1954

January 1954 – the first televised hearings in US history. But it was the beginning of the end of the McCarthyite era.

McCarthy concentrated on weaknesses in military security in 1954.

McCarthy attacked Eisenhower and Sec of Army Robert Stevens. “Bullying, harassing, never producing any hard evidence”. Red scare began to wane.

Censure in December 65 votes to 22.

Mccarthy proceeded to attack the upper echelons of the US army. Six weeks on tv public and politicians were appalled. Republicans led by Senators Ralph Flandes (??) of vermont and Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, joined with Democrats to bring about the Senate’s censure of Mccarthy in

Case of Major Irving Peress at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. Army promoted him – he was a suspected commie sympathiser. McCarthy attacked the Camp’s commander General Ralph Zwicker for refusing to help investigation. The army started to make a case against McCarthy for interference in its operations.

The HUAC rumbled on though. Tony Kraber was called before the committee and asked about Elia Kazan. He replied “is this the Kazan who signed the contract for $500,000 the day after he gave names to this committee?”

McCarthy had succeeded in making loyalty oaths for teachers, banning of left wing or dissenting books from public libraries, blacklisting of entertainers in tv, film and radio accetpable.

People were suitably scared.

Washington set up the Baghdad Pact - February 24th 1955. GB were trying to draw Syria, Jordan and Lebanon into the orbit of the BP. Egypt set out to frustrate this aim. They believed the BP threatened Egypt and began to align with Saudi Arabia against Britain. SA – a US ally.

http://i-cias.com/e.o/baghdad_pact.htm

Iraq being controlled jointly by US and UK

BP also known as Central treaty Organisation (CENTO) – Set up to oppose the rise of Arab liberation. Movements in mid-east and south-asia. Military alliance to join with NATO SEATO and ANZUS to encircle the USSR and China.

Iraq was independent only in name. British military airfields. Iraq had 10% of world’s oil resources – but people lived in poverty and hunger. Illiteracy of 80%. 1 doctor for 6,000 people and 1 dentist for 500,000.

King Faisal II ruled and was utterly corrupt. He ran a feudal system for landowners and merchant capitalists.

The Vietnam problem – not yet a war in 1954– continued to escalate. Now the US are paying 80% of the total war bill. The French said this was a total of $1.78bn. In fact, by the end of 1954 the US had spent $2bn on the French war.

According to Chomsky  the first phase of the war, the French war, “probably left about half a million dead.” But this was nothing – from about 1965 to 1975 – the American phase of the war – the death toll was going to be probably another 3 million in Vietnam, and 1 million in Cambodia and Laos. 160,000 – 170,000 dead 1954 to 65, before the war started proper. All in all 4 to 5 million ended up dead because of the war. See 1975 for more of this.

1954 - Nuclear threat in Vietnam

Bombs were offered to the French to use against siege.

On February 1954 in Berlin Dulles and GB, France, USSR agreed to meet in Geneva-based conference to talk about UN and other Asian matters.

Dulles was reluctant to allow Chinese in but eventually agreed as long as everyone understood that the US would never negotiate with Red China.

Dulles refused to shake the hand of Chou En Lai – Mao’s right hand man. Which showed him! 19 nations sent delegates in late April 1954.

West Berlin Conference – Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov “after nine years of delay and diatribe, the Soviet Union still refused to sign a peace treaty ending the occupation of Austria.” Time Magazine waffled in 1955.

Dulles said pompously “we have repeatedly been almost at the point of concluding an Austrian treaty and always some evil force manifest itself and pushes the treaty back again.” He was blaming Molotov. ORGANISE – REARRANGE – EDIT – ETC.

“Dulles spent 1954 in a ceaseless round of travel, logging 101,521 miles on journeys to Berlin, London, Paris, Caracas, Bonn, Geneva, Milan, Manila, and Tokyo. In one fortnight last September, he munched mangoes with Philippines president Ramon Magsaysay in Manila, conferred with Chiang Kai-Shek on Formosa, visited Premier Yoshida in Tokyo, reported to President Eisenhower in Denver, consulted with Churchill in London and talked with Konrad Adenauer in Bonn.” Time Magazine.

The status of Trieste was settled – dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia. US Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce went to Italy.

Death of European Defence Community that Dulles supported.

On March 13th Giap surrounded 10,000 French at the Dien Bien Phu airbase, shut down a runway and built a maze of tunnels and trenches. A state of siege began.

March 1954 – the Caracas conference and adoption of the communist resolution (Res 93). On the 18th of March Secretary of State Dulles told the 189th meeting of the NSC that this would enable him to counter communist subversion in the American republics more effectively .

