Chapter 12: Glad All Over - A Foreign Snapshot of 1963 - 1964
1963 was just not the Tories’ year. Still shaking off the chills of the worst winter in some fifteen years, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and his government suffered an increasingly troublesome string of setbacks. In January, the UK was denied entry into the burgeoning European Economic Community via a veto vote by President Charles de Gaulle, of France. De Gaulle, seeing British membership in the Community as a potential “trojan horse” for US influence into the organization, was firm in his opposition to the proposed enlargement. As a result, Britain, Ireland, Norway, and Denmark all had their applications suspended. Macmillan privately hoped de Gaulle would relent, as membership had been one of the Tory government’s principal foreign policy goals, but it quickly became apparent that the Frenchman wouldn’t budge.
The issues did not relent either. On June 5th, Secretary of State for War John Profumo admitted to misleading Parliament and resigned over his affair with nineteen year old model Christine Keeler. The affair caught headlines the world over and proved a massive embarrassment to the Macmillan government. In addition to the distasteful conduct on the part of Profumo, his relationship with Keeler also created a potential security risk as she was engaged in another relationship at the time, with one Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet naval attache. Whispers of possible sharing of state secrets emboldened Labour members of the House of Commons to drag the scandal, and the public’s exposure to it, out for as long as possible. The BBC reported, along with most major British publications, that the Conservatives stood “a snowball’s chance in hell” of winning the next general election, scheduled for October, 1964.
It was more than sex scandals that shook the Britons’ confidence in the Tories, however. Prime Minister Macmillan’s government had done much to repair the UK’s image and standing in the world following the serious blunder of the Suez Crisis in 1956. Domestically, Macmillan governed from the political centre, relying on the nationalistic policies of the postwar consensus to rebuild the war torn economy. And rebuild it he did. By the early 60’s, the economy was booming. The Prime Minister could boldly claim to the people of Britain: “You’ve never had it so good!” Such dramatic positivity would not last long.
Through the trials and tribulations of 1963, the tories appeared tired. They had held power in Parliament since Winston Churchill’s surprise victory over Clement Attlee and Labour in 1951, nearly thirteen years. Where once the party had been synonymous with a strong and free Britain, they now fell prey to satire, and open mockery. By contrast, the Labour party never looked better or more united. Following a morale crushing defeat in 1959, Labour came out on the other side with a sleek, charismatic new leader in Harold Wilson. Replacing Hugh Gaitskell after his recent passing, Wilson brought new technocratic ideals and a “soft left” approach to Labour and planned on sweeping his party into power next year.
With hardships piling up at his doorstep, and the opinion polls suggesting an utter landslide to remove his party in ‘64, the ageing Prime Minister surprised no one when he announced his intention to resign on October 10th. What did surprise the public however, was the naming of his successor. Several candidates were considered, among them: Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas - Home; Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Austen Butler; and Lord President of the Council, Lord Hailsham. Each had their merits, but in the end, Macmillan pulled some strings and managed to get Home selected, due to his perceived inoffensive nature. “Unite the party.” The retiring Prime Minister told his successor. “Do what you must and win that election.” A controversial pick due to the unlikelihood of his ascent, Douglas-Home renounced his peerage and took over the reigns as Prime Minister. It seemed to Home that Macmillan had left him with a virtually insurmountable task. But it was not in the Tory spirit to surrender, and so Home would fight.
1964 wound up being a quiet year for the United Kingdom. Her Majesty gave birth to a fourth child, a son whom she and Prince Philip named Edward. The UK won a single gold medal at the winter Olympics in Austria, and 4 gold, 12 silver and 2 bronze medals at the Summer games in Tokyo. Beloved actor/comedian Peter Sellers got married. Beatlemania continued to sweep through every corner of Britain, just as it landed on the shores of America. To some in the Conservative Party, including the new Prime Minister, there was reason to hope that the General Election would not go as poorly as initially expected. These hopes would prove unfounded.
October 15th, 1964 marked the end of the Conservatives' thirteen year reign, and the beginning of the new Labour government, under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Picking up a narrow, but respectable majority of fifteen seats, Wilson set to work steering Britain into a more liberal future. This began in earnest in December, with the House of Commons banning capital punishment in the UK and resolving a dispute between companies and power utility unions to avoid a general strike. Wilson’s government then set its eyes on liberalizing laws regarding homosexuality, access to abortions, and forever banning theatre censorship. Wilson vowed to spend the next year fighting for stronger and better funded public education, but resistance to this final idea remained stiff. “While America deliberates on its future,” Wilson said in a speech before the Commons. “Britain charges ahead.”
