Chapter 34: January 1971 – August 1971
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
– George Carlin
After comparing these customer survey results with those from last year, it is evident that the company’s non-white customer base has improved… The increase in customer satisfaction and foot traffic in urban locations may be connected to the continuing easing of social-economic issues under President Sanders, particularly due to the President’s active supporting of state and federal education and urban renewal projects and programs...
– KFC customer demographics report, 1/5/1971
“YOU COULD BE THE NEXT COLONEL”: The Story Of Ollie’s Trolleys
By Keith Pandolfi, photos by Helen Rosner
The harsh rain of a Floridian winter was beating down on John Y. Brown Jr. that day, much like how it is for me revisiting the same famous spot, an iconic belly-filling eatery shaped like a trolley. Having skipped breakfast, I eye the entrance to the establishment, ready the hood of my jacket, and make a run for it through the downpour. Unquestionably, the upcoming meal is worth the splashy sprint.
Making my order comes so easy to me – one Ollieburger with Olliefries and a Josta – that I have to stop and think about how it was like the first time I ever visited one of Ollie Gleichenhaus’ trolleys. The thought returns my mind’s attention to Brown, who was in the same position one rainy noon in January 1971. The ex-KFC affiliate had not had the best four years of his life since his termination from the company, to say the least. And on the day in question, the 37-year-old businessman just needed to a quick bite to eat after finding Florida to be a refreshing change of scenery, albeit one where he was struggling to find success and prosperity. He may have chosen Ollie’s as the place at which he would satisfy his appetite out of convenience, or maybe he was intrigued by the cutesy, unique façade of the building, or maybe the trolley reminded him of the trolleys that once navigated the streets of his childhood hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.
I spent my few minutes of waiting leaning over the to the side to view the five employers located in the kitchen performing their duties harmoniously, flipping burgers and oiling up fries and the like. Then I receive my order in a simple grease-strained eco-paper bag, and – given that this location’s seven stools and two booths are completely stuffed with other customers – I dash back out to my car to enjoy it there.
Eating an Ollieburger is like having a McCormick spice warehouse explode in your mouth. There’s a magic mingling of oregano and garlic, cumin, rosemary, and Old Bay – an Italian pot roast and a Maryland crab boil all in one. There are other flavors in there, too – some I recognize, like onion powder, paprika, and cayenne, and other I don’t. The same seasoning coats both the fries and the burger. And the more I eat, the more my taste buds re-acclimate themselves to those flavors, and the more convinced I am that the Ollieburger is the best burger in America.
I imagine that the range of emotions that flooded my senses – surprise, delight, intrigue, gluttony, joy, and possibly contentment (in that order) – swam through Brown’s mind as he took his first bite, as a detonation of flavors overwhelmed his taste buds. As the legend goes, Brown had not even finished his first Ollieburger when he bolted back into the location to order three more, and then demanded he speak to the inventor.
The genius inventor in question was
a cigar-chomping, straw-hatted grouch named Ollie Gleichenhaus. With his cantankerousness mirroring that of Colonel Sanders, an unofficial idol to fast food vendors both then and now, Gleichenhaus and his wife had opened what they originally called “Ollie’s Sandwich Shop” in South Beach, Florida in the 1930s. Despite its small size, the place became a big hit among locals, tourists, and even visiting celebrities – Gleichenhaus would later claim
Rodney Dangerfield used to write material in my place and that Don Rickles
got all his material from him and his
caustic demeanor. This is the location at which I now sit, and it is also the same location in which Brown found himself on that fateful day.
Brown metaphorically picked as his brain his metaphorical eating utensils, requesting how the creation –
a third of a pound of lean beef seasoned with a blend of 32 spices – came to be. Gleichenhaus, approaching 60 in 1971, explained how
it took him more than three decades to perfect the recipe, adding a new spice here, a different type of cheese there. He’d change up the bun, or grind up a new cut of beef. He used his customers as guinea pigs until he finally felt he’d nailed it. And once he nailed it, he was happy with himself and to simply just continue
frying up burgers and basking in the Florida limelight.
Brown must have smiled widely as he thought of the gold mine he had stumbled across. He must have figured that with his experience in the fast-food industry, Ollie’s unique product, and the two giants of the fast food industry long gone – McDonald’s Ray Kroc now owning a basketball team, and KFC’s Harland Sanders now serving as President – Brown through Ollie could rise to unprecedented heights of fame and glory. Brown decided he would build Ollie’s Trolleys into the competition of KFC’s new Wendyburgers. He just needed to convince Gleichenhaus that his burgers could be the next big thing; “Ollie, you can be the next Ray Kroc. Hell, you could be the next Colonel Sanders!”
The only problem was that Ollie wasn’t interested. He was content with his business, and his first impression of Brown was that he was a “
slick-talking sonofabitch,” and a such told Brown “
I’m doing just fine here. If you don’t like, you can get the hell outta my store.”
Brown only saw the rambunctious personality as the same kind that sent the Colonel to the White House. Like the Colonel, Ollie “
swore like a sailor and had quite a routine; if anyone came into his restaurant and asked for ketchup, he’d say ‘Get the fuck out of here!’” Brown would recall many years later.
But like how the Colonel never gave up trying to sell his chicken in the early years of KFC, Brown
kept hounding Ollie, calling him several times each week with the same offer of partnering up with him to expand the humble local business into a nationwide franchise. Then one day, Ollie relinquished his resolve.
“
He finally got to me,”
Ollie told the Post-Crescent. “
With all the talk about the fun I’d have and the traveling, and how my name would be up in lights. Yeah, that fed my ego.”
Taking a page out of the Colonel’s biography, Brown toured the country for viable locations. He put together television spots featuring Ollie
in an Archie Bunker kind of approach. A
simple menu of hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, milkshakes and – most importantly – Ollieburgers and Olliefries was finalized. Brown also took a page out of McDonald’s playbook and sought out a way to streamline the production process.
“We’ll go nationwide within the year,” promised Brown. Whether obvious or not at the time, it is retrospectively clear that Brown had developed and put into motion a plan to make K.F.C. sorry for his dismissal.
[snip]
[pic:
imgur.com/UllBwYJ.png ]
– proudsoutherner.co.usa/food/ollies-trolley/you-could-be-the-next-colonel-sanders [1]
HUMPHREY JOINS CALLS FOR PRIMARY SYSTEM REFORM
…Humphrey claims “The current system does not provide enough representation for Democrats in all 50 states,” and that “convention delegates have more power than the would-be voters, which is unjust.” …Humphrey won the primary popular vote in 1968 but lost in delegate count to former Secretary Jack Kennedy, causing the former to lose the nomination to the latter...
– The Washington Post, 1/18/1971
SENATOR RICHARD RUSSELL IS DEAD AT 73
– The Savannah Morning News, Georgia newspaper, 1/21/1971
The Colonel’s first order of business for the new FBI director [William C. Sullivan] was to investigate the White Citizens’ Council, a southern white supremacist group plaguing the south with occasional intimidation tactics such as vandalism and arson to businesses, burning crosses on lawns, and death threats since its formation in 1954. The FBI had largely ignored the group under Hoover despite being responsible for violence during H.I.P. political campaigns in 1964, 1966 and 1968. Though already waning in influence and member size by 1969, FBI infiltration of the group led to the arrest of key leaders in 1971 and 1972, which in turn ultimately led to the council disbanding in 1974.
– Ronald Kessler’s Clyde Tolson and the Cult of J. Edgar Hoover, Resistance E-Publishing, 2016
…Colonel Sanders’ modest expansion of Social Security arose amidst fiscal concerns from the GOP and his own personal reservations toward the program. Believing American businessmen would thank him for the move later on down the road, Sanders approved of an increase of general benefit levels to 12 percent in order to better combat the effects of inflation
[2] In January 1971.
– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition
The Colonel ushered in the New Year by beginning a tradition of daily walks around the White House property to promote exercise and to increase public awareness of the 1970 Scranton Report on US health practices.
– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1968, Atheneum Publishers, 1969
The communist insurgents in Cambodia initially welcomed in their Vietnamese counterparts, the lingering radical ex-members of the Viet Cong. But as the fighting continued, cultural, linguistic, and ideological differences between the native Cambodian guerillas and the immigrant Vietnam guerillas impede collaboration against western forces. By the start of 1971, the two group had become bitter nemeses, with the waterways of the Stung Treng region seeing the heaviest of the guerilla-on-guerilla fighting.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
“I want all the war hawks in the White House to know that our military’s activities in Cambodia qualify as an illegal war. I am calling for an official vote on the status of our actions in Indochina, where I urge all of my co-workers on this hill to vote against this destruction of human life.”
– Rep. Jeanette Rankin (D-MT), 1/23/1971
POSTAL WORKERS GO ON STRIKE ACROSS THE U.K.
Powell Calls For “Peace And Order” As Workers Demand Raise Due To Low Pay And Poor Working Conditions
– The Guardian, 1/27/1971
Mr. President:
Update: Get the Champaign ready.
In your service,
Gen. Abrams
– Private memo from Abrams to Sanders concerning the US Army's advancing on Cambodian despot Pol Pot’s location, 1/28/1971
SANDERS NOMINATES FRANK M. JOHNSON JR. FOR SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE SEAT
…the 52-year-old Alabaman District Court Judge was pivotal in the fight against segregation in the 1950s... Other rumored candidates to replaced the retiring Earl Warren had included Harold R. Tyler Jr. and William H. Mulligan of the 2nd Circuit, Paul Roney of the 5th Circuit, and Clement Haynsworth of the 4th Circuit (likely due to his pro-business rulings). Even more outlandish potential picks such as Senator Barry Goldwater, columnist William F. Buckley, and North Carolina state Supreme Court Justice Susie Sharp were rumored candidates, although such names were never confirmed to be considered seriously by the White House...