Oppenheimer hearings April 1954 – lasted 4 weeks.

China

Eisenhower withdrew the 7th Fleet from Formosa strait “unleashing” President Chiang Kai-Shek of Nationalistic China for action against the mainland – what year?

Undercover operations in the Far East and East Europe were “somewhat stimulated”.

Mutual defense agreement between the US and Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek. Dulles: it is my hope that the signing of their defense treaty will put to rest once and for all rumours and reports that the US will in any manner agree to the abandonment of Formosa and the Pescadores to communist control.” 1954?

JF Dulles’ South east Asia treaty organisation against China.

In April JF Dulles called for a secret meeting of congressional leaders to give Eisenhower the power to use US air and naval forces to help the French win in Vietnam. JF Dulles called the plan Operation Vulture. LBJ objected to committing US troops and most of congress agreed. The French were in serious trouble.

March 30th to May 1st, the French, under siege, asked the US for help. The US, after considering the options, take no action. See page 2 The US considered the options and took no action.

Dulles however, had demanded US intervention and came up with a plan for SEATO – the Souh east Asia Treaty Organisation. The French surrendered on May 7th followed by complete French withdrawal, ending the eight year war in which 40,000 soldiers and civilians had died on all sides. 1,500 French died along with 8,000 vietnamese. The French survivors were forced to march for 60 days, 500 miles. About half died on the march or at the prison camp. Dien Bien was not the last battle of the French era of VN – fighting continued even after the French were finished there )complete idiot’s guide to the Vietnam war). This led to France withdrawing completely after 8 years of fighting and 40,000 deaths on both sides – civilians and soldiers. Geneva Conference discussions began on May 8th.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu marked the end of French involvement in Indochina. Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap.

At the Geneva Conference the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh. Independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. As a U.S. Army study noted, France lost the war primarily because it “neglected to cultivate the loyalty and support of the Vietnamese people.”[13] More than 400,000 civilians and soldiers had died during the nine year conflict.

Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel, and under the terms of the Geneva Convention, civilians were to be given the opportunity to freely move between the two provisional states. Nearly one million northerners (mainly Catholics) fled south in “understandable terror” of Ho Chi Minh's new regime.[14] It is estimated that as many as two million more would have left had they not been stopped by the Viet Minh.[15] In the north, the Viet Minh established a socialist state—the Democratic Republic of Vietnam—and engaged in a land reform program in which the mass killing of perceived “class enemies” occurred. Ho Chi Minh later apologized. In the south a non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bao Dai, a former puppet of the French and the Japanese. Ngo Dinh Diem became his Prime Minister. In addition to the Catholics flowing south, up to 90,000 Viet Minh fighters went north for “regroupment” as envisioned by the Geneva Accords. However, in contravention of the Accords, the Viet Minh left roughly 5,000-10,000 cadres in South Vietnam as a “politico-military substructure within the object of its irredentism.”[16] Wikipedia – references from original text

Discussions on Vietnam began on May 8th the Geneva Conference on Indochina attended by US, UK, China, USSR, France and Vietnam (both Viet Minh and reps from Bao Dai), Cambodia and Laos. It took until July to get some sort of agreement. The British were upset that their colonies weren’t receiving the support that the US proposed for the French. The Vietnamese delegate at Geneva – Pham Van Dang was pissed off at all this prevarication. The talks started with Korea and as far as Korea was concerned, the conference failed.

“Dulles’ lack of cooperation with the agenda delayed the progress of the meeting…Dulles often refused to attend the meeting…he would jot down his thoughts on the proceedings, have a runner take them back to the conference, and then have his comments read into the record, debated and discussed. It was a long and bizarre process.”

Dulles left the conference early, leaving his deputy Walter Bedell Smith in charge of the US delegation. Smith had been Ike’s chief of staff during WW2 involved in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy invasions.

The CIA engineered a coup in Guatemala against President Jacobo Arbenz. United Fruit Company involvement. In June the US managed to overthrow and destroy Guatemala’s one attempt at democracy. JF Dulles referred to the coup as a “new and glorious chapter” in the “already glorious traditions of the American states.” ADD EVENTS FROM 18th June 1954 (was on page 40)

“There was a new deal style reformist capitalist democratic regime which we managed to overthrow, leaving a literal hell on earth, probably the country which comes closest in the contemporary world to Nazi Germany. And we repeatedly intervened to keep it that way .”  murdered with US backing p 329.

