1960: ch ch ch changes

It is 1960. 1 in 17 people in the world are now American, but ½ the world’s manufactured goods are consumed by Americans. Four fifths of Americans were self employed in 1800, by 1960 it was an eighth. Relatively high pay was being earned by blue collar workers, a concern for the corporate elite. 7/10 of Americans lived in urban or suburban areas. Only 1/8 lived on farms.

Migration was now from the Deep South and the prairies, out to the coasts. California and Florida were expanding most rapidly. Immigration from overseas had been cut off from 1924 – a quota system was in operation. After WW2 nearly a million aliens were allowed in as displaced persons or war brides – which required a special legislative thing.

By 1950 more than 90% of Americans were native born. The working week had dropped from 60 to 38 hours. Spending power had rose by more than half since 1940. Farming suffered a relative decline. Centres of US cities were dying. New suburbs absorbed 2/3 of the 28,000,000 New Americans in the 1950s. ¼ of US homes had been built in 1950s – mainly suburbs. They left residents with a lack of shops, facilities etc. This contributed to the rise of car-culture – drive-thrus etc. Personal debt, to pay for houses and cars, was rising; and for stuff to go in the houses, and petrol and maintenance etc. The Supermarket had arrived too. Can I get off now? By 1960 it seems the modern world had very much arrived.

MacMillan had been opposing U2 flights over USSR from the UK. But in 1960s “his attitude soon changed – why is not made clear in the documents. MacMillan agreed to allow RAF pilots to fly U2s over the Soviet Union from bases in Turkey. The operations were kept secret for years.

UK

British Secretary of War John Profumo resigns in the wake of an affair with Christine Keeler, a teenage showgirl who was also involved with the Soviet naval attaché (June) CHECK DATE

Cold War

Washington-to-Moscow "hot line" communications link opens, designed to reduce risk of accidental war (Aug. 30). Background: cold war CHECK DATE

There are 15,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam. Background: Vietnam War

Anastas Mikoyan, first deputy chairman of the USSR’s council of ministers, visited Cuba in early February 1960. Were these linkages to Soviets causing paranoia in the Americans, or were the Americans acting deliberately to drive Cuba into the arms of the communist world? There is plenty of evidence that Castro was not a communist – his politics were in the South American tradition which was rooted in the fight to free themselves from Spain. Why did the US spurn Castro’s appeals for aid and trade from the US? If the US had acted then, there would have been no reason for Cuba to turn eastwards for help. Naturally, though, once the US began its campaigns against Cuba, a small Caribbean island, Castro was worried for the future of the revolution.

On February 13th the USSR came to Cuba’s rescue and provided Cuba with $100m of credit, and “agreed to exchange sugar for oil ”. 1960?

Ike’s World Tour 1960

Eisenhower’s puppet masters clearly wanted him out of the way. Ike had a weak control on government anyway but when sent on a pointless handshaking tour of the World (the PGT), there was no way that America’s elected head of state could do his job. He had become a mere figurehead, too old and too weak to fight for control, but too popular to be ditched.

The PGT took him to Madrid, Casablanca...DDE trip to South America in February and March…Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay. Feb 23rd to 26th Brasilia, Rio and Sao Paulo, to meet President Kubitschek and he addressed congress.

Feb 26th to 29th, Buenos Aires, Mardelplata, San Carlos, Baniloche and met President Frondizi of Argentina.

Feb 29th to March 2nd – Santiago and met Alessandri.

In March CIA came up with an idea to arm a ‘counter revolutionary’ force and set them on Cuba. Castro already fearing US intervention, had been seeking to buy arms to protect himself. On 17th March Ike authorised the CIA to organise the training of Cuban exiles for a future invasion of Cuba. Eisenhower accepted a CIA recommendation for this and the arming of the exiles on the 13th March.

March 2nd to 3rd, Eisenhower was in Montevideo, Uruguay to meet Nardone, returned to the US via Beunos Aires and Surinam.

JFK had to enter the primaries to prove his “availabilty”, which roughly means “electibilty”.