– The Washington Post, 2/1/1971 (Monday)
MIXED FEELINGS FLY ON WALLACE’S ACTIONS, APPOINTEES IN FIRST MONTH AS GOVERNOR
…Newly into office (again), George Wallace has already stirred up controversy for allegedly imposing liberal policies onto a conservative populace. The policies in question includes his appointing of a record-breaking number of African-Americans to public offices, such as over 100 to the state governing boards, hiring a 52-year-old African-American female to be his press secretary, and appointing two African-American men to his gubernatorial cabinet. …receiving less controversy, at least, from average white Alabamans is, Wallace’s push for anti-poverty legislation to help “the most poor and the helpless members of our state”…
– The Huntsville Times, Alabama newspaper, 2/2/1971
GOV. MADDOX APPOINTS ERNEST VANDIVER TO US SENATE
…Vandiver strongly favor segregation while serving as Governor from 1959 to 1963…
– The Savannah Morning News, Georgia newspaper, 2/4/1971
This report finds the efforts of the Governor’s office and the state legislature to lower crime in the state’s urban areas are working but not at the expected pace. The number of murders recorded in Albany dropped 20% from January 1967 to December 1970, but the number of recorded murders in New York City only dropped from 746
[3] in 1967 to 689 in 1970. Governor Mario Biaggi and Mayor Joey Periconi’s co-operative increase in security guards, plain-clothed police officers, and uniformed Transit Police are the cause of the drop. Furthermore, the state legislature’s tax incentives for producers and sellers to decrease the price of home security systems and locks have lead to a 15% drop in burglaries statewide. Switching transit police radios and above-ground police radios to transmit on the same frequency has significantly diminished the numbers of poor communication incidents in New York City.
[snip]
Reflecting advice once offered by Dwight Eisenhower to the city of New York in 1959, Mayor Periconi is calling for the taxing of drivers entering densely populated city limits. This study supports this proposal, as it could provide funds for the state’s crime-reduction programs.
– Summary of report from the office of the New York State Secretary of State, 2/5/1971
BUSH AND NIXON
…Church bells rang out today in celebration of the Holy Union of George Walker Bush and Tricia Nixon…
– The Houston Chronicle, celebrations section, 2/5/1971
On February 7, the weeks of transcontinental conversations culminated in Sanders and Kosygin signing the landmark Seabed Treaty banning the emplacement of nuclear weapons on all ocean floors beyond a 15-miles coastal zone. The UK’s Prime Minister Enoch Powell was hesitant to sign onto the multinational/multilateral treaty, despite polls showing that most Britons supported the treaty, as Powell did not approve of the notion of “tying down” the UK, a comment that proven to be controversial until Powell yielded and finally signed the treaty the next Month.
– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017
EXTRA! DEADLY EARTHQUAKE ROCKS CALIFORNIA! Over 30 Dead, Over 70 Missing As Bridges, Buildings Collapse!
– The Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1971
PRES. SANDERS VISITS POST-QUAKE CALIFORNIA, HELPS DISTRIBUTE SUPPLIES TO VICTIMS
…yesterday morning’s 6.5 earthquake was particularly damaging to communities in the northern San Fernando Valley, where a dam has partially collapsed. Governor Reagan has ordered the area downhill from the Van Norman Dams to evacuate, in case an aftershock weakens the dams any further…
– The Seattle Times, 2/10/1971
While the 6.6 Sylmar Earthquake itself killed 37 people – mostly hospital patients buried under rubble and travelers crushed by damaged sections of the freeways – the wave of water that rushed out of the Lower Van Norman Dam broken by the quake’s aftershocks was the true tragedy of the moment. Back in 1964, a state inspection led to the State of California and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power agreeing to maintain the reservoir’s water level at a level 5 feet lower than usual for a dam of its size. The earthquake’s aftershocks broke off the remains of the top 27 feet of the structure, but even at the water level being 5 feet lower, it was still 2 feet too low.
[4]
When the Lower Van Norman Dam partially collapsed, it unleashed a powerful and forceful wall of water out of the reservoir, damaging and taking with it 30% of the rest of the dam. Being just 2 feet below the dam’s new top, the water had enough force to spill out, but not enough to cause the rest of the dam to break. Nevertheless, the water wave more deadly than the earthquake itself.
The water hastily made its way into the valley below. When Governor Reagan called for the valley housing 80,000 people needed to be evacuated immediately on February 9, mass havoc overwhelmed the valley; the dam’s damage being clearly visible from far away didn’t help. Rumors were spread. Chaos ensued. People scrambled out of their homes and several car collisions happened. Thankfully, by the time the aftershocks weakened the dam enough for the water to breach, most of the downhill inhabitants had fled.
The breached dam’s results were much worse than the flooding that hit California in the 1963 Baldwin Hills Disaster. Roughly 1,100 people died, a number that, while not as high as the 2,000 people killed in 1963 when Italy’s Vajont Dam failed, was one the deadliest disaster to ever strike California on par with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that killed roughly over 3,000 people, or the 1928 St. Francis failure that killed 600 people in nearby Santa Clarita. Thousands more found themselves without homes.
[
imgur.com/BgkU4ZB.png ]
Above: the Van Norman Dam after its partial collapse, prior to the earthquake’s aftershocks finishing what the initial first shake started. Concrete cracked and slumped; the Lower Van Norman Dam’s “sister” dam, the Upper Van Norman Dam, came just one foot away from being breached as well.
– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition
The media called it a “tragedy,” a “disaster,” and a “horrible loss of life”; Governor Reagan controversially referred to it as a “fiasco” and “engineering snafu,” attempting to downplay the deadly flooding of the valley. When that did not seem to work, Reagan shifted to blaming “poor oversight under Governor Brown” for the predicament; he also blamed it on inspectors instead of the dam operators. However, it was Reagan’s earlier call to “play it safe” before the dam finally partially collapsed that led to him being praised, as the decision undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of Californians.
The tragedy did have one unforeseen benefit, though – it revealed to a shocked public the flaws of California’s concrete building designs, ushering in an era of active public demand for higher standards, better building codes, stronger materials, a statewide review of older buildings, and other protective measures.
– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition
“Walter, I’m here in Arleta, a California community once like any other, only now it has been ruined by the wrath of a busted dam… But through the disaster, a glimmer of hope is seen in the millions of Americans donating to various charities whatever they can, and the many people travelling to pitch in and help the displaced survivors get back on their feet…”
– CBS Evening News, 2/14/1971 broadcast
Reagan designated the valley a disaster area, declared a state of emergency, and imposed a curfew on the San Fernando Valley to “curb nighttime looting.” The curfew instead led to accusations of police brutality against Black and Latino residents, which in turn increased racial tensions in certain parts of the state. As the days of reports on the dead, the newly homeless, and “constabularily abused,” as Dan Rather once called it, President Sanders was reportedly crestfallen over the loss of life and, according to one source, “choked up and cried a little” upon hearing the estimation of how many children had perished. …At one point, the President lamented to an aide, “America needs to hear some good news again.” Soon enough, such news came to remind Americans that good things were still happening.
– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition
EXTRA! POL POT CAPTURED ALIVE! CAMBODIAN DICTATOR CAUGHT BY U.S./LOCAL FORCES IN SEIGE ON HIDEOUT
Pol Pot Expected To Be Moved To Capital For Trial Soon; Followers Is Disarray As Capture Makes Leadership Void
– The New York Times, 2/12/1971
[pic:
imgur.com/EHzqVKA.png ]
– Pol Pot’s “mug shot,” taken 2/12/1971
Defense experts were certain the threat had been neutralized; communism had failed to take over a nation yet again. The Colonel was relieved that congress’s threats to impede the military’s defense of Cambodia from communist insurgency were now dissolute. “Now justice can be served to Pol Pot. The Cambodian government will now put that man on trial, for all the world to see the evils of his ways. I hope he likes the gravy train of righteousness, and his just desserts, too” the Colonel punned.
Pol Pot’s trial never came. Less than twenty-four hours after being temporarily placed in a prison in Kompong Cham, a merciless mob of local royalists stormed the jail and dragged him out of his cell. The villagers, many of them survivors of his atrocities farther north, executed him in the grisly manner of being beaten to death with sledgehammers – one of many methods Pol Pot had once commonly used when having others killed.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
I don’t know how she got it, but the fact remains she got it. Maybe Harley or one of our girls gave it to her. Regardless, on one crisp February morning in 1971, I found myself arguing with Josephine, who’d somehow obtained the number for my White House bedroom telephone. She was upset that the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act I had signed into law in ’69 was not helping one of Josephine’s brothers and his new investments in some mining company in West Virginia. Her screeching on the phone frustrated me. It soon led to a headache, causing me to rub the top of my head. Up there, I could still feel the old scars, a small ridge hidden under my snowy locks. I suddenly found myself thinking once again about the time I careened into the ravine near our Camp Nelson home, taking two cars and that poor excuse of a bridge with me all the way down to the bottom of it
[5]. I thought about how Josephine helped me put a large loose flap of scalp back where it belonged, doused the wounds in turpentine, and bandaged me up
[6]. That thought led to me wondering just how many Americans can’t afford medical treatment for accident like that. I hung up the phone – Jo was still prattling on, and I think I absentmindedly told her “thanks a bundle, gotta go” – so I could call [H.E.W. Secretary Nelson] Rockefeller. I figured it was high time I took a firm stand for all the American men, women and children who wind up hurt in unforeseeable accidents.
– Colonel Sanders’ Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good, Creation House publishing, 1974
COLONEL SANDERS CALLS FOR MORE HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION: Details Pending
With the recent events in Cambodia boosting his popularity, it appears the Colonel has decided to work, seemingly with the Democrats back in control of the House, to pass “some real meaningful” healthcare legislation. In a short announcement made at a press briefing held earlier today, the President explained, “I have recently made it to the big 8-0 milestone, and I think not enough people make it to this age. I think we should try and do something about that.”
