Now, Tomorrow and Forever...
November 3, 1976
Two Protestant civilians were killed in separate shooting incidents carried out by Republican paramilitaries in Dundrod, County Antrim and Tiger's Bay, Belfast.
November 6, 1976
Two Catholic civilians died as a result of separate shooting incidents carried out by Loyalist paramilitaries in New Lodge, Belfast and Whiteabbey, Belfast.
November 8, 1976
A series of earthquakes spreads panic in the city of Thessaloniki, which is evacuated.
The British military reacts to recent killings by leveling several known “hang-outs” and meeting places of assorted Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups.
November 9, 1976
Oakland releases Billy Williams, ending his Hall of Fame career
The UN General Assembly condemns apartheid in South Africa
November 11, 1976
The Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee (ULCCC) issued a plan, 'Ulster Can Better Survive Unfettered', for the setting up of an Independent Northern Ireland.
November 15, 1976
The first mega-mouth shark is discovered off Oahu in Hawaii.
California Governor Barry Goldwater Jr. vetoes the Early Academic Outreach Program proposed by the University of California. Later than month, citing his personal beliefs in liberty, Governor Goldwater encourages the State Assembly to repeal California’s sodomy law.
The Delaware Supreme Court upholds a state wide recount which delivers a close vote to Wallace over Reagan.
Results of the Quebec General Election:
Parti Quebecois – 67
Union Nationale – 17
Liberal Party – 16
Independent - 6
Creditiste – 2
Popular – 1
Communist – 1
Rene Levesque forms the first Parti Quebecois government, whose agenda includes a referendum on Quebec sovereignty.
The poor economic performance of the previous Liberal government is also an issue in the provincial election (some argue the real issue for many voters). As a consequence, many choose to vote for a variety of independents, six of whom are elected to the National Assembly. One district elects a Communist member, an unusual development for Quebec.
Overall the Liberals are reduced to third party status, and the once moribund Union Nationale manages to overtake them to become the official opposition in Quebec. It essentially campaigned on more conservative economic policies, social conservatism and a more pro-federalist policy that the PQ. It’s leader, Jacques Tétreault, hopes to convert the UN into a replacement for the Quebec Liberal Party without the Liberal’s baggage of the last decade under Robert Bourassa’s leadership. He is also planning on building the UN as a Quebec wing for the national Progressive Conservative Party.
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November 19, 1976
Jaime Ornelas Camacho takes office as the first President of the Autonomous Free Republic of Madeira. The AFR Madeira is under the protection of the British Royal Navy and Air Force, and President Ornelas Camacho and his government are initially only recognized by the United Kingdom and the United States.
Former President Richard Nixon is transferred to the Federal Correctional Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky after suffering a cardiac arrest.
November 22, 1976
Comic strip "Cathy," by Cathy Guisewhite, debuts.
November 24, 1976
At least 3,840 are killed in a Richter scale magnitude 7.3 earthquake of Van and Muradiye in Turkey. The earthquake and its aftermath, which features Grey Wolves security slowing down rescue responders to conduct "security checks" (extortion), further alienates the population from Prime Minister Turkes' rule.
Courts in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Kansas all uphold close Wallace victories after recounts are completed.
November 25, 1976
In San Francisco, The Band holds its farewell concert, The Last Waltz.
The New Jersey State Legislature passes legislation legalizing casinos in the shore town of Atlantic City commencing in 1978. After signing the bill into law, Governor Brendan Byrne declares "The mob is not welcome in New Jersey!" referring to the Mafia's influence at casinos in Nevada.
After a series of meetings at Camp David presided over by the Gavin Administration, Ronald Reagan is convinced to formally concede the Presidential election to Governor Wallace.
Ronald Reagan: “The American people have spoken, and our message was heard. I wish I could say that we had persuaded enough voters to win this election, but we didn’t, not this time. But that is democracy, and that is the strength of America, of our tradition of free government by the people. So, I accept the verdict of the people; I have always held that it is the ballots of the voters, and not the courts, which should decide elections. Nancy and I extend our best wishes to President-elect Wallace. Our prayers will be with our new President as he undertakes his task. But, my friends, I will not say that this is the final curtain either; maybe just the intermission. We’ll see you again, soon.”
OJ Simpson breaks his leg during a Buffalo vs Detroit game and is removed from the roster for the rest of the season.
Viking 1 radio signal from Mars help prove the general theory of relativity.
November 26, 1976
Warsaw Treaty Organization joint secretariat established.
November 27, 1976
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) killed two Catholic civilians in separate booby-trap bomb attacks in Lurgan, County Armagh and Bogside, Derry. The bombs had been intended for the security forces.
The Peace People held a rally in London which was attended by approximately 30,000 people. Republican sympathisers held a small counter demonstration and chanted 'troops out'.
November 28, 1976
14 members of the INLA are killed in an ambush near Ballyshannon in the Irish Republic. Although suspicion initially focuses on the British Special Forces, the PIRA issues a claim of responsibility.
November 29, 1976
Soviet forces repel and insurgent attack near Shaqqa in south eastern Syria. The Soviets come under international scrutiny for using tanks and helicopter gunship to attack nearby villages, killing hundreds of innocent civilians.
From Anonymous - Behind the Fortress Walls:
As the months passed Comrade Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin continued to argue that the Syrian adventure was costing the Soviet Union too much, relative to any gain, which by the autumn of 1976 seemed minimal.
"What is it our army is achieving digging around in the sand out there?" he would ask.
"We are blocking western imperialism and moving to restore our ally," Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov would reply.
"Hmmph! I see precious little of that. I see Akhromeyev and his army killing Arabs - which the rest of the Arab world sees too - and blames us for. I see little progress toward a progressive Syrian state," Alexei Nikolayevich would grumble. "What of your efforts Yuri Vladimirovich? Surely the vaunted KGB has had more progress?"
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov would look at Kosygin with narrow eyes staring through his glasses. "We have important agents in this new Syrian government. With time, and persistence, we will achieve a favorable result."
"There you see Mikhail Andreyevich, we make progress by other means. Surely it is not best to let the KGB do its work and to pull out our forces. Let the Americans and the British be seen as the killer of Arabs and not us. That would help our position in the Arab world."
"You worry too much over the opinions of Arabs," Mikhail Andreyevich replied. "We are safeguarding a better relationship with Iraq though our Syrian mission."
"The Iraqis are playing this like a bazaar, forcing us to bid against the Americans for their loyalties," Yuri Vladimirovich commented dryly.
"Arabs," Alexei Nikolayevich commented in disgust. "This thing in Syria, and this unnatural relationship you two have cultivated with that fascist in Turkey, is not helping our efforts in Europe or Latin America, or even Africa. I had to listen to a two hour harrangue from Castro about our actions with the Turkish fascist. Imagine sitting through two hours of that idiot shouting about revolutionary solidarity and resisting fascism in a humid, dank Havana summer? It's Hell on Earth, that's what it is! You want us to be a world leader; but even our allies have a hard time holding us credible as long as we are making friendly noises with that fanatic."
"Fidel Castro does not dictate the policy of the Soviet Union Alexei Nikolayevich," Mikhail Andreyevich replied. "Our policy, as we have discussed, is aimed at a complete undermining of the west. We have already destroyed the eastern flank of NATO, and soon we will diminish their influence in the Arab world for good."
"Along with our own. With the rice eaters drawing back into their shell, now is the time for us to press our advantage with revolutionary movements around the globe. But they all take the same tone as Castro. And the European cadres, they look at this with the same questions. Some, like the Italian Berlinguer, are moving to an independent axis involving the French President and Tito. Is that what we want? A further split in the socialist international? A new rival?"