Within the Democratic Party JFK’s main opponents were Senator Hubert H Humphrey, and Senator Stuart Symington, a liberal, and Lyndon B Johnson (LBJ) from Texas. “LBJ stayed out of the primaries and devoted himself to the work of the Senate, hoping to make an attractive record…prevented him from claiming persuasively that he could win the North.” So LBJ was effectively out of the race, but that didn’t stop him from throwing his support behind Humphrey in a desperate attempt to stop Kennedy in the primaries.

“LBJ had raised his sights above the Senate and had been determined that during the Democratic National Convention in 1960 he would play a different role than in 1956. Then he had been the traditional hopeless Southern candidate; in 1960 he hoped for national support. He and his advisors headed by Raeburn, expected that the convention would become deadlocked and hoped that then the party leaders would recall LBJ’s skill as majority leader and the favours they had received from the high command in congress and would nominate him for the presidency. Thus he did not declare his candidacy until July.” Enc’pedia Americana.

JFK was nominated on the 1st ballot at the convention. Still seen by many as too young; shallow with no particular political beliefs. JFK chose his enemy, LBJ, as a running mate, to quell opposition from that direction and to ensure both southern support and wins where LBJ was powerful. LBJ jumped at the chance.

Stevenson – chief “liberal” had seemingly given up his ambition to be president after 1956, and yet organised a very vocal fan club to try to get himself nominated at the last minute. Both Bobby and John Kennedy were involved in Stevenson’s election team, and considered him a poor campaigner.

It all added up to a very dirty campaign with mud flying in all directions. Nixon picked up where LBJ left off, stopping short of making JFK’s infidelity to his wife public. Mainly because Nixon wasn’t exactly spotless in that direction either.

Nelson Rockefeller ran for Republican nomination for President but was beaten by Nixon. His running mate was Lodge Jr. Nixon was running on the back of a piss-poor Republican record. It was important that he remain loyal to the immensely popular “Ike” Eisenhower, but on the other hand he had fuck all to boast about. At one point – in an early Watergate – someone tried to steal JFK’s medical records. No-one was ever caught and Nixon never admitted being responsible.

In the 1960 election to choose his successor, Eisenhower endorsed his own Vice President, Republican Richard Nixon against Democrat John F. Kennedy. However, he only campaigned for Nixon in the campaign's final days and even did Nixon some harm. When asked by reporters at the end of a televised press conference to list one of Nixon's policy ideas he had adopted, he replied, "If you give me a week, I might think of one." Kennedy's campaign used the quote in one of its campaign commercials .

Theodore Sorensen came aboard as JFK’s speechwriter and “briefed JFK for appearances in court, or at any rate on the stage of politics.”

JFK preferred “the role of the Lone Ranger”. He attacked racial discrimination – spoke for a higher minimum wage – against corruption in unions – but was big on foreign policy he believed revolutions were caused by “revolutionary conditions” such as poverty, hunger, and oppression. Not exported from Moscow which the old guard claimed. The west therefore must share their wealth. He opposed military aid to South America believing the money would be spent by providing technical assistance to the region. He attacked France in Vietnam.

JFK was also “one of the devoted handful voting to sustain Truman’s unsuccessful veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.”

April – JFK’s primary victories mounted up and LBJ’s camp began to panic.

FBI digging up info on West Virgina Primary. Kennedy and mob money used to buy votes during both primaries and – in Chicago – in the final election that Kennedy JUST one.

The first navigational satellites were launched in Aprl 1960 – TRANSIT developed by the Navy.

U2 incident

On May 1st Soviets shot down a US U2 spy plane (Francis Gary Powers) over Russian territory, spying on the USSR . After that Krushchev refused to meet Eisenhower.

U-2 cover-up

The CIA-NASA relationship was not simply a one-way street, Day points out. In 1960, the spy organization sought to receive something from NASA.

The downing of Gary Powers U-2 spy plane within the Soviet Union was first billed as an off-course NASA research craft. CIA operatives quickly painted a fictitious serial number and NASA tail band on a U-2, rolling it over from a secret desert locale onto the main part of Edwards Air Force Base in California. This was done as part of a media campaign to counter Soviet allegations of U.S. wrong doing.

