I don't think he's trying to turn Cuba into Vietnam, I think the comparisons don't reach beyond an earlier anti-war movement, (which was already nascent within the beatnik culture). US forces aren't bogged down and the opposition is fractured.
Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline
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KFC COMES TO SYDNEY!
Sydney, NSW – The first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Australia opened today in the Sydney suburb of Guildford. The very founder himself of the famous American fast-food chain, Col. Harland Sanders, attended the opening ceremony of the city’s latest take-out-only American import. American food staples catching on is nothing new – during WWII, American army-men stopping by to fight Japan introduced us to hamburgers and rotisserie chicken [5]. The chicken serves, however, is a new taste sensation thanks to the Colonel’s unique frying style and secret blend of eleven herbs and spices… Sanders, together with local businessman Jack Cowin, seem determined to transform the city with the introduction of more options into the still-minor fast-food market in Sydney [5]. Judging by the massive crowd at the ceremony, their goal had merit.
– The Australian, 22/7/1962
[ https://imgur.com/Jsj4YWk.png ]
– Colonel Sanders tries his first Australian meat pie at Harry’s Café de Wheels in Woolloomooloo [6]
I had a meat pie at this Harry's not 2 hours ago, even saw the Colonel's autographed picture
Great update.
Chapter 16: January 1963 – June 1963
Here it is! A hundred apologies for being a few hours late of posting it on a Thursday, and a hundreds thanks for your patience.
That's really awesome! I hope the meat pie was good, and thanks for liking this!I had a meat pie at this Harry's not 2 hours ago, even saw the Colonel's autographed picture
Chapter 16: January 1963 – June 1963
“Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.”
– Pericles, “Funeral Oration,” 430 BCE
…when asked by a reporter to specify, US Defense Secretary Homer Litzenburg announced that the Cuban War, quote, “is practically over, we have the Cuban Communists on the run,” unquote. Secretary Litzenburg then resumed discussing the development made in combating racial discrimination in the military…
– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, 1/3/1963 broadcast
Johnson privately complained to his aides that Litzenburg’s remark was “premature,” arguing that American forces needed to remain in Cuba until Cienfuegos and Guevara were defeated.
– Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon: Book Four: The Pursuit of Power, A. A. Knopf Inc. New York, 2012
…Marina’s uncle, Ilya Prusakov, was a colonel in the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was through him that I made the needed connections. The past several months in the Russian Army had been enough. I was desperate for a change in scenery. Cuba’s heat would be a refreshing change far removed from the drab cold of Russia. And desperate to make my mark, to fight for the freedom of my Cuban comrades. I couldn’t go to Cuba directly, though. Too much attention. So through the connections I made in the Russian military personnel through Ilya, I made contact with a cargo ship bound for Trinidad. I left behind June, whom was almost a year old, and Marina, who as it turned out, I had just gotten pregnant with a second child, I son. From Trinidad, I ventured to Haiti. And from Port-au-Prince, I used what few rubles I had left to get smuggled to the frontlines, where I planned to personally turn the tide of the war. I knew I could do it, and soon I would work to prove my worth. Upon arriving in Cuba in January, though, I was almost killed several times by brethren suspicious that I was an American spy, something I grew quirky of. I even shouted by Russian to them how stupid they were for not recognizing my allegiance. I don’t think anyone had ever suffered such stereotyping. But it was to no avail – suspicion followed me everywhere – even to the camp of Che Guevara. When I arrived there, I feared that they were about to reject me on paranoid belief that I was an undercover provocateur [1]. There was this one soldier kept jotting everything down in this little book of theirs. It was distracting; I kept thinking that he was writing about me, writing where I was to be buried or something like that. That’s how bad the situation looked. So I had to plead with them. I touted my resume: a US marine sniper with experience with Cuba-like geography from my experience in the Philippines; my training as a radio technology expert, I promised I could help my Cuban comrades maintain communications between our soldiers across the divided island. It was humiliating, but Che gave me a chance. He brought me out to the edge of a field, and told me I had one chance, the next sixty seconds, to fire a branch off a tree on the opposite side of the field. If I failed, he’d execute me; if I didn’t fail, he welcome me to the ranks. He then handed me a sniper rifle and took a step back to glare at me. The rifle fell apart in my hands, an unspoken part of the test. As he began to countdown, I hurried to put the pieces together. My heart was palpitating like crazy despite my mental determination. At the ten-second mark, I readied for a shot. I aimed, I fired. The tree branch fell, but not completely off the tree, leaving it dangling of the side of the tree. I quickly looked at Che. After a moment of pause that felt like a lifetime of pause, he smirked, “eh, close enough, comrade!”
– Lee Harvey Oswald’s autobiography “Call Me By My Real Name: Confessions From a Fallen Hero,” published posthumously
“We have a commitment to Cuban freedom… you can have more war and more appeasement, but we don’t want more of either. Our purpose is to train the Cuban Democratistas so they can defend their island without us someday, and our training’s going good.” [2]
– Lyndon Johnson, State of the Union address excerpt, 1/14/1963
On January 14, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson delivered his third state of the union address, where again he described the progress being made in Cuba and the space program, but also calling for better social security programs, and touting lower unemployment and poverty rates, while ignoring the slight rise in anti-Black and anti-immigrant activities in the US (particularly in the south in response to the Civil Rights Act and influx of Cuban refugees into Florida and other parts of the country). Johnson called for a bold plan for several social programs that effectively ushered in the start of the second phase of his Great Society social programs.
– Professor Margaret “Midge” Costanza, Rochester University, audio-taped lecture, 1985
Thurgood Marshall nominated for DC circuit judge.
…Marshall, an African-American, had been passed over for the Second Circuit District in 1962 over heated controversy over the Civil Rights Act. The conservative William H. Hastie, another African-American, was the preferred choice for conservative lobbyists, but was reportedly not in consideration for the position…
– The Washington Post, 1/16/1963
US Citizen Approval of US Involvement in Cuba
Approve: 59%
Disapprove: 27%
Uncertain: 14%
– Gallop Poll, published 1/21/1963
Together with bandmember Bobby Taylor, Chong opened an L.A. “beatnik-friendly” nightclub in January 1963. They called it "The Blue Balls".
– infopedia.co.usa/Tommy_Chong
LBJ ANNOUNCES HE WILL SEND TROOPS, ADVISORY PERSONNEL TO LAOS-VIETNAM BORDER
…Laotian General Nosavan Phoumi has the support of the White House, and US military advisors approve of his actions to combat the Pathet Lao, the Communist group plaguing much of the landlocked country of Laos…
– The New York Times, 1/22/1963
The situation in Laos was gaining attention in the Defense and State Departments due to an increase in the country’s internal hostilities. In late January, Johnson’s foreign policy officials sat around the cabinet room to discuss how to address it. On Inauguration Day 1961, Eisenhower had told Lyndon “If Laos falls, the US will have to write off the whole area.” Laos geographically was all that separated China from Thailand, Cambodia and Burma, and with Laos practically surrounding Vietnam. “It would be fatal,” he had warned, “for us to permit communists to insert themselves into the Laotian government [3].”
Emboldened by the seemingly done-for communist forces in Cuba, Lyndon disagreed with State Secretary Kennedy in having Laos remain a neutral “buffer” nation between China and a future Democratic Southeast Asia, finding the idea to be unnecessary. Johnson also rejected Kennedy’s notion of sending representatives to Geneva [4] to develop a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Laos, explaining “America has shown to the world time and again that we can take on anyone. I doubt some s#!twater hellhole of a country nobody’s ever heard of is going to give us that much trouble, Jack.”
– Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon: Book Four: The Power of the Presidency, A. A. Knopf Inc., 2018
ARMY INCREASES AIRSTRIKES ON CUBA: Targeting “Clearly” Pro-Comm. Strongholds, Military Bases
…the increase comes one week after the Communists’ air forces carpet-bombed the city of Sancti Spiritus, a DRF stronghold where US-DRF soldiers were expanding into the neighboring city of Majagua…
– The Washington Post, 2/1/1963
Mr. Westmoreland:
I want a report on the most effective way to handle the situation involving Communist guerillas threatening American interests in Vietnam. We cannot afford the domino effect to even start.
Respond ASAP,
President Johnson
– Memo from Westmoreland to Johnson, 2/2/1963
U.S.S.R. LEADER KHRUSHCHEV STEPS DOWN, DEPUTY SHELEPIN DECLARED NEW LEADER
– The Daily Mail, UK newspaper, 5 February 1963
Everybody on this island wants to kill us. We have no allies here.
I’ve stopped caring about what city or village we try to take over. They all start to look the same. A bunch of buildings and farmhouses, each containing at least one person firing a gun at us. Every day we live and serve and fight and sleep, all in constant fear that the next [Cuban] we see will pull out a weapon and go for us. Where is this rebellion against Camilo we are repeatedly told of? It is not here, not where we are. It is not here.
We were traveling south, a convoy of tanks and ammo trucks stuffed with men and guns. Just men and guns. Metal and lead. Loud firepower. A lonely outhouse stood on the edge of the road we travelled down, which cut through a large field of unkempt wheat. A shot fired out from the outhouse. Hit our C.O. right in the back. Never had a chance. We quickly fired back. No hesitation. No contemplation. We just fired right at the outhouse, all of us, ripping the wooden door, the frames, whoever the hell was inside, all of it, all to shreds.
We checked the rest of the area and kept ourselves ready in case this was an attack. We could have just kept going. But before we did, I went to see who or what had been breathing, existing, hiding in the outhouse. I opened what remained of the door. A little boy with a rifle fell out. No older than twelve. Blood on pale-white skin. Dark voids for eyes. Look of shock and despair. Hopeless. Pointless. Death.
The innocence of this land is dead. Murdered by the sickness of war. So long live the sickness, I guess. At least I think that is the order. My order. My duty.
– B. Thompson, US military officer, private journal entry, 2/6/1963
With Cuba in disarray, too many in the government did not believe Nikita would adequately respond to America flexing its military muscles in Laos. The ousters were [Supreme Soviet presidium chairman Leonid] Brezhnev and [First Deputy Premier Alexander] Shelepin, with [KGB Chairman Vladimir] Semichastny joining in on their conspiracy at the last minute, it seems. The trio took advantage of Nikita retreating to the Crimea to regain his health during the winter to agree to a peaceful ousting. When they cornered him upon his arrival at the airport to return to the capital, Semichastny was there; he told him “you are needed in Moscow no longer.”
When the dust had settled, Nikita was melancholic: “I only wished to see right by my country, but they made governing a chore and a burden, not a gift. I’m old and tired, but that just means I’m wiser than them. Let’s just see how well Shelepin does.”
Brezhnev had originally eyed the top spot, but when he suggested having Nikita arrested in Crimea, Shelepin objected and offered the peaceful transition of power should be attempted first. Shelepin’s plan working cast Brezhnev as a man of poor leadership, and the politburo quickly rallied around Shelepin. Semichastny was far too close to Nikita to be considered for the position.
Shelepin would immediately shift focus away from Cuba, and call instead for “the strengthening all comrades across the Eurasian supercontinent,” a commanding but vague statement. It was the vagueness, however, that seems to have unnerved American intelligence, causing the US’s Johnson administration to become more attentive to any left-wing movements in either continent.
– Anastas Mikoyan’s The Path of Struggle: The Memoirs of Anastas Mikoyan (English translation), Sphinx Press, 1988 (written in 1978)
( imgur.com/dIiblpm )
– Colonel Sanders congratulating the winner of the first-ever "Miss KFC" pageant (“entries must work at a KFC outlet in any capacity in order to qualify/participate”), 2/12/1963
CONGRESS PASSES FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT
– The New York Post, 2/21/1963
Kentucky OK’s Rights Bill; 1st in South.
…Kentucky yesterday became the first state south of the Mason-Dixon line to adopt [its own] civil rights measure. With only one dissenting vote, the state Senate approval [sic] a bill outlawing racial discrimination in public accommodations and employment that is stronger than the federal act of 196[2]. It sailed thru [sic] the House 76 to 12 last week. A milder bill had failed to get out of committee in 196[1]…’” [5]
– The Chicago Tribune, 2/26/1963
US EMPLOYMENT REPORT: CUBAN WAR DROPS RATE FROM 7% IN JAN ’62 TO 3% IN JAN ’63
– The Los Angeles Times, 2/27/1963
I think he’s one of the best snipers the US has ever seen. It’s almost frightening how good he is, the ferocity of his eyes when he locks onto a target. I tell you, Corporal Charles Whitman is a merciless patriot. You should see how he handles his weapons – it’s as if they become one with his body. He has such natural, or rather unnatural, instincts, his performance on the battlefield – his swiftness, his accuracy in his kills – is a sight to behold. Yesterday, he received a Purple Heart for single-handedly freeing another marine by lifting the remains of an exploded Jeep that was pinning the man down right out in the open. Whitman turns 22 in June; it’s early, but he’s already announced he wants more guns for the occasion! I suspect, however, that his field performance has much to do with his temper – he’s just angry all the time – complaining about regulations and moaning about his distance away from his wife and, on occasion, his mother, too. He’s only lucid right after a battle. It’s like some kind of release for him; I think it’s more than homesickness or hatred of the enemy. It’s as if he has his own demons inside him that he’s fighting against. It’s very peculiar.
– Excerpt from a letter from US Army private Daniel Ray Coats to a friend, dated 3/1/1963
“Good news, American pig. You have been selected to be among the first to try out our latest torture methods,” one of the men said bluntly one time. They had patched me up the best they could at their makeshift hospital only to break me as best they could. The pain I received in Cuba was so severe and so intense that no words can do it justice, but I will try my best.
Of course, I was not alone in the torment. There were at least thirty of us holed up in a temporary POW compound in the middle of some jungle. We were kept in a large room of small cages, often two or three of us in each cage, chained up like animals, and beaten mercilessly over and over like such. We weren’t even allowed to clean ourselves in any way. Fungi developed on the men too tired and beaten to even be aware of anything. Many died from starvation as they rarely tossed us scraps, and others died from blood loss or simply receiving one beating too many, or from being forced to go for days without sleep.
Before long, you were no more than a zombie, a ghost, a shadow of what you once were, either just barely clinging onto life or yearning for the sweet release of death. There was a man I shared a cell adjacent to, who never told me his name. He truly believed he was in fact dead and was suffering for eternity in Hell for his sins. His mind had snapped and I fully understood why.
