Chapter 24: December 1965 – June 1966
“Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.”
– Gloria Steinem
“He is a loud and outspoken fellow who cannot be criticized for supporting his rhetoric with actual action.”
– UK PM George Brown, when asked by a reporter for his opinion on Colonel Sanders, 12/13/1965
MITTERAND STICKS TO CAMPAIGN PLEDGE, REFUSES TO SEND TROOPS TO AID U.S. FORCES IN INDOCHINA
...the French President added, "This is a Colonel who does not have to fight. I will enjoy working with him on projects that promote peace and avoid deaths."
– The Los Angeles Times, 12/13/1965
AMERICAN BIRD SELLER DECEIVES WESTERN FOOLS!
…“Colonel” Harland Sanders, by trade a businessman (the epitome of capitalism), exploited the labor of his workers to become elected Head Oppressor of the United Slaves of America in November 1964. …Elderly and infirm (American propaganda fail to hide his cane from view), Sanders would make you think that he is a superior leader because he takes advantage of people regardless of skin color – because he forces people into modern slavery indiscriminately – but he is just as much an oppressor as his predecessor, Lyndon Johnson… As the Colonel seeks to undermine the will of our equality-loving comrades in Southeast Asia, our noble Soviet leaders stand in solidarity with Ho Chi Minh and the men and women of North Vietnam...
– Pravda, Soviet newspaper, “opinion article,” 12/14/1965
“Will everything be ready for this evening, Julia?”
Ms. Child answered, “Oh, do not worry, Mr. President, everything will be just divine.”
The Colonel looked over the long table being prepared for the main guest’s arrival, noting “It’s imperative that we win over the Cambodians to get some more solidarity over there.”
“Rest assured, the Prince will experience only the best.”
“Yeah. You know, I wasn’t entirely sure about hiring you since you mostly do French cooking.”
“But sir, the French owned Indochina for nearly a century, and heavily influenced the region’s cuisine during that time – for instance, baguettes with paté, called ‘nom pang’ over there, I believe, is a common Cambodian staple.”
“We havin’ that here?” The Colonel inquired.
“Well, not
just that. Cambodian meals always have at least four dishes. We’ll start off with a nice fish amok – a creamy curry seen as the nation’s signature dish – and some kuy teav, before moving on to Kampot pepper crab with rice, and then we’ll finally serve the main dish, a refreshing helping of Chicken and Banana Flower Salad.”
“Chicken and banana?! Now I’ve heard everything!”
“Oh, Mr. President, of all the politicians about, you should know that when it comes to chicken, the possibilities are endless!”
Likely thinking about his pressure-fried birds, he replied, “Yeah, but after havin’ the best of ’em, you don’t care about the rest of ’em…”
“I really hope this works, Pop,” I interpolated my concern into the conversation.
Father answered with “It better be – it’s going to be nationally televised!”
[pic:
imgur.com/yVv31cJ.png ]
Pictured: Father tasting a dish Ms. Child is preparing while I (far left and out of frame; only my arm is visible) review the day’s schedule
Julia Child’s landmark home cooking TV series, The French Chef, first premiered in 1963 and was an immediate hit. The beloved statuesque chef introduced French cooking to millions of American households across the country, leading to her receiving a Peabody Award in 1964 (and in May 1966, her show won a Primetime Emmy Award for Achievements in Educational Television – Individuals). By 1965, nearly 100 stations were airing The French Chef.
But in August 1964, PBL approached her
[1] about doing a newsy half-hour special in 1965
while she was on hiatus from her cooking show [2]. The final project, 1965’s TV special “White House Red Carpet with Julia Child,” was the result of Child’s failed first pitch to the Public Broadcasting Library (PBL).
She initially hoped to document Paris’s legendary Les Halles food market, but PBL deemed the project too expensive. So she proposed a behind-the-scenes look at a White House State Dinner instead. When PBL passed again, National Educational Television (NET), which had produced her show since the first episode aired in February 1963,
agreed to air the special. No camera crew had ever been permitted to film a state dinner before,
[2] but Ms. Child managed to get White House via letters, telegrams, and phone calls from herself and her producers at WGBH, her “home” station in Boston.
Father had never watched her show, explaining “I don’t really go for fancy French cookin’. Besides, I’m too busy politickin’.”
“Oh, but that’s what’s great about her show, Pop,” I remember hearing Margaret interject, “she simplifies it all so anybody can make the fancy foods she presents.”
Father ultimately agreed to the idea just after convincing the Prince of Cambodia to meet with him at the White House.
During the early 1960s, Prince Norodom Sihanouk kept his nation neutral as tension rose to Cambodia’s north, but as 1964 turned to 1965, CIA reports confirm rumors that Sihanouk was heavily considering severing western ties and turning to the Soviets and P.R. Chinese for economic aid. Father had to convince the Prince that either remaining neutral or siding with the west were the more preferable options, and figured a face-to-face meeting over a well-cooked meal was the best setting for the task of strengthening connections and trust between our two countries.
The date was set for December 14, and Ms. Child immediately sought out what to serve. She
spent several days interviewing presidential staffs – including the White House executive chef, [2] a former KFC franchisee.
When the day finally arrived, and I was more nervous and jumpy than a cornered squirrel. It was my first major task since taking the job and I could not let anything go wrong. The dinner’s guest of honor was joined at the dinner table by 110 guests. These included Laotian Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma, Vice President Scranton, Secretary of State Carl Curtis, and Ambassador Lodge, plus many other politicians and foreign dignitaries. Following White House tradition, the Colonel and the Prince exchanged gifts. Then we started eating.
[snip]
After the first course, the conversation became more serious… Prince Sihanouk said in impressively unbroken English, “Colonel, I like you. I like how you are, how you would say, a straight-talker. And I like how you eat amok like a native Cambodian. But I still need to know for certain that Indochina will fall into an American sphere of influence and not a Chinese one when the fighting stops. I have just one job: to defend the independence, integrity and dignity of my country and my people
[3].” Of course, the Prince would admit to his fear of loving power and dying in obscurity many years later, but at the time, he had us convinced otherwise. “I need to look out for my country and obtain for it the best terms that I can with the side that will ultimately win. How can I know for certain that siding with you is what is best for my country?”