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April 1963 brought General Elections to Canada, as Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and his Progressive Conservative Party sought to fend off Lester B. Pearson and his Liberals. A deep split had formed earlier in the year within the Conservatives over both Diefenbaker’s mercurial leadership as well as the issue of whether or not to allow American Nuclear Weapons to be stationed in Canada to protect against a potential Soviet attack. Diefenbaker and his allies opposed the missiles, while some within his party, as well as the opposition Liberal party supported bringing them in. Following two votes of no confidence in the House of Commons, elections were held.
Lester B. Pearson, the leader of the Liberal party, was already something of a political icon in his native land. The only Canadian to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1957, for his hand in resolving the Suez Crisis), Pearson nearly became the first Secretary General of the United Nations in 1945, and was seen as instrumental in the foundation of both that organization and NATO. Pearson ran on a platform which promised “60 days of decision” at the beginning of his term, if elected, on health care reform, a public pension, affordable student loans, the introduction of a new Canadian flag to replace the familiar “Red Ensign”, and other legislative reforms. With a popular platform behind them, and a divided party opposing them, the Liberals picked up 44.3% of the vote across the nation, and added 35 seats to their ranks in the House of Commons. This allowed them to form a majority government, loosely allying themselves with the seventeen members of the social democratic NDP to pass legislation. Liberals credited the popularity of President Kennedy in the United States and Harold Wilson’s rise to prominence in the UK with helping to influence more liberal sentiment in Canada’s races.
The new Prime Minister wasted little time in getting to work on his agenda. He soon became the first sitting Prime Minister to make a state visit to France and expressed his commitment to strong ties with all fellow NATO nations, not just the United States and UK. In March of ‘64, Canadian forces began what would become a decades-long peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, earning Pearson the respect and friendship of President Kennedy. The Government then moved to fulfill campaign promises. In April of that year, the first Social Insurance cards were issued to Canadians. These developments were followed by the “Great Canadian Flag Debate”, in which various new designs for the Canadian flag were proposed and argued over in Parliament.
The Progressive Conservatives, still lead by Diefenbaker tried, and failed, to filibuster attempts to introduce a new flag, preferring the traditional ensign be kept. It was the Conservatives’ opinion that the old flag represented the nation’s ties to the UK and other Commonwealth Realms, such as Australia and New Zealand, and should not be replaced so quickly. Liberals, including many Quebecois felt that the ensign did not represent all of Canada’s cultural complexity and richness, focusing only on its English heritage, while ignoring that of those with French ancestry, or Scotch or Irish or anything else. Eventually, despite strong misgivings by many MP’s, Pearson’s preferred design won the day and was voted in as the new national flag on December 16th, 1964.
With a new banner to rally behind, one which reflected the nation’s motto: “From Sea to Sea”, Pearson vowed to move forward with his progressive agenda, focusing primarily on his boldest ambition of all: universal health care for all Canadians. Throughout the Great White North a new day was dawning. Reform and change had come to Ottawa.
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The Soviet Union, like the United Kingdom and Canada underwent a change in management during the warm, pleasant summer months of 1964. Since the national embarrassment that the Cuban Missile Crisis had been, nominal head of state and presidium chairman Leonid Brezhnev had been discussing the possibility of removing Khrushchev with his colleagues. To Brezhnev and his ilk, Khrushchev was growing too old and erratic to be a viable leader for the country moving forward. Growing economic problems within the nation inflamed the situation and added further pressure to the First Secretary’s leadership. Brezhnev, certain that the time had come for a change, began to position himself to be Khrushchev’s successor when he believed the time to be right.
In the spring of 1963, Frol Kozlov, Khrushchev's protege, Secretary of the Central Committee, and likely successor, suffered a stroke and was publicly outed as a severe alcoholic. Wasting no time and sensing that his chance to seize power may be nearing, Brezhnev approached Khrushchev to petition for himself to succeed Kozlov in the position. To Brezhnev’s joy, Khrushchev agreed. From his new seat of power and authority within the government, Brezhnev prepared to execute his plan to remove the First Secretary from Power. There was only one more step to laying the groundwork: Brezhnev wanted to be named Second Secretary of the Communist Party, the deputy leader of the Soviet Government. It was in this pursuit however, that Brezhnev was disappointed.