Mikhail Andreyevich took a moment before he replied to this. "Alexei Nikolayevich, I am concerned that you are putting the troubles of the moment above the long term interests of the struggle. Is that happening here? Look at our successes. Portugal has been liberated, Socialists are in power in Greece, Italy and France, and in each case they are reliant on our cadres to keep them in power. Yes, we have had some reverses in Syria and Colonel Turkes is the most unsavory sort to have as an ally. But he serves our purpose by radicalizing Turkey even as he helps in the destruction of NATO. We will be rid of him soon enough and the government of Turkey will replaced with progressive forces more palatable to prima donas like Castro. From Iraq to Syria, thorough Turkey across Greece - we will have an iron grip on the Eastern Mediterranean. Then we descend upon Suez and the oil countries."
"A fine vision, Mikhail Andreyevich," Alexei Nikolayevich replied. "But while you are weighing your plans for expansion, the task of re-energizing our economy is hampered. The West welcomed our involvement in Syria, but they have come to regard our Turkish policy as suspicious. It is difficult for us to make economic and political agreements with even ideological allies like Berlinguer with that suspicion. They question our invovlement in Turkey and hold-up agreements unless we agree to pressure Turkes to go."
"Our oil will overcome their distaste for our Turkes association," Yuri Vladimirovich said. "The American and British resistance to the progressive forces in Portugal works to our favor as well. Berlinguer and even Mitterrand are on the side of the Lisbon government. And, the Americans have just elected an arch segregationist, an outspoken hater of blacks, as President. Already we have begun to show films of this Wallace's speeches in Africa through cultural exchange programs. He is as odious to the Africans as Vorster and that white woman in Rhodesia. Instead of worrying about us, Castro should be kissing the collective ass of the American voters, because they have made our job in Africa and Latin America easier, and that bearded ape can have all the revolutionary crusades he wants against the racist, imperialist west.
The argument between old, stubborn men continued without resolution. Alexei Nikolayevich, not an unschooled man, suspected that the new American President would have some trick up his sleeve.
"Why would they allow him to become President if he was going to make them look bad?" He asked."You will recall that Leonid Ilyich once thought that Agnew was a genius, only to discover too late that he was a fool. He pissed away our chance to win a decisive war in the East because of his belief that Agnew was trying to outfox him. Yet, in truth the man was an imbecile, one so bad that they had to remove him from office. I suggest that we not repeat this mistake. If we assume Wallace is a simple back-country black hating oaf, we may learn that he is made of different stuff, at a time when we will regret it. The lesson of Agnew is that nothing is as it appears in America."
The room became frostier with Alexei Nikolayevich's invocation of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev's failures.
Nothing more was settled that day, but as the old men continued to argue about which policy was better, younger men began to wonder about whether the old men themselves were a part of our economic and political problems. And they began to discuss this thought amongst themselves.
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NY Yankees sign free agent Reggie Jackson to 5-year contract.
December 1, 1976
Guillermo Fonseca Álvarez takes office as the 32nd President of Mexico.
The Sex Pistols achieve public notoriety as they unleash several 4-letter words live on Bill Grundy's early evening TV show.
RAF patrol aircraft chase DPRP fighters from the airspace around Madeira. During an exchange of missile fire, one British fighter and two Portuguese fighters are downed. Royal Navy search and rescue personnel recover one of the downed Portuguese pilots from the sea. He is removed to a British stockade on Madeira.
The Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act came into effect. The Act was introduced to give effect to the anti-discrimination provisions contained in the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Fair Employment Act established the Fair Employment Agency (FEA) which had two main functions: (i) the elimination of unlawful discrimination on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion, and (ii) the promotion of equality through 'affirmative action'.
Barbara Castle MP (Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary): “It’s all well and good to promise fair employment, and even to make an effort to have it come about, but it’s so much rubbish when there are no jobs to be had in Northern Ireland. And why is that? Because the Tory government has turned the place into an armed camp; no one works because they’re all afraid of being gunned down by trigger happy soldiers who are part of the government’s misguided effort to “pacify” the region. Without peace, fair employment is nothing more than a collection of hollow words.”
December 2, 1976
Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
December 3, 1976
Bob Marley and his manager Don Taylor are shot in an assassination attempt in Kingston, Jamaica.
James Dooge is elected unopposed as the 6th President of Ireland. In an inaugural address the new President stresses the importance of Irish sovereignty, and states plainly that the Republic of Ireland has earned the respect for its sovereign rights among the community of nations. This is seen as a jab at the British government for its recent violations of Irish sovereignty which the Donegan government has largely side-stepped with qualified protests.
December 4, 1976
The annual conference of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) debated a motion calling on Britain to declare its intention of withdrawing from Northern Ireland. The motion was defeated by 158 votes to 111.
December 5, 1976
British and American forces capture a large insurgent ammunition dump near Rachaiya, in the Bekka Valley in Lebanon. This has the effect of hampering both insurgent and PJO operations in Lebanon and Syria.
Supporters of “The Peace People” hold a rally in Boston (since they are banned in Northern Ireland and their leaders are in jail.). Senator Ted Kennedy and Massachusetts Governor “Tip” O’Neill join in a public show of solidarity calling for the release of the leaders of the “Peace People.” (Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan and Ciaran McKeown).
December 7, 1976
The British Army levels the homes of two known PIRA leaders in Derry.
December 8, 1976
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is established by the 5 Latinos in the United States Congress: Herman Badillo of the Bronx, E. de la Garza and Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, Edward R. Roybal of California, and the nonvoting Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, Baltasar Corrada del Rio.
Hotel California by The Eagles is released.
The actor Roger Moore is released by his PIRA captors, nearly two years after his abduction. His release has been organized in negotiations with the French government and it is the Elysee which announces to the world that Moore is sage in a French hospital.
Kurt Waldheim is re-elected for a second term as United Nations Secretary-General.
December 12, 1976
Dalton Lee and Christopher Boyce are arrested by the FBI and formally charged with espionage.
Hosni Mubarak is dismissed as Vice President of Egypt. No public reason is given but regional analysts deduce that Mubarak and President Sadat had a falling-out over the issue of supporting U.S. military involvement in Lebanon and Syria. Sadat has given the operations his guarded support while Mubarak evidently wanted to adopt a more neutral stance, especially with regard to the Arab world. Mubarak had privately warned Sadat that his pro-US lean on the question might alienate support for the Egyptian regime among other Arab nations. Mubarak is instead appointed as Egyptian Ambassador to Australia (which can be viewed as an exile).
The Ulster Loyalist Central Coordinating Committee (ULCCC) claimed that some loyalist politicians had been involved in the past in the arrangements to purchase arms and explosives, and in choosing potential bomb targets.
December 13, 1976
The Presidential Electors meet in their State Capitals (and the DC City Hall) and cast 272 Electoral Votes for George C. Wallace and Nicholas Katzenbach (D) and 266 Electoral Votes for Ronald W. Reagan and Charles Percy (R).
December 15, 1976
Samoa joins the United Nations.
In a controversial settlement agreed to by the Four Powers (The United States, The United Kingdom, France and The Soviet Union), China is formally expelled from the United Nations Security Council for non-participation. After some negotiation, Japan and India are admitted to the Security Council as the fifth and sixth permanent members. Each provides an Asian voice on the SC. Japan is seen as being pro-western, therefore non-aligned (and at times pro-Soviet) India is admitted in a deal made between the three western powers and the Soviet Union.
Along the lines of the 1973 agreement that admitted both parts of Germany to the UN General Assembly as separate entities, and the 1975 ceasefire agreement which allowed North and South Vietnam to enter the UNGA as separate entities; North and South Korea are now admitted as separate entities to the UNGA.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) is also allowed to resume China’s seat in the General Assembly, and in return the western powers agree to the admission of Angola under the MPLA government to the UNGA.
