Were the memoirs published in '73, though? I'd assumed it was much later. Maybe posthumously? Or were they not published at all?
Fear, Loathing and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail '72
- Thread starter Drew
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Right now he's the proverbial 2d banana on television - the straight man on Barney Miller and the guy who killed "Hot Lips" on M*A*S*H when he ran her over with a Jeep.
Action hero might be the next step (after all he's already a military hero) - especially when he gets into movies. That's coming soon.
I hadn't focused on this point because OTL the Memoirs came out about 1976 or 1977 as I recall, but it is entirely possible that one version came out say in 1975 (to pay for the lawyers) and that a second (corrected) version came out after Agnew was safely dead or completely disgraced.
Nazi Space Spy
Banned
Out of curiosity, is John McKeithans wife honored as First Lady, since her husband had the title of President (for one day after his death of course)?
More than likely she has some sort of "special protocol status" because of the nod to her husband's posthumous presidency. She might also be a speaker for the Democratic Party, particularly in the South.
Frost and Nixon 2.0
This is a revised version of the Nixon-Frost exchange. It refers to an early set of memoirs that were essentially a white wash. Let me know if it conveys the feeling better:
Nixon-Frost Interview – Aired September 10, 1977
David Frost: I should ask you about your choice of Spiro Agnew as your running mate and eventual Vice President. Why did you choose him?
Richard M. Nixon: I chose Ted Agnew because he was the best qualified, in my opinion, to support me and my administration in the difficult issues we were going to face.
DF: You wrote the same thing in the memoirs you published two years ago, but frankly, on this topic - like many other crucial events of your Administration - it was rather sparse. Your book made it all sound as if the pairing was inevitable, as if Spiro Agnew was the only choice available. But at that time - in 1968 – Governor Agnew was an obscure State level politician. No one outside of Maryland had ever heard of him, and few in that State were impressed by him. Yet, you say he was the best qualified? What were those outstanding qualifications?
RMN: He was a Governor who had faced civil unrest and urban crises, he was – from the Maryland Statehouse – he was dealing with the key domestic issues of our day, lawlessness, urban blight, radicalism. He brought that perspective to my administration.
DF: But that account overlooks Governors Rockefeller and Reagan, both from larger states, with, frankly, more of those problems than Maryland. In Nelson Rockefeller’s case he had nearly a decade’s worth of experience by 1968, not to mention his former work in the Federal government, experience neither Reagan nor Agnew came close to having. Why Agnew?
RMN: Governor Rockefeller and I were not matched in terms of our outlook for the country; in any event we were both residents of New York State at the time, which created a Constitutional bar to my choosing him. Governor Reagan wasn’t interested in the Vice Presidency. Governor Agnew, on the other hand, indicated he would serve and I liked his approach. He seemed like he was the right man for the job.
DF: Alright. But surely your opinion must have changed after what happened in 1973?
RMN: Many things happened in 1973. You have to be more specific.
DF: Well, as President, Spiro Agnew set-off a crippling round of inflation which damaged the economy; he re-ignited the War in Vietnam, which you and Dr. Kissinger had nearly settled during your term. President Agnew nearly allowed the Middle East War to escalate into a World War; he played chicken with the Soviets and the Chinese for months in the waters off the coast of Vietnam; and his actions set-off an oil shock which, when combined with his reckless spending program, sent the economy into a recession – some say depression - it still hasn’t recovered from. Surely, in light of all that, you must have some regret…
RMN: When you take over the Presidency, under any circumstances, you never know what you are going to face or how events are going to develop. On the positive side Ted Agnew defended Israel from Soviet-backed aggression, which I would have done had I still been President. He showed that the United States would not allow aggression to determine the fate of the Middle East or endanger the freedom and security of one our democratic allies.
DF: But surely, you must harbour some – reservations - about President Agnew’s having overturned the Vietnam policy you and Dr. Kissinger worked so assiduously to craft over four years. I mean, by the time you left office, the peace agreement was almost signed, direct American military involvement had ended, there was even a prospect that American prisoners in North Vietnam would be freed in 1973. Instead, President Agnew re-started the ground war; four months after you left office it was almost as if your four year Vietnamization policy had never taken place.
RMN: There’s no question that his policy was not mine; I think if we had had two or three more months to finish our work, the matter would have been settled in 1973. What happened in the spring of 1973 undid a lot of the work Henry and I had been doing, but in the end Ted’s policy did secure a free and democratic South Vietnam, so in a sense that’s his legacy as President.
DF: With all due respect, Mr. Agnew simply kicked over the molehill. It was his successor, President Gavin, who shaped that policy to a success, and as he – former President Gavin - has said recently, he did what was necessary based on what he inherited from Agnew. His preference would have been to pick things up where you left them in January, but by November that was impossible, given that the war was back on full by then. Couldn’t you say that Mr. Agnew, in re-starting a war that was almost over, is directly responsible for the thousands of deaths that followed, deaths that could have been avoided if he had simply followed through with your work. Isn’t that a failure, not just in policy terms, but in terms of leadership? I mean, it’s one thing when a President puts American troops into danger to face a threat or imminent danger, but quite another when young men are killed in a conflict that was completely avoidable.
RMN: There is an argument to be made along that line I suppose, but of course none of that was foreseeable in 1968 or 1972, when I made my choices for Vice President. In Ted Agnew’s defense though, we can’t know for certain where the Paris Peace process would have lead, eventually. Henry Kissinger and I regarded it as a step toward resolution, but not the final act by any means. Of course, I would have preferred an end to American combat deaths in 1973 and a return of our P.O.W.s, which our policy was likely to have achieved. But South Vietnam was still in danger from the Communist North, which had not given-up on its aggressive designs. I am certain that had we signed the Paris Peace Accords in the spring of 1973 as we had planned, and an American withdrawal had followed, we would at some point have faced a test of our resolve in which we would have had to come to the aid of South Vietnam, with air power at least, if not some limited ground support. The North Vietnamese were certain to push the situation at some point, to see what advantage they could get away with. We would have had to face them down then, or be proven to be weak and ineffective. While we can debate its merits now, President Agnew’s policy pre-empted such a North Vietnamese test of our resolve. In retrospect, in conjunction with his support for Israel, Ted’s decisions may even have communicated to any future adversary that the United States is more determined than ever to stand our ground against aggression anywhere around the globe.
DF: That nicely overlooks Agnew’s effect on the economy and his nearly bringing us to World War III twice in one year.
RMN: That’s exaggerated.
DF: On the economy, I would say that thousands of unemployed would disagree with you. Agnew pardoned himself for his own crimes. How does that sort of behaviour square with your assessment of him as being the most qualified choice?
RMN: Of course, I didn’t know about his questionable actions in Maryland beforehand, that was a tragic circumstance, and of course had I known it would have disqualified him from office in my administration. On the pardon issue, that was within his prerogative as President, no one versed in Constitutional law would argue otherwise – even liberals say he had the Constitutional authority to do it. It was, however, a misjudgement. It announced to everyone that he was guilty, and that brought him down.
DF: Would you have pardoned yourself had you still been in office?
RMN: There was nothing to pardon myself for; I committed no offense.
DF: But surely, what you were convicted of – a jury of citizens has found you guilty...
RMN: What they failed to understand – because so much liberal twisting of the facts confused them – is that when the President does it, it is not illegal. There was no crime, other than the burglary itself, and the people involved were punished. The rest was policy, and what happened in that court was nothing but an act of vengeance against me for the policies of my Administration.
DF: You can’t just leave it at that. There were some very real crimes committed by you and your circle of associates, the least of which was the obstruction of justice that went on from June 1972 until you left office.
RMN: You are asking me to say that I was involved in a cover-up? No! There were issues of national security involved, and what I ordered done was to protect the nation against the potential leak of vital security matters, which would have weakened our national defense. That was my Constitutional responsibility as President. Now my...
DF: ... but...
RMN: ... my liberal critics charge that what I did was criminal. But I remind them that Presidents Kennedy and Johnson protected a great many secrets surrounding our policies in Cuba, Africa and Vietnam in the years before my Administration. Things that included murders, kidnappings, blackmail – things far more serious than a third-rate burglary. Yet, we see no rush to condemn them as having committed crimes, or to turn the so-called Pentagon Papers into an indictment.
DF: Well, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson are dead, so an indictment would be rather pointless. And there are many, on the left as well as the right, who do criticize what was done by both Administrations under the pretext of national security. Let me ask you, do you feel wronged because President Agnew did not pardon you, despite pardoning himself? Do you feel President Gavin’s having only issued a clemency, not a pardon, was inadequate?
RMN: I don’t think about that. I am grateful to President Gavin for his actions in my regard, of course, but there is no point in dwelling on what might have been.
DF: Have you seen Mr. Agnew’s program on television?
RMN: No.
DF: No?
RMN: I don’t watch that sort of thing.
DF: That sort of thing? How do you know what sort of thing it is if you don’t watch it?
RMN: I’ve heard things – from people like you, and others.
DF: Well, I hope what you’ve heard is that he has been making a mockery of himself and television journalism in general?
RMN: He wouldn’t be the first. There are many so-called serious journalists who have made a mockery out of television journalism.
DF: Come now, Mr. Nixon, when all is said and done, you must acknowledge some responsibility for bringing this man onto the national stage. Setting aside what he did as President – which some would regard as bad enough – he has now become a voice of discord distracting – if not overtly misleading - viewers with his nightly diatribes. You must bear some of the responsibility, at least for single-handedly placing him in the position he is in today?
RMN: I didn’t put him on T.V.
DF: If you hadn’t made him Vice President – and that lead to his Presidency - no one would ever have wanted to put him on T.V. to begin with.
RMN: The American people elected him Vice President – twice – and …
DF: Once. The second time he elected himself.
RMN: I agree with Ted Agnew that our national dialogue is dominated by a liberal elite, one which controls our “mainstream” media. I believe he speaks for a large segment of the American population that has been disenfranchised by the media elites, whose voices have been drowned-out in the liberal chatter. If the former Vice President and the people at Hughes want to provide them with an outlet where their views can be expressed, I’d say it’s past time they had one. As for Ted Agnew, I think he has found the job he was best suited for all along – that maybe he should have had in the first place - even if it has become more entertainment than news. If I helped him along the way, well I guess I can’t be unhappy about that.
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This is a revised version of the Nixon-Frost exchange. It refers to an early set of memoirs that were essentially a white wash. Let me know if it conveys the feeling better:
Nixon-Frost Interview – Aired September 10, 1977
David Frost: I should ask you about your choice of Spiro Agnew as your running mate and eventual Vice President. Why did you choose him?
Richard M. Nixon: I chose Ted Agnew because he was the best qualified, in my opinion, to support me and my administration in the difficult issues we were going to face.
DF: You wrote the same thing in the memoirs you published two years ago, but frankly, on this topic - like many other crucial events of your Administration - it was rather sparse. Your book made it all sound as if the pairing was inevitable, as if Spiro Agnew was the only choice available. But at that time - in 1968 – Governor Agnew was an obscure State level politician. No one outside of Maryland had ever heard of him, and few in that State were impressed by him. Yet, you say he was the best qualified? What were those outstanding qualifications?
RMN: He was a Governor who had faced civil unrest and urban crises, he was – from the Maryland Statehouse – he was dealing with the key domestic issues of our day, lawlessness, urban blight, radicalism. He brought that perspective to my administration.
DF: But that account overlooks Governors Rockefeller and Reagan, both from larger states, with, frankly, more of those problems than Maryland. In Nelson Rockefeller’s case he had nearly a decade’s worth of experience by 1968, not to mention his former work in the Federal government, experience neither Reagan nor Agnew came close to having. Why Agnew?
RMN: Governor Rockefeller and I were not matched in terms of our outlook for the country; in any event we were both residents of New York State at the time, which created a Constitutional bar to my choosing him. Governor Reagan wasn’t interested in the Vice Presidency. Governor Agnew, on the other hand, indicated he would serve and I liked his approach. He seemed like he was the right man for the job.
DF: Alright. But surely your opinion must have changed after what happened in 1973?
RMN: Many things happened in 1973. You have to be more specific.
DF: Well, as President, Spiro Agnew set-off a crippling round of inflation which damaged the economy; he re-ignited the War in Vietnam, which you and Dr. Kissinger had nearly settled during your term. President Agnew nearly allowed the Middle East War to escalate into a World War; he played chicken with the Soviets and the Chinese for months in the waters off the coast of Vietnam; and his actions set-off an oil shock which, when combined with his reckless spending program, sent the economy into a recession – some say depression - it still hasn’t recovered from. Surely, in light of all that, you must have some regret…
RMN: When you take over the Presidency, under any circumstances, you never know what you are going to face or how events are going to develop. On the positive side Ted Agnew defended Israel from Soviet-backed aggression, which I would have done had I still been President. He showed that the United States would not allow aggression to determine the fate of the Middle East or endanger the freedom and security of one our democratic allies.
DF: But surely, you must harbour some – reservations - about President Agnew’s having overturned the Vietnam policy you and Dr. Kissinger worked so assiduously to craft over four years. I mean, by the time you left office, the peace agreement was almost signed, direct American military involvement had ended, there was even a prospect that American prisoners in North Vietnam would be freed in 1973. Instead, President Agnew re-started the ground war; four months after you left office it was almost as if your four year Vietnamization policy had never taken place.
RMN: There’s no question that his policy was not mine; I think if we had had two or three more months to finish our work, the matter would have been settled in 1973. What happened in the spring of 1973 undid a lot of the work Henry and I had been doing, but in the end Ted’s policy did secure a free and democratic South Vietnam, so in a sense that’s his legacy as President.
DF: With all due respect, Mr. Agnew simply kicked over the molehill. It was his successor, President Gavin, who shaped that policy to a success, and as he – former President Gavin - has said recently, he did what was necessary based on what he inherited from Agnew. His preference would have been to pick things up where you left them in January, but by November that was impossible, given that the war was back on full by then. Couldn’t you say that Mr. Agnew, in re-starting a war that was almost over, is directly responsible for the thousands of deaths that followed, deaths that could have been avoided if he had simply followed through with your work. Isn’t that a failure, not just in policy terms, but in terms of leadership? I mean, it’s one thing when a President puts American troops into danger to face a threat or imminent danger, but quite another when young men are killed in a conflict that was completely avoidable.
RMN: There is an argument to be made along that line I suppose, but of course none of that was foreseeable in 1968 or 1972, when I made my choices for Vice President. In Ted Agnew’s defense though, we can’t know for certain where the Paris Peace process would have lead, eventually. Henry Kissinger and I regarded it as a step toward resolution, but not the final act by any means. Of course, I would have preferred an end to American combat deaths in 1973 and a return of our P.O.W.s, which our policy was likely to have achieved. But South Vietnam was still in danger from the Communist North, which had not given-up on its aggressive designs. I am certain that had we signed the Paris Peace Accords in the spring of 1973 as we had planned, and an American withdrawal had followed, we would at some point have faced a test of our resolve in which we would have had to come to the aid of South Vietnam, with air power at least, if not some limited ground support. The North Vietnamese were certain to push the situation at some point, to see what advantage they could get away with. We would have had to face them down then, or be proven to be weak and ineffective. While we can debate its merits now, President Agnew’s policy pre-empted such a North Vietnamese test of our resolve. In retrospect, in conjunction with his support for Israel, Ted’s decisions may even have communicated to any future adversary that the United States is more determined than ever to stand our ground against aggression anywhere around the globe.
DF: That nicely overlooks Agnew’s effect on the economy and his nearly bringing us to World War III twice in one year.
RMN: That’s exaggerated.
DF: On the economy, I would say that thousands of unemployed would disagree with you. Agnew pardoned himself for his own crimes. How does that sort of behaviour square with your assessment of him as being the most qualified choice?
RMN: Of course, I didn’t know about his questionable actions in Maryland beforehand, that was a tragic circumstance, and of course had I known it would have disqualified him from office in my administration. On the pardon issue, that was within his prerogative as President, no one versed in Constitutional law would argue otherwise – even liberals say he had the Constitutional authority to do it. It was, however, a misjudgement. It announced to everyone that he was guilty, and that brought him down.
DF: Would you have pardoned yourself had you still been in office?
RMN: There was nothing to pardon myself for; I committed no offense.
DF: But surely, what you were convicted of – a jury of citizens has found you guilty...
RMN: What they failed to understand – because so much liberal twisting of the facts confused them – is that when the President does it, it is not illegal. There was no crime, other than the burglary itself, and the people involved were punished. The rest was policy, and what happened in that court was nothing but an act of vengeance against me for the policies of my Administration.
DF: You can’t just leave it at that. There were some very real crimes committed by you and your circle of associates, the least of which was the obstruction of justice that went on from June 1972 until you left office.
RMN: You are asking me to say that I was involved in a cover-up? No! There were issues of national security involved, and what I ordered done was to protect the nation against the potential leak of vital security matters, which would have weakened our national defense. That was my Constitutional responsibility as President. Now my...
DF: ... but...
RMN: ... my liberal critics charge that what I did was criminal. But I remind them that Presidents Kennedy and Johnson protected a great many secrets surrounding our policies in Cuba, Africa and Vietnam in the years before my Administration. Things that included murders, kidnappings, blackmail – things far more serious than a third-rate burglary. Yet, we see no rush to condemn them as having committed crimes, or to turn the so-called Pentagon Papers into an indictment.
DF: Well, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson are dead, so an indictment would be rather pointless. And there are many, on the left as well as the right, who do criticize what was done by both Administrations under the pretext of national security. Let me ask you, do you feel wronged because President Agnew did not pardon you, despite pardoning himself? Do you feel President Gavin’s having only issued a clemency, not a pardon, was inadequate?
RMN: I don’t think about that. I am grateful to President Gavin for his actions in my regard, of course, but there is no point in dwelling on what might have been.
DF: Have you seen Mr. Agnew’s program on television?
RMN: No.
DF: No?
RMN: I don’t watch that sort of thing.
DF: That sort of thing? How do you know what sort of thing it is if you don’t watch it?
RMN: I’ve heard things – from people like you, and others.
DF: Well, I hope what you’ve heard is that he has been making a mockery of himself and television journalism in general?
RMN: He wouldn’t be the first. There are many so-called serious journalists who have made a mockery out of television journalism.
DF: Come now, Mr. Nixon, when all is said and done, you must acknowledge some responsibility for bringing this man onto the national stage. Setting aside what he did as President – which some would regard as bad enough – he has now become a voice of discord distracting – if not overtly misleading - viewers with his nightly diatribes. You must bear some of the responsibility, at least for single-handedly placing him in the position he is in today?
RMN: I didn’t put him on T.V.
DF: If you hadn’t made him Vice President – and that lead to his Presidency - no one would ever have wanted to put him on T.V. to begin with.
RMN: The American people elected him Vice President – twice – and …
DF: Once. The second time he elected himself.
RMN: I agree with Ted Agnew that our national dialogue is dominated by a liberal elite, one which controls our “mainstream” media. I believe he speaks for a large segment of the American population that has been disenfranchised by the media elites, whose voices have been drowned-out in the liberal chatter. If the former Vice President and the people at Hughes want to provide them with an outlet where their views can be expressed, I’d say it’s past time they had one. As for Ted Agnew, I think he has found the job he was best suited for all along – that maybe he should have had in the first place - even if it has become more entertainment than news. If I helped him along the way, well I guess I can’t be unhappy about that.
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Probably not, and there would be no pension either. That might be pushing the honour a little far.
Hey Drew, hate to be that guy, but when can we expect a full update?
I've started one, but it depends on when I get time to do it. Probably not for a week or two, that's a guess rather than a TL at this point.
Two questions, Drew:
-Since Jim Buckley has succeeded in keeping his Senate seat in TTL, whenever he decides to leave for whatever reason, would Jack Kemp be the number 1 choice to replace him?
-Also, this may just be a theoretical question, because you can't change thread titles, but have you ever considered naming your TL to something else, just for the sake of completeness? "Fear, Loathing, and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail" is a great title for something about McKeithen's presidential campaign, but what about the ensuing constitutional crisis, and the abortive Agnew Presidency, and the Second Great Depression, and the wars in the Eastern Med, and Wallace defeating Reagan, and China's descent into madness? What's the name of all these events put together in one timeline?
-Since Jim Buckley has succeeded in keeping his Senate seat in TTL, whenever he decides to leave for whatever reason, would Jack Kemp be the number 1 choice to replace him?
-Also, this may just be a theoretical question, because you can't change thread titles, but have you ever considered naming your TL to something else, just for the sake of completeness? "Fear, Loathing, and Gumbo on the Campaign Trail" is a great title for something about McKeithen's presidential campaign, but what about the ensuing constitutional crisis, and the abortive Agnew Presidency, and the Second Great Depression, and the wars in the Eastern Med, and Wallace defeating Reagan, and China's descent into madness? What's the name of all these events put together in one timeline?
Something about Kemp in the next update, but a possibility.
Fear, Loathing and Agnew in the 1970's?
A Future Painted Black? (Suggested by a reference to the Rolling Stones Song)
Give Us Shelter? (Also suggested by the Rolling Stones Song)
Anyone have suggestions for a more fitting title?
Simply because I'm listening to it right now, may I suggest "Won't be fooled again"?
Or the St. Just quote "no-one reigns innocently" but, however fitting, that isn't really snappy enough for a title.
Gah, sorry I'm bad with titles.
Or the St. Just quote "no-one reigns innocently" but, however fitting, that isn't really snappy enough for a title.
Gah, sorry I'm bad with titles.
Oily Politics and lit matches
March 16 – 20, 1977
Indian National Elections
Outgoing Prime Minister: Indira Ghandi (Congress)
553 Seats (277 required for a majority)
Janata Alliance
Seats: 345
Seat Change: +233
Popular Vote %: 51.89
Congress Alliance
Seats: 189
Seat Change: -217
Popular Vote %: 40.98
Others: 19
Janata Alliance:
Janata Party / Congress for Democracy 298 +245 (43.17%)
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 22 -3 (4.30%)
Shiromani Akali Dal 9 +8 (1.26 %)
Peasants and Workers Party of India 5 +/-0 (0.55%)
Revolutionary Socialist Party 3 +2 (0.39%)
All India Forward Bloc 3 +2 (0.34 %)
Republican Party of India (Khobragade) 2 +1 (0.51%)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1 -22 (1.76%)
Independents 2
Congress Alliance:
Indian National Congress (Indira) 153 -197 (34.52%)
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 19 — (2.9 %)
Communist Party of India 7 -16 (2.82 %)
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference 2 — (0.26%)
Indian Union Muslim League 2 -2 (0.3%)
Kerala Congress 2 -1 (0.18%)
Revolutionary Socialist Party (breakaway) 1 -1 —
Independents 2 — —
Elected Prime Minister: Morarji Desai (Janata)
Taking office as Prime Minister, Desai also took charge of the Ministry of Finance. He sought to carefully distribute important posts to satisfy Janata's different constituents and the most powerful party leaders who were rivals for his own position of leadership. Both Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram were accorded the title of Deputy Prime Minister. Charan Singh became the Minister of Home Affairs, the second-most important position in the Council of Ministers, while Jagjivan Ram took charge of the Ministry of Defence. BJS leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani were respectively given charge of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Raj Narain was appointed Minister of Health, Madhu Dandavate was to head the Ministry of Railways and trade unionist George Fernandes was made the Minister of Communications. Jurist Shanti Bhushan was appointed Minister of Law and Justice. Congress (O) veteran and Janata candidate. (Wikipedia)
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy won the presidential election to become the 6th President of India on July 25, 1977.
The Shah Commission was a commission of inquiry appointed by Government of India in 1977 to inquire into all the excesses committed in the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77). It was headed by Justice J.C. Shah, a former chief Justice of India. The commission deposed hundreds of individuals and after two years produced a 500 page report on the persons responsible for atrocities committed during emergency. The report was particularly scathing of Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, Bansi Lal, Kamal Nath and officers belonging to civil services who helped Sanjay Gandhi.
Katherine Frank, who is famous for her book on Indira Gandhi mentioned in the biography that Indira Gandhi was unwilling to cooperate during the deposition and J.C.Shah lost his cool after three days of patient questioning and reprimanded her. (Wikipedia)
The first actions taken by the Desai government were to formally end the state of emergency and media censorship and repeal the controversial executive decrees issued during the Emergency. The Constitution was amended to make it more difficult for any future government to declare a state of emergency; fundamental freedoms and the independence of India's judiciary was reaffirmed. The new government also proceeded to withdraw all charges against the 25 accused in the Baroda dynamite case, which included the new Minister of Industry, George Fernandes. The Minister of Railways reinstated the railway employees disciplined after the May 1974 strike. The Desai government proceeded to establish inquiry commissions and tribunals to investigate allegations of corruption and human rights abuses by members of Indira Gandhi's government, political party and the police forces. Specific inquiries were instituted on Sanjay Gandhi's management of the state-owned Maruti Udyog Ltd., the
activities of the former Minister of Defence Bansi Lal and the 1971 Nagarwala scandal. Both Indira and her son Sanjay were charged with allegations of corruption and briefly arrested. (Wikipedia)
Cyprus (Background Note): Under the supervision of UN Peacekeeping Forces (including some US and UK troops) the two parts of the island have been re-building as the Greek and Turkish Provinces of the Cyprus Confederation. The Confederation is in name only, with a tri-member Presidential Committee (the Greek and Turkish "Provincial" leaders plus a UN Member) largely operating in a symbolic role. UN forces have kept the two groups physically seperated, which has prevented any major clashes, though minor ones do occur. UN forces are also seizing weapons being smuggled in from both Greece and Turkey to the respective sides. The Greek Cypriot Province has had an economic boom as the rear staging area for U.S. and allied forces operating in Syria. The Turkish province remains economically backward and restive. Its leaders, however, had rejected the rule of Prime Minister Turkes on the mainland, and as a result the Turkish Province of Cyprus became a haven for anti-Turkes exiles during his two year rule in Turkey.
Saudi Arabia (Background note): Although there has been an increase in oil revenues, the Royal family has not been sharing these out in proportion to the increased price of oil. Instead they are retaining the petro dollars and re-investing them overseas. A number of Princes have also used the petro dollars for excessive living and other spending, which in turn has
given rise to corruption. All of this has further disaffected many average Saudis from the Royal Family.
Iran (Background note): The Shah's regime has also benefited from the increase in the price of oil. The Shah has shared none of this oil wealth windfall with his population, investing instead in military expenditures and investing some for his own benefit. He has even attempted to force down the average wage of Iranian oil workers in a bid to squeeze even more cash flow out of the oil revenue.
June 12, 1977
Britain mourns the first anniversary of the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II. A year of official mourning ends.
August 1, 1977
General Nutterin Ersin forms an interim military government in Turkey with himself as executive President with wide powers.
Colonel Turkes is held in prison until he can be tried in a military tribunal, probably in 1978.
August 6, 1977
Around 500 Egyptian officers and soldiers are brought into Syria to assist the operations of the Allied coalition forces.
The new Healey government in the UK officially lifts many of the security restrictions imposed on the British mainland by its Conservative predecessor. Mainland Britain is no longer under martial law.
From Bill Nichols - The Wallace Presidency
By the end of his first year in office the President was troubled by his lack of progress on domestic issues, and the extent to which foreign policy questions - which were never his main interest - began to dominate his schedule.
Of course we had gotten a stimulus plan through Congress in the spring, but this had been little more than a modification of the tax adjustments and infrastructure spending plans which the Gavin people had already crafted and left for us in January. We merely added some extra re-training money, and singled out poor mothers for enhanced food stamp aid, and added stamped our name on the result.
The President was troubled that he couldn't be seen to wring more money out of the corporations - the theme on which he had campaigned. He had the Pentagon slap down hard on a couple of contractors who were abusing the public trough, and then trumpeted these as major successes of his program to "chase the money changers out of the people's temple." Still, it was more threater than real substance or accomplishment for the first hundred days of the Wallace Presidency, and the President found the situation frustrating. He had built his campaign around the David versus Goliath image, which didn't translate well into governing. He wasn't ready to accept that.
For the moment it didn't hurt his ratings too much - they hovered around 60% approval, largely because he was seen as fulfilling his promises, and his tough on terrorism and crime stands went down well in the country. But George Wallace of all people knew, you couldn't keep-up even that level of support without a major bread-and-butter accomplishment, and that wasn't going to happen overseas.
One issue he did spend some political capital on was a separate stimulus and education funding bill for the Southern States. These had carried him to the White House, and he knew if he hadn't been George Wallace all of them would have most likely voted for Ronald Reagan. He was convinced that, inspite of being the first Deep Southerner elected to the Presidency since 1848, he couldn't hold them in 1980 unless he could deliver. This was Southern retail politics in a nutshell and this was
the kind of politics that flowed through George Wallace's veins. So he determined to not only get a "Southern Bill" for 1977, but to get one through the Congress every year up until 1980 as part of a larger re-election strategy. So we spent a lot of time crafting the Southern Bill and getting through a divided Congress, and that tapped some of our political capital to do other things.
The President was equally troubled by the deteriorating state of his marriage, which went from very bad in the Fall of 1977 to worse in early 1978 as Cornelia sought to capitalize on their troubles for her own sake. Although he let his lawyers negotiate the terms of the divorce, I often heard him growl that he should have divorced Cornelia before the 1976 campaign. Instead he had sought to use her as prop in 1976, and that was coming home to roost now. While she may have made a decent First Lady earlier in their marriage, by 1977 their personal relations had reached a point where they were cosmetic. The reconciliation for the campaign turned to a toxic relationship that neither wanted to hold together. Cornelia was also put-off by his lack of physical capability in the marriage, and issue which festered deep within the fissures of resentment that were never far from the surface of George Wallace's personality.
That all this, along with the enormous stresses of the Presidency, should have had a marked effect on his health should not have surprised anyone. The President was healthy when he came into office, and for the first year functioned well, but the round of foreign trips at the end of 1977, together with the Cornelia problem, took their toll, which lead to his
hospitalization for the flu in January 1978, and an on-set of medical problems which followed from that.
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Stephan Lescher (Wallace biographer): Wallace never fully recovered from the damage that Arthur Bremer's bullets had caused. He regained the appearence of health, although he was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But there were a series of infections and other complications which continued to trouble him for the rest of his life. Added to the pressure cooker of the White House and you had a ticking time-bomb where his health was concerned, one which the Wallace people constantly denied, in part because the President himself was in denial about the whole thing. He had run to become President when conventional wisdom said he couldn't win - and he, George Wallace, had beat the odds all the way to the Presidency of the United States. He was not about to let some doctors gloomy predicitons about his health get in the way of that.
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Marshall Frady (Wallace biographer): Wallace had set his sights on the Presidency, and pured everything into winning it, especially to compensate for his loss of mobility. But winning had been his whole ambition, his whole goal deep down. When it came to running the government, Wallace was still the Alabama Governor - meaning that he had ideas for how to use the national office to help his State and region, but he had no national vision - much less an international or global one - for what he could do or accomplish with the Presidency. That was a formula for Jackson and Nitze and lesser figures around the President to substitute their own in place of his, and not always to his benefit.
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September 12, 1977
King George VII is crowned in a formal Coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London.
October 1977
A group of prominent Nicaraguan professionals, business leaders, and clergymen allied with the Terceristas to form "El Grupo de los Doce", (The Group of Twelve) in Costa Rica. The group's main idea was to organize a provisional government from Costa Rica. he new strategy of the Terceristas also included unarmed strikes and rioting by labor and
student groups coordinated by the FSLN's "United People's Movement" (Movimiento Pueblo Unido - MPU). (Wikipedia)
In Turkey an offensive against the Grey Wolves resistance by the Turkish Army leads to a break down of Grey wolves structure in the major citis, however the Grey Wolves prove more tenacious in the countryside, leading to a number of skirmishes in the autumn.
October 1, 1977
Energy Research and Development Administration part of Department of Energy.
WAVES disbanded; women integrated into regular Navy.
Yanks win 2nd consecutive AL East title.
Pelé plays his final professional football game as a member of the New York Cosmos.
Elvis Presley announces that he will "study the words of our Lord and his teaching under the tutelage of preacher Oral Roberts.
October 2, 1977
Pakistan general Zia ul-Haq bans all opposition
Vivian Brownlee wins LPGA Dallas Civitan Golf Open
Dusty Baker 30th HR joins teammates Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32), & Ron Cey (30) in make Dodgers 1st team to boast 4 30-HR hitters
October 3, 1977
Indira Ghandi arrested by the new government.
At a contentious OPEC meeting the member states fail to agree on price and production quotas.
A hard-line block lead by Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, backed by the Algerian delegation argue for higher prices and reduced supply to the West, unless the United States and Western Europe withdraw recognition from Israel.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are both paralyzed by domestic instability and fail to provide counter-balancing leadership to the hard-liners. The Gulf states argue for a moderation of oil prices on the logic that hardline pricing policies are undercutting their markets because the high price of oil is driving down demand.
Nigeria and Venezuela both attempt to mediate the dispute, although both countries want to keep the world price of oil high as they are selling petroleum under the table at less than OPEC prices, and they want to keep this grey-market alive. (Some of the Gulf Kingdoms are also involved in this grey-marketing of contraband oil).
The OPEC talks break down without an agreement among the members.
October 6, 1977
In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
October 7, 1977
Desmond Irvine (38), then Chairman of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers' Association, was shot dead by the PIRA in Wellington Park, Belfast.
The Irish Independence Party (IIP) was launched. The IIP was a Nationalist political party which advocated British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. The founding members of the IIP were Frank McManus and Fergus McAteer. The IIP was seen as a potential challenge to the domination of nationalist politics by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
The USSR adopts the Fourth Soviet Constitution (or the Suslov Constitution).
PREAMBLE
The Great October Socialist Revolution, made by the workers and peasants of Russia under the leadership of the Communist Party headed by Lenin, overthrew capitalist and landowner rule, broke the fetters of oppression, established the dictatorship of the proletariat, and created the Soviet state, a new type of state, the basic instrument for defending the gains of the revolution and for building socialism and communism. Humanity thereby began the epoch-making turn from capitalist to
socialism.