Five men from the same small room as I – we never really knew how many men were at the compound, we just estimated by the screams – were ultimately sent to the “drawer cells.” Literal hellholes – deep holes dug into the earth – just barely big enough for a grown man to stand in. There the Cubans would leave them in complete darkness and sometimes throw buckets of urine, cockroaches and starving rats onto the men from a cover in the ceiling. Rarely would a man leave the drawer cells alive, and not left whole.
But still they could not break me. “John Smith. US Marines. Serial Number 654321.” That is all I ever told them, no matter what they did to me, and they did a lot to me.
A room separate from the cells was where they interrogated the POWs. There, every time after they returned me to consciousness following a series of heavy blows, a man speaking in broken English would bark at me, ordering me to tell him information. “Tell us what you know” was a common order for him to repeat like some evil mindless robot. In turn, each time I’d respond with “John Smith. US Marines. Serial Number 654321.” For my resilience his men would slash my back open with twisted-up electric cables. The whip stung and shot immense pain throughout my suffering body. “What do you know?!” he would bark, and I would repeat the same three “facts”: “John Smith. US Marines. Serial Number 654321.” They would whip me again, over and over, each time asking variations of the same question. A strong Cuban man, a former wrestler by the looks of his cauliflower ears, would sometimes use my chest as a punching bag at the same time. “What do you know?!” “John Smith. US Marines. Serial Number 654321.” I’d quickly try to catch as much of my breath as I could. “John Smith. US Marines. Serial Number 654321.” Inhale, exhale. “John Smith. US Marines. Serial Number 654321.” I never told them anything else.
One day, I have no idea which one – the days blurred into weeks and the weeks turned into months in that sweltering topical hell – a commanding Cuban officer approached me mid-torture. “So,” he began with a thick Cuban accent, “you are the son of an admiral in the American’s navy. Is this correct?”
My eyes widened.
“John Sidney McCain the third. Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy. Serial Number 624787. Born August 29, 1936.” He walked over to me to reveal the contents of his hands. “We found your dog tags in the wreckage of your plane, McCain. It appears you lied about your name, rank, number, even military branch. You’re quite the liar, Mr. McCain. I hate liars.” And yet another fist met my stomach. I would have spit at him but my throat was dry and hoarse.
The commanding officer shouted orders at the other men in the room. They released me from my bonds and I collapsed onto the floor. They picked me up by my arms, which hurt a great deal due to what they had done to them, dragged me out to a new and unfamiliar part of the complex, and propped up on a small metal chair in a barely-lit room similar to an office, sans furniture. A man kept his gloved hand firmly on my bleeding shoulder to keep me from falling off the chair, his finger digging into my skin the whole time, the man relishing in my pain. Another man splashed water into my face.
“So, you thought that if we though you were just another soldier we’d go easy on you, not execute you or use you as a bargaining chip? Hm. It’s rare to find such cleverness in an American.” The commanding officer then unfolded a wooden chair and sat in front of me “Well, now that we have made you comfortable we can begin our chat. For you see, Mr. McCain, we want to show the Americans that we are a sympathetic people who only want the best for everybody. And to prove this to your government, we are willing to …release you.”
“What?”
“Yes. Releasing you back to father, back to your cozy capitalist home, will prove to the Americans and the world watching that the Communists are, well, the good guys, you might say.”
I was still panting and wheezing, and I managed to say, with the tiniest bit of sarcasm, “Oh, you’re really going to just let me go, huh?”
“Yes, you understand. Good. I thought you’d understand if I kept it simple for you.” The officer was sincere, I could tell.
I lapped up the water around my lips with my tongue and gulped to help my throat. “Only if the rest of the men are released too.” No matter the number of men held in that godforsaken place, large or small, I could not let them suffer while I went free. It was either all of us or none of us. “Release… an entire POW camp. That… will show ’em you’re decent.”
The man laughed “I see you are a joker, Mr. McCain.”
“Actually… I’m not. My answer is no.” I stared at him with all the seriousness the tired muscles on my face could render.
He stopped laughing and lowered his eyebrows, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Don’t know that word? No. Nada. No deal. No hay trato. No way… Jose.”
“Ah. I see.” He stood up, grabbed his chair and smashed it into my face in an explosion of searing agony. “You are not noble… You are a fool. Ah well, no matter, we’ll just go with the other option – sending you to the Isles of Pines.” The sadistic bastard ended with a fake smile: “Please enjoy your last few months staying here, and be sure to visit the gift shop on your way out!”
Again, my eyes widened, even there in the camp I knew the Isla de Pinos was a land of no return, an island stronghold of the Communists and the location of Cuba’s worst penitentiary.
When they brought me back to my cell, I knew the time had come to come up with a plan of escape.
After staring at my surrounding for weeks upon weeks I knew the layout of the building fairly well. I had been thinking of an escape plan but dared not try it until I knew awaited me outside. But when I was taken to that new room, they made one critical mistake – without something to cover my eyes, I had managed to take a peek through two small windows they dragged me past. It wasn’t much, but it was enough of a view for learning to grasp a much broader understanding of what I wanted to escape from exactly.
In Morse code and common hand gestures I managed to tell the other prisoners my idea. We needed all the help we could get if we all wanted to get out of there alive. It seemed like a suicide mission, but we decided to go with it anyway. Timing was everything, but time was on our side.
– From Admiral John McCain’s Boldly Into Hell: A Firsthand Account of America’s Wars in the 1960s and 1970s, Random House, 1987
…in a move deemed highly controversial in his home state, Alabama Governor George Wallace, has pardoned two of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of eight African-Americans accused and found guilty of rape in 1931 despite overwhelming evidence proving their innocence. Since then, some of the boys have either died or have been paroled. Governor Wallace announced pardons for two of them – Charlie Weems, whom was 19 at the time of the incident and has been out on parole since 1943; and Andrew Wright, also 19 at the time, who recently moved backed to Alabama after being paroled in 1950. The move is being considered an act of demonstrating the Governor’s calls for “equal fairness among all races,” and comes just days after passing a farmers’ assistance bill in the state legislature…
– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News broadcast, 3/3/1963 broadcast
March 5, 1963: McDonald’s sells its one billionth hamburger
– marketplace.or.uk/McDonald’s/timeline/the’60s
SNIPER CHARLES WHITMAN KILLED!: His Murderer, An Unknown Enemy Sniper, Cowardly Flees Scene!
– Star and Stripes, US military newspaper, 3/9/1963
CORPORAL WHITMAN POSTHUMOUSLY GIVEN THIRD PURPLE HEART, LAID TO REST IN TEXAS
…he is being rightfully called a hero back in the states… Whitman’s parents received a phone call from President Johnson expressing his sympathies…
– Star and Stripes, US military newspaper, 3/16/1963
Che said he was proud of me. I had seen my opportunity to finally win Che over, and I took it, and thanks to me that capitalist-loving menace, Chuck the Sniper, was finally a threat to us no longer. Che told me, “you know, when I first saw you, I thought you were an assassin or something. After all, I had just survived two attempts on my life on orders of LBJ, so I had to be careful. You understand.” I did.
– Lee Harvey Oswald’s autobiography “Call Me By My Real Name: Confessions From a Fallen Hero,” published posthumously
HOST: You two are really showing the divide in the interested public over whether or Oswald really did take out Whitman.
VETERAN 1: Well again, the US military recorded his shooting skills when he was in the marines, and he was lackluster, a very poor shot.
VETERAN 2: Even if those documents are true, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and given the circumstances it’s entirely possible for him to have done it. He clearly had a clean shot from the forest edge!
VETERAN 1: I so don’t think so. The truth –
VETERAN 2: Oh, denying the truth just leads to a variety of conspiracy theories, and they range from LBJ being involved somehow to the ghost of Fidel Castro possessing Oswald! None of them should be taken seriously!
HOST: Now that’s where I must disagree with you, bud. All possibilities exist until they absolutely don’t, and even then there’s still room for suspicion.
– Excerpt from in-studio between two Cuban War veterans and host Art Bell, Coast to Coast AM, 2020
I am certain that I will never forget the error I made on the Second of April, 1963. I ruined everything. Finally, I was feeling like I belonged there. I was accepted by my comrades at long last. I was relishing in my popularity over the past month, overlooking the view from the base of camp, enjoying the fair weather beside a large tree. My gun – the very same gun Che had handed to me all those weeks ago – was resting in my grasp. I remember it still smelled of rain. It had been such a nice day until then.
Che called me over. “Ándale!” he shouted. I’ll never know what he wanted.
I was happy and excited, and whatever was the matter seemed urgent, so I ran over.
But then – oh, that damn tree root! It was just stick out of the ground – my foot got caught on it, I tripped and I fell. The gun flew from my hand.
It went off – in my enjoying of the view, I hadn’t remembered to put the safety on.
I looked up quickly. Che said nothing. Che fell, blood seeping out of what was left of his face. I will never forget that horrible image. His face, it stilt haunts me. To this day, I will awake in a cold sweat, the guilt still permeating my slumber, my body, my soul.
I screamed in horror, and in that second, fear and panic fell over me. What would my comrades do? They’d kill me on the spot, that’s what! They had always been suspicious of me. They’d never believe it was an accident, never! I suddenly thought of Marina, and June and Junior – what would happen to them if I was gone, and wrongfully sentenced to being remembered as a traitor, a false label branded to me for the rest of time? (and I thought my mother back in the states, too, for some reason).
My preservation instincts kicked in.
I ran.
I ran for years.
– Lee Harvey Oswald’s autobiography “Call Me By My Real Name: Confessions From a Fallen Hero,” published posthumously
Cam is beside himself, as am I. Rumors have led to Cam offering a month’s worth of rations for anyone with information as to whom committed with atrocity. Julio [Casas Regueiro] is interrogating some alleged capitalist sympathizers over in the next valley, adamant it was a Cuban traitor. I myself believe it was that odd-looking American I spotted in his ranks when I visited his headquarters in January. He must have been a spy, but I do not know enough about him to know for sure. For all I know, maybe it was one of our own men!
Regardless of the guilty, Cam is genuine in his mourning. “I’m sad that he is gone,” he said to me last night, “I had such hope that we would reconcile.” But Cam will not dwell on this what-if forever. I know he knows that he has a revolution to lead…
– 3 April 1963 entry of The Diary of the Unknown Fighter, published 1996
EXTRA! CHE GUEVARA DIES!
US Army Intel can confirm that Communist leader Che Guevara has died, most likely killed by a member or members of the rival Cienfuegos-supported Communist faction on the island. After previously surviving a bombing raid on his location in January, Che’s death could have a massive effect on the military situation in Cuba…
– The Washington Post, 4/7/1963
DIEF STAYS ON AS CANADIAN PM; PEARSON CONCEDES
Ottawa, ON – Tories are celebrating across the dominion as Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s minority government survived tonight’s federal election. While the Liberals made several gains and won an even greater increase in the popular vote, Diefenbaker held on by just 5 seats in the House of Commons. Most pundits agree that the biggest factor in his victory was Canadian approval of Diefenbaker’s support of the American-Cuban War. The leader of the Liberals, Lester Pearson, has formally conceded the race, but did not say if he would stay on as leader of the party. However, as Pearson has now lost three federal elections in a row, it is likely that he will be, at the very least, challenged for the top spot. ...The election victory may neutralize pre-election concerns over Diefenbaker’s mercurial leadership style, which almost led to a leadership challenge last year. What is still to be determined is how Diefenbaker will continue to handle his own party’s split over American nuclear missiles bases on Canadian soil and continued military aid to the US’s war efforts in Cuba. Apart from Diefenbaker opposing the missiles, he has supported American President Lyndon Johnson’s “conventional” warfare methods in combating Communism in the Caribbean, and the production of the almost-cancelled Avro Arrow has boosted the economy, according to the Diefenbaker campaign. Lyndon Johnson himself visited Toronto last week to publicly thank “all Canadians for [our] support in the fight to secure peace in Cuba.” The visit may have contributed to Diefenbaker’s numbers as well...
– The Middletown Journal, Canadian newspaper, 8/April/1963
Canadian Federal Election, 4/8/1963:
[see: outgoing members]
265 seats in the House of Commons
133 seats needed for a majority
Turnout: 79.2% (0.2 pp)
Progressive Conservative (PC) leader: John Diefenbaker (of Prince Albert)
Liberal (L) leader: Lester Pearson (of Algoma East)
Social Credit (SC) leader: Robert N. Thompson (of Red Deer)
New Democratic (ND) leader: Tommy Douglas (of Burnaby-Coquitlam)
Seats won in the last election: 116 (PC), 99 (L), 30 (SC), 19 (ND)
Seats won in this election: 114 (PC), 109 (L), 24 (SC), 16 (ND)
Seat change: v 2 (PC), ^ 10 (L), v 6 (SC), v 3 (ND)
– electionscanada.co.can/English-mode/1963
“We can report that a group of soldiers from a Communist organization located in North Vietnam, called the National Liberal Front, I’m told, have attacked American advisory troops in Laos near the Vietnam border. I’m told by authoritative sources on Capitol Hill that the President is meeting with his foreign policy advisors…”
– NBC, 4/9/1963 broadcast
Cam now has a new plan! He seeks to unify ex-Che supporters by temporarily discarding political ideology to instead focus on what he is calling “strategic sabotage” in the fight to liberation. So this is what the war has come to – measures that seem desperate and will possibly be very regrettable if they go awry, but measures that Cam – and I – believe are necessary.
– 12 April 1963 entry of The Diary of the Unknown Fighter, published 1996
In 1963, France’s Charles de Gaulle was still trying to solve the Vietnam Dilemma on his own, leading to Jack visiting him in April of that year. De Gaulle was still trying to be “independent of America’s sway,” and while he supported American operations in Cuba, but strongly opposed Johnson’s actions on the Laos-Vietnam border. Unfortunately, the straining of relations between Charles and Lyndon only continued to worsen as the year progressed…
On April 15, the South Vietnamese Civil Guards made a surprise attack on the Viet Cong, thanks to US advisory troops sent to their area from Laos earlier by Lyndon Johnson under Jack’s advice, one of the very few times he actually seemed listen to him concerning Vietnam. To tell the truth (as that is the whole purpose of this book), Jack was repeatedly kept out of cabinet meetings despite his foreign accomplishment. For example, by March 1963, Jack had visited to troops in Cuba twice as many times as LBJ and three times as many times as [Defense Secretary] Litzenburg. Jack spent time looking over details and specifics concerning potential war zones – it was part of his job description. Jack generally knew more about the situation in Southeast Asia than Johnson, but due to the 1960 campaign tension still lingering, Johnson relied more on his own advisors than on Jack and his advisors. I believe it was around this time that Vietnam began to be an important issue to LBJ, albeit one that was still largely on the backburner of his foreign policy oven, to coin a phrase.