A dispute remains as to whether the Lisbon government or the government on the Azores should be entitled to the Portuguese seat in the UNGA. Currently, with U.S. and British backing, the government of exiled President Mario Soares ("The Azores Portugal") holds the seat. The USSR is trying to line-up support from France and the non-aligned bloc to compel the UN to recognize the Lisbon government as the legitimate representative of Portugal.
President Gavin commutes the sentence of Richard Nixon. He also issues an executive order reinstating Nixon’s pension as a former President, and restoring his rights and benefits as a veteran of the United States Navy.
James M. Gavin – A Call to Duty: A Memoir
I had maintained that I would not interfere with the judicial process where President Nixon was concerned, and that had taken its course. My decision to commute his sentence was taken with the belief that further punishing a sick man was unnecessary. The message had been delivered and there was no point in prolonging his personal agony.
As for his pensions, I believed that we owed something to Richard Nixon for his years of public service. Perhaps his conduct as President had been less than exemplary, but there had been decisions and actions taken by President Nixon which benefited our nation.
Moreover, as a Senator, Vice President and a Navy officer during the War, he had rendered service which I believed should not be overshadowed by his Watergate offenses. Yes, that had been a tragic end to an otherwise sterling career, but it was not the only thing to be considered. In my judgment, the commutation and restoration of pensions and benefits struck a proper balance. There was punishment for his crimes (he would not be able to practice law as he had lost his licenses to do so with his conviction) but he would not be left destitute either, and he received a just recompense for the services he had performed on behalf our country.
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West German Chancellor Kohl, President Mitterrand and Prime Minister Berlinguer begin a two day "Heart-of-Europe" summit, at which the three leaders discuss proposals for strengthening Europe's financial, political and military position. Mitterrand and Berlinguer are interested in a more European centered "third way" in East-West relations. Kohl does not share this view, but he is also hedging his bets against the changes he is seeing in policy outlook coming from President-elect Wallace.
December 16, 1976
Richard Nixon is released from Federal prison and transferred by Presidential order to the United States Naval Hospital at Bethesda, Maryland for treatment.
December 20, 1976
Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago for 21 years, dies.
Thomas Easton (22), a member of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), was beaten to death by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in Forthriver Road, Glencairn, Belfast. This killing was part of feud between the UDA and the UVF.
Argentine President Admiral Emilio Massera announces that Chile and Argentina cannot co-operate until Chile recognizes Argentina's claims in the Beagle Channel. General Pinochet counters that Chile will not concede to Argentina's demands in the region. Massera's regime is enganged in a brutal crackdown on dissidents.
December 23, 1976
A new volcano, Murara, erupts in eastern Zaire.
December 24, 1976
In what the Heath government bills as an act of Christmas “good will” the downed DPRP pilot captured on December 1 is returned to the Portuguese government.
December 25, 1976
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) held a three day ceasefire over the Christmas period (25 to 27 December 1976).
December 28, 1976
Legendary guitarist Freddie King dies.
President Gavin and President-elect Wallace attend the funeral of Mayor Richard Daley. An awkward situation ensues when a photograph of Gavin and Wallace is released which shows removed President Spiro Agnew (who was part of the press contingent) standing in the background behind the two men.
January 1, 1977
The Australian state of Queensland abolishes inheritance tax.
Jacqueline Means becomes the first woman formally ordained an Episcopal priest.
Belgium reapportions 2,359 communities into 596.
Czech intellectuals begin Human Rights Group Chapter ’77.
January 2, 1977
Bowie Kuhn suspends Braves owner Ted Turner for one year due to tampering charges in Gary Matthews free-agency signing.
January 3, 1977
Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated. A number of technology experts wonder who is providing the capital, as this is more than just a garage start-up by entrepreneurs. Indeed Apple seems to be building its designs on ideas from a number of discredited technology designers (some in prison) who had been accused to stealing proprietary technology for their start-ups.
The world's first personal computer, the Commodore PET, is demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
A bomb detonates in the mailbox of British MP Enoch Powell. No one is injured. The PIRA calls it "the first retaliation" for the leveling of PIRA members homes.
Agnew On Point
"We begin the new year filled with anxiety and not a little fear. In seventeen days a Democrat will take over the White House, and not just any Democrat, but the one Democrat who vowed segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever. This alone should make us cautious of what we can expect from a Wallace Administration.
"Now, we can take President-elect Wallace at his word, and assume he has put the past behind him, that he has given-up his old beliefs of division and hatred. Certainly his choice of the liberal democrat Nicholas Katzenbach as his Vice President would speak to that. And if the rumors are true that he will pick the out-and-out Socialist Ronald Dellums for his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, then we can see that the transformation of George Corely Wallace from hard defender of states rights to mushy placater of the liberal establishment is complete.
"Only fourteen years ago Wallace and Katzenbach, then the Governor of Alabama and the Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, respectively, squared-off in the University of Alabama door over the admission of blacks to that institution. Wallace, of course was against it, Katzenbach there to enforce their admission on the University of Alabama. Wallace told us then that he was defending states' rights. Now, he has chosen the man who, in Wallace's own words, was trampling on the Constitution, and placed him into the second highest office in the land and potentially the highest, should Wallace not live out his term.
"Is this an example of the lion laying down with the lambs, or of a complete sell-out? Who is the real George Corley Wallace? Who can tell anymore? Perhaps Arthur Bremer's bullets did more than damage his legs; perhaps they also affected his mind. Or perhaps his conversion on the road to Damascus was nothing more than the victory of ambition over principle. How are we to know?
"This is a perilous time in our country's history. Yes, we proved our power by winning in Vietnam, but we are be-set by adversaries everywhere; the dark powers who would snatch freedom and replace it with tyranny and the evil, feckless fornicators of violence who set forth their murderous declaration of war against our society last July with acts of mass murders in our very cities.
"We cannot afford uncertainty at the top of our national leadership, much less the pablum smeared banalities of the liberal Democrats who, under the new Wallace, look set to re-establish a foothold in the very sanctum of power. Here they will roost for the next four years, spreading the liberal panacea of strength through peace and hope by appeasement under the reformed President Wallace's tenure. Will we survive this? Even if a right thinking President can be elected in 1980, and step in to stem the tide of surrender, will there be a country worth saving by that time?
"I fear there won't be. Even as I hate racism I must say that I would be more reassured if it were the Wallace of old who is taking office in three weeks. He was a man of fire, a believer. But this President, he is a politician, a dissembler, one who has cast aside his old beliefs - which we understandably abhor - while failing to provide for us a clear view of what his new beliefs are. We can only judge by his actions, and by those he appoints to high office.
"Thus far we must look at the names which have been put before us: Nicholas Katzenbach, Birch Bayh, Shirley Chisholm and now Ronald Dellums - and from these we must judge. We look at these names, and we should be afraid, very afraid. This is the voice of the old liberal establishment resurgent, brought into power by Wallace to finish the job left off by Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey, the job of ending America as we knew it and sending it into the same dark abyss where have gone the once might British, France and Czechosolvakia. How long before the Socialist take-over is complete? Will you and I live to see General Secretary Dellums and General Secretary Suslov embrace in red solidarity? Maybe not today, but the Wallace Administration will open the door to it, and the forces of red darkness will step through.
"But wait, some will say, has he not made Henry Jackson his Secretary of State? Will not Jackson stand against the red horde? Jackson may be a right thinking man, but like a Gary Cooper in High Noon, he stands very much alone in this administration, a brave man ready to let him carry the fight - and to disown him the minute it gets tough.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my friends, I fear for the next four years like I have never feared for any other time in our history. I fear that the end of America may have entered into sight, that the final date on the national tombstone may yet be etched before January 1981. Now is the time when the vigilant must prepare, when we must make ourselves ready to preserve the nation.
"Think about this my friends. We will discuss this topic again soon, along with what we can do to defend this great country of ours from its destruction."