– The New York Times, 2/17/1971
SENATE CONFIRMS SUPREME COURT NOMINEE FRANK M. JOHNSON JR., 89-11
– The Washington Post, 2/22/1971
…The Colonel’s first major disagreement with conservative Republican in 1971 arose in February, when Sanders called for the expansion of Medicare/Medicaid benefits. The move angered many politicians on the hill, even Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), who had a relationship with the President that was at times shaky but more often friendly in nature. Despite clarifying his belief that “not all of it should be controlled solely by the Federal government. Statewide and local differences should be involved as well to ensure what works best for those communities is respected and used when appropriate,” the Colonel continued to face backlash. Conservative Representatives, for instance, voiced opposition to Sanders’ newest medicine proposals by claiming they would inhibit the livelihoods of doctors. Governor Ronald Reagan of California opposed the move even further by actively working to reverse the medical laws established under his predecessor...
– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000
FIRST LADY CLAUDIA DONATES $2MILLION TO BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
…the First Lady was attending an exhibit on 19th-century European luxury living when she announced the donation to the museum…
[7]
– The Baltimore Sun, 3/2/1971
PAT BROWN UNDER FIRE FOR 1964 VAN NORMAN INSPECTION
– The Sacramento Union, 3/3/1971
During the final two years of his Presidency, Colonel Sanders sided with Democrats over Republicans several times. For instance, in March 1971, arguments between Sanders and conservative Republicans (and some of the conservative Democrats) helped the Senate pass a bill that provided financial and medical aid for low-income aged and low-income disabled individuals. Spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid all increased slightly by the end of the Sanders administration as well. This careful overseeing of America’s socioeconomic situation contributed to the US poverty rate dropping from 16.7% in 1964 to 9.9% in 1973
[8].
– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition
“The President seems to be out for revenge for the G.O.P. rejecting his Reverend friend’s Federal Assistance Dividend proposal.”
– Former HEW Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby, National Review, early March issue
FRANK MINIS JOHNSON TAKES SEAT ON BENCH AS CHIEF JUSTICE
– The Chicago Tribune, 3/4/1971
POSTAL STRIKE ENDS: Management, Workers Agree to 10% Pay Rise As Economy Climbs
– The Guardian, 3/8/1971
…earlier today, popular 4-star US Army General Creighton Abrams was awarded another medal for leading operation that toppled Cambodia’s dictatorial Pol Pot regime. Abrams was then promoted again, this time to Chief of Staff of the Army, the most senior uniformed officer in the Department of the Army. Abrams is celebrated for his leadership skills in military operations in the nations of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia…
– The Overmyer Network Evening News, 3/9/1971
OVER 85% OF MALE BUSINESS MANAGERS ADMIT THEY ARE “UNCOMFORTABLE” WITH MENTORING WOMEN
…“We need clearer codes of conduct that are neither repressive nor ineffective,” argues Bernhard Willard Goetz Sr, a bookbinding businessman from upstate New York, “I and the men who work for me need to know what exactly the legal distinction is between honest flirtation and inhibiting a fellow employee’s workplace performance before
we can feel comfortable hiring a woman.”…
– The Los Angeles Times, 3/10/1971
SANDERS SIGNS BILL INTO LAW DESIGNATING FUNDS FOR SYLMAR RELIEF
– The Washington Post, 3/12/1971
We have just confirmed reports that FBI agents have shot and killed a pro-socialist college professor resisting arrest in New York City. Lyndon LaRouche, a lecturer on Marxism at the city’s “Free School” establishment, was approached by FBI agents with a warrant for his arrest. While the charges have not been made formal, valid sources state he was being charged with espionage and treason. LaRouche had openly and publicly made several anti-government sentiments in recent years concerning America’s military activities overseas. Last month, for example, LaRouche called President Sanders “a tyrant who needs to be stopped.” After LaRouche began resisting arrest, a loyal cabal of LaRouche students attempted to physically stop the FBI officers from entering the building, but the students were overpowered. Details are currently sketchy, but for whatever reason, agents shot and killed LaRouche inside the building in question. This is a developing story…
– NBC News, 3/15/1971 broadcast
[pic:
imgur.com/sZ4XMRr.png ]
– Colonel Sanders body doubles discuss strategy during the President’s political trip to a heavily Democrat part of Boston, Massachusetts, 3/17/1971
SUPREME COURT RULING: DUKE POWER CO. VIOLATED THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT
…Chief Justice Johnson Led the unanimous court decision just two weeks into the job… In the case of
Griggs v Duke Power Co., the court determined that the public utility company Duke Power was discriminating against African-American employees via job application tests that disparately impacted ethnic groups, thus violating Title VII of the 1962 Civil Rights Act…
– The Washington Post, 3/18/1971
An unexpected side effect of the ruling was that it led to companies switching from administrating IQ tests to requiring workers to have college degrees. In his later years, as he became aware of the policy shift in more and more companies, Colonel Sanders denounced it as “discriminatory – no piece of paper or IQ test can prove if someone can’t do a job. Letting them try the job will do it!” and suggested the companies should promote or rely more often on trial periods in connection to their hiring processes.
– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012
PUERTO RICO STATEMENT MOVEMENT GETTING ATTENTION
[pic:
imgur.com/1ohLJMr.png ]
…In recent months, Cesar Chavez, US Senator Joseph Montoya (D-NM), and three US Congressmen have voiced support for the idea of Puerto Rican statehood. The call stems from the crucial military role that Puerto Rico played during the Cuban War, which has in turn led to a rise in tourism and a healthier better economy in recent years. Backers also point to historical precedence – Hawaii and Alaska joined the union after playing key roles in World War II’s Pacific Theater…
The biggest hurdle for such a movement, however, would be the language barrier. While an overwhelming majority of Alaskan and Hawaiian natives spoke English at the time when our 49th and 50th states were admitted, less than 10% speak of Puerto Rican residents actually speak English fluently; over 90% of residents primarily speak Spanish as a primary language instead
[9]. “A country needs its citizens to be able to understand one another – let English naturally develop more on the island before granting it statehood,” advices phonetics expert Professor...
[10]
– The Miami Herald, 3/19/1971
38TH STATE APPROVES 26TH AMENDEMENT: “VP Vacancy” Amendment To Become Official
– The Washington Post, 3/21/1971
But the people of Corbin were more patient than the Colonel. And, despite past trends, were forgiving. They voted for my stepdad in a landslide, and continued his air-based proposal without him. And finally, after passing the feasibility study, the land approval and the hirings, and the endless piles of charts, cash flows, and construction, the Colonel Sanders Corbin Airfield opened on March 27. The product has since then proved to have been a good idea, as it did end up producing revenue for the town. And that led to it almost doubling in since from 1971 to 1979, quickly growing from a relatively famous small town to a bustling mini-metropolis of sorts...
– John F. Ruggles, WMOR 1330 AM radio, 1/8/1981 program broadcast
PM Holt Feels Heat In Australia’s Own Ms. Arkansas Scandal
…Seven female interns of five prominent national politicians, all belonging to the Liberal alliance, under which Holt governs the nation, are seeking legal action for workplace pestering. An eighth woman, a parliamentary secretary has accused her boss of attempted rape… Holt’s office has still commented on this developing story
– Mary McCarthy, reporting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/28/1971
Since entering office in March 19, 1965, Romania’s head of State, General Secretary
Gheorghe Apostol had only continued his predecessor’s focus on left-leaning western nations such as France, and agitation toward the U.S.S.R.’s politburo. Under these conditions, Romania’s quality of life improved, while Apostol fell out of favor with even moderate Soviet leaders such as Kosygin.
Lying in wait for the chance to take Apostol’s job was Prime Minister
Ion Gheorghe Maurer, who found an apparent ally in the form of
Elena Ceausescu (cow-
shez-coo), whom was often referred to as simply “Elena.” After the murder of her husband, most likely under the orders of Apostol’s predecessor, in 1965, Elena charmed her way into the Communist party and immersed herself into how the organization ran. In July 1967, she was elected a member of the Central Commission on Socio-Economic Forecasting, and in July 1968 became a full member of the Romanian Communist Party Central Committee. After convincing Emil Bodnaras to nominate her, she was elected to the party’s Executive Committee in July 1969. In March 1970, she was elected to Romania’s national legislature, the Great National Assembly, holding the seat for Arges County, in Romania’s important industrial region. In January 1971, Elena rose from once being a mere secretary working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to being the Minister of Foreign Affairs, where she made up for her lack for qualifications for the job and sometimes-poor understanding of geopolitics by charming the leaders of other Warsaw Pact nations with lavish dinner parties and trips.
On March 29, 1971, Maurer orchestrated a coup d’état while Apostol was visiting Austria that resulted in Maurer declaring himself the new General Secretary and Apostol seeking political asylum in East Germany. With her close ally now in power, Elena was again promoted, this time to serving as Maurer’s second-in-command. The next several weeks saw debate over how Maurer should rule internally as he repaired relations with the Soviet Union. Such talks ceased on July 12, when Maurer was shot by a sniper during a visit to a factory near Brazov. The killer successfully fled the scene.
As his successor, Elena Ceausescu became the nation’s first female General Secretary. The pro-USSR Elena being in power was acceptable to Kosygin, who was mostly preoccupied trying to improve the Soviet economy. Furthermore, members of both the Soviet and Romanian political systems saw her as the Warsaw Pact’s answer to the
Ms. Arkansas Wave seemingly destabilizing western capitalist countries at the time. The logic was that the Warsaw Pact could avoid such destabilization by promoting feminism and the communist ideal of equality, and what better way then by the Soviets having a satellite nation that had a female head of state? Additionally, Elena was (at least initially) fairly popular. Her humble origins – born into peasantry in Wallachia in 1916 and failing to finish grade school – was relatable to many Romanians, whom Elena inspired by telling them that communism was “a means by which the working poor could have a larger,” or the only, “say in how the country was run.”