After achieving victory in the Civil War and repulsing imperialist intervention, the Soviet government carried through far-reaching social and economic transformations, and put an end once and for all to
exploitation of man by man, antagonisms between classes, and strive between nationalities. The unification of the Soviet Republics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics multiplied the forces and opportunities of the peoples of the country in the building of socialism. Social ownership of the means of production and genuine democracy for the working masses were established. For the first time in the history of mankind a socialist society was created.
The strength of socialism was vividly demonstrated by the immortal feat of the Soviet people and their Armed Forces under the inspired leadership of Marshall Stalin in achieving their historic victory in the Great Patriotic War. This victory consolidated the influence and international standing of the Soviet Union and created new opportunities for growth of the forces of socialism, national liberation, democracy, and peace throughout the world.
Continuing their creative endeavours, the working people of the Soviet Union have ensured rapid, all-round development of the country and steady improvement of the socialist system. They have consolidated the alliance of the working class, collective-farm peasantry, and people's intelligentsia, and friendship of the nations and nationalities of the USSR. Socio-political and ideological unity of Soviet society, in which the working class is the leading force, has been achieved. While the Soviet
State represents the whole of the people, the leading role of the Communist Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat remain the vanguard of the Party and the people in their struggles against imperialist and capitalist forces around the globe.
In the USSR a developed socialist society has been built. At this stage, when socialism is developing on its own foundations, the creative forces of the new system and the advantages of the socialist way of
life are becoming increasingly evident, and the working people are more and more widely enjoying the fruits of their great revolutionary gains. It is a society in which powerful productive forces and progressive science and culture have been created, in which the well-being of the people is constantly rising, and more and more favourable conditions are being provided for the all-round development of the individual.
It is a society of mature socialist social relations, in which, on the basis of the drawing together of all classes and social strata and of the juridical and factual equality of all its nations and nationalities and their fraternal co-operation, a new historical community of people has been formed--the Soviet people.
It is a society of high organisational capacity, ideological commitment, and consciousness of the working people, who are patriots and internationalists.
It is a society in which the law of life is concern of all for the good of each and concern of each for the good of all.
It is a society of true democracy, the political system of which ensures effective management of all public affairs, ever more active participation of the working people in running the state, and the combining of citizen's real rights and freedoms with their obligations and responsibility to society.
It is a society where strict Party discipline and the inherent devotion of the cadres to the ordered, disciplined promotion of socialist order and development remain foremost in the interests of all the people.
It is a society that in its internationalist dedication believes that the only road to global peace, prosperity and justice is through the continued liberation struggle of all oppressed people’s wherever they may be, and that the Party and people of the Soviet Union have a historic mission to promote the liberation struggle of all peoples in all places and at all times.
Developed socialist society is a natural, logical stage on the road to communism.
The supreme goal of the Soviet state is the building of a classless communist society in which there will be public, communist self-government. The main aims of the people's socialist state are: to lay the material and technical foundation of communism, to perfect socialist social relations and transform them into communist relations, to mould the citizen of communist society, to raise the people's living
and cultural standards, to safeguard the country's security, and to further the consolidation of peace and development of international co-operation.
The Soviet people, guided by the ideas of scientific communism and true to their revolutionary traditions, relying on the great social, economic, and political gains of socialism, striving for the further development of socialist democracy, taking into account the international position of the USSR as part of the world system of socialism, and conscious of their internationalist responsibility, preserving continuity of the ideas and principles of the first Soviet Constitution of 1918, the 1924 Constitution of the USSR and the 1936 Constitution of the USSR, hereby affirm the principle so the social structure and policy of the USSR, and define the
rights, freedoms and obligations of citizens, and the principles of the organisation of the socialist state of the whole people, and its aims, and proclaim these in this Constitution.
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Ronald Reagan: I have read this new Soviet Constitution, and it is nothing short of a declaration of war on freedom and free people everywhere. This is not just the blueprint for an evil empire; it is a cancer attacking all mankind.
Richard Nixon: We know now that Suslov and the ideologues have taken over control of the Soviet State. It is not yet a reversion to full blown Stalinism, but the signs are there that the prevailing vision at the top of the Party is backward and not forward.
Henry Kissinger: I agree with President Nixon on the backward orientation of the current Party hierarchy, but I see the rehabilitation of Stalin as less of a move back to Stalinism, as to the ideal of Party discipline and control that his wartime leadership represents. Importantly they have glorified his role in the War – the Constitution in fact refers to him as Marshall Stalin, not General Secretary Stalin or by any other Communist Party reference, and no mention in any detail is made in the official history of the years of his rule before or after the War. We could see this as an attempt to stir the people with a sense of patriotic solidarity – thus the frequent mention of the war with the Germans – without reviving Stalin’s long dictatorship as a model for the future. Perhaps what we are seeing is a move to a kind of collective Stalinism, a toughening of the dictatorship but not in the hands of any one individual but a collective group.
Sen. Barry Goldwater Sr (R-AZ): Once a damn Communist always a damn Communist. This is, or should be, the gravestone of detente, and it’s about time because its body stinks to high heaven.
October 8, 1977
Margaret Hearst (24), a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), was shot dead, while she was off duty, by the PIRA at her parent's home near Tynan, County Armagh.
October 9, 1977
Soyuz 25 launched to Saluyt 6, but returned on October 11 after failing to dock.
October 10, 1977
Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who were both founding members of the Peace People, and who have recently been released from detention by the Healey Government, were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. [The Unionist dominated Belfast City Corporation refused to hold a civic reception in honour of the prize winners. The associated prize money of £80,000 was later to be the source of controversy within the Peace People.]
October 11, 1977
Lenny Murphy was found guilty of possession of firearms and sentenced to 12 years in jail. [It was later revealed that Murphy was the leader of the 'Shankill Butchers' a Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gang which was responsible for the killings of at least 19 Catholic civilians.]
Two bombs explode in Damascus animal markets killing 99 people and wounding 200. The Syrian government claims that the bombs were carried by women and detonated remotely.
Taking advantage of the weakened hold on power of the central government, the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) begins agitation in Kurdish parts of the country. PKK guerillas carry out attacks on Turkish military installations. This puts the Turkish government in weaker position as the Army is still fighting the Grey Wolves. Areas of Eastern Turkey with Kurdish majority populations actually maintain a quasi-autonomy through most of the winter of 1977-78 further fueling Kurdish nationalist expectations.
President (General) Ersin is keenly aware of the Turkish menace, but in the first instance has his hands full flushing out the remnants of the Grey Wolves. His government judges them to be the greater imminent threat to governance and stability in Turkey.
October 12, 1977
US Supreme Court heard arguments in "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke, a white student denied admission to U of Calif Med School.
Chinese backed Pathet Lao forces (Pathet Red) mount an offensive against the Royalist-Pathet Lao Nationalist forces (Pathet Green) in an effort to dislodge the country's government.
All Members of the British Parliament (except for most Conservative members and the Ulster Unionist members) vote to repeal the death penalty provision from the 1974 Prevention of Terrorism Act.
October 13, 1977
German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Airlines flight 181 to Somalia and demand the release of 11 Red Army Faction members.
October 14, 1977
The Atari 2600 game system is released. The poor state of the economy limits the amount of units sold.
Anita Bryant is famously pied by four gay rights activists during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. This event resulted in her political fallout from anti-gay activism.
North Vietnam commits several thousand troops to support the Nationalist alliance in Laos against the Pathet Red insurgence.
Within six-months the North Vietnamese-Pathet Green-Royalist forces become entangled in a guerilla war with the Pathet Red forces.
October 15, 1977 - February 7, 1978
The Campaign of Jabal Lubnan is a series of offensives and counter offensives between the Phalange and PLO forces on one side and the PJO and Sunni allies on the other to gain control of the Jabal Lubnan (Mount Lebanon) area of Western Lebanon (the Beirut hinterlands). By the end of the deadly series of battles the PJO have largely been driven into the Beqaa (between Beirut and Syria) and the Nabatieh (south east Lebanon) areas. The PLO and Phalange have a mutually non-trusting hold over central Lebanon which is under a shaky cease-fire between the two groups.
October 17 – 18, 1977
German Autumn: GSG 9 troopers storm a hijacked Lufthansa passenger plane in Mogadishu, Somalia; 3 of the 4 hijackers die.
October 18, 1977
German Autumn: Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stammheim prison; Irmgard Möller fails (their supporters still claim they were murdered). They are buried on October 27.
Chancellor Kohl orders a redoubled intelligence effort against the RAF and indicates that "the gloves come off." West German security authorities begin a penetration operation of the RAF and related groups.
King George VII, King of Canada, opens the 2nd session of the 31st Canadian Parliament. He later offends Prime Minister Turner and the Canadian government when he refers to “a historic injustice” in connection to the separatist cause in Quebec. Though the King’s remarks are much milder, the incident is reminiscent of President de Gaulle’s 1967 “Viva Quebec Libre” remarks in Montreal.
Quebec Premier Rene Levesque picks up on the King’s remarks as justification of his own sovereigntist program (the irony being that Levesque is an anti-Monarchist).
Reggie Jackson blasts 3 home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
FCTB agents stop an attempt by a PJO linked group of men to cause an explosion and a chemical leak at a Dow Chemical Plant in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania. The operation was designed to release a chemical cloud of chlorine which would have blown East over Pennsylvania and New York State.
October 19, 1977
German Autumn: Kidnapped industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer is found murdered in Mulhouse, France.
Hassan Tuhami, National Security Advisor to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, visits Washington DC in order to solicit US assistance for an Egyptian outreach to Israel. He meets with National Security Advisor Paul Nitze and Secretary of State Henry Jackson and SNICO Lew Allen, but fails to obtain committments of full support. He does not meet with President Wallace. Jackson does say that the "US supports peace initiatives in the Middle East", a general observation which Tuhami takes as a green-light for the specific initiative Sadat has in mind (the US supports, but will not committ unless it sees progress). Jackson on the other hand meant it only as a general observation with no committment to what Tuhami was proposing.
U.S. and British Special Forces destroy a PJO arms cache near Beirut. At the same time special forces are acting to disrupt PJO logistical networks inside of Lebanon.
October 20, 1977
Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd survive a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, 3 days after the release of their fifth studio album Street Survivors.
Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1977 World Series with a 6-5 victory over the New York Yankees in the 7th Game of the Series. Steve Garvey is named the MVP of the series.
October 21, 1977
The European Patent Institute is founded.
A Syrian youth of 13 is found sexually assaulted and murdered in Homs. The investigation soon points to U.S. military forces. News of this murder causes a furor among the Syrian population.
Sheik Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, a revered Wahabbi scholar, calls for the execution of more persons “corrupted by un-Islamic influences.” He publishes a list of thirty minor Saudi princes and officials whom he alleges have been “corrupted beyond redemption” and he wants King Khalid to order their execution as a sign of his, and by extension the Royal Family’s, piety.
Over the next month Sheik Abd and his followers push the list forward in sermons every Friday about the purity of Islam and the return of Saudi Arabia to “true Islam.” These fire-eating sermons are followed every Friday by increasingly large numbers of street demonstrations. Many of the people joining these demonstrations are ordinary Saudis who do not share fully in the Royal wealth. In addition to calls for Islamic “purification”, the protests also call for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria and the destruction of Israel. Most troubling to the Ruling Family, the protests call for the re-distribution of national wealth along “Islamic precepts.” (This is a call to re-distribute the national wealth to the people, which might be considered Communism in any other context. The important point is that in Saudi Arabia there is no distinction between the State wealth and the wealth of the Royal family, thus calls to re-distribute State wealth are in reality attacks on the Royal Family itself.)
Crown Prince Abdullah at first tries to break-up the crowds with the religious police, the Mutaween. However, many members of the Mutaween are encouraged by Sheik Abd and his supporters to join in with the Islamic protests.
October 23, 1977
Panamanians vote 2:1 to approve new Canal treaties.
In India the Janata government had lesser success in achieving economic reforms. It launched the Sixth Five-Year Plan, aiming to boost agricultural production and rural industries. Seeking to promote economic self-reliance and indigenous industries, the government required multi-national corporations to go into partnership with Indian corporations. The policy proved controversial, diminishing foreign investment and led to the high-profile exit of corporations such as Coca-Cola and IBM from India. But the government was unable to address the issues of resurging inflation, fuel shortages, unemployment and poverty.
The legalisation of strikes and re-empowerment of trade unions affected business efficiency and economic production. (Wikipedia)
October 24, 1977
Michael Neill (16), a Catholic boy, was shot dead by the British Army on Cliftonville Road, Belfast. He had been in the vicinity of an attempted bus-hijacking.
Secretary of State Jackson and National Security Advisor Paul Nitze receive a briefing from Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Blum in which Blum states that Egyptian troops co-operating with the U.S. in Syria are in fact spying on Israel's northern defenses and looking for weaknesses in the same. Blum also gives a stilted interpretation of Sadat's several trips to Baghdad, indicating that the Egyptians and Iraqis are discussing a new military alliance.
Lew Allen, Secretary of National Intelligence Coordination and Oversight and Fred Ickle, Director of Central Intelligence, later releases an assessment which gives a similar conclusion as to the reason for Sadat's trips to Baghdad. This idea then spreads as "the accepted conclusion" within U.S. government circles.
A bomb is set-off at the Mina Al Ahmadi oil terminal in Kuwait, causing serious damage and reducing the flow of oil from Emirate for several weeks. This creates a spike in the world price of oil, which again (briefly) approaches $ 90.00 per barrel. The PJO claims responsibility for this attack.
October 25, 1977
Moroccan troops move in force against Bir Lehlou, the capital of nominally independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Western Sahara in an effort to enforce Moroccan control over the former Spanish colony. A Moroccan military governor is installed in the “Southern Zone” to administer Moroccan interests. Missions of foreign governments which had recognized the SADR are expelled from Bir Lehlou by the Moroccans. Polisario (SADR) forces are forced to flee into
Mauritania, causing further instability in that country.
U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim meets with Lebanese President Malik, Bachir Gemayel and Yassir Arafat in Tunis, Tunisia in an effort to broker some sort of settlement for Lebanon. The talks fail because the PJO and other combatant parties are not present. The U.S. and the U.K. also decline to participate.
October 26, 1977
The last natural smallpox case is discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination and, by extension, of modern science.
Last test flight of the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise.
The Shah of Iran calls out troops for a violent crackdown on protesters. The protesters fight back against the Army and SAVAK troops, creating vivid images of unrest in Iran for television news to broadcast across the globe.
October 28, 1977
Hong Kong police forces attack the ICAC headquarters over continuing corruption probes.
In 1974, Hong Kong Governor Sir Murray MacLehose established the ICAC (the Independent Commission Against Corruption). The aim was to combat the then-prevalent corruption which existed in all spheres of life in Hong Kong, especially in government departments such as Fire Services, Lands, Buildings and police.
The creation of ICAC and then their methods sparked off disgruntlement in many departments; but especially amongst the police and firemen who were the most high profile targets. Faced with a potential police rebellion and the severe disruption that this would have caused to everyday life, MacLehose extended a general amnesty to the police force in order to defuse the situation. Some officers (especially the notorious detective station sergeants) were, however, excluded from the amnesty. Although the measure was effective, it caused considerable misgivings, especially amongst the small group of honest police officers who had resisted the temptation to engage and benefit from corrupt practices and who, as a result, had suffered adverse career consequences. (Wikipedia)
Disturbed by the Shah’s seeming loss of grip on power, Colonel Hossein Azhari of the Iranian Army forms a “National Officer’s Patriotic Group” designed to restore order and control. Through a number of connections, Col. Azhari finds that he has support from the CIA.
Never Mind The Bollocks: Here's The Sex Pistols is released in the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister Ina Bursey of Rhodesia meets in Johannesburg with Prime Minister Vorster of South Africa for a summit on their joint apporach to African resistance movements. Although some common military and security policies are agreed to at the summit, Bursey and Vorster differ over the Rhodesian Prime Minister's refusal to negotiate with black nationalist forces and reach an accomodation. Vorster feels Bursey is shortsighted while Bursey feels that the South Africans are trying to push the Rhodesians into talks in order to buy time for their own struggles against the African National Congress forces.
At the time, some Rhodesians said the still embittered history between the British-dominated Rhodesia and the Afrikaner-dominated South Africa partly led South Africa to limit its aid to Rhodesia.
Prime Minister Healey and Defence Secretary Owen head off an effort lead by Barbara Castle and Tony Benn to force the withdrawal of UK troops from Syria and Madeira. The Prime Minister rounds-up enough support for continuing the missions from within his caucus arguing that Great Britain must stand by her committments to the western alliance even if these operations were the policy of the previous Conservative government. Nonetheless Healey's support is soft and he senses that he will face stronger opposition in the future.
October 30, 1977
The Zaire Armed Forces are repulsed after major fighting by a guerrilla offensive near Passe Kobo and Burgasso in the former Central African Republic.
November 1, 1977
2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, is discovered by Charlie Kowal.
Portugal's traditional naming conventions change such that children's surnames can come from either the mother or the father, not just from the father.
President Wallace signs legislation raising the minimum wage of $2.30 to $3.10 effective January, 1 1981.
Vice President Nicholas Katzenbach receives a pie in the face while visiting Yale University to give an address. The protester calls the Vice President a “sell-out” for agreeing to serve in George Wallace’s Administration.
Iranian oil workers go on a strike, demanding an increase in wages and benefits and greater control over their working conditions (some have compared their condition to workers in other parts of the Middle East: in many countries living conditions for oil workers have impoved due to oil revenues; in Iran - despite the increase in oil revenues - the pay and working conditions for oil workers have actually declined, thanks largely to corruption and greed in the Shah's administration). The Iranian oil workers also accuse the Shah’s regime of not paying them in full and not using the nation’s oil wealth to the benefit of all the people. This latter demand wins the oil workers respect and support from many Iranians.
November 2, 1977
The worst storm in Athens' modern history causes havoc across the Greek capital and kills 38 people.
November 4, 1977
UN Security council proclaims weapon embargo against South Africa.
President Wallace refuses to withdraw the United States Ambassador from South Africa, arguing that “the job of the Ambassador is to talk to a foreign government, and talking is the only way were going to win agreement on change in their policies. I mean, how else do they expect us to make a change? Surely, all the pointy-heads who are calling for us to break off relations don’t want me to declare war on South Africa - create another Vietnam - do they? Our Ambassador is there to negotiate with the South African government and that’s what he’s gonna do. Period.”
Thousands of Syrian civilians demonstrate in Damascus, Hama, Homs, Alleppo and Lakatia against the foreign occupation. This is the first organized civillian protest since the occupation began to have been co-ordinated across different communities in Syria. The sexual assault and murder of a youth in Homs is a strong theme in the protests.
Influenced by the National Officers Patriotic Group, the Iranian Army refuses the Shah’s orders to put down the oil workers strike. The oil workers themselves manage to fend off an attack by the Shah’s Secret Police, the SAVAK. The oil workers not only defeat the SAVAK troops (and scare others away with their show of solidarity in the face of threats) but they actually capture some SAVAK operatives. Of these, some defect while others join with the oil workers.
The Rhodesian government begins work on a Uranium separation program designed to isolate U235 for crude nuclear weapons production. They are buying the Uranium from South Africa.
November 5, 1977
An announcement that President Wallace of the United States will pay a State visit to Saudi Arabia in December leads to three days of rioting and demonstrations calling for the "infidel Wallace" to be slain if he sets foot on Saudi soil. The proposed visit is cancelled.
November 6, 1977
The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia fails, killing 39.
Rep. Jack F. Kemp (R-NY(38)): “I will be a candidate for the Republican and Conservative Parties’ nomination for Governor of New York. Our great state needs change and fiscal discipline and a plan that will put New Yorkers back to work. That’s what I will be fighting for in this campaign and that is what I will do if elected Governor next year.”
November 7, 1977
On the sixtieth anniversary of the October Revolution The Soviet National Anthem's lyrics are returned after a 24 year period: at the insistence of Party General Secretary Mikhail Suslov Joseph Stalin's name is restored to the original lyrics. In an address to the Supreme Soviet Suslov also praises Stalin’s role as the “saviour of the Socialist Revolution from the dark forces of Nazi fascism.” In his address Suslov also comments on the “flabbiness” of Party discipline and lax morality among the “cadres.” He speaks of need for a renewed discipline which will bring the Party back to “the zeal of Lenin and the discipline of Stalin.”
An unbreakable union of free republics,
Great Rus' has welded forever to stand!
Created in struggle by the will-of-the-people,
The united, the mighty Soviet Union.
CHORUS:
Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free!
Bulwark of people, in brotherhood strong!
Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
It leads us to the triumph of Communism.
Through tempests the sun of freedom shone to us,
And the great Lenin lighted us the way.
Stalin lead us to victory in the peoples righteous cause,
Inspired us to labour and to acts of heroism.
CHORUS
In the victory of the immortal ideas of Communism
We see the future of our country,
And to the Red banner of our glorious Fatherland
We shall always be selflessly true.
CHORUS
November 8, 1977
Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
San Francisco elects City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the U.S.
Australian Prime Minister Bill Hayden has stones and bottles thrown at him by a Saudi crowd when he makes a state visit to Saudi Arabia.
November 9, 1977
Gen. Hugo Banzer, President of the military government of Bolivia, announces that the constitutional democracy will be restored in 1978 instead of 1980 as previously provided.
FBI and FCTB agents arrest two men reconnoitering the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, PA. The men, said to be of Middle Eastern origin, may have been looking for ways to sabotage the plant’s operation and perhaps cause a nuclear disaster.
An Angolan invasion into Shaba forces President Mobutu to divert troops toward his Southern border, further weakening his position in to the North.
November 10, 1977
The Bee Gees release the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever; which like the film is received with lukewarm reviews. Sales are low and the album is considered a financial failure. It is considered too escapist by many audiences; unconnected to the issues of their lives.
Soviet Communist Party General Secretary dedicates a monument to Stalin, the first to be raised in the Soviet Union since the de-Stalinization twenty years earlier. The statue pays tribute to Stalin’s role as Soviet leader in the Great Patriotic War.
A squad of Grey Wolves attempt to assassinate President (General) Ersin while he is travelling in a convoy. The assassination attempt fails. Two Grey Wolves commandos, Mechmet Ali Agca and Omer Clelic survive the attack and are forced to flee the country. They receive sanctuary in Libya.
Dr. Karim Sanjabi, Dr. Shapur Baktiar, Mehidi Bazargan and former Admiral Ahmad Mahdani form the nucleus of a new Iranian National Front Party, whose objective is to liberalize the Shah’s regime. They begin a process of cultivating allies for liberal reform within Iran and courting support in the U.S.
November 12, 1977
Joe DiRosa defeats Ernest “Dutch” Morial in the New Orleans Mayoral election. This was the first serious attempt by a black candidate (Morial) to win election as Mayor of New Orleans.
The Shah calls on the Army to put down a protest in Tehran in sympathy with the oil workers. This time several army commanders refuse to act and allow the protest to go on. During the protest there are several instances of the Army arresting SAVAK agents who attempt to intervene.
The Shah cancels a planned trip to the United States in order to deal with continuing unrest in Iran.
November 13, 1977
25th Islander shut-out with 6-0 Gilles scores on 5th penalty shot.
Egypt President Sadat repeats willingness to visit Israel to Walter Cronkite on CBS television.
November 14, 1977
Alexei Kosygin retires as Premier of the Soviet Union, and Boris Ponomarev steps down as First Deputy Premier. Kosygin disappears from public prominence while Ponomarev is named as the Soviet Ambassador to Nepal. Arvids Pelse is nominated by the Politburo to replace Kosygin as Premier, while Grigory Romanov is named to the post of First Deputy Premier. (Romanov is thought in the West to wield the real authority at Suslov and Andropov’s direction, with Pelse is largely a figurehead Prime Minister (and a symbol, since he is a Latvian not a Russian)). Yevgeny Primakov joins Romanov’s staff and often travels with Pelse.
November 15, 1977
Li Ka-shing, Martin Lee, Stanley Ho Hung Sun and others begin discussions of the "Hong Kong Better Governance Society" whose aim is to develop a home grown executive function for Hong Kong which will allow the colony greater autonomy and remove the British Governor to a more symbolic role, like Governors-General in other British Commonwealth Dominions. While the aim is not necessarily an independent Hong Kong statelet (on the model of Singapore) there is a feeling that, given the chaotic situation in China and the need to rely on U.S. as well as U.K. defence, Hong Kong needs to gain greater poltical control over its own strategic and economic destiny.
November 16, 1977
President Guillermo Fonseca-Álvarez of Mexico and U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen McNichols fail to reach agreement on a U.S.-Mexican oil export agreement which could soften energy prices in the United States. President Fonseca-Alvarez is reportedly being pushed by nationalists in his government to extract world prices from the U.S. government.
November 17, 1977
Bernard Pomerance's "Elephant Man," premieres in London.
Miss World Contest - Miss UK wears $9,500 platinum bikini.
Prime Minister Menachim Begin: “While we would welcome a visit by Sadat in principle, we cannot enter into negotiations until a settlement is reached in Syria and Lebanon, and until President Sadat can assure us that Egypt will never support the re-arming of the Syrian state.”
Acting in a power vacuum between retreating ZAF forces and CAR rebels, French Foreign Legion troops move into Bangui and establishes control over the former colony.
NSC Meeting – The White House
President: “You’re telling me the Shah’s position is hopeless?”
Lew Allen (SNICO): “CIA and DIA both agree that he’s lost the last of his political support. He’s going to fall, there’s no doubt about it now.”
Paul Nitze: “It’s really a question of what we do to secure Iran from chaos.”
President: “We can’t do what was done by Eisenhower and Dulles?”
Fred Ickle (CIA Director): “An attempt to re-impose the Shah by covert means would, in the opinion of our area experts, only make matters worse. The Iranian people are aware of what happened in fifty-three and they won’t accept a repeat. If we try it now, we could only make things far worse.”
Allen: “Let me add that the Shah had some political support in fifty-three from among Iranian elites. He has none now; his regime is a spent force.”
Vice President Katzenbach: “We also have to consider international opinion. It’ll only make our diplomatic efforts in the whole Middle East more difficult if we are seen to be imposing regimes or propping-up a spent regime – as General Allen puts it – then we could lose all credibility. We would be in a far better position diplomatically if we work with the reformers.”
Secretary of State Jackson: “As long as we can be sure that those so-called reformers aren’t pro-Moscow. We don’t want to create an opening for the Soviets by pushing the Shah out.”
Nitze: “It is a better idea that, if we are going to ask the Shah to leave, that we do it on our timetable and while the situation is still in flux. That way we have a foot in the door, so we can check any attempts by more pro-Soviet elements to take advantage of this.”
President: “So, you’re asking me to approve giving the Shah, whose been our friend and ally for over twenty years, the heave ho. Is that it?”
Katzenbach: “Better for us and for him that, as a friend, we help him into a comfortable exile and work to stabilize the new government. If we let events take their course, if we allow him to be overthrown, we could be looking at a new Nasser or worse. Right now we have a chance to prevent that, and keep a more open Iran as an ally.”
November 19, 1977
Libyan Dictator Muammar Quaddafi states that if President Sadat visits Israel then “all fire will pour down on his head.”
President Sadat: “We support a normalization of the situation in Syria, of course, and as such we have been working with our American friends and President Maamum. However, as the President of Egypt, I cannot make guarantees about the armed forces of Syria, which are an internal matter for the Syrian government to decide. I urge the Prime Minister not to squander such an opportunity for a historic breakthrough on trifles.”
November 20, 1977
Prime Minister Begin: “Trifles? The security of the Israeli state is not a trifle. We are not unaware of Egyptian troops operating in Syria, and we have noted the recent outreach from Cairo to Beirut and Baghdad. Our esteemed President Sadat does not mention these, or exactly what his forces are doing there? Yes? I will not trifle with the security of the Israeli
state. President Sadat is welcome to come as a tourist, but he will receive no official welcome unless he declares fully what he is up to behind our backs while he offers the olive branch in front.”
A British Airways 747 crashes on final approach to Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, killing 119 passengers. British investigators suspect wind shear combined with poor weather conditions (sleet) caused the crash.
However, Soviet authorities (who obstruct a British investigation) claim that the cause was pilot error and inferior aircraft design. They being to press a demand that foreign airlines who wish to fly into Soviet airports must do so using Soviet built aircraft.
Spanish Civil Guards put down an anti-government demonstation by Trade Unionists in Madrid. There follows several days of unrest and rioting.
The National Officers Patriotic Group under Colonel Azhari and the National Front Party reach an accord, and they combine in an alliance under the Emergency Committee for National Salvation (ECNS). ECNS gains backing from the CIA and others in the State Department who want to see liberal reform, or at least stabilization, in Iran.
November 21, 1977
President Sadat:”Suspicion of each other’s motives will not help any of us. While I understand the Prime Minister’s concerns, it is not for him to dictate our national policy. If there is to be peace, we must approach the negotiations as equals. Again, I hold out my hand to the Prime Minister in the hope that he will take it.”
Terrence Boston, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, suggested that a 78 seat Assembly, without legislative powers, could be established at Stormont with committees which would look after non-controversial matters. [This 'Five Point Plan' was similar in a number of respects to a scheme suggested by James Molyneaux, then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was not warmly received by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Interest in this proposal declined over the coming months.]
November 22, 1977
British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
TCP/IP test connecting 3 ARPANET nodes (of 111) fails for an unknown reason.
British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warns U.S. Secretary of State Henry Jackson that British military support in Syria could be limited and that there is doubt about how long the British parliament will allow the military committment to Madeira to continue.
November 23, 1977
European weather satellite Meteosat 1 launched from Cape Canaveral
Prime Minister Begin: “President Sadat asks for us to meet as equals, yet it is his nation which has invaded ours, and which makes overtures to surround us with hostile alliances. Let him foreswear these alliances, let him call on President Maamum to write a constitution for Syria which forever renounces war and an army for that state; let Sadat pledge that he will never make war again and that in the past Egypt has been the aggressor, then we will consider his offer.”
November 24, 1977
President Sadat: “There is no talking with this man. His idea of negotiation is to take what he wants and get nothing in return.”
Jamie Milans del Bosch, supported by the Spanish Church and the Sindicato Vertical (which in the years since Franco's death has been positioning itself as a Roman Catholic Labour Syndicate) pushes out Carlos Navarro in a Flange Party internal coup to become Prime Minister of Spain. Prime Minister Milans announces that his government will promote the "true fatherland values", "oppose Communist aggression from Portugal and other places" and restore the Sindicato Vertical "as the rightful collective instrument of all Spanish workers" (effectively ending Navarro's previous efforts at liberalising the work place by legalizing (selectively) non-governmental trade unions). Milans also proclaims the Church, the Armed Forces and the Monarchy as the "pillars of the spanish state" and dismisses multi-party democracy as "the French disease which, unchecked, will rot Spain from within." He declares a re-newed campaign to "erradicate" Basque seperatists, whom he accuses of collaborating with the PDRP government in Lisbon.
November 26, 1977
'Vrillon', claiming to be the representative of the 'Ashtar Galactic Command', takes over Britain's Southern Television for six minutes at 5:12 PM.
A bomb is found and diffused at the Ras Tanura oil terminal in Saudi Arabia. It is blamed on local unrest, although word soon circulates through PLO sources that it was in fact planted by PJO operatives.
Ruollah Khomeini is convicted of conspiring to overthrow a foreign government not at war with Italy by an Italian court. The Ayatollah is sentenced to three years in prison.
Approximately 6,000 Turkish Armed Forces cross the border into north-eastern Syria in an operation against Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The move followed an aerial bombing campaign. Several French African Community soldiers are injured as a result of the Turkish activity.
An Friday religous demonstration in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia becomes a riot after word spreads that King Khalid will be meeting personally with President Wallace of the United States. Protestors are fired-up to believe that a personal meeting between the King and the American President will only further corrupt the King.
November 27, 1977
65th CFL Grey Cup: Montreal Alouettes defeats Edmonton Eskimos, 41-6
The Rankin/Bass made-for-TV animated film The Hobbit premieres on NBC in the United States.
The ECNS meets with the leadership of the striking oil workers and persuades them to join the ECNS in a common anti-Shah front.
Khomeini supporters demonstrate in Tehran and Qum against the verdict and sentence of the Italian court. The Army, backed by the ECNS, protects the Italian Embassy in Tehran from being seized by the mob. This an related demonstrations add to the sense of chaos in Iran.
The French government begins brokering ceasefire talks between Zaire and the CAR rebels. An aim of the French policy is to get Mobutu to renounce his recent claim to the CAR.
November 29, 1977
To quell further disturbances, King Khalid announces that he will not meet with President Wallace in Egypt.
November 30, 1977
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) founded as specialized agency of the United Nations.
December – Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific (CESDAP)
Prime Minister John Turner of Canada signals that his government will give producers and international oil companies added incentives to begin oil exploration and production in his country.
December 1, 1977
The Lockheed's top-secret stealth aircraft project, designated Have Blue, precursor to the U.S. F-117A Nighthawk, makes its first flight.
December 3, 1977
Bowing to pressure from Sheik Abd Ibin Baaz and other clerics, King Khalid signs the death warrants for fifteen of the thirty men on the Sheik's list of "irredemables." Fourteen of the men are beheaded over the next week. One, Prince Abdel bin-Turki, whose crime was to marry a Swedish actress, manages to escape and flees into exile in the United States.
December 4, 1977
Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all 100 passengers and crew on board.
President General Ersin of Turkey reaches an agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Jackson to resume Turkish particpation in NATO.
December 6, 1977
South Africa grants Bophuthatswana independence.
Prince Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, who is under house arrest, writes a tract which blames the oil and the wealth it produces for Saudi Arabia's social ills and "un-Islamic corruption." His tract calls the oil "Satan's Alcohol" and essentially demands that all of the oil wells and produciton facilties be destroyed. The tract is subsequently smuggled out and becomes part of Sheik abd ibn Baaz's sermons.
December 8, 1977
43rd Heisman Trophy Award: Earl Campbell, Texas (RB).
President Maamum al-Kuzbari of Syria declares the Turkish incursion into Syria to be an act of war and he calls on the allied coalition to defend Syria.
The Christian Democrats try to bring a vote of censure against Italian Prime Minister Berlinguer’s government on the grounds that they have violated Italian law by hosting the convicted Ayatollah Khomeini on Italian soil. The Christian Democrats imply that the Communist Berlinguer used Khomeini to destabilize the Shah’s regime, in furtherance of a plot by the Soviet Union to destabilize Iran and install a Communist government on the Persian Gulf.
