1980

War in Afghanistan; The presidential election; Hostage crisis; Mount St Helens ; Solidarnos shipyard strikes in Poland; Earthquakes in southern Italy; Iran-Iraq War; Boatlift from Cuba and influx of Cuban and Haitian refugees; Fire killed 84 people at MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas; Moscow Olympics – USA boycott; John Lennon shot dead
Use this:
http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id107.htm

A standard history – such as the Concise History of the US by Andrew Sinclair – would not cover history in any depth – or any accuracy – from post WW2 on, particularly poor is its account on the 1980s and 1990s.
For example, in the above publication, there are vague references to “collapse of the Evil Empire”, the “end of the Cold War”, “triumph of capitalism”, “Margaret Thatcher, the remarkable prime minister of the UK”, and failing to account for why she was “remarkable”. Perhaps it was her unpopularity at home that made her “remarkable”, or her damaging monetarist policies. “USSR…releasing a fearful threat of toxic pollution” mentioning Chernobyl but failing to include Three Mile Island; It skates over 40 years of history – corruption and criminal government – in about two pages – something this book will not do.
Notable by their absence – Grenada, Panama, support for Saddam Hussein, Iran-Contra, Israeli atrocities, pro-Mujahadeen policies in Afghanistan, Kissinger war crimes, etc…

A presidential election year. They come around quick, hardly gives a president time to get his feet under the table when he’s got to spend a year running round the country making speeches, and then more than likely he’s out and a new one’s in. Still no chance of a woman getting the job. This time it’s a race between nearly senile Reagan and psychotic George Bush with his terrorist network to gain the Republican nomination.

January 1980
BCCI
Began to take hold during the Carter years – poised to grow uncontrolled under Reagan and Bush.

World Recession 1980 to 1990
Reagan’s war on terror

George Bush originally intended to run, but those damn elections. Who could have guessed that a former Hollywood star, wrinkly has-been McCarthyite geriatric would prove so popular? All he could do is make sure it never happens to one of his sons when they should want to be president. So Bush ducked out in the primaries but volunteered as Reagan’s running mate, with a cunning plan to control RR or elbow him aside – Bush obviously thought he could succeed at ruling the USA. He had to make sure Carter lost the election though. The Iranian hostage crisis and the fiasco surrounding a rescue mission more or settled that problem. Certainly if anyone had the resources to
a) arrange for terrorists to swipe a load of Americans in Iran and
b) sabotage the subsequent US rescue mission,
c) provoke a revolution in a middle east terror state

then it was Bush with his extensive network within the CIA and across the global security and military network, including ex-Nazis and terrorists. The same network that was used to attack Cuba, kill Kennedy?, run a huge guerrilla campaign in Nicaragua and gun-running, drug smuggling across the planet between the US, Latin America and the middle east.

Reagan supporters
Reagan’s campaign was managed by William Casey - the architect of the contra war - a shrewd dealer in securities, who by 1971 had risen through the ranks of Wall Street lawyers to become the chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission. It was Casey’s money & connections that had helped to propel Reagan into the White House.
Beer magnate Joseph Coors was a member of Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet”, having joined that body in 1980. Coors was to become a keystone of the contra support system put together by the White House. The “kitchen cabinet” is a group of millionaires who have financed Reagan’s political career from the governorship of California to the White House.
Members of the kitchen cabinet include Holmes Tuttle of Ford and Rexall; AC Rubel chairman of Union Oil; Henry Salvatori, oil developer; Justin Dart of Dart-Kraft; Leonard Firestone of Firestone Tire and Rubber; Taft Schreber of MCA Inc; and William French Smith, Reagan’s future Attorney General.

The US economy on the slide – the trade balance with Japan tipped in Japan’s favour and had reached serious proportions by the 1980s.