[11]
The truth, however, was that Elena was as cunning as she crude, devious, and vindictive behind closed doors. As she was not well-educated, she instead had blackmailed and bribed her way into several government positions. Wanting to present herself as someone whose intelligence could not be questioned, Elena had used Maurer’s connections to get a PhD in chemistry 1969 despite handing in assignments clearly written by other people.
As General Secretary, an intense personality cult formed around the alleged “Mother of the Nation.” Romanian Television was quickly given
strict orders to take great care portraying her on screen. For instance, she was never supposed to be shown in profile because of her large nose. [12]
The most consequential action Elena undertook, however, was the reversing of the liberalization/westernization efforts undertaken throughout the 1960s. Immediately after becoming General Secretary, Elena used the (suspicious) circumstances of her predecessor’s death to justify declaring marshal law and leading the Great National Assembly in passing several new rules that restricted travel and increased security. Under this veil of ensuring the nation’s safety, Elena sought to rule Romania with a totally totalitarian iron fist.
[pic:
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Above: Elena, surrounded by five bodyguards, during an official visit to Moscow, c. August 1971
– Vladimir Tismaneanu’s Stalinism For All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Third Edition, 2023
HOST: What we’re talking about today was the Colonel’s apparent confusion during a meeting with, um, Juan, uh, Grullon, the president of the Dominican Republic, where the President kept referring to Bosch as the President of “Dominica.” Even worse, he seemed to forget the names of other attendees, and walked off the wrong side of the podium stage toward the end of the evening. Now, the White House has so far not commented on the incident, but I have seen the reports and believe the President’s age is catching up to him.
CO-HOST: I disagree, fella. The President just seemed to be tired. If I had to lead the free world, I wouldn’t have that many long night, you know? And in the President’s defense, there is a country named Dominica.
HOST: But the fact remains that as President he has the responsibility to be aware which is which.
CO-HOST: – and to get at least eight hours of sleep, I’ll give you that one –
HOST: – but I for one fear that it this incident could be the signal something much worse than mere drowsiness. After all, the President is eighty years old; the odds of him developing the early stages of, say, losing some of his faculties, are pretty high now.
CO-HOST: Uh! Being groggy and old doesn’t mean you’re not all there!
–Transcript of exchange between the Host and Co-Host of WHCV-AM, news/talk radio, 4/7/1971 broadcast
17 April 1971: On this day in history, MP Jeremy Thorpe stepped down from leading the Liberal party over revelations concerning his relationship with one Norman Scott, in a scandal often considered to be one of the many that came about during the “Ark Wave” of 1970
– onthisday.co.uk
Murphy managed to kick his gambling addiction thanks to veteran rehabilitation and addiction-combating programs set up during the third term of California Governor Pat Brown, followed by Governor Ronald Reagan’s April 1971 outlawing of all slot machines in California (a favor to the Religious Right that elected him to office), which bothered Murphy, as he disliked having to travel out of state to gamble. These factors helped Murphy to instead focus on getting out of debt, staring by appearing in numerous TV shows and, to a lesser extent, films, which also increased his fame…
– clickopedia.co.usa/Audie_Murphy
On April 29 [1971] another N1 rocket launch ended in failure, the third failure in a row. He engineer Vladimir Chelomey called it a “trial and error,” but I did not believe that we could afford any more such failures. Already, Americans were exploring moon, and while many appreciated Kosygin’s increase in some safety procedure requirements, the men were still being run ragged. Many were even being sleep deprived, causing them to be clumsy on the job.
“We must keep to the schedule,” Chelomey and his superiors would often say.
“An axman who does not stop to sharpen his blade will never finish his chores first,” I once told him.
“What the hell does that mean?” was his reply.
Finally, I said, “Vladimir, if we really have to keep to this schedule, let’s at least bring in some more workers.”
“How many more?”
“Five percent, maybe.”
He thought it over, thinking about the possibility that alleviating the work of each person could make them go faster “2-and-a-half percent”
“Deal.”
In December [1971], I was ebullient to report to Kosygin that the rate of progress had increased. I told him I was certain we could send a man to the moon in just two years. The working for said manned mission program was “Chelovechestvo,” [“Humanity” in Russian], which I found to give a positive message even if it was a bit wordy.
– Among the Stars: The Autobiography of Yuri Gagarin, 1995
…Specifically, Father invited the Beatles in to the East Room, the main reception room and largest room in the White House. John Lennon’s wife Cynthia Powell joined Father, Maggie, Claudia and I, along with Linda McCartney, Maureen Starr, and Pattie Harrison.
During the informal shindig, John spent much of the talking politics with Father and sharing witty jokes and comebacks. George stuck out as the quietest of the four, not exactly an introvert but still the least talkative of the three. During the few moments when he did talk, it was cynical in nature. He sharply contrasted Ringo, the proverbial life of the party, who reportedly kept the group’s spirits high after the attempt on their lives. Maggie, a fan of the band, practically through herself at Paul.
The four seemed relieved to not have to talk about their music and instead just take a breather from the industry in which they worked. Toward the end of the evening, George summed up their occupation as “arduous and sometimes unrewarding.” Ringo added, “We all spend countless hours perfecting our songs, but nobody ever cares about that side of the scene, you know?” Father retorted with the notion, “Friends, family, laughter, love – those are the things that really make life rich and worth living. It’s the same stuff that is supposed to make the hard work you do in life worth doing. I work for the love of my friends, family, and country. When you work, you should work for those kind of things – that’ll make all the hard work worth it.”
– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr.’s In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991
An example of unsung heroism featuring the women being trained began in April 1971, when astronaut Scott Carpenter (b. 1925) was injured in a fire during a testing of Apollo 17’s exhaust system. Carpenter was ultimately cleared for service and landed on moon with Roger Chaffee and Alan Bean in mid-May 1971, but in 1987, Carpenter revealed what was once well-known within the walls of NASA – that trainee Janet Dietrich’s quick thinking during the fire saved his life. Her bravery and action impressed NASA’s higher-ups...
– Time Magazine, 1991 commemorative issue
LT GOV. FLETCHER’S OFFICE BOMBED, 1 KILLED
Olympia, WA – A small explosion shook both the state capitol and its political world earlier today. A bomb detonated in the office of Lieutenant Governor Arthur Fletcher, killing Fletcher’s bodyguard and chauffer, a one Theodore Robert Bundy. Fletcher, who is an African-American Republican, was the likely intended target, according to police officials. Racist individuals and groups have been sending Fletcher death threats ever since his 1968 campaign and subsequent victory in a year favoring Republicans. None of those threats, however, were this severe. The bomb detonated at a time when Bundy was retrieving papers for Fletcher to review at the Lieutenant Governor’s home. Nobody else was injured or killed in the bombing.
– The Olympian, Washington State newspaper, 4/14/1971
…In the case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed, the US Supreme Court has ruled 6-to-3 that busing students to promote integration is constitutional but cannot be enforced onto parents who refuse to partake in it. Chief Justice Johnson led the majority with Associate Justices Sarah T. Hughes, William O. Douglas, William Brennan, Hugo Black, and Tom C. Clark, while John M. Harlan led the dissident with Edward H. Levi and Potter Stewart...
– NBC News, 4/20/1971
UNNAMED ENOCH POWELL STAFFERS ACCUSED OF WORKPLACE IMPROPRIETY
– The Guardian, 29/4/1971
“TOMMYOKO” ADOPT A SECOND CHILD
…“artistic power couple” Tommy Chong and Yoko Ono has adopted an infant girl from the war-torn Kingdom of Laos…
– The Hollywood Reporter, side article, 5/1/1971
[pic:
imgur.com/tfaHH8c.png ]
– US President Harland “Colonel” Sanders walking on the south lawn of the White House, approaching a podium to announce the end of active US military activities in Cambodia, 5/2/1971; the subsequent gradual withdrawal of American troop would last six months
WITH "THE TROUBLES" DYING DOWN, KFC FINALLY COMES TO NORTHERN IRELAND!
…the three restaurants are located in Belfast, Bangor and Newcastle, and are expected to help the local economy… KFC opened others restaurants earlier this year in the Republic of Ireland: one at coastal Dundalk, near the border dividing the Emerald Isle, and the other in the city of Waterford…
– The Boston Globe, 5/2/1971
In February 1971, Senator Gravel sent a letter to the US Atomic Energy Commission hearings held in Anchorage. In it, Gravel proclaimed their planned testing of nuclear material to be not worth the risk of potential consequences to the environment in the earthquake prone region of Amchitka Island, which was being prepped for said tests (which were scheduled for May). The commission replied that such testing had already been scaled back significantly since 1969, but Gravel was joined in the call for the cancellation of the test by Senators Ernest Gruening (D-AK), Wayne Morse (D-OR), and Ted Sorensen (D-NE), and Representatives John E. Moss (D-CA3) and Trudy Cooper (D-SD2). Believing that “The Colonel needs to go even farther if he truly wants there to be no nuclear wars,” Gravel personally met with the Colonel, but, according to some historians, Gravel failed to explain when and where the test
should occur, if not on the remote Amchitka Island.
Gravel next took the case to the US Supreme Court, which declined to issue an injunction against the testing; the test occurred three months later, as planned. Later in the year, however, Gravel sponsored a bill to impose a moratorium on all nuclear power plant construction and to make power utilities liable for any nuclear accidents. The bill came at a time when many American people and politicians considered nuclear energy to be a cleaner energy source and a better use of nuclear/atomic energy. Gravel’s activism eventually culminated in the December 1971 Atomic Liability Act, stipulating nuclear power companies would be held responsible for fatal nuclear accidents, but the act included no moratoriums. Nevertheless, Gravel proudly touted the bill as a success.