– Robert F. Kennedy’s The Definitive Decades, Tangent Writer’s House, 1999
HEROISM ON DISPLAY AFTER CUBAN JET KAMIKAZES INTO AIRCRAFT CARRIER
– Star and Stripes, US military newspaper, 4/16/1963
June Koznick told us about his early days in the Air Force. He enlisted in Florida in 1961, at the age of 18, and was sent to work as a medical records technician. Soon he became a first sergeant on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Cuba. He was “the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work,” the mean ball-buster barking orders [6]. On April 16, he was walking up the main starboard stairs when the ship was struck by a Cuban military jet. “He was hit by some flames or something, like they just busted out of the wall in front of him, and he fell down the stairs,” Koznick explains. Despite the injury, he immediately got up and helped drag several injured men out of further harm’s way before receiving medical attention. He would later receive a Purple Heart for this.
– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014
…Let’s move on now to the strength of unions in this country. There is much debate right now over the notion that there a crisis of faith in the American labor union today…
– CBS roundtable discussion, 5/5/1963 broadcast
THE RISE OF THE BEATNIKS: Youth Activism And The Changing Music Scene
...New movements require new slang, with this one being no exception: “shoutniks” are beatniks that shout, “sitniks” are beatniks that engage in sit-ins… The culture is an alluring form of escapism from the pressures of social conformity. Allen Ginsberg is one of the more active beatniks. A poet by nature, he was inspired by the Civil rights Movement to openly criticize aspects of American society he describes as “imperialist and unhealthy” Their most recent major action was a peaceful sit-in outside Florida Governor C. Farris Byrant’s office... Ginsberg is determined. He tells me he has made contact with Saul Alinsky for pointers. “Nobody can emulate his organizing genius,” Ginsberg boasts, “but we are taking the steps we need to achieve our goals.”
– Hunter S. Thompson’s exposé article for Variety’s May 1963 issue
( imgur.com/p9QGG7D)
– Former Vice President Richard Nixon (R-CA) appears in a TV commercial for KFC, filmed like a film noir mystery, showing Nixon paranoid that someone ("if not everyone") is out to get his KFC dinner; first aired 5/3/1963
The latest reports from independent journalists in Havana report that under the leadership of Camilo Cienfuegos, Communist forces are gaining ground. The Communists’ new tactics, such as bombing areas deep in US-occupied territory, appears to be destabilizing American forces stationed in more inland regions. …High casualties are expected as these bombings continue, according to reliable sources…
– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, 5/15/1963 broadcast
LIBERALS GO TO HELLYER IN LEADERSHIP ELECTION
Toronto, ON – After five contentious ballot, dark horse candidate Paul Hellyer has become the new leader of the Liberal Party. Hellyer, 39, and a member of Parliament for Trinity, started out as an underdog in the fight, with Dufferin “Duff” Roblin, Malcolm McCutcheon, and E. Davie Fulton being the early frontrunners. After Ellen Fairclough and Donald Fleming withdrew, they supported Hellyer, allegedly to spite Roblin, whom attacked them fiercely during the competition to win over delegates. Hellyer gathered momentum ahead of the second ballot. In light of Lester Pearson’s retirement after three consecutive losses, Hellyer called for a more centrist party platform to win over “the remaining” Diefenbaker backers. Hellyer’s youth arguably made him the most energetic candidate at the convention. After defeating Fulton on the third ballot and McCutcheon on the fourth, he faced Roblin on the fifth and final ballot. It seems, though, that Roblin’s harsh criticism of the earlier candidates caused him to lose support among their former delegates. However, after losing to Hellyer, Roblin proclaimed that Hellyer “simply won by default.”…
– The Calgary Sun, Canadian newspaper, 5/19/1963
DIEF CONFRONTS QUEBEC SPERATISTS OVER RECENT WAVE OF CITY VANDALISM
Montreal – Prime Minister Diefenbaker, promising to “maintain peace and order across the provinces,” has initiated a police “crackdown” on the Front de liberation du Quebec, a Quebec-based political organization advocating Quebecois independence, after a week of city vandalism for which the group has claimed responsibility. …According to one inside source whom wishes to remain anonymous, Diefenbaker is emboldened by his election victory in April but also “paranoid of Communist spies in the more rebellious spots in Canada after talking on the phone to Lyndon Johnson about Byron De La Beckwith,” possibly in light of the still-ongoing trial of the alleged American traitor, which is covered in the story on Page 1B. While this claim has yet to be backed up by other sources, it is becoming very clear that Tory officials in both the party and the federal government have grown tired of working either for or with Dief. In the past month, seven aides have quit…
– The Globe and Mail, 5/21/1963
“I don’t know Louie that well, but from what I’ve heard about the businessman, he sounds like the right man for the job!”
– Colonel Sanders, upon being asked by a journalist whom he backed in the upcoming Kentucky gubernatorial Republican primary, 5/23/1963
Kentucky State Party Gubernatorial Primaries, 5/28/1963:
For Governor:
Republican Primary Results (2.88% Total Population):
Louie B. Nunn – 77,455 (88.53%)
Jesse N. R. Cecil – 10,039 (11.47%)
Democratic Primary Results (19.52% Total Population):
Bert T. Combs – 402,665 (67.89%)
Happy Chandler – 165,893 (27.97%)
Mary Louie Foust – 19,869 (3.35%)
Wilton Benge Cupp – 4,685 (0.79%)
Total votes cast: 593,112
– ourcampaigns.co.usa
US APPROVAL OF CUBAN WAR SUFFERING, NEW POLL FINDS
A new polling study on the approval of America’s intervention in Cuba by average Americans polled demonstrates a noticeable change in opinion:
The Question: “How is the War in Cuba progressing?”
Then: Conducted between March 23 and March 30:
Well: 55%
Poorly: 38%
Unsure: 7%
Now: Conducted between May 23 and May 30:
Well: 47%
Poorly: 42%
Unsure: 11%
The decrease in approval can be contributed to some variables. These include default Communist leader Camilo Cienfuegos remaining at-large despite the capture of Havana by US-DRF forces. Several people polled described anguish over the apparent lack of change in the war’s progress. “Camilo is still at large, and people are starting to wonder why nothing is being done about it,” stated one polled individual who wished to remain anonymous. Others seem to agree with the notion that the War in Cuba has “stagnated,” as US-DRF forces have gained little new ground in the past two months…
– In a newspaper article by George Gallup, Director of the American Institute of Public Opinion, 6/1/1963
From: General Bruce Palmer Jr.
To: President Lyndon Baines Johnson
Mr. President,
I am surprised by the public’s negative views of the war. We are doing our best to keep at bay an enemy only 90 miles way from our shores, as you of course know, but a considerably large portion of the United States seems to have a greater focus on the current casualties rather than the casualties America and its allies would receive if Communism was allowed to spread.
I am very much surprised by this. We are stopping the destruction of the free world right as it pounds at the front door. However, I am also surprised by the slow advancement and continuous resistance here in Cuba. Camilo’s supporters outnumber us in people, but not in weaponry. However, we are supposed to be “liberating” these people who wish to harm us, but no more than a quarter of the Cuban people oppose Camilo, according to our statisticians here. The persistence of these Communists is beginning to overwhelm the men, regardless of rank it seems.
It is because of the unexpectedly high intensity of the nation’s inhabitants that have been duped into following Communism, I again request the increase of weaponry and manpower. However, due to the negative press coverage of the military action down here, I also request a limitation of press access to certain bases and battlefields. I understand that this would infringe on their First Amendment rights. However, we would only be violating the freedom in the name of saving all freedoms of democracy in Cuba and the United States. Mr. President, I believe that sometimes one freedom must be restricted in order to ensure that not all of our freedoms perish in the victory of our enemies.
Please respond to my request at your own pace, but without conscious delay.
In dutiful service and allegiance,
General Palmer
– Then-classified communiqué from General Palmer to President Johnson, concerning the gradually rising disapproval of the War in Cuba, 6/4/1963
On June 6, Bob Ross was transferred to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Despite now needing to wear dark-lens glasses [to combat light sensitivity, as his eyes were damaged by the bright flames and explosions exposed to him during the aircraft carrier incident], he took up painting when it was offered at the base as a form of therapy. He immediately found it to be a cathartic experience, to create a beautiful image of anything the mind wanted out of just paints and a canvas. Still recuperating, he subsequently took art classes at the Anchorage USO club, but found them unhelpful because “They’d tell you what makes a tree, but they wouldn’t tell you how to paint a tree,” [6] as he would later recall.
– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014
SENATE PASSES “LANDMARK” VOTING RIGHTS BILL
...Thanks to liberal pickups in last year’s midterm elections, Republicans and northern Democrats in the Senate passed President Johnson’s Voting Rights Bill earlier today. The bill, set to be signed into law by Johnson “very soon,” according to an authoritative source on the Hill, will outlaw poll taxes and poll literacy tests – often used to prevent Negroes from voting – in federal, statewide, and even local elections.
– Knoxville News Sentinel, Tennessee newspaper, 6/8/1963
KFC FOUNDER DONATES EQUIPMENT TO 5 OHIO MEDICAL SCHOOLS
…the founder of the nationwide fast-food chain has graciously donated materials to five of the Buckeye State's medical schools…
– The Columbus Dispatch, 6/9/1963
On June 10, 1963, the Equal Pay Act was finally signed into law, as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
– Sylvia Ellis’ Freedom’s Pragmatist: Lyndon Johnson and Civil Rights, University Press of Florida, 2013
…In the past month, we have been gaining significant ground, thanks to new members. Many former Che backers are slowly rejoining our faction – the last faction left standing, so I guess it is no longer a faction – but some continue to fight on in opposition to Cam. Several tiny pockets of soldiers – no more than a single village worth of men and women – each claim to be the true successor to Che’s faction, but because of their small sizes they will surely dissolve so long as we ignore then and focus on the Grave Enemy. “Let the stragglers fall into a leaderless void of warfare. Let them cancel each other out,” Cam says. He believes that centralization, consolidating gathering around him will make us strong in the face of the US’s superior firepower…
...I am conflicted because I am happy that we could end the war soon and make Che’s followers join us in that effort, but I am sad because of the destruction that has befallen the land. And because of the many deaths of women and children. Sometimes the smell of the burning corpses makes me retch. An older soldier mocked me for it yesterday, saying I should be used to it by now. Maybe I’m not because, while war is necessary, a part of me thinks it should never reach this level of severity. I pray for the men and women lost, and I pray for my and Cam’s souls as well...
…With Khrushchev gone, the Soviets have resumed clandestine support for us, but Cam still does not trust them. He told me earlier tonight that he would reach out to the Chinese “if the Russians wouldn’t find out. But they would. A sneaky pack of wolves, they are.” Cam is so smart; surely now the tide of this war will turn! I can feel it!
– Excerpts from the 12, 13, and 14 June 1962 entries of The Diary of the Unknown Fighter, published 1996
Marietta > Where To Go > The Big Chicken
THE BIG CHICKEN
[pic: imgur.com/wCmCIIJ.png ]
The Big Chicken was built in 1961 [7] for a restaurant that opened in 1956 and was originally called Johnny Reb’s Chick-Chuck-‘N’-Shake. Inspired by the success of KFC, the restaurant’s owner, Stanley R. “Tubby” Davis, created the seven-story tall structure as a way to advertise his restaurant. Almost immediately, the towering landmark, standing tall at an impressive 56 feet, and looking like a stylized red chicken with moving eyes and beaks, became a common reference point for locals, with phrases like “turn left at the big chicken” or “just one mile south of the big chicken” often being used by folks in and around Marietta giving out-of-towners directions. In early 1963, just a few years after construction of the big chicken, Davis retired, and sold the profitable restaurant to his brother. His brother, in turn, converted the restaurant it into a franchise of Kentucky Fried Chicken. In June of that year, Colonel Harland Sanders himself visited the restaurant and heartily approved of the avian apparatus atop the building.
In 1993, after years of deterioration and recent storm damage, the famous landmark was in danger of being torn down. When news of this plan reached the public, the outcry was so great that KFC agreed to rebuild the entire structure and restore it to its former glory. The Big Chicken received an expensive do-over, complete with a new paintjob of stronger, longer-lasting, vibrant red paint, essentially returning it to its former glory by the start of 1994.
The Big Chicken is located at the intersection of Cobb Parkway (U.S. Highway Route 41) and Roswell Road (Georgia State Route 120 Loop). There is a small gift shop inside for visitors and customers who would like to purchase souvenirs, or stop by the Marietta Museum of History for some Big Chicken merchandise.
– marietta.co.usa [8]
– footage of the iconic Big Chicken in Marietta, Georgia
“In other news, the people of Buenos Aires, Argentina welcomed Colonel Harland Sanders to the city tonight for the grand opening of that nation’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant outlet.”
– NBC, 6/20/1963 broadcast
“IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO THINK ABOUT IT”: Republican Leaders Weighing 1964 Odds, Speculated Candidates
…Early speculation on how the 1964 primary contests and national convention will unfold for the Republicans has seen much discussion on several notable politicians. According to most internal polls taken by the RNC, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York and US Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona are the most likely Republican politicians to win the GOP nomination for President next year. However, some Republican leaders and donors are hoping that the newly sworn-in Governor of Michigan, George W. Romney, will run for the job. Others support former Vice President Nixon, who lost a very narrow race in 1960 and could run on the theme of “buyer’s remorse” by highlighting Johnson’s “failures” as President. …There is concern that the GOP’s nominee will require military experience. Nixon’s running mate in 1960, US Congressman Walter Judd, or possibly the diplomat and former US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., could possibly placate those concerns, as both have extensive foreign policy experience…
– The Washington Times, 6/24/1963
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE HOMER L. LITZENBERG DIES, 60
…the death has occurred just days after President Johnson sent more American forces to the Vietnam/Laos border. …Already, some pundits on the Hill believe that US Army General William Westmoreland, whom presided primarily over the early aspects of the War in Cuba, could be Litzenburg’s replacement…
– The Washington Post, 6/27/1963
“CAMILO BOMB” KILLS 2 IN FLORIDA: State Residents “Scared,” Others “Uneasy”
…A bomb detonated at the shopping mall… two Americans, a security officer and a janitor, were killed. Their names have not yet been disclosed… A Latino man was arrested fleeing from the scene. Upon being cornered several blocks away from the mall, the man proclaimed himself to be a “co-liberator of Cuba” before shouting “Long Live Camilo” and fatally shooting himself in the head, according to Police Chief… Cuban War veterans are labeling it a "Camino" bomb, meaning a bomb detonated on orders of Communist leader Camilo Cienfuegos, whom began a bombing campaign of DRF/US-held areas in Cuba earlier this year...