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January 4, 1977
The Democratic Progressive Republic of Portugal, Cuba, Mozambique, Angola and Ethiopia sign a Friendship Treaty calling for mutual support and development between the five parties. The Treaty also contain clauses which draw the five nations closer in military co-operation against “anti-imperialist” forces.
January 6, 1977
The United States Congress formally certifies the Electoral Vote of December 13, 1976.
A shoot-out between UDA and UVF Loyalist paramilitaries in Shankill leaves four bystanders dead.
January 8, 1977
Off the coast of Portugal, the HMS Antrim is shadowed by two DPRP patrol boats. Support vessels, including a submarine, and aircraft from the U.S. Navy base on the Azores assist the Antrim, and chase off the Portugese vessels.
January 9, 1977
Super Bowl XI: The Oakland Raiders defeat the Minnesota Vikings 32–14 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
January 10, 1977
Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire.
Ocean Park opens in Hong Kong. Despite strict water rationing, the theme park which features numerous water based exhibits is opened as a showcase of Hong Kong's determination to persist in the face of challenge.
January 11, 1977
France releases Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in massacre of Israeli athletes at 1972 Munich Olympics.
January 12, 1977
Anti-French demonstrations takes place in Israel and the United States after Paris released Abu Daoud.
Robert Lester, a member of the UDA, is arrested in Miami, Florida by the FBI after he attempts to buy weapons, including an armoured car, from an exile Cuban crime syndicate.
January 15, 1977
Kälvesta air disaster: A Swedish airliner crashes into a residential area of Stockholm, killing all 22 on board.
President James Gavin delivers his farewell address to the nation.
January 17, 1977
Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah (the first execution after the reintroduction of the death penalty in the U.S.).
Zaire president Mobutu visits Belgium and France.
January 18, 1977
Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.
Australia's worst railway disaster at Granville, near Sydney, leaves 83 people dead.
SFR Yugoslavia Prime minister, Džemal Bijedi, his wife and 6 others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
January 19, 1977
President James Gavin pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (aka "Tokyo Rose"). President Gavin also pardons all Vietnam era draft evaders. He also pardons former Indiana National Guard Sergeant Dan Quayle (convicted of insubordination).
Included in Gavin’s last set of pardons is one for Lt. Henry O.Flipper USA (1856 – 1940), the first African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy (West Point). Flipper had been dismissed from the service in 1882 on what historians widely regarded as a race based charge.
Snow falls in Miami, Florida (despite its ordinarily tropical climate) for the only time in its history. Snowfall has occurred farther south in the United States only on the high mountains of the state of Hawaii.
August 1976 – January 1977:
Syria
Skirmishes continue between insurgent and allied forces over this six month period; however as security begins to improve they take on the character of hit-and-run attacks by small units against troops, rather than the spectacular acts of terrorism previously witnessed.
Over this six-month period the U.S., British and Soviet military continue efforts to build-up a domestic security force under the control of Syrian President Maamun al-Kuzbari and his elected government. Within this government, the U.S. CIA and the KGB compete to recruit allies and clients, each side looking to continue long-term control in Syria. The Soviets in particular want to restore Syria as a client state, while the United States wants to draw Syria back to a pro-western orientation.
By the time the Wallace Administration assumes office on January 20, 1977 the allied force has begun a process dubbed “Co-operative Stand down” by the outgoing Gavin Administration. This entails Syrian security forces taking increasing control of the situation of the country while western and Soviet forces are drawn down.
The Soviets are forced to consider the relative position of their military forces in the region as the occupation of Syria appears to be winding down. (See Iraq below). While the USSR is more than ready to maintain a military presence in the country, it does not want to have its military presence in Syria develop into an excuse to slow down or even end the gradual western withdrawal.
Israel, now under a new, more forceful Likud government takes a very dim view of any Soviet presence in Syria. However, the nation is also seriously alarmed by the re-building of any kind of Syrian armed force. Prime Minister Begin reiterates in his speeches and communications with both President Gavin and President-elect Wallace the objections originally made by the previous Rabin government which also opposed the re-creation of a Syrian armed force, even under western auspices. While Rabin had been willing to negotiate troop levels and arms strength on the basis of a limited Syrian National Guard which would act as an internal constabulary, the Begin government objects to the creation of any armed force over and above a police force. Specifically Begin wants to deny the Syrians any tanks or heavy equipment, and to ban the creation of new Syrian Air Force.
Lebanon
A Civil War continues while the Arab League, the United Nations and other parties attempt to broker settlements, all to no avail.
While the PLO, the Phalangists and the Druze have formed a loose alliance, each is wary of the other and so they represent little more than warlord bands who control certain areas of the Beirut and parts of the country, rather than a stabilizing force. Although the PLO, the Druze and the Phalangist act in concert against the PJO and its Shia militia allies, they at times act against each other as well.
The Lebanese government under President Mallik is a token, with no real authority. The Lebanese Army, which is divided between Christian officers and Sunni and Shia enlisted soldiers, is not functional and cannot be relied upon.
A sensitive topic for the PLO is the fact that since the Israelis are supporting the Christian Phalangists, it is by proxy also a working partner of the Israeli state in Lebanon. In fact some Israeli arms are even finding their way into PLO hands. Yassir Arafat and his leadership seeks to play this down.
The PJO and its Shia allies control their own fiefdoms within the warlord divided Lebanon, where they proceed to impose their own form of fundamentalist or theocratic rule. They are not strong enough to defeat the PLO-Druze-Phalangist Axis on their own, but the fighting continues in skirmishes and raids as each side seeks to exploit the others’ weaknesses.
There is no stabilizing force in Lebanon. Repeated allied raids from Syria into the Bekka Valley and Eastern Lebanon serve to further destabilize the situation as each side seeks to exploit anti-western feeling to its own advantage, even as the PLO and the Druze are accepting western aid (albeit covertly) to help stave off a PJO victory. The Phalangists alone are consistently pro-western in their public and private behaviour. An impotent Lebanese government can only denounce the cross-border attacks but do nothing to stop them, which earns it even more contempt from the Lebanese population.
The allied success in western Syria has driven many insurgents back into Lebanon, where they join with the PJO to express their frustration by attacking PLO-Druze-Phalangist and Lebanese government targets. The political unpopularity of the Syrian action in western countries prevents the serious consideration of expanding the western role in Syria to include a stabilization force for Lebanon which, by most realistic estimates, would likely be resisted by the PJO and the Shia. Some reports indicate that the Druze might change sides in the event of a western intervention.
Iraq
Between August 1976 and January 1977 Iraq becomes the focus of diplomatic attempts by both the United States and the Soviet Union to develop a closer working relationship.
The Soviet interest is to be able to move their troops currently in Syria into western Iraq, thus appearing to evacuate Syria under agreed upon timelines while maintaining a troop presence in the region which can supplement other efforts to win back Syria as a client.
The United States wants to develop a closer association with the Iraqi regime for two strategic reasons. One is to provide security along the Eastern border of Syria and – in an effort to appease the Begin government – to invite Iraqi co-operation in building a Syrian National Guard force out of the immediate range of Israeli rejection. The U.S. government is looking at Iraq as an anchor that can extend a security blanket over Syria which might dissuade the new Syrian government from antagonizing the Israelis by building too large an army.
The United States is also looking at an improved strategic position with Iraq as a bulwark against increasing instability in Iran and Saudi Arabia, which has alarmed officials in Washington. The U.S. wants to build-up Iraq as an impediment to any radicalism in Saudi Arabia and Iran from connecting across the western end of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf.
The Baghdad regime is not adverse on this point, and for their part the Iraqi leadership is well aware of what the impact of radicalism – especially in Shia dominated Iran- could have on their own population, which is largely Shia. Ironically, the Soviets are pursuing a similar policy, with similar diplomatic aims, and this places the Baghdad regime in the position of being able to play-off the interests of both superpowers to its benefit.