– clickopedia.co.usa/Mike_Gravel
Colonel Parker sought to capitalize off the success of Elvis’ tour of Europe, for which Parker opted to stay in the states and monitor the situation through constant phone calls to Vernon and Priscilla… Inspired by President Sanders’s historic visit to China in 1968
[13], Parker began preparing for a “worldwide celebration of Elvis.” Finally the day came on May 8, 1971; the long-awaited “Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite” live Elvis performance broadcast was an even bigger success than the Elvis in Europe tour…
– Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis and the Two Colonels: Day by Day, Ballantine Books, 1999
OPINION: WALLACE STILL APPEASING BLACKS AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL BID
…Governor Wallace’s most recent attempt to alter our state, this new “Equal Tenant Treatment” law, is an attack on landlords and homeowners who wish to not lower their property values…
– Birmingham News, opinion piece, 5/11/1971
…earlier today, President Sanders gave a speech calling for businesses and congress to support employee mandates that offer better private health insurance to more employees. The President also called for more funding for programs to help single mothers with minor children such as day care funding, pointing to the long-term success of federal school programs passed in his first term…
– The Overmyer Network Evening News, 5/12/1971
…And in tonight’s Republican primary for Governor, good ol’ Robison won over former nominee Louis Nunn. Robison was strongly endorsed by President Colonel Sanders, but the fact that Nunn won roughly 35% of the primary vote makes this reporter think that support for the Colonel is dropping – that the Colonel’s endorsement is no longer strong enough to bury political opponents, uh, metaphorically-speaking…
– WSFC (1240 AM), 5/25/1971 broadcast
…So, for y’all that may not have already heard, former governor Happy Chandler has won Democratic primary for Governor. Here’s a breakdown of what happened. First off, Happy face divided opposition. He was running against another former Governor, uh, Bert Combs, state Senator Wendell Ford, and several others who all together won about 4 or 5 percent of the total vote tonight. Second, Chandler has finally embraced the campaign features of the modern era, getting himself on TV and so on. Thirdly, while the other fellas in the run were eloquent and longwinded, Chandler was the only one who seemed to actually answer any of the questions asked on the campaign trail. He’s certainly learned from his previous unsuccessful bids. We’ll now just have to wait and see if he can beat incumbent Governor Robsion in, uh, November…
– WVLK (AM), 5/25/1971 broadcast
U.S. SENATE PANEL CONSIDERS EXPANDING, REFORMING PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY VOTING SYSTEM
– The New Hampshire Gazette, 5/12/1971
30 March 1971: House of Commons member Lord Lambton is accused of attempting to recruit two underage women he apparently mistook for call girls
26 April 1971: an aide to Powell’s Home Secretary resigns over allegations of sexual pestering.
13 May 1971: Lord Lambton resigns from government after his arrest for soliciting minors; he is ultimately acquitted.
14 May 1971: the Earl Jellicoe of the House of Lords admits to having had “some casual affairs” with call girls in the wake of an accidental confusion with Lord Lambton’s prostitution scandal. The name Jellicoe emerged as a result of a connection between Lambton and Lambton visiting a Somers Town tenement house called Jellicoe Hall, named after the Earl Jellicoe’s distant cousin Basil Jellicoe (1899-1935). Nevertheless, the admission led to him resigning from his position in the government.
8 July 1971: an aide to the Mayor of London is arrested for attempted rape of a female co-worker; he is ultimately acquitted.
– clickopedia.co.uk/The_Mrs._Arkansas_Wave/UK_ripples
SENATOR TOM DODD IS DEAD AT 64
– The Connecticut Post, 5/24/1971
Governors Wallace, Castro, And Sawyer Join Democratic Senators Calling For Expansion Of Party Presidential Primaries
– The Sacramento Union, 5/27/1971
HOLT BEATS WHITLAM IN PM ELECTION, BUT LIBERAL-ALLIANCE MAJORITY GREATLY DIMINISHED
– The Sydney Morning Herald, 28/5/1971
I had big shoes to fill after the [1963] death my father and the founder of Wal-Mart. I was young and not too experienced and almost ran this company into the ground. By May 1971, when I was 26, it felt like the banks were closing in on me. I was ready to throw in the towel. But with the help of family, friends, the good people of Arkansas, and the Colonel Sanders deregulation and tax incentive policies, we managed to expand Wal-Mart from a small chain of discount stores in Arkansas into an impressive franchise – stores were founded in, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma by 1972, and we expanded into eastern Texas and Missouri by 1973. And now look at us, our store, Father’s dream – an enterprise of over 2,100 stores strewn across 34 states. And our net total revenue this year, fellow Wal-Marters? (pause) $1.2 billion – our best year in nearly a decade! I couldn’t be prouder of all of you!”
– S. Robson “Rob” Walton (net worth: $2billion) at a private business-dinner function, 2/5/2013
GOP GOVERNOR VENTRES APPOINTS WOMAN MAYOR, ANTONINA P. UCCELLO, TO VACANT U.S. SENATE SEAT
– The Connecticut Post, 6/1/1971
[pic:
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– Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA) eating KFC at a political function, 6/3/1971
On June 4, 1971, the vote composition ended up being 6-to-3: Chief Justice Frank Minis Johnson, John M. Harlan, and Potter Stewart sided with Kuhn, while Edward H. Levi, Sarah T. Hughes, Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, and William Brennan sided with Curt Flood. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, baseball qualified as an interstate commerce, and the reserve clause violated the act. And with the dismantling of barring players from negotiating signing onto other terms for the first year after leaving a team, the court case effectively opened the door for Free Agency in major league baseball.
– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994
“I’d also like to take this moment to thank Senator Mondale for supporting this bill. Fritz has been in my corner since my mayoral run in 1947. He’s co-sponsored Medicare with me, and actively supported the Civil Rights Act with me. It’s nice to know that I can trust the Senator that I always sit next to in the chamber.”
– Hubert Humphrey at Democratic Party fundraiser in D.C., 6/5/1971
[pic:
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– US Senators Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey, prior to either one publicly announcing their Presidential aspirations, c. May 1971
…Governor Phil Hoff (D-VT) signs into law today the Free Health Care Act, establishing a “universal healthcare system” for the state of Vermont… The legislation is reportedly based on and inspired by the legislation passed in Canada in August 1969 during their previous Paul Hellyer government…
– The Boston Globe, 6/7/1971
Détente’s continuation into 1971 is evident by the signing of the Strategic Planetary International Care Elucidation (S.P.I.C.E.) Treaty in June of that year. Meant to clarify the parts of the 1968 Strategic Universal Geopolitical Arms Reduction (S.U.G.A.R.) Treaty concerning the disposing of hazardous nuclear material in regards to transportation over international borders, the treaty was minor in scope. However, because the meeting in Geneva between Sanders and Kosygin developed an almost friendly atmosphere, with the two leaders smiling and telling jokes after the official ceremony, gave to many high hopes for the future.
– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017
SENATOR MONDALE ANNOUNCES PRESIDENTIAL BID IN EARLY MOVE
– Minneapolis Star, 6/15/1971
Mondale: A Better Direction For the 1970s
– Mondale ’72 Slogan
COURTS STRIKE DOWN QUEBEC’S LANGUAGE BILL
Quebec’s Bill 203
[14], which would have made French the only official language in the province of Quebec, was struck down by the Canadian judicial system today on the grounds that English-speaking Natives would be at a disadvantage. …A major concern was that English-speaking motorists driving through the province could be endangered by French-only road signs. …A possible resolution may be to make English the province’s official “secondary language,” which would require it to be used on all road signs and public information signs, but would not make it a require it to teach it in schools in Quebec...
– The Kimberley Daily Bulletin, Canadian newspaper, 6/18/1971
As was the case in 1967, Humphrey decides against an active campaign for President. This time, however, it was over concerns for his wife, the introverted Muriel. In June of 1971, Humphrey spoke with freshman Senator John Glenn, whose wife Anne suffered at the time from a speech impediment. Glenn reportedly told the former Vice President “publicity is doing a number on her, and she’s a brave trooper.” Humphrey mulled back, “yes, and we just had a Senate race. But a Presidential race… More cameras, more prying eyes than anyone would, could, or should ever want.” Glenn would later write, “Politics can, have and will break up families. From what I have seen, I can say one definitive thing – when running for public office, your family has to be all-in on it. Not reluctantly, but willingly.
All in.” Humphrey heeded Glenn’s advice, and determined that his positioning for the nomination was even more secure than it was four years ago, when Johnson’s Folley (i.e., Cuba) still lingered in the air and Kennedy managed to secure a large portion of the opposing vote. But in 1971, anti-Humphrey opposition seemed fractured. Humphrey ergo treated the race as a stroll instead of a marathon.
– Carl Solberg’s H.H.H.: A Biography, Borealis Books, 1984 (2001 edition)
FIRST WOMEN ASTRONAUTS SELECTED!
Hundreds have women have traveled to training centers in Texas and Florida with the hopes of enduring a rigorous months-long training process. While over two dozen women have been hired for their ground testing programs, NASA hired the best five of the women for special training to actually go into space:
Jerrie Cobb: the unofficial leader of the “Lunar Ladies” movement, Cobb is now closer to achieving her goal of going to space than ever before.
Janet & Marion Dietrich: with these 44-year-old identical twin sisters, NASA may be able to study how spending time in space physically affects the human body.
Jane Briggs Hart: at 49, Hart is the oldest woman to be selected by the program. Her marriage to a now-former Senator was the source of much contention over her presence in the training program, and received flak from both media outlets and her fellow would-be “woman-nauts” for supposed political influence.