February 1980
Abscam
Abscam Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
http://www.e-paranoids.com/a/ab/abscam.html
Abscam (sometimes ABSCAM) was a US political scandal in 1980. An FBI sting operation led to the arrest of members of Congress for accepting bribes.
The FBI set up Abdul Enterprises, Ltd. in 1978 and FBI employees posed as Middle Eastern businessmen in videotaped talks with government officials, where they offered money in return for political favors to a non-existent sheik. Much of the FBI operation was directed by the experienced Melvin Weinberg. It was the first major operation by the FBI to trap corrupt public officials; up until 1970 only ten members of Congress had ever been convicted of accepting bribes.
On february 2, 1980 reports surfaced that FBI personnel were targeting members of Congress in a sting operation. The media dubbed the operation Abscam after the name of the company.
Of the thirty plus targeted officials, one senator, Harrison Williams, and five members of the House of Representatives (John Jenrette, Richard Kelly, Raymond Lederer, Michael Myers, Frank Thompson) were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981. Another, John M. Murphy, was convicted of a lesser charge. While most of the politicians resigned, Myers had to be expelled and Williams did not resign until the vote on his expulsion was almost due. Five other government officials were convicted, including the mayor of Camden, Angelo Errichetti.
The FBI was accused of entrapment and in 1982 the conviction of Richard Kelly was overturned. (He had been memorably videotaped jamming $25,000 into his pockets.) The FBI and the Department of Justice were also accused of having political motivations in the politicians they targeted.
The Abscam model of fake front companies and concealed recording served as the basis for a number of more local operations throughout the 1980s. Compare with Greylord.

March 1980
March 26 1979 - In a ceremony at the White House, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty.  MOVE

May 1980
Mount St. Helen’s Eruption on the 17th May 1980. a popular photographic mountain. At 8.32 am the peak burst with such force that it knocked down trees 17 miles away. The mountain went from Washington’s 5th highest peak to its 30th highest.
57 people were killed. Millions of birds, deer, fish, etc. died. “The most closely watched, most photographed and best scientifically documented volcanic eruption in history”.
Mt St Helens was discovere in 1792 by George Vancouver from the deck of “Discovery”
“Northwest Indians generally stayed away from Mount St Helens  believing that approaching it was a risk not only to themselves but to all life. There is no indication that any native person climbed to the summit before the Europeans arrived. Apparently, the only time tribal members would even go near the mountain was on the occasion of spirit quests. Young men would venture to the tree line and there – they would absorb mana from the great spirit within.
“According to John Staps, a Klickitat Indian who led a party of white people to the summit in 1860 (and lived the rest of his life in shame for having done so): “When an Indian boy wished to be received into the council of the brave of his nation, he would ascend the mountain peak as far up as the grass grows, and there prove his bravery by walking to and fro in [the] prescence of the Spirit which governs the mountain until morning. Old men and brave warriors greeted him, and welcomed him into their secret councils. He was no longer a tenas man [adolescent] but a great brave.”

June 1980
The USSR signed the first of a number of bilateral trade agreements with Grenada (PRG) in June 1980. It was very limited in scale promising piffling amounts of aid to Grenada. However the Soviets were more generous with military aid. Grenada was naturally concerned about security in the wake of Chile (1973) and wanted to be able to defend themselves. Between 1980 and 1983 the USSR supplied the PRG with the necessary military hardware – but ultimately it wasn’t enough. More significantly, although the USSR was reluctant in its support for Grenada, Cuba were enthusiastic, providing small arms, training personnel, and acting as a conduit for aid , trade and communication between PRG and USSR. USSR and Cuba had differing priorities regarding the Caribbean. To the Soviets it was a virtual irrelevance whereas for Cuba it was part of its plan for South America breaking free from US control. So Cuba supported Grenada as best as it could while persuading Soviets to send aid. The USSR sent aid only reluctantly and at Cuba’s behest.

World Trade
In the period 1973 to 1980 things had been improving for third world exporters. There had been a slow but steady increase in the price of their products.
Leaders like Michael Manley of Jamaica and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania encouraged by positive conditions, had called for a New International Economic Order, a code of conduct for multinational corporations and a common fund to insulate 3rd world commodity producers form the vagaries of the global market. In the 1980s things were to go very wrong for producers of raw commodities.
But in the 1980s IMF “fundamentalism” took its toll as (Caribbean) economy deteriorated under the impact of structural adjustment programs which caused agricultural production to decline along with investment, trade and consumption.

Structural adjustment loans – short term, non-project loans with stiff conditions – began in 1980 forcing poor countries to ‘restructure their economies to pay foreign creditors. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, founded in 1944 in order to rebuild war-torn Europe and Japan & promote free flow of investment capital in member countries; these days loaning money to 3rd world for long term projects, was administering these SALs.