In his defence, Prime Minister Berlinguer points out that it was the previous Christian Democrat government which let Khomeini into the country in the first place. He denies any involvement in a conspiracy, as – the Prime Minister emphasises – the Iranian cleric is himself an anti-communist of the most conservative kind. The Communist government in the end beats back the effort to censure them.
This consolidates the Berlinguer government’s hold on power, at least in the short term, as his opponents look opportunistic in their charges. Berlinguer has also had some success in reviving the Italian economy through mixed market and state initiatives, which the previous Christian Democrat government did not do, and as such his popularity increases. He is also widely regarded as a “Mr. Clean” in the less than clean business of Italian politics.
The failure to use the Khomeini trial to dislodge the Communist government sets the P-2 conspirators to work in developing other solutions for removing the left-wing government.
December 10, 1977
Soyuz 26 is launched by the USSR to crew Salyut 6.
France agrees to provide military support and troops to help defeat the Angolan troops in Shaba, in return for a commitment by Mobutu to evacuate the remainder of the CAR.
Congress approves oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in North Eastern Alaska.
December 11, 1977
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL win their very first game against the New Orleans Saints. They had lost their first 26 games before the win.
Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams of the Peace People received the Nobel Peace Prize.
December 12, 1977
Former Sen. John V. Tunney (D-CA): “For the past three years the Goldwater Administration has sought to tear apart the government of this state, and the result has been chaos, stalemate and a decline in public services and the standard of living for all Californians. It is not that California is ungovernable, it is that the current Governor is dedicated to a program of unyielding compromise which has crippled our State, largely at the expense of the citizens that he is supposed to serve. I oppose the Goldwater program, and I will seek the Democratic nomination to oppose Governor Goldwater in the next election, and make him a one-term Governor.”
Colin McNutt (18), a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), was shot dead by undercover British Army soldiers at the junction of William Street and Little James Street, Derry. [It was claimed that the
soldiers were members of the Special Air Service (SAS).]
General Edward C. Meyer USA, head of allied coaltion forces in Syria, meets with General Ersin in Ankara in an effort to persuade the Turks to withdraw their forces from Syria.
December 13, 1977
A DC-3 charter plane carrying the University of Evansville basketball team to Nashville, Tenn., crashes in rain and dense fog about 90 seconds after takeoff from Evansville Dress Regional Airport. Twenty-nine people die in the crash, including 14 members of the team and head coach Bob Watson.
December 14, 1977
Test Cricket debut of Abdul Qadir, v England at Lahore
War criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years
Paul Harman (27), a member of the British Army, was shot dead by the PIRA while driving an unmarked car through the Turf Lodge area of Belfast.
December 16, 1977
Mikhail Baryshnikov's 1976 production of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet The Nutcracker comes to CBS a year after premiering onstage at the Kennedy Center. This adaptation will become the most popular television production of the work.
The United States vetoes an attempt by the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Morocco for its military action against the SADR.
Sheik Abd Ibn Baaz calls for the execution of the other fifteen men on his list of "the corrupt." Most have fled the country, and Sheik Adb uses their departure - which was allowed by the Royal Authorities - to demonstrate that the Royal government has contempt for Islam.
December 17, 1977
Bobby Simpson scores 176 Australia v India at the WACA, aged 41
Elvis Costello & The Attractions 1st US TV appearance (SNL)
ZAF troops evacuate the former CAR. Control of the area reverts to French troops, who begin to administer the area as a protectorate.
From Andre LeJeune - Mitterrand: the Red Imperialist?
The cynical view is that the French baited Mobutu, using the Central African Republic’s mineral deposits and other natural resources as a lure. According to this view, Mobutu probed, and when the French Foreign Legion troops stationed near Bangui failed to react, he went whole foot for the entire country, thinking the French were giving him a tacit signal to go ahead.
The French then allowed him to exhaust himself trying to absorb the former CAR, knowing full well that sooner or later the Zairian would be forced to deal with the Angolans to his South. When they did strike, France then offered military assistance to the weakened ZAF, in return for Mobutu’s abandonment of his ill-fated claim to the CAR.
But why do this? What did France stand to gain?
France gained two things from Mobutu’s adventure; the removal of a quasi-revolutionary Central African Regime that had replaced the former President Bokassa (who was eccentric, but with whom France could do business; the varying governments that succeeded him were heavy with talk of nationalization of the CAR’s resources) with a series of unreliable would-be despots and in the process secured its access to the Central African state’s mineral resources by, all the better for French financial interests.
The second outcome was the complete humiliation of Mobutu. This second outcome revolves around a conspiracy theory that holds as its central tenant the idea that Mobutu Sese Seko was seen from Paris as having gotten too big for his britches. Namely, the French government saw his growing megalomania as a threat to its wider African interests, and so the Elysee concocted a scheme to have two problems – the CAR radicals and Mobutu’s megalomania - cancel each other out, stepping in as saviour of the day when Mobutu was faltering. This would conveniently explain why French Foreign Legionaries and other troops in the Central African Republic did nothing for a year while the ZAF became mired in a costly and deadly guerrilla war.
Many object that the Socialist President Francois Mitterrand was loath to play colonial games of this nature, and would not have allowed the slaughter to continue for so long. It is true that he was not a colonialist by political inclination, but his record also shows that Mitterrand was as hard a defender of French national and commercial interests as his Gaullist predecessors had been. There is little doubt that the French President disliked Mobutu and his kind of dictatorship, but he was not the sort of ideological sentimentalist to lose much sleep over dealing a blow to Mobutu’s self-image and regional aggrandizement. By the fifth year of his Presidency, Mitterrand had also moved beyond Socialist sloganeering to
understanding the importance of French commercial interests across the globe, and how their vitality reflected on the vitality of France as a potential world power. He may have regretted his actions, but in the interest of the state he sanctioned a re-dress of the balance of power in the region.
What is noteworthy though, is that France did gain control of the CAR as a quasi-colony, and this secured French access to the natural resources of the country. Added to that, France took the lead in re-building the ZAF’s depleted arsenal, and further ensured President Mobutu’s acquiescence by helping him to fight off an invader in the South of his country.
Others argue that Mobutu, being an important client of the CIA, the Americans would never have allowed his regime to be endangered in such a fashion by the French. There was a very real risk of creating instability in Zaire. However, this overlooks that in African affairs the CIA under the Wallace Administration was already stretched thin with limited resources.
The American President had them involved in covert campaigns in Rhodesia, South Africa and Mozambique, all the while the CIA was trying to hide this activity from Congress and the American press. Additionally this all occurred while the U.S. was trying to plan a withdrawal from Syria, and at a time when the Iranian and Saudi regimes were collapsing. The lack of American attention to Mobutu’s fate, and French meddling, may not have represented policy as much as the product of a fractured attention being called on by many more urgent crisis about the globe.
President Mitterrand may well have sensed that very point and used the moment to reassert a firmer grip on Central Africa. Certainly his willingness to use French troops to battle the Angolans and to shore-up the weakened Mobutu won him plaudits in Washington, where his socialist credentials were always a source of suspicion. From that standpoint the United States got a re-armed and chastened Mobutu, who was still ready to assist in U.S. covert activities, at someone else’s expense.
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December 20, 1977
Red Army Faction terrorist Knut Folkerts sentenced to 20 years.
Turkish forces withdraw from Syrian territory, in return for a guarantee from the Allied coalition command that they will detain and disarm any PKK fighters found in Syria.
December 21, 1977
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a series of fire-bomb attacks on hotels in Northern Ireland and damaged five hotels.
South Vietnamese and Latin American mercenaries in the employ of the Rhodesian Defence Forces raid the village of Nakoma in North Eastern Botswana causing an international sensation when they kill a number of innocent villagers as well as ZPLF guerilla fighters.
December 22, 1977
The PIRA announced that there would be ceasefire at Christmas.
December 25, 1977
Elvis Presley stages a Christmas Day concert and "prayer-in" for U.S. troops in Syria. The concert takes place at Join Forces Base Willis outside of Damascus. After the concert, Elvis announces that he will study scripture in the Holy Land.
December 27 -29, 1977
President George Wallace makes a state visit to Poland, where he dedicates a new Poland-America Cultural Center alongside Polish leader Eduard Gierek.
December 29, 1977
A General Strike is declared across Iran in solidarity with the oil workers. The General Strike, which allows the activities of the ECNS to continue, otherwise all but shuts down the Shah’s government and puts an effective halt on the economy of Iran.
December 29 – 31, 1977
President George Wallace becomes the first sitting U.S. President to visit Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
December 31, 1977
“Bubbling Brown Sugar" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 766 performances.
"Man of La Mancha" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 124 performances.
Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait.
Donald Woods, a banned white editor flees South Africa.
WFAT (Brooklyn NY pirate radio station) begins broadcasting on 1620 AM
December 31, 1977 – January 2, 1978
President Wallace makes a state visit to India. He fails to persuade Prime Minister Desai to ease back on his policy of local partnerships. In a speech to the Indian parliament, however he does discuss breifly how, as Governor of Alabama, he was able to negotiate partnerships between the State and private companies which enhanced public facilities in Alabama. This does interest his hosts.
January 1, 1978
The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law.
Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes into the ocean near Bombay, killing 213.
Former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-CA): "The people of California are clealy the losers when the contest for political office is twisted into ideological scorekeeping. The impact of policies becomes lost in political rhetoric, while the people's interests are pushed to secondary or even third level import. Governor Goldwater has made his Administration an echo chamber for the politics of the right, and now Senator Tunney is talking through the filter of the left. I'm standing for Governor of all the people in California. I will run in the Republican primaries to challenge Governor Goldwater for the 1978 Republican nomination for Governor of our great state."
January 2, 1978
Charles Manson escapes from Folsom State Prison
January 2-4, 1978
President Wallace visits Egypt, where he meets with President Sadat as well as King Hussein, the Shah of Iran and Crowned Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Originally the President had planned to visit Iran and Saudi Arabia as a part of his trip, but it was decided to have the Iranian and Saudi leaders meet him in Egypt because the Secret Service objected to the level of instability in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In their face-to-face talks, President Wallace informs the Shah that he must cede control to a new authority which can represent a wider consensus in Iran. The Shah counters that he is the sole source of legitimacy in Iran and protests the American President’s interference in the internal affairs of Iran. With Director Ickle’s support, Wallace points to the information showing that the Shah has lost all support within Iran and that he can’t stay.
President: “When even the dog catchers turn on you, then you know it’s time to go.”
Shah: “I am Iran. How dare you...”
Secretary Jackson: “With all due respect, your majesty, the choice you have is an all out revolution, or stepping down now, so your son can take the throne, and salvage what is left of the position for your family. That is the only choice you have.”
Shah: “You must support me, I have been your friend for a long time.”
Jackson: “If we were not your friend, we would let you fall. It is because we are your friend that we say this now, and give you our commitment that we are ready to support your son.”
Shah: “He is a boy...”
President: “Who’s about to have a growing experience.”
It is widely believed that President Sadat of Egypt also spoke with the Shah and pointed out how abdicating in favour of his son now would spare his dynasty the fate of Egypt’s King Farouk.
From Henry Kissinger - The Middle East Conundrum
George Wallace missed a historic chance to start a dialogue between Israel and Egypt largely through his failure to push Begin into being less intransigent about opening a dialogue with Sadat. By all measures Sadat's intial offer was genuine, and not without risk to his standing in the Arab world, which decline percepitoulsy from the moment he made the offer to talk with the Israelis. Begin for his part later reflected that he might have been willing to meet with Sadat had it not been for the presence of Egyptian troops (mostly translators and facilitators for the American and British forces) in Syria, and Sadat's trips to Baghdad, which Begin viewed with dire suspicion as an effort to re-new the 1973 alliance which had attacked Israel. Ironically, Sadat's visits to Iraq had been aimed at persuading President al-Bakr to not only stay the hand of any Iraqi intrigue in Syria, but also at trying to win the Iraqi leader over to a joint effort to ask the Soviets to leave the Syrian occupation force - a measure Sadat believed would placate Israeli suspicions. Sadat had remained silent about the real purpose of these trips at the time because President al-Bakr feared that publicity about the substance of their talks would undermine his own domestic political position.
Hassan Tuhami, President Sadat's National Security Advisor had made the Egyptian President's intentions clear to his American counterpart Paul Nitze, whom Sadat had every reason to believe would pass this on to Wallace and Secretary Jackson. We know from the record that Nitze and Jackson, with input from White House Chief of Staff Bill Nichols did meet to discuss the Sadat overture, but that neither were enthusiastic about where it could lead, both accepting a negative view (similar to that of
Begin) that, whatever the Egyptian's stated intent, Sadat and al-Bakr were actually reviving the 1973 alliance at Israel's expense. As such a favorable interpretation of sadat's shuttle diplomacy to Baghdad never reached President Wallace's desk.
Nichols, as a consequence of his years in Congress, had developed a strong relationship with the Israel lobby and in the past had been a strong supporter of Israel. This could easily have colored his interpretation, and as the President's Chief of Staff he had a significant influnence over the flow of information which reached Wallace.
As a result, when the parties met in Aswan, Wallace was taken aback by the news of Sadat's overtures, backed-up by a qualified endorsement by Jordan's King Hussein. Not having heard of the background from his own bureaucracy (and seemingly unaware of Sadat's public statements about his willingess to meet with Begin - an indication that he had not been briefed on these either) Wallace believed Sadat and the King were telling him what he wanted to hear, staging a sort of theater for the benefit of the visitng President. Wallace, as was his personality, took offense to this, thinking the two more experienced statesman were trying to play him for political benefit. Therefore he shut the whole thing down and moved closer to Begin's position of mistrust (ironic, given that Wallace disliked the Israeli Prime Minister).
When Wallace left Aswan on January 4th the prospects for a settlement had dimmed considerably, especially without any backing from the U.S. Administration. President Sadat was forced into the humiliating (and potentially lethal, in terms of Arab politics) postion of backing away from his proposals in order to save face, while King Hussein stuck his head in the sand lest he get tarred with the same brush as Sadat.
When there was no communique of a U.S. endorsement of the Sadat effort out of Aswan, President al-Bakr loudly condemned Sadat as well, ending closing any effort of an Egyptian mediated end to the Soviet presence in Syria.
All this can be laid at the door of Jackson and Nitze, who imposed their own interpretation on the flow of infomration coming from Sadat. Nitze clearly didn't believe Sadat's intentions, while Jackson, who still harbored Presidential ambitions of his own, now took to bringing U.S. policy into line with Israel. Given the animosity between Wallace and Begin on a personal level, Secretary Jackson felt he could do his own political prospects good in being seen as the American official who preserved the tight relationship between the two countries. As such he and Nitze together failed to brief the President properly, who disinterested overall in the Arab-Israeli question, was ill-equipped by background information to grab a chance when it appeared. Further, when it was presented to him by the people involved, his temperment (and some argue the state of his health may also have effected his mental clarity by this stage of his trip) took control and he dismissed it out-of-hand as a show being staged for his benefit. This was a diplomatic failure of the utmost consquences.
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From Dr. Newt Gingrich - Policy in Amber: The Failure of Vision in the Foreign Policies of Presidents James Gavin and George Wallace
Dr. Kissinger is among many who lament the January 1978 Aswan meeting as a lost opportunity for peace. His argument, along with that of many Wallace critics, stresses President sadat's so-called willingness to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin to discuss peace proposals. All of this is dewey-eyed wool gathering that seeks to sweep under the rug the inconvenient fact of sadat's trips to Baghdad in the summer and fall of 1977. No formal record of these meetings was kept, so were are dependant only on the word of the particpants for what was said.
The Iraqis for their part were clear that there was no discussion of a peace initiative. Sadat, of course, claimed otherwise, but could produce no substantial proof of that point. Instead the Israeli interpretation, that the two regional powers were conspiring against Israel's security, and that Sadat's peace proposal was nothing more than a Trojan horse designed to put Tel Aviv and Washington off-guard while the two Arab states re-built their 1973 alliance, seems the more likely explanation. Such an explanation would be more in keeping with the history and philopsophy of the Arab regimes involved. While some point to Sadat's being condemned by other Arabs as proof of his intention, this too had a long tradition in the Arab world, and could easily have been part of a wider deception plan.
It is not clear that President Wallace realized all this at Aswan, but it is clear that he was aware that the system was being manipulated by Sadat and Al-Bakr, witht the help of Jordan's King. That he called a halt to it then and there is commendable. But where his strategic vision failed was in not, having sensed the dismembling involved on the Arab side, pressing the Egyptians for real concessions in the Sinai in return for the United States not punishing the Egyptian regime for its perfidity.
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January 4 – 6, 1978
President Wallace holds a summit with Western European leaders in Brussels. Despite arguments from other leaders to the contrary, Wallace holds that Sadat's offer to talk with Israel was windowdressing.
January 4, 1978
A referendum in Chile supports the policies of Augusto Pinochet.
Gov. Donald Rumsfeld (R-IL): “I will be standing for re-election next November.”
The IMF reports that the Nationalist rule of Prime Minister Turkes has ruined the economy of Turkey, as has the on-going civil wr with the Grey Wolves and the PKK. The IMF predicts it will take years for a Turkish government to rebuild the damage, especially with high oil prices.
January 6, 1978
The Holy Crown of Hungary (also known as Stephen of Hungary Crown) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held since World War II.
Gov. Hugh Carey (D-NY): “I welcome Representative Kemp’s challenge, and I welcome the opportunity to elect a Democrat to the House seat he will be vacating this fall, when he returns to the private sector. I am a candidate for Governor of New York State.”
Riots break out in Saudi Arabia amidst anti-regime demonstrations. Anti-regime protestors are agitated by the fact that Crown Prince Abdullah met with President Wallace in Egypt.
The Washington Post prints the first of a series of exerts of the Rodham Report which documents waste and incompetence at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The leak causes a sensation and HUD Secretary Ron Dellums comes under fire for this.
From Ron Dellums – Going Left to be Right
You couldn’t fault President Wallace for keeping his word. I was given a free hand the Department of Housing and Urban Development to shake things-up and get better levels of program delivery. Wallace had been largely right in his stated belief that there was nothing wrong with the programs we had in place already; it was the delivery which caused the problems, mostly the bureaucratic fiefdoms which stalled and re-routed the program money and support, often for the career enhancement of a local bureaucrat.
So my staff and I spent the first six months just looking every corner and doing a series of surprise inspections and audits at field offices across the country. Quickly enough we turned-up the waste and the re-routs, and we began to untangle them.
About this time a young lawyer named Hillary Rodham joined our staff. She had been working on Women’s and Child’s advocacy work in Chicago, and what she had done had impressed my staff. We brought her on to write the Rodham report, which cataloged what we had found in our internal inspection along with the remedies we were taking. Her project divided into two volumes, the first of which detailed the problems.
The second was more of a work-in-progress as we redefined how we were addressing the roadblocks and inefficiencies we uncovered.
As happens often times in government, the first volume of the Rodham report leaked. The catalogue of problems and abuses, offered-up without context or any proposed solutions, became fodder for HUD’s conservative critics, and caused more than a few of our friends to duck for cover. I recall that Senators Jesse Helms, Barry Goldwater and Richard Galtieri in particular took-up the contents of the Rodham report as a red flag. Helms made no secret that his goal was to dismantle HUD altogether, and this Goldwater and Galtieri were more than happy to assist.
I sat through a number of contentious House and Senate Committee hearings trying to put some context into what the report had found. I put Hillary in front of the committees to offer up a preliminary draft of her second volume, to show that we were addressing the problems in the first volume and were doing what we could to fix it; that we were being proactive as well as reactive. I remember Hillary’s coolness under fire, especially when Representative Jack Kemp of New York, one of the deficit hawks, came after her over the excessive spending caused by various inefficiencies. When presented with volume two, Kemp went
after the fact that we had not implemented it sooner. Again Hillary kept her cool and won the day for us.
I wasn’t surprised that some of our friends in Congress dived for cover; it was a tough period to be defending government waste, especially with people suffering as a result of the lingering recession. A few of our friends like Charlie Rangel, Ed Markey and Senator Ted Kennedy stayed true, and that counted in the end.
But, all through the grilling, we received little support from the White House. In fact the silence was ominous. I could understand why the President would want to keep a low profile on this issue, but even so some of his stimulus had gone into HUD programs, and I thought for sure that he would want to defend them, at least so far as they promoted his own policy agenda. Instead we got nothing. It made me wonder what was really going through his mind.
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January 6 – 9, 1978
President Wallace makes a state visit to the United Kingdom where he meets with British and Irish government leaders. The President spends two days at Chequers, the British Prime Minister’s country home. Part of this time is so that the President can rest after the strains of the lengthy international trip.
January 6, 1978
The PIRA announced it would continue the ceasefire as long as “there are no attacks on the Catholic community by Loyalist militia or the British forces.” In private the communicate to the British government their willingness to extend the ceasefire as a way of continuing the Christmas talks.
The “Christmas Talks” grow out of the French brokered exchanges between Sein Fein and the Healey government. During the period of the ceasefire a pretext is created for the British government to explore the possibility of some settlement that will end the violence in Northern Ireland. The French government continues to act as the go-between in these efforts.
January 6 - 9, 1978
Laos Nationalist forces backed by the North Vietnamese Army fight a three day battle near Muang Son in North Eastern Laos. Casualty rates are estimated at over twenty thousand on the Nationalist side.
January 7, 1978
David Duke (Knights of the Ku Klux Klan): “George Judas Wallace has betrayed every white man in America. His is the life of an infamous traitor. Once, Wallace stood for the rights of the white man and for liberty in this country. But now, like a Judas, he has taken the liberal, Jew America’s thirty pieces of silver. Instead of standing up for the white race in the Alabama Governor’s house, he has instead sold his soul to sit in the so-called White House, to be crowned King of the dung heap he has sold every ounce of integrity there was in him. Now I do not call for violence against our so-called President, because then they would put me in jail and the negroes would knife me in no time. No, I say, no violence should befall Judas Wallace. But I also say this, I would prefer to see that New York Jew Katzenbach as President, not cause I love that liberal Yid, but at least he’s true to what he is and not a traitor to his kind.”
January 8, 1978
Israeli govt votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai.
Paddy Donnegan, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), called for a British declaration of intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland. The statement was supported by many in the Nationalist community in Northern Ireland.
ZPLF guerillas kill fourteen white Rhodesian farmers in a cross-border raid into Rhodesia.
Syria begins to mobilize a self-defense force which is a heavily armed police force for border defence and internal security.
Prince Nouf, a grandson of King Ibn Saud, founder of Saudi Arabia, appears in Beirut as the personal emissary from Sheik Abd bin Baaz to the PJO.
January 10, 1978
The “famous reconciliation”. President George Wallace visits a dying Senator Hubert Humphrey at the former Vice President’s hospital room at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Famous photographs are taken of Wallace in his wheelchair and Humphrey in his pyjamas hooked-up to an I.V. as a visual symbol for both the changes since the Civil Rights struggles of the sixties, of the costs of those struggles for leaders involved, and for the passing of an era.
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, a critic of the Nicaraguan government, is assassinated. Riots erupt against Somoza's government.
Nicaragua tipped into full scale civil war with the 1978 murder of Pedro Chamorro, who had opposed violence against the regime. 50,000 turned out for his funeral. It was assumed by many that Somoza had ordered his assassination (evidence implicated Somoza's son and other members of the National Guard). A nationwide strike, including labour and private businesses, commenced in protest, demanding an end to the dictatorship. At the same time, the Sandinistas (Frente Sandinista
de Liberación Nacional, or FSLN) stepped up their rate of guerrilla activity. (Wikipedia)
The FSLN group lead by Humberto and Daniel Ortega joined the turmoil in early February with attacks in several Nicaraguan cities. The National Guard responded by further increasing repression and using force to contain and intimidate all government opposition. The nationwide strike that paralyzed the country for ten days weakened the private enterprises and most of them decided to suspend their participation in less than two weeks. Meanwhile, Somoza asserted his intention to stay in power until the end of his presidential term in 1981.
Soon after the Wallace Administraion pledged their continuing support to the Somoza regime against the left-wing Sandinistas, and began increasing military aid.
Gov. Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA): “My opponents would like it very much if I threw-up my hands in frustration and walked away. That’s not my style, and that’s not the commitment I made to Californians four years ago. Our job is far from done and there is still much that needs fixing in this great state, and I plan to be here to see it done. I am running for Governor in this year’s election.”
Soyuz 27 is launched by the USSR. It docks with the Salyut 6 station manned by the Soyuz 26 crew.
January 11, 1978
The Fair Employment Agency (FEA) issued a report which indicated that the Catholic community experienced a higher level of unemployment than the Protestant community. In particular it pointed to the fact that Catholic men were two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than Protestant men.
The Yugoslav Foreign Minister meets with Paul Nitze in order to discuss U.S. military support for the North Vietnamese in their fight against the Pathet Red forces. Essentially, as a basis of understanding, the U.S. agrees to underwrite Yugoslav arms exports to North Vietnam and tops up Yugoslav depletions with European and South African equipment purchased using Export-Import Bank trade credits.
Under pressure from the United States State Department, Guyana expels Jim Jones and the People's Temple from its territory.
January 12, 1978
President Wallace telephones the Shah to inform him that it is time to step down and allow a “cooling-off” in Iran. The Shah begins it understand that he is cornered.
January 13, 1978
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (MN-DFL), 38th Vice President of the United States, dies as a result of cancer.
January 14, 1978
Sex Pistols' final concert (Winterland, SF)
January 14–15, 1978
The body of former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda, following his death from cancer.
January 15, 1978
The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos, 27-10, to win Super Bowl XII at the President John J. McKeithen New Orleans Superdome.
Neil Hartigan (D-IL): “Donald Rumsfeld has got to go, and I’m going to show him the door. I will be a candidate for Governor of Illinois this year.”
U.S. oil corporations post record profits for 1977, despite an increase in the amount of oil actually consumed by the domestic U.S. economy.
January 16, 1978
The Soyuz 26 capsule returns to Earth with the Soyuz 27 crew aboard.
Tomás Ó Fiaich, then Catholic Primate of Ireland, was quoted in the Irish Press as saying: "I believe the British should withdraw from Ireland. I think that it is the only thing that will get things moving." The comments drew a lot of criticism including from Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who called Ó Fiaich "the IRA's bishop from Crossmaglen".
The ECNS confronts the Shah with an ultimatum indicating that he should appoint the ECNS as an interim government and that he should abdicate in favour of his son Reza, who will become the new Shah in name, with real political authority passing to the ECNS. The Shah resists this, but quickly finds that he has little support.
January 16 – 18, 1978
President Wallace hospitalized for an undisclosed problem, said to be the flu. Actually requires medical treatment after strain of foreign travel on his body.
January 18, 1978
The European Court of Human Rights made its ruling on the case of alleged ill-treatment of internees during 1971. The case had been initially referred to the European Commission by the Irish government on 10 March 1976. On 2 September 1976 the European Commission on Human Rights decided that Britain had to answer a case of ill-treatment of internees and referred the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. The Commission found that the interrogation techniques did involve a breach of the Convention on Human Rights because they not only involved inhuman and degrading treatment but also torture. The European Court of Human Rights however decided that the Commission was wrong to use the word 'torture' but did agree that the internees had been subjected to 'inhuman and degrading treatment'.
January 19, 1978
The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production continues in Latin America.
Ed Asner(actor): "The people of California are tired of being told by so-called conservatives what they can't have and what they cannot be. I believe that our State should serve the welfare of all our citizens, and should have a special charge to take care of those who have been disadvantaged, be it by disease, racism or corporate greed. Our state is about more than just a place where corporations can exercise their rights to take; it is also a place where the government is the people's guardian of their right to live as free people and not slaves to the corporate interest. Today I am announcing that I will be seeking the Democratic nomination for the office of Governor of California."
Officers and troops under Colonel Azhari’s control storm the headquarters of SAVAK in Tehran and arrested many of the operatives and officials they find there. The National Officer’s Patriotic Group gains physical control over SAVAK’s records and archives.
A bomb goes off in the luggage compartment of a TWA flight from Boston to London. The plane breaks-up over the North Atlantic and all aboard are killed. Among the dead is Gordon Brown, a History lecturer from the Glasgow College of Technology who had been guest lecturing on British History and politics at Harvard University.
FCTB and NTSB investigators later determine that the bomb was inside of luggage which origniated with a flight in Los Angeles and that the luggage had made it from LA to Boston and onto the TWA flight even though the phantom passanger associated with the luggage who had checked in at LAX had not boarded the orignal flight. The identity he used was fake. The PJO in Beirut claims responsiblity for this "reprisal" against "American and British infidel crusader aggression".
January 22, 1978
Ethiopia declares the ambassador of West Germany Persona non grata.
NASA launches the Skylab VII mission with Charles M. Duke Jr. (commander), C. Gordon Fullerton (pilot) and Joseph Allen (mission specialist) with a mission to complete a long-term endurance habitation of the Skylab B for 180 days (subject to crew health) – projected return July 16, 1978.
From Jay Taylor – The Taiwan Bomb
Chiang Ching-kuo, having consolidated his position as premier and Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, and the likely next President of the Republic of China, remained interested in the Hong Kong Economic Forum, and began meeting regularly with Li Ka-shing and his representatives to iron out how Taiwan could develop its economy through investments of Hong Kong capital on the island. At the same time both Hong Kong and Taiwan began to explore Thailand, Cambodia and South Vietnam as potential economic hinterlands, as well as making tentative overtures to Singapore as a potential partner. All of this was premised on a South East Asian trade and development zone which would benefit the economies of all nations involved.
Still, as of early 1978 it remained largely a vision, with much to be done in Taiwan – let alone South Vietnam and Cambodia – before the vision could even begin to be realized. Chiang himself referred to it as the “twenty-year plan” and set October 1 1999 (the fiftieth anniversary of the escape to Taiwan by his father – and not coincidentally the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on the mainland) as the target date for creating an industrial Taiwan (“the new Japan”) which would, with the Hong Kong group and Singapore, be the leading economies in their corner of Asia.
Chiang however continued to fret over the militarized and politically shrouded situation on the mainland and, after the demonstration of force by the PRC at Macau in 1975, he believed that Taiwan needed a stronger defence. Although the United States had renewed its pledge to defend Taiwan, Chiang continued to press for a permanent U.S. military base in Taiwan on the order of Okinawa or Yokosuka. Despite Chiang’s lobbying, this was resisted by the U.S. in part because it of conflicting
views within Congress, the Pentagon and the Wallace Administration as to the necessity of a further forward base, which some critics pointed out could provoke a military response from the mainland. The U.S. military felt that it could adequately defend Taiwan from Okinawa and the Philippines, and there was resistance in Congress to spending more money on a large fixed installation in Asia. At the time large sums of U.S. military aid were still going into developing the defence infrastructure for Cambodia and South Vietnam, and Taiwan’s situation was not given as high a priority.
The U.S. intelligence establishment could tell, largely from highly secret spy satellites and SR-71 reconnaissance fly-overs of the PRC, that the regime was largely involved in internal convulsions and did not represent an immediate external military threat. The National Security Council estimated that it would be a decade or more before the PRC became a true military threat, and in the Wallace Administration the priorities were set accordingly, and a military build-up on Taiwan was not given an immediate priority in contrast to other projects. Port calls by U.S. Navy ships, especially aircraft carriers, and the deployment of U.S. Air Force units to existing bases on Taiwan, were stepped-up, to ease fears in Taiwan and show solidarity with the ROC.
Still, this frustrated Chiang. He was also receiving increasing pressure from K.C. Wu (Wu Kuo-chen), a critic of the Kuomintang then living in exile in the United States. An ardent anti-Communist, Wu had had his own conversations with the Hong Kong group, who were looking for a wider political base of support in Taiwan than just the Kuomintang Party to secure the island as an economic base. Accordingly they were seeking to liberalize the KMT dictatorship, if not into a full fledged democracy, then into a more pluralistic entity based on a wider consensus (they especially wanted a replacement for the “1,000 Year Assembly”, a National Assembly whose members had been elected in 1948: this undemocratic legacy of another era was a potential point of instability in the view of the Hong Kong group).
Wu, a convert to the Chicago School of Free Market economics, in particular appealed to the free market Hong Kong billionaires, who saw breaking open the corporatist structure of Taiwan’s economy and society as a first step to the economic liberalization of the island.
Chiang was pursuing limited reforms at the behest of the Hong Kong group, but Wu and his disciples were beginning to increase the pressure from the United States, where their free market ideas appealed to conservative U.S. politicians who were among the strongest Congressional supporters of Taiwan, and to a limited extent from within. There was not yet a formal opposition party, but the general support the “Wu Circle” enjoyed in the United States guaranteed them a certain freedom to operate on the island itself. Chiang could not simply use his secret police to brand them as Communists – which they obviously weren’t – nor could he condemn them as subversives, not when the likes of Senator Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan endorsed their principles. This alone compelled Chiang to crack open his political structure, though he was not yet in the political position to push through a fundamental change, such as ending the “1,000 Year Assembly”.
Economic theory was abstract, however, and not the stuff of mass political movements. Where Wu and his followers had their greatest impact in Taiwan was on defense policy, where the spectre of the Lesser Mao and the strange, quasi-feudal state he was building just across the Taiwan Strait scared most Taiwanese. There was little question that the new leadership in Peking was outdoing the excesses of the Great Helmsman (variously thought to be either in retirement, under some kind of house arrest, or rumoured to be dead [though few believed that]) and arming the PRC to the teeth, even as he put the mainland population through a new “Great Leap Forward” (referred to as the “Great Jump Over a Cliff” in Taiwan). At the same time it was well known that Mao Yan-gui was using narcotics as a means to fund his eccentric project, a source as economically potent as petroleum, but without the scruples of that trade. A PRC narco state with an excess of cash to spend on whatever it chose, including advanced weapons, was a frightening prospect when seen from Taipei.
That Taiwan might be invaded was a given, especially after the PRC re-took Macau. The Wu group embellished those fears, criticizing Chiang and the KMT for not doing enough about the island’s defence and criticising his failure to get a larger American force commitment to Taiwan. (An irony, since some of Wu’s strongest Congressional supporters were also the most tight-fisted when it came to spending U.S. defence dollars in Asia; others of them were taken with the idea of a forward defence against the PRC in South Vietnam and Cambodia and not Taiwan).