Irene H. Leverton: this 43-year-old aspiring moonwalker is a pilot and flight instructor who partook in the original 1961 trainings.
Emily H. Warner: at 32, this longtime-flying Coloradan is the youngest of the women hired to go into space.
– The Miami Herald, 6/22/1971
While I never experienced it, I do remember how many of the women who quit later claimed they dropped out because of the men at NASA created a hostile environment. Some even claimed some of the guys violating their privacy at whatnot. While I do remember one trainee who dropped out finding her locker broken into and filled with dildos, I think that really says more about the guys than us. I mean, where did the guys even get them? But like I said, I never experienced anything that wasn’t professional or friendly kidding around. We were there to get a job done, not to goof off and then some. Or, possibly, maybe the male astronauts were just too nervous to hit on us, what with the Ms. Arkansas Wave still going strong at the time and the heads NASA heavily monitoring our interactions with the guys, and visa-versa.
– Emily Warner, 2019 interview
SCRANTON TOASTS MITTERAND DURING PARIS VISIT
– The Washington Post, 6/27/1971
As the year progressed, Vice President Scranton’s increasing visibility in the administration led to whispers suggesting that the Man from PA was the one truly in charge, and not the octogenarian-in-chief. In reality, the Colonel had taken a liking to his younger understudy, and wanted to help him “become a household name” ahead of the 1972 Presidential election, according to Harley Sanders.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
The drink was a family devil that not even Ted could defeat. We thought it wasn’t too serious until the incident. On July 7, 1971, Ted drove his Bentley off part of the highway to Reno and slide down a hillside until its rocky surface turned the car to the driver’s side before tipping it onto its top before the car stopped at the hill’s bottom. Ted received a broken arm and nobody else was injured, but Ted was arrest for driving drunk. Knowing the future of his newspaper – and more importantly, the future of our marriage – was at stake, Ted did the right thing, which coincidently was exactly what I told him to do. Ted held a press briefing on the 28th, wherein he admitted, “I am not proud of the fact that I am an alcoholic, but rest assured that I will be taking a leave of absence from the
Union to begin counseling.” Years later, Ted would claim that the incident opened his eyes to the dangers of the drink, and the experience made him a stronger person. The experience also was what sparked his famous passion for healthcare and Alcoholics Anonymous...
– Joan Bennett Kennedy’s There Are Always Two Tomorrows: My Life in an American Dynasty, Centurion Publishers, 1999
POWELL FLIPS, FIRES “ARKIED” STAFFERS
…The decision is a reversal of his initial refusal to “abandon to the wolves” the staffers in question. …Sources state Powell had grown concerned in recent days over increasingly poor approval polling, and aides have been “repeatedly” reminding him of the political ramifications of the Ms. Arkansas Wave in the United States midterms of November 1970. “Powell has the next general election to think about, and maintaining the confidence of his own party, which has been waning as of late, is pivotal if he wants to stay in power.”
– The Guardian, 7/7/1971
MONDALE IS AN OPPORTUNIST: After Twelve Uneventful Years in the US Senate, Minnesotans Should Not Support His The Presidential Bid.
– Rep. Al Quie (R-MN), The Star Tribune, 7/9/1971 op-ed
Mondale is a friend and ally of unions. Never forget it was the unions that got child labor outlawed, brought us the 8-hour workday, worked in favor of healthcare plans such as maternity leave and sick leave, got us weekends and vacation time, and promote social security and Medicare and Medicaid. And Fritz Mondale supports all of those things, and consistently has ever since I appointed him to the Senate in 1961.
– Former Governor Orville Freeman, 7/10/1971 radio interview
In July 1971, under the advice of then-Congressman Ben Reifel, President Sanders recommended self-determination for Indian tribes to be a goal for the federal government to achieve before the end of his term. A year later, Sanders signed into law the 1972 Indian Self-Determination and Development Assistance Act, which allowed for federal government agencies to enter into contracts with federally recognized tribes – contracts which would assure tribes would have more control over funds used for their needs.
– Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life, University of California Press, 1997
STRONG FISCAL QUARTER BOOSTS D.O.W. AS ECONOMY STILL GROWING STRONG
– The Wall Street Journal, 7/16/1971
Burger Chef was founded in 1957, three years after brothers Frank Thomas Jr. and Donald Thomas, operators of the General Equipment Corporation of Indianapolis, Indiana, patented a flame broiler and soon opened a restaurant in Indianapolis.
The Thomas brothers knew McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc back when they sold competing soft ice-cream machines in the early 1950s. The Thomas brothers, with their brother-in-law Robert Wildman, decided to enter the burger business after manufacturing a hamburger broiler for Burger King co-founder David Edgerton. Deciding to mimic McDonald’s company system but needing a unique angle for development, Burger Chef followed a strategy of opening franchises in small towns; by the time General Foods acquired Burger Chef in 1968, the restaurant had over 800 locations. Under new management, Burger Chef locations quickly spread out to over 1,000 nationwide by 1971, making it a burger giant on par with McDonald’s, and surpassing the availability of Burger King and KFC’s Wendyburger Menu.
At the start of the 1970s, however, the burger market began becoming saturated, and Burger Chef’s expansion strategy was beginning to fail as underperforming sales, especially ones in franchises in poor locations, caused the company’s yearly earnings to actually drop for 1970. General Foods went back to basics and sought out better locations. They also slowed growth to focus on quality and customer satisfaction.
This led to the 1971 introduction of “the Works Bar,” where customers added their own toppings from a wide variety of choices; the move set Burger Chef apart from the rest; following this was their 1973 “FunMeal” toy line for children, which was “the inspiration” behind McDonald’s “McHappy Meal” toy line of the 1980s.
Rival company’s responded to Burger Chef’s rise in different ways. The KFC Company, under the leadership of CEO Mildred Sanders, believed in Dave Thomas’s Wendyburger, and did not address the competition directly. McDonald’s CEO June Martino, however, decided to not take any chances, and began a second “burger war” to trounce the company’s latest competition. “Whenever a Burger Chef opened in a small town, McDonald’s was quick to open one of their own restaurants somewhere nearby, whether it was in the city next door, or right down the block,” states Martino’s former secretary...
[pic:
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Above: Burger Chef’s logo in the early 1970s
– R. J. Anderson’s Burger Chef: A History, Arcadia Publishing, republished 2019
...In political news, the state of Mississippi is reeling from an ethics scandal. The Jackson grand jury has indicted, or formally charged, the Chief of Staff of the state’s Governor, Republican Rubel Phillips, for accepting bribes in exchange for supporting state contracts in his role as an advisor to Phillips...
– NBC News, 7/26/1971 broadcast
ANCHOR: Earlier today, senior rights advocate Maggie Kuhn sat down with President Sanders at the White House.
KUHN (in footage): “
Old people and women constitute America’s biggest untapped and undervalued human energy source.”
[15]
ANCHOR: Kuhn is an active promoter of “elder rights” activities such as nursing home reform, mental health studies, and anti-ageism organizations. Last year, upon being forced to retire from her job for the Presbyterian Church at the age of 65, Kuhn founded the Gray Americans Organization to promote the aforementioned causes, as well as to promote peace and truth-in-advertising legislation. [snip] …The G.A.O. has found support among young women, with Kuhn stating, quote, “adolescents should be taken seriously and given more responsibilities by society. With their wit and energy, they too are a valuable human resource to squander.” Kuhn has also claimed that retirement homes are “glorified playpens” that isolate elderly people from the rest of society, quote, “shunning them for living for so long.” At her meeting with the President, the two reportedly discussed how to address concerns of age-based prejudice in the American workplace and workforce…
– ABC News, 7/29/1971 broadcast
COLONEL SANDERS DONATES QUARTERLY SALARY TO TWO VETERANS ORGANIZATIONS
…the Marine Corps League a Congressionally-chartered organization, while the Retired Enlisted Association is a non-profit organization working to better the quality of life for enlisted soldiers and their families...
– Stars And Stripes, 7/30/1971
PRIMARY REFORM DEVELOPMENT: More State Governors Agree At NGA Meeting To Host Presidential Primaries Next Year
– The Washington Post, 8/1/1971
MONROE AND FONDA SET CO-STAR IN CONTROVERSIAL NEW FILM
…While currently unclear of how audiences will respond to it, critics are already deriding the currently-untitled film’s premise. The studio’s press release describes the synopsis as follows: “When abused housewife Francesca (Marilyn Monroe) finds $7,000 dollars in a suitcase, she decides to seek out a better life – one without depending on her abusive husband Joe (Robert Wagner) for financial support – by using the money to secretly take night courses. Soon Francesca befriends a librarian named Lyra (Jane Fonda) who, after years of being sexual pestered by him, seeks to murder her boss (Peter Sellers). All while a mysterious duo track down the lost suitcase.” The script was written late last year…
– The Hollywood Reporter, 8/3/1971
“Well, it was an average day in Constantinople. It was peaceful – people were concerned over making a living than stirring up trouble. See, we usually got along with neighbors of different religions due to co-dependency – people other faiths contributed to the community through their trade or their skills or their wares, and so were cherished and loved. There was no need to fight until others convinced others to think otherwise. Idle hands are the devil’s playground, and apparently, the Bulgarians had very idle hands. I remember hearing the clamor, people running past my store window, and sirens going off. A went out and saw smoke rising. One of the Christian houses of worship – one of the important ones – was burning. You don’t need to be Christian to feel bad, to feel sorry for such a horrible sight as a House of God on fire. God doesn’t do harm to good people – but bad people do. A fortunately, for the sake of everyone, the bad people responsible were caught almost immediately!”
– Witness in 2001 interview for documentary of Greco-Turkish relations
ARSONISTS DAMAGE ICONIC GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH!