September 1980
Iran-Iraq War
At dawn on September 22, 1980, Iraqi jets bombed Iranian airfields and military installations, and Iraqi soldiers crossed into Iran’s Kurdistan province and predominantly Arab Khuzistan Province in the south – oil in south.
Mid November port city Khorramshahr taken and oil facilities in Abadan surrounded. Saddam, a year into the presidency job.
When Iraq invaded Iran (September 22nd 1980) – after a border dispute. The UNSC waited four days before meeting. On September 28th it passed resolution 479 calling for an end to fighting but failed to condemn or mention Iraqi aggression and did not demand a return to internationally recognised boundaries. As Ralph King, who has studied the UN response in detail, concluded, “the council more or less deliberately ignored Iraq’s actions in September 1980.”
The US delegate noted that Iran, which had violated SC resolutions on the US embassy hostages, could hardly complain about the council’s lacklustre response.
[Ralph King “The UN and the Iran-Iraq war 1980/1986”, Brian Urquhart and Gary Sick, New York: Ford Foundation, August 1987].
Iraq was the first to use chemical weapons; the first to launch attacks on cities; initiator of the tanker war; the UN still tilted towards Iraq.
Sales of ‘lethal equipment’ which could ‘prolong or exacerbate the conflict’ was banned. But did not stop government (US?) approving export of a whole range of military equipment including a sophisticated air defence radar system to Iran.
So the war began – a war which Iran was by far the likeliest victor. And sure enough Iran responded decisively to damage Iraq’s interests – particularly blocking Iraq’s oil exports through the Gulf.
Roots of conflict were in Iranian revolution n 1979. Khomeini had come to power. Previously, in 1978, Saddam had explelled Khomeini from Iraq. In Paris Khomeini was able to direct a revolution against The shah. In power he appealed directly to Iraq’s Shiites to rebel against Saddam. SH tortured – killed? – Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister. Khomeini was furious and called for SH’s overthrow – SH abrogated the Algiers Accord on Sep 17th 1980 and asserted Iraqi sovereignty over the entire Shatt al-Arab. Five days later he launched the war.
Iran was by far the favourite to win – three times bigger and cities a long way from the border. Early on Iran closed down Iraq’s oil exports through the Persian Gulf.

With US support the UNSC passed Resolution 479 on September 28th 1980. Called for cease-fire but did not require that Iraq give up territory it had seized. This upset Iran who had antagonised the west with the hostages crisis. Was Carter’s chance of resolving the hostage crisis, and therefore re-election, ended then?
Carter pursued a “hands off” approach to the war – which Reagan continued after 1980.

September 29 - Equatoguinean dictator Francisco Macías Nguema is executed by Moroccan hired men.

October 1980
October 21 1979 - Bob Marley's album "Survival" is released. move
October 26 - South Korean president Park Chung Hee is killed by KCIA head Kim Jaekyu.
October 27 - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gains independence.
CHECK THE OTHER TWO

November 1980
Election Result
Ronald Ray Gun won the election with Bush as his V-P. The same day the hostages were released!
Reagan 50.8 489
Carter 41.0 49
John B Anderson 6.6 0
Ed Clark 1.1 0

Nation, The House Is Not a Home, Nov. 17, 1980
Republicans make gains, but the Democrats still rule the roost Even in years of presidential landslides, members of the House of Representatives who run for re-election usually win. Their success rate is more than 90%, compared with the more hazardous 68% success rate of their Senate colleagues. This year the powers of incumbency were sorely strained by the surprising Reagan-slide, the Abscam bribery scandal and the harrowing problems of inflation. The Democrats, nevertheless, hung on to control. Although at least 26 incumbent Democrats were defeated, and the Republicans had a net gain of 32 seats. From:  http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,950491,00.html

But did we have a lucky escape? “Carter was pledging to spend, in the early 80s, even more than Reagan actually achieved” on arms/ defence – Washbab.

On 27th November Salvadoran security officials stood aside and deliberately allowed right wing gunmen to kidnap 20 members of the FDR democratic opposition who’d been holding a press conference in a Jesuit High School. The mutilated bodies of 6 of them were dumped on the outskirts of San Salvador the next day. One of the dead was FDR leader Enrique Alvarez Cardova.