Father replied shortly with, “Historically, we’ve never lost a war. Militarily, we have superior firepower and resources, and are getting more and more information every day on how the Viet Congo and Pathet Lao think and work. And diplomatically, I’m aware that a country is no good to anyone if it’s radioactive, so know I will never let it get to that point. Now, nothing’s ever set in stone, but I tell you what – I can promise to help out your country if you help out ours.”
Secretary Curtis took the moment to add, “The Khmer Rouge is the name of that communist guerilla group causing all the trouble in your country’s northern provinces, yes? If they ally with the Viet Cong, they could attack Laos from two fronts.”
“Impossible,” the Prince disagreed, “they are too small and disunited.”
“We should keep an eye on them anyway,” Curtis continued, “The British thought their American colonies were too disunited to stir up trouble in 1775. You know how that turned out?”
“Exactly,” the Prince went on the offense, “your country has a history of death and conquest. The American Indians, the Philippines, Korea, and now Cuba. Is Indochina to experience their woes, too?”
Without raising his voice, Curtis uttered with a hint of outrage “We liberated those places from tyranny and oppression – ”
“Carl,” Father interrupted, “Prince Sihanouk, I’m telling you the truth: it sickens me to see innocent people suffer because I care about my fellow man. Chairman Mao doesn’t. He doesn’t care about the Vietnamese or the Laotians or even about you. He only cares about power, his people be damned. You side with him, and he’ll get rid of you as soon as he no longer needs you. But side with us, and we’ll work together for the betterment of both our lots. That’s promise. And ask around – I always keep my promises.”
The Prince became less aggressive as the evening continued on.
For dessert, Father insisted on personally making an Upside Down Peach Cobbler, using his own recipe
[4] to provide the Prince a taste of American cuisine, and to show the Prince “we Americans care more about making food than making war,” as Father put it. The Prince found it delicious.
After then enjoying a slice of Khmer Layer Cake with Coconut Cream, Prince Sihanouk’s attitude became much more convivial, commending Father for his transparency and sincerity. Soon, a consensus was reached that Cambodia and its Prince would be better off allying with us, the leader agreeing to support our efforts in Laos and Cambodia in exchange for military aid and advisors aimed at quelling the Khmer Rouge. Father and the Prince shook hands on it, and celebrated the productive dinner with a round of iced tea.
The telecast of the dinner aired five days later, on December 19, 1965. Reviews praised Child for “her usual ebullience” and my father for “showcasing his diplomatic prowess.”
– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991
SPACE RACE TRAGEDY!: ASTRONAUT WALLY SCHIRRA KILLED IN TEST FAILURE!: Burns From Explosion “Too Severe To Recover From”
– The Houston Post, 12/17/1965
The loss of Wally completely shook [his wife] Jo and their two children, Walt and Sue. Walt was 15, and Sue was 8. Them and Jo never recovered from the shock. I mean, well, yes, Jo did ultimately remarry twice, but both marriages were brief. She was trying and failing to recreate what she had had with Wally and she couldn’t. She died of broken heart syndrome… I was proud of the immediate actions of Senator Mondale at the time, who called for an investigation into what went wrong during the test…
– Trudy Cooper, in an interview for Mother Jones magazine, 2001
In 1957, Jack Kennedy had
Profiles of Courage. In 1962, Richard Nixon had
Six Crises. And in 1965, I had
Unsafe at Any Speed; that was the book that started it all. Upon its release on December 21st of that year, it was an instant success, and I became a household name practically overnight. More importantly, it did the job it had to do: it exposed to the American people the elements they never realized endangered their well-being, and unveiled the irresponsibility of the car manufacturing industry.
At the time, the government was still reeling from debate over the extent of government overview of industries, with President Sanders’ Federal Assistance Dividend only adding to the chaos that created in me a weary sense that very little legislative change could actually come about from
Unsafe at Any Speed. But I was proven wrong by my own work’s sheer impact. All who read it were impressed, including President Sanders himself. And with his help, that book sent my career down a path I had never anticipated.
This is not my life’s story. It is the story of the millions of lives saved over the past forty years, and it is the story of the millions of people that worked together to make America – and the world – a stronger, safer, smarter, and overall better place to live.
– Ralph Nader in the introduction of his autobiography All For The People: A Life’s Journey, 2019
PRESIDENT SANDERS VISITS CHILDREN HOSPITALS OVER CHRISTMAS WEEKEND
– The Chicago Tribune, 12/27/1965
THE CONFLICTED COLONEL: A Lover of Free Enterprise, A Conservative In Name Only, Or Somehow Both?
– Conservative magazine “Modern Age,” December 1965 issue
It was not uncommon for The Colonel’s great-grandchildren to visit the White House unannounced. The Colonel permitted it, even insisting on security “not spoiling the surprise.” Two or three of them would join their parents in a visit and immediately bolt across the premises in search of the man that Harland the Fourth would call “Grampa Sr.”. On more than one occasion, they would come running up to the President mid-meeting, to which he would exclaim “Hey, there’s my little Havana bananas” or some similar assonance, putting policy on hold for a few minutes for the great-grandfather-in-chief to regale the little ones with his “daily adventures” before sending them off to the kitchen for snacks.
– Clinton J. Hill’s Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journal with the Secret Service, Simon & Schuster, 2016
DE GAULLE URGES US TO STAY OUT OF ASIA “AFTER MAKING PEACE” THERE
…changing noticeably from the war-supporting policies that caused De Gaulle to fall from power in 1965, De Gaulle declared that “The independence of all nations of southeast Asia must be guaranteed by the nonintervention of any outside powers”…
[5]
– The Washington Post, 1/7/1966
The Colonel continued to expand Lyndon Johnson’s censorship policies by expanding funding for the FCC. While becoming controversial decades later for increasing the power of the propagandistic/now-defunct USIA throughout his presidency, believing children must be protected from the vices of adulthood until old enough to understand, handle, and properly respond to exposure to them, conservatives praised his calls for “human decency” at the time. “It was understandable,” former U.S. Congressman Edwin Denney (R-KY) defended the Colonel’s actions in a 1981 interview; “His grandson, Harland III, was about seven years old, he had younger grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and he wanted to see them grow up in a world less dark than the one he saw around him.” On this front, Congressman John Moss repeatedly confronted the Colonel, claiming it was hypocritical of Sanders to support equal rights but not freedom of speech for freedom of certain kinds of press. Moss is known for famously declaring “the right to speak and the right to print, without the right to know, are pretty empty” in 1967
[6]. But in early 1966, Moss decided that if the President’s actions were based on his religious beliefs, than that was a violation of the USA’s long-held belief in the separation of church and state; as such, by the end of the year, Moss publicly threatened five times to call for a congressional investigation into the President’s actions should such “assault on alternative press” continued.