Having spent much of the summer in Moscow, awarding Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova the Order of Lenin and naming her a Hero of the Soviet Union for being the first woman in space, as well as preparing for the state visit of American President Kennedy in the autumn, Khrushchev quickly became privy to Brezhnev’s plans, and took several steps toward thwarting them.
The first of these was to consolidate his base of allies within the party. In particular, Khrushchev reached out to Vladimir Semichastny, head of the KGB, and Alexei Kosygin, his current Deputy Premier. Semichastny and Khrushchev had always had an “at arms’ length” relationship, with the First Secretary believing that the KGB should stay out of political affairs and focus on its mission: intelligence gathering. Realizing that if he did not have Semichastny on his side in a potential power struggle, he would likely be removed from office, Khrushchev managed to put his personal beliefs on the issue aside for a time. He brought the Intelligence head into his inner circle, and briefly allowed him to have a say in discussions of foreign affairs. As for Kosygin, Khrushchev welcomed the man with open arms. A staunch Khrushchev ally when the First Secretary first came into power in 1953, Kosygin had since been allowed to drift from his boss. A moderate reformer and supporter of detente with the west, Kosygin fit nicely into Khrushchev's developing plans with the Americans for increased disarmament.
Unlike Semichastny however, Kosygin’s support did not come freely. He had a list of requests in exchange for his loyalty. These included the following: that if Khrushchev remain as First Secretary, he step down from his position as Premier, allowing two different individuals to serve as the country’s head of state and head of government. Further, Kosygin wanted Khrushchev’s support in his own pursuit of the Premiership, as well as the position of Second Secretary of the Party for himself. A tall order, to be sure, but Kosygin deemed it a fair one. If Khrushchev accepted these terms, Brezhnev would lose two of the biggest supporters of his plot. The aging First Secretary, not quite the fighter he once was, decided this was as good of a deal as he could expect, and agreed to name Kosygin his “undisputed successor” to lead the Soviet Union.
Later that year in September, only two weeks before the planned visit of President Kennedy, Brezhnev, unaware of the shifting political situation, gave Semichastny the signal that it was time to trigger the plot and remove Khrushchev. As the First Secretary was returning from a holiday near the Black Sea, Semichastny, Kosygin, and other Khrushchev loyalists met their leader at the airport. They staged a hostage situation using KGB agents to give the appearance that the coup had been successful and “escorted” Khrushchev to the Kremlin where he was to meet with Brezhnev, to discuss his new living situation after being removed from power. Of course, history did not play out that way.
Upon reaching the Kremlin, KGB agents escorted Khrushchev to his office, where the Secretary of the Central Committee waited for him impatiently. After the First Secretary’s arrival, Brezhnev explained to his “captive” that the rest of his life would consist of quiet retirement, far away from political affairs, insured by a modest state pension. The First Secretary nodded, seeming to take it all in. With a look of expectation on his face, Brezhnev ordered the agents to take Khrushchev away. They did not move.
Confused, he gave the order a second time, still no change. This time, Khrushchev could not stop himself from smiling. “No, Comrade Brezhnev. You do not give orders in this room. Only I do. Take him away, boys.”
Brezhnev’s face flashed with terror as he realized what was going on. Sensing that running would do him no good, he dropped to his knees and pleaded for his life. “Comrade Khrushchev, please forgive me. I only did what I thought was best for the Revolution.”
The First Secretary chuckled. “Of course. Because what is best for you, Comrade, is what is best for the Revolution.” Khrushchev stood and the KGB agents tied Brezhnev’s hands behind his back. “Unfortunately for you, I am not so kind as to provide you with a retirement and state pension. You hardliners want to ruin the good progress we have made. That simply cannot be allowed.”
Brezhnev let out a final scream before being led from the room by the agents. Later that day, Moscow police found his body in the back room of a popular gentlemen’s club. A broken glass near his hand and the toxicology report revealed his fate: poisoned by arsenic in his vodka. It appeared that one of his enemies, perhaps some criminal, had gotten to him. A true shame. He seemed to have such a career ahead of him.