But as the Soviet Union let it be known that wreckage, a healthy pilot, and U-2-taken high-altitude images were in their possession, NASA was caught in an embarrassing lie, exposed as a front for the CIA, Day explains.

Krushchev had disclosed the man-power strength of the Soviet armed force in January. This was the first time this had happened since WW2. He announced a dramatic reduction by one third over the next two years. But the USA failed to respond. As the USSR then began to implement this policy unilaterally, the US continued to ignore it. Not surprising since the Pentagon appeared to be running things in the White House.

A USSR-USA summit planned for Paris, May 1960 never took place.

This was 7 months after a young marine called Lee Harvey Oswald had ‘defected’ to the Soviet Union.

US military chiefs were overjoyed – Ike had been getting too friendly with the enemy. The U2 setback meant that Krushchev pulled out of te upcoming summit. A few months later the defector Oswald returned to the USA. The Soviets had not accepted or rusted him.

Ike had no regrets over the U2 incident other than the crap cover story.

JFK – juggling with Judith Campbell, Marylin Monroe, and sundry call-girls. LA police had noticed his use of mob-controlled vice ring whores. AH got reported to Hoover.

May 15th to 19th Paris – conference with De Gaulle, MacMillan, Kruschev. 16th May – 4 superpowers in Paris.

May 19th to 20th Portugal (Lisbon) to meet president Thomaz.

Sino Russian Split

Communist China and Soviet Union split in conflict over Communist ideology.

In 1959, Khrushchev held a summit meeting with Eisenhower. The Soviets were alarmed by the Great Leap Forward, and Khrushchev sought to appease the West during a period of the Cold War known as 'The Thaw'. The Soviets reneged on their earlier commitment to help China develop nuclear weapons. They also refused to support China in its border dispute with India, a country moderately friendly to the Soviets.

These events greatly offended Mao and the other Chinese Communist leaders. Mao saw Khrushchev as too conciliatory to the West. From the Soviet point of view, however, they were taking prudent measures in light of the existing international situation and the threat of nuclear war. By the late 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union had massive nuclear arsenals, and the Soviet leadership was engaged in a strategy that balanced confrontations over issues such as Berlin with negotiations to avoid an outbreak of war.

Also contributing to the split was Chinese domestic politics. The Great Leap Forward had failed to meet its objectives. For this, Mao's rivals in the Communist Party, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, who held the positions of State Chairman and Communist Party General Secretary, respectively, plotted to remove him from a position of power. The opportunity of a split with the Soviets allowed Mao to portray his rivals as agents of a foreign power, mobilising Chinese nationalist sentiment behind his leadership.

One of the last meetings between Mao and Khrushchev before the Sino-Soviet Split. For a time, the polemics between the two parties remained indirect, with the Chinese denouncing Tito and the Soviets denouncing China's ally, Enver Hoxha of Albania, in a war of words by proxy. But in June 1960, the split became public, at the congress of the Romanian Communist Party, when Khrushchev and China's Peng Zhen openly clashed. Khrushchev called Mao "a nationalist, an adventurist, and a deviationist". The Chinese called Khrushchev a revisionist and criticized his "patriarchal, arbitrary and tyrannical" behaviour. Khrushchev followed his attack by delivering an eighty-page letter to the conference, denouncing China.Wikipedia

June 14th to 16th Eisenhower travelled to Manila to meet Garcia.  June 18th to 19th – Tapei to meet Chiang Kai-Shek. June 19th to 20th Soeul – met Chung and addresses the national assembly.  June – Far East trip – Elmendorf – Manila – USS St Paul – Tapei – Okinawa – Korea – Honolulu. September Eisenhower met MacMillan.

June – Sino Soviet split became public.

Black protest

1960 had been a year of black protest. Black college students held sit-ins to integrate public restaurants and other facilities.

Martin Luther King was making waves. In 1960 he moved to Atlanta to devote more time to the struggle. In May was found not guilty of tax fraud by a white jury. On 23rd June met privately with presidential candidate JFK.