– C.J. Ciaramella, One-Man Crusade: John Moss And The Freedom of Information Act, Pacific Standard Magazine, 2016
“Pop, you’re going to burn a ring into the carpeting if you keep pacing like that.”
“I’m just wonderin’ when Clark will get here, son,” checking his watch again, Father again noted, “I told every one of ’em to be here 20 minutes ago!”
General Mark Clark, the Chief of the Army, was due to hand in his division’s report on the manpower, resources, and likely V.C. response that a successful invasion of North Vietnam would entail.
It was the first foreign policy meeting I had ever sat in on, and most of the faces and names were unfamiliar to me, their personalities and motivations (and for some, motives) even less so. Many seemed uneasy of my presence and security clearance, but I paid them no mind.
When the Red Bird Report finally arrived, it demonstrated how no less that 15,000 troops would be required for the invasion of the north, unofficially dubbed “Operation Pressure Cooker” at the time.
“Due to these mountains, troops will head east from Xam Nua and head along this mountain pass and when south of Hoa Binh, a village on the Black River, turn north and follow this mountain road directly to the capitol. It’s a 210-mile route from our Lao outpost in Xam Nua. At least 2,000 South Vietnam troops will need to join us, and guide us through it on the ground,” Clark explained the game plan.
“And the Chinese?” Father asked.
“China’s closest military port is Zhanjiang on the opposite side of this peninsula above Hainan Island. Hanoi is inland, and our experts believe the Chinese navy’s vessels would perform poorly if they sought to travel up the Red River Delta to Hanoi.”
“So they might not do that.”
William Franke of the Joint Chiefs supported the numbers, and reaffirmed his notion that, “We’re closer to Hanoi than the Chinese and can get there faster. If all goes according to plan, and we act proficiently enough, an American flag will be flying above the city before Mao even knows it!”
“Plus, while their relationship has improved since this conflict began, there’s been enmity between the Chinese and Vietnamese for 2,000 years, and due to Mao being distrustful of Russia’s involvement – Mao and Shelepin don’t exactly have a rapport, according to our spies overseas – Mao may not even risk a counterattack,” Abrams noted.
“But before we execute this massive operation, we need to keep the VCs off the game.” Clark continued with “We need to draw their fire with a credible diversion. An increase in mobilization along the frontlines in Laos of the Annamite Mountain Range, to make Viet Cong come to the defense of the Pathet Lao, would be the best one.”
Franke added, “A bombing campaign along the border could also work to lure more Charlie’s to the nation’s south, away from the capitol.”
Westmoreland, an Army General involved in combating Pathet Lao, sat across from Abrams, the General in charge of combating the Viet Cong. Westmoreland declared that “Johnson’s attempts at attrition did not meet expectations, so with that in mind, I advise going with a full-on assault.”
He then added, “There’s also the dams.”
“Vietnam has dams?” I wondered aloud.
Westmoreland gave me a glance that screamed shut it, outsider, and continued with “these dams here and here hold back millions of cubic feet of these rivers. We take them out, it’ll cripple their food supplies, water supplies, and take out their transportation lines here, here and here.”
Father and I looked at one another and knew what the other was thinking – the Floods of ’57. The heavy blow our home state took to its infrastructure. The deaths of farm animals and abandoned pets. The damaged homes, businesses and factories. The displaced and homeless Kentuckians who needed immediate help in the aftermath.
Father spoke, “Franke, Morley… Bombing the dams would be too catastrophic. Too many innocents would be killed. There’d be no way for the press to sugarcoat it no matter how much you ass-kiss ’em.”
“It would be a tactical victory – ”
“You tell the people ‘tactical victory,’ and they won’t hear – all they’ll see is the blood of people we said we wanted to help.” I finally spoke up.
“You’re absolutely right, there, Harley,” Father replied.
After another look from Westmoreland, and a glare from Franke, Westmoreland suggested, “Then we won’t let the press into the area.”
“General, something I’ve learned from Congressman Moss and from LBJ is that when it comes to journalist, there is nothing they won’t do to get their hands on a story. And setting up roadblocks along their way only feeds their fire. Blocking the press would only make it all even worse.”
“Well we’ve got to bomb something!” Westmoreland proclaimed.
“Don’t bomb the dams! Instead, bomb their military targets; bomb their trails, bomb their roads, bomb their weapon hubs. But don’t bomb any place where there’s more civilians than military, do you hear what I say?!”
As they agreed, the men looked at each other.
“Alright, now then, when can this all happen? I’m getting’ antsy just talkin’ about it instead of doin’ it. We’ve been at this for months and we need to get these commies out of there yesterday!”
Westmoreland suggested, “The best moment to strike will be in either April because of the region’s weather. April is the time just between the monsoon winds doing their switch from blowing from the northeast – and right into our troops’ faces – to the blowing from the southwest – which would carry our scent right into VC camps ahead of us.
[7]. Basically, April is between a dry and wet seasons.”
“That’s now enough time, Mr. President,” General Abrams interjected, “Tours of duty are for only one year. That’s not enough time for soldiers to get used to fighting in this terrain, so if we need 15,000 men, we’ll need to train more than the sappers and specialists on hand. We’ll need the time to coordinate and organize with the South Vietnamese, and further train South Vietnamese troops on the ground. I think we should attack in June. It’ll be monsoon season, but Morley, I think that’ll work to our advantage – I think Ho Chi Minh would be
expecting us to launch a campaign when the crap weather breaks!”
Father commented, “While I really would like to get this war over and done with, I do prefer the idea of sending careerists instead of draftsmen to the frontlines. I’m also interested in using special forces like the Green Berets to do a lot of the dirty work here. I also agree with Abrams over the element of surprise. Let’s aim for June. Also, em, what are the Russians doing at the moment?”
“Reported sightings of tanks, APCs, artillery guns, and missile launchers of the kind made by the Russians are still coming in from the Border, but publicly, they are still flat-out denying any involvement,” the UN Ambassador explained.
“Eh, give me a minute alone with Shelepin and I’ll get him to tell the truth,” Father grumbled.
“Violent threats aside, I advice beefing up our security around our B-52 bases in Loas and South Vietnam ahead of this operation.”
“Of course, of course!”
