1969 was the peak year  of the Vietnam War, Nixon’s plans – Vietnamization  – bombing of Cambodia. Nixon finally got his dream.

January 1969 Nixon was inaugurated as President.
Despite his slim electoral victory in ‘68, he was ‘bitter and angry’ because he had been defeated in ‘60 and then in California in ’62. Nixon believed that the CIA had contributed to his defeat in 1960, that JFK had been briefed by the CIA to the point where he could make a strong anti-Castro stand, giving advantage to the Golden One. Nixon claimed that he kept quiet over the Bay of Pigs invasion during the election campaign so that he didn’t jeopardise the operation.
He also blamed the media. Nixon claimed that “Washington is a city run primarily by Democrats and Liberals, dominated by like-minded newspapers and other media.” His fears and paranoia pushed him toward “the establishment of what was a secret government.” “Nixon and Kissinger saw bureaucrats as roadblocks to be circumvented”

Paris Peace Talks started. A four party conference about Vietnam to be held from 18th January, and the peace talks opened on January 25th, just 5 days into Nixon’s presidency. Henry Cabot Lodge had been nominated by Nixon to be the senior US negotiator on January 1st.
January 28th Gromyko accused the US of violating Laos’ inner affairs.

In January 1969, a week into his presidency, Nixon called his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger , into his office. The president stipulated that, among other projects for the National Security Council (NSC) staff to consider, he wanted China given high priority. General Alexander Haig, Kissinger's military advisor, recalled him remarking as he left the Oval Office, "Al, this fellow Nixon wants to open relations with China,” adding, "I think he has lost control of his senses." So began two years of preparations toward the era of détente.
The shock inside the White House was understandable. China had been isolated since 1949, when the communist Mao Zedong took control, and the U.S. cut diplomatic ties. In the 1960s, Mao's brutal Cultural Revolution crushed all but his hard-line supporters. They called President Nixon "a gangster," who wielded "a blood-dripping butcher's knife." In 1969, the chances for any relationship between the United States and China seemed slim.
Nixon had conceived an elaborate secret plan that would shock America's allies and alter the global balance of power. It was one of the most stunning surprises of the Cold War — the pivotal move in a game that changed the world. Nixon had stated, “We can see that China is the basic cause of all of our troubles in Asia. If China had not gone communist, we would not have had a war in Korea. If China were not communist, there would be no [Vietnam] war in Indochina.”*
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1877.html

SOUNDTRACK: An English band formed by ex Yardbird’s Jimmy Page - Led Zeppelin - made their American debut on 6th Decemebr 1968 – played around 35 dates until the end of the tour in mid February. The album came out at the end of January – but progressive rock stations had been playing it for weeks already – “Communication Breakdown”, “Babe” and “Dazed and Confused” coming out as favourites of DJs. 
Strong sales, but poor press reaction. The broke big time in the US,, but not at home. This led them back the the US in April

In 1969 Secretary of State William Rogers had announced “that the US favored increased cultural and scientific exchanges with the PRC, loosened trade and visa restrictions, and began pulling US troops out of Vietnam and military bases near China”. “If there is anything I want to do before I die”, he told ‘Time Magazine’ in October 1970, “it is to go to China”.
“More explicit overtures were relayed secretly to China via third party nations, such as Romania and Pakistan.”
Kissinger’s secret July 1971 meeting with Chou En-lai was the most notable event of a period of negotiation. The visit did Nixon no end of good in PR terms and probably helped him win the election later in 1972.

 ‘Panther leaders Jon Huggins and Alprentice Carter were killed by gunmen on January 17th 1969 – the FBI credited itself with their deaths and recommended a new round of cartoons designed “to indicate to the BPP that the US [United Slaves] feels [sic] they are ineffectual, inadequate and riddled with graft and corruption.” www.wakeupmag.co.uk
The actual murderers of Huggins and Carter were police infiltrators, injected into the United Slaves with the job of raising the level of tension between the US and BPP .