[16]
– The Guardian, UK newspaper, 5/8/1971
EXTRA!: GREEK POLICE CLAIM CHURCH ARSONISTS ARE BULGARIAN SPIES!
– The New York Post, 8/6/1971
“Alright, what on earth’s going on in Turkey
this time?”
– President Harland “Colonel” Sanders to his foreign policy personnel, 8/5/1971 (multiple sources)
At the start of the 1970s decade, the Seventh Department of the First Main Directorate of the Bulgarian DS, or “State Security” (essentially, Bulgaria’s K.G.B.) developed “Operation Cross,” a plan to start a confrontation between the nations of Greece and Turkey, which the developers believed would compel the United States into “choosing a side.” The confrontation would arise from the destruction-by-fire of The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Turkey, which is a highly valued part of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches. The goal of the operation was to, eventually, pull the side “abandoned” by the U.S. into the Warsaw Pact via stoking anti-western sentiment, or, at the very least, destabilize N.A.T.O.’s east Mediterranean front. The Deputy Head of the Directorate, believing their destabilizing of the region would impress the Soviet Union, approved the plan in early 1970.
The “Bulgarian Plot,” as the operation was later called outside of Bulgaria, called for three Bulgarian agents (two being secret Turkish collaborators recruited by January 31) to study the location in question by November 30, 1970; determine places that would be best for the placement of incendiary devices by March 15; and the sending of two more agents, both professional arsonists, to the location by April 30.
[17]
– clickopedia.co.usa/The_Bulgaria_Plot
Operation Cross was finalized in May, ahead of schedule. However, while Bulgaria’s defense personnel, led by Defense Minister Dobri Dzhurov, approved of the plan, the nation’s leader, Bulgaria’s leader, Todor Zhivkov, was generally cautious and was unwilling to risk squandering the past decade of warming Greek-Bulgaria relations (much to the irritation of the USSR) for such a risky and blood-spilling ploy. According to the testimony of their former aides, Dzhurov and Zhivkov argued over the plan for weeks, with Dzhurov accusing Zhivkov of being either “a puppet of the Soviets” or “a spineless puppet of the Soviets” at some point in July. Furthermore, while Yuri Andropov of the Soviet Union’s KGB supported the plan, Soviet Premier Kosygin did not. In early August 1971, the Seventh Department of the First Main Directorate executed the plan, though on whose orders remains uncertain. Analysts are certain Bulgaria’s Zhivkov would not have executed the plan without Soviet approval first.
Thus, the question the Colonel, the US Defense department, the CIA, and the Greek and Turkish governments wished to answer was who had given the order.
“It’s luck that they were caught red-handed,” the Colonel noted.
“Actually, sir, it’s incredibly unfortunate,” Bonesteel explained. The Secretary of Defense and his aides explained how the intelligence and security apparatuses of both Greece and Turkey had greatly improved since the 1969 Turkish Missile Crisis. Both Turkish and Greek agents picked up on Bulgarian agent activity in the area, and noted how similar their actions were to the instigators of a bombing of a museum in Thessaloniki, during a hostile period between Turkey and Greece reached a peak in September 1955. The fact that the Greek and Turkish agents failed to stop the Bulgarian agents before they could set fire to the church was a failure in the eyes of Greek and Turkish officials.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
DIED: ATHENAGORAS I, 85, ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH
The spiritual leader of 125 million Eastern Christians, died in Istanbul while hospitalized for a broken hip sustained in a fall last Thursday, when an arson attack on the city’s religiously important Ecumenical Patriarchate created chaotic panic and disarray in the city. The Greek-born, white-bearded, 6-foot 4-inch prelate became Ecumenical Patriarch in 1948 after seventeen years in New York as Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America.
– Newsweek, 8/8/1971
With the ecumenical see empty, the church looked for a successor, and found one in Makarios III. Having served simultaneously as the Archbishop of Cyprus and Primate of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus since 1950 and as the President of Cyprus since 1960, Makarios was a controversial figure amidst the move the absorb Cyprus into the nation of Greece. Greeks in Greece and Cyprus approved of the choice as a means of allowing Makarios to relinquish the Presidency for a “promotion,” while Turks in Turkey and Cyprus approved of removing a man seen as a nuisance whom was difficult to work with.
Ironically, the burning of the church actually eased tensions between Greece and Turkey by removing a controversial figure from the equation and giving the two nations a shared enemy – animosity toward Bulgaria lingered on in both nations for decades. The “Bulgaria Plot” had backfired by strengthening the region.
On August 12, Alexei Kosygin, having already disavowed all knowledge of the Bulgaria Plot, accused Bulgaria of “acting alone” in a phone call to President Sanders.
“I want to believe him,” said the Colonel, “because we’ve gotten along well before. But he’s the leader of the enemy, and he’s got to back up his words with some evidence.” The CIA concurred.
On August 15, agents working for Kosygin discovered flight logs showing that KGB head Yuri Andropov had flown to Bulgaria on July 28. Rather than firing Andropov for “going over his head,” Kosygin instead “tightened Andropov’s leash.” On August 17, Kosygin ordered Zhivkov to fire Dzhurov for insubordination; Zhivkov but as he was told. Dzhurov, failing to gather enough support to lead a planned coup in early 1973, moved to East Germany in the summer of 1972 “for health concerns.”
The whole situation left a feeling of awkwardness between Sanders and Kosygin that would last for months.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE GIVES WALLACE HONORARY DEGREE
…the governor is following through on his 1970 pledge to double the number of black voter registrars in Alabama’s 67 counties: a report last month shows an increase of 67%.
– The Birmingham News, 8/15/1971
COLONEL SANDERS BACKS PEPPER IDEA: Florida Rep.’s Push For Senior Rights Act Gaining Strength
…Claude Pepper, head of the newly-created House Select Committee on Aging, is making his way around Capitol Hill, gathering support for a proposed “Senior Rights Act,” also referred to as an “Elderly Rights Act,” which would outlaw ageist discrimination policies in all 50 states. Pepper is also getting his fellow lawmakers on the committee to head investigations and hearings into activist Maggie Kuhn’s claims of abuse occurring in retirement homes nationwide…
– The Miami Herald, 8/30/1971
Geopolitical trends
Tensions between the Cold War era’s superpowers were “cool” at the start of the decade, as the proxy confrontations of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to a period of détente, arguably led by USSR leader Alex Kosygin, who sought to stabilize his country’s internal political chaos following the Shelepin and Inauri periods. The US’s President Sanders cooled tensions with China to impede their support of communist organizations in southern Asia and to prevent war from breaking out on the Korean peninsula, significantly altering Cold War dynamics and opening Red China to the west.
Music
Musicians that either dominated, or rose to fame in, the 1960s, such as Bob Dylan and Tommy Chong, faded in popularity as newcomers such as Ambient Rock morphed into Razor Rock, its vanguards being groups such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and other performers that adhered to a younger coming-of-age audience of listeners. Women’s bands/singers such as Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt rose to prominence in the 1970s as well. These female performers reflected in their music the increasingly flexible and expanding variety of gender roles for women in the workforce of western countries, though an overwhelming majority of men remained the sole or primary breadwinners of households worldwide.
Film
The 1968 opening of the US and China’s economies to each other led to the introduction of Bruce Lee to American and western audiences.
[snip]
Television
…The UK’s Dixon of Dock Green had a “bold” episode concerning rape that was controversial, but was nevertheless an early highlight of British television’s move to “realism” in its programming, as also seen in Doctor Who, Z-Cars, and Z-Cars’ spinoff series (“Softly, Softly”)
[18]. …Many members of baby boomer generation came of age during the 1970s, and they demanded “barrier-free” programs. Expanding beyond the typical sitcom tropes and styles of the 1960s, '70s saw an increase in program diversity. These changing demands were the result of the “Ms. Arkansas Wave,” popularized by the British as “The Ark Wave,” “The Ms. Arkie Wave” or “The Arkie Wave.” Programs such as All My Children and All in the Family addressed “the boon of the Women’s Liberation movement” while still focusing more on the lives of housewives. The Carol Burnett Show adapted to the changing times too. Concurrently, the big four (NBC, CBS, ABC, and TON) produced numerous shows for the purpose of capitalizing off the Ark Wave, such as Police Women, Wonder Woman, Maude, and spinoffs such as The Bionic Woman. The Overmyer Network was quick to set themselves apart from the older three major networks with more programs appeasing to younger and more progressive audiences.
At the same time, the subject of war began to be presented in movies and television in less glamorous ways, with shows such as M*A*S*H covering not only the physical destruction brought about by warfare, but the psychological damage it created as well...
…Audiences were treated to a growing range of shows starring African-American actors can could be enjoyed by all races; the decade’s first major hit of such kind was Redd Foxx’s Sanford and Son, but more programs arose as the decade progressed…
– clickopedia.co.usa/1970s/popular_culture
[pic:
imgur.com/8l6xTx8.png ]
– A painting of Colonel Sanders, c. 1971; The Colonel was a prominent figure in pop culture during and long after his Presidency, both in the US and abroad
NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] All italicized portions are pulled from this informative article:
www.bittersoutherner.com/ollies-trolley-worlds-greatest-hamburger
[2] Source:
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v66n1/v66r…
[3] Statistic found here:
www.nymag.com/news/features/crime/2008/42603/index5.html, which also states that IOTL, the number of murders in NY actually rose, from 746 in 1967 to 1,117 in 1970.
[4] Idea for the dam to fail courtesy of
@Unknown. Here, the war in Cuba going on led to less time, energy, resources, and attention being allocated to the dam’s needs, leading to the dam’s water level not being lowered enough to prevent disaster like it did IOTL. As for the death toll, I looked at the records of other collapsed dams on Wikipedia for comparison, and considered the people evacuating ahead of the aftershock. If 1,100 seems too low, please say so.