The U.S. also has an added interest in developing closer relations with Iraq as it has a land border with Turkey, a state the U.S. is increasingly at odds with. The Soviets on the other hand want to use Iraq as a back door into continued covert support of a bothersome (more to the west than Moscow) regime in Ankara. Saddam Hussein personally begins to see the advantages of co-operating with U.S. intelligence on the one hand, while personally profiting off of the illicit blockade busting.
Iran
Up to the beginning of 1977 Iran simmers with discontent. U.S. policy remains strongly in support of the Shah and his regime, but in its last months in office the Gavin Administration attempts to pressure the Shah into opening-up his domestic political process, and to make amends for the destruction at Mershad University which has become a symbol for anti-Shah feeling.
The Shah resents U.S. interference in his regime. He manifests this in two ways. He begins a program to persuade both the Reagan and Wallace campaigns that he is the best placed – and only – leader who can secure stability and security in Iran. After the election the Shah focuses his efforts on Wallace, going so far as to commission an in-depth psychological study of the President-elect. From this the Shah pushes his personal program of rural reform (building rapport with Wallace) and emphasizing that he is the only center of stability in the country.
Occasional street protests continue, but they are met with force by the regime. There remains an undercurrent of simmering anger, which is being fed by Ayatollah Khomeini’s anti-Shah sermons which are smuggled into the country on audio cassettes.
Meanwhile, the CIA begins covert talks with Admiral Ahmad Madani about the possibilities of setting-up a pro-western, post-Shah regime, should it become necessary to remove the Shah or replace him.
The Iran-Italy Axis
The source of much of the Shah’s troubles were the anti-regime sermons of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini smuggled into the country on audio cassette tapes and played clandestinely at meetings of those opposed to the Shah’s regime. In his sermons Khomeini stressed the Shah’s un-Islamic character, and consistently referred to him as a tyrant and a toady of the western (non-Islamic) powers.
Khomeini recorded these messages from his exile in Rome, Italy where he lived in a villa which overlooked St. Peter’s. Khomeini, an ascetic who spoke little English and no Italian, rarely left his villa and took no interest in Rome or the Vatican. However, the Vatican and the Italian state took a great interest in him.
The Vatican became concerned when they first learned of their new neighbour. The initial concern was that he might be plotting some attack on the Vatican (Khomeini routinely denounced Christian powers in the most vitriolic terms in his sermons) but that soon proved to be unfounded. Khomeini’s sole interest was Iranian politics, and to him Italy was simply a temporary refuge of little consequence. Nonetheless the Vatican, which enjoyed support among the right wing officers in Italy’s Secret Service, the SID (Servizio Informazioni Difesa), continued to watch him though its Secret Service connections.
The SID in turn had close connections with the U.S. CIA and military intelligence services, became concerned about Khomeini’s anti-Shah activities, and repeatedly tried to interest their American colleagues in what the exiled Ayatollah was doing. The CIA Station chief in Rome, Duane “Dewey” Clarridge, did take an interest in what Khomeini was doing, and on his own theorized on the potential impact that the ascetic Ayatollah might be having on the Shah’s faltering regime. However, he received little feedback or show of interest from his superiors in Langley, Virginia, who regarded Khomeini as little more than a crank. Clarridge, who had worked previously in Turkey and Latin America, had seen what a religious crank could do in stirring-up disaffected populations, and he was less sanguine than Langley about the old man’s danger.
Given the compartmentalized nature of CIA operations, Clarridge was not aware of other CIA overtures to Admiral Madani and other potential replacements for the Shah.
Working with the right wing Italians, Clarridge spied on the Ayatollah and obtained copies of his tapes, and theorized about the possibility of altering the tapes to subtly change Khomeini’s message. Of course, that would only work for a short time, until Khomeini heard about it and let it be known that the relevant tapes were forgeries. Clarridge also fell back on old anti-Castro plans, everything from using depilatory powder to make Khomeini’s beard fall out (Khomeini had declared shaving as un-Islamic) to putting LSD in the old man’s food so that he would produce sermons that were truly beyond the pale even for his followers. The Italians were largely skeptical of this sort of thing, and over time Clarridge came to agree with them.
Clarridge’s principal mission with the SID though was to spy on the Communist Berlinguer government which, having developed a parallel intelligence apparatus it could rely on being loyal to the Prime Minister, also took a keen interest in the old Iranian cleric. There was a substantial reserve of Anti-clericalism in the Italian Communist ranks, and though the Ayatollah was no Roman Catholic Priest, his nature and the content of his messages excited that prejudice among the Communists. They began thinking of expelling Khomeini.
The regular SID got wind of this, and among their anti-Communist leadership the idea began to grow that they could use the presence of the Ayatollah, an agitator to overthrow a regime officially recognized by the Italian state, against the government. Plotting the overthrow of a legitimate government recognized by the Italian government was illegal under Italian law. The Ayatollah, more than technically, was in breach of this law. Since the Berlinguer government’s agents were spying on the Ayatollah, it could be inferred that the Communist Prime Minister and at least some of his Cabinet were informed as to what the Iranian was up to. Since they had done nothing to stop Khomeini and his tapes, the inference was that they were abetting Khomeini (the Italian government wasn’t; they were simply in a process of deciding what to do about him). This, the SID’s leading officers came to believe, could be used as a reason to bring down the government for breaking state law.
To achieve this the SID first had to engineer the arrest of Khomeini under Italian Civil law, in order that his activities could be exposed. With the blessing of the CIA, this was achieved shortly after Christmas 1976. Putting Khomeini in jail cut off the flow of the tapes (which suited the Americans), and had an Italian state prosecutor (one friendly to the SID) assigned to the case. This guaranteed a full airing of a foreign intrigue scandal against the Berlinguer government in the spring of 1977.
While at first it made no sense that a Communist government would conspire with a conservative Iranian cleric in anything (and in fact the Berlinguer government was working on expelling Khomeini) a cover theory was developed and propagated through friendly news outlets that the Communists were using Khomeini (with or without his knowledge)* to bring down the right wing Shah, in a conspiracy which was said to involve exiled Iranian communists in Paris and the left wing Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK)*, a revolutionary anti-Shah group with links to Moscow. People with anti-Communist leanings were quick to latch on to this story as justification for removing the Berlinguer government over its foreign intrigues, and the anti-government press in Italy, and some friendly right-wing press in other countries, played it up.
*(a complete fiction by the Sid since Khomeini was ideologically opposed to the MEK, although he was willing to use the MEK and like minded groups to achieve his ends. One of Clarridge’s hoped for spin-off effects from this was to plant the seed of doubt about the Ayatollah’s true motives with his Iranian followers and among the clerical establishment in Iran. The CIA officer hoped that the clerics would begin to question Khomeini’s “true Islamic faith,” as would some of his followers.)
The arrest of Khomeini had several effects beyond the cutting off of his tapes. The fury of some of the demonstrating crowds was turned from the regime to the Italian Embassy in Tehran. The Shah was content to let these protests go on as an alternative to those aimed at his government. The Shah, in a bid to win some support from the crowds, even issued a diplomatic protest with the Italians over the Ayatollah’s arrest. To contribute his part to the SID scheme, the Shah also launched a diplomatic protest against the Berlinguer government for plotting with the old Ayatollah to overthrow a regime with which it had full diplomatic relations.
Saudi Arabia
After the execution of Prince Sattam in May, the Saudi regime clamped down hard on dissidents, focusing in particular on Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaibi, Muhammad bin abd Allah al-Qahtani, both of whom are imprisoned, and their radical followers. Prince Bandar the ascetic is himself placed in “house arrest” in a palace where, in effect, he cannot continue to release polemics against the regime.