JFK’s coup in 1963

Slaughter 1966 - 68

The global plan for counter subversion suddenly became urgent. US policy makers believed that situation was under control – but there was still the threat offered by political instability, economic stagnation, and the possibility of defection among army officers loyal to Arbenz.  Serious deficiencies in the National Police and army’s military intelligence section. The committee for National Defence Against Communism was deemed ineffective. Guatemala was receptive, even enthusiastic over survey of its internal security forces completed 25th march 1956.

Add Eisenhower’s comments page 40

Castillo (Guatemala) was assassinated on July 26th 1957.

During July 1954 Dulles tried to get Britain to agree to a US air-strike against communists attacking Diem Bien Phu. Britain refused and the plan was abandoned.

“JF Dulles had been spoiling for a fight, for a chance to extend the first Vietnamese War. But skilful manoeuvring by Britain’s foreign secretary Anthony Eden and China’s Zhou Enlai led instead to a French agreement to withdraw. The treaty also gave Cambodia and Laos the chance to establish themselves as independent nations, while the Buddhist socialist NV and Catholic capitalist SV were to remain separate countries temporarily until nationwide elections could be held.”

“But the CIA’s own secret polls quickly revealed the inevitability of HCM’s electoral victory…some 80% of the Indochinese would…have voted for Minh…The US ”ensured” nationwide elections were postponed indefinitely. ” Eisenhower admitted, “had the elections been held, possibly 80% of the population would have voted for communist Ho chi Minh , rather than Chief of state Bao Dai.” People not voting the way America wants them to, whatever next? Next they’ll be wanting rights and that. So Washington decided to interfere in these elections to ensure Ho didn’t win – bumper stickers, tv and radio ads, endless “visibility efforts” on behalf of pro US candidate. This was the plan. But the US had never signed the Geneva accords. Elections cancelled?

On July 21st the “final declaration” was endorsed by 9 countries, but not Bao Dai or the US. Vietnam had been divided at the 17th parallel, with VM ceded the north while Bao Dai’s government is granted the south. The declaration made it clear that division was only “military” not political. The French had been made trustees for two years until a general election (scheduled for 1956) took place, followed by reunification of the country. And that’s that surely – the Vietnamese deserved their independence, and the yanks would leave it at that, yeah? No.

Arms and guns were given to the south. The catholic police state in the south was also Buddhist with a Buddhist majority – it was never going to work.

Military and Catholic lobbies in DC set out to prevent an election, supported by Pope Pius XII. Cardinal Spellman, Washington Vatican contact was main man here. JF Dulles and Popey’s policy was the one implemented by the US. Minh had even included prominent Catholics in his cabinet.

GET SOME DATES!!

China’s Chou didn’t consider Ho to be a proper communist – and therefore a risk.

In October, Ho Chi Minh returned from eight years in the jungle to rule in North Vietnam. Bao Dai installed Ngo Dinh Diem as his prime minister. The US now pinned its hopes on Diem to undermine the diplomatic settlement. Check year for this

Chinese threat to Quemoy 1954 – 55?

The CIA boss in South Vietnam from 1954 was Edward G Lansdale – or “colonel Ed” – and he enjoyed his work. He organised forays across the 17th parallel to attack munitions depots. He lied to the Vietnamese – telling them that the North planned horrible atrocities against their friends and neighbours.

The Geneva Convention ruled that Emperor Bao Dai was now in charge of Vietnam south of the 17th parallel. The Vietminh would rule in the north. The idea was based on the solution formulated for Korea – the 38th parallel split. And that worked really well didn’t it?

After the Geneva accords a cease fire permitted French forces to withdraw from the north and for Vietminh fighters in south to head north – international control commission (Canadian Polish and Indian) – to enforce it all. The only other government that refused to sign the accords was the new South Vietnamese government – Ngo Ngo Dinh Diem – on JF Dulles’ advice. Bao Dais power was merely symbolic.

Why Diem? Because he was an American puppet. He’d spent three years in a seminary in New Jersey. Anti communist lobby groups in the US, such as the American Friends of Vietnam (JFK was a member) spread Diem’s name around Washington. And he was a Catholic. Diem believed in a strong authoritarian government. Diem stoked up issues by encouraging Vietnamese Catholics in the north to flee south. Nearly 1 milllion left. Same time 90,000 “communists” in south went north, and nearly 10,000 Viet Minh fighters instructed by Hanoi to remain in place in south.

J Lawton Collins – WW2 vet and army chief of staff in SOS – dissented – he served in south Vietnam as the US special envoy – chief military advisor to Diem’s little military. Collins urged the White House to find another leader.

Time Magazine: “defeat of Indo-China” and blamed France.

July 2nd - The Lavon Affair  1954

Israeli agents in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings including a US diplomatic facility. One bomb detonated prematurely – which led to capture of the Israeli spy ring.

