Bwana Devil”. Cinerama. Cinemascope. Colour.

JDR sold his Pocantico family estate to his sons, gave $73m to “charity” and $57m to Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Walk / Don’t Walk signs appear in New York for the first time.

UFOs over Washington. “Washington Nationals” tracked by three radar sites spotted by witnesses and a F-94 was scrambled to intercept. Kevin D Randle, conspiracy of silence, NY, Avon books, 1998, ISBN 0-380-79918-9.

Olympics – where?

Sugar Ray Robinson & Rocky Marciano.

Hank Wiliams was ripped off in Bill Hayley’s “Rock Around The Clock”. Bill Hayley was a Cowboy Swing musician who’d seen the bandwagon worth jumping on. Genres were very loose back then – blues is a modern invention. Hank Williams was found dead on New Year’s Day, in his car, aged only 29. – incompetent doctor?

 “Man on a Tightrope” anti-Communist movie by Elia Kazan

Screen actors Guild adopt a by-law banning communists from membership.

Frank Sinatra – “From Here To Eternity”

“TimeMagazine” man of the year- Konrad Adenauer

The CIA brags that its operations in Iran in 1953 led to the pro-Western attitude of that important country.

Middle East

Israel

Retaliatory raids carried out by Israel in 1953, against the Fedayeen, Arab terrorist who mounted cross-border attacks into Israel.

October – Jewish woman had been murdered with her two children in Yehud, east of Tel Aviv. A reprisal raid against village of Kibya, in Samaria (under Jordanian control) blew up 45 houses and 69 residents, half of them women and children, were killed. A perfectly reasoned and proportional reaction! There was furor in the international community.

Sharon (1953) appointed commander of UNIT 101, set up to carry out retaliatory raids against the Fedayeen, Arab terrorist squads that mounted cross-border attacks into Israel. October – in the wake of the murder of a Jewish woman and her two children, Unit 101 and a company of paratroopers carried out a reprisal raid against the village of Kibya, in Samoria, then under Jordanian control. The raiding party blew up four houses in the village, and 69 residents, half of them women and children, were killed. The international community raised a furor and Israel’s image was tainted.

Eisenhower was keen to remove Eleanor Roosevelt from the US delegation at the UN. FBI Assistant Director Louis Nichols briefed Ike’s aides on an alleged affair she’d had with Joseph Lash  back in 43. Using evidence kept by Hoover in his private dossiers. .

NOTES

At home, Eisenhower had no commitment to social change or economic reform – George Humphrey –  an Ohio industrialist – carried out a policy of fiscal stringency as Secretary of Treasury.

Gay rights moved forward too. The first issue of the publication, One, appeared. A vehicle for information about the homosexual community to the general public and gay and lesbian readership.

US support in the UN reached $400m a year.

G.C. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1953 – http://nobelprize.org/

Oppenheimer’s suspension – suspected of being a Soviet spy during McCarthyite hysteria.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX66.html

December 23 1953 – security risk – Lewis Strauss was elected director in July and the trouble began for O.

Drug Culture and Brainwashing conspiracies

Luciano (who worked for FBI during WW2) and Corsicans have pooled resources giving rise to 'French Connection' which would dominate the world heroin trade until early 70s.

This year the CIA launched Project Bluebird to determine whether certain drugs might improve its interrogation techniques. Allen Dulles, head of CIA instituted program for ‘covert use of biological and chemical materials’ as part of the CIA’s efforts to control behaviour. With benign names such as Project Artichoke or Project Chatter, these projects continue through the 1960s with 100s of unwitting test subjects given various drugs including LSD  (see Operation MK-ULTRA, 1953).

SEE WIKIPEDIA EXTENSIVE ENTRY

CIA – It’s Crimes @ www.rrojasdatabank.info/ciahist.htm

CIA operations in Iran and Syria?

The FBI

Look up JEHoover book – “Over a period of 30 years starting in 1945…” page 204.

Joe Godson – Labour Attache in London from 1953 to 1959. Helped Labour Party leader Gaitskell devise Labour Party policies and plan campaigns against the Labout left. Ramsay p33.

A CIA Operation – Congress for cultural Freedom (CCF) promoted the British Social Democrats – the American Tendancy within the Labour Party.

Washington had no interest in democracy – in Italy they were funding fascists and terrorists. – Phillip William, “Puppet Masters: The Political Use of Terorrism in Italy” (London: Constable, 1991)

January 1953 neutralization of Formosa by Seventh Fleet ended.

March 5, 1953 death of Josef Stalin, Premier of the Soviet Union.

March 12, 1953 the Department of Health, Education and Welfare is created.

April 22, 1953 states given title to offshore oil.

July 27, 1953 Korean war ended with signing of armistice at Panmunjon calling for demilitarized zone and voluntary repatriation of prisoners. The 38th parallel is established as boundary between North and South Korea.

August 19-22, 1953 Leftist government of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran is ousted and replaced with regime loyal to Shah Pahlevi.

Aug.-Sept. 1953 American prisoners of war in Korea repatriated.

December 4-8, 1953 President conferred at Bermuda with prime ministers of Britain and France on exchange of atomic information.

December 8, 1953 Eisenhower delivers his Atoms For Peace speech at the United Nations proposing an international atomic energy agency and peaceful development of nuclear energy.

1953-1954 Senator Joseph McCarthy, chairman of the Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee, conducts hearings on communist subversion in America and investigates communist infiltration of the Armed Forces.