– Miami Herald, 6/28/1963
JOHNSON: ...These are not going to be a problem, right?
WESTMORELAND: No sir.
JOHNSON: Good, good, because I and the American voter will not tolerate bombs going off in their shopping mall or wherever.
WESTMORELAND: Yes, sir.
JOHNSON: Just get together with Brown and the others down there and get a handle on that island!
WESTMORELAND: Don’t worry, Mr. President, we’ll establish order here by Christmas!
– President Johnson, in a telephone conversation between him and General William Westmoreland, concerning the possibility of further “Camilo Bombs” detonating in American cities in the future, 6/29/1963
Every seven days, the men who came to torture me for the second time that day did so at noon, the same time as the changing of the guard on that day; for some reason that evades me even today, there was a 37-second-delay, a window of opportunity, between the old guard leaving and the new guard arriving. Very unprofessional, but more than helpful for us. After weeks of planning, the time finally came.
When the two bastards came to begin another torture session, I lied close to the edge of my cell, feigning unconsciousness. When they entered my cell, Rogers and Hopkins, the men in my adjacent cell, grabbed ahold of the guard’s guns. I was tired, but I managed to trip them as they stepped away from their own guns. They hit their heads against the stone wall.
20 seconds left
I quickly scurried to get their keys. I took off my shackles. Yes!
14 seconds left
I unlocked my cell door and freed the two next door, then the three in the cell across from me
7 seconds left
I passed the keys to Valladares, who rushed to open the door of the cell with the largest number of inmates, seven angry men in a tiny smelly hovel.
No seconds. The man was coming around the corner.
“John!” Hopkins tossed me one of the guns. I caught it, swung around and shot the guard in the face at point blank range.
I poked my head around the corner. In no more than 30 seconds the rest of the men would be responding to that shot. Executions normally took place tomorrow. They would be barging down on us and we’d be facing certain doom if we didn’t get out of there ASAP.
Most of the remaining cells were yet to be opened, but we couldn’t stay. Valladares tossed the keys into one of the remaining cells and I lead us down the side hallway.
“There!” I pointed to a white door. “When we get out, run into the forest.”
We all bolted. I fired as accurately as I could at the door handle, finally breaking the lock and bolt just as I reached the knob.
To the Cuban guards outside it must have been mayhem, seeing a band of prisoners bursting out of the side entrance like that. They opened fire on us. Rogers fired back but only took out one of them before being shot in the head. Hopkins picked the gun up and continued to shoot from behind one of their own jeeps parked near the door.
I stood at the edge of the forest to ensure the others slipped into the cluster of plants and humidity. They wheezed and huffed through their broken ribs, and limped and even hopped on their broken legs, all with all their might to escape, but only about half of us made it. As Hopkins and I made it into the cover of Cuba’s geography, the commies continued to fire at us, even after losing visual. They just kept on firing into the forest, until finally realizing they were just wasting ammo.
After running for as much as I could I stopped to turn around and check on Hopkins. One of the last bullets fired before they had stopped had hit him. He was leaning against a tree, holding his side, blood spilling out over his fingers. He fainted, and I rushed back over to him. He died before either of us could say anything.
We never regrouped. Once we were out of there, it was every man for himself. And it would be decades until I came across any of them ever again.
It took me two more weeks to return to land under US-DRF control. Two weeks of rebuilding my strength and surviving in the unwelcoming forests and jungles of Cuba. Thankfully, not only had I been taken to one of the few temporary POW camps located on the mainland that had still not been moved to the Isle of Pines, but most of the land I travelled ended up being farmland, though towards the end, most of the land was burned and useless. For two weeks I avoided capture in enemy land, and when I finally reached a safe zone, I remember, I collapsed from exhaustion into the arms of American soldiers, the greatest and noblest fighting forces on Earth.
I was still in Cuba, but at least now I was home.
– From Admiral John McCain’s Boldly Into Hell: A Firsthand Account of America’s Wars in the 1960s and 1970s, Random House, 1987 (July)
QUEBEC SEPARATIST DEMONSTRATIONS CATCHING ON?
…In the wake of increased violence allegedly stemming from Quebec separatists, Diefenbaker is increasing crackdowns on provincial organizations on the grounds of disturbing public peace and safety… This week, Quebecois opposing the crackdowns took to the streets across the province, holding makeshift banners and signs, singing pro-independence songs, and waving Quebec flags…
– The Telegram (Canadian magazine), 6/29/1963
Over the past eight months I have traveled all across the US-DRF zone to understand the situation here in Cuba from every possible angle. What I found was a large variety of perspectives on the War in Cuba. The opinions of soldiers and civilians from all walks of life concerning the progress of the “pending conclusion” war range from idealistically optimistic to hopelessly dismal. Often these conflicting reports depend on region. For instance, the closer one travels to the frontlines, the more foreboding the aura of the situation becomes. One opinion that many there believe is that this war is far from over. The idea comes from simple indisputable facts. One such fact is that Camilo Cienfuegos is still at large, organizing his forces in the deepest parts of the island’s mountains, areas “still to be liberated from his clutches,” as one DRF officer described it...
– From a report by Tad Szulc, The New York Times, 6/30/1963
ANCHOR: In other news, as hundreds of people continue to show disdain for the continuation of strict security measures at international airports nationwide, over 400 Americans organized a protest rally outside the main entrance of O’Hare International Airport today. For more, Hugh Downs reports.
[Footage is aired showing the large group of protesters, long lines, cargo inspections, and pat-downs].
DOWNS (Voice-over): At the doors of the Windy City’s biggest airport, a large clamoring crowd of American citizens from all walks of life are getting their voices heard. At this busy and very public setting, they are chanting, holding signs, and marching in front of the news cameras, both local and nationwide. They are ordering the FAA to loosen or even drop altogether their security measures. I talked to several of them, and many voiced their concerns and frustrations over what is going on at America’s airports.
[cut to two protestors, both male]
MALE PROTESTOR 1: This just ridiculous. They can’t treat people like this, like we’re cattle.
MALE PROTESTOR 2: Yeah, some of us of have important places to get to. We got businesses to run, families to see. This whole mess is making everyone lose so much of their time.
[cut to adolescent protestor]
ADOLESCENT PROTESTOR: There is no threat. The review-thingy came out months ago. Instead of focusing on how to fix that accident that caused that crash two years ago they’re spending their time on wasting our time!
[cut to female protestor]
FEMALE PROTESTOR: It is a complete invasion of privacy. When you travel now, they make you actually open up your luggage, and then they paw their mitts all over your belongings. Just what exactly do they think they’ll find in my, pardon me, my undergarments?! This whole thing is ludicrous!
[cut to footage of travelling into the airport, long lines, tired faces, man sleeping on floor]
DOWNS (Voice-over): But some people seem to be more tolerant of the situation. I asked around inside the airport to get some opinions.
[cut to man]
MAN: I mean, it’s really inconvenient, but I guess the government knows best, I mean, if they know what they’re doing than I guess it is alright.
[cut to another man]
MAN 2: Sir, I had to go through much worse conditions during the War. Those youngsters and some of them oldsters, they don’t know what inconvenience really is. Not at all.
[cut to young woman]
WOMAN: I just really don’t care. I just want to get to where I want to go.
[cut back to protestors chanting]…
– Part of the transcript of NBC News TODAY’s 6/31/1963 television broadcast
SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] Like what happened to him at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico did do IOTL: https://www.smithsonainmag.com/smart-news/a-brief-history-of-lee-harvey-oswalds-connection-to-cuba-180958987/ ...
[2] OTL quote, except with “Cuba” and other non-italicized parts replacing “Vietnam” in the text.
[3] Both Ike quotes are OTL: https://jfkjmn.com/new-page-80
[4] Like what Kennedy did IOTL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-cautions-successor-about-laos
[5] Italic bits are taken from Wiki (I believe Kentucky’s history page?), Footnote 154.
[6] OTL, from that book which really is OTL, but is much different in content ITTL.
[7] Roughly two years earlier than in OTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Chicken
[8] The italicized parts in of these last two paragraphs were pulled from here: http://www.marietta.com/attractions/the-big-chicken
E.T.A. for Chapter 17: February 14
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Very cool update. Shelepin. The former KGB Chairman, from what I can remember. Way to go, John!.
My vision isn't really that great for faces; does John Wayne look enough like John McCain to play him in the movie? Or is he a bit too old once they start making it? (Though it might get some directors thinking by the late '60s) I wonder who would be good.
Of course, you've got Stallone if you wait till the '80s.
Of course, you've got Stallone if you wait till the '80s.
Butterflies are cause and effect, which is entirely explainable. Mind explaining how this particular butterfly came about then?
Since McCain in about 30 years younger than Wayne, I think Stallone in the late 70s or early 1980s or so would be more sensible. But maybe the Duke could cameo as McCain Sr.! I wonder what the name of this movie should be...
Differing circumstances (the apparent failure of Communism taking root in Cuba, American "encroachment" in Asia) led to Brezhnev being too willing to oust Khrushchev by force, as Brezhnev considered doing IOTL. Shelepin kept a cooler head, and as a result of his successful peaceful ousting of Nikita, was seen as the most level-headed of the two. Thus, Shelepin won over the Politburo. It all comes down to their personalities and how they respond to this ATL geopolitical situation. Do you think this is a sufficient explanation for the change?
LuckyLuciano said:
Bob Ross's sister-in-law.
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Chapter 17: June 1963 – December 1963
Chapter 17: June 1963 – December 1963
“[The President’s] emotional state is a matter of continual public commentary, as is the manner in which his personal and official families conduct themselves. The media bring across the President not as some neutral administrator or corporate executive to be assessed by his production, but as a special being with mysterious dimensions.”
– James David Barber, The Presidential Character, 1972 (OTL)
He came out of the fog with his coat flapping in the wind, like an overweight bat out of hell, an accurate description for a con artist in Bayonne, New Jersey.
“Welcome, inspectors,” the pudgy wholesaler and commodities trader in his late 40s said to the men whom had just outside.
The Amek representatives were given a tour of the facilities – a collection of massive warehouses in the most industrialized part of the city. With steam and summertime humidity swirling around the men traversed the interior to inspect the first of several hundred tanks, each one “filled to the brim with salad oil and soybean oil,” the man promised.
The lead inspector approached the first tank and peered in. “Yep, that’s salad oil. Okay, this tank checks out...”
The man’s deception was as simple as that.
Because of a rookie mistake, the inspectors left the warehouse facilities with a document of approval. They had failed miserably to notice that the oil in the tank only went an inch deep – all the liquid below that layer was saltwater hauled in from the Atlantic next door. The inspectors had also failed to even notice the interconnecting tubes to the back of each tank, allowing the man and his knowing and unknowing employees to transfer the oil-seawater mix from already-checked tanks to tanks yet to be checked.
When the inspection was over, Tino De Angelis returned to his office to continue the Scam of the Century.
– Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Norman C. Miller’s, “The Great Salad Oil Swindle,” Coward McCann Books, 1965 (Second Edition, 1979)
[pic: imgur.com/ibgi0lh.png ]
– Tino De Angelis outside his warehouse complex, circa June 1963
LYNDON JOHNSON PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL RATING:
58% APPROVE
32% DISAPPROVE
10% UNCERTAIN
– Gallup poll, 6/29/1963
[pic: imgur.com/xab8W5l.png ]
– Colonel Sanders cameos in “Fun in Acapulco,” an Elvis vehicle filmed in January and released on 6/30/1963 (originally scheduled for a November release but moved up after studio execs realized people were less willing to watch a “summer” film in the late fall); the Colonel agreed to the brief spot after learning that Elvis (who served in the US Army from 1958 to 1960) proudly supported the US military
“The President is increasing the number of troops set to be deployed to the Laos-Vietnam border by 500... The search for the late Secretary Litzenberg’s replacement is still underway, though there are several candidates under consideration...”
– White House Press Secretary George Reedy, press briefing, 7/1/1963
CHICKEN WAR ESCALATES
After a recent visit to the U.S., West Germany’s Minister Without Portfolio Heinrich Krone returned to Bonn with a telling assessment of official Washington’s mood. Said Krone: “Everyone is preoccupied with Cuba, Berlin, Laos-and chickens.” Konrad Adenauer confided not long ago that he and President Johnson have had voluminous correspondence during the past two years, “and I guess about half of it has been about chickens.” Last week the cause of all this chicken talk – tariffs – took an unexpected turn. Into effect throughout the Common Market went a raised tariff on imports of U.S. chickens – just when the U.S. thought that [1] tensions were de-escalating around Europe’s farmers opposing U.S. chicken farmers lowering chicken prices across the continent during the past 15 years…
– Time Magazine, 7/2/1963
The National Restaurant Association voted in 1963 to hold its annual convention at its headquarters in the national’s capitol. The Colonel had been to Washington D.C. before, but only to sell his chicken (an endeavor that was not successful until 1953). Joining the Colonel at the “ritzy shin-dig” was Beverly Osborne, a man, only a few years younger than the Colonel, [2] who in 1936 had (with his wife Rubye) founded “Chicken in the Rough,” the fried chicken chain that was KFC’s primary competition in earlier years, with the two franchises eclipsing in the late 1950s. In recent years, however, Chicken in the Rough sales were in a state of continuous decline. At the July 1963 NRA Convention, the Colonel learned that the Osbornes had decided to sell the company.
“But Bev,” the Colonel confronted Osborne, “if you pack up, I’ll miss competing with ya!”
Beverly replied, “I know when I’m beat, Colonel. I’m cutting my losses and retiring.”
The Colonel exclaimed, “Never retire! A man’ll rust out quicker than he’ll wear out! [3] Besides, who’s going to fill your shoes? I can’t be the only chicken salesman in town – I can’t stand monopolies!”
“You’ll be fine, Colonel, there will be plenty of growing chicken franchises willing to take you on,” Osborne assured his friendly rival, “And besides, what about Kroc?”
“If Kroc tried to sell chicken, he’d fail worse than a heifer trying to fly! You’re not like that snake oil seller, you’re decent.”
“Well I’m not throwing in the towel entirely, Colonel. I’m still holding onto my pancake house in O.K. City and a few other assets.”
“Oh,” the Colonel calmed down a bit, “that’s good. Maybe you can expand that into a larger business!”
“Maybe,” Osborne answered unenthusiastically.