Israel said it was a hoax carried out by “anti-semites”.

But Israel’s Defence Minister Pinhas Lavon was brought down by the scandal.

“Operation Susannah” though, was successful attempt to frame Lavon by the real bombers.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/anthraxsuspect.html   

Aman decided to activate the network in the spring of 1954. On July 2, they firebombed a post office in Alexandria, and on July 14, they bombed the U.S. Information Agency libraries in Alexandria and Cairo and a British-owned theater. The homemade bombs, consisting of bags containing acid placed over nitroglycerine, were inserted into books, and placed on the shelves of the libraries just before closing time. Several hours later, as the acid ate through the bags, the bombs would explode. They did little damage to the targets and caused no injuries or deaths. Wiki

“On the Waterfront” made a hero of an informer, released on July 28th, directed by McCarthy informer Elia Kaza. Elvis was a big fan of Brando and allowed this to influence his style.

July – Ray Cohn was forced to resign after abusing his congressional privilege – it came out in televised hearings that summer. McCarthy’s position looked shaky. He ran to Hoover at La Jolla. Instead of offering support Hoover told Eisenhower that McCarthy was now impeding the hunt for communists – not letting on the level of support he’d actually lent to McCarthy.

The first colour broadcasts on television. “sitcoms” – The Honeymooners, Lassie, Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, I Love Lucy.

Disneyland & Ed Sullivan Show – on Sunday evenings.

“Guiding Light”, “Soap Operas”, advertising.

America's Grand Scheme is taking shape.

George Kennan - NSC 543 2/1, 1954 – US policy in Latin America – appeared on 3rd September 1954. A plan to fight commies in the third world. “United States Objectives and Courses of action with respect to latin america”.

"The south is assigned a service role: to provide resources, cheap labor markets, opportunities for investment and, lately, export of pollution."

"US interests are" "understood in Global terms. The primary threat to these interests is depicted in high level planning documents as "radical and nationalistic regimes". CHOMSKY - (copy more from page 33)

Turkey and Pakistan – military collaboration treaty.

Dulles’ goal of a “Northern Tier” defence against Soviet expansion.

Caracas in March – inter-American resolution.

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]

The mid-term election left Republicans weakened Democrats regained control of both houses and kept them throughout the 1950s. President had to rely on two Texan Democrats, Senate majority leader LBJ and speaker of the house Sam Rayburn for legislative action. Eisenhower created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1953 and put Oveta Culp Hobby in the job, the first woman to hold a cabinet post in a Republican government.

The NSC with Presidential approval, on December 21st 1954, requested that the operations coordinating board present a report “on the status and adequacy of the current programme to develop constabulary forces to maintain internal security and to destroy the effectiveness of the communist apparatus in free world countries vulnerable to communist subversion”. From Colombia.org

This relates to the previous year’s NSC 144/1 on 18th March 1953 and plans for combating anti-American “subversion” within south American states.

A “coordinated internal security strategy called ‘1290d’ [NSC Action 1290d] and later ‘Overseas Internal Security Program (OISP)” was formulated “by boosting security forces of various regimes, along with propaganda, in Latin America”.

There was criticism from Congress, who said that the Eisenhower Admiistration was colluding with dictators. Latin Americans believed this to be and American Trojan Horse, wherby US penetration would follow. Latin America literally fucked by Washington.

The strategy could be broken down thus. First, assess nature and level of Commie threat. Next, increase capability of internal security forces to counter subversion and paramilitaries. Then, revise legislation and reorganise judicial systems to permit more effective anti-commie action. Exchange information on subversive methodologies. Finally, assist in development of public information programmes to clarify nature of commie threat – or propaganda.

The great war hero Eisenhower – less than a decade after “freeing” Europe from a tyrant, putting measures in place to ensure latin Americans would never free themselves from their particular tyrant.

Suez Settlement

Jefferson Coffrey who was then ambassador to Egypt. Three years of “shutdown & Stalemate at Abadon (caused by the stubborn egotism of 1951’s Man of the Year Mohammed Mossadegh, according to Time Magazine).

The End of the British Empire

MacMillan was forced to ask for US aid – the empire was lost and broken up in astonishing haste – it had been for sale in 1945 but was broken up in three decades.

Oil had just been discovered in the Sahara. Most of the oil-producing countries were ruled by small wealthy, often traditional and conservative, occasionally nationalist and westernised elites.

A revolution in Egypt – Nasser became leader of military junta which had overthrown the Egyptian monarchy.

Nasser – social reform and nationalism appealed to Arabs outside Egypt. Anti-Israeli. The US initially looked on him with favour but not for long. Nasser did arms deal with Czechoslovakia and recognition to communist China. UK and US withdrew offer to fund dam on Nile, Nasser seized the assets of the private company.