Feeling the pressure, Chiang decided that the best option he had to mollify some of his critics was for Taiwan to acquire nuclear arms. These he could not get from the United States, but ROC diplomats were able to broker agreements with Israel, South Africa, Pakistan and Chile which allowed them to share technology, costs and research personnel all of which, collectively, could enhance an interconnected nuclear development program. South Korea joined the circle soon after the initial phases, further expanding the base resources available to the group.
Chiang could not brag publicly about what he was doing, but the “Dragon’s Fist”, as it became known, did get some attention in top echelon circles in Taipei and won over wavering opponents in the military and bureaucracy to Chiang’s leadership.
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From Tadeo Takashi (Translated) The New Sunrise
The state of matters in the People’s Republic of China caused great concern in Japan. However it was intelligence that Taiwan in partnership with other nations, later joined by South Korea, were developing an nuclear capability for military use which caused dismay in the Cabinet and among the Liberal Democratic Party Secretariat.
With Hiroshima and Nagasaki but thirty-three years past, the horror of nuclear war still weighed heavily on the Japanese leaders. America and the Soviet Union were seen as responsible holders of these weapons. Thoughts of the People’s Republic of China, even under Chairman Mao the elder, acquiring such a device had caused considerable nervousness in Japan. The idea that the younger Mao would take these over was even more disquieting.
However, their acquisition by Taiwan and South Korea, both dictatorships of dubious quality, was too much for many Party leaders. Even if the intended policy was to defend against a possible invasion by the barbarian regime on the mainland, both nations were regarded as not to be trusted with such power. Fukada Takeo, the Prime Minister during part of this period, blamed the Americans, who recklessly walked out of the non-proliferation process, for weakening the international structure that controlled nuclear weapons spread – and this was the result.
These pressures combined on the Cabinet to force a move many disliked, but which few could argue should not be considered under these circumstances. More money was to be pressed into the budget to increase the size and effectiveness of the Self Defence Forces, perhaps enough to acquire an offensive capability if required to forcibly disarm Taiwan or South Korea if the possession by either of a nuclear device should drive them to recklessness.
A second decision was more painful, given Japan’s recent history, and so was done in the utmost secrecy. Despite the great revulsion to the idea (some bore a deep emotional opposition to even considering this policy), Japan would begin to explore a nuclear weapons program of our own.
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January 23, 1978
Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.
In reprisal for the January 8 ZPLF raid, the Rhodesian Air Force bombs a ZPLF camp and related refugee center in Southern Zambia.
The ECNS forms a new government in Iran with ex-Admiral Mahdani as Prime Minister and Shapour Baktiar as Minister of Finance. Mehdi Bazargan, as Minister of Justice, will oversee a “truth commission” inquiry into the excesses of the Shah’s secret police. Another of the new government’s first acts is to repeal the Shah’s order banning all political parties. The Shah’s political party, Rezak, is declared disbanded.
January 24, 1978
Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
Debris from the satellite was deposited on Canadian territory, including portions of the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan, on a 600-kilometre (370 mi) path from Great Slave Lake to Baker Lake. In an attempt to recover radioactive material, a search was conducted covering a total of 124,000 square kilometres (48,000 sq mi).
The USSR claimed that the satellite had been completely destroyed during re-entry. Subsequent recovery efforts, named Operation Morning Light, by a joint Canadian-American team swept the area by foot and air in Phase I from January 24, 1978 to April 20, 1978 and Phase II from April 21, 1978 to October 15, 1978. They were ultimately able to recover 12 larger pieces of the satellite. All but two fragments recovered were radioactive. These pieces displayed radioactivity of up to 1.1 sieverts
per hour, yet they only comprised an estimated 1% of the fuel. "One fragment had the (lethal) radiation of 500 R/h, which 100 times higher than the maximum annual [per-person] radiation level of 5 rem."
For these recovery efforts, the Canadian government billed the Soviet Union $6,041,174.70 for actual expenses and additional compensation for future unpredicted expenses; the USSR continued to deny that the wreckage was theirs and they accused the Canadian and US governments of manufacturing false wreckage in order to embarrass the Soviet government. (Wikipedia)
A second sexual assault and murder on a 11 year old boy near An-Nabk in Syria, in an area under U.S. military control, against sets-off civil unrest and an uproar in Syria.
Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
The Shah of Iran abdicates in favour of his son Reza, who becomes a figurehead Shah. The former Shah goes into exile in Switzerland.
January 25, 1978
Muriel Humphrey (DFL-MN) appointed to fill late husband's Senate seat.
President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia calls the Rhodesian action of January 23 a "war crime."
The General Strike in Iran ends.
Bowing to pressure from Sheik Abd bin Baaz and his followers, the Saudi authorities release popular anti-regime firebrand Juhayman al-Otaibi.
January 25–27, 1978
The Great Blizzard of 1978 strikes the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, killing 70.
January 26, 1978
The U.S.S. Constellation (CV-64) battle group encounters an old cargo ship being pursued by two PLA Navy ships in the Pacific, four hundred miles northwest of Hainan Island. The U.S. carrier task force chases off the PLAN ships and then boards the leaky freighter.
On board the U.S. Navy finds approx 120 refugees near starvation (and 70 corpses). The survivors are taken to a refugee center on Taiwan. The survivors tell tales of horrible dislocations and crackdowns by the PRC authorities. This particular group of refugees had been part of a fishing collective on Hainan which had risen against the PRC government and been subjected to a brutal crackdown as a result. According to the refugees over 10,000 people were killed or put to death by the PLA forces sent in to restore order. At least 100 people considered to be ring leaders were crucified by the PLA as an example to others. The rising had come as a result of a protest over a meagre rice ration and the fact that the local fisherman were not permitted to keep any of their catch to feed themselves and their families with.
The 190 refugees had commandeered an old cargo ship in a local dry dock to escape. U.S. authorities estimate it would have sunk had the Constellation group not come across it.
George H.W. Bush: “I declare my candidacy for the office of Governor of Texas.”
Strikers riot in Tunisia, killing about 40.
January 28, 1978
Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento", is arrested.
Ted Nugent autographs a fan's arm with his knife.
Cornelia Wallace appears on the Mike Douglas Show to discuss her marital problems with the President. She mentions that the President's overall health is poor, which is why she thought that he shouldn't have run for President in the first place.
Followers of Sheik Abd Ibn Baaz stone a Dutch woman caught driving an automobile in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. Department of Transportation orders all airlines operating in the United States to remain at the boarding gates until all checked-in passengers have been accounted for, and all luggage is matched with a passenger aboard the flight. This is applied to domestic as well as international flights originating in the United States. This creates many delays in flights.
January 29, 1978
White House Press Secretary Joe Schuster: "The President denies that he has any health problems which could affect his ability to serve as President. Of course, there are lingering problems from the assassination attempt in 1972, but the President has never sought to conceal or minimize these. But as the accompanying statement from his official physician shows, the President is in good health and more than capable of serving as President."
January 30 - February 2, 1978
Soviet First Deputy Premier Grigory Romanov makes a state visit to India, where he signs a number of Indian-Soviet trade agreements and loan guarantees.
January 31, 1978
Israel turns 3 milt outposts in West Bank into civilian settlements.
A bomb explodes at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This is appearently the result of a technical failure in a home-made bomb factory being operated by some engineering and chemistry students without the knowledge of the faculty. (It was disguised as other kinds of experiments though, as the Saudi security service concludes, any competent engineer or chemist would have realized what was going on and therefore at least some of the faculty must be complicit). Among the five students killed in the incident is a twenty year-old engineering student named Osama bin-Laden, the younger brother of the prominent engineer, contractor and international business man Salem bin-Laden.
February 1, 1978
A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing 2 garbagemen, a policeman and injuring several others.
Hollywood film director Roman Polanski attemtps to skip bail and flee to France, after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl. He is delayed at boarding his flight to Paris at Los Angeles airport due to a security check over unclaimed luggage, and Los Angeles county sherrifs have an opoprtunity to catch him before he can flee. Polanski is put in jail to await his sentencing.
A series of increasingly violent attacks (stones, firebombs, nail bombs, molotov cocktails etc) against foreign companies and foreign (non-Islamic) nationals begins in Saudi Arabia.
February 2, 1978
Los Angeles County Judge Laurence J. Rittenband sentences Roman Polanski to ten years in prison at hard labor and revokes his bail. Polanski is sent to Soledad Prison while his appeals are pending. The French government officially protests the sentence.
February 3, 1978
Australia beat India 3-2 on 6th day of final test.
India needing 493 to beat Australia at Adelaide, all out 445.
A nail bomb kills fourteen Catholic schoolgirls aged 9 – 12 and injures twenty-six others outside of the St. Hilda’s Catholic School for Girls in Belfast. The bomb had been planted by Loyalists, however the murders of the school girls is widely condemned in the Loyalist community.
Sein Fein ends the Christmas talks on February 4.
Lt. Gov. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-CA): "California needs new leadership which will restore a progressive, conscenus oriented management to its affairs. We must also recognize that damage that has been done by the wholesale amputations of public services over the last thee years and correct the hemmorage before it is too late. I announce that I will seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of California."
February 5–7, 1978
The Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 hits the New England region and the New York metropolitan area, killing about 100 and causing over US$520 million in damage.
February 6, 1978
King Dragon operation in Arakan: Burmese General Ne Win targets Muslim minorities in the village of Sakkipara.
Israeli jets bomb a Syrian National police force encampment near the Golan Heights.
Colonel Jan Breytenbach of the South African Special Forces is sent to Nicaragua to act as an advisor to the Somoza regime.
Two Lao Air Force F-5 jets are shot down by surface-to-air missiles fired from the jungles of Northern Laos.
February 7, 1978
Ethiopian offensive in Ogaden desert.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) was reported in the Irish Times as stating that it is "the British dimension which is the obstacle keeping us away from a lasting solution".
The United States announces limited direct aid to the Royalist Lao forces in the Nationalist coalition, such aid to be channelled through South Vietnam.
The Campaign of Jabal Lubnan in central Lebanon ends.
February 7 - 11, 1978
President Mitterrand of France makes a state visit to India. While in India he discusses ideas of mixed economic development with Prime Minister Desai and other Indian leaders. Mitterrand is also looking for new trade opportunites in the sub-Continent.
February 8, 1978
United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.
Sixteen year-old Ann Coulter decides that she wants to become a fashion designer.
Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes PM of Kuwait.
The Alabama State Court announces a preliminary seperation in the divorce case of Cornelia Wallace v. George C. Wallace.
February 8 - 22, 1978
Rhodesian special forces aided by international "specialists" and South Vietnamese mercenaries conduct a series of raids into
Zambia and Botswana to attack ZPLF camps and staging points, as well as logistical support networks. In the process they attack Zambian and Botswanan police and military posts. This has the effect of not only infuriating the Zambian and Botswanan governments, but also of contributing to political instability in both countries.
February 11, 1978
Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 44 of the 50 people on board.
Somalia mobilizes its troops, due to an apparent Ethiopian attack.
Tom Metzger: “Wallace is the arch traitor of all time! He belongs in Hell!”
Rush Limbaugh takes over the management of a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Kansas City, Kansas.
Singapore hosts the first ever meeting between South Vietnamese Foreign Minister Tran Que (supposedly on a state visit to Singpore to promote trade) and Le Douc Tho of the North Vietnam Politburo (there secretly). The meeting is to discuss Chinese encurions, through the Pathet Red, into Laos and to develop a common policy in the interest of both halves of Vietnam.
The PLO and the Phalange conclude a treaty carving-up Beirut along sectarian lines. This agreement - the so called "Treaty of the Green Line" ushers in an uneasy truce between the two groups in central Lebanon. The Lebanese state is not consulted in this and has increasingly become marginalized.
Juhayman al-Otaibi and Sheik Adb ibn Baaz lead another massive demonstration in Saudi Arabia. They are confronted by the National Guard, who in turn are confronted by untis of the regular army and the Mutaween in a situation which evolves into a stand-off, and then brief violence before the National Guard backs-off.
February 15, 1978
John Hume, then deputy leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), said that the British government should consider a third option in its search for a political solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. [The first option, of maintaining the status quo or further integration with Britain, was one which Nationalists believed the government had been following, and the second option was withdrawal from Northern Ireland which was being advocated by many Nationalists.] The third option was an "agreed Ireland" where the British government would declare that its objective was to bring the two main traditions in Ireland together in reconciliation and agreement.
US Customs and FBI agents arrest three men of Middle East origin, two Palestinians and one Lebanese, who were attempting to smuggle arms and ammunition into the United States through the port of Baltimore.
February 16, 1978
The Hillside Strangler, a serial killer prowling Los Angeles, claims a tenth and final victim.
The first computer bulletin board system (CBBS) is created in Chicago.
Major Oliver North USMC, working on detached duty with the CIA, arrives in Nicaragua with other Special Forces operatives with the mission to train and advise the Nicaraguan National Guard and to conduct counter-insurgency operations against the FSLN.
February 17, 1978
Twelve people, all Protestant civilians, were killed and 23 badly injured when an incendiary bomb exploded at the restaurant of the La Mon House Hotel, Gransha, near Belfast. The bomb had been planted by the PIRA. Canisters of petrol had been attached to a bomb which was left on a window-sill of the restaurant. An inadequate warning had been given and the hotel was being cleared when the bomb exploded. Many of those killed were burnt to death. Seven of the dead were women. There were three married couples among the dead. All those who died were attending the annual dinner-dance of the Irish Collie Club. A PIRA statement announced that the bombing had been in retaliation for the St. Hilda’s massacre two weeks before which, the PIRA stated, “ended the ceasefire.”
A British soldier was killed in a helicopter crash in County Armagh. [The IRA claimed to have shot down the helicopter. For many years the British Army denied the claim before finally acknowledging that the IRA had indeed caused the crash.]
Ibrahim al-Takari, the Speaker of the Syrian Parliament, is assassinated by a suicide bomber.
February 18, 1978
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) carried out a series of arrests in connection with the La Mon bombing.
In Syria a water carrier poisons five Senegalese troops serving with the allied forces.
February 19, 1978
Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus.
Earlier, two assassins had killed prominent Egyptian newspaper editor Youssef Sebai and then rounded up several Arabs who were attending a convention in Nicosia as hostages. As Cypriot forces were trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers at the airport, Egyptian troops decided to launch their own assault without authorization from the Cypriots.
Since Cyprus was still under the control of foreign troops, including some U.S. Army units operating under U.N. command, the U.N. command allowed the entry of the Egyptians to resuce their countrymen. The U.N. forces acted as a buffer between the Egyptians and Cypriot civil police. It was widely understood that the U.N. allowed the Egyptian raid to go forward since mainly Egyptian nationals were involved, and it presented an expedient way to end the crisis with minimal inovlement from either the U.N. forces or the still-to-be tested Cypriot Armed Police.
Inspired by what is occurring in Italy and France, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, then Minister of Chemicals and Petroleum in Desai's government begins moves to formulate an Indian Progressive Socialist Party on the Mitterrand/Berlingeur model which could allow for a mixed economy.
February 21, 1978
Electrical workers in Mexico City find the remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the city.
John W. Hinckley (thoughts): “They all hate Wallace. If I kill the President they’ll be impressed with me.”
Nationalist Lao forces are defeated and forced to retreat from the city of Muang Khoua in North Central Laos. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Pathet Red forces are being supported by Communist Chinese artillery and engineering units.
Having finished his tour of duty with the Joint Chiefs Staff, Major Jeb Bush (USAF) enters the SR-71 high altitude reconnaissance program.
King Khalid of Saudi Arabia has a serious heart attack. He is taken to the United States for open heart surgery and medical treatment.
Sheik Adb ibn Baaz calls the King's heart attack "Allah's judgement on the corrupt den of snakes who dare to call themselves Kings and Princes over the faithful."
February 22, 1978
The Greek Cypriot Province of the Cyprus Confederation lodges a formal protest with both the UN and the Egyptian government over the Egyptian commando raid. Two days later (February 24) the Greek Republic also files a complaint with Cairo and with the UN for allowing it to occur.
February 25, 1978
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP) was dissolved as a political party and most of the party's members joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). According to the Standing Committee of Irish Catholic Bishops conference the vast majority of Irish people wanted the conflict in Northern Ireland to end.
Gerry Adams, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), was charged with membership of the PIRA.
President (General) Ersin of Turkey annoucnes that the Turkish population of Cyprus are "one and indivsible" from the Turkish population of the mainland. While this is warmly received in Turkish Cyprus, other nations consider this remark unhelpful.
The Greek Cypriots (and their supporters in Greece) see it as just short of a decleration of war.
Arkansas attorney and former Army JAG Coprs officer William J. Clinton decides that he will stand for the Republican nomination for the Second Congressional District of Arkansas. A one time Democrat, Clinton has become disenchanted with the Wallace Administration and the leftward swing of many Democrats. He sees more opportunity in being a right-center Republican, knowing that the local Democrats are going to nominate a McGovernite liberal who will likely loose. Clinton has also taken an interest in some of the supply-side approaches being promoted by Rep. Jack Kemp.
In a speech (harrangue) before the Arab League, Vice President Saddam Hussein of Iraq accuses Kuwait of undercutting the "counter-Zionist resistance solidarity" of OPEC on the oil price issue. He also makes a case that Kuwait is in fact a historic province of Iraq and that it should not be selling oil without "coordination" with Baghdad. Hussein falls just short of calling Kuwait an illegimate state, but his remarks do lead many (including the Kuwaitis) to question Iraq's position with regard to Kuwaiti sovereignty.
February 25 - March 14, 1978
U.S., U.K. and South Vietnamese troops occupy a portion of the eastern Beqaa Valley in an effort to end PJO assistance to insurgents in Syria.
February 26, 1978
A man in a wheelchair blew himself up in a Syrian police station in Damascus, killing three National Police officers, including a commander.
President Wallace Meeting with oil executives at the White House:
President Wallace: “Gentlemen, you’ve seen my proposal. I’m asking for your help to recover our economy.”
Alton Crane (President of Exxon): “You’re asking us to pay for your government’s largess.
Jim Irving (President of Texaco): “This is nothing short of highway robbery.”
Richard Neulin (President of Chevron): “We’re willing to be reasonable, Mr. President, but this is completely unreasonable.”
President Wallace: “A measly two percent? Come now, with all that you have benefitted...”
Jim Irving (President of Texaco): “You can try and reduce it to a small sounding number, but that two percent – which is far from measly, I assure you – represents the accumulated profit of our companies, and is the pool of cash from which we re-invest in production, product development and employee expansion. Your suggestion would put all of that in danger.”
Richard Neulin (President Chevron): “Heck, Mr. President, we’re keeping prices low as it is – we are not making enough profits, deliberately – to help out our country. Now you’re coming to us for more...”
President Wallace: “You get a lot from this government. No where is it written in stone that we should carry you with an oil depletion allowance. You get other tax breaks, too. Think about those before you say no to me out of hand like that.”
Alton Crane (President Exxon): Look, Mr. Wallace, we’re not intimidated by you. Other Presidents have tried to use the oil depletion threat on us, and have come-up empty in Congress when they tried. Our profits are not a piggy bank for you to break into, and our tax allowances are the result of years of work with Congress on our part. You want to stick us up? You
haven’t got a loaded gun.”
President Wallace: “I’ve been on the business end of a loaded gun, Mr. Crane, and not only did I survive, but it got me here. Let me be clear with y’all; I’m given you a choice to co-operate, to be the big men and show how much you love your country. Show me the back of your hands and I’ll show you just what kind of ammunition I can muster.”
Jim Irving (President Texaco): “Then we’ll look forward to negotiating a better deal with your Republican successor.”
Paul Volker (Treasury Secretary): “Mr President, if you go through with this I can no longer support you.”
Leopold Senghor, the President of Senegal, announces that he will withdraw his country's troops from Syria as he can see "no useful purpose" for their continuing to serve there as part of the "western occupation."
February 27, 1978
“Hoosiers” starring Clint Eastwood, James Woods and Vic Morrow is released. The film, based on former Sergeant Dan Quayle’s 1976 first hand book about the incident, “Red Line,” is about the 1974 mutiny of the Indiana National Guard while serving in Vietnam (with some dramatic license, especially around James Woods playing the role of Sergeant Dan Quayle). The film wins wide critical acclaim for its portrayal of the events, and anti-war theme in general. Quayle, however, is critical of the dramatic license taken by the filmmakers. Harrison Ford, in a secondary role, becomes the break-out performer of the film.
Israeli Jets strike at PJO camps in South Eastern Lebanon.
March 1, 1978
U.S. Economic News – March 1, 1978
Unemployment: 10% - small decline since May 1977. Attributed to re-hires in the service sector, an increase in part-time employment and continued hiring in local support jobs. Economic stall overall still blamed on the relatively high price of oil and gasoline.
Price per barrel of oil: $ 77 – lowest since 1973, continuing a trend first seen in May which was then attributed to decrease in demand, and increasing reliance on alternative sources of energy, also increased production in North America and the North Sea has cut worldwide import demand. However, and this has slowed growth in the U.S. economy, the U.S. oil companies are continuing to increase the price of gasoline even as the world price drops. They contend that the increase in “windfall
profits” is in fact a “cost recovery” for decreased sales since 1973. A gallon of gas still retails for $ 1.74 per gallon.
Several economists estimate that, if the retail cost of gas were reflective of the international oil market, the price should be at $ 1.15 per gallon.
Consumer confidence remains low: retail sales for 1977 are at their highest since 1974, suggesting that those who have money are beginning to spend, mainly on durables and sustainment goods, if only at a slow pace. Government revenue from taxes has also increased in 1977, the first time since 1973, which suggests greater underlying activity in employment and retail sales.
Housing starts, which were up in first half of 1977, have stalled, due to uncertainty in the markets.
Prime Rate at 5.5%, Inflation recorded at 5%. Secretary Volker and Federal Reserve Chairman Coldwell have created some dampening pressures in the market by increasing interest rates, primarily to bring down inflation and smooth out cost of living increases; all of which are designed in the long run to free-up capital and stimulate positive growth in the markets.
Television Address from the Oval Office:
“My fellow citizens, I come before you tonight to address the on-going trouble with our economy and the methods by which I believe we can address the situation. Fundamentally the American economy is sound; it is the finest, most robust in the world based on the best system of free markets and oversight that has ever existed in the history of man. There is nothing wrong with our economy which a little effort will not fix.
“One of the fundamental strengths of the American economy, and of our nation, is that we all, as citizens and contributors, share in the prosperity and adversity of the cycles of our economy. We are in this together, and as long as each one of us works hard and does his share, that’s the American way. No one begrudges the right of your neighbour to get ahead based on his hard work, but no one likes a free rider either. Taking a free ride at the expense of the taxpayer is not the American way, it is the way of the freeloader and the bum – and no one of us who truly works for this country’s prosperity and for the good of our families wants to see them getting ahead.
“There are a group of companies that have done just that. They have been coddled by our government with depletion allowances and subsidies and tax breaks, the size and scope of which makes for the biggest welfare hand-out in the United States today. This welfare isn’t going to struggling parents with children to feed, or to the elderly or infirm who cannot fend for themselves. No my friends, this hand out, to the tune of seven billion of your hard-earned dollars in nineteen seventy-six, has gone out to the oil companies. That’s your taxes, my fellow citizens, paying for everything from corporate jets to big office towers to the silk suits on the backs of oil company executives.
“Now then I ask you, can you afford a corporate jet or a silk suit? Is that what you sweat and save for? Is that what you expect your hard-earned tax dollars to pay for?
“I hear you now, my fellow citizens, I hear your loud and resounding no! I hear you say – throw the money changers out of the people’s temple!
“The high price of oil has helped contribute to our economic woes, any expert will tell you that. Yet, over the last year the world price has come down, but the domestic price of oil has gone-up. Why? Because the oil companies have increased their take from every gallon of gasoline they sell you, and you are the one who pays: at the pump when you fill-up and in the cost of every good that you buy.
“I’m not an unreasonable man, and I’m not saying the oil companies shouldn’t make a profit. We are a free enterprise country, and I begrudge no company the right to be profitable. But there is a fine line between being profitable, and unjust exploitation. In the last year, the oil companies have crossed that line.
“A few weeks ago I had the major oil executives meet with me here, in the people’s house, and I asked for their voluntary help; for them as good citizens to help contribute to the solution of our economic problems. I asked them, who have made so much, to give a little back. I asked for two percent of their windfall profits on oil.
“Two percent of what they have made just in extra profits over the last year. A measly two percent from pure earnings gained at your expense.
“And you know what they told me? No. Sitting right here, in the people’s house, they told your elected leader that they would not help out in a time of crisis, not with a measly two percent, not with a dime. You know, they had the nerve to tell me, at a time when people are starving, when families are homeless because of a lack of work, they had the gumption to tell me that they weren’t making enough money. Imagine that? A billion dollars a year in pure profit, much of that subsidized at your expense through tax allowances and other accounting gimmicks, and it’s not enough.
“Well, I’m not going to stand for that kind of greed, just as I expect that every hard working American taxpayer wouldn’t stand for that. That is why tonight I am announcing a two percent royalty to be charged by your federal government on the windfall profits of oil companies. In addition I will be signing an executive order putting a two year moratorium on the oil
depletion allowance. The money that will raise will go to you, my fellow citizens, in the form of improved government services and further measures to promote economic growth. That will be your refund for the excessive amount of money you have paid for a gallon of gasoline.
“Now, there are many who will complain that what I have done will require an act of Congress to be fully legal. I don’t disagree, and I urge Congress to act quickly to ratify my proposal. I will be sending the appropriate legislation to the House and Senate tomorrow, with a request for urgent consideration. And in this election year, my fellow citizens, I urge you to watch the actions of your Congressman and Senator closely. Does he work for you or big oil? You’ll be able to tell by their votes, and if he votes for big oil – and against this program – against your pocketbook, in other words - then I say, get him out of there and replace him with someone who will represent your interests next November.
“To the oil executives I say, I have given you every opportunity. I offer you one more. Drop the price of oil, take a reasonable cut in your windfall profits, and none of this will be necessary. The decision is yours. Good evening.”
March 2, 1978
Paul Volker: “The differences between myself and the President are too great, and I cannot in good conscience carry out a policy I believe to be fundamentally wrong for the health of our economy. I have resigned from the office of Secretary of the Treasury effective immediately.”
Sen. Howard Baker (D-TN): “This President has just tried to mug an entire industry; this nothing more than a high profile stick-up job by George Wallace. It’s a disgrace to this nation and I for one will not go along.”
George H.W. Bush: “Yesterday, George Wallace declared war on the State of Texas. If you elect me your Governor, I will take-up the fight and, Texas style, I’ll show this President why you don’t mess with Texas!”
Richard M. Nixon: “George Wallace was the last person I’d expect to turn into a socialist.”
Antonin Scalia: “There has always been a question whether the election of this President was settled according to the Constitution. However, we now see him doing what could be considered using the office for nothing short of robbery. Robbery is a crime under any jurisdiction, and as such I would say that it is an impeachable offense. If the President attempts to
carry this theft out, then he should be impeached – and quickly.”
Rep. Jack Edwards (R-AL): “Mr. Speaker, I introduce a motion to bring a bill of impeachment against President George Corley Wallace for the high crime of theft.”
George Wallace (private conversation with his son George Wallace jr.): “I want the Republicans to put me on trial in the Senate, for the great crime of trying to help out the common American at the expense of the oil companies. It’ll be David versus Goliath, with me in this chair down there every day, arguing my case for the American people against that gang of oil company lackies. Not only won’t they win this one, but we’ll pick-up a passel of Democratic seats from this. With luck, I’ll retire Jesse Helms and Howard Baker for good.”
March 2, 1978
Archbishop Chrysostomos I, not the offical leader of the Greek Province of Cyprus but an influential community figure, notes that the UN is not respecting the rights of the Greek Cypriot population, noting in paritcular that UN forces allowed the Egyptians free access to conduct military operations on Greek Cypriot soil without so much as consulting the Greek Cypriot government or the tri-member Presidential Council of the Cyprus Confederation. This, Chrysostomos alleges, shows a pro-Arab/Turkish bias on the part of the UN Peacekeeping force. In his speech he also re-asserts an old Greek Cypriot complaint that the UN is not doing anything about Turkish special Forces units said to be operating in the mountains and training Turkish Cypriot commandos for attacks against the Greeks.
While working on a kibbutz in the Negev desert as a student volunteer, twenty-year old Simon Le Bon is mistakenly drafted for service in the Israel Defence Forces. Once the error is discovered Le Bon is free to go, but elects to serve with the rest of his kibbutz labour group.
From Anonymous - Behind the Fortress Walls
Politburo meeting - October 18, 1977
“The key matter we must digest is that we are expending an ever increasing amount of Soviet resources on world revolutionary movements, but we are receiving a diminishing return. Even with the enhanced oil revenues we are receiving as a result of increased world oil prices, the flow outward is still tremendous,” Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin argued before the Politburo.
“Just look at our investment in the Arab world; what has it got us? Syria is now under United States control, Sadat has turned his back on us and purged our friends from the Egyptian government. Iraq is our only asset, and even there the regime is semi-dependable. We have the fellow in Libya, but he is an eccentric at best, and isolated between reactionary states. South Yemen is strategically useful, but isolated from other parts of the region.”
“Comrade, you sound like a bookkeeper tallying the accounts,” Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov rebutted. “Our policy has been to support revolutionary causes as a means of furthering Soviet influence and prestige...”
“So we have prestige in Baghdad, Aden and Tripoli. What does this give us? Where do we go with this?” Kosygin pressed.
"Iraq and Libya have promoted a line at OPEC which well serves our interests," Yuri Vladomirich Andropov observed.
“Comrade, Alexei Nikolayevich, you overlook the tremendous successes we have had in Europe," Mikhail Andreyevich said. "Look at Portugal; we now have a reliable ally on the Atlantic, and between Lisbon and Havana we have a cross-Atlantic axis which, if successfully exploited by our Navy, will give us a role in challenging American hegemony in that area. No longer can Western Europe be content with the Atlantic to their back.”
“Pipedream, Comrade,” Kosygin rebutted. “We are in no position to challenge the American fleet, and the Cuban and Portuguese navies would be of little use in this. Yes, I know, you will object that revolutionary success in Portugal furthers Soviet interests in Western Europe, and in this I agree with you on a strictly political argument. But I must argue that we take a hard look at how we are using our resources, specifically how we can better develop our own economy. Our industrial capacity is lagging behind the west...”
“Come now, Comrade, aren’t you being too negative in your view,” Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov interjected.
“I state the facts as they are, and not as Comrade Arvid Yanovich’s propaganda machine would have us think they are.” Alexei Nikolayevich tapped the thick binder before him – one of seven that constituted his economic report, each at least a thousand pages thick – “we are in industrial decline –certainly relative to the imperialist west and even relative to our own status a decade ago. The numbers are undeniable. And if our industry declines, it needs follow that our military capability – the underlying research and development and manufacturing capability – will go with it. We have squandered too much on speculative causes and now we are paying a price for this.”
“What would you suggest? A retreat from the world? Shall we hand the Imperialists a victory they could not possibly gain on their own?” This from Vasili Vasilyevich Kuznetsov, who at this time held the post of Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.
“What of the oil? Surely we can bring in revenue, even at the discounted rate?” Arvid Yanovich, Chairman of Party Control Committee asked.
The discounted rate he referred to was a Suslov-Andropov sponsored plan to sell Soviet oil to the Western Europeans (and perhaps Japan and Canada under certain conditions – but not the United States) at a rate discounted from the world price. This would undercut the Arabs and quickly create a dependency on us in the purchasing economies. Yuri Vladomirich’s pet economists argued that this situation could spur an economic recovery in Western Europe while leaving the United States
recession bound. An economically resurgent capitalist Europe might then feel less dependent on the Americans, and as such become a competitor even as it went its own way in global affairs. This could lead to the death of NATO over time.
“It is not just the influx of cash which will solve our difficulty,” Alexei Nikolayevich countered. “It is an entire structural reform that is required, a revolution of thinking and managing our affairs. And this will take time and investment.”
“A Revolution?” Milkhail Andreyevich asked sceptically. That was not a term to be made light of.
“Yes, Mikhail Andreyevich, we are speaking of a second Revolution of Socialist thinking and economic management. Nothing less will address the structural problems our inquiries have documented,” Alexei Nikolayevich replied, again tapping his binder.
This was the general theme of Alexei Nikolayevich’s presentation of his lengthy review of our economy to the Politburo plenum of October 1977.
Coming as it did in the shadow of the sixtieth anniversary of Lenin’s glorious revolutionary victory – when the Party and Milkhail Andreyevich personally were stressing the patriotic glories of Soviet achievement since the Revolution – the Comrade Premier’s report struck a discordant note. Suslov and Andropov were not pleased, and Pelse and Kutznetsov were not inclined to challenge the orthodox view. Kosygin had, as the Americans like to say, put himself out on a limb of a tree, with Milkhail Andreyevich and Yuri Vladimirovich holding the saw.
Therefore, it came as no surprise that even as the sixtieth anniversary celebrations continued Alexei Nikolayevich should find himself retired, and Deputy Premier Boris Nikolayevich Ponomarev along with him. It was a gentle retirement; Alexei Nikolayevich was pensioned off and Boris Nikolayevich retained some dignity in his new post as Soviet Ambassador to Nepal.
Arvid Yanovich Pelse was promoted to the Premiership, though the post was largely symbolic. It served as useful propaganda to have a non-Russian at the head of the Soviet government. The man who was moved into Boris Nikolayevich's spot, Grigori Vasilyevich Romanov, was a young firebrand who had captured Mikhail Andreyvich’s attention. As Deputy Premier Grigori Vasilyevich would assume many of the day-to-day functions which Alexei Nikolayevich had previously overseen, but as a deputy only he would be under tighter control from Mikhail Andreyvich’s office.