Three Mile Island cover up?
A major nuclear disaster, general remembered as having no victims.
Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass was able to blame it for at least 430 infant deaths in the USA. This was censored – not reported. Other nuclear threats came in the form of radiation from nuclear tests in Nevada seeping into the atmosphere .

In San Francisco, November 26th,  openly gay city council member Harvey Milk, and Mayor George Moscone, were murdered. The murderer was only convicted of manslaughter and got 7 to 8 years. This sparked off huge protests.. Although it seems that many have accepted these murders to be straightforward anti gay attack, there are a number of strange features of this case that suggest otherwise.  See Rev. Jim Jones and Jonestown later in this chapter.
Proposition 6 on ballot in California to ban any teachers known to be gay was defeated by 2 to 1, but this was typical of the battles being fought by gays all over the US.

December 1980
December 3 - Eleven fans are killed during a stampede for seats before The Who concert at the Riverfront Coliseum (now known as the U.S. Bank Arena) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
December 6 - The world premiere for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is held at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
December 24 - The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
1979?


notes
Colombia: El Cerrejon Coal Mine
CZN and Exxon-Mobil Corporation in Colombia  - begin to build what becomes the massive Cerrejon Coal mine
As usual this corporation takes on a myriad of identities:
 Exxon-Mobil Coal and Minerals,
 Imperial Oil and Monterrey Coal Company,
 Compania Minera Disputada de Las Condes Limitada (Chile).
 Intercor (Colombia)
 dozens of other companies that produce a wide range of chemicals, plastics, and consumer products.
1988 2003 an average of 15 million tons per year was been extracted from the open-cast El Cerrejon Coal Mine under subsidiary Intercor. It is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world (30 miles long).
The area of the mine is inhabited by the Wayuu Indians who have opposed the mine since 1980. At the start 5,000 Indians were employed, but most of them were dismissed when the mine began operations two years later and in 1988 the last Indians were fired for union activities. Intercor evicted all residents of the indigenous community of Tabaco to make way for the expansion of the mine. Residents are resisting and claim that the relocation arrangements made would break up communities and not give people sufficient funds to buy land to live on. The Colombian army guards the mine and has assisted strikebreaking in the past.
To extract the coal, Exxon sucked up the groundwater, dried up the rivers, and, in the process, denuded the grasslands on which the Wayuu depend for subsistence. Indians have also suffered from respiratory diseases caused by coal dust and heavy noise pollution
Continues in 2002.


HELSINKI DECLARATION?  - 1975

Germany
Germans demonstrated during the 80s against new nuclear missiles being deployed there by the US. Günter Grass, German writer, pointed out that the US defended the Polish trade union movement, Solidarity, while launching an armed counter-revolution against the Sandinistas.

Internal security
The architect of Carter’s Rapid Deployment Force (later, Central Command) testified before Congress that its most probable use was not to resist a Soviet attack but to deal with indigenous and regional unrest, in particular the “radical nationalism” that has always been a primary concern.

From NI Magazine March 2004:
World Bank and IMF moved centre stage…not subject to democratic control. The governance of the institutions is dominated by the most powerful economies.
US has 17.14% vote in IMF and 16.39% in World Bank. The 15% mark gave the US a veto over all decisions. See www.imf.org and www.worldbank.org.
24 directions on each board.
The other countries that have directors are Japan, Germany, France, UK, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, all at or below 5%. Other member countries are divided into blocs, with one nation ‘representing’ them on the board.
The two institutions launched a crusade to remake the world in the image of the free market. Debt ridden countries forced to seek their help were required to jump through the hoops of ‘structural adjustment’. Government spending was slashed across the board: food subsidies were removed (they distorted the market by making it possible for the poor to eat); government expenditure on health and education was savaged.
“The rise in adjustment lending by the IMF and World Bank was mirrored by a decline in economic growth.”
“A study, by the world Bank itself in 2000 concluded: “Growth of per-capita income for a typical developing country during the 1980s and 1990s was zero.”
- William Easterly ‘the lost decades: explaining developing country stagnation 1980-1998’ World Bank, Jan 2000.
- IMF’s “advice to any finance minister is exactly the same, whatever the international economic climate, whatever the local market circumstances: cut government spending, privatise your public sector organisations; remove your subsidies of all kinds; open your economy to transantional finance and corporations.”