Behind the Iron Curtain – Jan Palach, a philosophy student at Charles University, burned himself to death on the 26th of January, in protest at the Soviet occupation  of Czechoslovakia.
An estimated 500,000 people gathered in the rain to watch the funeral procession on its final journey to the cemetery at Olsany. There were no government representatives at the funeral and no police. Soviet troops kept out of sight. It is understood the tough measures adopted by police trying to clear today's demonstration were the result of an ultimatum from the Soviet authorities.
The Russian leader, Leonid Brezhnev, is said to have threatened to use military force to restore order if the Czech authorities did not take control themselves. Police say they moved in after the crowd began chanting slogans, like "Russians go home", and refused to disperse. Officers waving batons charged the crowd and began letting off tear gas. They made a number of arrests.
Three days later, mourners, mostly students, gathered at the foot of the Wenceslas Statue, to pay tribute to Jan Palach, placing lighted candles and wreaths at the foot of the statue - traditionally a focal point for protesters. The statue was also daubed with a slogan "Do not be indifferent to the day when the light of the future was carried forward by a burning body."
Signs which said "Red Army Square" have been painted over with the words "Jan Palach Square".
The violence erupted as officers tried to disperse the crowd; police wielding truncheons and firing tear gas from pressure canisters broke up a march by hundreds of demonstrators – mainly students -  in central Prague.
Gustav Husak, a hardliner who supported the Warsaw Pact invasion, became state leader replacing Dubcek in April 1969. He remained in power until 1988.
There were to be more protests and violence in August 1969 – one year after the 1968 invasion.

February 1969
By February 1972, Nixon was set to be the first US President to go to China (21st February?) in a highly publicised visit.  Nixon accused Truman of “losing” China to the communists in 1949, but now, some 20 years later, was about to cement the establishment of friendly relations with Red China. “Nixon had had his eye on China for some time. In 1967, writing in ‘Foreign Affairs’…he “cautioned that continuing to ignore China was both unrealistic and unwise”

February 23rd – the VC attacked 110 targets throughout South Vietnam, including Saigon.
During March, isolated and limited attacks came across the Cambodian border, which became sustained large-scale B-52 bombings – “carpet bombings”, so on the 4th, Nixon threatened to go on the offensive inside the Demilitarised Zone for first time since 1968.
Further headaches in the US as investigation into My Lai massacre begins.

On the 24th February Nixon started his journey across Western Europe.
News.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3140726.stm  “how the special relationship comes first” . DATES & LOCATIONS

March 1969
The Back Channel President
In March the President charged Pentagon brass through back-channels with conducting secret bombing missions over Cambodia  – for the next 14 months. Nixon ordered secret bombings of Cambodia during March, called Operation Menu, see “Cambodia Campaign” in Wikpedia. Kissinger had been pushing the Nixon into increasing the bombing of the North and to expand the war into Cambodia and Laos. See Vietnam War, page 24.
March 17th Nixon authorised the secret bombing of Cambodia by B-52s. Protests escalate, and on
All through 1969 and well into 1970, 3,630 B-52 raids were flown over Cambodia, and kept secret from the American public. Nixon falsified military records which emerged in 1973 in the middle of Watergate.
In response, the military began to spy on the civilian government.
‘Silent Coup’ relates his acting in a duplicitous, secretive and paranoid manner. He set up secret organisations within the White House, to spy on his staff and his political opposition. It was the lead up to the crisis which became known as Watergate. In many ways his behaviour was entirely understandable. He didn’t want his presidency undermined by the Pentagon, as had been Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. He attempted to put in place new lines of communication, in order to cut the JCS out of the loop.
By the fall of 1970 the JCS considered that Nixon was ‘out of control’.

John and Yoko’s “bed ins for peace” March 1969 in Amsterdam and Vienna.

April 1969
April 9th, there was a student lock-in at Harvard University. US troops peaked at 543,000, with 33,641 killed by 30th April. Again, estimates of Asian casualties are sadly absent.

May 1969
On May 9th the New York Times reported that the US were conducting raids in Cambodia. In response Nixon ordered that the FBI wiretap on telephones of four journalists and 13 government officials.
May 9th NY Times leak about bombing of Cambodia
May 10th to 20th “Hamburger Hill” in Shau Valley near the Hue causes an outcry in America. American lives are being wasted, small unit actions only from now on.
A decline in morale and discipline begins among draftees. Drug usage becomes rampant as nearly 50% experiment with marijuana, opium or heroin. Drug casualties far out-number war casualties.
Apollo 9 test flew the Lunar module in Earth orbit. – DATE?
Apollo 10 on May 10th, included Tom Stafford, John Young, Gene Cernan. It was a dress rehearsal for the moon landing. Mariners 6 & 7 flew past the Moon in 1969.
Alan Shepherd made the first brief hop into space in a Mercury capsule, three weeks before the Moon landing. For JFK, setting up the Moon project was a defiant response to the USSR’s propaganda coup of placing both the first satellite and the first man into orbit.
May 14th Nxon presented a peace plan for all sides to simultaneously pull out of South Vietnam over the next year – rejected by Hanoi.