Corporation helped themselves to Arms Budget

While Ike was out of the way the faction that had been worming its way into the military establishment was helping itself to the national trough. The military budget that year included $21bn for goods, three quarters of which went to less than 100 corporations.

The Pentagon’s largest contractors – General Dynamics, Lockheed and Boeing, General Electric and North Aviation.

86% of these defence contracts were not awarded on bids. The boards of Directors of the most favoured contractors included several high-ranking retired military officers. General Dynamics counted 187 retired military officers, including 27 generals and admirals among its personnel.

From JFK: Farewell America

Secret Government

On 26th June 1960 Gray warned Eisenhower that a document revealing the existence of a secret part of US government had somehow gotten into the bibliography being used by Senator Jackson. The unit was Gray’s “5412 Group” within the administration, officially but secretly in charge of approving court action. Under Gray’s guidance, Ike was clear that Jackson’s staff NOT be informed of the existence of this unit.

July 1960 about 30,000 fled from East Berlin to the west 13th august barbed wire was created – 5 days later the permanent wall appeared.

Convention in July – Johnson still intended to beat Kennedy. LBJ = Let’s Back Jack. Started untrue rumour that Kennedy had Addison’s disease and the true rumour that his Dad dupported the Nazis. Both sides accused the other of buying votes.

Kennedy won on the first ballot. Johnson lost his temper – even refused to thank his campaign workers. LBJ heard that the Knight newspapers on west coast would be out with a midnight edition saying JFK was not considering LBJ for a VP role. It took 24 hours to swing things to LBJ’s favour. Johnson and Hoover blackmailed JFK – using the evidence of sexual indisctretions. LBJ had been indulging in blackmail for sometime. P.272 Summers.

NASA founded July 29th 1960

On July 13th Kennedy was nominated. De Loach of FBI received “highlights” of JFK’ file

-              affidavits from NY prostitutes

-              “hoodlum connections senator kennedy”

summers pp 268/ 269

Bobby Kennedy had received a memo as early as August 1960 which Jack’s friend Florida Senator George Smathers warmly endorsed, recommending that the US government encourage formation of “a respectable government in exile” to replace Castro. But Cuba was lower on the list of priorities than Laos – for Ike and for JFK after he became President. – Dallek’s JFK biography.

The Sugar Quota

“Pressure mounted within the US during 1960 to cut the Cuban sugar quota. The argument ran that Cuba should no longer enjoy preferential treatment in the purchase of sugar and particularly, the benefit of the quota premium which amounted to $150m in 1959, while the Cuban government was seizing…US owned property and otherwise damaging US private business interests.”

Cuba was heavily dependent on its sugar exports, and most of this went to the US. There is no doubt that Castro would have preferred to sell Cuba’s surplus sugar to the US, but after “talk in the US about cutting the sugar quota .” he was forced to find alternative markets. “Castro sought to lessen Cuba’s extreme dependence on US sugar purchases and to diversify her sugar markets”. On February 13th the USSR came to Cuba’s rescue and provided Cuba with $100m of credit, and “agreed to exchange sugar for oil ”.

Congress gave Eisenhower the authority to cut the Cuban sugar quota by 700,000 tons on July 6th. To counter this, the Cuban council of ministers immediately authorised the nationalisation of US properties. GET CHRONOLOGY SORTED OUT

Until summer 1960 Cuba maintained a discrete relationship with each superpower, but from June 1960 these two bi-lateral relationships shifted to a tri-lateral one: the US – Soviet – Cuba triangle. US and USSR dealt directly with each other over the Cuba issue – to the point where Castro believed Cuba was not being involved in talks about its own future. USSR was more concerned about its relationship the US, it only reluctantly aided Cuba, and for its own reasons. You can see Cuba as naïve and powerless; accidental participants in this Cold War battle.

US and UK, who owned the oil refineries in Cuba, refused to process Soviet crude oil, so Castro seized the refineries.