Egypt and South Africa in the 1960s had advanced aircraft and missile systems, but by 1980s practically every African country had purchased at least one type of advanced weapon – this was the start of PHASE THREE of arms dealing – Western NATO members began exporting to Soviet allies such as Libya, Iraq and Mozambique. USSR began selling to US clients, Jordan, North Yemen, Peru.
Britain – now with Thatcher in charge – lifted its embargo against sales of weapons to  Pinochet in 1980.

In 1977, Sharon’s new party – Shlozion – produced only two Knesset  seats so Sharon quickly joined forces with the Likud again – appointed Minister of Agriculture and Chairman of the ministerial committee for settlement affairs in the first government of Menachem Begin. In the government, he was considered the patron of Gush Emunim (bloc of the faithful), the militant settlers’ movement. When Ezer Weizman resigned as defence minister, Begin did not appoint Sharon in his place. But after the 1981 elections, in the wake of #sharon’s major contribution to the Likud’s narrow victory, Begin named him defence minister in his second government.

Sadat and Israeli pm Menachim Begin signed peace accord in 1978. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai by 1982. Egypt was isolated from other Arab countries leaving them heavily dependent on the US.

March 11 1978 - Coastal Road Massacre: Palestinian terrorists kill 34 Israelis.
March 14 - Israeli forces invade Lebanon in Operation Litani.
August 20 - Gunmen open fire on an Israeli El Al airline bus in London.
September 17 - The Camp David Accords are signed between Israel and Egypt.
October 27 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin win the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord.

Jordan
June 15 - King Hussein of Jordan marries 26-year-old Lisa Halaby.

Yemen
June 24 - Yemen Arab Republic President Ahmad al-Ghashmi is killed.

Pakistan
March 18 - Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, is sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the assassination of a political opponent.
September 16 - General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq officially assumes the post of President of Pakistan.

India
November 7 - Indira Gandhi is re-elected to the Indian parliament.

Chile
In 1977 all political parties were made illegal; British mediation awards Chile legal title to three disputed islands in beagle channel; DINA disbanded in wake of Letelier scandal, replaced by CNI; Bardon (Chicago supporter) president of central bank, says Chile will increase its foreign debt to speed up battle against inflation; Friedrich von Hayek, father of free-market ‘Chicago model’ visits Chile; economics minister de Castro announces reduction of virtually all tariffs to 10%.

Orlando Letelier was on the run from Pinochet regime, and living in exile in Washington DC He’d been one of Allende’s ministers. He was assassinated along with Ronnie Moffitt of the Washington Institute for Policy Studies on September 21st 1976, in a car bomb, on Sheridan Circle in the heart of Washington’s Embassy Row along Massachusetts Avenue.
One of the assassins was Michael Vernon Townley a CIA agent who had worked for David Atlee Philips in Chile. Philips was the director of the CIA’s western hemisphere operations since Pinochet had come to power. See 1975.
Townley , a “former” CIA agent had gone to work for DINA as its liaison man with a group called Command of United Revolutionary Organisations (CORU) – a united front of four anti-Castro Cuban organisations who were part of Bush’s Miami based terrorist network This was an area of Miami known as Little Havana.
CORU was soon working with Pinochet, Paraguay’s Alfredo Stroessner, and Somosa. Soon after CORU was founded, bombs began to go off at the Cuban mission to the UN in New York.

Orlando Bosch arrested because he was planning to assassinate Kissinger for concessions to Castro.???

Operation Condor – DINA plan to assasinate émigré opponents of Pinochet regime. George Landau, US ambassador to Chile, sent a cable to the state Dept with a request that 2 DINA agents be allowed to enter the US with Paraguayan passports. One of these was probably Townley.
After Bush and his deputy had discussed the cable Landau revoked the visa and told Naturalisation service to put 2 DINA men on their list to be picked up if they tried to enter the US. But they did enter on August 22nd with no difficulty, reached Washington. They asked a Chilean embassy official to call the CIA to arrange a meeting.
The DINA men met with NY Senator James Buckley, brother of columnist William Buckley (Skull & Bones). And with Frank Terpil, close associate of Ed Wilson – to do with operations of the Shackley clines Enterprise.
Edwin Wilson is a manufacturer of bombs, and it was one of his that killed Letelier.
And there was a post-assassination cover up too. The prosecutor in the case was stonewalled by the CIA.

