1955

“Negro singers performed…loose women danced…Elvis Presley made his Lubbock debut on the 6th January 1955”…Buddy Holly “played the support spot that night…mesmerized by everything about him.”

“Buddy saw/ supported Elvis on his five more visits to Lubbock…By the last Elvis had added drums and was now working as a quartet.” Pete Frame, “More Rock Family Trees”

The invention of transistor radios – inevitably to make radio more accessible for young people. With music written for young people and produced to sound good on tranny radios – Rock’n’Roll was destined to take over. DATE

A Revolution In Popular Music was brewing. Elvis Presley recorded “That’s All right Mama” in July 1954, the record had been a local hit for Memphis based Sun Records. Scotty Moore and Bill Black were the supporting musicians.  By 1955 Elvis had recorded 5 songs for Sun.

 “Rock Around the Clock” was by reinvented band leader Bill Hailey.

In Lubbock Texas, where in 1954 Buddy Holly (real name?) was starting to write and perform – check “no local stations played black music” but KWK coming out of Shreveport, Louisiana – did play black music and at night with right atmospheric conditions could travel greater then 500 miles. The Drifters, the Midnighters. This is generally how black music came to influence a generation of white future pop stars – see also Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins..

 “Lubbock still had aspects of the wild west: while all the church people tried to keep the town decent, the outlaws and desperadoes whooped it up at the Cotton Club – a shit kicker saloon just beyond the city limits.”

The infamous Gaza raid of February 1955

http://michiganisraelobserver.com/spring-2007/long-term-losses/

Nasser  stated that peace between Israel and Egypt was impossible. (Bit about Nasser on page 74)

A googles book result - Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956 By Benny Morris – check Nasser statement

Operating as a unit within the brigade, the unit (101) carried out a large-scale attack on Egyptian army positions in the Gaza strip in February 1955. Sharon personally led the raid, codenamed Operation Black Arrow. It resulted in 42 Egyptian soldiers killed and 36 wounded, versus 8 Israeli dead. Egyptian shock over the magnitude of their losses is often cited as one of the catalysts for the Soviet-Egyptian arms deal that opened the Middle East to the Soviet Union. Up to 20 such attacks were carried out in 1955-1956, culminating in the Qalqilya Police raid of October 1956 - targeting a position of the Jordanian Arab Legion in one of the old British police forts, during which 18 Israeli soldiers and up to a hundred Legionnaires were killed.

See for further info:

http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/d3.html

Chuck Berry joined Chess Records in Chicago – emulating the smooth vocal clarity of his hero NKC, playing blues songs, mixing with hillbilly licks – joined label that recorded Howlin Wolf and Bo Diddley, and dragged Chess into the mainstream. In the summer Berry hit with “Maybellene” a hill-billy blues number, which got to number 5 on the billboard Rock n Roll charts.

Turned down intervention in Indochina.

JF Dulles was named Time Magazine Man of the Year 1955

Talks in Paris June 1955

NATO foreign ministers conference. – NATO had 14 countries in it now.

NSC 5501 appeared on 6th of January 1955. Basic National security Policy. Political instability, economic backwardness, extreme nationalism, and colonial issues dramatically increased the likelihood of direct communist pressure, intervention and subversion.

The US was rapidly committing itself to Vietnam. By November 1954 the US had already sent 340 planes and 350 warships to Vietnam. A high level study group stated that the essential threat of the communist powers (1955) is their refusal to fulfill their service role, that is to “complement the industrial economies of the west .” This was the justification for the US to support an appallingly oppressive regime in South Vietnam.

In January 1955 the first direct shipment of US miltary aid arrived in Saigon and the US offered to train the fledgling Vietnam army.

In May Diem waged a violent crack-down against the Binh Xuyen organised crime group based in Saigon which operates casinos, brothels and opium dens.

Panama

Just after the WW2, National Police Commander Jose Antonio Remon won election to the presidency, negotiating a treaty with the US to increase Panama’s take of the canal tolls. But Remon, who for years had essentially manipulated Panamanian politics, was assassinated in 1953, two years before the treaty was enacted.

José Antonio Remón Cantera (1908 - 2 January 1955), was president of Panama from 1st  October 1952 until his murder — by machine-gun fire at a Panama City racetrack - on 2nd of January 1955. He belonged to the National Patriotic Coalition (CNP).

Beginning in 1953, his administration began to negotiate amendments to the Panama Canal treaty with the U.S. administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. These negotiations led to an agreement, ratified in 1955, that substantially raised the annual annuity paid to Panama (from $430,000 to $1.9 million) and resulted in the handover of approximately $20 million in property from the Panama Canal Company to Panama.