French referendum held on 27th April led to De Gaulle stepping down.

In May 1969 – Israel and the nuclear question
Halperin recalls a National Security council meeting in May 1969 to discuss new intelligence on Israel’s capacity to manufacture nuclear weapons – the meeting dealt with CIA and FBI evidence that the Israeli intelligence service, MOSSAD, had been responsible sometime in the mid 60s for diverting highly enriched uranium from a private company, the Nuclear Materials and Equipments Corporations, in Apollo, Penns. – Seymour Hersh, “The Price of Power”.

NIXON’s world tour?

June 1969
June 8th Nixon meets Thieu at Midway Island and tells him of US withdrawal. Then Nixon announced “Vietnamisation” and the first withdrawal of 25,000 men.
June 13th the USSR government accepted the temporary government of South Vietnam. Kissinger began meeting Xuan Thuy (of North Vietnam) secretly. Check>>

Pompidou elected as President on 15th June. France. Look up

July 1969
Sesame Street
Prior to its national debut, a week of test episodes were seen in July 1969 on Philadelphia educational station WUHY-TV. Aimed at improving society by directly appealing to the new generation.
Brian Jones of the Stones dead on 3rd of July 1969

July 24  1969 - The Soviet Union exchanges Gerald Brook for spies Peter and Helen Kroger with the United Kingdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brooke

ChappaquiddickScandal
Bizarre Kennedy conspiracy theory number 3. Edward Kennedy crashed his car. His passenger died, drowned. A woman called Mary Jo Kopechne. No charges were ever brought against him.
Edward Kennedy behaved in a bizarre manner during July. Now known as the Chappaquiddick scandal, Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on the island into Poncha Pond. The Senator got out alive but his 28 year old female passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne died. Kennedy claimed he tried to pull her out but when she was found dead the next morning, still trapped in the car, Kennedy had still not notified the police. “SCANDAL” SUZANNE GARMENT (PAGE 185).
July 18th 1969 – see Wikipedia entry for all the sordid details.

July
In July Nixon sent a secret letter to Minh urging settlement, a threatening resumption of bombing if peace talks remain stalled as of November 1st. Hanoi demands VC participation in a coalition in South Vientam.
July 8th – the first US troop withdrawal of 800 men. 17th Sec of State William Rogers accuses Hanoi of “lacking humanity” in the treatment of US POWs. 30th President Nixon visited troops and Thieu in Vietnam in his only trip to Vietnam during his whole presidency.

The first moon landing in July – a very high profile proganda victory for the US. US Apollo 11, commanded by Neil Armstrong, with Buzz Aldrin in the crew. A total of 6 moon landings occurred from 1969 to 1972. 20th July 1969 – Apollo 11 was the first manned landing on the Moon. Three astronauts went to the Moon. It was the culmination of a $24bn project.
The astronauts returned to parade and media saturation on 24th July. They then went in to three weeks’ quarantine.  Nixon’s speech writer William Safire had prepeared a condolance speech for delivery in the event that the two became marooned on the moon’s surface.  Gemini missions – Astronauts practised the necessary techniques of docking and space walking during the Gemini missions. The USSR later achieved sample returns via the unmanned moon landings. Luna 16, Luna 20, Luna 25.

Nixon Doctrine 1969
July 25th “Nixon Doctrine” is made public. US military and economic assistance to nations “struggling” against communism, but no more ground wars involving US troops. Emphasis based on local military self-sufficiency backed by US air power and technical assistance.

July 26th to August 3rd 1969- Nixon went on a world tour. On tour (1st of August) he met President Yahya Khan , dictator of Pakistan, who had appointed himself president in 1969. Nixon told Khan that he wanted to normalise relations with Red China. The US needed the help of Pakistan for exchanging messages. Regular meetings had gone on for years between US and China in Warsaw but Nixon was planning a Total Reversal of US China Policy . The government had decided in favour of an alliance with China against the Soviets. Nixon, Kissinger and Bush  took this job on. – The US had drained its resources into Vietnam.
 “Nixon had come to Pakistan many times when he was V-P” (under Eisenhower up to 1961?) according to Sultan Mohammed Khan, former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan.  Yahya said he’d be happy to work as intermediary between USA and China. In Washington, Khan had a meeting with Nixon and Kissinger – “we never knew what had been talked about”. Yahya had been invited to Beijing in November 1970 and met Chou En Lai.
Washington’s channel of communication to China was through the Pakistani Ambassador in Washington to Pakistan’s government. Pakistan communicated to Chou En-Lai in China via Chinese Ambassador in Islamabad.
Having made this arrangement, Nixon was committed to supporting Pakistan through some turbulent times
Pakistan at that time had two entirely separate regions: the East and the West wings. There was a huge expanse of India between them. In the East, formerly part of India, Bengal, now the country Bangladesh.
March 29th 1970 there was an Interim Constitution: the legal frame-work order – a formula according to which the forthcoming elections were to be organised. Elections set for October 5th 1970.