With some smaller details then being ironed out, Father concluded the meeting optimistically. “Very good, gentlemen.”
Leaving the meeting, I asked General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. about the looks around the room. He motioned to follow him to another room, where he explained, “With all due respect, sir, the Colonel lacks a basic understanding of how warfare works.”
“How so?” I was taken aback.
“Well, he keeps thinking that only people in uniform are fighting us, but the truth is, every single person in North Vietnam is convinced that we are the bad guys. They are not innocent prisoners you will immediately welcome us into their country. Brainwashed or not, they are loyal to Ho Chi Minh above everything, even their own lives. And it is a bit flustering to mount an invasion when the Commander in Chief refuses to believe that the North Vietnamese people – village farmers, mothers, even children – will without hesitance sacrifice their lives for their ideology, that they would rather die than side with us.”
“It’s because father believes people can change, sir. He thinks if we show them mercy, we will change their minds.”
“That sort of idealism could be very dangerous to our men.”
“Yeah, that is a problem.”
“Mr. Sanders – ”
“Please, call me Harley.”
“ – Harley, your father’s duty is to his own countrymen first.”
“Yes, first, but not exclusively. He wants to spread American democracy, not destroy those that don’t have it.”
– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991
PRISON REFORM BILL PASSES SENATE, SANDERS EXPECTED TO SIGN IT INTO LAW “SOON”
– The Washington Post, side article, 1/10/1966
“It is finally time to bring responsibility and reason to how we conduct ourselves on the world stage; to bring assistance to the impoverished, poor and unrepresented members of this great society; and to bring justice to those who go unpunished for their misdeeds.”
“We will bring order and stability to our overseas allies, and we will respond to any incidents in Europe or Asia or South America or anywhere else in the world with swift action to ensure that peace and freedom reign supreme not just from sea to shining sea, but from ocean to ocean and from pole to pole.”
“We must convert our good words into good deeds in order for our good words to have actual meaning and to have any effects on our present and our future.”
– Excerpts from President Sanders’ 1966 State of the Union address, 1/12/1966
Latest Reports: Sales Increasing Overall, But Sales Decreasing In Northern, Heavily-Democrat Counties.
…This is possibly in response to perceived partisan bias. …Suggestions on how to address such concerns are welcomed…
– KFC internal memo on Annual KFC beginning-of-year sales report, KFC headquarters in Florence, KY, 1/14/1966
5 INJURED IN DUNDALK ATTACK: I.R.A. Factions Resort to Cam Bombs
…With violence across the north half of Ireland on the rise for the last two years, Prime Minister Brown has condemned the attacks and has called for an inquiry into how to quell these disruptive and worrisome inconvenience to daily life in Northern Ireland and the rest of the Emerald Isle.
– The Daily Mail, UK newspaper, 1/17/1966
…Hellyer began his term by forming alliances with politicians with whom he had had experience during his 17 years in parliament, but did not reach out to Progressive Conservatives… In January, Hellyer called for a major report on the government’s housing and urban renewal programs. His subsequent calls for urban development reform was criticized on the left and the right, with Howard Gaffney (a left-leaning P.C. member of parliament) calling it “not bold enough.” In February, Hellyer called for report on the effectiveness of demolishing older buildings over renovating them.
…Hellyer was to the right of his fellow Liberals on multiple issues but nevertheless supported government involvement in the economy, and so clashed with his cabinet and several PMs on the federal budget. Fiscally, he supported corporate pension funds and investing more money into housing programs and other certain national programs, and greater flexibility in Canada’s mortgage loan system. Overall, he supported the philosophy of the government being more involved in the direction of the economy and thus sought to gradually reduce the creation of private money and increase the creation of public money in order to return it to a 50%-50% split. This was also a controversial and unpopular idea…
Hellyer, a dove in regards to foreign policy against all wars, orders a reorganizing of the Canadian military to determine “any excessive and unnecessary spending.” Hellyer was considerably more anti-globalist then U.S. President Colonel Sanders, whom saw war a means of establishing peace in troubled regions. Hellyer refused to support American troops in Indochina throughout the entirety of the conflict, but nevertheless did agree with Sanders on “the basic idea that diplomacy should take priority over war.”
[pic:
imgur.com/jEv9zev.png ]
Hellyer (the tall man in the center, flanked by security guards) visiting a housing project in 1966
– clickopedia.co.usa/Paul Hellyer
Ray Kroc: “I Might Run For Governor”!
– The Sacramento Bee, 1/30/1966
“Ray was approached with the idea by some businessman who said he was a major supporter of McDonald’s and thought that even if unsuccessful, McDonald’s would financially benefit from the publicity. He presented Kroc with a series of charts and data sets to back up the idea. It was a fairly quick meeting, but it lead to huge ramifications, both for Kroc and for McDonald’s.”
– Former McDonald’s CEO June Martino, KNN interview, 1983
UPDATE: NEW SURVEY CONFIRM NOTION THAT CUSTOMERS VIEWING THE CHAIN AS PARTISAN
…many of those surveyed believe KFC is politically biased, but to what is polarizing: those polled in the south believe KFC is biased in favor of liberal Democrats and liberal Republicans, while those polled in the north believe KFC is biased in favor of conservative Republicans. Some in the latter group cite Arizona Republicans making KFC the official food of the state party late last year as “proof.”…
Suggestion: address concerns in new batch of commercials
– KFC internal memo (update on drop in sales in certain locations), KFC headquarters in Florence, KY, 2/2/1966
“Now I do not support Ho Chi Minh when I say this, but our military and out government has to understand this: Mr. Ho Chi Minh’s government was established by the Vietnamese people, not by Chinese agents. The peasants in Vietnam want his government because for them it means real land reform, an important need in their lives. That is their choice and we must respect each other to overcome that which divides us; we must accept our responsibility to the world and learn to respect Ho Chi Min and the voice of the Vietnamese people if it truly is what will bring peace to the region.”
– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on WTLC (AM)’s 2/5/1966 radio broadcast
IS KING PRO-MINH?: Civil Rights Leader In Hot Water Over Controversial Statements
MORE CALLS MADE FOR REV. KING EXPLANATION; Senator Scoop Jackson: King “Should Be Ashamed of Himself”
REVERAND KING APOLOGIZES: After White House Talks With Sanders, Claims "I Misspoke My Thoughts”
– The New York Times’ Article headlines, 2/6/1966, 2/7/1966, and 2/8/1966
BORDER DEVELOPMENT: US Army Advances Into Pathet Lao Territory Near Saravan
– Stars and Stripes, 2/16/1966
“After you have been bombing villagers…it’s going to be very difficult to persuade people that you are their friend.”