Economics was not the principle focus of Mikhail Andreyvich’s celebration – the glory of the Party, the Revolution and cadre discipline were. The KGB had spent much of the past two years clamping down hard on the corruption and excess of the Brezhnev years, and Mikhail Andreyvich wanted to rebuild the discipline of the cadres. (Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev himself now resided in a mental clinic where he had been diagnosed with anti-Socialist schizophrenia, a condition the doctors informed the Politburo that was probably incurable). This was why Stalin as the heroic leader during the Great Patriotic War was revived both in the national anthem and in the new Constitution. It was at once a reminder of bolder times when all cadres had been dedicated to the preservation of the Soviet state and the Revolution, and it was, thought the personification of Stalin, a reminder of how strict the application of discipline could become. It is well to remember that Mikhail Andreyvich Suslov was the last survivor of Stalin’s cadre, and his personal stamp on even a partial rehabilitation of the old “Marshall” was meant to remind all of that point. With Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov and KGB Director Vitaly Vasilyevich Fedorchuk in close proximity during the celebrations (especially when a new monument to the wartime Stalin, the first since 1953, was dedicated at Volgograd [once called Stalingrad]) the point could be lost on only the most dense: the Party could be harsh if needed and discipline of the most exacting variety was to be the new orthodoxy. A disciplined Party, with the vices of Brezhnev era corruption hacked away from the flesh if necessary, was to be the road to a glorious Soviet future. It was also a message to the many foreign cadres visiting the Soviet Union during this period about the direction that Mikhail Andreyvich and Yuri Vladimirovich wanted to take the Soviet Party, and what they expected in turn from our foreign comrades.
Alexei Nikolayevich had become so engrossed in his economics that he had missed the point: fortunately his age and position afforded him a soft landing. Others of the same mentality faced a harsher correction.
The three, the functionary Defence Minister General Viktor Georgiyevich Kulikov, the Central Committee Secretary Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov and the new Deputy Premier Grigori Vasilyevich Romanov watched with varying degrees of uncertainty and discomfort with the Suslovist approach (as we learned later, but not at the time of course). All three had read at least some parts of Alexei Nikolayevich’s report, and had come to the same conclusions he had. And in the next while they would be joined by Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, Grigori Vaselyvich's new, highly competent assistant, who would come to share their view. As younger men they could bide their time, and build support for the (economic) Second Revolution Alexei Nikolayevich had spoken of, provided they could escape the dragnet of orthodoxy and Party discipline dominating the aging and increasingly sclerotic top of the leadership.
"We must now allow ourselves to become self-satisfied, as imperialism will use every means at its disposal. The struggle between the two systems is still going strong." Boris Nikolayevich Ponomarev had said in 1973, to remind his listeners that the policy of detente was a strategy and not an end in itself.
Yuri Vladomirich Andropov updated this in at the outset of 1978 when he said, "The Soviet Union is not merely talking about world revolution but is actually hoping to bring it about."
The ideal of world revolution remained at the center of State policy at the end of the 1970's, even if the approach had become more pragmatic and incremental (a view that Party Secretary Mikhail Andreyvich Suslov disliked intensly).
Our most looming challenge lay in relations with the United States, where much had changed since the days of Nixon and Brezhnev. Nixon was gone - a disgraced figure - and his successor, Agnew, had torpedoed the second round of SALT talks. By the time his successor, Gavin, had suggested the possibility of their resumption, Mikhail Andreyvich Suslov had dismissed the inative. Many of us saw this as recklessly playing into the hands of the American propoganda machine.
Mikhail Andreyvich held the curious belief that Nixon and his lackey Kissinger had bested Leonid Ilych in the first round of talks in 1971 and 1972, and that the treary created from that had been a loss for our side. At the crux of their argument they heldthat the treaty failed to eliminate the so-called US forward based systems (FBS) such as the F-111 fighter-bombers based in East Anglia in Britain. The F-111 had proven their deadly effectiveness in raids over North Vietnam, as had the multi-use capable A4's and A6's carried aboard the American Navy's aircraft carriers. Soviet air defences had no means of dealing with these threats adequately. The Surface-to-Air batteries we had given to North Vietnam had proven inadequate. Their kill ratios on American B-52's, a lumbering strategic bomber now over twenty years old, had also proven disappointing.
Our air strategists were greatly concerned that in a military confrontation, the Americans would have the advantage in the air and thus would lay the whole of the Soviet Union open to a massive air attack. The Defence Committee was also concerned about the implications this had for a first strike potential by the Americans.
Mikhail Andreyvich and Yuri Vladomiric had used the failure of Leonid Ilych and Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko to press for controls on the FBS systems in the SALT agreement as one of the grounds to remove Brezhnev and Gromyko from the leadership.
Mikhail Andreyvich had gone further by pressing President Gavin for a seperate FBS treaty as a pre-condition for the resumption of SALT talks. The Americans had balked at this, and so matters stood when George Wallace became President in 1977.
Wallace soon showed us where he stood when he aborgated U.S. involvement in a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which reduced the measure from effective to symbolic. Soon the KGB learned of efforts by a number of smaller states from South Africa to South Korea to obtain fissile materials and begin nuclear weapons programs. Mikhail Andreyvich and Yuri Vladomirich assumed that this could only be possible with the acquiesense of the Wallace Adminsitration, although some of our experts at the U.S. and Canada Institute studies group were not as certain. Nonetheless our leadership had at its heart a belief that Wallace was prepared to countenance the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This sense was reinforced when Foreign Minister Zorin and our new ambassador in Washington, Alexander Alexandrovich Bessmertnykh were unable to interest either National Security Advisor Nitze of Secretary of State Jackson in a new round of SALT talks. Jackson in particular seemed fixated on the fate of Soviet Jews, and would attached a number of unacceptable pre-conditions to talks which would have enforced U.S. will on the Soviet internal matter of our immigration laws! None in the Politburo was willing to accept this.
At the same time our mission to support Revolutionary movements in Africa clashed with an increasing U.S. involvement there. The KGB and our International Department had corralled the various Zimbabwe liberation movements under the banner of the Zimbabwe People's Liberation Front - over which we exercised a level of influence - at the very same time that the Wallace Administration was pouring military resources into South Africa and a revangist racist regime ruling occupied Zimbabwe. By using mercenaries from other parts of the world and by trying to hide U.S. aid through the use of third country intermediaries, the Wallace Administration tried to hide this activity from us and from its own Congress. However, in 1977 El Salvador, a tiny Latin American puppet of the United States, sold over 4,000 tonnes of machine parts to the South Africans. Given that El Salvador had no native heavy industrial capacity at the time, it strectched all credulity that they became a major supplier of industrially fabricated products to the South Africans. These were, in fact, the transfer of arms. Our conclusion was that the U.S. luck in sustaining their South Vietnamese puppet had given them a taste to challenge Revolutionary fighters elsewhere in the world, and that the struggles for liberation and justice Africa had inspired the anti-black, racist Wallace to try and bring about a like victory for the racist white occupation regimes in Salisbury and Pretoria. As the leader of world revolution, we would not allow this.
Our Syrian mission had been judged a failure, and much of that was blamed on Leonid Ilyich who had approved it. While we had secured Iraq and developed that regime as a reliable client with our presence (our forces were positoned along the Iraq-Syria border and so facilitated Iraqi exploitation of smuggling and espionage routes across that frontier), we had not made the in-roads we had hoped in securing a Socialist government in Damascus. Instead American supported reactionaries were gaining the upper hand. Mikhail Andreyvich had always believed that Leonid Ilych had been too quick to acquiesce in the international effort (in order to salvage the damage done by our inadequate support our Arab allies in the October 1973 War) and had lost initative on the matter from the start. Now Syria was to our forces little more than a training ground, and our voice was not pre-dominant on the international council deciding Syria's fate. The nation that had been our client before
the 1973 war seemed lost to us for at least the near term, and only a sense of national pride kept us from permanently pulling our forces back into Iraq for good. By he begining of 1978 Africa was seen as the much better hope for success.
Mikhail Andreyvich also liked to brag of Portugal as the showpiece of our Revolutionary policy in Europe, a policy which would soon enfold France and Italy he liked to add. Yet, for all the talk of Revolutionary success, Portugal apart, the move to the left in Western Europe was not ideologically favourable to us. Mitterrand proved more of burgeois imperialist than we could have expected from his party affiliation and rhetoric - a "Red Imperialist" according to a book about his regime by one of his countrymen. Certainly his manipulation of the Zaire stongman and re-colonization of Central Africa was more inherently the move of a seignuer than a Socialist.
In Italy Berlinguer, who was not warm to Soviet direction, became something of a pet project for Mitterrand and Marshal Tito, both of whom seemed to adopt the role of mentors to the Italian Prime Minister. In their tutelage, both men took the nominal Italian communist away from the internationalist order and toward a more inwardly, national and burgeois focus on accommodation with the capitalist interests and institutions in his country. Berlinguer and Tito called it "Eurocommunism" though the correct term should have been buregois deviationism. For us it meant that our influence over the most successful Western European revolutionary in a generation was muted and that France, Italy and Yugoslavia, in crafting a mutual support network of left-centered ideas independent of our direct influence, created an unwelcome and disruptive counterpoise to our revolutionary success with the Portugese liberation. They competed with us for the affiliation of revolutionary intellectuals
in Western Europe and by the beginning of 1978 seemed to be winning the ideological debate.
To our East we were also concerned about the rice eaters and the quixotic path the whole Chinese Revolution seemed to have taken. From our few resources left we learned that Mao, acting through his nephew it seemed, had turned the place into the equivalent of a giant prison camp. The government's efforts, having eschewed all semblence of a normal international posture for any state, were aimed at dominating the illicit drug trade. We also heard stories of vast attempts and enforced industialization in the hinterland and dark rumors that they were building-up the size, if not the technical capability, of their armed forces. All along he Amur and Ussur frontier lines, and as far East as Mongolia, they built walls to hide behind - our frontier now more resembled a giant walled fortress along their side. This was good for us from a defensive sense (an attack on us would be more diffcult as they would have to get around their own walls to do it) but it rattled many observers.
Our Chinese experts, Foreign Minister Zorin among them, could not fathom what level of madness had possessed Mao to take this route.
"They are behaving like the ancient Emperors," Valerian Alexandrovich Zorin observed at one point. "Retreating from the world behind walls and seas, all the better to concentrate their power and attention upon the Middle Kingdom."
"But concentrating for what?" I asked him.
"That is the question, and I fear the answer when it comes will not be pleasant," the Foreign Minister remarked.
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March 16 – 20, 1977
Indian National Elections
Outgoing Prime Minister: Indira Ghandi (Congress)
553 Seats (277 required for a majority)
Janata Alliance
Seats: 345
Seat Change: +233
Popular Vote %: 51.89
Congress Alliance
Seats: 189
Seat Change: -217
Popular Vote %: 40.98
Others: 19
Janata Alliance:
Janata Party / Congress for Democracy 298 +245 (43.17%)
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 22 -3 (4.30%)
Shiromani Akali Dal 9 +8 (1.26 %)
Peasants and Workers Party of India 5 +/-0 (0.55%)
Revolutionary Socialist Party 3 +2 (0.39%)
All India Forward Bloc 3 +2 (0.34 %)
Republican Party of India (Khobragade) 2 +1 (0.51%)
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 1 -22 (1.76%)
Independents 2
Congress Alliance:
Indian National Congress (Indira) 153 -197 (34.52%)
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 19 — (2.9 %)
Communist Party of India 7 -16 (2.82 %)
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference 2 — (0.26%)
Indian Union Muslim League 2 -2 (0.3%)
Kerala Congress 2 -1 (0.18%)
Revolutionary Socialist Party (breakaway) 1 -1 —
Independents 2 — —
Elected Prime Minister: Morarji Desai (Janata)
Taking office as Prime Minister, Desai also took charge of the Ministry of Finance. He sought to carefully distribute important posts to satisfy Janata's different constituents and the most powerful party leaders who were rivals for his own position of leadership. Both Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram were accorded the title of Deputy Prime Minister. Charan Singh became the Minister of Home Affairs, the second-most important position in the Council of Ministers, while Jagjivan Ram took charge of the Ministry of Defence. BJS leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani were respectively given charge of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Raj Narain was appointed Minister of Health, Madhu Dandavate was to head the Ministry of Railways and trade unionist George Fernandes was made the Minister of Communications. Jurist Shanti Bhushan was appointed Minister of Law and Justice. Congress (O) veteran and Janata candidate. (Wikipedia)
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy won the presidential election to become the 6th President of India on July 25, 1977.
The Shah Commission was a commission of inquiry appointed by Government of India in 1977 to inquire into all the excesses committed in the Indian Emergency (1975 - 77). It was headed by Justice J.C. Shah, a former chief Justice of India. The commission deposed hundreds of individuals and after two years produced a 500 page report on the persons responsible for atrocities committed during emergency. The report was particularly scathing of Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, Bansi Lal, Kamal Nath and officers belonging to civil services who helped Sanjay Gandhi.
Katherine Frank, who is famous for her book on Indira Gandhi mentioned in the biography that Indira Gandhi was unwilling to cooperate during the deposition and J.C.Shah lost his cool after three days of patient questioning and reprimanded her. (Wikipedia)
The first actions taken by the Desai government were to formally end the state of emergency and media censorship and repeal the controversial executive decrees issued during the Emergency. The Constitution was amended to make it more difficult for any future government to declare a state of emergency; fundamental freedoms and the independence of India's judiciary was reaffirmed. The new government also proceeded to withdraw all charges against the 25 accused in the Baroda dynamite case, which included the new Minister of Industry, George Fernandes. The Minister of Railways reinstated the railway employees disciplined after the May 1974 strike. The Desai government proceeded to establish inquiry commissions and tribunals to investigate allegations of corruption and human rights abuses by members of Indira Gandhi's government, political party and the police forces. Specific inquiries were instituted on Sanjay Gandhi's management of the state-owned Maruti Udyog Ltd., the
activities of the former Minister of Defence Bansi Lal and the 1971 Nagarwala scandal. Both Indira and her son Sanjay were charged with allegations of corruption and briefly arrested. (Wikipedia)
Cyprus (Background Note): Under the supervision of UN Peacekeeping Forces (including some US and UK troops) the two parts of the island have been re-building as the Greek and Turkish Provinces of the Cyprus Confederation. The Confederation is in name only, with a tri-member Presidential Committee (the Greek and Turkish "Provincial" leaders plus a UN Member) largely operating in a symbolic role. UN forces have kept the two groups physically seperated, which has prevented any major clashes, though minor ones do occur. UN forces are also seizing weapons being smuggled in from both Greece and Turkey to the respective sides. The Greek Cypriot Province has had an economic boom as the rear staging area for U.S. and allied forces operating in Syria. The Turkish province remains economically backward and restive. Its leaders, however, had rejected the rule of Prime Minister Turkes on the mainland, and as a result the Turkish Province of Cyprus became a haven for anti-Turkes exiles during his two year rule in Turkey.
Saudi Arabia (Background note): Although there has been an increase in oil revenues, the Royal family has not been sharing these out in proportion to the increased price of oil. Instead they are retaining the petro dollars and re-investing them overseas. A number of Princes have also used the petro dollars for excessive living and other spending, which in turn has
given rise to corruption. All of this has further disaffected many average Saudis from the Royal Family.
Iran (Background note): The Shah's regime has also benefited from the increase in the price of oil. The Shah has shared none of this oil wealth windfall with his population, investing instead in military expenditures and investing some for his own benefit. He has even attempted to force down the average wage of Iranian oil workers in a bid to squeeze even more cash flow out of the oil revenue.
June 12, 1977
Britain mourns the first anniversary of the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II. A year of official mourning ends.
August 1, 1977
General Nutterin Ersin forms an interim military government in Turkey with himself as executive President with wide powers.
Colonel Turkes is held in prison until he can be tried in a military tribunal, probably in 1978.
August 6, 1977
Around 500 Egyptian officers and soldiers are brought into Syria to assist the operations of the Allied coalition forces.
The new Healey government in the UK officially lifts many of the security restrictions imposed on the British mainland by its Conservative predecessor. Mainland Britain is no longer under martial law.
From Bill Nichols - The Wallace Presidency
By the end of his first year in office the President was troubled by his lack of progress on domestic issues, and the extent to which foreign policy questions - which were never his main interest - began to dominate his schedule.
Of course we had gotten a stimulus plan through Congress in the spring, but this had been little more than a modification of the tax adjustments and infrastructure spending plans which the Gavin people had already crafted and left for us in January. We merely added some extra re-training money, and singled out poor mothers for enhanced food stamp aid, and added stamped our name on the result.
The President was troubled that he couldn't be seen to wring more money out of the corporations - the theme on which he had campaigned. He had the Pentagon slap down hard on a couple of contractors who were abusing the public trough, and then trumpeted these as major successes of his program to "chase the money changers out of the people's temple." Still, it was more threater than real substance or accomplishment for the first hundred days of the Wallace Presidency, and the President found the situation frustrating. He had built his campaign around the David versus Goliath image, which didn't translate well into governing. He wasn't ready to accept that.
For the moment it didn't hurt his ratings too much - they hovered around 60% approval, largely because he was seen as fulfilling his promises, and his tough on terrorism and crime stands went down well in the country. But George Wallace of all people knew, you couldn't keep-up even that level of support without a major bread-and-butter accomplishment, and that wasn't going to happen overseas.
One issue he did spend some political capital on was a separate stimulus and education funding bill for the Southern States. These had carried him to the White House, and he knew if he hadn't been George Wallace all of them would have most likely voted for Ronald Reagan. He was convinced that, inspite of being the first Deep Southerner elected to the Presidency since 1848, he couldn't hold them in 1980 unless he could deliver. This was Southern retail politics in a nutshell and this was
the kind of politics that flowed through George Wallace's veins. So he determined to not only get a "Southern Bill" for 1977, but to get one through the Congress every year up until 1980 as part of a larger re-election strategy. So we spent a lot of time crafting the Southern Bill and getting through a divided Congress, and that tapped some of our political capital to do other things.
The President was equally troubled by the deteriorating state of his marriage, which went from very bad in the Fall of 1977 to worse in early 1978 as Cornelia sought to capitalize on their troubles for her own sake. Although he let his lawyers negotiate the terms of the divorce, I often heard him growl that he should have divorced Cornelia before the 1976 campaign. Instead he had sought to use her as prop in 1976, and that was coming home to roost now. While she may have made a decent First Lady earlier in their marriage, by 1977 their personal relations had reached a point where they were cosmetic. The reconciliation for the campaign turned to a toxic relationship that neither wanted to hold together. Cornelia was also put-off by his lack of physical capability in the marriage, and issue which festered deep within the fissures of resentment that were never far from the surface of George Wallace's personality.
That all this, along with the enormous stresses of the Presidency, should have had a marked effect on his health should not have surprised anyone. The President was healthy when he came into office, and for the first year functioned well, but the round of foreign trips at the end of 1977, together with the Cornelia problem, took their toll, which lead to his
hospitalization for the flu in January 1978, and an on-set of medical problems which followed from that.
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Stephan Lescher (Wallace biographer): Wallace never fully recovered from the damage that Arthur Bremer's bullets had caused. He regained the appearence of health, although he was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. But there were a series of infections and other complications which continued to trouble him for the rest of his life. Added to the pressure cooker of the White House and you had a ticking time-bomb where his health was concerned, one which the Wallace people constantly denied, in part because the President himself was in denial about the whole thing. He had run to become President when conventional wisdom said he couldn't win - and he, George Wallace, had beat the odds all the way to the Presidency of the United States. He was not about to let some doctors gloomy predicitons about his health get in the way of that.
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Marshall Frady (Wallace biographer): Wallace had set his sights on the Presidency, and pured everything into winning it, especially to compensate for his loss of mobility. But winning had been his whole ambition, his whole goal deep down. When it came to running the government, Wallace was still the Alabama Governor - meaning that he had ideas for how to use the national office to help his State and region, but he had no national vision - much less an international or global one - for what he could do or accomplish with the Presidency. That was a formula for Jackson and Nitze and lesser figures around the President to substitute their own in place of his, and not always to his benefit.
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September 12, 1977
King George VII is crowned in a formal Coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London.
October 1977
A group of prominent Nicaraguan professionals, business leaders, and clergymen allied with the Terceristas to form "El Grupo de los Doce", (The Group of Twelve) in Costa Rica. The group's main idea was to organize a provisional government from Costa Rica. he new strategy of the Terceristas also included unarmed strikes and rioting by labor and
student groups coordinated by the FSLN's "United People's Movement" (Movimiento Pueblo Unido - MPU). (Wikipedia)
In Turkey an offensive against the Grey Wolves resistance by the Turkish Army leads to a break down of Grey wolves structure in the major citis, however the Grey Wolves prove more tenacious in the countryside, leading to a number of skirmishes in the autumn.
October 1, 1977
Energy Research and Development Administration part of Department of Energy.
WAVES disbanded; women integrated into regular Navy.
Yanks win 2nd consecutive AL East title.
Pelé plays his final professional football game as a member of the New York Cosmos.
Elvis Presley announces that he will "study the words of our Lord and his teaching under the tutelage of preacher Oral Roberts.
October 2, 1977
Pakistan general Zia ul-Haq bans all opposition
Vivian Brownlee wins LPGA Dallas Civitan Golf Open
Dusty Baker 30th HR joins teammates Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32), & Ron Cey (30) in make Dodgers 1st team to boast 4 30-HR hitters
October 3, 1977
Indira Ghandi arrested by the new government.
At a contentious OPEC meeting the member states fail to agree on price and production quotas.
A hard-line block lead by Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, backed by the Algerian delegation argue for higher prices and reduced supply to the West, unless the United States and Western Europe withdraw recognition from Israel.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are both paralyzed by domestic instability and fail to provide counter-balancing leadership to the hard-liners. The Gulf states argue for a moderation of oil prices on the logic that hardline pricing policies are undercutting their markets because the high price of oil is driving down demand.
Nigeria and Venezuela both attempt to mediate the dispute, although both countries want to keep the world price of oil high as they are selling petroleum under the table at less than OPEC prices, and they want to keep this grey-market alive. (Some of the Gulf Kingdoms are also involved in this grey-marketing of contraband oil).
The OPEC talks break down without an agreement among the members.
October 6, 1977
In Alicante, Spain, fascists attack a group of MCPV militants and sympathizers, and one MCPV sympathizer is killed.
October 7, 1977
Desmond Irvine (38), then Chairman of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers' Association, was shot dead by the PIRA in Wellington Park, Belfast.
The Irish Independence Party (IIP) was launched. The IIP was a Nationalist political party which advocated British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. The founding members of the IIP were Frank McManus and Fergus McAteer. The IIP was seen as a potential challenge to the domination of nationalist politics by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
The USSR adopts the Fourth Soviet Constitution (or the Suslov Constitution).
PREAMBLE
The Great October Socialist Revolution, made by the workers and peasants of Russia under the leadership of the Communist Party headed by Lenin, overthrew capitalist and landowner rule, broke the fetters of oppression, established the dictatorship of the proletariat, and created the Soviet state, a new type of state, the basic instrument for defending the gains of the revolution and for building socialism and communism. Humanity thereby began the epoch-making turn from capitalist to
socialism.
After achieving victory in the Civil War and repulsing imperialist intervention, the Soviet government carried through far-reaching social and economic transformations, and put an end once and for all to
exploitation of man by man, antagonisms between classes, and strive between nationalities. The unification of the Soviet Republics in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics multiplied the forces and opportunities of the peoples of the country in the building of socialism. Social ownership of the means of production and genuine democracy for the working masses were established. For the first time in the history of mankind a socialist society was created.
The strength of socialism was vividly demonstrated by the immortal feat of the Soviet people and their Armed Forces under the inspired leadership of Marshall Stalin in achieving their historic victory in the Great Patriotic War. This victory consolidated the influence and international standing of the Soviet Union and created new opportunities for growth of the forces of socialism, national liberation, democracy, and peace throughout the world.
Continuing their creative endeavours, the working people of the Soviet Union have ensured rapid, all-round development of the country and steady improvement of the socialist system. They have consolidated the alliance of the working class, collective-farm peasantry, and people's intelligentsia, and friendship of the nations and nationalities of the USSR. Socio-political and ideological unity of Soviet society, in which the working class is the leading force, has been achieved. While the Soviet
State represents the whole of the people, the leading role of the Communist Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat remain the vanguard of the Party and the people in their struggles against imperialist and capitalist forces around the globe.
In the USSR a developed socialist society has been built. At this stage, when socialism is developing on its own foundations, the creative forces of the new system and the advantages of the socialist way of
life are becoming increasingly evident, and the working people are more and more widely enjoying the fruits of their great revolutionary gains. It is a society in which powerful productive forces and progressive science and culture have been created, in which the well-being of the people is constantly rising, and more and more favourable conditions are being provided for the all-round development of the individual.
It is a society of mature socialist social relations, in which, on the basis of the drawing together of all classes and social strata and of the juridical and factual equality of all its nations and nationalities and their fraternal co-operation, a new historical community of people has been formed--the Soviet people.
It is a society of high organisational capacity, ideological commitment, and consciousness of the working people, who are patriots and internationalists.
It is a society in which the law of life is concern of all for the good of each and concern of each for the good of all.
It is a society of true democracy, the political system of which ensures effective management of all public affairs, ever more active participation of the working people in running the state, and the combining of citizen's real rights and freedoms with their obligations and responsibility to society.
It is a society where strict Party discipline and the inherent devotion of the cadres to the ordered, disciplined promotion of socialist order and development remain foremost in the interests of all the people.
It is a society that in its internationalist dedication believes that the only road to global peace, prosperity and justice is through the continued liberation struggle of all oppressed people’s wherever they may be, and that the Party and people of the Soviet Union have a historic mission to promote the liberation struggle of all peoples in all places and at all times.
Developed socialist society is a natural, logical stage on the road to communism.
The supreme goal of the Soviet state is the building of a classless communist society in which there will be public, communist self-government. The main aims of the people's socialist state are: to lay the material and technical foundation of communism, to perfect socialist social relations and transform them into communist relations, to mould the citizen of communist society, to raise the people's living
and cultural standards, to safeguard the country's security, and to further the consolidation of peace and development of international co-operation.
The Soviet people, guided by the ideas of scientific communism and true to their revolutionary traditions, relying on the great social, economic, and political gains of socialism, striving for the further development of socialist democracy, taking into account the international position of the USSR as part of the world system of socialism, and conscious of their internationalist responsibility, preserving continuity of the ideas and principles of the first Soviet Constitution of 1918, the 1924 Constitution of the USSR and the 1936 Constitution of the USSR, hereby affirm the principle so the social structure and policy of the USSR, and define the
rights, freedoms and obligations of citizens, and the principles of the organisation of the socialist state of the whole people, and its aims, and proclaim these in this Constitution.
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Ronald Reagan: I have read this new Soviet Constitution, and it is nothing short of a declaration of war on freedom and free people everywhere. This is not just the blueprint for an evil empire; it is a cancer attacking all mankind.
Richard Nixon: We know now that Suslov and the ideologues have taken over control of the Soviet State. It is not yet a reversion to full blown Stalinism, but the signs are there that the prevailing vision at the top of the Party is backward and not forward.
Henry Kissinger: I agree with President Nixon on the backward orientation of the current Party hierarchy, but I see the rehabilitation of Stalin as less of a move back to Stalinism, as to the ideal of Party discipline and control that his wartime leadership represents. Importantly they have glorified his role in the War – the Constitution in fact refers to him as Marshall Stalin, not General Secretary Stalin or by any other Communist Party reference, and no mention in any detail is made in the official history of the years of his rule before or after the War. We could see this as an attempt to stir the people with a sense of patriotic solidarity – thus the frequent mention of the war with the Germans – without reviving Stalin’s long dictatorship as a model for the future. Perhaps what we are seeing is a move to a kind of collective Stalinism, a toughening of the dictatorship but not in the hands of any one individual but a collective group.
Sen. Barry Goldwater Sr (R-AZ): Once a damn Communist always a damn Communist. This is, or should be, the gravestone of detente, and it’s about time because its body stinks to high heaven.
October 8, 1977
Margaret Hearst (24), a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), was shot dead, while she was off duty, by the PIRA at her parent's home near Tynan, County Armagh.
October 9, 1977
Soyuz 25 launched to Saluyt 6, but returned on October 11 after failing to dock.
October 10, 1977
Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, who were both founding members of the Peace People, and who have recently been released from detention by the Healey Government, were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. [The Unionist dominated Belfast City Corporation refused to hold a civic reception in honour of the prize winners. The associated prize money of £80,000 was later to be the source of controversy within the Peace People.]
October 11, 1977
Lenny Murphy was found guilty of possession of firearms and sentenced to 12 years in jail. [It was later revealed that Murphy was the leader of the 'Shankill Butchers' a Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) gang which was responsible for the killings of at least 19 Catholic civilians.]
Two bombs explode in Damascus animal markets killing 99 people and wounding 200. The Syrian government claims that the bombs were carried by women and detonated remotely.
Taking advantage of the weakened hold on power of the central government, the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) begins agitation in Kurdish parts of the country. PKK guerillas carry out attacks on Turkish military installations. This puts the Turkish government in weaker position as the Army is still fighting the Grey Wolves. Areas of Eastern Turkey with Kurdish majority populations actually maintain a quasi-autonomy through most of the winter of 1977-78 further fueling Kurdish nationalist expectations.
President (General) Ersin is keenly aware of the Turkish menace, but in the first instance has his hands full flushing out the remnants of the Grey Wolves. His government judges them to be the greater imminent threat to governance and stability in Turkey.
October 12, 1977
US Supreme Court heard arguments in "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke, a white student denied admission to U of Calif Med School.
Chinese backed Pathet Lao forces (Pathet Red) mount an offensive against the Royalist-Pathet Lao Nationalist forces (Pathet Green) in an effort to dislodge the country's government.
All Members of the British Parliament (except for most Conservative members and the Ulster Unionist members) vote to repeal the death penalty provision from the 1974 Prevention of Terrorism Act.
October 13, 1977
German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Airlines flight 181 to Somalia and demand the release of 11 Red Army Faction members.
October 14, 1977
The Atari 2600 game system is released. The poor state of the economy limits the amount of units sold.
Anita Bryant is famously pied by four gay rights activists during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. This event resulted in her political fallout from anti-gay activism.
North Vietnam commits several thousand troops to support the Nationalist alliance in Laos against the Pathet Red insurgence.
Within six-months the North Vietnamese-Pathet Green-Royalist forces become entangled in a guerilla war with the Pathet Red forces.
October 15, 1977 - February 7, 1978
The Campaign of Jabal Lubnan is a series of offensives and counter offensives between the Phalange and PLO forces on one side and the PJO and Sunni allies on the other to gain control of the Jabal Lubnan (Mount Lebanon) area of Western Lebanon (the Beirut hinterlands). By the end of the deadly series of battles the PJO have largely been driven into the Beqaa (between Beirut and Syria) and the Nabatieh (south east Lebanon) areas. The PLO and Phalange have a mutually non-trusting hold over central Lebanon which is under a shaky cease-fire between the two groups.
October 17 – 18, 1977
German Autumn: GSG 9 troopers storm a hijacked Lufthansa passenger plane in Mogadishu, Somalia; 3 of the 4 hijackers die.
October 18, 1977
German Autumn: Red Army Faction members Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Gudrun Ensslin commit suicide in Stammheim prison; Irmgard Möller fails (their supporters still claim they were murdered). They are buried on October 27.
Chancellor Kohl orders a redoubled intelligence effort against the RAF and indicates that "the gloves come off." West German security authorities begin a penetration operation of the RAF and related groups.
King George VII, King of Canada, opens the 2nd session of the 31st Canadian Parliament. He later offends Prime Minister Turner and the Canadian government when he refers to “a historic injustice” in connection to the separatist cause in Quebec. Though the King’s remarks are much milder, the incident is reminiscent of President de Gaulle’s 1967 “Viva Quebec Libre” remarks in Montreal.
Quebec Premier Rene Levesque picks up on the King’s remarks as justification of his own sovereigntist program (the irony being that Levesque is an anti-Monarchist).
Reggie Jackson blasts 3 home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
FCTB agents stop an attempt by a PJO linked group of men to cause an explosion and a chemical leak at a Dow Chemical Plant in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania. The operation was designed to release a chemical cloud of chlorine which would have blown East over Pennsylvania and New York State.
October 19, 1977
German Autumn: Kidnapped industrialist Hanns-Martin Schleyer is found murdered in Mulhouse, France.
Hassan Tuhami, National Security Advisor to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, visits Washington DC in order to solicit US assistance for an Egyptian outreach to Israel. He meets with National Security Advisor Paul Nitze and Secretary of State Henry Jackson and SNICO Lew Allen, but fails to obtain committments of full support. He does not meet with President Wallace. Jackson does say that the "US supports peace initiatives in the Middle East", a general observation which Tuhami takes as a green-light for the specific initiative Sadat has in mind (the US supports, but will not committ unless it sees progress). Jackson on the other hand meant it only as a general observation with no committment to what Tuhami was proposing.
U.S. and British Special Forces destroy a PJO arms cache near Beirut. At the same time special forces are acting to disrupt PJO logistical networks inside of Lebanon.
October 20, 1977
Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd survive a charter plane crash outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, 3 days after the release of their fifth studio album Street Survivors.
Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1977 World Series with a 6-5 victory over the New York Yankees in the 7th Game of the Series. Steve Garvey is named the MVP of the series.
October 21, 1977
The European Patent Institute is founded.
A Syrian youth of 13 is found sexually assaulted and murdered in Homs. The investigation soon points to U.S. military forces. News of this murder causes a furor among the Syrian population.
Sheik Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, a revered Wahabbi scholar, calls for the execution of more persons “corrupted by un-Islamic influences.” He publishes a list of thirty minor Saudi princes and officials whom he alleges have been “corrupted beyond redemption” and he wants King Khalid to order their execution as a sign of his, and by extension the Royal Family’s, piety.
Over the next month Sheik Abd and his followers push the list forward in sermons every Friday about the purity of Islam and the return of Saudi Arabia to “true Islam.” These fire-eating sermons are followed every Friday by increasingly large numbers of street demonstrations. Many of the people joining these demonstrations are ordinary Saudis who do not share fully in the Royal wealth. In addition to calls for Islamic “purification”, the protests also call for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Syria and the destruction of Israel. Most troubling to the Ruling Family, the protests call for the re-distribution of national wealth along “Islamic precepts.” (This is a call to re-distribute the national wealth to the people, which might be considered Communism in any other context. The important point is that in Saudi Arabia there is no distinction between the State wealth and the wealth of the Royal family, thus calls to re-distribute State wealth are in reality attacks on the Royal Family itself.)