[5] Found here:
https://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/: (page 10): the car accident in November 1926 occurred when the Sanders’ were living in Camp Nelson, KY, and Sanders was working for the Michelin Tire Company; he owned two cars, a fancy Maxwell car and an old Model T Ford.
[6] Edited version of a quote found here:
https://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/: (page 12): “Josephine helped her husband put a large loose flap of scalp back where it belonged, doused the wounds in turpentine, and bandaged him up.”
[7] According to the reviews on her 1980 biography found here:
https://www.amazon.com/Claudia-story-Colonel-Harland-Sanders/dp/0891441026, Claudia’s personality was “mundane,” and she cared very much about the “styles of European and Asian” living.
[8] Based on this chart:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Number_in_Poverty_and_Poverty_Rate%2C_1959_to_2017.png (however, the Cuba War caused the rate to be lower than IOTL until 1963, when the Salad Oil Recession propelled it to higher than IOTL)
[9] See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Puerto_Rico#Population_at_large
[10] This entry is based on @Jackson_Lennock’s interesting thread/thought found here:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/would-a-60s-cuban-war-result-in-puerto-rican-statehood.471661/#post-19221193
[11] Quote is from here:
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/21/elena-ceausescu/
[12] Italicized segment pulled from her Wikipedia article.
[13] The OTL Hawaii broadcast was “inspired by [the 1972] visit made by U.S. President
Richard Nixon to China,” according to this source:
Guralnick, Peter; Jorgensen, Ernst (1999). Elvis: Day by Day.
Ballantine Books.
ISBN978-0-345-42089-3.
[14] Basically an early version of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language brought about due to the alternate Quebec controversies of TTL’s 1960s under the Hellyer and extended Diefenbacker premierships.
[15] OTL quote.
[16] Idea taken from here:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-greek-turkish-war-in-1971.468559/
[17] Specifics covered here:
www.archeologyinbulgaria.com/2018/02/28/communist-bulgarias-intelligence-plotted-gree…
[18] Before anyone asks, I know absolutely nothing about Doctor Who (apart from the fact that the franchise is too large for me to become invested in it at this point in my life), so please forgive me for the lack of any details here.
Also, here: I made a poll for the 1972 Democratic primaries!: https://www.strawpoll.me/18421942
And here’s a breakdown of the candidates, both declared and undeclared, found on the poll:
Governor Mario Biaggi of New York (b. 1917, age 55) – proudly declaring himself the quintessential law-and-order candidate; Biaggi was the race’s early frontrunner, but now is facing criticism for his handling of the Attica prison riot-turned-massacre; still, the moderate is confident that he can bring together enough white-ethnic and suburban voters to form a “New Deal-like” coalition that can win him the nomination.
Former Governor Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown of California (b. 1905, age 67) – after presiding over 12 years of economic growth, Brown is running on his moderate-to-liberal record (despite the controversies sprinkled throughout it) as governor of The Golden State and on his ability to be a unifying candidate in past elections.
Former Governor Robert Patrick “Bob” Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania (b. 1932, age 40) – the moderate “boy governor” has blue-collar appeal and could win over the youth vote, but some are concerned that his Catholic faith will doom him in the general election, as some have suggested that this was a contributing factor to the defeat the Democratic party’s last Catholic nominee, Jack Kennedy, who was nominated just four years ago.
Representative Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm of New York (b. 1924, age 48) – this African-American woman is mounting a serious campaign focused on bringing together a coalition of working-class voters from all ethnic groups; a progressive supporter of civil rights and women’s rights, her candidacy will at the very least provide a fresh perspective for multiple issues, or at the very most make for a historic and unprecedented campaign.
Retired Admiral John Geraerdt Crommelin Jr. of Alabama (b. 1902, age 70) – having spent 30 years in the US Navy, this perennial candidate brings military experience to the table and wants to greatly expand the US’s military capabilities and have the US take a firmer stand against Communism on the world stage; however, as a staunch defender of racial segregation and white supremacist talking points, who has run for public office several times since 1950 as a Democratic, Independent, or third-party candidate, he will have trouble winning over voters in a party that is quickly evolving away from such political positions; as if to emphasize how out-of-step he is with the national Democratic party, he has refused to debate Chisholm face-to-face.
Senator Maurice Robert “Mike” Gravel of Alaska (b. 1930, age 42) – calling for expanding social programs and environmental protection, Alaska’s energetic young lawmaker and political maverick is focusing more on domestic issues and foreign policy matters during what is his second run for the Presidency; he passionately supports expanding America’s healthcare system, denuclearization, environmental protection, grassroots political involvement, and détente.
Governor Philip Henderson “Phil” Hoff of Vermont (b. 1924, age 48) – a progressive and pragmatic pioneer of environmental, development, and social welfare programs concerned about racial justice and women’s rights, the Green Mountain state’s best-known Democrat was a potential pick for the Democratic nomination for Vice President in 1968 if Hubert Humphrey or Mike Gravel had won the Presidential nomination that year; as Hoff is transparent about being a former alcoholic, he has been endorsed by the moderate Harold Hughes of Iowa, who praises Hoff’s “open honesty” in discussing such “taboo” health-related topics during his bids for public office; his signature policy is converting the US healthcare system to a new system modeled off of Canada's.
Senator Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. of Minnesota (b. 1911, age 61) – former VP is running once more after coming so close to receiving the nomination in 1968; he may face a tough challenge from fellow Minnesotan Walter Mondale, who is running as a moderate with liberal appeal and as a younger and less “establishment-friendly” alternative to Hubert “The Happy Warrior” Humphrey.
Senator Henry Martin “Scoop” Jackson of Washington (b. 1912, age 60) – a career politician accused of being a “corporatist” for his deep ties to the aviation industry, Jackson believes he can break out from the crowded field by focusing on his impressive and lengthy record, especially his early support of civil rights (but not the bits about him supporting the Japanese internment camps during the 1940s).
Senator Eunice Mary Kennedy-Shriver of Massachusetts (b. 1921, age 51) – if she runs, this deep-pocketed advocate of healthcare expansion could capitalize on the “wave” of feminism brought about by the ripple effect of the Ms. Arkansas Scandal, though some are concerned that it may be too soon to nominate the sister of the man who lost the last Presidential election just four years prior.
Governor Cornelia Genevive Gjesdal “Coya” Knutson of Minnesota (b. 1912, age 60) – with an inspiring backstory and an impressive governing record, this moderate feminist icon has the experience for the job, and if she runs (and the campaigns of Mondale and Humphrey collapse), she just might be able to win over enough female voters, rural and suburban voters, and middle-class voters to clinch the nomination.
Governor Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. of Georgia (b. 1915, age 57) – as running as merely a controversial businessman in 1968, Maddox’s second presidential bid has more clout to it, as he won public office in the interim; a conservative who swears his opposition to racial integration was not racist, he may be able to win over social conservatives in the party.
Representative Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink of Hawaii (b. 1927, age 45) – a champion of civil rights and woman’s rights, Mink is running on a campaign focused on early childhood education, environmental protection, and “direct democracy” reform; in office since 1965, she believes she has the experience and progressive record to win in the primaries or at the convention, and then in the general election.
Senator Walter Frederick “Fritz” Mondale of Minnesota (b. 1928, age 45) – coming from the liberal side of the party, Mondale is poised to oppose Humphrey in the primaries, as he is positioning himself as a younger alternative to the former Vice President who could appeal to more primary and general-election voters.
Senator Wayne Lyman Morse of Oregon (b. 1900, age 72) – this liberal Republican-turned-progressive Democrat is known for supporting D.C. home rule, opposing American alliances with dictatorial regimes, strongly opposing both the Cuba War and the Indochina Wars, and for pledging to “reverse the big money and big business domination of government.”
Former Senator Maurine Brown Neuberger of Oregon (b. 1907, age 65) – though she has not declared her candidacy, this progressive lawmaker may run if Morse bows out early; she is ideologically similar to Morse and Hoff, but could also win over women voters, or become a “compromise” candidate in the event of a deadlocked convention.
Former Representative John Richard Rarick of Louisiana (b. 1924, age 48) – deeply conservative with a reputation for using racially-tinged rhetoric while speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rarick is running because he believes he is more experienced and “likeable” than Maddox.
Representative Joseph Yale Resnick of New York (b. 1924, age 48) – the moderate-leaning congressperson is retiring from his seat to attempt an “underdog” campaign for the White House; best known as the inventor of a TV antenna in the 1950s that was inexpensive, easy to assemble, and install without the expertise of a specially trained technician, Resnick, in office since 1965, has backed civil rights legislation, the Indochina Wars, and animal protection laws, empowering the USDA’s ability to regulate animal use in research facilities; a heart attack survivor, he also supports expanding America’s healthcare system.
Former Governor J. Terry Sanford of North Carolina (b. 1917, age 55) – this moderate has been out of office for eight years, but is still popular and relevant in his home state for his impressive time as governor; currently serving as the President of Duke University, this undeclared candidate is favored by several southern politicians who are hoping to find someone (other than the populist George Wallace) to be the face of the “New” (post-segregation) South.
Former Governor F. Grant Sawyer of Nevada (b. 1918, age 54) – touting his successes during his three terms as Governor and hoping to receive the endorsement of John F. Kennedy should his sister Eunice Kennedy not run, the 1968 Democratic nominee for Vice President has streaks of libertarianism in his record that could appeal to some in both major parties, along with his record on promoting civil rights and social programs to help low-income families.
Governor George Corley Wallace Jr. of Alabama (b. 1919, age 53) – more populist than moderate this time around, Wallace will be a major candidate when he finally enters the race; he plans on running on a “forward-thinking” platform focused on early education and creating more jobs for blue-collar workers.
Please vote!