Chile in 1978 virtually ruled by the Chicago Boys. Alan Walters went to Santiago, representing the World Bank, and met Pinochet. Pinochet said: “Chile will be safe from communism when every Chilean has their own car and house.” But he knew it wasn’t possible for every Chilean to benefit in this way – it would only ever be a minority. Privatisation has been placed at the centre of the new strategy. Nationalisations reversed, older state enterprises sold off at questionably low prices, British readers may recognise the scenario from the 1980s. The old money-making families benefited from this activity.
Chile, now in diplomatic isolation, but state of siege ended, & state of emergency began. Hernan Cubillos took on job in government to end isolation. GROUP OF TEN? US AFL – CIO who visited Chile at invitation of group of Ten?
Pinochet held mass meetings with trade union leaders. Manuel Contreras was indicted for murder of Letelier. Argentina calls up reserves and sends troops to Chilean border. Pinochet gives in to demands for union elections and allows them in private sector. CNS federations? – dissolved.;’lkjlllllllllllllllllkllllj
What’s the Beagle issue? – Vatican offered to mediate, the Church in Chile and Argentina had organised protests against the war. US unions announce plan for a transport boycott of Chilean goods. First public discussion of the ‘disappeared’ of 1973 after bodies found at Lonquen.
A cabinet reshuffle completes the Chicago revolution as Chicago Boy Jose Piñera is brought in.
January 4 1978 - A referendum in Chile supports the policies of Augusto Pinochet.

Piñera – 1979 – promised restoration of trade union rights, end to police surveillance of trade unions. Proposed US union boycott is lifted; collective bargaining begins for first time since the coup; US embassy in Santiago is reduced in size as a protest over the government’s failure to extradite the Contreras.

Latin America 1980
El Salvador: In February, the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, pleaded with Carter “Christian to Christian” to stop aiding the military government who were slaughtering his people. Carter refused,  shortly afterwards (on 21st March) Romero was shot through the heart while saying mass. Roberto D’Aubuisson  ordered the killing.
El Salvador soon dissolved into civil war. The CIA and US armed forces supplied the government with overwhelming military and intelligence superiority. CIA trained death squads roam the countryside, committing atrocities . By 1992, some 63,000 Salvadorans had been killed.
On 7th March a state of siege was instituted in El Salvador. The war against the population began in force.
The massacre at Rio Sumpul El Salvador, a military operation of Honduran and Salvadoran armies in which over 600 civilians were butchered. Pieces of bodies were found in rivers for days. Church observers brought information out immediately but the mainstream US  media did not report it.
In his last year in office Carter had presided over 10,000 dead in El Salvador. Reagan managed to increase this to 13,000 during 1981.
In June – despite advanced knowledge, the CIA failed to halt members of the Bolivian militaries, aided by the Argentinean counterparts, from staging so-called “cocaine coup” so said former DEA agent Micheal Levine. He also claimed the agency actively abetted cocaine trafficking in Bolivia where govt. officials who sought to combat traffickers faced torture and death at hands of CIA sponsored paramilitary terrorists. This under the command of fugitive Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, allegedly protected by the CIA.
In October the new archbishop of El Salvador condemned this “war of extermination and genocide against defenceless civilians” by security forces.
In December Jose Napoleon Duarte, US  supported “moderate” was appointed as civilian president of El Salvador who hailed the murdering security forces for their valiant service alongside the people against subversion.

Election in Bolivia (check year) after crisis – inconclusive as were elections in 1970 and 1980.

US Media Told Lies
The situation was seriously misrepresented in the US media. The current government was being held up as a ‘moderate’ junta struggling against left and right wing minorities. However the junta – a coalition of military and civilian elite (oligarchy) had shed its moderates since the election in 79. They had all gone by January 1980. The media claimed that the bulk of El Salvador’s 10,000 assassinations in 1980 were by “marxist-inspired” guerrillas or the reactionary right-wing. Records from the legal office of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador showed that government’s military units had carried  out 80% of the political assassinations.