Crown Prince Abdullah at first tries to break-up the crowds with the religious police, the Mutaween. However, many members of the Mutaween are encouraged by Sheik Abd and his supporters to join in with the Islamic protests.
October 23, 1977
Panamanians vote 2:1 to approve new Canal treaties.
In India the Janata government had lesser success in achieving economic reforms. It launched the Sixth Five-Year Plan, aiming to boost agricultural production and rural industries. Seeking to promote economic self-reliance and indigenous industries, the government required multi-national corporations to go into partnership with Indian corporations. The policy proved controversial, diminishing foreign investment and led to the high-profile exit of corporations such as Coca-Cola and IBM from India. But the government was unable to address the issues of resurging inflation, fuel shortages, unemployment and poverty.
The legalisation of strikes and re-empowerment of trade unions affected business efficiency and economic production. (Wikipedia)
October 24, 1977
Michael Neill (16), a Catholic boy, was shot dead by the British Army on Cliftonville Road, Belfast. He had been in the vicinity of an attempted bus-hijacking.
Secretary of State Jackson and National Security Advisor Paul Nitze receive a briefing from Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Blum in which Blum states that Egyptian troops co-operating with the U.S. in Syria are in fact spying on Israel's northern defenses and looking for weaknesses in the same. Blum also gives a stilted interpretation of Sadat's several trips to Baghdad, indicating that the Egyptians and Iraqis are discussing a new military alliance.
Lew Allen, Secretary of National Intelligence Coordination and Oversight and Fred Ickle, Director of Central Intelligence, later releases an assessment which gives a similar conclusion as to the reason for Sadat's trips to Baghdad. This idea then spreads as "the accepted conclusion" within U.S. government circles.
A bomb is set-off at the Mina Al Ahmadi oil terminal in Kuwait, causing serious damage and reducing the flow of oil from Emirate for several weeks. This creates a spike in the world price of oil, which again (briefly) approaches $ 90.00 per barrel. The PJO claims responsibility for this attack.
October 25, 1977
Moroccan troops move in force against Bir Lehlou, the capital of nominally independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Western Sahara in an effort to enforce Moroccan control over the former Spanish colony. A Moroccan military governor is installed in the “Southern Zone” to administer Moroccan interests. Missions of foreign governments which had recognized the SADR are expelled from Bir Lehlou by the Moroccans. Polisario (SADR) forces are forced to flee into
Mauritania, causing further instability in that country.
U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim meets with Lebanese President Malik, Bachir Gemayel and Yassir Arafat in Tunis, Tunisia in an effort to broker some sort of settlement for Lebanon. The talks fail because the PJO and other combatant parties are not present. The U.S. and the U.K. also decline to participate.
October 26, 1977
The last natural smallpox case is discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination and, by extension, of modern science.
Last test flight of the prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise.
The Shah of Iran calls out troops for a violent crackdown on protesters. The protesters fight back against the Army and SAVAK troops, creating vivid images of unrest in Iran for television news to broadcast across the globe.
October 28, 1977
Hong Kong police forces attack the ICAC headquarters over continuing corruption probes.
In 1974, Hong Kong Governor Sir Murray MacLehose established the ICAC (the Independent Commission Against Corruption). The aim was to combat the then-prevalent corruption which existed in all spheres of life in Hong Kong, especially in government departments such as Fire Services, Lands, Buildings and police.
The creation of ICAC and then their methods sparked off disgruntlement in many departments; but especially amongst the police and firemen who were the most high profile targets. Faced with a potential police rebellion and the severe disruption that this would have caused to everyday life, MacLehose extended a general amnesty to the police force in order to defuse the situation. Some officers (especially the notorious detective station sergeants) were, however, excluded from the amnesty. Although the measure was effective, it caused considerable misgivings, especially amongst the small group of honest police officers who had resisted the temptation to engage and benefit from corrupt practices and who, as a result, had suffered adverse career consequences. (Wikipedia)
Disturbed by the Shah’s seeming loss of grip on power, Colonel Hossein Azhari of the Iranian Army forms a “National Officer’s Patriotic Group” designed to restore order and control. Through a number of connections, Col. Azhari finds that he has support from the CIA.
Never Mind The Bollocks: Here's The Sex Pistols is released in the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister Ina Bursey of Rhodesia meets in Johannesburg with Prime Minister Vorster of South Africa for a summit on their joint apporach to African resistance movements. Although some common military and security policies are agreed to at the summit, Bursey and Vorster differ over the Rhodesian Prime Minister's refusal to negotiate with black nationalist forces and reach an accomodation. Vorster feels Bursey is shortsighted while Bursey feels that the South Africans are trying to push the Rhodesians into talks in order to buy time for their own struggles against the African National Congress forces.
At the time, some Rhodesians said the still embittered history between the British-dominated Rhodesia and the Afrikaner-dominated South Africa partly led South Africa to limit its aid to Rhodesia.
Prime Minister Healey and Defence Secretary Owen head off an effort lead by Barbara Castle and Tony Benn to force the withdrawal of UK troops from Syria and Madeira. The Prime Minister rounds-up enough support for continuing the missions from within his caucus arguing that Great Britain must stand by her committments to the western alliance even if these operations were the policy of the previous Conservative government. Nonetheless Healey's support is soft and he senses that he will face stronger opposition in the future.
October 30, 1977
The Zaire Armed Forces are repulsed after major fighting by a guerrilla offensive near Passe Kobo and Burgasso in the former Central African Republic.
November 1, 1977
2060 Chiron, first of the outer solar system asteroids known as Centaurs, is discovered by Charlie Kowal.
Portugal's traditional naming conventions change such that children's surnames can come from either the mother or the father, not just from the father.
President Wallace signs legislation raising the minimum wage of $2.30 to $3.10 effective January, 1 1981.
Vice President Nicholas Katzenbach receives a pie in the face while visiting Yale University to give an address. The protester calls the Vice President a “sell-out” for agreeing to serve in George Wallace’s Administration.
Iranian oil workers go on a strike, demanding an increase in wages and benefits and greater control over their working conditions (some have compared their condition to workers in other parts of the Middle East: in many countries living conditions for oil workers have impoved due to oil revenues; in Iran - despite the increase in oil revenues - the pay and working conditions for oil workers have actually declined, thanks largely to corruption and greed in the Shah's administration). The Iranian oil workers also accuse the Shah’s regime of not paying them in full and not using the nation’s oil wealth to the benefit of all the people. This latter demand wins the oil workers respect and support from many Iranians.
November 2, 1977
The worst storm in Athens' modern history causes havoc across the Greek capital and kills 38 people.
November 4, 1977
UN Security council proclaims weapon embargo against South Africa.
President Wallace refuses to withdraw the United States Ambassador from South Africa, arguing that “the job of the Ambassador is to talk to a foreign government, and talking is the only way were going to win agreement on change in their policies. I mean, how else do they expect us to make a change? Surely, all the pointy-heads who are calling for us to break off relations don’t want me to declare war on South Africa - create another Vietnam - do they? Our Ambassador is there to negotiate with the South African government and that’s what he’s gonna do. Period.”
Thousands of Syrian civilians demonstrate in Damascus, Hama, Homs, Alleppo and Lakatia against the foreign occupation. This is the first organized civillian protest since the occupation began to have been co-ordinated across different communities in Syria. The sexual assault and murder of a youth in Homs is a strong theme in the protests.
Influenced by the National Officers Patriotic Group, the Iranian Army refuses the Shah’s orders to put down the oil workers strike. The oil workers themselves manage to fend off an attack by the Shah’s Secret Police, the SAVAK. The oil workers not only defeat the SAVAK troops (and scare others away with their show of solidarity in the face of threats) but they actually capture some SAVAK operatives. Of these, some defect while others join with the oil workers.
The Rhodesian government begins work on a Uranium separation program designed to isolate U235 for crude nuclear weapons production. They are buying the Uranium from South Africa.
November 5, 1977
An announcement that President Wallace of the United States will pay a State visit to Saudi Arabia in December leads to three days of rioting and demonstrations calling for the "infidel Wallace" to be slain if he sets foot on Saudi soil. The proposed visit is cancelled.
November 6, 1977
The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia fails, killing 39.
Rep. Jack F. Kemp (R-NY(38)): “I will be a candidate for the Republican and Conservative Parties’ nomination for Governor of New York. Our great state needs change and fiscal discipline and a plan that will put New Yorkers back to work. That’s what I will be fighting for in this campaign and that is what I will do if elected Governor next year.”
November 7, 1977
On the sixtieth anniversary of the October Revolution The Soviet National Anthem's lyrics are returned after a 24 year period: at the insistence of Party General Secretary Mikhail Suslov Joseph Stalin's name is restored to the original lyrics. In an address to the Supreme Soviet Suslov also praises Stalin’s role as the “saviour of the Socialist Revolution from the dark forces of Nazi fascism.” In his address Suslov also comments on the “flabbiness” of Party discipline and lax morality among the “cadres.” He speaks of need for a renewed discipline which will bring the Party back to “the zeal of Lenin and the discipline of Stalin.”
An unbreakable union of free republics,
Great Rus' has welded forever to stand!
Created in struggle by the will-of-the-people,
The united, the mighty Soviet Union.
CHORUS:
Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free!
Bulwark of people, in brotherhood strong!
Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
It leads us to the triumph of Communism.
Through tempests the sun of freedom shone to us,
And the great Lenin lighted us the way.
Stalin lead us to victory in the peoples righteous cause,
Inspired us to labour and to acts of heroism.
CHORUS
In the victory of the immortal ideas of Communism
We see the future of our country,
And to the Red banner of our glorious Fatherland
We shall always be selflessly true.
CHORUS
November 8, 1977
Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos discovers the tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Vergina.
San Francisco elects City Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official of any large city in the U.S.
Australian Prime Minister Bill Hayden has stones and bottles thrown at him by a Saudi crowd when he makes a state visit to Saudi Arabia.
November 9, 1977
Gen. Hugo Banzer, President of the military government of Bolivia, announces that the constitutional democracy will be restored in 1978 instead of 1980 as previously provided.
FBI and FCTB agents arrest two men reconnoitering the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, PA. The men, said to be of Middle Eastern origin, may have been looking for ways to sabotage the plant’s operation and perhaps cause a nuclear disaster.
An Angolan invasion into Shaba forces President Mobutu to divert troops toward his Southern border, further weakening his position in to the North.
November 10, 1977
The Bee Gees release the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever; which like the film is received with lukewarm reviews. Sales are low and the album is considered a financial failure. It is considered too escapist by many audiences; unconnected to the issues of their lives.
Soviet Communist Party General Secretary dedicates a monument to Stalin, the first to be raised in the Soviet Union since the de-Stalinization twenty years earlier. The statue pays tribute to Stalin’s role as Soviet leader in the Great Patriotic War.
A squad of Grey Wolves attempt to assassinate President (General) Ersin while he is travelling in a convoy. The assassination attempt fails. Two Grey Wolves commandos, Mechmet Ali Agca and Omer Clelic survive the attack and are forced to flee the country. They receive sanctuary in Libya.
Dr. Karim Sanjabi, Dr. Shapur Baktiar, Mehidi Bazargan and former Admiral Ahmad Mahdani form the nucleus of a new Iranian National Front Party, whose objective is to liberalize the Shah’s regime. They begin a process of cultivating allies for liberal reform within Iran and courting support in the U.S.
November 12, 1977
Joe DiRosa defeats Ernest “Dutch” Morial in the New Orleans Mayoral election. This was the first serious attempt by a black candidate (Morial) to win election as Mayor of New Orleans.
The Shah calls on the Army to put down a protest in Tehran in sympathy with the oil workers. This time several army commanders refuse to act and allow the protest to go on. During the protest there are several instances of the Army arresting SAVAK agents who attempt to intervene.
The Shah cancels a planned trip to the United States in order to deal with continuing unrest in Iran.
November 13, 1977
25th Islander shut-out with 6-0 Gilles scores on 5th penalty shot.
Egypt President Sadat repeats willingness to visit Israel to Walter Cronkite on CBS television.
November 14, 1977
Alexei Kosygin retires as Premier of the Soviet Union, and Boris Ponomarev steps down as First Deputy Premier. Kosygin disappears from public prominence while Ponomarev is named as the Soviet Ambassador to Nepal. Arvids Pelse is nominated by the Politburo to replace Kosygin as Premier, while Grigory Romanov is named to the post of First Deputy Premier. (Romanov is thought in the West to wield the real authority at Suslov and Andropov’s direction, with Pelse is largely a figurehead Prime Minister (and a symbol, since he is a Latvian not a Russian)). Yevgeny Primakov joins Romanov’s staff and often travels with Pelse.
November 15, 1977
Li Ka-shing, Martin Lee, Stanley Ho Hung Sun and others begin discussions of the "Hong Kong Better Governance Society" whose aim is to develop a home grown executive function for Hong Kong which will allow the colony greater autonomy and remove the British Governor to a more symbolic role, like Governors-General in other British Commonwealth Dominions. While the aim is not necessarily an independent Hong Kong statelet (on the model of Singapore) there is a feeling that, given the chaotic situation in China and the need to rely on U.S. as well as U.K. defence, Hong Kong needs to gain greater poltical control over its own strategic and economic destiny.
November 16, 1977
President Guillermo Fonseca-Álvarez of Mexico and U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen McNichols fail to reach agreement on a U.S.-Mexican oil export agreement which could soften energy prices in the United States. President Fonseca-Alvarez is reportedly being pushed by nationalists in his government to extract world prices from the U.S. government.
November 17, 1977
Bernard Pomerance's "Elephant Man," premieres in London.
Miss World Contest - Miss UK wears $9,500 platinum bikini.
Prime Minister Menachim Begin: “While we would welcome a visit by Sadat in principle, we cannot enter into negotiations until a settlement is reached in Syria and Lebanon, and until President Sadat can assure us that Egypt will never support the re-arming of the Syrian state.”
Acting in a power vacuum between retreating ZAF forces and CAR rebels, French Foreign Legion troops move into Bangui and establishes control over the former colony.
NSC Meeting – The White House
President: “You’re telling me the Shah’s position is hopeless?”
Lew Allen (SNICO): “CIA and DIA both agree that he’s lost the last of his political support. He’s going to fall, there’s no doubt about it now.”
Paul Nitze: “It’s really a question of what we do to secure Iran from chaos.”
President: “We can’t do what was done by Eisenhower and Dulles?”
Fred Ickle (CIA Director): “An attempt to re-impose the Shah by covert means would, in the opinion of our area experts, only make matters worse. The Iranian people are aware of what happened in fifty-three and they won’t accept a repeat. If we try it now, we could only make things far worse.”
Allen: “Let me add that the Shah had some political support in fifty-three from among Iranian elites. He has none now; his regime is a spent force.”
Vice President Katzenbach: “We also have to consider international opinion. It’ll only make our diplomatic efforts in the whole Middle East more difficult if we are seen to be imposing regimes or propping-up a spent regime – as General Allen puts it – then we could lose all credibility. We would be in a far better position diplomatically if we work with the reformers.”
Secretary of State Jackson: “As long as we can be sure that those so-called reformers aren’t pro-Moscow. We don’t want to create an opening for the Soviets by pushing the Shah out.”
Nitze: “It is a better idea that, if we are going to ask the Shah to leave, that we do it on our timetable and while the situation is still in flux. That way we have a foot in the door, so we can check any attempts by more pro-Soviet elements to take advantage of this.”
President: “So, you’re asking me to approve giving the Shah, whose been our friend and ally for over twenty years, the heave ho. Is that it?”
Katzenbach: “Better for us and for him that, as a friend, we help him into a comfortable exile and work to stabilize the new government. If we let events take their course, if we allow him to be overthrown, we could be looking at a new Nasser or worse. Right now we have a chance to prevent that, and keep a more open Iran as an ally.”
November 19, 1977
Libyan Dictator Muammar Quaddafi states that if President Sadat visits Israel then “all fire will pour down on his head.”
President Sadat: “We support a normalization of the situation in Syria, of course, and as such we have been working with our American friends and President Maamum. However, as the President of Egypt, I cannot make guarantees about the armed forces of Syria, which are an internal matter for the Syrian government to decide. I urge the Prime Minister not to squander such an opportunity for a historic breakthrough on trifles.”
November 20, 1977
Prime Minister Begin: “Trifles? The security of the Israeli state is not a trifle. We are not unaware of Egyptian troops operating in Syria, and we have noted the recent outreach from Cairo to Beirut and Baghdad. Our esteemed President Sadat does not mention these, or exactly what his forces are doing there? Yes? I will not trifle with the security of the Israeli
state. President Sadat is welcome to come as a tourist, but he will receive no official welcome unless he declares fully what he is up to behind our backs while he offers the olive branch in front.”
A British Airways 747 crashes on final approach to Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, killing 119 passengers. British investigators suspect wind shear combined with poor weather conditions (sleet) caused the crash.
However, Soviet authorities (who obstruct a British investigation) claim that the cause was pilot error and inferior aircraft design. They being to press a demand that foreign airlines who wish to fly into Soviet airports must do so using Soviet built aircraft.
Spanish Civil Guards put down an anti-government demonstation by Trade Unionists in Madrid. There follows several days of unrest and rioting.
The National Officers Patriotic Group under Colonel Azhari and the National Front Party reach an accord, and they combine in an alliance under the Emergency Committee for National Salvation (ECNS). ECNS gains backing from the CIA and others in the State Department who want to see liberal reform, or at least stabilization, in Iran.
November 21, 1977
President Sadat:”Suspicion of each other’s motives will not help any of us. While I understand the Prime Minister’s concerns, it is not for him to dictate our national policy. If there is to be peace, we must approach the negotiations as equals. Again, I hold out my hand to the Prime Minister in the hope that he will take it.”
Terrence Boston, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, suggested that a 78 seat Assembly, without legislative powers, could be established at Stormont with committees which would look after non-controversial matters. [This 'Five Point Plan' was similar in a number of respects to a scheme suggested by James Molyneaux, then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and was not warmly received by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Interest in this proposal declined over the coming months.]
November 22, 1977
British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.
TCP/IP test connecting 3 ARPANET nodes (of 111) fails for an unknown reason.
British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan warns U.S. Secretary of State Henry Jackson that British military support in Syria could be limited and that there is doubt about how long the British parliament will allow the military committment to Madeira to continue.
November 23, 1977
European weather satellite Meteosat 1 launched from Cape Canaveral
Prime Minister Begin: “President Sadat asks for us to meet as equals, yet it is his nation which has invaded ours, and which makes overtures to surround us with hostile alliances. Let him foreswear these alliances, let him call on President Maamum to write a constitution for Syria which forever renounces war and an army for that state; let Sadat pledge that he will never make war again and that in the past Egypt has been the aggressor, then we will consider his offer.”
November 24, 1977
President Sadat: “There is no talking with this man. His idea of negotiation is to take what he wants and get nothing in return.”
Jamie Milans del Bosch, supported by the Spanish Church and the Sindicato Vertical (which in the years since Franco's death has been positioning itself as a Roman Catholic Labour Syndicate) pushes out Carlos Navarro in a Flange Party internal coup to become Prime Minister of Spain. Prime Minister Milans announces that his government will promote the "true fatherland values", "oppose Communist aggression from Portugal and other places" and restore the Sindicato Vertical "as the rightful collective instrument of all Spanish workers" (effectively ending Navarro's previous efforts at liberalising the work place by legalizing (selectively) non-governmental trade unions). Milans also proclaims the Church, the Armed Forces and the Monarchy as the "pillars of the spanish state" and dismisses multi-party democracy as "the French disease which, unchecked, will rot Spain from within." He declares a re-newed campaign to "erradicate" Basque seperatists, whom he accuses of collaborating with the PDRP government in Lisbon.
November 26, 1977
'Vrillon', claiming to be the representative of the 'Ashtar Galactic Command', takes over Britain's Southern Television for six minutes at 5:12 PM.
A bomb is found and diffused at the Ras Tanura oil terminal in Saudi Arabia. It is blamed on local unrest, although word soon circulates through PLO sources that it was in fact planted by PJO operatives.
Ruollah Khomeini is convicted of conspiring to overthrow a foreign government not at war with Italy by an Italian court. The Ayatollah is sentenced to three years in prison.
Approximately 6,000 Turkish Armed Forces cross the border into north-eastern Syria in an operation against Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The move followed an aerial bombing campaign. Several French African Community soldiers are injured as a result of the Turkish activity.
An Friday religous demonstration in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia becomes a riot after word spreads that King Khalid will be meeting personally with President Wallace of the United States. Protestors are fired-up to believe that a personal meeting between the King and the American President will only further corrupt the King.
November 27, 1977
65th CFL Grey Cup: Montreal Alouettes defeats Edmonton Eskimos, 41-6
The Rankin/Bass made-for-TV animated film The Hobbit premieres on NBC in the United States.
The ECNS meets with the leadership of the striking oil workers and persuades them to join the ECNS in a common anti-Shah front.
Khomeini supporters demonstrate in Tehran and Qum against the verdict and sentence of the Italian court. The Army, backed by the ECNS, protects the Italian Embassy in Tehran from being seized by the mob. This an related demonstrations add to the sense of chaos in Iran.
The French government begins brokering ceasefire talks between Zaire and the CAR rebels. An aim of the French policy is to get Mobutu to renounce his recent claim to the CAR.
November 29, 1977
To quell further disturbances, King Khalid announces that he will not meet with President Wallace in Egypt.
November 30, 1977
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) founded as specialized agency of the United Nations.
December – Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific (CESDAP)
Prime Minister John Turner of Canada signals that his government will give producers and international oil companies added incentives to begin oil exploration and production in his country.
December 1, 1977
The Lockheed's top-secret stealth aircraft project, designated Have Blue, precursor to the U.S. F-117A Nighthawk, makes its first flight.
December 3, 1977
Bowing to pressure from Sheik Abd Ibin Baaz and other clerics, King Khalid signs the death warrants for fifteen of the thirty men on the Sheik's list of "irredemables." Fourteen of the men are beheaded over the next week. One, Prince Abdel bin-Turki, whose crime was to marry a Swedish actress, manages to escape and flees into exile in the United States.
December 4, 1977
Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all 100 passengers and crew on board.
President General Ersin of Turkey reaches an agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Jackson to resume Turkish particpation in NATO.
December 6, 1977
South Africa grants Bophuthatswana independence.
Prince Bandar bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, who is under house arrest, writes a tract which blames the oil and the wealth it produces for Saudi Arabia's social ills and "un-Islamic corruption." His tract calls the oil "Satan's Alcohol" and essentially demands that all of the oil wells and produciton facilties be destroyed. The tract is subsequently smuggled out and becomes part of Sheik abd ibn Baaz's sermons.
December 8, 1977
43rd Heisman Trophy Award: Earl Campbell, Texas (RB).
President Maamum al-Kuzbari of Syria declares the Turkish incursion into Syria to be an act of war and he calls on the allied coalition to defend Syria.
The Christian Democrats try to bring a vote of censure against Italian Prime Minister Berlinguer’s government on the grounds that they have violated Italian law by hosting the convicted Ayatollah Khomeini on Italian soil. The Christian Democrats imply that the Communist Berlinguer used Khomeini to destabilize the Shah’s regime, in furtherance of a plot by the Soviet Union to destabilize Iran and install a Communist government on the Persian Gulf.
In his defence, Prime Minister Berlinguer points out that it was the previous Christian Democrat government which let Khomeini into the country in the first place. He denies any involvement in a conspiracy, as – the Prime Minister emphasises – the Iranian cleric is himself an anti-communist of the most conservative kind. The Communist government in the end beats back the effort to censure them.
This consolidates the Berlinguer government’s hold on power, at least in the short term, as his opponents look opportunistic in their charges. Berlinguer has also had some success in reviving the Italian economy through mixed market and state initiatives, which the previous Christian Democrat government did not do, and as such his popularity increases. He is also widely regarded as a “Mr. Clean” in the less than clean business of Italian politics.
The failure to use the Khomeini trial to dislodge the Communist government sets the P-2 conspirators to work in developing other solutions for removing the left-wing government.
December 10, 1977
Soyuz 26 is launched by the USSR to crew Salyut 6.
France agrees to provide military support and troops to help defeat the Angolan troops in Shaba, in return for a commitment by Mobutu to evacuate the remainder of the CAR.
Congress approves oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in North Eastern Alaska.
December 11, 1977
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL win their very first game against the New Orleans Saints. They had lost their first 26 games before the win.
Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams of the Peace People received the Nobel Peace Prize.
December 12, 1977
Former Sen. John V. Tunney (D-CA): “For the past three years the Goldwater Administration has sought to tear apart the government of this state, and the result has been chaos, stalemate and a decline in public services and the standard of living for all Californians. It is not that California is ungovernable, it is that the current Governor is dedicated to a program of unyielding compromise which has crippled our State, largely at the expense of the citizens that he is supposed to serve. I oppose the Goldwater program, and I will seek the Democratic nomination to oppose Governor Goldwater in the next election, and make him a one-term Governor.”
Colin McNutt (18), a member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), was shot dead by undercover British Army soldiers at the junction of William Street and Little James Street, Derry. [It was claimed that the
soldiers were members of the Special Air Service (SAS).]
General Edward C. Meyer USA, head of allied coaltion forces in Syria, meets with General Ersin in Ankara in an effort to persuade the Turks to withdraw their forces from Syria.
December 13, 1977
A DC-3 charter plane carrying the University of Evansville basketball team to Nashville, Tenn., crashes in rain and dense fog about 90 seconds after takeoff from Evansville Dress Regional Airport. Twenty-nine people die in the crash, including 14 members of the team and head coach Bob Watson.
December 14, 1977
Test Cricket debut of Abdul Qadir, v England at Lahore
War criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years
Paul Harman (27), a member of the British Army, was shot dead by the PIRA while driving an unmarked car through the Turf Lodge area of Belfast.
December 16, 1977
Mikhail Baryshnikov's 1976 production of Tchaikovsky's beloved ballet The Nutcracker comes to CBS a year after premiering onstage at the Kennedy Center. This adaptation will become the most popular television production of the work.
The United States vetoes an attempt by the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Morocco for its military action against the SADR.
Sheik Abd Ibn Baaz calls for the execution of the other fifteen men on his list of "the corrupt." Most have fled the country, and Sheik Adb uses their departure - which was allowed by the Royal Authorities - to demonstrate that the Royal government has contempt for Islam.
December 17, 1977
Bobby Simpson scores 176 Australia v India at the WACA, aged 41
Elvis Costello & The Attractions 1st US TV appearance (SNL)
ZAF troops evacuate the former CAR. Control of the area reverts to French troops, who begin to administer the area as a protectorate.
From Andre LeJeune - Mitterrand: the Red Imperialist?
The cynical view is that the French baited Mobutu, using the Central African Republic’s mineral deposits and other natural resources as a lure. According to this view, Mobutu probed, and when the French Foreign Legion troops stationed near Bangui failed to react, he went whole foot for the entire country, thinking the French were giving him a tacit signal to go ahead.
The French then allowed him to exhaust himself trying to absorb the former CAR, knowing full well that sooner or later the Zairian would be forced to deal with the Angolans to his South. When they did strike, France then offered military assistance to the weakened ZAF, in return for Mobutu’s abandonment of his ill-fated claim to the CAR.
But why do this? What did France stand to gain?
France gained two things from Mobutu’s adventure; the removal of a quasi-revolutionary Central African Regime that had replaced the former President Bokassa (who was eccentric, but with whom France could do business; the varying governments that succeeded him were heavy with talk of nationalization of the CAR’s resources) with a series of unreliable would-be despots and in the process secured its access to the Central African state’s mineral resources by, all the better for French financial interests.
The second outcome was the complete humiliation of Mobutu. This second outcome revolves around a conspiracy theory that holds as its central tenant the idea that Mobutu Sese Seko was seen from Paris as having gotten too big for his britches. Namely, the French government saw his growing megalomania as a threat to its wider African interests, and so the Elysee concocted a scheme to have two problems – the CAR radicals and Mobutu’s megalomania - cancel each other out, stepping in as saviour of the day when Mobutu was faltering. This would conveniently explain why French Foreign Legionaries and other troops in the Central African Republic did nothing for a year while the ZAF became mired in a costly and deadly guerrilla war.
Many object that the Socialist President Francois Mitterrand was loath to play colonial games of this nature, and would not have allowed the slaughter to continue for so long. It is true that he was not a colonialist by political inclination, but his record also shows that Mitterrand was as hard a defender of French national and commercial interests as his Gaullist predecessors had been. There is little doubt that the French President disliked Mobutu and his kind of dictatorship, but he was not the sort of ideological sentimentalist to lose much sleep over dealing a blow to Mobutu’s self-image and regional aggrandizement. By the fifth year of his Presidency, Mitterrand had also moved beyond Socialist sloganeering to
understanding the importance of French commercial interests across the globe, and how their vitality reflected on the vitality of France as a potential world power. He may have regretted his actions, but in the interest of the state he sanctioned a re-dress of the balance of power in the region.
What is noteworthy though, is that France did gain control of the CAR as a quasi-colony, and this secured French access to the natural resources of the country. Added to that, France took the lead in re-building the ZAF’s depleted arsenal, and further ensured President Mobutu’s acquiescence by helping him to fight off an invader in the South of his country.
Others argue that Mobutu, being an important client of the CIA, the Americans would never have allowed his regime to be endangered in such a fashion by the French. There was a very real risk of creating instability in Zaire. However, this overlooks that in African affairs the CIA under the Wallace Administration was already stretched thin with limited resources.
The American President had them involved in covert campaigns in Rhodesia, South Africa and Mozambique, all the while the CIA was trying to hide this activity from Congress and the American press. Additionally this all occurred while the U.S. was trying to plan a withdrawal from Syria, and at a time when the Iranian and Saudi regimes were collapsing. The lack of American attention to Mobutu’s fate, and French meddling, may not have represented policy as much as the product of a fractured attention being called on by many more urgent crisis about the globe.
President Mitterrand may well have sensed that very point and used the moment to reassert a firmer grip on Central Africa. Certainly his willingness to use French troops to battle the Angolans and to shore-up the weakened Mobutu won him plaudits in Washington, where his socialist credentials were always a source of suspicion. From that standpoint the United States got a re-armed and chastened Mobutu, who was still ready to assist in U.S. covert activities, at someone else’s expense.
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December 20, 1977
Red Army Faction terrorist Knut Folkerts sentenced to 20 years.
Turkish forces withdraw from Syrian territory, in return for a guarantee from the Allied coalition command that they will detain and disarm any PKK fighters found in Syria.
December 21, 1977
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out a series of fire-bomb attacks on hotels in Northern Ireland and damaged five hotels.
South Vietnamese and Latin American mercenaries in the employ of the Rhodesian Defence Forces raid the village of Nakoma in North Eastern Botswana causing an international sensation when they kill a number of innocent villagers as well as ZPLF guerilla fighters.
December 22, 1977
The PIRA announced that there would be ceasefire at Christmas.
December 25, 1977
Elvis Presley stages a Christmas Day concert and "prayer-in" for U.S. troops in Syria. The concert takes place at Join Forces Base Willis outside of Damascus. After the concert, Elvis announces that he will study scripture in the Holy Land.
December 27 -29, 1977
President George Wallace makes a state visit to Poland, where he dedicates a new Poland-America Cultural Center alongside Polish leader Eduard Gierek.
December 29, 1977
A General Strike is declared across Iran in solidarity with the oil workers. The General Strike, which allows the activities of the ECNS to continue, otherwise all but shuts down the Shah’s government and puts an effective halt on the economy of Iran.
December 29 – 31, 1977
President George Wallace becomes the first sitting U.S. President to visit Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
December 31, 1977
“Bubbling Brown Sugar" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 766 performances.
"Man of La Mancha" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 124 performances.
Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait.
Donald Woods, a banned white editor flees South Africa.
WFAT (Brooklyn NY pirate radio station) begins broadcasting on 1620 AM
December 31, 1977 – January 2, 1978
President Wallace makes a state visit to India. He fails to persuade Prime Minister Desai to ease back on his policy of local partnerships. In a speech to the Indian parliament, however he does discuss breifly how, as Governor of Alabama, he was able to negotiate partnerships between the State and private companies which enhanced public facilities in Alabama. This does interest his hosts.
January 1, 1978
The Copyright Act of 1976 takes effect, making sweeping changes to United States copyright law.
Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes into the ocean near Bombay, killing 213.
Former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-CA): "The people of California are clealy the losers when the contest for political office is twisted into ideological scorekeeping. The impact of policies becomes lost in political rhetoric, while the people's interests are pushed to secondary or even third level import. Governor Goldwater has made his Administration an echo chamber for the politics of the right, and now Senator Tunney is talking through the filter of the left. I'm standing for Governor of all the people in California. I will run in the Republican primaries to challenge Governor Goldwater for the 1978 Republican nomination for Governor of our great state."
January 2, 1978
Charles Manson escapes from Folsom State Prison
January 2-4, 1978
President Wallace visits Egypt, where he meets with President Sadat as well as King Hussein, the Shah of Iran and Crowned Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Originally the President had planned to visit Iran and Saudi Arabia as a part of his trip, but it was decided to have the Iranian and Saudi leaders meet him in Egypt because the Secret Service objected to the level of instability in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In their face-to-face talks, President Wallace informs the Shah that he must cede control to a new authority which can represent a wider consensus in Iran. The Shah counters that he is the sole source of legitimacy in Iran and protests the American President’s interference in the internal affairs of Iran. With Director Ickle’s support, Wallace points to the information showing that the Shah has lost all support within Iran and that he can’t stay.
President: “When even the dog catchers turn on you, then you know it’s time to go.”
Shah: “I am Iran. How dare you...”
Secretary Jackson: “With all due respect, your majesty, the choice you have is an all out revolution, or stepping down now, so your son can take the throne, and salvage what is left of the position for your family. That is the only choice you have.”
Shah: “You must support me, I have been your friend for a long time.”