On August 5th Castro announced the take-over of 26 companies wholly or partially owned by US citizens. In August (18th) Eisenhower approved a $13m official budget for a secret CIA-run guerrilla war against Castro. It is known that V-P Nixon had a hand in this. The US military was kept out of the covert action plans until very late in the game. The first of eight admitted assassination attempts against Castro took place this year. September 17th Castro seized US owned banks

On October 19th the Eisenhower Administration “declared a trade embargo” that JFK went on to “extend and expand”.

Exports to Cuba were prohibited except non-subsidised food stuffs, medicines and medical supplies.

Cuban Democracy

Castro wanted to widen the revolutionary process to involve the people of Cuba, something Batista never tried to do. Federation of Cuban women created on August 23rd, to involve all females over 14. September 2nd, the genesis of a parliament came into existence, called The General Assembly of the Cuban People. On 28th committees for the Defence of the Revolutionarion (Comtes de Defensa de la Revolucion – CDRs) neighbourhood mass organisations, were created.

Mafia- CIA connection

The CIA asked Robert Maheu (former FBI agent, CIA operative, private eye working for Howard Hughes) to contract the Mafia, through Johnny Roselli, to carry out the assassination of Castro. Castro had shut down the Mafia’s profitable casinos there, so they were well up for it. Santo Trafficante was best placed to carry out killing but he refused the job. The plot came to nothing, but exploded into the public domain after Senate hearings of the Church Committee, from the lips of Johnny Roselli.1975

Exner denied all knowledge of such plots. Roselli turned up in an oil drum in Miami  1976 – stabbed and garotted, his legs cut off and neatly tucked inside the drum .American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia (May 1). Powers sentenced to prison for 10 years (Aug. 19)—freed in February 1962 in exchange for Soviet spy.

Powers' U-2, which was stationed at Badaber Air Base, near Peshawar in Pakistan, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile on May 1, 1960 over Sverdlovsk; he was convicted of espionage against the Soviet Union and sentenced to three years imprisonment and seven years of hard labor. However, on February 10, 1962, twenty-one months after his capture, he was exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany. Wikipedia

Khrushchev killed the Paris summit conference because of U-2 (May 16).

Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, and Zaire (Belgian Congo) gain independence.

JFK grabbed the black vote by intervening when the black activist Martin Luther King was arrested in Atlanta and sentenced to hard labour. He may well have died during this sentence but JFK got him out. Nixon had been advised to intervene but didn’t.

On October 19th King was arrested at a dept store sit in and sentenced to 4 months hard labour. JFK’s intervention ensured he was freed.

King addressed a mass rally at a mob-beseiged Montgomery Church on 21st.

Nixon made sure he was seen planty with Hoover. Nixon was the clear Republican favourite – he’d been protégé of Hoover during the McCarthy era.

Hoover tried to sabotage Kennedy’s campaign. Agents in charge had standing orders to report everything they picked up on him. And there was a lot – he was constantly having sex with women – secretaries, air hostesses, actresses, etc…

The Democrats were “juggling [JFK]…Adli Stevenson; Senator Hubert Humphrey; and LBJ”. Hoover favoured Johnson despite Joe Kennedy being a friend. H had known LBJ since ‘30s – his “political closet was bulging with skeletons”…”corrupt business deals, women, ballot rigging in 1948. FBI probed the vote fraud with “a notable lack of investigative and prosecutorial vigor” and the case soon “disappeared without trace”.

LBJ referred to Hoover privately as “that queer bastard”. LBJ helped apply pressure in early 1961 to protect Hoover’s salary if he was ever to retire. Summers page 263.

Kennedy’s files – in Hoover’s hands – was extensive.

The Inga-Binga tape  – JFK was always worried about it. In 1958 JFK was sleeping with 21 year old Pamela Turnure a secretary in JFK’s senate office. The Katers – it was their house – tape recorded and photographed this for months before passing it to the press who passed it on to the FBI.

Page 273 (summers) quote about dying in office and johnson’s view about gambling.

October 14th Castro ordered nationalisation of sugar indusrty and on October 24th seized 166 additional US-owned properties to compensate for the sugar quota loss.