While this clamp down brings a measure of peace for a short period of time, by the fall of 1976 it becomes apparent that just jailing the leaders is insufficient to quell the movement. In October and November there are demonstrations demanding that the imprisoned religious “teachers” be released, and even pro-regime Wahhabi clerics begin to ask questions about their imprisonment.
Mystical tracts continue to appear which question the regime’s Islamic credentials, and blame both King Khalid (still in an English nursing home recovering from surgery) and Crown Prince Abdullah personally for having sold out to the West.
Divisions linger in the armed forces, with many rank-and-file soldiers of the Army* being drawn to the more fundamentalist religious teachings. As products of a social underclass these Army troops look more and more to radical Islam as a leveling tool to ameliorate their social grievances. As such they are sympathetic to the underground and aid in spreading the net of the resistance.
The Muslim Brotherhood (the Ikhwan) continues a program of smuggling into Saudi Arabia anti-regime sermons and, with the help of sympathetic members of the Army and Yemeni tribes along Saudi Arabia’s southern frontier, they continue to agitate against the imprisonment of al-Otaibi and al-Qahtani. One of these Ikhwan is an Egyptian Army doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri who has recently returned from Yugoslavia and is operating in both Egypt and Sudan. Another is a young business student named Osama Bin Laden.
*The Saudi Arabia Army and the Saudi Arabia National Guard are two distinct agencies. The Army is largely recruited from lower class Saudis and also contains Yemeni nationals. The National Guard is the Praetorian guard of the Royal Family. Of the two the National Guard receives better pay, privileges, equipment, training and social respect than does the Saudi Arabian Army. This has been the cause of some social resentment in Saudi Arabia, particularly as the National Guard is officered by foreign educated officers who are known for looking down on their locally trained counterparts in the Saudi Arabia Army as rubes and country bumpkins. Ultimately it is the National Guard command which decides who in the Army receives career advancement according to complex patronage and social relationships.
In London, a minor Saudi cleric using the pen name of Hamdan publishes a book in Arabic and English entitled The Blasphemous Thieves (English) or Those who deserve to lose their heads for a blasphemous theft (Arabic tr.) which sets forth an argument that Ibn Saud made a corrupt bargain with the Wahhabi clerics and hijacked the holy places and Islam in the name of building his own empire and selling out to the west. Al-Saqari argues that the corrupt monarchy is un-Islamic, and that it is the duty of true believing Muslims to overthrow the blasphemous thieves.
The Arabic version is widely distributed in the Arab world, and makes it into both Egypt and Saudi Arabia where it is banned. A Farsi language version even makes into the Iranian underground market, where the tract to overthrow the Saudi royal family becomes a code for many Iranian’s desire to overthrow the Shah.
Greece-Turkey and Cyprus
The Greek Legislative election of September 10, 1976
PASOK ----------------------------158 (52.5%)
New Democracy --------------- 95 (31.5%)
Center Union New Forces---- 39 (13%)
United Left -------------------------- 9 (3%)
The Greek Presidential election of November 14, 1976 (third ballot)
The President is elected by the Parliament of Greece.
The National Salvation Council had continued to function as head of state until this election.
Ioannis Alevras (PASOK) -- 181
Konstantinos Karamanlis (New Democracy) – 119
Ioannis Alevras was elected as the first President of the Third Hellenic Republic (Term 1976 – 1981).
The principle problem for Greece over these six months is to transition from the discredited military dictatorship to a democratic state. Over time the National Salvation Council organizes elections and transitions to an elected government headed by the Greek Socialist Party (PASOK) under Prime Minister Andreas Papandreau.
Papandreau’s PASOK wins the national election largely because the Socialists are the least tainted by the years of military government (leading figures in other parties had some association with the Juntas, whereas the PASOK was banned – Papandreau himself lived in exile in Sweden and France, where he lead the PASOK’s resistance to the junta while in exile) and the Greek electorate are seeking a clear change from the past. It is this feeling, aggravated by the Greek-Turkey War, the insurgency in Thrace and the situation on Cyprus which allows the PASOK to win a governing plurality with 48.5% of the vote.
Both the National Salvation Council and the Papandreau government that succeeds it enter into negotiations with Communist partisans who command parts of Eastern Thrace after the Greek-Turkey war ended. Both the NSC and the Prime Minister Papandreau are intent upon avoiding a civil war, so they hesitate to use force against the partisan “autonomous” zones, and instead prefer to use negotiations and diplomacy to affect a peaceful settlement. This proves to be a protracted process as the partisans are receiving support from Bulgaria, and as such can hold their own against government pressure.
In the rest of the country and in Athens the new democratic government manages to regain control of the political situation. The Greek Socialist Party (PASOK) and its leader Andreas Papandreou receive strong outside support from President Mitterrand, Italian Prime Minister Berlinguer and Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia.
The area along the Greek-Turkey border remains tense. Neither side will concede to a peace treaty, and there are still occasional outbreaks of artillery fire across the line, though efforts are taken on both sides from allowing this to escalate into a new war.
The internal political situation in Turkey remains tense. Alparslan Turkes retains an uncertain grip on power. Since the attempted coup in May the Armed Services have been restive. In particular, the Generals are growing increasingly concerned on Prime Minister Turkes’ relationship with the Soviet Union. They find, that with Turkey out of NATO, the capability of their armed forces are falling well behind where they should be, which the Generals see as placing them at the mercy of the Soviet forces which surround them (on their northern border and a Soviet force to the South in Syria).
This situation leads to renewed coup plotting within the military, which is only checked by the brutal hand of the Grey Wolves. That in turn fuels more resentment among the officer corps.
In the general population, the brutality of the Grey Wolves increases resentment, as does runaway inflation and persistent shortages due to embargoes on Turkey. The lack of trade has increased unemployment, creating a restive population with time on its hands and resentment toward the government increasing.
By January 1977 it’s not a question of if Turkes regime will fall, but when.
On Cyprus the western security force is keeping a bare peace by keeping the two sides apart. U.S., British and French Special Forces are also engaged in tracking down Turkish Special Forces which continue to operate in the mountains, sometimes with the support of local insurgents.
The U.S. and French Navies and Air Forces patrol the areas around Cyprus, keeping the Turks from repeating their attempted invasion of the island.
On the island itself, the three party executive continues to haggle in difficult negotiations over where to draw a line between the two ethnic communities in Cyprus and – the truly complicating matter – how to re-distribute populations along a common border and provide compensation for communities that need to be moved.
The U.N.’s preference is retain one unified, federal, multi-ethnic nation on Cyprus. However, this solution is repeatedly rejected by governments on both the Greek and Turkish sides, with varying degrees of support from Athens and Ankara.
Apart from occasional incidents, there is no wide scale violence on Cyprus. However, western police and military units are often involved in keeping demonstrators from the two sides apart, in effect trying to prevent violence from breaking out.
The occupation of Cyprus, together with events in Syria, make the idea of a military intervention in Lebanon increasingly unpopular with the voting public in the United States, France and in many other NATO countries. In the United Kingdom that idea is even more unpopular because of the insurgency the UK is already fighting in Northern Ireland.
Zaire and Central Africa
The Zaire Armed Forces and French Foreign Legionaries continue a divided occupation of the Central African Republic. The Zaire government is playing-off various tribal groups in the CAR to their advantage, as they prepare for a referendum that would see the CAR formally annexed to Zaire. President Mobutu is reportedly involved in secret talks with Chad, Sudan and Cameroon, offering each some trade and territorial concessions in return for their acquiescence in his plans to expand his nation.
The French oppose the absorption of the CAR by Zaire, and it is their presence which is giving support to an anti-Zarie resistance amongst elements of the former CAR military establishment. France is also quietly pressuring Sudan, Chad and Cameroon not to co-operate with Mobutu’s plans.
