1978

April 7 1978 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter decided to postpone production of the neutron bomb - a weapon which kills people with radiation but leaves buildings relatively intact. The World Health Organization was formed.

Source “the umbrella of us power” noam Chomsky
British arms sales to indoneisa bgan in 1978 as the slaughter in east timor was peaking.
Under thatcher it increased sharply – atrocities in east timor and Indonesia.
Johntaylor’s “Indonesia’s forgotten war: the hidden history of east timor [London: zed, 1991]
John Pilger’s “distant voices [London: vintage, 1992]
Alan clark – defense procurement minister
“My responsibility is to my own people. I don’t really fill my mind much with what one set of foreigners is doing to another.” Pilger page 309
Britian was to become the leading supplier of arms to Indonesia by 1998.

Who are “Dirty dozen” at Vienna? – UN?

January 18 1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
January 24 1978- Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
January 29 - Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing 2 teachers and wounding 8 students.
January 30 1978- Blizzards in the USA kill 90.
February 8 1978 - United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.
February 11 1978 - Somalia mobilizes its troops, due to an apparent Ethiopian attack.
February 11 1978 - Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 44 of the 50 people onboard.
February 15 - Rhodesia's prime minister Ian Smith and 3 black leaders agree on the transfer to black majority rule.
February 15 1978 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is captured in Pensacola, Florida.
February 16 - The first computer bulletin board system (CBBS) is created in Chicago.
February 22 - Saint Lucia becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
March 1 - Scotland votes narrowly for home rule, which is not implemented, and Wales votes against it.
March 2 - Soyuz 28 (Aleksei Gubarev, Vladimir Remek) is launched on a rendezvous with Salyut 6, with the first cosmonaut from a Soviet satellite (Remek).
March 3 - Ethiopia admits that its troops are fighting with the aid of Cuban soldiers against Somalian troops in Ogaden.
In Eritrea the Ogidan War (1977 to 1978) concluded in March.
he Ogaden War was a conventional conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978 over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been backed by the United States, prompting the U.S. to start supporting Somalia. The war ended when Somali forces retreated back across the border and a truce was declared. Wikipedia, 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War
March 3 - Rhodesia attacks Zambia.
March 4 1978 - The U.S. Voyager I spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
March 5 - Voyager I makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.
March 6 - American porn publisher Larry Flynt is shot and paralyzed in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
March 10 - Soyuz 28 lands.
March 16 1978 - Former Italian Premier Aldo Moro is kidnapped by the Red Brigades; 5 bodyguards are killed.
March 25 - The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center, to be prepared for its first launch.
March 28 - Stump v. Sparkman (435 U.S. 349}: The Supreme Court of the United States hands down a 5-3 decision in a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity.
March 28 - In Britain, Jim Callaghan's government loses a motion of confidence by 1 vote, forcing a general election.
March 30 - Airey Neave, World War Two veteran and Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, is killed by an Irish National Liberation Army bomb in the British House of Commons car park.
March 31 - The Royal Navy withdraws from Malta.
March 31 - Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).
April 7th http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Brigades#1978_murder_of_Aldo_Moro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Moro#Alternative_points_of_view_about_Moro.27s_death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay-behind
April 18 - The U.S. Senate votes 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
April 23 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.
April 27 1978 - Afghanistan President Daoud Khan is killed during a military coup; Nur Mohammed Taraki succeeds him.
April 30 - The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan is proclaimed, under pro-communist leader Nur Mohammed Taraki.

May 4 - Conservatives win the British general election; Margaret Thatcher becomes the new prime minister.
May 1 1979- Greenland gets home rule.
May 4 1978 - Communist activist Henri Curiel is murdered in Paris.
May 9 - In Rome, the body of Aldo Moro, the Italian president of the Christian Democrats, is found in a parked car.
NATO – strategy of tension; CIA; maintaining terror to keep left out of power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

May 12 - In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining centre of the province of Shaba. The Zairean government asks the U.S., France and Belgium to restore order.

May 15 1978 - Students of the University of Teheran riot in Tabriz; the army stops the riot.
Ethiopia

In Eritrea the Ogidan War concluded in March. This enabled the Ethiopian army, with Cuba and USSR assistance to launch a major counter offensive in Eritrea on May 15th. Warfare continued into the 1980s.
Received Cuban aid in 1978. Mengistu Haile Mariam, pres 1977 to 1991 – Marxist? – ruthless? Somalia backed insurgency 1978.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogaden_War