But Castro had other problems. “From 1960 – 1965 counter revolutionaries rose up against the Castro government in all six provinces. At one time the country had as many as 179 insurrectionary bands…the number of regular troops committed by the Cuban government to defending the regime against insurrection was ten times greater under Castro than it had been under Batista…Revolutionary government in Cuba could not have survived without effective armed forces”.

The Church in Cuba, initially in favour of the revolution soon descended into despair, “However, the church had lost touch with the majority of Cubans.” Despite this largely Catholic opposition, the majority of Cubans were reaping the benefits of the revolution’s social reforms. Church arguments grew weaker with many poor wondering why the church had not criticised the excesses of capitalism. Church power collapsed in early 60s as middle class Cubans took off to Miami . The emigration of pro-US Cubans “guaranteed the internal success of the revolution .”

October 24th The Presdient was in Giudad Acura, Mexico, informal visit – met with President Lopez Mateos.

King met JFK in October and urged a second Emancipation Proclomation to eliminate segregation. Check year

A revolt broke out in Guatemala – among some army units, on November 13th the USA provided B-26 bombers with exiled Cuban pilots to bomb the rebel bases. The revolt was crushed but two young lieutenants, Marco Aurelio yon Sosa and Luis Turcios Lima were so disgusted by the episode that they started a guerrilla movement of their won. It was the beginning of a long war.

A coup to overthrow Diem attempted in November but failed. Harsh crackdown followed, 50,000 arrests, many civilians tortured and executed. Diem became even more unpopular. Thousands fled to the north and of these many came back to the south as members of the North’s People’s Liberation Armed Forces, the Viet cong (communist Vietnamese). In Decem,ebr the National Liberation Front was set up as the political organisation for Viet cong guerillas.

Kennedy

JFK had become probably the most popular Democrat in America and the most likely candidate for president. His foreign policy record was becoming impressive. For example, he had demanded that France grant independence to Algeria. Eisenhower attacked JFK over this, but within a year De Gaulle did free Algeria.

Anyway, JFK, the Senator for Massachusetts, scraped in.

Election Result

Kennedy 49.7 % 303

Nixon 49.5% 219

Date of election?

He piled up an early lead in the north-east, but Nixon came back strong in south and mid-west. JFK won by less than 120,000 votes out of 69 million, which is about 0.1 or 0.2 % of all the votes. This was not exactly a mandate from the masses for America’s favourite president.

JFK’s victory was the slimmest since 1888. Richard Nixon has been described as “bitter and vengeful” over this defeat. He was especially pissed by what he believed was the briefing JFK received over the Bay of Pigs invasion plan which gave him an advantage.

In 1960 Rockefeller contributed to the defeat of V-P Nixon. “Thanks to Nixon’s narrow defeat in Rockefeller’s mind he was now assured that he was the GOP’s “presumptive presidential candidate in 1964”. “

A few days after the election, JFK flew off in a helicopter to meet Nixon. This was a meeting with symbolic value, “neither interesting or amusing” – O’Donnell.

Kennedy-Mafia connection

Judy Campbell (later Exner) girlfriend of Giancana, a big time Mafia boss, and an ex of Sinatra’s, met JFK through Frank Sinatra and fell in love with him in 1960, while JFK was campaigning for presidential nomination. The affair continued into JFK’s White House years.

Crucial to JFK’s victory was the state of Illinois, dominated by Chicago. JFK beat Nixon by only 9,000 votes there, but this gave him all of Illinois’ votes in the Electoral College. During the campaign Giancana pressed politicians under his influence, to ensure that the electorate turned out for Kennedy.

If JFK had lost Illinois it would have had a knock on effect in the states further west where polling was still going on. Regardless, Giancana believed that JFK would go easy on Giancana but the opposite happened. See 1961

Relationship with Eisenhower

JFK requested a meeting 10 weeks after the election with Ike. In December JFK received an invitation to consult with Eisenhower at the White House in December. The first meeting was on December 6th – p303 Dallek. It lasted 45 minutes

Ike and JFK “didn’t have high regard for each other”. JFK made fun of Ike – mimicking him and calling him “that old asshole” – Dallek. Ike referred to JFK as “Little Boy blue.” Eventually Ike changed his mind about JFK “for the better”.