The exchange left the Colonel in a bitter mood for much of that evening, according to his wife Claudia. He was already frustrated with the rising tensions between American and European chicken farms that year inhibiting expansion into Western Germany despite his longtime pledge to purchase “local chickens for local outlets,” and the retirement of the Osbornes left him both crestfallen and furious. “He huffed that he would never, ever retire,” she later explained in a TNB Interview, “KFC was his ‘fourth child,’ you could say. Hearing that Beverly was just going to hand over his own child to the highest bidder was shocking to Harland. He told me, ‘Honey, if I get so old and loopy that I try something like that, please slap me upside the head with my own pressure fryer to set me straight.’”
Feeling guilty at “runnin’ Chicken-Rough to ruins,”[sic] the Colonel donated an undisclosed amount of money to the International Franchise Association [4], an organization founded by Dunkin’ Donuts founder William Rosenberg to financially support upstart and growing franchise companies.
– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012
INTERVIEWER: Over the years you’ve done several collaborations with Frank Zappa. How did that start?
CHONG: Oh, I got to play with Frankie Z for the first time during this Fourth of July concert we both got booked for in 1963. We met backstage right after our parts and we hung out, you know? Smoked some African ganji, got with some groupies, broke into the local zoo, you know, regular stuff. Oh, man! I remember, those koalas were so lazy, we just sat there in the tree with one of them, and one of my bandmates was blowing smoke into its face and it still kept on snoring. I didn’t know koalas could snore but I swear this one was, at least…. Um… where was I? Oh yeah! Frankie was still solo at this point, but he had some really sick tunes. Very groovy. He was inspirational to me, man, and he really helped me hone in on my potential. I learned how to be more instinctive and spontaneous with my music, and it became more natural, more passionate, you know? There’s just something really beautiful about not needing anything. It’s simple when it’s just you and your instrument, the tool of your trade, and that’s all you need to learn who you are and when you discover that, man, you enjoy whatever comes your way. So right after that concert was when my band and I recorded “Please Pass Me By,” and that was our first real hit...
– usarightnow.co.usa/culture/interview, 2014
EXTRA! BOMB DISCOVERED AT KEY WEST INTERNATIONAL BAGGAGE TERMINAL LUGGAGE: Flights Quickly Cancelled, Delayed, Rerouted to Other Airports
– The Orlando Sentinel, 7/11/1963
SAM AND BUD WALTON, BROTHER BUSINESSMEN, DIE IN PLANE CRASH
Samuel Moore “Sam” Walton, 45, and his younger brother James Lawrence “Bud” Walton, 41, died in a plane accident on Thursday the 11th morning. Both men were businessmen and were licensed pilots whom would often use Sam’s personal small airplane to scout out potential store locations from above [5], a friend of the family explained. According to witnesses on the ground and a statement from Key West International, both men were unaware of a passenger airliner, being rerouted from Key West impromptu, entering their airspace; Sam, the brother at the controls, successfully maneuvered their vessel out of the larger plane’s way, avoiding a mid-air collision, but was unable to stabilize the aircraft, resulting in the vessel plummeting to earth. Neither of the two occupants onboard survived the crash. An investigation is currently underway to determine the exact specifics of the crash.
Sam and Bud worked numerous odd jobs during the Great Depression. Sam served in the Army and Bud in the Navy during WWII. Both men owned and operated a small retail store in Rogers, Arkansas called Wal-Mart Discount City. It is currently unknown what will happen to the store.
Sam is survived by his wife Helen and their children Samuel, John, James, and Alice. Bud is survived by his wife Audrey and their daughters Ann and Nancy.
– The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, obituary article, 7/14/1963
As we looked out the windows of the plane, I felt trepidation despite Margaret’s ebullience. “Juan has done a phenomenal job so far in my opinion,” almost giggled in excitement. Dad was finally meeting the man with whom she’d been corresponding for months. I once joked that she saw him as a hot Latin Einstein; Maggie didn’t deny the sentiment. “He’s promoting labor rights and unions – within reason, of course – rights for women, for children, and for farmers and the homeless” thanks to a new constitution he promulgated in April.
“I’m sure I’ll like the fella – just as long as you’re sure he likes my chicken!” Dad half-seriously replied.
Even with the War still raging on in Cuba, the business world continued on, and Margaret was determined to bring Kentucky Fried Chicken to the Dominican Republic. “ ‘The establishment of corporate relations with the economic fixture of the Dominican Republic will help its good people move on past it dictatorship past,’ ” Dad read his speech aloud, “How’s that?” We voiced our approval as the plane finally landed.
We soon sat down to discuss the specifics of the deal with President Bosch and several business and economics advisors.
“The introduction of KFC to an area has always lead to local growth and development, as you can see on this chart,” I mentioned.
“I just hope I’m still in office at the start of the next fiscal year,” Bosch half-jokingly lamented, “I’ve only been in office for five months, and already they want me gone.”
Margaret explained to us that Bosch’s Presidency was already being threatened by upper-class landowners, industrialists, and the Church for being “too Communist,” as they claimed.
“Just because I care about the people who have less does not mean I am a communist,” Bosch spoke bluntly, “it means I am a humanitarian.”
Dad thought for a moment and they said, “Juan, let me give you some advice. Don’t let the military kick you around.”
Maggie interjected, “But Pops, he could face serious trouble from them.”
“Be a hand that feeds and doesn’t hit, and the dogs won’t bite,” Dad explained.
Bosch answered in Spanish, which Margaret later revealed meant “As you are a Colonel and so have military experience yourself, I will consider this feed-don’t-hit policy.”
Two weeks later, Bosch met with the US’s acting Secretary of Defense. According to his secretary, the first thing he asked was “Why does the US military never overthrow its government?” Bosch took whatever he learned from that meeting back to the Dominican Republic. “Clearing out corruption and political ties is necessary to have complacency,” he later wrote to my sister. Soon after, Bosch promoted Francisco Caamano to lead the military, and met with the leaders of the island nation’s Catholic Church to assure them that he was not a Communist. Of course, that wasn’t the end of things there, but I like to think that somehow, through just the introduction of Dad’s chicken to the island or maybe even more than just that, we helped smoothen that nation’s long transition from a dictatorship to a direct democracy.
– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000
The increasingly noticeable atrocities of the Cuban War, and with them rise of the Shoutnik Movement, brought an end to the idealism of 1950s Cold War America. The picturesque innocence of the nuclear family was torn down, images of teens innocently hanging out at malt shops replaced by the images of young men dying in remote jungles merely 90 miles off of sunny Florida’s coast that might as well have been a world away like the jungles along the Laos-Vietnam border. Throughout the Cuban War, fear of Russian retaliation every time the US army advanced replacing one fear with another. Basically, the American people are scared – by 1963, they had worsened into being either numb to the fear or at each other’s throats over it, contributing to the social unrest. Paranoia stoked the fires of discontent and President Lyndon B. Johnson appeared too overwhelmed with the complexities of the office to respond.
– Josh Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012
THE END OF THE CHICKEN WAR
The chicken war – that silly but symbolic dispute between the U.S. and the Common Market – seemed to have finally ended last week with each side holding a leg. After a dispute that, due to the distraction of Cuba’s issues, dragged on for 13 months, a panel of neutral experts decided that the recent tariff hike on chickens had cost the U.S. $26 million in exports. Though the estimate of losses was only about half as high as the U.S. had argued, both sides could claim victory – the Common Market because the loss figure was much nearer to its estimates, the U.S. because the ruling implied that the Market’s tariffs were discriminatory. [6] Despite that ruling, President Johnson has officially ordered a 25% tariff on potato starch, brandy, destrin, and light trucks [7] from Europe. After months of international tensions over French and West German tariffs placed on US chicken imports to those nations, which were allegedly harming local chicken farmers, Johnson appears to be having the final say in the matter. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce explained that the President’s move is “meant to make up for profits lost during the ‘war,’” and that European trucks are part of the tariffs, instead of some other imports, in order to “give American domestic automakers an advantage over foreign competitors.” Additionally, he explained that with Johnson’s proclamation, executed via executive order, the U.S. had invoked its right under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), “whereby an offended nation may increase tariffs by an equal amount of losses from discriminating tariffs.”
– Time Magazine, 7/28/1963 [8]
Commerce Secretary: European Trucks Tariffs Will Promote Domestic Production And Purchases
– Engineering News-Record, 7/29/1963
I think these tariffs are going to hurt America’s car and chicken industries. The tax will cripple these industries by insulating them from any real competition. It’s a competitive market that promotes improving a product. Now I mean no disrespect to President Johnson, but what he’s done is dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible to our economy and to our God-given right to choose who we do business with!
– Colonel Sanders, multiple sources, 7/29/1963
NORTH 'NAME TROOPS ASSAULT U.S. EMBASSY IN SAIGON; 2 Officers Dead, 5 Wounded
…our correspondent in Saigon, tells us the attack is a possible form of retaliation against US activities along the North Vietnam-South Vietnam border with Laos
– The New York Times, 7/30/1963
…While Lyndon agreed that outright military intervention should be kept on the table “just in case,” Jack disagreed, arguing that it’d be irresponsible to agitate two spots on the map at once. My co-worker, Under Secretary of Defense George W. Ball, believed that “thousands, if not hundreds of thousands” of troops could end up KIA or MIA in Southeast Asia if the situation was severely mishandled. At the time, Jack truly believed that the situation never could rise to those sort of numbers, [9] but he was still cautious of Johnson’s preference to more direct intervention nevertheless. Jack was not alone in mulling over and calling for moderation in the meddling macabre machinations of military maneuvers. Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky suggested Johnson initiate peaceful negotiations with the Laos and North Vietnam governments to keep Communism from tearing apart the precipitous nation of Laos “like it has the island of Cuba.” Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, concurred to the notion of diplomacy over military intervention but disagreed on talks with the North Vietnamese…
– Robert F. Kennedy’s On the Precipice of Change, 1999
What puzzled authorities about the quality of Amex’s Field Warehousing operation was that since De Angelis was theoretically buying so much, they essentially authenticated the existence of much more salad oil than was actually accounted for in the entire U.S., according to an August reports from the Department of Agriculture. [10] Amex, however, was lenient with De Angelis, as he was one of their biggest customers. With Amex’s seal of approval and De Angelis’ talent for offering great deals attracted mainstream companies, such as Bunge Limited, Staley, and Procter and Gamble. The Bank of America also provided loans...
– Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Norman C. Miller’s, “The Great Salad Oil Swindle,” Coward McCann Books, 1965 (Second Edition, 1979)
CONGRESS PASSES TRADE EXPANSION ACT
– The Washington Post, 8/2/1963
CAM BOMB KILLS FIVE U.S. TROOPS, 21 OTHERS: Santa Cruz Del Sur, Cuba “Under Siege” By Resistant Communists!
– The Los Angeles Times, 8/3/1963
Mississippi State Democratic Party Gubernatorial Primary Election Results, 8/6/1963:
Lt. Gov. Paul B. Johnson Jr. – 173,873 (36.65%)
Former Gov. James P. Coleman – 163,577 (34.48%)
Charles L. Sullivan – 133,548 (28.15%)
Robert F. Mason – 3,416 (0.72%)
Total Votes Cast: 474,414
Turnout: 21.78% Total Population
– ourcampaigns.co.usa
DRAFT CARD BURNING: YOUTHFUL REBELLION OR OUTRIGHT TREASON?
Last month, a draft card burning ceremony in Springfield, Illinois, reached an attendance record of 250. That is the largest assembly for such an activity since the draft board founded in 1948. …This latest youth fad certainly has a more treasonous flavor to it... These youngsters are openly defying the government and inhibiting the government’s ability to raise an army when needed… While many claim the current situation in Cuba has devolved into “a quagmire worse than Korea” to quote the former US Congressman-turned-political lawyer George McGovern, in this author’s opinion, it is still far too early to throw in the towel. A majority of the island has been stabilized, and the Communist leader Camilo Cienfuegos remains at large, resorting to bombings and espionage out of desperation. What the draft card burners call “unofficial occupation” of Cuba is more akin to the US’s time spent in Japan after WWII: we are maintaining extensive security necessities for the betterment and safety of the Cuban people... The youth of today are impatient and they are ungrateful. They are too young to remember or even understand the sacrifices made for them during the Great Depression and the ration-book years of World War II …Fortunately, US Congressman L. Mendel Rivers has sponsored a bill that will impose strict penalties onto those whom betray their nation buy burning their draft cards.
– The National Review, conservative magazine, August issue
MEDICARE BILL ADVANCES FROM HOUSE TO SENATE
– The Washington Post, 8/8/1963
REAGAN JOINS A.M.A. IN SPREADING LIES ABOUT MEDICARE Bill.
Los Angeles, CA – Stretching his political muscles once more, actor and former Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan appeared on TV on Saturday to deliver a ten minute speech criticizing the Medicare bill currently in congress. Medicare is a proposed health insurance program for Americans over the age of 65 that, if approved, of would be funded by a payroll tax, beneficiary premiums and surtaxes from beneficiaries and general US Treasury revenue. Reagan’s speech was funded by the A.M.A., or American Medical Association, and supported by several hospital and life insurance organizations. In the speech, Reagan claimed the bill will lead to socialism and dictatorship if passed: “already the federal government has invaded the precincts of private business. Now it wants to enforce upon the American people unwanted and unneeded socialized medicine – socialism disguised as medical care.” Reagan went on to claim that the bill will deprive freedom from doctors: “The bill will prohibit doctors from choosing their patients and their place of practice… nobody has the right to dictate the career path and workplace of someone else.” Reagan even criticized its name despite “Medicare” being coined under the Eisenhower administration in 1956. Advocating for private medical programs to be expanded instead, the actor closed with “Compulsory medical programs will be the first step to allowing government to determine what job your son will have.” [11] What Reagan failed to mention was who the bill would help if passed – everyone over 65 regardless of color and creed. There are roughly 260,000 American doctors of medicine [12], but 189 million Americans total, and roughly 17 million of those Americans are over the age of 65. …Reagan also exaggerated the affect the bill will have on physicians and hospitals… Our advice to Reagan: Take a math class and then go back to being in movies, Ronnie – politics isn’t for you.
– Hollywood Reporter, opinion article, 8/12/1963
Dad moved the family around from place to place, um, from the Fort Sill Army base in Lawton, Oklahoma where I was born in 1961, to Orange County, California in 1962, to NASA’s, uh, Lewis Research Center in Brook Park, Ohio in 1963. My Dad actually worked as a draftsman for NASA, designing shelves, storage compartments and the like, for the insides of the ships. He got hired for some Ohio-based promotion amidst a, um, a US Senate panel investigating a fire that had injured somebody in 1962, I believe, and uh, I remember him telling me that his job may not have been the most glamorous, but it was still important, and I remember that he was very proud of his job. He told he paid attention to the Senate hearings and everything back then because if NASA was blamed for the incident, it could lead to layoffs, which would mean we’d be moving again. Now I was only two at this point, but, uh, the fact remains that the places where I grew up were partially the result of the nation’s bigger problems and worries at the time, you know?