The French position is complicated by an economic interest in Zaire, which in turn puts pressure on the French government to maintain good, or at least passable, relations with Mobutu and his regime. That in turn requires discreet, behind the scenes diplomacy on the CAR file to prevent an open conflict with Zaire. France could win in any military conflict with Zaire, but French companies would lose concessions that they are exploiting in Zaire, which represent a far more profitable venture for the French than the CAR.
Zaire has also become an important proxy in the fight against the Soviet and Cuban backed forces in Angola, whose government is the Marxist MPLA. The Church Committee hearings have hampered direct CIA activity, so the French secret service has taken-up some of the slack in providing covert aid to the anti-Communist forces of the FNLA and the UNITA, using Zaire as a proxy. This fact ads a further layer of delicacy to the relationship.
The Zaire Armed Forces have been operating in the field with the FNLA and UNITA against the MPLA, however the introduction of Cuban combat units lead to the defeat of this force, and its forced retreat into the Shaba (Katanga) province of Zaire, where the MPLA and Cubans began recruiting Katangan separatists to form an anti-government insurgency to further harass the Zaire regime. A combination of incompetence and the engagement of ZAF units in the CAR has lead to a chaotic situation in Shaba, where a bloody war is being fought by the ZAF and FNLA and UNITA remnants on one side, with MPLA, Cubans and Katangans on the other. Zaire is channelling much of the French covert assistance intended for the FNLA and UNITA into its own army.
Unacknowledged by the Zaire regime, has been the introduction of South African and Israeli mercenaries into the ZAF controlled areas of Shaba to try and stem the tide of invasion from Angola, and to engage in counter-insurgency operations in Shaba and across the border in Angola, which the ZAF are incapable of undertaking. The South Africans and Israelis are also undertaking efforts to train the ZAF, UNITA and the FNLA into more professional fighting forces. This later program does not sit well with President Mobutu, who has kept his armed forces weak and under-trained so that they will not have the capability to overthrow him (as he once overthrew the government when he was a military commander).
A hodge-podge unit of “Chilean mercenaries” is also operating in the region, nominally under Mobutu’s payroll but actually being paid for by foreign mining companies. These soldiers have been supplied by the Pinochet regime in return for royalty payments which go into the state treasury in Santiago. Although there are some Chilean officers in this group, many are in fact mercenaries recruited from other countries in South America. The non-Chilean troops are paid at fifty percent of the contracted price, with the Chilean officers and their “contractors” in Santiago pocketing the difference.
The new Rhodesian government has also made secret overtures to Mobutu to in effect pay him off so that he will allow Rhodesian scouts to operate base camps in southern Zaire along its border with Zambia. This allows the scouts to cross the border and strike the ZPLF guerrilla forces operating out of Zambia from behind, opening a second front in Rhodesia’s own guerrilla insurgency.
While Mobutu is getting wealthy off of all of this intrigue, and effectively playing off western (and especially French and U.S.) interests in his neighbours’ conflicts against his own designs on a larger central African empire, he is also presiding over a crumbling political situation in Zaire as the tensions of war cause shortages, inflation and increased corruption within the country. Mobutu has also lost much of his credibility with other African leaders based on his association with the South Africans and the Rhodesians.
Cambodia
Cambodia remains divided essentially into three states.
There is the Presidential state centered around President Lon Nol, (calling himself “Black Papa” and “Father of the Khmer”) and his brother General Lon Non, who are receiving financing from the Rev. Moon and his Unification Church along with various criminal activities. These have allowed the President to build his own “Presidential” army, quite separate from the official military forces of the country.
The Prime Minister of the Khmer Republic, Son Sann, is the U.S. backed political leader and his government controls the “official” treasury and the “official” Army. Prime Minister Son’s greatest threat is a pro-Presidential party which opposes him, as well as the “Presidential” army which contests with the national army for control of many parts of the nation. Prime Minister Son survives largely because the United States has mad clear to Lon Nol that it will not support a Cambodia (which is receiving U.S. reconstruction and military aid) without a parliamentary government with Prime Minister Son or a comparable figure at its head.
The third political force in Cambodia is are the forces of the South Vietnamese regime, which still maintain a presence in the east and northeast of the country, along its borders with South Vietnam and Laos. These Vietnamese forces act as a power in their own right, not recognizing the authority of either the Son government or of the Presidential army of Lon Nol. Although ostensibly allied with the Khmer Republic, and with a stated mission to safeguard the Cambodians from a resurgence of the Khmer Rouge (remnants of which are still active in Southern Laos, where they are little more than bandits who stage cross-border raids) the South Vietnamese troop presence allows the Saigon government a hand in the internal politics of the Khmer regime.
The South Vietnamese regime tends to play-off the Son government against President Lon Nol in an effort to keep both weak. The South Vietnamese government is also reportedly receiving cash contributions from Reverend Moon.
Vietnam
President Truong, acting through Dutch, Swiss and Indian intermediaries, continues to open a dialogue with the North Vietnamese regime (whom he refers to as “the men in the North.”). These are low-key talks aimed at finding a consensus whereby the two halves of Vietnam can build closer ties for their own mutual security and economic prosperity.
“The men in the North” have their own reasons for doing something which only a few years before would have been unthinkable: talking with the Saigon government. They are worried about the quixotic and unpredictable activities of their northern neighbour, which fundamentally threatens their national security. The North is engaged in an active competition with pro-Chinese forces for control in Laos. A pro-Chinese take-over in Laos could threaten North Vietnam’s security, leaving it encircled. Thus, some form of reconciliation with the South seems to be in the nation’s interest. How this will be achieved is unclear, and there are many in the North (as well as the South) who resist such an idea. Thus any rapprochement will continue over an extended period of time.
Economically, the South has more to offer than the North’s unreliable Soviet ally, which many in the North resent for having abandoned them in the middle of the Vietnam War.
In the North Vietnamese press the Saigon regime is no longer referred to as a “western puppet.” It is now called an “errant brother.”
Republic of China (Taiwan)
Yen Chia-Kan attempts to continue the authoritarian regime he inherited from Chiang Kai-shek. However, there is agitation for a more democratic and liberal society. Taiwan also continues a program of economic development. President Gavin’s speech of April 1975 has begun to influence political thinking in Taiwan.
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January 20, 1977
George C. Wallace is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States and Nicholas Katzenbach is inaugurated as the 41st Vice President of the United States.
“I, George Corley Wallace, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”
George Wallace's Inaugural Address
“Mr. President, Mr. Chief Justice, Senator Sparkman, my fellow Americans.
“Let me begin by expressing my gratitude and that of our nation to my predecessor for his great service to us all. President James Gavin has time and again in his life as a soldier, business leader and statesman proven himself to be a true patriot. At a perilous time, when he could have said “let someone else do it,” President Gavin stepped from a comfortable private life into the crucible of political turmoil, to lead our nation through a time of great trouble and uncertainty with a steady hand and utmost integrity. To him we owe the restoration of our national honor and the safe keeping of our great land and its people during a time of grave crisis. Let us all acknowledge and honor that service rendered to each and every one of us by this great American.”
[Pause for applause].
“Today we renew the great course of our republic in it’s mission of freedom and justice for all. Over the past decade we have been battered by the storms of an uncertain world; the waves of discord and of war have beaten against the hull of our ship of state, and some have fallen overboard into the stormy seas. At many turns our very character as a nation and as a people has been tested, and at some of those turns the worst of our character has crept out, even as we sought a path from the darkness back to the light of our fundamental goodness.
“We have faltered, and we have sinned. At rare times, when our forbearance was stretched beyond its limits, we have allowed the petty meanness of the moment overtake the greater compassion and humanity that our Lord and Savior commands of us all. I have been such. I have walked the fallen path and spoken words of ugliness when I should have served the greater light. But by the grace of God I have been shown where I have erred, and with sorrowful repentance and with faith in God and the essential goodness of our Republic and its people, I have come back into the path of a new light.