General José Remón was the man behind the scenes of several coups that ousted Dr. Arnulfo Arias from power, and arguably the true founder of the social reforming militarism that was later dubbed "Torrijismo" after General Omar Torrijos. "Neither millions nor alms — we want justice" was Remón's most memorable statement of principles. Remón went on to be elected President of Panama in his own right but was assassinated on January 2, 1955. The crime was never solved .

On the 9th March a way of pushing ideas/ actions described in the 1290d document(s) was arrived at. It described how America could influence the judicial and legislative systems, the media, police and military forces of certain countries, sufficient for “internal defence” from the threat of “communist” subversion. A fully completed series of reports were subsequently sent to the NSC and the president. It reviewed 44 countries and selected 22 for initial analysis.

A group called the International Co-operation Administration ICA  was established on 30th June 1955.

The first of these dated 1st of June 1955 ‘analysis of the internal security situation in Guatemala’ – a survey followed. Assessments for chile and Brazil followed that (16th November 1955), Bolivia (21st December 1955), and on into 1956 came Venezuela, and Costa Rica.

All reports underwent yearly progress reviews and reassessments as needed. New countries were added for analysis and actions as the programme developed.

In Chile – high levels of inflation and communists were outlawed but an organisation of 30 to 35 thousand remained. The US considered Chilean Carabinero Corps one of the most effective police forces in Latin America. The US worked with General Ardiles (Director of the Carabineros) and US private mining companies in chile. The USIA maintained active “anticommunist programming”.

Brazil was considered safe from communism but appallingly, the Brazilian government were tolerant of communist activities – which allowed the BC Party to become the 4th or 5th largest outside of the Soviet orbit.

Brazil’s CP provided a model for others – openly advocating armed struggle.

Efforts to establish a national police academy failed and little overall progress was made with 1290d policies in 1956.

A group called the International Co-operation Administration ICA was established on 30th June 1955. It was made up from the Foreign Operations Administration (FOA) – The CIA had been made up from the FOA too. It fed into the OCB - a 1290d Working Group with representatives form the Dept of State and Defence (DOD).

Guatemala was to be the first target of the OCB.

US State Dept recognised HCM as sole significant leader of Vietnamese nationalism in 1948 but considered implementation of VN nationalism a threat to the “Grand Area”. The fear was that the “rot would spread”, the rot of successful social and economic development .

July Ho Chi Minh visited Moscow and agreed to accept Soviet aid. He’d already been to Washington and was turned down.

Dulles’ staff were going on trips to Europe:

Asst sec for European Affairs, Lingston T Merchant and counsellor Douglas MacAArthur II

In Asia he took Asst Sec for Eastern Affairs Walter S Robertson.

At the July 16 – 23 meeting in Geneva – summit conference with Eden, Faire, Bulgarin and Ike.

In July 1955 Guevara met Castro and enlisted in the expedition to overthrow Cuban dictator Batista. Cubans nicknamed him “Che” – a popular form of address in Argentina.

August 10th 1954 the Indo China fighting had stopped.

Ike’s old lover turned up again – for 6 weeks she’d been staying at Washington’s Shoreham Hotel. FBI agents investigated. “The file does not reveal what Edgar did with the Summersby information, which reached him the day before President Eisenhower suffered his first heart attack.” It was Hoover’s custom to take this sort of information straight to president in case they’d forgotten who they worked for.

Ike ill

Nasser struck arms deal in Czechoslovakia during September 1955 to be paid for in cotton. This ended Egypt’s reliance on western arms. Britain looked to the US for support but it wasn;t offered. US major ally Saudi Arabia also opposed the Baghdad Pact.

October 23rd – Bao Dai was ousted from power, defeated by Diem in a US backed plebiscite, which was rigged. Diem is advised on consolidating power by US Air Force Colonel Edward G Lansdale, attached to the CIA.

October 26th 1955, The Republic of South Vietnam is declared with Diem as its first president. Eisenhower pledges his support for the new govenrment and offers military aid.

Diem assigns his most high level government positions to close friends and family members, including his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu as his chief advisor. Diem’s style of leadership, aloof and autocratic will create future problems for him despite US support – who attempted to popularise him via US style political rallies and tours of the countryside.

December, in North, radical land reforms result in landowners appearing before people’s tribunals. Thousands are executed or sent to forced labour camps during this period.

In the south Diem rewarded his catholic supporters by giving them land seized from Buddhists. Diem also allows big landowners to retain their holdings putting an end to hopes for land reform.