– Stephen Hillenburg, Tumbleweed Magazine interview, 2005
[pic: imgur.com/F0EOZLF.png ]
– Colonel Sanders with his great-granddaughter, visiting the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, 8/18/1963
SENATE PASSES BILL TO STRENGTHEN SOCIAL SECURITY
Washington, D.C. – Just a day after the U.S. House approved of the legislation 310-to-114, the U.S. Senate voted 72-25 in approval of President Johnson’s latest Great Society legislation… the bill creates two new forms of federal health insurance that are additions to the 1935 Social Security Act signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt… U.S. Secretary of Housing, Education, and Welfare Gardner has noted that implementation of the new insurance will require “extensive data processing and…re-configuration of hospital policies” across the country, and advise anyone uncertain of how this will affect them to “ask their doctor”…
– The Washington Post, 8/24/1963
BLACK MAN’S BEATING SPARKS ANTI-COP PROTEST
Xenia, OH – A group of local African-Americans protesting outside of the Xenia Police Station are calling for an investigation into the assault of an African-American man, who was severely wounded at a traffic stop gone afoul. The man, admitted to the local hospital, claims he was pulled over without provocation and forced out of his car. When he turned around to get his walker, he was clubbed by the officers, and continued to be beaten after falling to the ground. At least 300 people are gathered around, holding quickly made signs and shouting “Justice For All, Not Just For Whites”…
– The Columbus Dispatch, 8/26/1963
The riots were started by the police. LBJ tried to disperse us with National Guardsmen, and they started hittin’ us and beatin’ us so we fought back with our signs and whatever we could. Bedlam and panic set in, and a lot of us got our skulls busted before they went and arrested us for demanding fair treatment. It looked bad for him, is guess, but it looked good for the racists, who kept pointing to it and saying that the Civil Rights Act had changed nothing, that we were still “not ready to join white society” and bulls#!t like that. It was sort of a watershed moment, though, as it caused black people across the country to protest our mistreatment and demand to actually see some justice for a change.
– Anecdote from John R., then-resident in Xenia, NBC Special commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Xenia Riots, 2013
[pic: imgur.com/kok7Ffc.png ]
– Protestors confronted by police in Oakland, California, 8/27/1963
“Folks, it’s high time that some real justice reform happened, and if President Johnson is going to turn a blind eye to it, than the governors and the mayors and even the average Joes are going to have to get up and make sure that peace and safety return to our communities. That police officers remain friends to our communities. And that justice is distributed fairly and equally in this here nation of ours. It’s high time that we live up to the ideals set forth in our Constitution and become the type of nation we’ve always said to be – a fair and equal nation, with liberty and justice for all!”
– Colonel Sanders in Xenia, OH, offering his support for their cause, 8/30/1963
YOUNG NOT KEEPING CALM OVER OVERSEAS TROOP DEPLOYMENTS
London, UK – …the rise in demonstrations in the capitol against the government’s continued support of what the youth groups are calling the American “occupation” of Cuba continues on despite the U.S.’s Acting Defense Secretary describing the conflict as “practically” resolved at a press briefing last Monday...
– The Daily Sketch, 9/1/1963
...but it was actually the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Marvel Comic “the Mutants” that popularized the term “mutant” after its first issue hit the shelves in September 1963… [13]
– James Rolfe, technet video on “mutants” in popular culture, yourvids.co.usa, 9/1/2012
On 3 September 1963, Greece’s legislation elections were held. Support for Karamanlis had dwindled sharply in the face of public disapproval of America’s “warmongering” in Cuba, especially among formerly pro-KKE voters in northern Greece. This development swelled support for the liberal Georgios Papandreou, whose party won 155 seats to Karamanlis’ 114 and the EDA’s 27, securing victory for Papandreou. Karamanlis, whom has actually been out of office since a feud with the King lead to his resignation in June, failed to regain support among the Greek voters to return to office. However, with Papandreou’s liberalism came massive protests from right-wing voters, claiming that the election results a “sham.” As the UK’s Daily Mirror observed, “Clearly, Greece’s political problems are yet to be resolved.”
– Richard Clogg’s Parties and Elections in Greece: The Search for Legitimacy, Duke University Press, 1987
“To the loyal citizens of Mississippi… In light of a recent cam bomb discovered and disabled in the state capital yesterday, and the possible threat of further cam bombs being used to destabilize society, I am declaring statewide emergency in place, effectively immediately and to remain in effect until the tenth of November. Curfew will be immediately implemented… To best maintain security, I have called out state guard to monitor all polling stations in the state during the upcoming governor election... Citizens, answer the call to defend your freedom by reporting any suspicious or possibly unpatriotic behavior, so we can stop the Cuban Communist plans for destruction before they can be executed. Thank you and good night.”
– Governor Ross Barnett (D-MS), official announcement on WJDX radio, state radio announcement, 9/3/1963
VOTER SUPPRESSION FEARS OVERWHELM MISSISSIPPI
…a Majority of Blacks in the state remain unregistered... While Washington, D.C has made steps to open up the democratic process to all Americans, most notably with recent federal Voting Rights legislation, these steps are not enough to enable Blacks to register to vote without intimidation and threats. Politicians across the country, including President Johnson, are condemning Governor Barnett’s recent actions as “an exaggeration of societal safety concern,” and “a desperate attempt to maintain the state’s oppressive status quo,” according to Vice-President Humphrey in a speech yesterday evening...
– The Washington Post, 9/8/1963
AS PROTESTS OVER BARNETT VOTER SUPPRESSION CONTINUE, FEDERAL COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE
…The US Commission on Civil Rights, a bipartisan federal commission created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for investigating civil rights concerns, such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and other practices which became unlawful in 1962, are investigating Governor Barnett’s “statewide emergency” measures… Governor Barnett has impounded state voting records and has threatened to arrest any C.R.C. agents whom attempt to access the records [14].
…Activists have been threatened and arrested during attempts to get Blacks registered to vote, with state police claiming they were in violation of the “statewide emergency” in many of the case… Nevertheless, thousands are taking to the streets in efforts to exercise their right to register to vote...
– The Plain Dealer, Ohio newspaper, 9/11/1963
[pic: imgur.com/x1iVLip.png ]
– Colonel Sanders confronts state police officers who, under Governor Barnett's orders, are preventing Blacks from “breaking curfew” and registering to vote, 9/12/1963
FORMER GOVERNOR PATTERSON BLAMES JOHNSON FOR XENIA RIOTS
…John Patterson, whom served as Governor of Alabama from 1959 to 1963, accused the President of having “lost touch with the needs of real Americans.” This sounds like the talk of a man testing the waters of a primary challenge... Patterson should look at his own record and history of human decency as well his leadership history before complaining about those of others. …While a supporter of him in the past, Patterson has in recent weeks remained silent in regards to Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett’s ridiculously desperate - and, possibly, federally illegal - actions in his state...
– Journalist Drew Pearson’s critical syndicated newspaper column “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” 9/24/1963
At this time last year we had just occupied the town of Calixto Garcia, and just over three-quarters of the island was ours. But now we have been pushed all the way back to the city of Camaguey. In our arrogance we sought to discourage the encroaching Communist swine by setting fire to the fields they sought to reconquer. From this church tower I can still see the smoke billowing from the fields far off in the distance. The damned stubbornness of the Communists is killing this island. There is the smell of death in the air; it is at times fowl and overbearing. There are so many wounded. Moaning in agony, they spill out of the hospital onto the streets. Smashed clay pots; blood-stained window drapes; blown-away walls; women and children with empty eyes of despair, or scowls of bitterness and hatred. Destruction is everywhere. And yet those damn Communists still will not surrender!
– 9/25/1963 Journal Entry of Mario Zuniga, DRF soldier (translated)
POLL: LBJ POPULARITY WANING
…those polled deemed the situation at home and overseas to be “falling apart” in light of recent events. …70% approve of US presence in Vietnam, but only 44% in Cuba, down from last month...
– In a newspaper article by George Gallup, Director of the American Institute of Public Opinion, 9/27/1963
Mom and Pop were ecstatic when the report came in that after 17 months, their son had come back to them. I was looking at the latest letters they’d sent me and the accompanying pictures of them when my CO walked in with the news.
“McCain!”
“Sir yes sir!” I bellowed as he entered the hospital tent. As he stiffly traversed to my bed, I tried to stand up to salute him but failed. It was still difficult for me to sit myself up in bed with parts of me still tightly bandaged. “Sorry, sir. The Commies did a real number on my back. I’ll recover though.”
“At ease, soldier,” he ordered.
I laid back down in relief.
“McCain, you’re being transferred.”
“What? To where? …The L-V B?” Shorthand for the Laos-Vietnam border.
“Nope. Pearl Harbor.”
“…Hawaii? But why?”
He looked me over. I was wearing a back brace and my arms were still wrapped in gauze. “Do I really have to say it, McCain?”
“Well you are my commanding officer, so, to be frank, sir, yes, sir.”
“Alright, fine!” he sighed and sat down in the chair beside me, “McCain, the official ruling is that for the time being you are… not yet able to serve again, uh, due to your current, um, position. You can’t fly a plane for at least another three months or so. You still have to heal and recuperate from all you’ve been through and that includes physical therapy that we can’t afford here. …But we can afford it at the hospital on base in Hawaii. It’s just been built, state-of-the-art, much better than here.”
“I’ll get better, sir. I always do.”
“Of course you will, McCain.”
“You’ll see sir,” I spoke confidently, “I may be going to Hawaii, but I’ll be back in no time, flying with the rest of the men up there, doing Uncle Sam proud.”
“You’ve already done your part, McCain,” he said, “And I hear that tomorrow General Palmer’s going to give you another medal for liberating that POW camp.”
“‘Co-liberating,’ Sir. But sir, a patriot’s duty is never fulfilled. In times of war he must fight to protect his country and in times of peace he must always be prepared to defend his country. This is no ‘part’ to be filled sir; a patriot gives his all. And I’m still here, and I can still give. So as soon as I can, I will resume my duty.”
He grinned, “Then I hope for the best for you, McCain,” and stood up. “Now I’ll get a nurse to help you pack your things. You’re being shipped out at the end of tomorrow.”
We saluted each other – well, I saluted him as best as I could – and he left the tent.
Dammit, I thought. Sure, it was Hawaii, a land of beaches, beer and babes. But my place was in active duty serving my country. I didn’t want to spend however long I had to spend there being a burden to doctors and therapists. I was seriously not looking forward to it.
But as it turned out, going to Hawaii was the greatest thing to happen to me.
– From Admiral John McCain’s Boldly Into Hell: A Firsthand Account of America’s Wars in the 1960s and 1970s, Random House, 1987
NAACP EXEC PRAISES COLONEL SANDERS
Florence, KY – Roy Wilkins, the Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, met with Col. Harland Sanders, the former governor and wealthy businessman whose face adorns the iconic “K.F.C. bucket” logo, at his company’s headquarters for an hour-long meeting. After which Mr. Wilkins held a press conference to praise the Colonel’s work and “personal role” in advancing the Civil Rights movement. He pointed to Col. Sanders’s pro-civil rights rhetoric and actions, the businessman’s endorsements and financial backing of pro-Civil Rights productions and laws, and his active role in making it easier for colored people to achieve work in the business communities above and beyond custodial and entry-level cooking staff. A report found that, as of December 1962, an above-average number of African-Americans are employed throughout Kentucky Fried Chicken, and over 30% of the company’s employees are women, no doubt a statistic influenced by the Colonel’s daughters playing major roles in the company’s expansion and development.
Mr. Wilkins is an active leader in the Colored community, and a man who champions for social change coming about by means of the legislative system. Such a stance may then raise the question why it Wilkins has been giving so much praise to Col. Sanders and not President Johnson. This is because while the President has made many valiant moves to assure civil rights, most notably the Civil Rights Act passed last year, Johnson is not been nearly as passionate and vocal as the Colonel over the social suppression of the Black man in America.
For example, when the white men started a riot over the peaceful protesting outside Xenia Police Station in Ohio, it was the Colonel whom visited to lend his support. Reverend King, a friend of the Colonel, joined him in calling for peace and justice to prevail, and both visited the wounded victims of the white man’s violence at the local hospitals soon after. And what did President Johnson do? According to the Washington Post, he was busy having lunch with Prime Minister Diefenbaker of Canada.
– The Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper, 10/2/1963
A COLONEL COMES HOME: Harland Sanders Stumps For Nunn, Other State Republican Candidates
Paducah, KY – As it was at this time last year, the Colonel is resuming the role of politics barker, albeit this time it is for the Republican nominee for Governor of Kentucky, Louie B. Nunn. Sanders’ son, Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr, reported his father preferred travelling and meeting real people to staying in stuffy board rooms. “Every four years, he gets to go down the old roads he remembers as gets to see how they’ve changed.” The Colonel seems to be blanketing the state for Louie Nunn. “Businessmen have to stick together,” the Colonel remarked yesterday at a rally in town. …Fiscal policy is the dominant issue in the race, with both the Colonel and Nunn criticizing Governor Combs raising state taxes in 1961 to pay for further state services…
– The Paducah Sun, Kentucky newspaper, 10/3/1963
He [John Y. Brown] left such an impression on the Colonel that Sanders agreed that Brown would take over the franchising of a barbecue chain the Colonel was planning to establish. Brown acquired financial backing from Jack Massey, a millionaire businessman in Nashville, and set about opening his first store and studying the barbecue business [15]. By October, Brown began to believe that barbeque only had regional appeal and it was better to focus on the chicken (which he often called “the moneymaker”), a belief that Harley and I scoffed at. Brown what completely missing the entire reason why K.F.C. had grown to become a multinational enterprise – because something from Kentucky was seen as exotic in places far away from the commonwealth. So Harley told Brown to think outside the box and travel around to find a community with a palate that would welcome barbeque… I saw Brown as an impatient man too willing to give up on the assignment, but despite this the Colonel still saw potential in him for whatever reason. Maybe Brown reminded the Colonel of a younger version of himself, or maybe he saw the admittedly difficult assignment as a test of his abilities…
– Dave Thomas’ Under the Colonel’s Wing, Mosaic Publishing, 1982
IOC Session No. 61
Date: October 18, 1963
Location: Nairobi, Kenya [16]
Subject 1 of 2: bidding for hosting the 10/12-27/1968 (or XIX) Summer Olympics
Results:
Mexico City, Mexico – 31 (Round 1)
Lyon, France – 14 (Round 1)
Detroit, USA – 11 (Round 1)
Buenos Aires, Argentina – 2 (Round 1)
Result: Mexico won on the first round
Subject 2 of 2: bidding for hosting 2/6-18/1968 (or X) Winter Olympics [17]
Results:
Grenoble, France – 15 (Round 1) – 18 (Round 2) – 27 (Round 3)
Calgary, Canada – 12 (Round 1) – 19 (Round 2) – 24 (Round 3)
Lahti, Finland – 11 (Round 1) – 14 (Round 2)
Sapporo, Japan – 6 (Round 1)
Oslo, Norway – 4 (Round 1)
Lake Placid – 3 (Round 1)
– http://www.aldaver.co.usa/votes.html
REPORTER 1: …We take you live to the scene now.