August 1969
August 4th, the first secret meeting in Paris with Hanoi. 12th VC begin new offensive attacking 150 targets throughout South Vietnam. VC began a new offensive attacking 150 targets throughout South Vietnam.

On 14th August 1969, US members wounded 2 Panthers in a San Diego ambush, and killed another the next day. FBI again claimed a success.

Woodstock Festival
August  15th to 16th 1969 see Wikip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock
Bob Dylan deliberately avoided – now jaded and afraid of his own fans – had begun to sabotage his own career and near Messianic status.

September 5th My Lai charges against Lt William Calley. 6th more troops withdrawn – 35,000.

September 1969
SOUNDTRACK: In September The Doors released “Soft Parade” – they had a run of minor hits through the year. Received flack for this album which included a brass section.
After Jones’ death the Rolling Stones carried on. They released a compilation of hits in September which went to number 2. They’d just had a number one hit with Honky Tonk Women (released in July).

October, Only 17% of Americans approve of Nixon’s Vietnam policy.
October 15th ‘Moratorium’ peace demo against Vietnam War.

“In early October 1969 Nixon decided to test the “madman theory” by ratcheting up the readiness level of nuclear forces. If his military moves jarred the Soviets sufficiently, Nixon apparently believed, Moscow might use its leverage to induse Hanoi to meet US terms.”
It was one of the Nixon administration’s most secret military operations, what became known to insiders as the “Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test”. Nixon and Kissinger were “irritated by USSR assistance to North Vietnam, and frustrated by stalemated Paris Peace talks”, they “pressed Moscow and threatened North Vietnam in order to make progress in the negotiations.”
Mid October 1969, Nixon ordered the Pentagon to take secret measures “designed to put US nuclear forces on a higher state of readiness. The JCS Readiness test was executed secretly so that the public in the US and allies would not notice. But Nixon wanted the measures to be detectable, but not alarming, to the leadership of the USSR and its intelligence services.”
 “The Commanders in Chief (CINC) did not know, and could not find out why ‘higher authority’ had ordered them to implement the secret readiness measures. Nevertheless, between 13th and 30th of October, they put US nuclear bombers on higher alert, and raised the combat readiness of US tactical aircraft and air defense forces and sent more nuclear missile submarines to sea. Moreover, US destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers engaged in a variety of manoeuvres in the Atlantic, the Med, Gulf of Aden and Sea of Japan. At the end of October, the strategic Air Command conducted a nuclear-armed airborne alert exercise over eastern Alaska.”
“The Pentagon searched for evidence that Moscow had noticed the worldwide readiness measures but but little declassified evidence is available showing that the Soviets paid attention. The Soviets may have seen Nixon’s moves as a bluff; Moscow made no change in its Vietnam policy.”

30th October to 31st October 1969 - Conference between ministers of Foreign Affairs about preparations of the European Conference in Paris

November 1969
Vietnamisation
November 3rd, Nixon made a major tv speech – propaganda. He declared the Vietnamization (page 1) plan to the public.
The focus was now on Cambodia. To achieve his Vietnamisation, Nixon was bombing the fuck out of the country. All through 1969 and well into 1970, 3,630 B-52 raids were flown over Cambodia. As VC moved further into Cambodia, B-52 raids followed and number of civilian casualties rose.
Nixon’s secret bombing missions in Cambodia targetted “suspected North Vietnamese or Viet-Cong sanctuaries”. More on this and Nixon’s calculated deceipt later.