May 18-May 19 - Belgian and French paratroopers fly to Zaire to aid the fight against the rebels.
May 25 - A bomb explodes in the security section of Northwestern University, wounding a security guard (the first Unabomber attack).
May 26 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens.
June 3 - General elections are held in Italy.
June 12 - Serial killer David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam," is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
June 22 1978 - Charon, a satellite of Pluto, is discovered.
June 23 - Josip Broz Tito is named Yugoslav president for life.
June 25 - Belgium: Supreme Allied Commander Alexander Haig escapes an assassination attempt by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist organization.
June 26 - The bombing by Breton nationalists causes destruction in Versailles.
June 28 1978 - U.S. scientific satellite Seasat is launched.
June 30 - Ethiopia begins a massive offensive in Eritrea.
In the summer of 1978 the East Timorese continued to resist the Indonesian occupation. US Bronco aircraft used for counter-insurgency operations. M-16 automatic assault rifles made under license in Indonesia. US-supplied helicopters carrying out rocket and strafing attacks.
US arms sales hit $112m in 1978 and averaged nearly $60m per year for the four years of the Carter administration. More then twice the level of weaponry supplied to the Suharto regime under Ford.
Mondale visited Jakarta in May and offered to sell 16 A-4 “Skyhawk” attack planes, a principle counter-insurgency aircraft used by the US in Vietnam and capable of spraying weapons fire and explosives over wide areas – that and 16 Bell UH-1H “Huey” helicopters proved essential to Suharto’s rearmament effort.
www.worldpolicy.org
July 7 - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
July 9 - A car bomb destroys a Renault owned by "Nazi hunters" Serge and Beate Klarsfeld at their home in France. A note purportedly from ODESSA claims responsibility.
July 11 - NASA's first orbiting space station Skylab begins its return to Earth, after being in orbit for 6 years and 2 months.
July 12 - Kiribati declares independence from the United Kingdom.
July 19 - Maria de Lurdes Pintasilgo becomes prime minister of Portugal.

August 61978  - Pope Paul VI dies at age 80.
August 7 - United States President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal.
August 12 - Sino-Japanese relations: The Treaty of Peace and Friendship is signed between Japan and the People's Republic of China.
August 20 - In Abadan, Iran, nearly 400 are killed when Muslim extremist arsonists set fire to a crowded theater.
August 26 - Pope John Paul I (Albino Cardinal Luciani) succeeds Pope Paul VI as the 263rd pope.
August 27 - Lord Mountbatten and 3 others are assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On the same day, the Warrenpoint ambush occurs, Provisional Irish Republican Army members attack a British Convoy at Narrow Water, County Down, killing 18 British soldiers.
September 1 - The U.S. Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, when it passes the planet at a distance of 21,000 km.
September 5 - Camp David Accords: Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat begin the peace process at Camp David, Maryland.
September 6, 1978.Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter, and Menachem Begin meet on the Aspen Lodge patio
September 7 - In London, the tip of an umbrella poisons Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov, probably on orders of Bulgarian intelligence; he dies 4 days later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov
September 8 - Iranian Army troops open fire on rioters in Teheran - 122 dead, 4,000 wounded.
September 25 - PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727, collides with a small private airplane and crashes in San Diego, California; 144 are killed.
September 27 - The last Forest Brother guerilla movement fighter is discovered and killed in Estonia.
September 28 - Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy.
October 1 - Vietnam attacks Cambodia.
October 10 - A massive short circuit in Seasat's electrical system ends the satellite's scientific mission.
October 10 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs a bill that authorizes the minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
October 14 - Daniel arap Moi becomes president of Kenya.
October 16 - Pope John Paul II (Cardinal Karol Wojtyła) succeeds Pope John Paul I as the 264th pope. He is the first Polish pope in history.