Conservative Arabs were concerned that Nasser was a revolutionary radical. The GB pm looked upon Nasser as a new Hitler. France blamed Nasser for Algerian insurrection. France and GB colluded with Israel to plot Nasser’s overthrow.

Israeli paratroops execute a series of reprisals and preemptive raids against targets in Jordan, Egypt and Syria.

Iran - Mossadeq – after nationalising the Anglo Iranian Oil company and expelling western personnel from the Abadon refineries – things went wrong – falling production dashed hopes of higher revenues – and popular unrest ensued. UK and US intelligence took the opportunity to mount a coup in August 1954. Had they been in Iran since 1953?

The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh in a military coup in Iran, after he threatened to nationalise British oil interests. The CIA installed a dictator – the Shah of Iran. His secret police SAVAK was as brutal as the Gestapo.

After CIA coup to put Shah in power the US took control of Iran.

US Ambassador to Iran was Loy Henderson.

October 1954 Diem, a Catholic, stoked up issues by encouraging Vietnamese Catholics in the north to flee south. Nearly 1 million left. Same time 90,000 “communists” in south went north, and nearly 10,000 Viet Minh fighters instructed by Hanoi to remain in place in south.

Time Magazine: “defeat of Indo-China” and blamed France.

http://www.reformation.org/chapter1.html

By November 1954 the US had already sent 340 planes and 350 warships to Vietnam.

In Abadan (Iran) the government under PM Mossadeq nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and expelled Western personnel from the Abadan refineries.

Falling production, however, thwarted the government’s hopes of generating higher revenues. Popular unrest enabled British and American intelligence to mount a coup in which Mossadeq was ousted and the oil company was taken over by an international consortium in August 1954.

Until now (December 21st 1954) – “the US had offered piecemeal help on an emergency basis in Korea, the Philipines, Vietnam, Iran, and Guatemala, with agencies tasked to internal security activities as circumstances warranted.”

Albert R Haney – Dep Assistant to Director for Security Affairs, 14th June 1957, c/o DM Rempe.

December 1954. By a vote of 67 to 22 McCarthy was out. He quickly fell from prominence and died three years later.

NOTES

Civil Rights

The “NAACP began its campaign against the legal doctrine – first established in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) – that separate butequal schools for black and white children were constitutional. In a series of cases, it demonstrated that separate facilities provided to black students were not equal to those for whites. Then, drawing on extensive scholarly testimony showing the social and psychological effects of segreagation, the NAACP set out to prove that facilities separated according to race were inherently unequal.” 1954.

JFK went on a fact finding tour to Israel and the far east. RFK went with him. He was able to witness the war of the French in Vietnam from the US embassy in Saigon. He decided to run for Senate and was up against Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. JFK’s health was poor and had almost died in Japan.  – Massachusetts – JFK always tried to distance himself from old school politiicans  - his father’s generation and connections. Brought Bobby in to run things and sent Joe packing. JFK won wih 51% of the vote.

There was a wave of UFO sightings in france (1954).

Google search

Jan. 21, 1954 first atomic submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus, launched, Groton, Conn.

Mar. 1, 1954 five representatives wounded in House of Representatives by shots fired by Puerto Rican nationalists.

May 8-July 21, 1954 Geneva Conference on Indochina results in Geneva Accords partitioning Vietnam at the 17th Parallel and provides for unifying elections in two years.

May 7, 1954 French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrenders to the Viet Mi nh.

May 13, 1954 St. Lawrence Seaway bill authorized joint construction by the United States and Canada.

May 17, 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are "inherently unequal" and unconstitutional.

June 25-29, 1954 President and Prime Minister Churchill conferred at Washington, D.C. on world peace.

August 24, 1954 Communist party outlawed, but party membership not made a crime.

September 1, 1954 Social Security coverage extended to 10 million additional persons (farmers, professional people, etc.)

September 8, 1954 Southeast Asia Defense Treaty (SEATO) signed.

Contending with ongoing soviet bloc efforts to establish and expand diplomatic, cultural  and economic ties throughout the other American republics, aided and supported by local communist parties and groups.

Chile rejected anti-communist legislation. Brazil failed to establish national intelligence agency.

Venezuela – a survey of the oil producing facilities and DOD conducted ‘anti-communist intelligence training’ for the military.

Bolivia – reluctant to accept further internal security initiatives delayed things till 1958.

Revolution in 1954 - one of those escaping from Guatemala was Ernsesto Guevera – who fled to Mexico. “Profoundly radicalized”.