“As the psalmist has written: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.”
“So, we have transgressed, and as a nation we have borne the trials and tribulations for the sins of the past. Yet through all the tribulations that beset us, the American dream endures, our faith in those qualities that make our nation great remains firm. Our love of freedom and our knowledge that the way of justice and enlightenment are the path to hope and greatness, these articles of our national faith have shone through the night of our distress. Our faith has been battered, but it has endured and we have come through our trials strengthened and with a renewed belief in the essential goodness of our nation and the beacon of freedom and hope that is America.
“I do not say that all our problems have been solved. We face many challenges ahead, challenges which will not be resolved today or tomorrow, or maybe not in a thousand tomorrows. But we will face those challenges as Americans, and in our national strength and goodness we will overcome those difficulties and obstacles which stand in our way. We will re-claim a prosperous and hopeful America for ourselves and our posterity. Today is the day we roll-up our sleeves and begin the hard work ahead.
“Not so many years ago, not far from this place, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of his dream. He said that he had a dream that all Americans, regardless of color, gender or faith, would untie in common cause to build a better nation. I share that dream with him and you today. Let us unite in common cause to build a better, freer nation. For, when Americans untie, there is nothing that can stop us. As President Roosevelt once said, “all we have to fear is fear itself.” So let us put fear aside, let us cast aside the meanness of the past, let us join with the courage and vision to dream of a better future, and let us roll-up our sleeves with the determination to make it happen.
“There are today barriers to achieving the American dream and prosperity which we must confront and overcome. No man can prosper until he has a job and a chance to build a future himself and his family. Today in America too many live in the despair of unemployment, in the fear of foreclosure, in the gnawing terror that tomorrow will bring the end of all they have known. We cannot let this continue, and I will not.
“Recovery begins with the understanding that we must all chip in, that we must all share in the burden in order to reap the reward. No one can be so exalted to stand above this process, just as no one can be left so low as to be run over by it. As a man works hard, so shall he reap the just rewards of his labors. This is a truth that all Americans ascribe to, it is a credo by which we live our lives, and by which our forbearers built a great and free nation. Yet in this land there are some who have much, and many who have little. We may ask those who have much to sacrifice a little, we will not force them with gun in hand, like some thief in the night, instead we will appeal to the best angels of their character, to stand as patriots and help our nation and its people. Let us bring forth the community of our nation, and together we will resolve our economic problems.
“Recovery begins when industry is put back to work, and is able to hire workers. This is the work of capital and of incentives for expansion and production. Taxes need to be trimmed, and re-organized to achieve this goal. Where taxes and regulations act as a shackle, we must break loose the chains. Where tax breaks can bring new jobs, we must curb taxes. Where investment potential is dormant, we must find new ways to tap into it. Where the entrepreneurial spirit, that greatest engine of American progress, is hampered, we will give it the opportunity to spring forth with renewed vigor. This is the commitment of our new program.
“Recovery begins when we return to the bedrock principles which our Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution of these United States. Government is the servant of the people, not the other way around. Government by the people, and for the people is the purpose of its existence. Government is not for sale; it is not an agent of the special interest or the captive attendant of private lobbies. We must today return to the basic principle upon which this Republic was founded, that the government is not for sale, and that it must operate for the people and not against them. We who are elected to serve you in these public offices, we are here to serve, we are not here for our glory. This we all need to keep in mind as we go about our responsibilities.
“In the world today, the United States faces many who challenge our leadership in the community of nations, even as they lay challenges to our power. We have freed many people, we have served to further the simple but powerful concept that might does not make right, but that as a nation of laws, we seek to create a world governed not by the law of the jungle but by a higher law that respects the fundamental rights of all human beings and the right of all people to be free and to determine their own path.
“Let our friends be in no doubt, we shall stand with you. Let our adversaries and those who would challenge us be in no doubt, the United States will stand for law and freedom around the globe.
"We shall not shy away from those who would use force to resolve the world’s problems to their favor. But at the same time, we must recognize that as only one nation, even a powerful one, we cannot solve every problem in every corner of the globe. This never was, and never can be, the mission of the United States.
“The world of 1945 is past. Though we have prevailed in Vietnam after a decade of bloodletting, the lesson is clear, there must be no more Vietnams. Unlike 1945, today the international community is vibrant and strong. There are many freedom loving nations who are ready to join with us in defending their freedom. As a community of nations we must move beyond the tired strategies of 1945 and reach a new understanding where all take a share in the burden of defense, so that all can be secure and united in our commitment when facing down those ideologies and interests who are enemies of freedom and democracy.
“The world today is such a place where no one nation can pay any price or bear any burden for freedom on its own. Instead, it is incumbent on the community of the free to join together to bear collectively the price and the burden. This must be our commitment in the new age of global responsibility. This is the new Commonwealth of free nations committed to the preservation and expansion of liberty, and to the prospect that a world governed by laws and not force is the best way to survival and prosperity for ourselves and future generations.
“So, let me end with a call to mission for my administration, and for all our people from this time forward. Let me say prosperity now, prosperity tomorrow and prosperity forever.”
“God Bless the United States of America and God Bless the great American people.”
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The Wallace Administration 1977
President: George C. Wallace
Vice President: Nicholas Katzenbach
Secretary of State: Henry Jackson
Secretary of the Treasury: Paul Volker
Secretary of Defense: W. Graham Claytor Jr.
Attorney-General: Birch Bayh
Secretary of the Interior: Cecil D. Andrus
Secretary of Agriculture: George S. McGovern
Secretary of Commerce: Thomas J. McIntyre
Secretary of Labor: Shirley Chisholm
Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare: Edward Brooke
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Ronald Dellums
Secretary of Transportation: Reubin Askew
Secretary of National Intelligence Coordination and Oversight: Lew Allen Jr.
Secretary of Energy: Stephen L.R. McNichols (dept created in 1977)
Chairman of the Federal Reserve: Arthur Burns; Phillip E. Coldwell
White House Staff:
Chief of Staff: William F. Nichols
National Security Advisor: Paul H. Nitze
Deputy National Security Advisor: Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Richard F. Celeste
Special Counsels to the President: Charles Snider, Elvin Stanton
White House Counsel: Bill Baxley
Press Secretary: Joseph Schuster
Sub Cabinet:
United States Trade Representative: Mike Mansfield
Director of Central Intelligence: Dr. Fred Charles Iklé
Director of the FBI: Thomas C. Smith
Chairman - Securities and Exchange Commission: Jonathan J. Bush
Administrator - Environmental Protection Agency: Joseph A. Califano Jr.
Director - Veteran's Administration: Max Cleland
Deputy Attorney General: Peter F. Flaherty
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel: Vincent Blasi
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division: Ray Thornton
Solicitor-General of the United States: Patricia R. Harris
Chairman, Democratic National Committee: Sen. James E. Carter (D-GA)
Diplomatic
United States Ambassador to the United Nations: Cyrus Vance
United States Ambassador to NATO: Vernon Walters
United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union: Eliot Richardson
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom: Robert Strauss
Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China (based in Hong Kong): David L. Aaron
United States Ambassador to the Republic of China (Taiwan): J. William Fulbright
United States Ambassador to Syria: Wiliam Tapley Bennett Jr.
United States Ambassador to Israel: Eugene V. Rostow
United States Ambassador to Portugal (based in Ponta Delgada, The Azores): Frank C. Carlucci
United States Ambassador to Italy: Michael DiSalle
United States Ambassador to Spain: Joseph M. Montoya
United States Ambassador to Nicaragua: Thomas S. Gates Jr.
United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia: Charles F. Adams IV
United States Ambassador to Iran: John W. Vogt Jr.