REPORTER 2: …the crowd behind me are supporters of the Wall Street Three – shoutniks Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger and Abbot Hoffman – members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a pro-voting rights and anti-war organization, whom the HUAAC have subpoenaed to testify at another one of their hearings. Their testimony concerns an incident in on August 4 of this year, when the three men led members of the organization to the gallery of the New York Stock Exchange to throw fistfuls of real and fake dollar bills onto the traders below. While the men were not arrested as they left the premises peacefully when asked by security, some are accusing them of inciting a riot and conspiracy to cause, quote “financial mayhem,” unquote. …Inside the hearing room, the HUAAC are reiterating their stance of denouncing the shoutniks and their activities as being un-American and possibly unlawful…
– CBS Morning News (founded 1963), 10/21/1963 report
“Well, sir, I think that burning your draft card is downright treasonous. Why if I was their age I’d gladly take their place on the battlefield and fight for my country. I also don’t approve of their more bothersome crowds – the ones that are unruly and disruptive and smell very funny. But to be fair to them, like my youngest daughter and even some of my granddaughters want me to be, I’m being thinkin’ a lot about what they’re doin’ and I think that if you disagree with your country’s actions, you have every right to make your concerns known, but still think there are more sensible ways to go about it. Burning your draft card and shoutin’ isn’t gonna win over other folks my age. And some of it is just too messy – not at all as organized as the Civil Rights movement, that’s for sure. And also, the actions of the shoutniks are detrimental to the war effort because they inhibit and downplay the valiant and brave hard work of our soldiers. And I don’t think that’s right.”
– Excerpt from Colonel Sanders’s guest spot on Meet the Press, 10/21/1963
FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT STRIKES DOWN BARNETT’S MEASURES AS “A USURPATION OF STATES’ RIGHTS,” DEMANDS REGISTRATION OFFICES RE-OPEN
– The Mercury News, California newspaper, 10/28/1963
CAM BOMB KILLS 3 AT D.R.F. HQ IN HAVANA: No Passersby Injured As Bomb Topples Building’s 2nd Floor
– The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/2/1963
EXTRA! L.B.J. SHOT BY GUNMAN DURING N.Y.C. VISIT!!!
– The New York Times, 11/4/1963
…To recap, President Johnson was wounded during an attempt on his life in New York City earlier today, when the President was exiting a hotel shortly after attending a meeting with Senator Jacob Javits and the city’s Mayor Wagner… The President has been taken to the close-by Metropolitan Hospital, along with Secret Serviceman Abraham Bolden, whom may have also been injured during the attack… …we’ve just received another bulletin…the man accused of shooting the President has been identified as a one Thomas Arthur Vallee. Vallee was shot and killed by Secret Service agents as he attempted to flee the scene of the incident… This is the second known attempt on the President’s life since the De La Beckwith Plot was uncovered last year...
– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, 11/4/1963
[ pic: imgur.com/NeYxauh.png ]
– Thomas Arthur Valle (11/15/1933-11/4/1963)
The doctors say the first bullet missed his vital organs… Johnson has decided to give a special award to Serviceman Bolden for taking that second bullet for him… Billy Graham [now a frequent White house guest] visited the President at the hospital again. The two men prayed together in silence for several minutes. Johnson believes the prayer his helping him with the recovery…
– Excerpt from the Diary of Mildred Stegall, personal secretary to Lyndon Johnson, 11/5/1963 entry
PAUL JOHNSON ELECTED GOVERNOR BY CLOSER-THAN-EXPECTED MARGIN
Jackson, MS – Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. was elected Governor over Republican challenger Rubel Phillips in yesterday’s election, the outcome being officially announced earlier today at 2:05 AM. While Johnson was initially predicted to win in a landslide, Phillips slowly gathered momentum to reach a high mark of 45% approval in polls on October 30, but the Johnson campaign was dismissive of his chances. Between then and election night, Phillip’s numbers dropped down to 35% approval. On election night, though, Johnson received 58.7% of the vote (roughly 213,651 votes) while Phillips received 41.3% of the vote (roughly 150,320). Johnson arguably won thanks to backlash to the Civil Rights Act despite Phillips running a strongly anti-Lyndon B. Johnson campaign that in retrospective was possibly too single-issue to be effective at the statewide level. Phillip’s campaign also suffered a serious blow the day before the election when President Johnson was shot and injured in an attempt on his life, making his rhetoric seem too “incendiary,” according to one poll official in New Orleans...
– The Daily Mississippian, 11/6/1963
COMBS RE-ELECTED BY 0.5% MARGIN
Frankfort, KY – Governor Combs has proven himself popular enough to become the first Governor of Kentucky to win a second full consecutive term since James Garrard was re-elected in 1800, 163 years ago. Combs defeated Republican challenger Louie B. Nunn in last night’s gubernatorial election by a 0.5% margin. Combs popularity numbers were likely helped by the passage of the April 1963 state Civil Rights Act, which met approval among minorities and union workers. Nunn, whom remained silent on his own opinions regarding civil rights, won over upper-class and white-collar voters, plus many conservatives. Appearances by former Governor Colonel Sanders also helped drum up support for Nunn in the last few weeks, leading to such a narrow margin. Still, the candidate himself and his generic and rather theme-less campaign “are more to blame for the G.O.P. loss than the Colonel” says state representative J. B. Breckinridge. Evidence for this being the case is found in the very close race for Lieutenant Governor, in which Bernie Lawrence (R) seems to have edged out Harry Lee Waterfield (D)...
– The Kentucky Gazette, 11/6/1963
Kentucky General Election Results, 11/6/1963:
For Governor:
Bert T. Combs (Democratic) – 458,175 (51.71%)
Louie B. Nunn (Republican) – 427,872 (48.29%)
Total votes cast: 886,047
Turnout: 29.16% Total Population
For Lieutenant Governor:
H. Bernie Lawrence (Republican) – 429,560 (50.82%)
Harry Lee Waterfield (Democratic) – 415,697 (49.18%)
Total votes cast: 845,257
Turnout: 27.82% Total Population
– ourcampaigns.co.usa
Nunn lost in an upset due to additional support for Combs rising in the final weeks in connection to the sympathy vote for LBJ surviving another assassination attempt. As Nunn was an open critic of Johnson, this and his lack of a response after the shooting, were quite possibly seen by some voters as being insensitive and callous. Sanders was not blamed for the loss. In fact, his presence was credited in winning the G.O.P. the lieutenant governor’s seat, and in how and why it was such a close race to begin with. GOP leaders were impressed that the Colonel could stir such support. Support from the Colonel seemed to have had a similar effect in Mississippi as well. There, Ruben Phillips was almost elected, and would have made him the first Republican Governor of the state since 1876.
– Lowell Harrison and James Klotter’s A History of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 1997
I lost because I was out n*%%ered by Combs. I should have run a campaign like Byrant, but I was so sure the Colonel’s endorsement would win enough n*%%ers over. Well, now I know better than to rely on a chicken salesman for something like this – so help me, I’m never again gunna be outn#%%gered!
– Louie B. Nunn (according to a Marshall Frady biography from 1972), 11/7/1963 (note: Nunn and others would later deny that he ever said this, making its validity somewhat disputable)
[ Pic: imgur.com/fGBR6Fq.png ]
– Colonel Sanders makes a surprise cameo as himself in “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” in which Spencer Tracey’s character impatiently asks him for directions only for the Colonel to take too long to give them; filming lasted from April 1962 to early 1963, while the film was released on 11/10/1963
Naturally, Johnson used the attempt on his life to his advantage, using it as validation of his legislative proposals, telling Senate leader Mansfield “Ignorant radicals turn to guns when they run out of words. Smart and level-headed people will just go and get more words!” Shortly after the assassination attempt, for example, Johnson met with Senator Harry Byrd. Byrd was opposing the President on a proposed School Voucher Reform Bill, I believe. Johnson argued to Byrd, and I quote, “the bullet did not do its job… but how do we know that the next crackpot won’t be so unlucky? I may not have that long to live! If I die in this office, do you really think Hubert won’t capitalize off the sympathy from it to get a much more powerful bill passed instead?” The tactic worked because it was a phone call from the hospital, and Senator Byrd was still one of the few Senators yet to personally drop in to check on Johnson, and so Byrd did not actually know how well the president really was. …Lyndon would publicly brush the incident off as not that big a deal. But the truth is, I’ll admit, Lyndon was truly horrified by what was now the second serious attempt on his life.
– Mildred Stegall, personal secretary to Lyndon Johnson, RNN Interview, 1979
The inspectors returned with police and without warning, Commodity Exchange Authority representatives in tow. De Angelis hurriedly descended the main staircase and for over 30 seconds tried in vain to keep the men at the door before the search warrants were brought out.
“Somebody tipped us off about you, Tino,” one of the cops allegedly explained, “Seems you got careless. Tried to bribe some men you didn’t know were the honest type. And you made a couple of delivery mistakes that suggested you keep two sets of books, too.” [18]
The inspectors made their way in, now knowing to look closer at the tanks this time. One of the inspectors went for a dramatic action and spun the release valve on one of the smaller tanks, causing a flood of clear liquid to cover a part of the room. The man tested the liquid. “It’s almost entirely seawater!” The man exclaimed over the discovered proof of their suspicions. De Angelis claimed to have $150 million in salad oil; he only had $6 million.
On November 20, De Angelis was escorted into the back of a police car.
On November 21, De Angelis’s company filed for bankruptcy, at which point investors discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars were unaccounted for.
On November 22, 1963, my report was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal hit the press.
– Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Norman C. Miller’s, “The Great Salad Oil Swindle,” Coward McCann Books, 1965 (Second Edition, 1979)
EXTRA! 90% OF SOYBEAN STOCK WORTHLESS: N.J. Trader Arrested For Falsifying Records After W.S.J. Exposé
– The New York Post, 11/22/1963
[pic: imgur.com/m0yQ1Tw.png ]
– Dow Jones Industrial Average, early October to late November (note the November 3-5 dip following the second Lyndon Johnson assassination attempt)
On Saturday the 23, the futures market crashed… The next day the NYSE, worried about potential U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission involvement, suspended two companies closer to De Angelis, “Williston and Beane” and “Ira Haupt & Co.” from trading. This only made things worse, as these two brokerages’ customers became desperate as they didn’t know if they would get back the money in their accounts. Word started spreading as traders investigated the suspension, and desperately tried to get their holdings out of those companies. While Williston and Beane were easily bailed out, things were more complicated for Ira Haupt & Co. The president of the New York Stock Exchange, G. Keith Funston, sought to avoid a massive crash caused by the 20,700 customers of Ira Haupt fearing their holdings were worthless now that the trading the brokerage firm did on De Angelis’s behalf meant that it owed various banks over $37,000,000 that it could not pay.
With stockholders in a panic, NYSE officials halted trading altogether. The Stock Market remained closed amidst protests of people worried of their money, and did not reopen until Monday the 25th, at which point the market traded below expectations. The closure of the NYSE had not given temporary breathing room, and the scandal’s affects were still being felt. The collapse discouraged investment by small investors. On the 26th, the US Securities and Exchange Commission convened and decided to intervene, reducing the NYSE’s power. The NYSE attempted to solve the problem via imposing a $10 million assessment on exchange members and using that money to make Ira Haupt & Co.’s customers whole, only for the SEC to delay the plan’s implementation over distrust of the NYSE. Creditors, meanwhile, reeled as American Express and other lenders lost millions.
– John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Salad Oil Recession: The Causes and Effects of the Black Weekend of 1963, Excelsior Publishers, 1971 [19]
“Walter, chaos still reigns supreme here on Wall Street. The NYSE and banks across the country closing early has many spooked, as seen today when in just 45, the Dow dropped 50 points, about 10%, and 50 million shares were sold. I’m also being told that the exchange may close early today, but those stories are yet to be substantiated.”
– CBS reporter, early 11/25/1963 broadcast
“Who the hell is Tino De Angelis?!” the President bellowed.
“He’s a commodities trader,” Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges explained as numerous aides scurried in and out of the room with papers containing background information and statistics, wheeled in a second television set and plugged in several more telephones, all in an attempt to rectify, or at least minimize the economic debacle. “According to what this Norman Miller fella’s reporting, this Tino fella’s been buying and selling vegetable oil futures all over the world, and last started to corner the market for soybean oil. A majority of the world’s reserves were apparently transferred in and out of his New Jersey headquarters.”
“Soybean oil?”
“It’s used in salad dressing.”
“I know what it’s for, Luther! I just can’t believe this all went by undetected!”
“That’s what swindler, do, Lyndon,” noted Trade Representative Lovett.
Hodges continued, “Actually, Mr. President, it seems we’ve run into him before. The man’s company, Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Corporation, took advantage of the National School Lunch Act and the Food for Peace program to overcharge the government $31,000 and deliver over 2 million pounds of uninspected meat to schools. He ended up bankrupt but soon bounced back with this endeavor, it seems.”
“And according to our records, he swindled my department out of over $1million in 1960 – that was under my predecessor, sir,” Agriculture Secretary Jim Folsom added. Folsom did not mention how in 1962 his department had predicted exports of the oil would reach record levels later that year, possibly contributing to De Angelis’ active efforts to corner that market.