5 Nov 69 Let U.S. Be United For Peace – Nixon; Marine Faces 8 Charges in Italy, Possible 30 Years; Skyjack Trial Set For 1 of 6    
9 Nov 69 New Offensive - Reds Attack Saigon, Bases; Apollo 12 Takes Aim    
VP Spiro Agnew accused network tv networks of bias an distortion – urging viewers to lodge complaints, November 13th 1969.
Archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/1999/08/11/fhead_4.htm
                                                                                                                                                         
November 14th was the second moon landing, Apollo 12, the first precise one. It landed within walking distance of Survveyor 3.

On the 15th November, ‘mobilization’ peace demo largest anti-war protest in US history.

16 Nov 69 For the first time, the U.S. Army publicly discusses events surrounding the My Lai massacre.
17 Nov 69 250,000 Turn Out For Protest in D.C.    

19th November Apollo 12 (Conrad and Bean) touched down in the Oceanus Procerlanum near Surveyor 3 which had landed 2 years before. The astronauts brought bits of it back.

December 1969
Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) conducted by the United States Air Force (U.S.A.F.). Started in 1952, it was the second revival of such a study. A termination order was given for the study in December 1969, and all activity under its auspices ceased in January 1970.
Project Blue Book had two goals: to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security, and to scientifically analyse UFO-related data. Thousands of UFO reports were collected, analyzed and filed. As the result of the Condon Report, which concluded there was nothing anomalous about any UFOs, Project Blue Book was ordered shut down in December 1969. This project was the last publicly known UFO research project led by the USAF.[1]
By the time Project Blue Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO reports, and concluded that most of them were misidentifications of natural phenomena (clouds, stars, et cetera) or conventional aircraft. A few were considered hoaxes. 701 of the reports — about six percent — were classified as unknowns, defying detailed analysis.[2] The UFO reports were archived and are available under the Freedom of Information Act, but names and other personal information of all witnesses have been redacted.
Though many accepted Blue Book's final conclusions that there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs, critics — then and now — have charged that Blue Book, especially in its later years, was engaging in dubious research, or even perpetuating a cover up of UFO evidence. Some evidence suggests that not only did some UFO reports bypass Blue Book entirely, but that the U.S. Air Force continued collecting and studying UFO reports after Blue Book had been discontinued, despite official claims to the contrary. (Randles and Houghe, 179) - Wikipedia
In October, future President Jimmy Carter reported that he has seen a UFO. On December 17th Air Force  announced the termination of Project Blue Book, which was the Air Force’s program for investigation of UFO’s. “CLEAR INTENET” LAWRENCE FAWCETT & BARRY J GREENWOOD.

1 Dec 69 The first draft lottery since World War II is held in New York City. Each day of the year is assigned a number. Those with birthdays on days with low numbers will likely be drafted.
7 Dec 69 2 Lawyers Named - Army Hears Lt. Calley; How Could A Massacre Happen?  Mighty Mo A Safe Port    
But post-poned till 7th December due to cyclone.
12th December Piazza Fontana Bombing in Italy ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_Fontana_bombing
A 2000 parliamentary report published by the center-left Olive Tree coalition claimed that "U.S. intelligence agents were informed in advance about several right-wing terrorist bombings, including the December 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan and the Piazza della Loggia Bombing in Brescia five years later, but did nothing to alert the Italian authorities or to prevent the attacks from taking place." It also alleged that Pino Rauti (current leader of the MSI Fiamma-Tricolore party), a journalist and founder of the far-right Ordine Nuovo (New Order) subversive organization, received regular funding from a press officer at the U.S. embassy in Rome. "So even before the 'stabilising' plans that Atlantic circles had prepared for Italy became operational through the bombings, one of the leading members of the subversive right was literally in the pay of the American embassy in Rome", the report says.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Brigades

Christian Democrat co-founder of Gladio (NATO's stay-behind anti-Communist organization in Italy) Paolo Emilio Taviani told investigators that the SID military intelligence service was about to send a senior officer from Rome to Milan to prevent the bombing, but finally decided to send a different officer from Padua in order to put the blame on left-wing anarchists. Taviani also declared in an August 2000 interview to Il Secolo XIX newspaper: "It seems to me certain, however, that agents of the CIA were among those who supplied the materials and who muddied the waters of the investigation."