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev
December 19th, 1906 - September 26th, 1964
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The news of a slow, steady withdrawal of U.S. military advisors and troops from South Vietnam hit the military community and the South Vietnamese junta like a bolt of lightning. After a decade of build up and support from the Americans, Chairman Nguyen Khanh of the Military Revolutionary Council could hardly believe his ears as Ambassador Lodge walked him through the changes. By the end of July, 1967, the Americans would have completely left the country, with the exception of Navy and Air Force units in the vicinity, to patrol the coasts and perform retaliatory strikes when necessary. Khanh’s government and its still fledgling military would stand alone against the increasingly aggressive and invasive Northern Communists and their despised militia, the Viet-Cong. Khanh was on the verge of expressing his outrage and feelings of betrayal when Lodge was able to soothe him with news of what was to come in place of the departing advisors.
As President Kennedy had promised Lodge, American aid in the form of money, resources, and weapons would continue to flow into South Vietnam. While Khanh and his fellow commanders organized the South’s military to oppose any aggression by the North, American foreign aid and Peace Corps volunteers would enter the country, building schools, hospitals, and infrastructure throughout the cities and countryside alike. “Down this path,” Lodge explained. “Your people can rally behind your government, Mr. Chairman. For the first time, the people of South Vietnam will flock to your banners and do everything they can to root out subversives and guerrillas.”
Khanh was unsure. While he admitted that stabilizing the political situation in the country was the first step toward ensuring that the populace would, at the very least, not actively aid his enemies; he also doubted the Americans’ intentions. Why would they, after fourteen years of active military activity in the South, suddenly shift their attention toward civil infrastructure and needs of the people? There had to be some sort of catch. Lodge revealed that there was, and shared the price for American help in stabilizing the country: the creation and implementation of a new, democratic constitution by the end of 1965.
“We are opposed to the spread of Communism of course,” The American ambassador said matter of factly. “But we also believe in the principles of democracy. If you want your people to accept your rule, you will need to let them feel that they have a part in deciding it. So write a constitution, hold elections, and accept all religions and backgrounds into public life. Do this, and most of the challenges to your leadership will be silenced.” Lodge puffed from a cigar.“To sweeten the deal,” Lodge continued, handing a manilla dossier to the Vietnamese leader. “The President is willing to continue CIA operations in the country and in the North throughout his tenure. We will do our part to make sure that if the Communists try anything, you’ll know about it well in advance.” Silence filled the room as the ambassador finished his offer, and the translator completed his work. Seconds passed, growing and dragging in the sweltering humidity of Saigon. Sweat trickled down Lodge’s forehead. “What do you think, Mr. Chairman? Do you accept?” The heat wasn’t all that was getting to the American. Nerves were beginning to set in. His nation’s entire foreign policy of containment lay on Lodge’s mind as he awaited Khanh’s answer. He couldn’t let his country down.
Khanh considered the offer for another moment. He was still a young man, as far as leaders go. Only 37 years old, more a general than a politician, he had never run for office in his life. He would have to learn how to win votes and make speeches soon if this new order came to pass. The thought made him somewhat uncomfortable. Still, he saw the value in what was laid before him. It was probably as good of a deal as he could expect from this ambassador, this President back in Washington. “Very well, Mr. Ambassador.” The general said at last. “I accept your proposal.”
The two men shook hands, and so defined the policy of American involvement in South Vietnam for the next several years. CIA Director John McCone and President Kennedy agreed on the decision to withdrawal from the country, with McCone arguing that expansion of the War in Vietnam would arouse national and world discontent over the war, before it defeated the North Vietnamese regime. Instead, the Agency would focus its efforts on covert operations to sabotage the North’s capacity to prosecute an invasion of the South, primarily through targeting supply shipments along the so called “Ho Chi Minh Trail” through Cambodia and Laos. Additionally, the Agency would encourage anti-Communist sentiment in villages throughout the North, and seek opportunities to remove prominent Northern leaders such as Vo Nguyen Giap wherever possible.
“We will not fight the people of Vietnam’s battles for them, but we will provide them with every comfort, every support, and every aid possible in the defense of our shared values. We did not abandon Europe in their hour of need, and we will not abandon Southeast Asia.” President Kennedy’s mind was set. He would not allow American to be involved in any Vietnam War, but he would not let the South lose one either.