[8]
– Ernest Gruening in an op-ed in Newsday, US daily newspaper, 2/25/1966
…After almost four years of anti-integration cases being brought to several state courts, today’s ruling in the federal Supreme Court case of “Rodgers versus the County School Board of Quitman County” is meant to determine the legality of state-level attempts to circumvent federal laws on racial integration. The court today ruled 7-2 that Mississippi’s Quitman County public schools admissions system was racially-based, and thus unconstitutional. …The decision means that it is illegal for racial segregation to exist in schools through the admissions process…
– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, 2/28/1966 broadcast
ENOCH POWELL WINS CONSERVATIVE IN LEADERSHIP ELECTION
…the controversial politician prevailed over early frontrunner Iain Macleod, the more moderate but somewhat lackluster campaign of Reginald Maudling, and Quinton Hogg, who surprise pundits by advancing to face Powell on the final ballot. Powell bested Hogg by a narrow margin…
– The Daily Telegraph, UK newspaper, 3/3/1966
OPINION POLL: US APPROVAL OF VIETNAM HANDLING DROPS
A new polling study on the approval of America’s presence in Indochina, a presence that has been ongoing since the mid-to-late 1950s… the rising number of casualties seems to be affecting how Americans view the situation abroad...
Now: Conducted between January 10 and January 17:
Well: 71%
Poorly: 15%
Unsure: 14%
Then: Conducted between March 2 and March 9:
Well: 62%
Poorly: 17%
Unsure: 21%
[snip]
…the analyst further explained, “the Cuban War has negatively affected Americans’ outlook on how, where, and most importantly why we fight the conflicts we fight. They are now a little more critical and a little more curious about how our military forces act and how we as a whole conduct and behave ourselves on the world stage”…
– In a newspaper article by George Gallup, Director of the American Institute of Public Opinion, 3/14/1966
KROC ANNOUNCES GUBERNATORIAL BID
– The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/1966
March 18 was a bad day for the US Army in the Laos-SV border war zone. A regiment of recon battalions were forced to fall back from their holding of a Xo Kong River crossing when they VC snipers got the jump on them, followed by grenade launchers and heavy fire. The number of dead, dying and wounded was in the dozens.
One benefit at Father’s disposal was in the technological development, as the Laos-Vietnam War was the first US conflict where our troops had secure voice communication equipment at the tactical level, with initial problems such as voice quality, range, time delays and other logistical issues improving over time. With a secure radio line, Father contacted the CO, a Brigadier directly in the field. In the War Room, we gathered around to listen. He believed the VCs knew exactly where officer were due to noise: “The helicopters make a roar they can hear from their underground tunnel, they can feel the vibrations has they approach, and because a chopper isn’t exactly fast, the time to take to arrive and drop the men off is enough time to set up a plan of attack.”
From this, Father suggested, “Abrams, can we use less helicopters in this fight?”
Abrams responded with, “I don’t think we can come up with a quicker way to get troops there, sir.”
After a pause, Father spoke, “Then we’ll fight fire with fire.”
A month later, the river crossing was recaptured after American snipers and South Vietnam soldiers who knew the land were dropped off five miles away. The platoon in question carefully travelled through the jungle and ultimately did what snipers do – and they cleared the area of its VC snipers.
– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991
Then in March, Millie decided to try to do some damage control with new commercials highlighting bipartisan values, tying KFC to universally loved individuals, symbols and concepts such a family, friendship, and the like; “chicken is for everyone” was the company’s primary phrase for a while. The new commercials’ success was only partial, as that summer’s boost in sales was only slight.
– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997
GOLDWATER SUPPORTS, VOTES FOR PRO-LABOR BILL – YES, REALLY!
Washington D.C. – Barry Goldwater, the senior Republican Senator from Arizona, surprised pundits, supporters and opponents today when he voted “yea” on the Occupational Unsafe Conditions and Hazards bill. The bill, meant to protect laborers by requiring employers to provide employees with adequate protection from “avoidable harm” during working hours. For instance, employees must provide proper training for workers handling hazardous materials at places such as nuclear power plants; proper protection against excessive noise levels if noise levels cannot be lowered; and require heating and cooling for cold and hot working conditions. The bill also strengthens to capabilities of sanitation inspectors.
When asked about the break from his conservative, pro-management voting streak, Goldwater explained, “We Arizonans understand the need for environmental regulation, and the need to highlight the distinctions between decent businessmen, and those that abuse the good graces of minimal government.” He then assured reporters that he was not permanently shifting his opinions, saying “I am working with the Sanders administration to get the congressional approval needed for deregulation of the airline, railroad, and trucking industries. I want businesses and companies to grow and expand, but I voted for this bill because I don’t want any of the morally compromised businesses and companies out there to take advantage of the good graces of conservatism!”
Having passed both chambers by comfortable margins, President Sanders is expected to sign the bill – soon to be the Occupational Unsafe Conditions and Hazards Act, or OUCHA – into law later this week.
– The Sacramento Union (Ted Kennedy’s newspaper), 3/21/1966
Finally, on March 29, Sanders issued an Executive Order terminating the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam altogether. Johnson had first used the chemical in Indochina in 1961 to spray and destroy enemy crops.
“According to every fella I’ve talked to who’s on the ground over there, that funky stuff also kills civilians, if not more civilians than soldiers,” Sanders complained to [Foreign Policy Advisor J. R.] Schlesinger.
Schlesinger attempted to justify its use with the fact that the British had used such herbicides during the Malayan Emergency back in the ’50s. “Its purpose is to destroy the ability of peasants to support themselves in the countryside; that will force them to look for food and work in the pro-west urban areas while also depriving the VC and PL of rural support.”
“But that’ll just lead to resentment,” the Colonel counters, “The villagers would just voice their opposition to the west in the cities instead of in the country, where more people can hear it – and their outrage would be justified! We’re supposed to help this country, not destroy it! Do you really think we will have the people’s hearts if we’ve poisoned their water supplies and burned their crops? No; they’ll hate us for years! I know
I’d sure be plum-ticked if some country from half-way ’round blew up
my home! Besides, if our boys are over there, aren’t we endangering our
own men by doing this?! Nah, hah, J.R., this dull-headedness ends now.”