Haiti
1000s of boat people had fled Haiti in the 1970s)

An explosion of Titan II missile silo on 19th September 1980 blew the top off the installation, jarred the countryside for miles and injured 22 air force personnel.


notes
Mexico
February 21 1978 - Electrical workers in Mexico City find the remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the city.

Caribbean
April 22 - The One Love Peace Concert is held at National Heroes Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Bob Marley unites 2 opposing political leaders at this concert, bringing peace to the civil war ridden streets of the city.

FBI
January 19 1978- Federal Appeals Court Judge William H. Webster is appointed FBI Director.

Environment
January 23 1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer.

?????
February 6 1978- Akyab, Arakan, The King Dragon operation in Arakan begins in the village of Sakkipara.
May 12-May 13 - A group of mercenaries lead by Bob Denard oust Ali Soilih in the Comoros; 10 local soldiers are killed. Denard forms a new government.
May 22 - Exiled leaders Ahmed Abdallah and Mohammed Ahmed return to the Comoros.
May 29 - Ali Soilih is found dead in the Comoros, allegedly shot when trying to escape.
September 20 - General Rahimuddin Khan assumes the post of Martial Law Governor of Balochistan.
February 12 1979 - Prime Minister Hissène Habré starts the battle of N'Djamena in an attempt to overthrow Chad's President Félix Malloum.
March 29 - Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, the 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, dies in office. He is replaced by Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Mustain Billah ibni Almarhum Sultan Sir Abu Bakar Riayatuddin Al-Muadzam Shah, Sultan of Pahang.
May 10 - The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing.

Caribbean
March 13 - Maurice Bishop leads a successful coup in Grenada.

India
June 1 - Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Pakistan
April 4 - President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan is executed.

Canada
June 4 - Joe Clark becomes Canada's 16th and youngest Prime Minister.

Music
This period saw the fnal days of the west coast hippy-derived scene, as it descended into its corporate and drug-drenched death throws. The Eagles, CS&N, The Doors without Morrisson,
Bob Dylan’s “Desire”. David Bowie’s “Young Americans” and sly reference to “Do You Remember Your President Nixon?” in the lyrics. John Lennon ‘quit’ music after making a “Rock’n’Roll” album, Simon and Garfunkel went their separate ways.
Springsteen, Motown, Bowie, The Stones, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, CBGBS, Lou Reed, etc…
Soul went Disco.
Punk – New York – Malcom McClaren, New York Dolls, Blondie, Talking Heads, Richard Hell, Ramones, etc.
This was mirrored in the UK by the Sex pistols and soon after, The Clash.
1979 - Bob Dylan released a set of songs celebrating his conversion to Christianity: “Slow Train Coming”.
Bee Gees were massive in 1978
Frank Sinatra – mafia hearings?
David Bowie went soul. Roped in a black backing band which even as late as this, never happened. Out came Young Americans, made Bowie a star in the US. This was his most cocaine fuelled period, which led to him years later claiming he couldn’t remember 1975. Made his first film in 1976, and then retreated to Europe. Berlin.
Elvis Costello.
The Beatles – Lennon’s fight to stay in the US. He made his final album in 1975, a retrospective on hs rck nroll influenes. And then retired. For 5 years.
The Lennons reunited in February 1975 after a period of estrangement. Strongman & Parker, pp 123/124
Elvis’s finaly years were fairly desperate. In hindsight, a man destined to die soon. He’d become involvd with weird “new age” characters, was taking far too many prescription drugs, and he was washed up, and going bust.  He was found dead in his home in 1977. His revival as a semi-religious icon was unprecedented in pop history.

Movies
Went very extra terrestrial for a bit.
Star Wars – both good and evil aliens. Production began in 1975. The Man Who Fell To Earth in 1976. Not evil or good, but desperate.
Close Encounters – 1978 – good aliens in igh tech vehicles turned up thanks to Spielberg.
Maybe it was something to do with it being 30 years since Roswell?
Jaws; Dog Day Afternoon; The Men Who Would be King; One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest; Tommy; Picnic at Hanging Rock; Nashville; Day of the Locust; Barry Lyndon.
Polanski skipped bail on Feb 1st 1978 after having sex with a 13 year old. He still can’t enter the US.
Wheel of Fortune began; Saturday Night Live. Talk began of a Star Trek revival.
Blaxpoitation
Kung Fu