Jackson: “If we were not your friend, we would let you fall. It is because we are your friend that we say this now, and give you our commitment that we are ready to support your son.”
Shah: “He is a boy...”
President: “Who’s about to have a growing experience.”
It is widely believed that President Sadat of Egypt also spoke with the Shah and pointed out how abdicating in favour of his son now would spare his dynasty the fate of Egypt’s King Farouk.
From Henry Kissinger - The Middle East Conundrum
George Wallace missed a historic chance to start a dialogue between Israel and Egypt largely through his failure to push Begin into being less intransigent about opening a dialogue with Sadat. By all measures Sadat's intial offer was genuine, and not without risk to his standing in the Arab world, which decline percepitoulsy from the moment he made the offer to talk with the Israelis. Begin for his part later reflected that he might have been willing to meet with Sadat had it not been for the presence of Egyptian troops (mostly translators and facilitators for the American and British forces) in Syria, and Sadat's trips to Baghdad, which Begin viewed with dire suspicion as an effort to re-new the 1973 alliance which had attacked Israel. Ironically, Sadat's visits to Iraq had been aimed at persuading President al-Bakr to not only stay the hand of any Iraqi intrigue in Syria, but also at trying to win the Iraqi leader over to a joint effort to ask the Soviets to leave the Syrian occupation force - a measure Sadat believed would placate Israeli suspicions. Sadat had remained silent about the real purpose of these trips at the time because President al-Bakr feared that publicity about the substance of their talks would undermine his own domestic political position.
Hassan Tuhami, President Sadat's National Security Advisor had made the Egyptian President's intentions clear to his American counterpart Paul Nitze, whom Sadat had every reason to believe would pass this on to Wallace and Secretary Jackson. We know from the record that Nitze and Jackson, with input from White House Chief of Staff Bill Nichols did meet to discuss the Sadat overture, but that neither were enthusiastic about where it could lead, both accepting a negative view (similar to that of
Begin) that, whatever the Egyptian's stated intent, Sadat and al-Bakr were actually reviving the 1973 alliance at Israel's expense. As such a favorable interpretation of sadat's shuttle diplomacy to Baghdad never reached President Wallace's desk.
Nichols, as a consequence of his years in Congress, had developed a strong relationship with the Israel lobby and in the past had been a strong supporter of Israel. This could easily have colored his interpretation, and as the President's Chief of Staff he had a significant influnence over the flow of information which reached Wallace.
As a result, when the parties met in Aswan, Wallace was taken aback by the news of Sadat's overtures, backed-up by a qualified endorsement by Jordan's King Hussein. Not having heard of the background from his own bureaucracy (and seemingly unaware of Sadat's public statements about his willingess to meet with Begin - an indication that he had not been briefed on these either) Wallace believed Sadat and the King were telling him what he wanted to hear, staging a sort of theater for the benefit of the visitng President. Wallace, as was his personality, took offense to this, thinking the two more experienced statesman were trying to play him for political benefit. Therefore he shut the whole thing down and moved closer to Begin's position of mistrust (ironic, given that Wallace disliked the Israeli Prime Minister).
When Wallace left Aswan on January 4th the prospects for a settlement had dimmed considerably, especially without any backing from the U.S. Administration. President Sadat was forced into the humiliating (and potentially lethal, in terms of Arab politics) postion of backing away from his proposals in order to save face, while King Hussein stuck his head in the sand lest he get tarred with the same brush as Sadat.
When there was no communique of a U.S. endorsement of the Sadat effort out of Aswan, President al-Bakr loudly condemned Sadat as well, ending closing any effort of an Egyptian mediated end to the Soviet presence in Syria.
All this can be laid at the door of Jackson and Nitze, who imposed their own interpretation on the flow of infomration coming from Sadat. Nitze clearly didn't believe Sadat's intentions, while Jackson, who still harbored Presidential ambitions of his own, now took to bringing U.S. policy into line with Israel. Given the animosity between Wallace and Begin on a personal level, Secretary Jackson felt he could do his own political prospects good in being seen as the American official who preserved the tight relationship between the two countries. As such he and Nitze together failed to brief the President properly, who disinterested overall in the Arab-Israeli question, was ill-equipped by background information to grab a chance when it appeared. Further, when it was presented to him by the people involved, his temperment (and some argue the state of his health may also have effected his mental clarity by this stage of his trip) took control and he dismissed it out-of-hand as a show being staged for his benefit. This was a diplomatic failure of the utmost consquences.
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From Dr. Newt Gingrich - Policy in Amber: The Failure of Vision in the Foreign Policies of Presidents James Gavin and George Wallace
Dr. Kissinger is among many who lament the January 1978 Aswan meeting as a lost opportunity for peace. His argument, along with that of many Wallace critics, stresses President sadat's so-called willingness to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin to discuss peace proposals. All of this is dewey-eyed wool gathering that seeks to sweep under the rug the inconvenient fact of sadat's trips to Baghdad in the summer and fall of 1977. No formal record of these meetings was kept, so were are dependant only on the word of the particpants for what was said.
The Iraqis for their part were clear that there was no discussion of a peace initiative. Sadat, of course, claimed otherwise, but could produce no substantial proof of that point. Instead the Israeli interpretation, that the two regional powers were conspiring against Israel's security, and that Sadat's peace proposal was nothing more than a Trojan horse designed to put Tel Aviv and Washington off-guard while the two Arab states re-built their 1973 alliance, seems the more likely explanation. Such an explanation would be more in keeping with the history and philopsophy of the Arab regimes involved. While some point to Sadat's being condemned by other Arabs as proof of his intention, this too had a long tradition in the Arab world, and could easily have been part of a wider deception plan.
It is not clear that President Wallace realized all this at Aswan, but it is clear that he was aware that the system was being manipulated by Sadat and Al-Bakr, witht the help of Jordan's King. That he called a halt to it then and there is commendable. But where his strategic vision failed was in not, having sensed the dismembling involved on the Arab side, pressing the Egyptians for real concessions in the Sinai in return for the United States not punishing the Egyptian regime for its perfidity.
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January 4 – 6, 1978
President Wallace holds a summit with Western European leaders in Brussels. Despite arguments from other leaders to the contrary, Wallace holds that Sadat's offer to talk with Israel was windowdressing.
January 4, 1978
A referendum in Chile supports the policies of Augusto Pinochet.
Gov. Donald Rumsfeld (R-IL): “I will be standing for re-election next November.”
The IMF reports that the Nationalist rule of Prime Minister Turkes has ruined the economy of Turkey, as has the on-going civil wr with the Grey Wolves and the PKK. The IMF predicts it will take years for a Turkish government to rebuild the damage, especially with high oil prices.
January 6, 1978
The Holy Crown of Hungary (also known as Stephen of Hungary Crown) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held since World War II.
Gov. Hugh Carey (D-NY): “I welcome Representative Kemp’s challenge, and I welcome the opportunity to elect a Democrat to the House seat he will be vacating this fall, when he returns to the private sector. I am a candidate for Governor of New York State.”
Riots break out in Saudi Arabia amidst anti-regime demonstrations. Anti-regime protestors are agitated by the fact that Crown Prince Abdullah met with President Wallace in Egypt.
The Washington Post prints the first of a series of exerts of the Rodham Report which documents waste and incompetence at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The leak causes a sensation and HUD Secretary Ron Dellums comes under fire for this.
From Ron Dellums – Going Left to be Right
You couldn’t fault President Wallace for keeping his word. I was given a free hand the Department of Housing and Urban Development to shake things-up and get better levels of program delivery. Wallace had been largely right in his stated belief that there was nothing wrong with the programs we had in place already; it was the delivery which caused the problems, mostly the bureaucratic fiefdoms which stalled and re-routed the program money and support, often for the career enhancement of a local bureaucrat.
So my staff and I spent the first six months just looking every corner and doing a series of surprise inspections and audits at field offices across the country. Quickly enough we turned-up the waste and the re-routs, and we began to untangle them.
About this time a young lawyer named Hillary Rodham joined our staff. She had been working on Women’s and Child’s advocacy work in Chicago, and what she had done had impressed my staff. We brought her on to write the Rodham report, which cataloged what we had found in our internal inspection along with the remedies we were taking. Her project divided into two volumes, the first of which detailed the problems.
The second was more of a work-in-progress as we redefined how we were addressing the roadblocks and inefficiencies we uncovered.
As happens often times in government, the first volume of the Rodham report leaked. The catalogue of problems and abuses, offered-up without context or any proposed solutions, became fodder for HUD’s conservative critics, and caused more than a few of our friends to duck for cover. I recall that Senators Jesse Helms, Barry Goldwater and Richard Galtieri in particular took-up the contents of the Rodham report as a red flag. Helms made no secret that his goal was to dismantle HUD altogether, and this Goldwater and Galtieri were more than happy to assist.
I sat through a number of contentious House and Senate Committee hearings trying to put some context into what the report had found. I put Hillary in front of the committees to offer up a preliminary draft of her second volume, to show that we were addressing the problems in the first volume and were doing what we could to fix it; that we were being proactive as well as reactive. I remember Hillary’s coolness under fire, especially when Representative Jack Kemp of New York, one of the deficit hawks, came after her over the excessive spending caused by various inefficiencies. When presented with volume two, Kemp went
after the fact that we had not implemented it sooner. Again Hillary kept her cool and won the day for us.
I wasn’t surprised that some of our friends in Congress dived for cover; it was a tough period to be defending government waste, especially with people suffering as a result of the lingering recession. A few of our friends like Charlie Rangel, Ed Markey and Senator Ted Kennedy stayed true, and that counted in the end.
But, all through the grilling, we received little support from the White House. In fact the silence was ominous. I could understand why the President would want to keep a low profile on this issue, but even so some of his stimulus had gone into HUD programs, and I thought for sure that he would want to defend them, at least so far as they promoted his own policy agenda. Instead we got nothing. It made me wonder what was really going through his mind.
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January 6 – 9, 1978
President Wallace makes a state visit to the United Kingdom where he meets with British and Irish government leaders. The President spends two days at Chequers, the British Prime Minister’s country home. Part of this time is so that the President can rest after the strains of the lengthy international trip.
January 6, 1978
The PIRA announced it would continue the ceasefire as long as “there are no attacks on the Catholic community by Loyalist militia or the British forces.” In private the communicate to the British government their willingness to extend the ceasefire as a way of continuing the Christmas talks.
The “Christmas Talks” grow out of the French brokered exchanges between Sein Fein and the Healey government. During the period of the ceasefire a pretext is created for the British government to explore the possibility of some settlement that will end the violence in Northern Ireland. The French government continues to act as the go-between in these efforts.
January 6 - 9, 1978
Laos Nationalist forces backed by the North Vietnamese Army fight a three day battle near Muang Son in North Eastern Laos. Casualty rates are estimated at over twenty thousand on the Nationalist side.
January 7, 1978
David Duke (Knights of the Ku Klux Klan): “George Judas Wallace has betrayed every white man in America. His is the life of an infamous traitor. Once, Wallace stood for the rights of the white man and for liberty in this country. But now, like a Judas, he has taken the liberal, Jew America’s thirty pieces of silver. Instead of standing up for the white race in the Alabama Governor’s house, he has instead sold his soul to sit in the so-called White House, to be crowned King of the dung heap he has sold every ounce of integrity there was in him. Now I do not call for violence against our so-called President, because then they would put me in jail and the negroes would knife me in no time. No, I say, no violence should befall Judas Wallace. But I also say this, I would prefer to see that New York Jew Katzenbach as President, not cause I love that liberal Yid, but at least he’s true to what he is and not a traitor to his kind.”
January 8, 1978
Israeli govt votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai.
Paddy Donnegan, then Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), called for a British declaration of intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland. The statement was supported by many in the Nationalist community in Northern Ireland.
ZPLF guerillas kill fourteen white Rhodesian farmers in a cross-border raid into Rhodesia.
Syria begins to mobilize a self-defense force which is a heavily armed police force for border defence and internal security.
Prince Nouf, a grandson of King Ibn Saud, founder of Saudi Arabia, appears in Beirut as the personal emissary from Sheik Abd bin Baaz to the PJO.
January 10, 1978
The “famous reconciliation”. President George Wallace visits a dying Senator Hubert Humphrey at the former Vice President’s hospital room at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Famous photographs are taken of Wallace in his wheelchair and Humphrey in his pyjamas hooked-up to an I.V. as a visual symbol for both the changes since the Civil Rights struggles of the sixties, of the costs of those struggles for leaders involved, and for the passing of an era.
Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, a critic of the Nicaraguan government, is assassinated. Riots erupt against Somoza's government.
Nicaragua tipped into full scale civil war with the 1978 murder of Pedro Chamorro, who had opposed violence against the regime. 50,000 turned out for his funeral. It was assumed by many that Somoza had ordered his assassination (evidence implicated Somoza's son and other members of the National Guard). A nationwide strike, including labour and private businesses, commenced in protest, demanding an end to the dictatorship. At the same time, the Sandinistas (Frente Sandinista
de Liberación Nacional, or FSLN) stepped up their rate of guerrilla activity. (Wikipedia)
The FSLN group lead by Humberto and Daniel Ortega joined the turmoil in early February with attacks in several Nicaraguan cities. The National Guard responded by further increasing repression and using force to contain and intimidate all government opposition. The nationwide strike that paralyzed the country for ten days weakened the private enterprises and most of them decided to suspend their participation in less than two weeks. Meanwhile, Somoza asserted his intention to stay in power until the end of his presidential term in 1981.
Soon after the Wallace Administraion pledged their continuing support to the Somoza regime against the left-wing Sandinistas, and began increasing military aid.
Gov. Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA): “My opponents would like it very much if I threw-up my hands in frustration and walked away. That’s not my style, and that’s not the commitment I made to Californians four years ago. Our job is far from done and there is still much that needs fixing in this great state, and I plan to be here to see it done. I am running for Governor in this year’s election.”
Soyuz 27 is launched by the USSR. It docks with the Salyut 6 station manned by the Soyuz 26 crew.
January 11, 1978
The Fair Employment Agency (FEA) issued a report which indicated that the Catholic community experienced a higher level of unemployment than the Protestant community. In particular it pointed to the fact that Catholic men were two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than Protestant men.
The Yugoslav Foreign Minister meets with Paul Nitze in order to discuss U.S. military support for the North Vietnamese in their fight against the Pathet Red forces. Essentially, as a basis of understanding, the U.S. agrees to underwrite Yugoslav arms exports to North Vietnam and tops up Yugoslav depletions with European and South African equipment purchased using Export-Import Bank trade credits.
Under pressure from the United States State Department, Guyana expels Jim Jones and the People's Temple from its territory.
January 12, 1978
President Wallace telephones the Shah to inform him that it is time to step down and allow a “cooling-off” in Iran. The Shah begins it understand that he is cornered.
January 13, 1978
Senator Hubert H. Humphrey (MN-DFL), 38th Vice President of the United States, dies as a result of cancer.
January 14, 1978
Sex Pistols' final concert (Winterland, SF)
January 14–15, 1978
The body of former U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda, following his death from cancer.
January 15, 1978
The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Denver Broncos, 27-10, to win Super Bowl XII at the President John J. McKeithen New Orleans Superdome.
Neil Hartigan (D-IL): “Donald Rumsfeld has got to go, and I’m going to show him the door. I will be a candidate for Governor of Illinois this year.”
U.S. oil corporations post record profits for 1977, despite an increase in the amount of oil actually consumed by the domestic U.S. economy.
January 16, 1978
The Soyuz 26 capsule returns to Earth with the Soyuz 27 crew aboard.
Tomás Ó Fiaich, then Catholic Primate of Ireland, was quoted in the Irish Press as saying: "I believe the British should withdraw from Ireland. I think that it is the only thing that will get things moving." The comments drew a lot of criticism including from Ian Paisley, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who called Ó Fiaich "the IRA's bishop from Crossmaglen".
The ECNS confronts the Shah with an ultimatum indicating that he should appoint the ECNS as an interim government and that he should abdicate in favour of his son Reza, who will become the new Shah in name, with real political authority passing to the ECNS. The Shah resists this, but quickly finds that he has little support.
January 16 – 18, 1978
President Wallace hospitalized for an undisclosed problem, said to be the flu. Actually requires medical treatment after strain of foreign travel on his body.
January 18, 1978
The European Court of Human Rights made its ruling on the case of alleged ill-treatment of internees during 1971. The case had been initially referred to the European Commission by the Irish government on 10 March 1976. On 2 September 1976 the European Commission on Human Rights decided that Britain had to answer a case of ill-treatment of internees and referred the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. The Commission found that the interrogation techniques did involve a breach of the Convention on Human Rights because they not only involved inhuman and degrading treatment but also torture. The European Court of Human Rights however decided that the Commission was wrong to use the word 'torture' but did agree that the internees had been subjected to 'inhuman and degrading treatment'.
January 19, 1978
The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production continues in Latin America.
Ed Asner(actor): "The people of California are tired of being told by so-called conservatives what they can't have and what they cannot be. I believe that our State should serve the welfare of all our citizens, and should have a special charge to take care of those who have been disadvantaged, be it by disease, racism or corporate greed. Our state is about more than just a place where corporations can exercise their rights to take; it is also a place where the government is the people's guardian of their right to live as free people and not slaves to the corporate interest. Today I am announcing that I will be seeking the Democratic nomination for the office of Governor of California."
Officers and troops under Colonel Azhari’s control storm the headquarters of SAVAK in Tehran and arrested many of the operatives and officials they find there. The National Officer’s Patriotic Group gains physical control over SAVAK’s records and archives.
A bomb goes off in the luggage compartment of a TWA flight from Boston to London. The plane breaks-up over the North Atlantic and all aboard are killed. Among the dead is Gordon Brown, a History lecturer from the Glasgow College of Technology who had been guest lecturing on British History and politics at Harvard University.
FCTB and NTSB investigators later determine that the bomb was inside of luggage which origniated with a flight in Los Angeles and that the luggage had made it from LA to Boston and onto the TWA flight even though the phantom passanger associated with the luggage who had checked in at LAX had not boarded the orignal flight. The identity he used was fake. The PJO in Beirut claims responsiblity for this "reprisal" against "American and British infidel crusader aggression".
January 22, 1978
Ethiopia declares the ambassador of West Germany Persona non grata.
NASA launches the Skylab VII mission with Charles M. Duke Jr. (commander), C. Gordon Fullerton (pilot) and Joseph Allen (mission specialist) with a mission to complete a long-term endurance habitation of the Skylab B for 180 days (subject to crew health) – projected return July 16, 1978.
From Jay Taylor – The Taiwan Bomb
Chiang Ching-kuo, having consolidated his position as premier and Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, and the likely next President of the Republic of China, remained interested in the Hong Kong Economic Forum, and began meeting regularly with Li Ka-shing and his representatives to iron out how Taiwan could develop its economy through investments of Hong Kong capital on the island. At the same time both Hong Kong and Taiwan began to explore Thailand, Cambodia and South Vietnam as potential economic hinterlands, as well as making tentative overtures to Singapore as a potential partner. All of this was premised on a South East Asian trade and development zone which would benefit the economies of all nations involved.
Still, as of early 1978 it remained largely a vision, with much to be done in Taiwan – let alone South Vietnam and Cambodia – before the vision could even begin to be realized. Chiang himself referred to it as the “twenty-year plan” and set October 1 1999 (the fiftieth anniversary of the escape to Taiwan by his father – and not coincidentally the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on the mainland) as the target date for creating an industrial Taiwan (“the new Japan”) which would, with the Hong Kong group and Singapore, be the leading economies in their corner of Asia.
Chiang however continued to fret over the militarized and politically shrouded situation on the mainland and, after the demonstration of force by the PRC at Macau in 1975, he believed that Taiwan needed a stronger defence. Although the United States had renewed its pledge to defend Taiwan, Chiang continued to press for a permanent U.S. military base in Taiwan on the order of Okinawa or Yokosuka. Despite Chiang’s lobbying, this was resisted by the U.S. in part because it of conflicting
views within Congress, the Pentagon and the Wallace Administration as to the necessity of a further forward base, which some critics pointed out could provoke a military response from the mainland. The U.S. military felt that it could adequately defend Taiwan from Okinawa and the Philippines, and there was resistance in Congress to spending more money on a large fixed installation in Asia. At the time large sums of U.S. military aid were still going into developing the defence infrastructure for Cambodia and South Vietnam, and Taiwan’s situation was not given as high a priority.
The U.S. intelligence establishment could tell, largely from highly secret spy satellites and SR-71 reconnaissance fly-overs of the PRC, that the regime was largely involved in internal convulsions and did not represent an immediate external military threat. The National Security Council estimated that it would be a decade or more before the PRC became a true military threat, and in the Wallace Administration the priorities were set accordingly, and a military build-up on Taiwan was not given an immediate priority in contrast to other projects. Port calls by U.S. Navy ships, especially aircraft carriers, and the deployment of U.S. Air Force units to existing bases on Taiwan, were stepped-up, to ease fears in Taiwan and show solidarity with the ROC.
Still, this frustrated Chiang. He was also receiving increasing pressure from K.C. Wu (Wu Kuo-chen), a critic of the Kuomintang then living in exile in the United States. An ardent anti-Communist, Wu had had his own conversations with the Hong Kong group, who were looking for a wider political base of support in Taiwan than just the Kuomintang Party to secure the island as an economic base. Accordingly they were seeking to liberalize the KMT dictatorship, if not into a full fledged democracy, then into a more pluralistic entity based on a wider consensus (they especially wanted a replacement for the “1,000 Year Assembly”, a National Assembly whose members had been elected in 1948: this undemocratic legacy of another era was a potential point of instability in the view of the Hong Kong group).
Wu, a convert to the Chicago School of Free Market economics, in particular appealed to the free market Hong Kong billionaires, who saw breaking open the corporatist structure of Taiwan’s economy and society as a first step to the economic liberalization of the island.
Chiang was pursuing limited reforms at the behest of the Hong Kong group, but Wu and his disciples were beginning to increase the pressure from the United States, where their free market ideas appealed to conservative U.S. politicians who were among the strongest Congressional supporters of Taiwan, and to a limited extent from within. There was not yet a formal opposition party, but the general support the “Wu Circle” enjoyed in the United States guaranteed them a certain freedom to operate on the island itself. Chiang could not simply use his secret police to brand them as Communists – which they obviously weren’t – nor could he condemn them as subversives, not when the likes of Senator Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan endorsed their principles. This alone compelled Chiang to crack open his political structure, though he was not yet in the political position to push through a fundamental change, such as ending the “1,000 Year Assembly”.
Economic theory was abstract, however, and not the stuff of mass political movements. Where Wu and his followers had their greatest impact in Taiwan was on defense policy, where the spectre of the Lesser Mao and the strange, quasi-feudal state he was building just across the Taiwan Strait scared most Taiwanese. There was little question that the new leadership in Peking was outdoing the excesses of the Great Helmsman (variously thought to be either in retirement, under some kind of house arrest, or rumoured to be dead [though few believed that]) and arming the PRC to the teeth, even as he put the mainland population through a new “Great Leap Forward” (referred to as the “Great Jump Over a Cliff” in Taiwan). At the same time it was well known that Mao Yan-gui was using narcotics as a means to fund his eccentric project, a source as economically potent as petroleum, but without the scruples of that trade. A PRC narco state with an excess of cash to spend on whatever it chose, including advanced weapons, was a frightening prospect when seen from Taipei.
That Taiwan might be invaded was a given, especially after the PRC re-took Macau. The Wu group embellished those fears, criticizing Chiang and the KMT for not doing enough about the island’s defence and criticising his failure to get a larger American force commitment to Taiwan. (An irony, since some of Wu’s strongest Congressional supporters were also the most tight-fisted when it came to spending U.S. defence dollars in Asia; others of them were taken with the idea of a forward defence against the PRC in South Vietnam and Cambodia and not Taiwan).
Feeling the pressure, Chiang decided that the best option he had to mollify some of his critics was for Taiwan to acquire nuclear arms. These he could not get from the United States, but ROC diplomats were able to broker agreements with Israel, South Africa, Pakistan and Chile which allowed them to share technology, costs and research personnel all of which, collectively, could enhance an interconnected nuclear development program. South Korea joined the circle soon after the initial phases, further expanding the base resources available to the group.
Chiang could not brag publicly about what he was doing, but the “Dragon’s Fist”, as it became known, did get some attention in top echelon circles in Taipei and won over wavering opponents in the military and bureaucracy to Chiang’s leadership.
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From Tadeo Takashi (Translated) The New Sunrise
The state of matters in the People’s Republic of China caused great concern in Japan. However it was intelligence that Taiwan in partnership with other nations, later joined by South Korea, were developing an nuclear capability for military use which caused dismay in the Cabinet and among the Liberal Democratic Party Secretariat.
With Hiroshima and Nagasaki but thirty-three years past, the horror of nuclear war still weighed heavily on the Japanese leaders. America and the Soviet Union were seen as responsible holders of these weapons. Thoughts of the People’s Republic of China, even under Chairman Mao the elder, acquiring such a device had caused considerable nervousness in Japan. The idea that the younger Mao would take these over was even more disquieting.
However, their acquisition by Taiwan and South Korea, both dictatorships of dubious quality, was too much for many Party leaders. Even if the intended policy was to defend against a possible invasion by the barbarian regime on the mainland, both nations were regarded as not to be trusted with such power. Fukada Takeo, the Prime Minister during part of this period, blamed the Americans, who recklessly walked out of the non-proliferation process, for weakening the international structure that controlled nuclear weapons spread – and this was the result.
These pressures combined on the Cabinet to force a move many disliked, but which few could argue should not be considered under these circumstances. More money was to be pressed into the budget to increase the size and effectiveness of the Self Defence Forces, perhaps enough to acquire an offensive capability if required to forcibly disarm Taiwan or South Korea if the possession by either of a nuclear device should drive them to recklessness.
A second decision was more painful, given Japan’s recent history, and so was done in the utmost secrecy. Despite the great revulsion to the idea (some bore a deep emotional opposition to even considering this policy), Japan would begin to explore a nuclear weapons program of our own.
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January 23, 1978
Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.
In reprisal for the January 8 ZPLF raid, the Rhodesian Air Force bombs a ZPLF camp and related refugee center in Southern Zambia.
The ECNS forms a new government in Iran with ex-Admiral Mahdani as Prime Minister and Shapour Baktiar as Minister of Finance. Mehdi Bazargan, as Minister of Justice, will oversee a “truth commission” inquiry into the excesses of the Shah’s secret police. Another of the new government’s first acts is to repeal the Shah’s order banning all political parties. The Shah’s political party, Rezak, is declared disbanded.
January 24, 1978
Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
Debris from the satellite was deposited on Canadian territory, including portions of the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan, on a 600-kilometre (370 mi) path from Great Slave Lake to Baker Lake. In an attempt to recover radioactive material, a search was conducted covering a total of 124,000 square kilometres (48,000 sq mi).
The USSR claimed that the satellite had been completely destroyed during re-entry. Subsequent recovery efforts, named Operation Morning Light, by a joint Canadian-American team swept the area by foot and air in Phase I from January 24, 1978 to April 20, 1978 and Phase II from April 21, 1978 to October 15, 1978. They were ultimately able to recover 12 larger pieces of the satellite. All but two fragments recovered were radioactive. These pieces displayed radioactivity of up to 1.1 sieverts
per hour, yet they only comprised an estimated 1% of the fuel. "One fragment had the (lethal) radiation of 500 R/h, which 100 times higher than the maximum annual [per-person] radiation level of 5 rem."
For these recovery efforts, the Canadian government billed the Soviet Union $6,041,174.70 for actual expenses and additional compensation for future unpredicted expenses; the USSR continued to deny that the wreckage was theirs and they accused the Canadian and US governments of manufacturing false wreckage in order to embarrass the Soviet government. (Wikipedia)
A second sexual assault and murder on a 11 year old boy near An-Nabk in Syria, in an area under U.S. military control, against sets-off civil unrest and an uproar in Syria.
Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
The Shah of Iran abdicates in favour of his son Reza, who becomes a figurehead Shah. The former Shah goes into exile in Switzerland.
January 25, 1978
Muriel Humphrey (DFL-MN) appointed to fill late husband's Senate seat.
President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia calls the Rhodesian action of January 23 a "war crime."
The General Strike in Iran ends.
Bowing to pressure from Sheik Abd bin Baaz and his followers, the Saudi authorities release popular anti-regime firebrand Juhayman al-Otaibi.
January 25–27, 1978
The Great Blizzard of 1978 strikes the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, killing 70.
January 26, 1978
The U.S.S. Constellation (CV-64) battle group encounters an old cargo ship being pursued by two PLA Navy ships in the Pacific, four hundred miles northwest of Hainan Island. The U.S. carrier task force chases off the PLAN ships and then boards the leaky freighter.
On board the U.S. Navy finds approx 120 refugees near starvation (and 70 corpses). The survivors are taken to a refugee center on Taiwan. The survivors tell tales of horrible dislocations and crackdowns by the PRC authorities. This particular group of refugees had been part of a fishing collective on Hainan which had risen against the PRC government and been subjected to a brutal crackdown as a result. According to the refugees over 10,000 people were killed or put to death by the PLA forces sent in to restore order. At least 100 people considered to be ring leaders were crucified by the PLA as an example to others. The rising had come as a result of a protest over a meagre rice ration and the fact that the local fisherman were not permitted to keep any of their catch to feed themselves and their families with.
The 190 refugees had commandeered an old cargo ship in a local dry dock to escape. U.S. authorities estimate it would have sunk had the Constellation group not come across it.
George H.W. Bush: “I declare my candidacy for the office of Governor of Texas.”
Strikers riot in Tunisia, killing about 40.
January 28, 1978
Richard Chase, the "Vampire of Sacramento", is arrested.
Ted Nugent autographs a fan's arm with his knife.
Cornelia Wallace appears on the Mike Douglas Show to discuss her marital problems with the President. She mentions that the President's overall health is poor, which is why she thought that he shouldn't have run for President in the first place.
Followers of Sheik Abd Ibn Baaz stone a Dutch woman caught driving an automobile in Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. Department of Transportation orders all airlines operating in the United States to remain at the boarding gates until all checked-in passengers have been accounted for, and all luggage is matched with a passenger aboard the flight. This is applied to domestic as well as international flights originating in the United States. This creates many delays in flights.
January 29, 1978
White House Press Secretary Joe Schuster: "The President denies that he has any health problems which could affect his ability to serve as President. Of course, there are lingering problems from the assassination attempt in 1972, but the President has never sought to conceal or minimize these. But as the accompanying statement from his official physician shows, the President is in good health and more than capable of serving as President."
January 30 - February 2, 1978
Soviet First Deputy Premier Grigory Romanov makes a state visit to India, where he signs a number of Indian-Soviet trade agreements and loan guarantees.
January 31, 1978
Israel turns 3 milt outposts in West Bank into civilian settlements.
A bomb explodes at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This is appearently the result of a technical failure in a home-made bomb factory being operated by some engineering and chemistry students without the knowledge of the faculty. (It was disguised as other kinds of experiments though, as the Saudi security service concludes, any competent engineer or chemist would have realized what was going on and therefore at least some of the faculty must be complicit). Among the five students killed in the incident is a twenty year-old engineering student named Osama bin-Laden, the younger brother of the prominent engineer, contractor and international business man Salem bin-Laden.
February 1, 1978
A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing 2 garbagemen, a policeman and injuring several others.
Hollywood film director Roman Polanski attemtps to skip bail and flee to France, after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl. He is delayed at boarding his flight to Paris at Los Angeles airport due to a security check over unclaimed luggage, and Los Angeles county sherrifs have an opoprtunity to catch him before he can flee. Polanski is put in jail to await his sentencing.
A series of increasingly violent attacks (stones, firebombs, nail bombs, molotov cocktails etc) against foreign companies and foreign (non-Islamic) nationals begins in Saudi Arabia.
February 2, 1978
Los Angeles County Judge Laurence J. Rittenband sentences Roman Polanski to ten years in prison at hard labor and revokes his bail. Polanski is sent to Soledad Prison while his appeals are pending. The French government officially protests the sentence.
February 3, 1978
Australia beat India 3-2 on 6th day of final test.
India needing 493 to beat Australia at Adelaide, all out 445.
A nail bomb kills fourteen Catholic schoolgirls aged 9 – 12 and injures twenty-six others outside of the St. Hilda’s Catholic School for Girls in Belfast. The bomb had been planted by Loyalists, however the murders of the school girls is widely condemned in the Loyalist community.
Sein Fein ends the Christmas talks on February 4.
Lt. Gov. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-CA): "California needs new leadership which will restore a progressive, conscenus oriented management to its affairs. We must also recognize that damage that has been done by the wholesale amputations of public services over the last thee years and correct the hemmorage before it is too late. I announce that I will seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of California."
February 5–7, 1978
The Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 hits the New England region and the New York metropolitan area, killing about 100 and causing over US$520 million in damage.
February 6, 1978
King Dragon operation in Arakan: Burmese General Ne Win targets Muslim minorities in the village of Sakkipara.
Israeli jets bomb a Syrian National police force encampment near the Golan Heights.
Colonel Jan Breytenbach of the South African Special Forces is sent to Nicaragua to act as an advisor to the Somoza regime.
Two Lao Air Force F-5 jets are shot down by surface-to-air missiles fired from the jungles of Northern Laos.
February 7, 1978
Ethiopian offensive in Ogaden desert.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) was reported in the Irish Times as stating that it is "the British dimension which is the obstacle keeping us away from a lasting solution".
The United States announces limited direct aid to the Royalist Lao forces in the Nationalist coalition, such aid to be channelled through South Vietnam.
The Campaign of Jabal Lubnan in central Lebanon ends.
February 7 - 11, 1978
President Mitterrand of France makes a state visit to India. While in India he discusses ideas of mixed economic development with Prime Minister Desai and other Indian leaders. Mitterrand is also looking for new trade opportunites in the sub-Continent.
February 8, 1978
United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.
Sixteen year-old Ann Coulter decides that she wants to become a fashion designer.
Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes PM of Kuwait.
The Alabama State Court announces a preliminary seperation in the divorce case of Cornelia Wallace v. George C. Wallace.