While the Pentagon seethed, D.C. doves lauded the Colonel…
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
PUBLIC SMOKING AND PUBLIC HEALTH ACT INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS
…if passed, the bill would require all packages of products comprised primarily of tobacco to feature warning labels meant to make purchasers aware of the newly-confirms “health risks” of smoking. The unofficial warning would be “Warning: the US Surgeon General has conclusively linked smoking tobacco to lung cancer diagnoses, and from this that cigar/cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health.” The bill would also require the warning to be put on all radio and TV advertisements with heavy fines for companies that do not comply. …Already, spokespersons from the tobacco industry are deriding the bill as “a baseless attack on free enterprise.” …The office of the Presidency has yet to be reached for comment…
– The Chicago Tribune, 4/2/1966
On April 7, 1966, Colonel Sanders became the first sitting U.S. President to visit Japan since WWII. Arriving in Tokyo to meet with Prime Minister Eisaku Sato to discuss military geopolitics, Sanders reportedly got along well with Sato due to them “sharing a high sense of honor.” Sanders did not meet with Emperor Hirohito due to a scheduling conflict. Nevertheless, historians consider the visit to have been a major contribution to the easing of tensions between the two former enemy nations.
– The 1960s: A History, Scholastic, 2007
Lyndon spent much of 1965 resting. He got his weight down from 220 to a stable 190; his heart rate returned to healthy levels; he eventually stopped smoking and drinking as reasons for doing so ceased. Overall, his appearance had improved from the somber and defeated canvass that was his face in November 1964. [snip] In early 1966, Lyndon met with Texas Democrat leaders about becoming more involved in the midterm elections. “Why not?” he argued. While he still believed that, because the men in his family died young, he himself was not long for this world, he was well aware of the fact that he was only 57. “I’m not just going to wait around for Mr. Reaper to arrive,” he told Walt Jenkins. Instead Lyndon would try to protect his legacy.
“Walter, I’ve been looking over Texas’s Senate and Congressional races. I like the lineup for the House, but the Senate seat, now, that’s a problem,” he informed Jenkins during the latter’s visit to the former’s ranch in March 1966.
“I think Carr,” referring to the presumptive Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Waggoner Carr, “will unseat Tower. He’s high-profile, well-connected – ”
“I don’t like the cut of his jib. He can’t woo a crowd. He’s also been snooping into Billie’s affairs too much,” [referring to his close friend and ally, businessman Billie Sol Estes].
“You want to find someone to challenge him.”
Lyndon explained his woes “We need someone in the Senate who actually knows how to work in it. Someone experienced enough to keep that idiot in the White House in check. So I’ve been looking. Congressman Pickle thinks he’d lose, and Homer Thornberry’s not interested. The other congressmen I’ve approached had no backbone, and the rest were no low profile. I even went and thought outside the box and considered getting Ladybird to run, but there’s no chance in trying to give
her the Johnson Treatment!”
“So, what do you want to do about it, then? The primary’s two months away!”
“I’ve got an idea.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll see.”
On April 15, a windy Texas day in his home town, Lyndon gathered a collection of reporters and congregated them onto his property. Speaking from his front porch to the attentive mass, Lyndon proclaimed, “After much consideration, and upon reviewing the current crop of prospective and declared candidates in the race, I have determined that I am the only Texas Democrat that can beat Senator Tower and protect America’s social programs in 1967 and onward. Ladies and gentleman, I am running for my old Senate seat.”
[9]
– Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon: Book Five: The Plans of a Presidential Politician, A. A. Knopf Inc., 2018
TWO OFF-DUTY COPS KILLED, 10 INJURED IN I.R.A. BOMB BLAST!
…PM Brown declared “such blatant disregard for the lives of innocent civilians will not be tolerated”…
[pic:
imgur.com/G5rID5S.png ]
Above: the extent of the damage made to the pub in question
– The Sun, conservative UK newspaper, 4/17/1966
I was surprised by how nervous I felt the first time I met President Sanders. It was March 29, 1966, and I had been personally summoned to Washington, D.C. by the President himself to discuss road safety initiatives with him in the Oval Office. [snip] The Colonel congratulated me for my report on Corvelle’s problems, and said he was impressed by my leadership and determination. He seemed to be relieved to be talking about something positive. The old man almost seemed haunted in some way. “Must be the pressures of this office,” I remember thinking, “If that’s the case, I don’t think I’ll ever run for it.”
“Do you know why I asked you meet with me?” the President asked.
I answered candidly and with uncertainty, “Because you liked my book?”
He grinned, “Well, I haven’t had the time to read all of your book myself, but I have seen the attention and the praise it’s gettin’. I have skimmed some of it, though, and I have to say, I am very impressed, Mr. Nader. So much so, that it has been one of the many driving forces behind a piece of legislation.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. The National Traffic and Road Safety Bill. It was introduced about a week ago, or so. I think it’ll get through by the end of the year.”
“So is that why you sent for me? To try to help get it passed?”
“Yes, but not entirely,” he clarified, “See, when it was introduced, I promised I would form a national agency to review the conditions of America’s highways. Now I really meant that. You, of all people, Mr. Nader, understand that America’s roads work like America’s life vessels. And when a blood vessel becomes crowded or weak, it can hurt the body. My buddy Nixon had something like that not too long ago, it’s called pleb-eye-ticks, or something like that. But anyway, my point, Mr. Nader, is that you seem to understand exactly what can be done about the roads.”
“Me?”
“Yes,” he concluded, “That is why I came with the Department of Transportation last year. It’s still getting itself together, figuring out how it should be organized and all that jazz. But Nader, I would like you to be the Administrator of an agency that’s part of this department. We’re thinking of calling it the National Roadways Safety Administration.”
I was taken aback.
“So, Mr. Nader, what do you say?”
“Um…” I had no time for pause. The President was looking at me, waiting for a reply. Quickly, I had to think, analyze, and weigh my options. I already was living in DC, serving on the faculty at the nearby American University Washington Law College, and I had had political experience as a political aide to Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Moynihan during the previous administration. This new position would give me an unprecedented ability to protect people’s lives. On the other hand, it could limit my advocacy as I would be tied to the administration, potentially binding what I could and couldn’t advocate and criticize. It was a risk and a gamble, but I’m glad I took it. “When can I begin?”