15 Dec 69 President Nixon orders an additional 50,000 soldiers out of Vietnam.; Battle of Thien Giao, Thien Giao District, Binh Thuan Province. 1400: 1/50(M) Recon Platoon fired on by VC force twice its size with machine guns, 60mm mortars, etc. while mine sweeping a road. While one section including attached 81mm mortar track) set up a base of fire, the lead section deployed in a line and swept towards the enemy firing 50's and M60; the enemy broke and ran, leaving 15 enemy KIA and 7 CIA, including a female platoon leader. After action information revealed the VC were planning on ambushing a RF/PF platoon patrolling the from the opposide direction, and were unaware that US mechanized infantry were in the area.
20 Dec 69 A frustrated Henry Cabot Lodge quits his post as chief U.S. negotiator at the Paris peace talks.
By now 40,024 US troops had been killed, and 115,000 withdrawn.
31 Dec 69 America's fighting strength in Vietnam has been reduced by 115,000 men. 40,024 Americans have now been killed in Vietnam.

End of The 60s
“hopeful euphoria of the ‘60s finally came to an end during the last bitterly cold days of 1969. As the band played a free gig at a barren speedway track in Altamont, northern California, poor organisation and delays contributed to bad vibes which were exacerbated by brutal, acid-crazed Hell’s Angels. Supposedly acting in a security capacity, one of their number ended up stabbing an innocent fan to death while many others were beaten up.”Martin c. Strong
Check Wikipedia

Notes 1969
America’s previous theatre of war, Korea, fairing badly in its post-war years. Chomsky discusses the “consequences for the Korean people of the heavy dependence on the US and Japan, the widening trade gap, increasing indebtedness, extensive unemployment, stagnation of agricultural production, and so on” and quotes a “knowledgeable observer” that “the living standard of the Taiwanese seems to come off second best in a comparison with Canton.” –“Reasons of state” p.60.
LOOK UP KOREAN HISTORY 1950 to 1970

On Arms
By the 1970s the US had developed SLBMs – submarine launched missiles. MRVs – nukes with multiple warheads to cause extra devastation over a wider area, and MIRVs – multiple warheads independently targettable within a certain area. By now it appeared that the US had a three to five years advantage over USSR when it came to nuclear weapons technology.

YEAR? – is this 1969?
US claim that there was a new military build up in North Vietnam, in preparation for a major drive down the Ho Chi Minh trail into Laos and Cambodia  -when was claim made?
December 26th to 30th The US heavily bombs installations in North Vietnam citing violations of agreements surrounding the 1968 bombing halt. Communists from North had launched massive, effective attacks against government forces in South, Cambodia and Laos. – was this the truth of US claim?

Birth of the Internet
“The Internet began with ARPA, the Advance Research Project Agency of the US Dept of Defense.”
“On Labor day the “ARPAnet” transmitted a small text message from UCLA to Stanford Research Institute. By the 1980s, it had become an “international network” of free information flow where parapolitical rumour and analysis flourished. “
“In the end it became impossible for DARPA (as ARPA was renamed) to expand its empire of information control in a conspiracy-aware culture. Its efforts to computer-track every US citizen through a Total Information Awareness office, represented on its web site with an eye-over-pyramid symbol, met with great public disapproval. It took only one contreversy, the attempt to create a futures market based on predictions of terrorist activity, to force the resignation of its discreditted director, John Poindexter (who had been implicated in earlier political scandals as well).”
KEN THOMAS PUBLISHER OF “STEAMSHOVEL PRESS”, FORTEAN TIMES, OCTOBER 2003.

PKD, Warhol, Philip Glass, VU, Lou Reed, Nico, Elton John, The Who, NY Dolls, Ramones, CBGBs, Max’s Kansas City, Led Zep, Deep Purple, Hawkwind, Black Sabbath.

Failure of glamrock to catch on in the USA.

Joseph Heller, Arthur C Clarke, Kubrik, westerns – sci fi the new western?
The Exorcist

Cuba 1969
Peter Shearman, “Cuba eventually terminated its active support for Latin American guerrilla movement and ceased publicly propagating its militant revolutionary doctrine. This was in part due to Soviet influence, and in part to the simple fact US-rained counter insurgency forces had all but completely destroyed the military challenges to the Latin American governments. Che Guevara’s death in Bolivia in 1967 symbolised the failure of Cuba’s revolutionary strategy, the democratic election of Salvador Allende in Chile 3 years later vindicated the Soviet model of peaceful change – or so it seemed”.
Bray 1974, “A growing understanding between Church and state”…”high church officials”…”proclaimed…their objection to US military involvement in Vietnam and denounced the US blockade of Cuba.”
“The PCC only had 55,000 members – the smallest communist party relative to population in any Marxist state…the party’s executive organ met infrequently and no party congress ever took place” – MCDONALD 1989.