They talked about nuclear issues, US invulnerability, demonstrated the helicopter to whisk Pres off to safety, and discussed Laos.

Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to be "constitutionally forced" from office, having served the maximum two terms allowed by the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment was ratified in 1951, during Harry S. Truman's term, but it stipulated that Truman would not be affected by the amendment.

However, Eisenhower was to be the first outgoing President to come under the protection of the Former Presidents Act (two then living former Presidents, Herbert Hoover and Harry S. Truman, left office before Act was passed). Under the act, Eisenhower was entitled to receive a lifetime pension, state-provided staff and a Secret Service detail.[34]

Chomsky Reader pp 209, 210 on military spending – JFK’s faked “missile gap”

In December King and other protesters were arrested during a campaign in Albany, Georgia.

Cuba seizing US owned properties to compensate for the sugar quota loss. Bacardi?

1960 NOTES

Corporations

Two Rockefeller organsiations were set up. International Basic Economy corporation (IBEC) and American International Association for Economics and Social Development (AIA). They grew rich and fat in South America by 1960s?

Fashion:

http://www.timelinefashion.de/decades/1950s.htm

Men in grey flannel suits. Pony tails. Boys had flat tops.

    

http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/ao_1959_high_fashion_01.jpg

Women in dresses with pinched-in waists and high heels. Dior, Channel, Givenchy are popular.

Poodle skirts made of felt and decorated with sequins and poodle appliqués.

                                       

Education – critic Rudolph Flesch “why Johnny Can’t Read” – US education system not working. Arthur Bestor, Albert Lynd, Robert Hutchins, Admiral Hyman Rickover.

1959

Book: “The Tin drum” by Gunter Grass. A surreal and mocking take on Naziism.

The Boom 1953 to 1957 was down to what? GNP rose by 1/6th

Kenya achieves independence.

32 independent African nations establish the Organization for African Unity.

US Population: 189,241,798

Life expectancy: 69.9 years

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 21.8

Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 20.1

Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.9

Michael E. De Bakey implants artificial heart in human for first time at Houston hospital (April 21).

US Supreme Court rules no locality may require recitation of Lord's Prayer or Bible verses in public schools (June 17). Background: Church and State

"March on Washington," civil rights rally held by 200,000 blacks and whites in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King delivers "I have a dream" speech (Aug. 28).

United Nations

It was in the 1960s that The US took “a commanding lead in vetoing Security Council Resolutions, blocking the General Assembly and refusing to provide legally obligated funding”. 

Britain took second place and France a distant third.

Europe

The US was keen to achieve European unity

It was looking good for anti-soviet alliances – the European movement was funded by the CIA.

Kennedy had a “cosy” relationship with MacMilllan

UK Labour Party had their third successive defeat in 1959 . “The American tendency began discussing changing the party’s name, ditching the link with trade unions, abandoning Clause Four…and turning the party into something resembling the American Democratic Party.”

Gaitskell died suddenly. Wilson became leader and pm in 1964. The American tendency was then led by Roy Jenkins. CND challenge to Labour Party policy on British nuclear weapons and US bases was seen off. The AT’s main issue became achieving British entry into the European Economic Community. Ramsay page 34

Americans were active in the UK in the early 60s threatening anti-nuclear activists – working with UK MoD’s “psychological warfare groups” p.64 Stuart Christie

In 1962 opposition leader Gaitskell went bonkers at a CND rally. Mayday 1962 p.78 Stuart Christie

Cyprus

Cyprus was granted independence by Britain for broad power sharing between Turkish and Greek cypriots. FIND OUT MORE>>>

Books

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

John Updike, The Centaur

Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle

Sources – US interventions

http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/interventions.htm

http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/resources/interventions.html

http://www.swans.com/library/art6/zig055.html

http://guskova.ru/contact/letters/Grossman

http://www.peoplesgeography.org/From%20Wounded%20Knee%20to%20Afghanistan.htm

http://home.wlu.edu/~dennisp/intr132/Project/politics.html

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/cpa/news/..%5Ctheory%5CUSIntervention.htm