Colonel Sanders smiled widely and enthusiastically shook my hand, “I’m really looking forward to working with you …Ralph.”
Sanders also sought to improve urban infrastructure more directly with the NRSA and its fleet of civil engineers through budgeting. At the end of 1966, the White House released a budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which proposed increasing infrastructure spending by several million dollars to support investment in infrastructure by federal, state and local governments and the private sector…
– Ralph Nader in his autobiography All For The People: A Life’s Journey, 2019
PRESIDENT SANDERS BACKS MEDICINE AFFORDABILITY BILL FOR THE INFIRM
…Sanders explained, “It’s the Christian thing, the morally right thing, and the American thing to do, to lend a helping hand to those who do the best they can with the hand they’ve been dealt – who are weak-bodied but strong in spirit – but still need someone to give ’em a hand that’ll help ’em get by.”
– The Chicago Tribune, 4/30/1966
On May 3, just a month before the planned invasion of the North, Viet Cong troops assaulted an American garrison at Muang Xepon, Laos, near the Laos-Vietnam border. As the Colonel was being awakened by a phone call at 4:00, about an hour before his usual wake-up time, American ground forces were preparing a counterattack. As the Colonel was being escorted to the War Room, the fighting increased in intensity. The Colonel approved the order to send in B-52 bombers from ships station off the coast of South Vietnam. After several minutes of demanding what was happening, the radio relayed that the CO had ordered a withdrawal from the village due to heavy losses.
The Colonel could hear the extent of the destruction over the radio as the CO’s shouts into the receiver failed to block out sounds of explosions and people screaming in the background. He was then informed that civilians allied with the US had been killed. Sanders understood that in war, civilian casualties were never unavoidable, but the audial description of the carnage was too much for him. The Colonel would consider himself blessed to not fight a modern war, where footage of the devastation would be brought to the monitors directly, instead of days later, if at all.
– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014
[pic:
imgur.com/m9Vftad.png ]
Daniel Overmyer shaking hands with Mims Thomason of UPI
The Overmyer Network, sometimes just called
Overmyer or
“T.O.N.” for short, is an American English-language commercial telecommunications network conglomerate headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. It is the fifth-largest broadcasting television company in the U.S. by revenue and the tenth-largest such company in the world, with service provided in over 50 countries.
[snip]
History
Overmyer was founded in Ohio on May 3, 1966. It was the brainchild of warehouse mogul and self-made millionaire Daniel H. Overmyer (1924-2012) …Under President Colonel Sanders, it became easier for businessmen to create and develop companies and businesses, which was of great benefit to Overmyer, both the man and the station. Overmyer was originally set to be formally launched on May 1, 1967, but this date was determined to be too close to the end of the traditional broadcast season, and so it was delayed until start of the next season later in the year… In its first year, Overmyer showcased 12 hours of programming per day, seven days per week, United Press International provided the news. In January 1968, Mutual Broadcasting System agreed to merge with Overmyer, which renamed the company Overmyer-Mutual Company (O.M.C.). In 1969, O.M.C. separated itself from CBS (where the plurality of their content came from) in favor of original programming, after finally managing to get clearance in major West Coast cities such as San Francisco due to offering cheaper air time to sponsors when compared to air time costs on the major networks. …After these additional mergers, O.M.C.’s name reverted back to The Overmyer network in 1971…
– clickopedia.co.usa
EXTRA! GOVERNOR SMITH DIES AT 53!
Boise, ID – Vernon K. Smith (D), our governor since 1963, passed away last night from an apparent heart attack… Our state’s Lieutenant Governor, 76-year-old William Edward Drevlow (D), has automatically succeeded him to the office of governor, but will be sworn into the office in a more formal ceremony later today…
– The Idaho Press-Tribune, 5/3/1966
As the primary neared, Congressman James B. Utt began circulating pamphlets featuring a photograph of Reagan with Truman in 1948:
[pic:
imgur.com/BptXkfV.png ]
The pamphlet read “Reagan: A Democrat in Sheep’s Clothing.” It was a blatant attempt to win over conservative voters that made little sense – Democrats and Republicans can vote in each other’s primaries, and highlighting his opponent’s ties to both parties was initially seen as increasing his chances of winning the nomination thanks to Democratic voters. It seemed the only detriment to Reagan’s campaign was him running on a platform much more conservative than the one run by President Sanders in 1964. Reagan supporting the President’s actions in Indochina but complained “he isn’t going far enough. He’s too soft. This is a war, and he wants everybody to play nice.” If anything, comments such as these were what weighed down his campaign.
…Utt ran to Reagan’s right, while Kroc continued to run on a vague moderate-to-conservative platform focusing on local issues such as prices and wages, and increasing energy and utilities, without explaining how he would help low income voters...
[snip]
Meanwhile, Colonel Sanders met with environmental activists and members of the US military overseeing nuclear testing in the Pacific. The Colonel came to the idea of address the former’s concerns while at the same time offering the chance to personally sit down with Shelepin…
– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015
“Wind and water, soil and sea, they can take radiation to every corner of the globe, and it is irresponsible to spend money on such threats to humanity. They can only destroy; they do not assure peace. The nations of the planet must prioritize: if we continue down this path, the consequences could be dire. That is why I have ordered a one-year moratorium on nuclear testing, and why I am calling for a series of talks to be held between myself and Premier Shelepin to discuss the possibility of limiting the buildup of nuclear weapons in both our nations and the world for the sake of this planet and the health of its people.
– President Sanders in an official Presidential address, 5/17/1966
“It is dangerous to even consider exposing the U.S. to the delusion that peace and compromise can be made with the Soviets. They will take this as a sign of weakness and it will embolden them to attempt to get away with further assaults on our democracy-loving foreign allies worldwide.”
– Excerpt from opinion article by ret. US Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, National Review, 5/20/1966 issue
“Mr. President, Ambassador [to Cambodia, William R.] Kane is here to see you.”
[snip]
“It can’t happen that way!”
“Saying it doesn’t make it so.”
“What about the graphs?”
“Graphs don’t make it so, either.”
“How can our troops advance into Hanoi if we’ve destroyed all the roads to Hanoi?”
“We’re not attacking all the roads! Just all but one of the roads, the one nearly south of the city. They’ll be busy running around in the mountains up there from our B-52s bombing their military centers, and while they’re handling that debacle, there’ll only be one road to Hanoi. It meanders around the mountains a ways and by this lake here, see? Charlie will see our men, for sure, and they’ll attack our land forces. But since it’s just one lane – one road, they’ll be all lined up – and with the air support and the tanks protecting our men, it’ll be like shootin’ fish in a barrel.”