Johnson, Lovett, Hodges, Folsom and Secretary of the Treasury and former Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization Henry H. Fowler continued to peruse whatever information could be found, though according to Fowler, most of what they “worked on” came from Norman Miller’s tell-all. They soon became aware of how De Angelis had obtained massive loans from various Wall Street banks and companies, and used the cash to buy all of the futures on the oil. This way he would not only own a large quantity of soon-to-be expensive oil, but also cheap futures that would soon be worth a considerable value when the prices went up. [20]
“Christ, this man singlehandedly gutted American Express,” uttered the President. American Express, or Amex in the stock world, was a respected name in traveler’s checks and credit cards in those days.
On the TV, a reporter claimed that the revelations has “crippled” N.Y. Stock Exchange. This was in response to the news that investors in 51 banks had been bamboozled out of a total of over $175 million (around $1.2 billion in 2000 dollars).
Hodges glanced over to the set, and then to the Commander-in-chief, standing but hunching, arms gripping the table as his eyes worriedly danced around over the papers. “Our response, Mr. President?” Hodges asked.
Johnson picked up head up and thought for a moment before stating “we’ll increase spending to promote confidence in the economy again, and you know that tax cut for the middle class we were planning to work on after re-election? We’re doing that now!”
Despite Johnson’s best (and in the case of his more Keynesian measures, worst) efforts, the U.S. energy markets would stay down, resulting in a new economic phenomenon that would be given the label “stagflation”…
– Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon: Book Four: The Power of the Presidency, A. A. Knopf Inc., 2018
STOCKS CONTINUE TO PLUMMET AS POPULACE RETAIN SKEPTICAL OF MARKET STRENGTH
– The Wall Street Journal, 11/29/1963
[pic: imgur.com/CLyxqhN.png ]
– Sanders in a cross-promotion of KFC and the 51st Grey Cup, held on 11/30/1963
Seeing the “angry mobs” on TV, NYSE officials pointed all of the blame of De Angelis for the failure of the member firm. The stock market would hover at low levels for the rest of the year.
De Angelis brought down a couple of commodities brokers foolish enough to let him trade on margin, made huge dents in a few banks foolish enough to lend him money, wrought havoc on both commodities exchanges and stock exchanges when his scheme finally unwound, and even knocked out about half of American Express’ market cap. [21] He took advantage of government subsidies and programs, provided uninspected goods, cheated on his contracts, falsified reports, covered losses, embezzled money, and so forth. At every step he was trying to beat the system, and as a result, caused financial losses for thousands. [22]
– John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Salad Oil Recession: The Causes and Effects of the Black Weekend of 1963, Excelsior Publishers, 1971
I remember reading in the newspapers how American Express’ stock immediately dropped 50% as the company lost over $50million from the scam. Many banks suddenly closed to avoid a rush, while others tried to downplay the news. Despite their efforts, by Monday the 25th, the 1963 recession had arrived. I remember the Colonel took rather well. His continued distrust of stock had actually helped save the company from really taking a hit from it, but he was still upset to see how the economic dip hit his customers. He felt better, though, knowing that Ray Kroc had to borrow even more money, and lay off many workers that would ultimately end up working for us, just to keep McDonald’s out of the red. Not exactly a silver lining, but, still.
– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes interview, early 1992
LONG, MCKEITHEN TO ADVANCE TO PRIMARY RUNOFF
Baton Rouge, LA – Last night’s Democratic primary for governor saw John J. McKeithen, Public Service Commissioner of the state’s Third District, use race-baiting tactics [23] to win first place behind U.S. Congressman Gillis Long. McKeithen accused Long of being too close to President Johnson (dubbing him “the Washington candidate”) and being too liberal for Louisiana. Both men won over staunch segregationist Shelby Jackson, and fellow segregationist Robert F. Kennon, who lost votes to both Jackson and noted taxi-driving KKK member Addison Thompson. Nine men in total were on the ballot. The following list is approximately the distribution of the vote:
J. J. McKeithen – 318,173 (35.1%)
Gillis Long – 275,568 (30.4%)
R. F. Kennon – 127,813 (14.1%)
Shelby Jackson – 102,432 (11.3%)
Louis J. Michot – 38,072 (4.2%)
Claude Kirkpatrick – 29,007 (3.2%)
Wolford Thompson – 7,252 (0.8%)
Hugh Lasseigne – 4,532 (0.5%)
Addison Roswell Thompson – 3,626 (0.4%)
Total votes cast: 906,475
Ambassador deLesseps Morrison had considered running, but ultimately declined to due to “pressing diplomatic duties.” Pundits noted that the President being wounded in an assassination attempt a month before the election produced a sympathy vote-based boost for Long’s numbers but did not damage McKeithen’s, who continued the race-baiting rhetoric but dropped his criticisms of the President “out of respect,” according to a reliable source close to the campaign. McKeithen celebrated the results by…
– The Times-Picayune, Louisiana newspaper, 12/7/1963
SHOUTNIK ABBOT HOFFMAN SENTENCED, GIVEN LIGHT FINE OVER NYSE “MONEY PIT” INCIDENT
– The Financial Times, side article, 12/17/1963
Lyndon was increasingly unnerved after the second assassination attempt. He was, I’d say, somewhat paranoid because both Thomas Arthur Vallee and Byron De La Beckwith were these loner types, both were John Birch Society members with alleged mental problems, um, and both were ex-marines who possessed a large number of rifles, which caused Lyndon to consider pushing to some major gun reform… At the White House Christmas party that year, Lyndon was at the center of an incident that would become, I want to say, uh, legendary, among the White House staff for years. After a few cups of eggnog, perhaps one or two too many, Lyndon started looking over at the tree, his eyes kept darting back over to it. Suddenly, he dashed over to that side of the room and tackled the Scotch pine! Jumped right onto it. The whole thing started to fall down, but the Secret Service rushed in and caught it, and they quickly helped the President to his feet. Lyndon later explained that he was certain that an assassin was hiding behind it. So, yeah, the attempt on his life did certainly get to him. He even started to believe that a right-wing conspiracy of some kind was out to get him, because, as I later found out during a talk with, um, Clark Clifford, at who had just become the Secretary of Defense late in that year, that at some point during the winter recess, President Johnson ordered FBI Director Hoover to look into any connections between Vallee and De La Beckwith, and to investigate the Klan and other such groups...
– Homer Thornberry, White House Council in 1963, New York Times interview for article, 1985
“Released on Christmas Day, 1963, “Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” better known simply as “Dr. Strangelove,” was a satirical take on the Cold War. Ignoring the then-ongoing Cuban War, the plot focuses on a fictional and more direct international crisis between the US and Russia...
[snip]
And how does it end?”
[clip shown]
“That’s right, with all the characters in the war room having a pie fight! (pause) Don’t worry, I’ll explain… Meant to symbolize the chaos of inbound and outbound missiles during a nuclear exchange, the scene had to be reshot at least two dozen times as too often the actors would break character by smiling and blurting out some laughter during the melee. And Mr. Kubrick did not approve! Early test footage shows the pies as being too thick, blocking out the actor’s faces. In the end, Kubrick went through over 700 pies for the 3-minute conclusion, which, to many uneducated viewers – and by that I mean shitheads who can’t understand dark satire and symbolism – was the only clear sign that this was in fact a dark comedy. And those idiots should consider themselves lucky, as this wasn’t even the original ending. The whole bit was nearly scrapped due to Kurbrick’s frustration with the actors. It didn’t help when President Lyndon Johnson was shot in New York half-way through filming the scene, as some felt throwing a pie in the commander-in-chief’s face would be too inappropriate in light of that. However, due to the President quickly recovering and even downplaying the severity and seriousness of the assassination attempt in the following days and weeks, Kubrick kept the scene in, leading to one of the most serious comedies ever made ending with what has got to be the most serious pie fight ever put to film...
– Transcript of a review by Brad Jones, a nationally famous film reviewer and the protégé of Roger Ebert, uploaded to ourvids.co.usa, 12/12/2012
“Christmas ’63 came and went with our soldiers still getting butchered in Cuba. We were lucky, though, that the President’s criticism of the media only made the media more inclined to showcase the war’s carnage. The media’s depiction of Cuba helped more people understand the horrors of war. Funny. For every country, a generation always comes along that needs to be reminded that war is not at all like how their nutty grandpas says it’s like, the nostalgia-happy fool. And each time the new generation figures its out, it’s a complete shock to the oldsters. Every single time.”
– actor and social justice activist Peter Duel (1940-2018), LBC interview, 1984
We welcome you to relish in the first edition of Tumbleweed Magazine. …This magazine is the result of failure to properly represent Americans of the post-WWII Generation variety in mainstream media. The atrocities of the Cuban War has opening our eyes to the need for peace… Music, as seen throughout mankind’s history, can unite people and its expression can confront and contribute to the decay and destruction of negative social plague prevalent in the societies of our country and our planet. Music is a tool, a rallying cry, an entryway into what makes us human… Our mission statement: to bring news of the music world unadulterated by neither the radicalism of underground print nor the censored cautiousness of your parents’ newspapers, and to look for ways to improve society and the world along the way… We have christened this vessel “Tumbleweed” to honor not the Roy Rogers tune but the rootless wanderlust of that plant-based structure found forever roaming across of the American West in an anachronistic imitation of Jack Kerouac...
Enjoy expanding your mind,
Calvin Trillin & Bern Sanders [24]
Head Co-Founders
– Excerpts from the Introductory Page of Tumbleweed Magazine, First Issue (Dec. 1963)
…over in the states, apart from continued presence in Cuba fanning the flames of anti-war youth and being injured in an attempt on his life, things were going swell for President Johnson – then a New Jersey swindler caused the stock market to collapse, rattling the economy and sending out shockwaves felt across the globe…
– Excerpt from A Year in Review, BBC World News Report, 12/30/1963
[pic: imgur.com/XleEocs.png ]
– A Kentucky Fried Chicken holiday bucket lid, c. Dec. 1963
SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] Italicized part taken directly from here: content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,874857,00.html (link found on wiki article for “Chicken Tax”)
[2] Chicken in the rough co-founder was born c. 1897 based on this article: http://sites.rootsweb.com/~okoklaho/obit/osborne_beverly__neva_l_flanery.html
[3] Famous quote from real life.
[4] More info on this OTL organization found here (there’s no wiki article on this for some reason): https://www.franchise.org/about-ifa
[5] https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/20071014/wal-marts-flight-in-air-followed-retailers-rise-in-prominence
[6] Italicized parts are directly from here: content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875410,00.html (link found on wiki article for Chicken Tax)
[7] I’m actually uncertain if I should keep trucks on this list due to the fact that, according to source 15 on wikipedia: “audio tapes from the Johnson White House, revealed a quid pro quo unrelated to chicken. In January 1964, President Johnson attempted to convince United Auto Worker’s president Walter Reuther not initiate a strike just before the 1964 election and to support the president’s civil-rights platform. Reuther, in turn, wanted Johnson to respond to Volkswagen’s increased shipments to the United States.” So I’m trying to think of some reason for why Johnson here would pick light trucks, and if not, then what would he impose tariffs on instead, since machinery was Europe’s main export at this point in time IOTL/IATL. Anyone have any ideas for this? (I’d greatly appreciate any feedback.)
[8] For more information on the Chicken War and how it started, simply peruse its wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
[9] OTL JFK sentiment found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100920140844/http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/mar/01/00032/
[10] Italicized info found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tino_De_Angelis
[11] Sentiments based on this youtube video: watch?v=Bejdhs3jGyw
[12] statistic located here: https://www.statista.com/statistics/186260/total-doctors-of-medicine-in-the-us-since-1949/
[13] the original name for the X-Men comics; just a seemingly minor butterfly...
[14] George Wallace actually threatened to do this IOTL according to his wikipedia page
[15] Italicized parts from here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/02/14/kentucky-fried
[16] Held in Baden-Baden IRL over Kenya having political tensions with Portugal and South Africa; here (due to far-reaching butterflies, I guess (it’s a minor change, though, so I suppose it’s acceptable, right?)), they tolerate them enough the meeting to proceed there as planned.
[17] Held in January 1964 IRL due to tensions mentioned in Note 14 pushing back the bidding.
[18] This is actually how they got him IOTL, through some simple delivery errors!
[19] I’m basically just paraphrasing passages from here, just so you know: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-great-salad-oil-scandal-of-1963-2013-11 . For more detail on what went down in OTL, see the following article: https://uselessinformation.org/the-case-of-the-phantom-vegetable-oil/
[20] Quote taken from wiki quote found on this thread, which must receive credit for this idea as I would not have known about this OTL Scandal were it not for this thread: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/kennedy-lives-the-great-recession.413828/
[21] Italicized part here taken from this page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6576696-great-salad-oil-swindle
[22] Italicized bit from here: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-great-salad-oil-scandal-of-1963-2013-11
[23] McKeithen allegedly used such rhetoric in the runoff election in OTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963%E2%80%9364_Louisiana_gubernatorial_election
[24] If a 21-year-old Jann Wenner is not too young for founding a magazine (The Rolling Stones) IOTL, then a 22-year-old Bernie Sanders co-founding a magazine ITTL should not be too young or too unrealistic, either…right?
2/15/19 Edit: fixed a typo.
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Another great update. LBJ almost becomes this version of JFK, almost being killed in November of '63'. The colonel's still got it.
nbcman
Donor
+1 to that. Plus the loss of two Walton brothers in the plane crash may stop the rise of Walmart. Big butterfly there.
marathag
Banned
Maybe Not.
The bones of what would grow into Walmart were already there in 1963, with one 'real' Wal-Mart discount store, and over a dozen Ben Franklin shops. His oldest Son was at College with a Business Major.Rob would have to fill Dad's shoes a lot earlier in this TL.
Walmart may not be as huge, but still has enough there in 1963 to put the hurt on K-Mart and the rest within a decade.
Very interesting update.
Keep the Chicken War as is. Seems factual and fine to me.
LBJ needs to chill and lay off the paranoia pills or he’ll end up a wreck.
Could LBJ get some gun laws past? Mental illness checks before gun purchase perhaps?
Salad Oil Scandel is amazing. How did the rest of the world react?
Keep the Chicken War as is. Seems factual and fine to me.
LBJ needs to chill and lay off the paranoia pills or he’ll end up a wreck.
Could LBJ get some gun laws past? Mental illness checks before gun purchase perhaps?
Salad Oil Scandel is amazing. How did the rest of the world react?
marathag
Banned
Mental Health before 1970, it was easy to get institutionalized if a person was even suspected of having issues, no new laws needed. But checks for buying something that you could mail order from catalogs or the local Hardware Store?
No, checks were for known crazy people.
OTL LBJ's Gun Control came after three successful assassinations of three very important people.
Attempts have a far lesser impact.
What pieces were present that lead to the Federal 1968 Gun Control Act are not yet in place