The Jonestown incident – November 18th 1978 – 918 dead in mass suicide / murder led by Jim Jones, Guyana.
In November 1978 Congressman Leo J.Ryan and four members of his party were shot and killed as they attempted to board a plane at Port Kaituma airstrip, Guyana. Then news that 408 US citizens had committed suicide at a communal village in the north-west Guyanan jungle. Now known as “Jonestown” and the group were the People’s Temple, led by Reverend Jim Jones. Later, reports claimed that 913 out of 1100 in “Jonestown” had died in the mass suicide.
An official report was submitted to the House of Representatives on May 15th 1979. Bob Houston was killed in October 1976, his father, Sam, scared to speak out, but believed Bob was killed under a train because he’d threatened to leave the people’s temple. His two grand daughters had ended up in “Jonestown” too.
Ryan had received appeals from other concerned relatives who had lost family members to “Jonestown”. In June, Ryan read sworn statement of Debbie Blakey, a Jonestown defector who claimed that community had rehearsed  a number of times for a mass suicide. When Ryan’s interest became well known reports about the group began to pour in. He arranged a trip to Guyana for November 12th – 18th . Failing to negotiate a visit to Jonestown he flew out anyway. He took Speier, deputy chief of mission Richard Dwyer, Lane and Garny Temple legal counsel, 9 media reps, 4 Concerned Relatives Group members, and Neville Annibourne from the Guyanese government. Eventually after more talks the whole party were allowed into Jamestown except one NBC reporter.
They received a number of requests for help from members who wished to leave. Ryan, Speier, Dwyer, Annibourne, Lane and Garry spent night there.
Local Guyanese had told stories of beatings, officials were denied entry and had no authority there, and they described a “torture hole” in the compound.
The next day Ryan interviewed more members left with delegation. Ryan decided to leave after being attacked by Don Sly with a knife, but not hurt. Dwyer planned to return later.
An extra plane was requested for extra passengers and arrived 5.10pm. A “defector” called Larry Layton, on the first plane, just before take off opened fire on the other passengers. Some other people on a Temple trailer opened fire on passengers boarding the other plane. Ryan and three members of the media were killed. Speier and five others were seriously wounded. The shooting lasted 4 to 5 minutes and one plane was disabled.
The official report says suicide started at 5pm. At 8.30pm US State Dept were informed. Around 7.40pm the deaths were reported.
The Jonestown armed guards were never accounted for, maybe 120 men.
On November 26th San Francisco mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk  were killed – see Gay killings in this chapter. The perp was Don White who claimed he was temporarily insane due to too much sugar. The “Twinkie” defence. Moscone and Milk were gay but were also linked to Jim Jones. They had received financial support from him and were involved in ongoing investigation into their role in disappearance of People’s Temple funds.
Micheal Prokes a former P.T. member held a press conference that the CIA and FBI were secretly holding an audiotape of Jemestown massacre, and he was a FBI informant. Immediately afterwards Prokes went into his bathroom and committed suicide.
Spain pulled out of Western Sahara on November 14th shortly before Juan Carlos became king. The RASD was created. Morocco invaded…
November 3 - Dominica gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
November 5 - Rioters sack the British Embassy in Tehran.
November 19 - The first U.S. Take Back the Night march occurs in San Francisco.
Franco had died. Juan Carlos was declared King on November 22nd.
IMF crisis from December 1976. Eventually forced the British Labour Party out of power.
Suriname gained independence from NL on November 25th 1975. Potuguese Timor (East Timor) gained independence on November 28th. Indonesia invaded on Decemebr 7th.
December 3 - The Southern Crescent passenger train derails at Shipman, Virginia, killing six, injuring 60.
December 6 1978 - The Spanish Constitution officially restores the country's democratic government.
December 11 - Two million demonstrate against the Shah in Iran.
December 15 - Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first major American city to go into default since the Great Depression, under Mayor Dennis Kucinich.
December 22 - The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
December 22 - Serial killer John Wayne Gacy finally confesses to his lawyers that he raped and killed 33 boys/men after months of denial to authorities. The confession surprised the entire city of Chicago, as Gacy was a family man that was adored by people all over town.
December 25 - Vietnam launches a major offensive against the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia.
December 27 - The Spanish Constitution is approved in a referendum, officially ending 40 years of military dictatorship.
Adolfo Suarez became Spain’s first elcted pm for 43 years.

notes
Food Corporations Quosh the Truth
Coca Cola set up the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). It had been joined by almost all the major food corporations and somehow managed to acquire accreditation with the WHO and FAO. See 1979, 1992, 2003.

The second Cold War is now well under way.
Nelson Rockefeller dropped dead from a massive heart attack – aged 70 – while in the company of a young female “assistant”.

Problems of waning US power was addressed in the first major publication of the TLC, formed at David Rockefeller’s initiative to bring together liberal elites from US, Europe, Japan. Their 1975 study of “the crisis of democracy” – too much of it about, probably. CHOMSKY

See Harold Brown, Sec of Defense.
John D Rockefeller III died in a car crash aged 72. John Erlichman was released from prison after 18 months – on April 27th. Haldeman came out on December 20th.

1977 - CHAPMAN PINCHER – AND CLAIMS THAT HAROLD WILSON WAS BUGGED.
1977 – 1979  Greek and Turkish Cypriots agree Cyprus should be a bicommunal federal republic.

The space-weapons connections became all too obvious – nuke weapons and anti-nuke technology.
See under cold war
US Department of Defense began the development of satellites that can fire on enemy satellites if one comes too close. 1976.

At one time, the very "fact of" satellite reconnaissance was classified. Despite the acknowledgment of a satellite reconnaissance effort in 1978 and the existence of the National Reconnaissance Office in 1992, it was not until 1995 that the U.S. first released imagery obtained by the CORONA satellites that operated during the 1960-1972 period as well as images obtained by the ARGON and LANYARD systems that operated in the early 1960s.

The final Lunar probe was soil-sampling Luna 24.

Down To Earth
Stealth technology – William Perry.

F-16 bomber/fighter. (Lt Col Paul Strickland around 09/11/01) Regarding rules of engagement against civilian aircraft, “remember that noise is the sound of freedom” – they still operate in 2003. – Lt Glenn Reedy.