Dulles brothers visited Prince Norodorm Sihanouk in neighbouring Cambodia to pressure him into aligning his nation with the west. They wanted the country to join the holy war against communism. This coercion continued intermittently for another 15 years.

In the autumn came a crisis over Formosa (Taiwan) as China threatened to seize it.

In February an attack on an Egyptian army base in the Gaza Strip – 38 Egyptiuan soldiers were killed and 44 were wounded. The Egyptian president Gamul Abdel Nasser, stated that as a result of this, he became convinced that peace between Israel and Egypt would be impossible.

Brazil

Vargas commits suicide after military gives him the options of resigning or being overthrown.

US advisors visited Chile in ’55 and failed to persuade Chile to run its economy according to a rough early version of monetarism. The government went on to set up a system of scholarships fo Chilean students to attend the University of Chicago where Friedman was teaching and developing his ideas. Many of these students began teaching in Santiago and over time, as the Chilean version of the counter revolution began to receive attention, its young male participants were given a name: The Chicago Boys. This then set the scene for Reaganomics and Thatcherism of the 1980s.

Civil Rights was not going to go away.

December 1st, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to sit at the rear of a bus in Montgomery. This event prompted a national escalation in civil disobedience. On the 5th calls for a one-day boycott of the city’s buses – Jo Ann Robinson and other women’s poltiical Council Members. Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) is formed and King becomes its president.

Eisenhower sent troops to escort nine black pupils from Little Rock, Arkansas, to a previously white-only school. DATE?

The Daughters of Bilitis – a Lesbian organisation promoting a sense of community, belongingness and political unity for women. From “Songs of Bilitis” by Pierre Louys.

NSC 543211 appeared on the 3rd of September – just an update of NSC 144/1?  March 1953.

 “East of Eden” by Kazan, starring James Dean.

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – Tennessee Williams

Fats Domino, already a black star, now became a hit among whites too with “Ain’t That A Shame”.

BILL HALEY – YEAR / DATES?

The old guard still ruled though:

Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole.

Ferlin Husky; Slim Whitman; Hank Locklin; Mary Robbins

Geneva conference of 1955 – USA and USSR. July 1955. four power conference. Geneva Power Conference of the heads of government – July 16 – 23rd. Nelson Rockefeller played a pivotal role – along with Henry Kissinger. He orchestrated the proposal for mutual aerial inspection of Soviet and US military establishments dubbed “open skies”. Then Rockefeller resigned and went back to family business.

Eisenhower dropped defense budget back to $40bn – still massive.

Area 51

Area 51 was built at Groom Lake. Lincoln County, in 1955 for the U2 spy plane. It was not supposed to be permanent but other black projects were based there and it stayed. People working there can’t talk about it, and go to work in buses with blacked out windows. Cameras scan for movement, sensors buried in the dirt, amred choppers patrolling the skies. The government didn’t even admit it existed, and you couldn’t find it on any map.

Lockheed – Kelly Johnson -  needed an out of the way place to test his new spy plane – the U2. The dry bed of groom Lake was ideal, and close to the already secure Nevada Test Site. Although the ground Zero test site – often showered with radioactive fallout – was a health risk for the Area 51 workers and pilots. The base – then called Watertown – had only a few buildings and hangars at the start.

Powers was shot down in a U2 – the successor to U2 was already in the pipeline at Lockheed’s Skunkworks. They were the Blackbird family. The SR-71 was one version,a nd the fastest plane ever.

The cabinet in 1955:

JF Dulles – State

George M Humphrey – Treasury; Herbert Brownwell Jr – AG; Arthur E Summerfield – PMG; Douglas McKay – Sec of Interior; Ezra T Benson – Sec of Agriculture; Sinclair Weeks – Sec of Commerce; James P Mitchell – Sec of Labor Charles E Wilson – Sec of Defense; Oveta Culp Hobby / Marion B Folsom – Sec of Health, Ed and Welfare.

Report to the NSC Pursuant to NSC 1290d – 23rd November 1955

Initial 1290d policy was drafted out of the so-called “MacArthur Concept”

Lays out the coordinated US internal security assistance strategy to oppose subversion.

Bolivia – “moderate leftists” had seized power in 1952 considered one of the most popular, broadly based governments in Bolivian history. 1290d considered it one of the ‘best hopes for stability and friendliness towards the US.’

-              widespread poverty

-              politically unstable and armed workers’ militia

-              low morale and disorganisation within the armed forces.

The US urged the elimination of communists and other subversive from positions of power and influence.

US embassy complied lists of communists etc…

Marion Bayard Folsom replaced Hobby after she quit to go back to her journalistic post. 1955 – date needed.