February 8 - 22, 1978
Rhodesian special forces aided by international "specialists" and South Vietnamese mercenaries conduct a series of raids into
Zambia and Botswana to attack ZPLF camps and staging points, as well as logistical support networks. In the process they attack Zambian and Botswanan police and military posts. This has the effect of not only infuriating the Zambian and Botswanan governments, but also of contributing to political instability in both countries.
February 11, 1978
Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 44 of the 50 people on board.
Somalia mobilizes its troops, due to an apparent Ethiopian attack.
Tom Metzger: “Wallace is the arch traitor of all time! He belongs in Hell!”
Rush Limbaugh takes over the management of a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Kansas City, Kansas.
Singapore hosts the first ever meeting between South Vietnamese Foreign Minister Tran Que (supposedly on a state visit to Singpore to promote trade) and Le Douc Tho of the North Vietnam Politburo (there secretly). The meeting is to discuss Chinese encurions, through the Pathet Red, into Laos and to develop a common policy in the interest of both halves of Vietnam.
The PLO and the Phalange conclude a treaty carving-up Beirut along sectarian lines. This agreement - the so called "Treaty of the Green Line" ushers in an uneasy truce between the two groups in central Lebanon. The Lebanese state is not consulted in this and has increasingly become marginalized.
Juhayman al-Otaibi and Sheik Adb ibn Baaz lead another massive demonstration in Saudi Arabia. They are confronted by the National Guard, who in turn are confronted by untis of the regular army and the Mutaween in a situation which evolves into a stand-off, and then brief violence before the National Guard backs-off.
February 15, 1978
John Hume, then deputy leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), said that the British government should consider a third option in its search for a political solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. [The first option, of maintaining the status quo or further integration with Britain, was one which Nationalists believed the government had been following, and the second option was withdrawal from Northern Ireland which was being advocated by many Nationalists.] The third option was an "agreed Ireland" where the British government would declare that its objective was to bring the two main traditions in Ireland together in reconciliation and agreement.
US Customs and FBI agents arrest three men of Middle East origin, two Palestinians and one Lebanese, who were attempting to smuggle arms and ammunition into the United States through the port of Baltimore.
February 16, 1978
The Hillside Strangler, a serial killer prowling Los Angeles, claims a tenth and final victim.
The first computer bulletin board system (CBBS) is created in Chicago.
Major Oliver North USMC, working on detached duty with the CIA, arrives in Nicaragua with other Special Forces operatives with the mission to train and advise the Nicaraguan National Guard and to conduct counter-insurgency operations against the FSLN.
February 17, 1978
Twelve people, all Protestant civilians, were killed and 23 badly injured when an incendiary bomb exploded at the restaurant of the La Mon House Hotel, Gransha, near Belfast. The bomb had been planted by the PIRA. Canisters of petrol had been attached to a bomb which was left on a window-sill of the restaurant. An inadequate warning had been given and the hotel was being cleared when the bomb exploded. Many of those killed were burnt to death. Seven of the dead were women. There were three married couples among the dead. All those who died were attending the annual dinner-dance of the Irish Collie Club. A PIRA statement announced that the bombing had been in retaliation for the St. Hilda’s massacre two weeks before which, the PIRA stated, “ended the ceasefire.”
A British soldier was killed in a helicopter crash in County Armagh. [The IRA claimed to have shot down the helicopter. For many years the British Army denied the claim before finally acknowledging that the IRA had indeed caused the crash.]
Ibrahim al-Takari, the Speaker of the Syrian Parliament, is assassinated by a suicide bomber.
February 18, 1978
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) carried out a series of arrests in connection with the La Mon bombing.
In Syria a water carrier poisons five Senegalese troops serving with the allied forces.
February 19, 1978
Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus.
Earlier, two assassins had killed prominent Egyptian newspaper editor Youssef Sebai and then rounded up several Arabs who were attending a convention in Nicosia as hostages. As Cypriot forces were trying to negotiate with the hostage-takers at the airport, Egyptian troops decided to launch their own assault without authorization from the Cypriots.
Since Cyprus was still under the control of foreign troops, including some U.S. Army units operating under U.N. command, the U.N. command allowed the entry of the Egyptians to resuce their countrymen. The U.N. forces acted as a buffer between the Egyptians and Cypriot civil police. It was widely understood that the U.N. allowed the Egyptian raid to go forward since mainly Egyptian nationals were involved, and it presented an expedient way to end the crisis with minimal inovlement from either the U.N. forces or the still-to-be tested Cypriot Armed Police.
Inspired by what is occurring in Italy and France, Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, then Minister of Chemicals and Petroleum in Desai's government begins moves to formulate an Indian Progressive Socialist Party on the Mitterrand/Berlingeur model which could allow for a mixed economy.
February 21, 1978
Electrical workers in Mexico City find the remains of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the middle of the city.
John W. Hinckley (thoughts): “They all hate Wallace. If I kill the President they’ll be impressed with me.”
Nationalist Lao forces are defeated and forced to retreat from the city of Muang Khoua in North Central Laos. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Pathet Red forces are being supported by Communist Chinese artillery and engineering units.
Having finished his tour of duty with the Joint Chiefs Staff, Major Jeb Bush (USAF) enters the SR-71 high altitude reconnaissance program.
King Khalid of Saudi Arabia has a serious heart attack. He is taken to the United States for open heart surgery and medical treatment.
Sheik Adb ibn Baaz calls the King's heart attack "Allah's judgement on the corrupt den of snakes who dare to call themselves Kings and Princes over the faithful."
February 22, 1978
The Greek Cypriot Province of the Cyprus Confederation lodges a formal protest with both the UN and the Egyptian government over the Egyptian commando raid. Two days later (February 24) the Greek Republic also files a complaint with Cairo and with the UN for allowing it to occur.
February 25, 1978
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP) was dissolved as a political party and most of the party's members joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). According to the Standing Committee of Irish Catholic Bishops conference the vast majority of Irish people wanted the conflict in Northern Ireland to end.
Gerry Adams, then Vice-President of Sinn Féin (SF), was charged with membership of the PIRA.
President (General) Ersin of Turkey annoucnes that the Turkish population of Cyprus are "one and indivsible" from the Turkish population of the mainland. While this is warmly received in Turkish Cyprus, other nations consider this remark unhelpful.
The Greek Cypriots (and their supporters in Greece) see it as just short of a decleration of war.
Arkansas attorney and former Army JAG Coprs officer William J. Clinton decides that he will stand for the Republican nomination for the Second Congressional District of Arkansas. A one time Democrat, Clinton has become disenchanted with the Wallace Administration and the leftward swing of many Democrats. He sees more opportunity in being a right-center Republican, knowing that the local Democrats are going to nominate a McGovernite liberal who will likely loose. Clinton has also taken an interest in some of the supply-side approaches being promoted by Rep. Jack Kemp.
In a speech (harrangue) before the Arab League, Vice President Saddam Hussein of Iraq accuses Kuwait of undercutting the "counter-Zionist resistance solidarity" of OPEC on the oil price issue. He also makes a case that Kuwait is in fact a historic province of Iraq and that it should not be selling oil without "coordination" with Baghdad. Hussein falls just short of calling Kuwait an illegimate state, but his remarks do lead many (including the Kuwaitis) to question Iraq's position with regard to Kuwaiti sovereignty.
February 25 - March 14, 1978
U.S., U.K. and South Vietnamese troops occupy a portion of the eastern Beqaa Valley in an effort to end PJO assistance to insurgents in Syria.
February 26, 1978
A man in a wheelchair blew himself up in a Syrian police station in Damascus, killing three National Police officers, including a commander.
President Wallace Meeting with oil executives at the White House:
President Wallace: “Gentlemen, you’ve seen my proposal. I’m asking for your help to recover our economy.”
Alton Crane (President of Exxon): “You’re asking us to pay for your government’s largess.
Jim Irving (President of Texaco): “This is nothing short of highway robbery.”
Richard Neulin (President of Chevron): “We’re willing to be reasonable, Mr. President, but this is completely unreasonable.”
President Wallace: “A measly two percent? Come now, with all that you have benefitted...”
Jim Irving (President of Texaco): “You can try and reduce it to a small sounding number, but that two percent – which is far from measly, I assure you – represents the accumulated profit of our companies, and is the pool of cash from which we re-invest in production, product development and employee expansion. Your suggestion would put all of that in danger.”
Richard Neulin (President Chevron): “Heck, Mr. President, we’re keeping prices low as it is – we are not making enough profits, deliberately – to help out our country. Now you’re coming to us for more...”
President Wallace: “You get a lot from this government. No where is it written in stone that we should carry you with an oil depletion allowance. You get other tax breaks, too. Think about those before you say no to me out of hand like that.”
Alton Crane (President Exxon): Look, Mr. Wallace, we’re not intimidated by you. Other Presidents have tried to use the oil depletion threat on us, and have come-up empty in Congress when they tried. Our profits are not a piggy bank for you to break into, and our tax allowances are the result of years of work with Congress on our part. You want to stick us up? You
haven’t got a loaded gun.”
President Wallace: “I’ve been on the business end of a loaded gun, Mr. Crane, and not only did I survive, but it got me here. Let me be clear with y’all; I’m given you a choice to co-operate, to be the big men and show how much you love your country. Show me the back of your hands and I’ll show you just what kind of ammunition I can muster.”
Jim Irving (President Texaco): “Then we’ll look forward to negotiating a better deal with your Republican successor.”
Paul Volker (Treasury Secretary): “Mr President, if you go through with this I can no longer support you.”
Leopold Senghor, the President of Senegal, announces that he will withdraw his country's troops from Syria as he can see "no useful purpose" for their continuing to serve there as part of the "western occupation."
February 27, 1978
“Hoosiers” starring Clint Eastwood, James Woods and Vic Morrow is released. The film, based on former Sergeant Dan Quayle’s 1976 first hand book about the incident, “Red Line,” is about the 1974 mutiny of the Indiana National Guard while serving in Vietnam (with some dramatic license, especially around James Woods playing the role of Sergeant Dan Quayle). The film wins wide critical acclaim for its portrayal of the events, and anti-war theme in general. Quayle, however, is critical of the dramatic license taken by the filmmakers. Harrison Ford, in a secondary role, becomes the break-out performer of the film.
Israeli Jets strike at PJO camps in South Eastern Lebanon.
March 1, 1978
U.S. Economic News – March 1, 1978
Unemployment: 10% - small decline since May 1977. Attributed to re-hires in the service sector, an increase in part-time employment and continued hiring in local support jobs. Economic stall overall still blamed on the relatively high price of oil and gasoline.
Price per barrel of oil: $ 77 – lowest since 1973, continuing a trend first seen in May which was then attributed to decrease in demand, and increasing reliance on alternative sources of energy, also increased production in North America and the North Sea has cut worldwide import demand. However, and this has slowed growth in the U.S. economy, the U.S. oil companies are continuing to increase the price of gasoline even as the world price drops. They contend that the increase in “windfall
profits” is in fact a “cost recovery” for decreased sales since 1973. A gallon of gas still retails for $ 1.74 per gallon.
Several economists estimate that, if the retail cost of gas were reflective of the international oil market, the price should be at $ 1.15 per gallon.
Consumer confidence remains low: retail sales for 1977 are at their highest since 1974, suggesting that those who have money are beginning to spend, mainly on durables and sustainment goods, if only at a slow pace. Government revenue from taxes has also increased in 1977, the first time since 1973, which suggests greater underlying activity in employment and retail sales.
Housing starts, which were up in first half of 1977, have stalled, due to uncertainty in the markets.
Prime Rate at 5.5%, Inflation recorded at 5%. Secretary Volker and Federal Reserve Chairman Coldwell have created some dampening pressures in the market by increasing interest rates, primarily to bring down inflation and smooth out cost of living increases; all of which are designed in the long run to free-up capital and stimulate positive growth in the markets.
Television Address from the Oval Office:
“My fellow citizens, I come before you tonight to address the on-going trouble with our economy and the methods by which I believe we can address the situation. Fundamentally the American economy is sound; it is the finest, most robust in the world based on the best system of free markets and oversight that has ever existed in the history of man. There is nothing wrong with our economy which a little effort will not fix.
“One of the fundamental strengths of the American economy, and of our nation, is that we all, as citizens and contributors, share in the prosperity and adversity of the cycles of our economy. We are in this together, and as long as each one of us works hard and does his share, that’s the American way. No one begrudges the right of your neighbour to get ahead based on his hard work, but no one likes a free rider either. Taking a free ride at the expense of the taxpayer is not the American way, it is the way of the freeloader and the bum – and no one of us who truly works for this country’s prosperity and for the good of our families wants to see them getting ahead.
“There are a group of companies that have done just that. They have been coddled by our government with depletion allowances and subsidies and tax breaks, the size and scope of which makes for the biggest welfare hand-out in the United States today. This welfare isn’t going to struggling parents with children to feed, or to the elderly or infirm who cannot fend for themselves. No my friends, this hand out, to the tune of seven billion of your hard-earned dollars in nineteen seventy-six, has gone out to the oil companies. That’s your taxes, my fellow citizens, paying for everything from corporate jets to big office towers to the silk suits on the backs of oil company executives.
“Now then I ask you, can you afford a corporate jet or a silk suit? Is that what you sweat and save for? Is that what you expect your hard-earned tax dollars to pay for?
“I hear you now, my fellow citizens, I hear your loud and resounding no! I hear you say – throw the money changers out of the people’s temple!
“The high price of oil has helped contribute to our economic woes, any expert will tell you that. Yet, over the last year the world price has come down, but the domestic price of oil has gone-up. Why? Because the oil companies have increased their take from every gallon of gasoline they sell you, and you are the one who pays: at the pump when you fill-up and in the cost of every good that you buy.
“I’m not an unreasonable man, and I’m not saying the oil companies shouldn’t make a profit. We are a free enterprise country, and I begrudge no company the right to be profitable. But there is a fine line between being profitable, and unjust exploitation. In the last year, the oil companies have crossed that line.
“A few weeks ago I had the major oil executives meet with me here, in the people’s house, and I asked for their voluntary help; for them as good citizens to help contribute to the solution of our economic problems. I asked them, who have made so much, to give a little back. I asked for two percent of their windfall profits on oil.
“Two percent of what they have made just in extra profits over the last year. A measly two percent from pure earnings gained at your expense.
“And you know what they told me? No. Sitting right here, in the people’s house, they told your elected leader that they would not help out in a time of crisis, not with a measly two percent, not with a dime. You know, they had the nerve to tell me, at a time when people are starving, when families are homeless because of a lack of work, they had the gumption to tell me that they weren’t making enough money. Imagine that? A billion dollars a year in pure profit, much of that subsidized at your expense through tax allowances and other accounting gimmicks, and it’s not enough.
“Well, I’m not going to stand for that kind of greed, just as I expect that every hard working American taxpayer wouldn’t stand for that. That is why tonight I am announcing a two percent royalty to be charged by your federal government on the windfall profits of oil companies. In addition I will be signing an executive order putting a two year moratorium on the oil
depletion allowance. The money that will raise will go to you, my fellow citizens, in the form of improved government services and further measures to promote economic growth. That will be your refund for the excessive amount of money you have paid for a gallon of gasoline.
“Now, there are many who will complain that what I have done will require an act of Congress to be fully legal. I don’t disagree, and I urge Congress to act quickly to ratify my proposal. I will be sending the appropriate legislation to the House and Senate tomorrow, with a request for urgent consideration. And in this election year, my fellow citizens, I urge you to watch the actions of your Congressman and Senator closely. Does he work for you or big oil? You’ll be able to tell by their votes, and if he votes for big oil – and against this program – against your pocketbook, in other words - then I say, get him out of there and replace him with someone who will represent your interests next November.
“To the oil executives I say, I have given you every opportunity. I offer you one more. Drop the price of oil, take a reasonable cut in your windfall profits, and none of this will be necessary. The decision is yours. Good evening.”
March 2, 1978
Paul Volker: “The differences between myself and the President are too great, and I cannot in good conscience carry out a policy I believe to be fundamentally wrong for the health of our economy. I have resigned from the office of Secretary of the Treasury effective immediately.”
Sen. Howard Baker (D-TN): “This President has just tried to mug an entire industry; this nothing more than a high profile stick-up job by George Wallace. It’s a disgrace to this nation and I for one will not go along.”
George H.W. Bush: “Yesterday, George Wallace declared war on the State of Texas. If you elect me your Governor, I will take-up the fight and, Texas style, I’ll show this President why you don’t mess with Texas!”
Richard M. Nixon: “George Wallace was the last person I’d expect to turn into a socialist.”
Antonin Scalia: “There has always been a question whether the election of this President was settled according to the Constitution. However, we now see him doing what could be considered using the office for nothing short of robbery. Robbery is a crime under any jurisdiction, and as such I would say that it is an impeachable offense. If the President attempts to
carry this theft out, then he should be impeached – and quickly.”
Rep. Jack Edwards (R-AL): “Mr. Speaker, I introduce a motion to bring a bill of impeachment against President George Corley Wallace for the high crime of theft.”
George Wallace (private conversation with his son George Wallace jr.): “I want the Republicans to put me on trial in the Senate, for the great crime of trying to help out the common American at the expense of the oil companies. It’ll be David versus Goliath, with me in this chair down there every day, arguing my case for the American people against that gang of oil company lackies. Not only won’t they win this one, but we’ll pick-up a passel of Democratic seats from this. With luck, I’ll retire Jesse Helms and Howard Baker for good.”
March 2, 1978
Archbishop Chrysostomos I, not the offical leader of the Greek Province of Cyprus but an influential community figure, notes that the UN is not respecting the rights of the Greek Cypriot population, noting in paritcular that UN forces allowed the Egyptians free access to conduct military operations on Greek Cypriot soil without so much as consulting the Greek Cypriot government or the tri-member Presidential Council of the Cyprus Confederation. This, Chrysostomos alleges, shows a pro-Arab/Turkish bias on the part of the UN Peacekeeping force. In his speech he also re-asserts an old Greek Cypriot complaint that the UN is not doing anything about Turkish special Forces units said to be operating in the mountains and training Turkish Cypriot commandos for attacks against the Greeks.
While working on a kibbutz in the Negev desert as a student volunteer, twenty-year old Simon Le Bon is mistakenly drafted for service in the Israel Defence Forces. Once the error is discovered Le Bon is free to go, but elects to serve with the rest of his kibbutz labour group.
From Anonymous - Behind the Fortress Walls
Politburo meeting - October 18, 1977
“The key matter we must digest is that we are expending an ever increasing amount of Soviet resources on world revolutionary movements, but we are receiving a diminishing return. Even with the enhanced oil revenues we are receiving as a result of increased world oil prices, the flow outward is still tremendous,” Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin argued before the Politburo.
“Just look at our investment in the Arab world; what has it got us? Syria is now under United States control, Sadat has turned his back on us and purged our friends from the Egyptian government. Iraq is our only asset, and even there the regime is semi-dependable. We have the fellow in Libya, but he is an eccentric at best, and isolated between reactionary states. South Yemen is strategically useful, but isolated from other parts of the region.”
“Comrade, you sound like a bookkeeper tallying the accounts,” Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov rebutted. “Our policy has been to support revolutionary causes as a means of furthering Soviet influence and prestige...”
“So we have prestige in Baghdad, Aden and Tripoli. What does this give us? Where do we go with this?” Kosygin pressed.
"Iraq and Libya have promoted a line at OPEC which well serves our interests," Yuri Vladomirich Andropov observed.
“Comrade, Alexei Nikolayevich, you overlook the tremendous successes we have had in Europe," Mikhail Andreyevich said. "Look at Portugal; we now have a reliable ally on the Atlantic, and between Lisbon and Havana we have a cross-Atlantic axis which, if successfully exploited by our Navy, will give us a role in challenging American hegemony in that area. No longer can Western Europe be content with the Atlantic to their back.”
“Pipedream, Comrade,” Kosygin rebutted. “We are in no position to challenge the American fleet, and the Cuban and Portuguese navies would be of little use in this. Yes, I know, you will object that revolutionary success in Portugal furthers Soviet interests in Western Europe, and in this I agree with you on a strictly political argument. But I must argue that we take a hard look at how we are using our resources, specifically how we can better develop our own economy. Our industrial capacity is lagging behind the west...”
“Come now, Comrade, aren’t you being too negative in your view,” Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov interjected.
“I state the facts as they are, and not as Comrade Arvid Yanovich’s propaganda machine would have us think they are.” Alexei Nikolayevich tapped the thick binder before him – one of seven that constituted his economic report, each at least a thousand pages thick – “we are in industrial decline –certainly relative to the imperialist west and even relative to our own status a decade ago. The numbers are undeniable. And if our industry declines, it needs follow that our military capability – the underlying research and development and manufacturing capability – will go with it. We have squandered too much on speculative causes and now we are paying a price for this.”
“What would you suggest? A retreat from the world? Shall we hand the Imperialists a victory they could not possibly gain on their own?” This from Vasili Vasilyevich Kuznetsov, who at this time held the post of Chairman of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.
“What of the oil? Surely we can bring in revenue, even at the discounted rate?” Arvid Yanovich, Chairman of Party Control Committee asked.
The discounted rate he referred to was a Suslov-Andropov sponsored plan to sell Soviet oil to the Western Europeans (and perhaps Japan and Canada under certain conditions – but not the United States) at a rate discounted from the world price. This would undercut the Arabs and quickly create a dependency on us in the purchasing economies. Yuri Vladomirich’s pet economists argued that this situation could spur an economic recovery in Western Europe while leaving the United States
recession bound. An economically resurgent capitalist Europe might then feel less dependent on the Americans, and as such become a competitor even as it went its own way in global affairs. This could lead to the death of NATO over time.
“It is not just the influx of cash which will solve our difficulty,” Alexei Nikolayevich countered. “It is an entire structural reform that is required, a revolution of thinking and managing our affairs. And this will take time and investment.”
“A Revolution?” Milkhail Andreyevich asked sceptically. That was not a term to be made light of.
“Yes, Mikhail Andreyevich, we are speaking of a second Revolution of Socialist thinking and economic management. Nothing less will address the structural problems our inquiries have documented,” Alexei Nikolayevich replied, again tapping his binder.
This was the general theme of Alexei Nikolayevich’s presentation of his lengthy review of our economy to the Politburo plenum of October 1977.
Coming as it did in the shadow of the sixtieth anniversary of Lenin’s glorious revolutionary victory – when the Party and Milkhail Andreyevich personally were stressing the patriotic glories of Soviet achievement since the Revolution – the Comrade Premier’s report struck a discordant note. Suslov and Andropov were not pleased, and Pelse and Kutznetsov were not inclined to challenge the orthodox view. Kosygin had, as the Americans like to say, put himself out on a limb of a tree, with Milkhail Andreyevich and Yuri Vladimirovich holding the saw.
Therefore, it came as no surprise that even as the sixtieth anniversary celebrations continued Alexei Nikolayevich should find himself retired, and Deputy Premier Boris Nikolayevich Ponomarev along with him. It was a gentle retirement; Alexei Nikolayevich was pensioned off and Boris Nikolayevich retained some dignity in his new post as Soviet Ambassador to Nepal.
Arvid Yanovich Pelse was promoted to the Premiership, though the post was largely symbolic. It served as useful propaganda to have a non-Russian at the head of the Soviet government. The man who was moved into Boris Nikolayevich's spot, Grigori Vasilyevich Romanov, was a young firebrand who had captured Mikhail Andreyvich’s attention. As Deputy Premier Grigori Vasilyevich would assume many of the day-to-day functions which Alexei Nikolayevich had previously overseen, but as a deputy only he would be under tighter control from Mikhail Andreyvich’s office.
Economics was not the principle focus of Mikhail Andreyvich’s celebration – the glory of the Party, the Revolution and cadre discipline were. The KGB had spent much of the past two years clamping down hard on the corruption and excess of the Brezhnev years, and Mikhail Andreyvich wanted to rebuild the discipline of the cadres. (Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev himself now resided in a mental clinic where he had been diagnosed with anti-Socialist schizophrenia, a condition the doctors informed the Politburo that was probably incurable). This was why Stalin as the heroic leader during the Great Patriotic War was revived both in the national anthem and in the new Constitution. It was at once a reminder of bolder times when all cadres had been dedicated to the preservation of the Soviet state and the Revolution, and it was, thought the personification of Stalin, a reminder of how strict the application of discipline could become. It is well to remember that Mikhail Andreyvich Suslov was the last survivor of Stalin’s cadre, and his personal stamp on even a partial rehabilitation of the old “Marshall” was meant to remind all of that point. With Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov and KGB Director Vitaly Vasilyevich Fedorchuk in close proximity during the celebrations (especially when a new monument to the wartime Stalin, the first since 1953, was dedicated at Volgograd [once called Stalingrad]) the point could be lost on only the most dense: the Party could be harsh if needed and discipline of the most exacting variety was to be the new orthodoxy. A disciplined Party, with the vices of Brezhnev era corruption hacked away from the flesh if necessary, was to be the road to a glorious Soviet future. It was also a message to the many foreign cadres visiting the Soviet Union during this period about the direction that Mikhail Andreyvich and Yuri Vladimirovich wanted to take the Soviet Party, and what they expected in turn from our foreign comrades.
Alexei Nikolayevich had become so engrossed in his economics that he had missed the point: fortunately his age and position afforded him a soft landing. Others of the same mentality faced a harsher correction.
The three, the functionary Defence Minister General Viktor Georgiyevich Kulikov, the Central Committee Secretary Nikolai Ivanovich Ryzhkov and the new Deputy Premier Grigori Vasilyevich Romanov watched with varying degrees of uncertainty and discomfort with the Suslovist approach (as we learned later, but not at the time of course). All three had read at least some parts of Alexei Nikolayevich’s report, and had come to the same conclusions he had. And in the next while they would be joined by Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, Grigori Vaselyvich's new, highly competent assistant, who would come to share their view. As younger men they could bide their time, and build support for the (economic) Second Revolution Alexei Nikolayevich had spoken of, provided they could escape the dragnet of orthodoxy and Party discipline dominating the aging and increasingly sclerotic top of the leadership.
"We must now allow ourselves to become self-satisfied, as imperialism will use every means at its disposal. The struggle between the two systems is still going strong." Boris Nikolayevich Ponomarev had said in 1973, to remind his listeners that the policy of detente was a strategy and not an end in itself.
Yuri Vladomirich Andropov updated this in at the outset of 1978 when he said, "The Soviet Union is not merely talking about world revolution but is actually hoping to bring it about."
The ideal of world revolution remained at the center of State policy at the end of the 1970's, even if the approach had become more pragmatic and incremental (a view that Party Secretary Mikhail Andreyvich Suslov disliked intensly).
Our most looming challenge lay in relations with the United States, where much had changed since the days of Nixon and Brezhnev. Nixon was gone - a disgraced figure - and his successor, Agnew, had torpedoed the second round of SALT talks. By the time his successor, Gavin, had suggested the possibility of their resumption, Mikhail Andreyvich Suslov had dismissed the inative. Many of us saw this as recklessly playing into the hands of the American propoganda machine.
Mikhail Andreyvich held the curious belief that Nixon and his lackey Kissinger had bested Leonid Ilych in the first round of talks in 1971 and 1972, and that the treary created from that had been a loss for our side. At the crux of their argument they heldthat the treaty failed to eliminate the so-called US forward based systems (FBS) such as the F-111 fighter-bombers based in East Anglia in Britain. The F-111 had proven their deadly effectiveness in raids over North Vietnam, as had the multi-use capable A4's and A6's carried aboard the American Navy's aircraft carriers. Soviet air defences had no means of dealing with these threats adequately. The Surface-to-Air batteries we had given to North Vietnam had proven inadequate. Their kill ratios on American B-52's, a lumbering strategic bomber now over twenty years old, had also proven disappointing.
Our air strategists were greatly concerned that in a military confrontation, the Americans would have the advantage in the air and thus would lay the whole of the Soviet Union open to a massive air attack. The Defence Committee was also concerned about the implications this had for a first strike potential by the Americans.
Mikhail Andreyvich and Yuri Vladomiric had used the failure of Leonid Ilych and Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko to press for controls on the FBS systems in the SALT agreement as one of the grounds to remove Brezhnev and Gromyko from the leadership.
Mikhail Andreyvich had gone further by pressing President Gavin for a seperate FBS treaty as a pre-condition for the resumption of SALT talks. The Americans had balked at this, and so matters stood when George Wallace became President in 1977.
Wallace soon showed us where he stood when he aborgated U.S. involvement in a nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which reduced the measure from effective to symbolic. Soon the KGB learned of efforts by a number of smaller states from South Africa to South Korea to obtain fissile materials and begin nuclear weapons programs. Mikhail Andreyvich and Yuri Vladomirich assumed that this could only be possible with the acquiesense of the Wallace Adminsitration, although some of our experts at the U.S. and Canada Institute studies group were not as certain. Nonetheless our leadership had at its heart a belief that Wallace was prepared to countenance the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This sense was reinforced when Foreign Minister Zorin and our new ambassador in Washington, Alexander Alexandrovich Bessmertnykh were unable to interest either National Security Advisor Nitze of Secretary of State Jackson in a new round of SALT talks. Jackson in particular seemed fixated on the fate of Soviet Jews, and would attached a number of unacceptable pre-conditions to talks which would have enforced U.S. will on the Soviet internal matter of our immigration laws! None in the Politburo was willing to accept this.
At the same time our mission to support Revolutionary movements in Africa clashed with an increasing U.S. involvement there. The KGB and our International Department had corralled the various Zimbabwe liberation movements under the banner of the Zimbabwe People's Liberation Front - over which we exercised a level of influence - at the very same time that the Wallace Administration was pouring military resources into South Africa and a revangist racist regime ruling occupied Zimbabwe. By using mercenaries from other parts of the world and by trying to hide U.S. aid through the use of third country intermediaries, the Wallace Administration tried to hide this activity from us and from its own Congress. However, in 1977 El Salvador, a tiny Latin American puppet of the United States, sold over 4,000 tonnes of machine parts to the South Africans. Given that El Salvador had no native heavy industrial capacity at the time, it strectched all credulity that they became a major supplier of industrially fabricated products to the South Africans. These were, in fact, the transfer of arms. Our conclusion was that the U.S. luck in sustaining their South Vietnamese puppet had given them a taste to challenge Revolutionary fighters elsewhere in the world, and that the struggles for liberation and justice Africa had inspired the anti-black, racist Wallace to try and bring about a like victory for the racist white occupation regimes in Salisbury and Pretoria. As the leader of world revolution, we would not allow this.
Our Syrian mission had been judged a failure, and much of that was blamed on Leonid Ilyich who had approved it. While we had secured Iraq and developed that regime as a reliable client with our presence (our forces were positoned along the Iraq-Syria border and so facilitated Iraqi exploitation of smuggling and espionage routes across that frontier), we had not made the in-roads we had hoped in securing a Socialist government in Damascus. Instead American supported reactionaries were gaining the upper hand. Mikhail Andreyvich had always believed that Leonid Ilych had been too quick to acquiesce in the international effort (in order to salvage the damage done by our inadequate support our Arab allies in the October 1973 War) and had lost initative on the matter from the start. Now Syria was to our forces little more than a training ground, and our voice was not pre-dominant on the international council deciding Syria's fate. The nation that had been our client before
the 1973 war seemed lost to us for at least the near term, and only a sense of national pride kept us from permanently pulling our forces back into Iraq for good. By he begining of 1978 Africa was seen as the much better hope for success.
Mikhail Andreyvich also liked to brag of Portugal as the showpiece of our Revolutionary policy in Europe, a policy which would soon enfold France and Italy he liked to add. Yet, for all the talk of Revolutionary success, Portugal apart, the move to the left in Western Europe was not ideologically favourable to us. Mitterrand proved more of burgeois imperialist than we could have expected from his party affiliation and rhetoric - a "Red Imperialist" according to a book about his regime by one of his countrymen. Certainly his manipulation of the Zaire stongman and re-colonization of Central Africa was more inherently the move of a seignuer than a Socialist.
In Italy Berlinguer, who was not warm to Soviet direction, became something of a pet project for Mitterrand and Marshal Tito, both of whom seemed to adopt the role of mentors to the Italian Prime Minister. In their tutelage, both men took the nominal Italian communist away from the internationalist order and toward a more inwardly, national and burgeois focus on accommodation with the capitalist interests and institutions in his country. Berlinguer and Tito called it "Eurocommunism" though the correct term should have been buregois deviationism. For us it meant that our influence over the most successful Western European revolutionary in a generation was muted and that France, Italy and Yugoslavia, in crafting a mutual support network of left-centered ideas independent of our direct influence, created an unwelcome and disruptive counterpoise to our revolutionary success with the Portugese liberation. They competed with us for the affiliation of revolutionary intellectuals
in Western Europe and by the beginning of 1978 seemed to be winning the ideological debate.
To our East we were also concerned about the rice eaters and the quixotic path the whole Chinese Revolution seemed to have taken. From our few resources left we learned that Mao, acting through his nephew it seemed, had turned the place into the equivalent of a giant prison camp. The government's efforts, having eschewed all semblence of a normal international posture for any state, were aimed at dominating the illicit drug trade. We also heard stories of vast attempts and enforced industialization in the hinterland and dark rumors that they were building-up the size, if not the technical capability, of their armed forces. All along he Amur and Ussur frontier lines, and as far East as Mongolia, they built walls to hide behind - our frontier now more resembled a giant walled fortress along their side. This was good for us from a defensive sense (an attack on us would be more diffcult as they would have to get around their own walls to do it) but it rattled many observers.
Our Chinese experts, Foreign Minister Zorin among them, could not fathom what level of madness had possessed Mao to take this route.
"They are behaving like the ancient Emperors," Valerian Alexandrovich Zorin observed at one point. "Retreating from the world behind walls and seas, all the better to concentrate their power and attention upon the Middle Kingdom."
"But concentrating for what?" I asked him.
"That is the question, and I fear the answer when it comes will not be pleasant," the Foreign Minister remarked.
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Constantinople
Banned
Things just keep getting worse and worse. The USA is controlled by a shortsighted, selfish Alabama first type who is already having impeachment proceedings against him.Though this is better than.... The Soviets are under hardline Stalinists, who have embraced the world revolution....who in turn are made to look very very sane when compared to the nightmare that is China.
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