“That makes no sense, Mr. President! You’ve shown me no logistics or any sign that you or your staff have actually researched what the terrain up there is like or how the Charlies will operate up there! Warfare doesn’t work that way! Didn’t you see the maps?”
“Maps don’t make it so.”
“Urgh! And you’re planning on this while also calling for a treaty with the Russians?!”
“You can walk and talk at the same time; why not handle Shelepin and Ho Chi Minh at the same time?”
“You know what the problem is with you, Colonel? You’re an idealist. You think that as President anything you want done will get done,” [snaps fingers], “like that! But the world’s too complicated for idealism to work, Colonel. You want the Charlies out, you have to go at it incrementally, or lock horns and not give a s#!t about whatever mud they sling at you. Not this full-on frontal assault bulls#!t.”
“Franke and General Weyand say this’ll work.”
“Franke and Weyand are trigger-happy a$$heads.”
“Says the man nicknamed ‘Killer.’”
“Ugh…Mr. President, this plan is going to fail, and, I’m sorry, but I can’t support you on this. And to be fair, I’ve been disagreeing with you on a lot of things, so, um…”
“So what, Kane?”
“I’m ending this tour of duty of mine early.”
“Oh…oh! And if I don’t accept a resignation letter?”
“I’ll leave anyway.”
“Go A.W.O.L., eh? …Hmm, sure can I change your mind?”
“Only if you change yours.”
“No sale.”
“…Well…it was a pleasure, Colonel Sanders. So long… and good luck. Because trust me, you’re going to need it.”
– Audio accidently recorded by the President’s Personal Secretary Wanda Boner’s Dictaphone, 5/23/1966; discovered in 2005 and released to the public in 2009 under the Freedom of Information Act of 2009
On May 25 [1966], FBI agents arrested Elijah Muhammad for tax fraud and abuse of charity funding, stemming from late 1965 allegations that the 68-year-old long-time leader of the Nation of Islam was using charity money to cover up an extramarital affair. Muhammad was also a suspect in the arson committed on Malcolm X’s home. Controversial even within the African-American community for opposing integration (famously leading to George Lincoln Rockwell, then-still on trial for an alleged assassination attempt against President Sanders, calling Muhammad “the Hitler of the black man”), Muhammad vehemently denied the allegations, but was still held without bail until his case could be reviewed. Malcolm X, meanwhile, doubted that “the white man’s form of justice will do its duty” and continued to worry for his family’s safety…
– Herb Boyd and Ilyasah Shabazz’s Malcolm vs. Martin: Violence and Peace After the End of Segregation, Chicago Third World Press, 2013
May 30, 1966: Surveyor 1 is launched
– www.nasa.gov/surveyor_program/timeline
COL. & CONGRESSMAN CALL FOR CRIME CRACK DOWN!
Brooklyn, NYC – President Colonel Sanders visited the Big Apple today to meet with Congressman Mario Biaggi to discuss anti-crime initiatives, hoping to find ways to “clean up the inner cities,” according to a Biaggi spokesman. “Congressman Biaggi’s proposed legislation would promote police departments nationwide, as in recent years they have been vilified by rebel-rousers. Society can’t grow and develop if its people live in fear.”
President Sanders echoed such concern later in the day. “Whatever happened to going to sleep in the summer with the windows wide open, or with your door unlocked? When I was just seven years old,
with my five-year-old brother and my little two-year-old sister and no adult supervision at all,
we trudged three miles across the fields to a
highway to reach Henryville so I could show Mama a
wonderful loaf of bread that I’d made.
[10] Have city folk ever been able to live like that? To be able to walk the streets with a sense of adventure instead of a sense of fear? I sure hope so – I wouldn’t want ’em missing out on something as great and wonderful as that. And if they really aren’t, then I think it’s time for a change.”
– The New York Daily News, 5/31/1966
MCDONALD’S CEO WINS GOP NOMINATION FOR CA GOVERNOR: Edges Out Reagan, Utt In Primary; Democrats Re-Nominate Brown
Sacramento, CA – Tonight, the state’s Republican primary voters, possibly hoping to capitalize off the popularity of President Sanders, another fast-food businessman–turned–politician, narrowly chose Kroc over former SAG President Ronald Reagan, retiring US Congressman James B. Utt, and Mayor George Christopher to be their party’s gubernatorial nominee. Another primary candidate, wealthy businessman William Penn Patrick, received negligible votes. …Kroc achieved a plurality of 45%, while Reagan won 30%, Utt won 14%, and Christopher won 10%; less than 1% went to all other candidates. Analysts believe Utt and Reagan split the conservative vote, allowing the ideologically-fuzzy Kroc to win the nomination by a 5% margin. …Reagan seemingly sought to distance himself from his acting days and ran a very serious campaign some pundits described as “boring,” while others saw him as being too dramatic in his seriousness, which actually helped remind audiences of his performance days. Ideologically, Reagan wavered on showcasing full conservatism on the fear that if would cost him independent voters. This wavering may have caused many to be uncertain of his campaign’s message and theme. …Ironically, another former Hollywood star who received less attention during their own run for public office was successful. Former child star Shirley Temple, now known professionally as Shirley Temple Black, won the GOP nomination for Utt’s seat...
– The Los Angeles Times, 6/7/1966
VP’S SON RETURNS FROM WAR: William Scranton III Returns Home After A 10-Month Tour Of Duty In South Vietnam
– The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/8/1966
Chong explained “So in June [1965], right after our second kid was born, my wife found out about me and Yoko and she kicked me to the curb. I thought the least I could do was pay alimony.” In early 1966,
while on tour in Chicago for a short time, the Vancouvers
followed the opening act the Jackson 5. Chong later referred to the young Michael Jackson as a “cute little guy” [11]. On June 10, 1966, Tommy Chong married Yoko Ono.
– clickopedia.co.usa/Tommy_Chong
Operation Fried Charlie was initially slated for June, starting with a bombing of the north to be followed immediately by an attack on Muang Xepon, Laos to reclaim it from the Pathet Lao concurrent with the departure of Spec Ops and other troop divisions from Laos into Vietnam.
My fellow aviators and I flew out in an impressive assembly of bombers, and we easily acquired and hit our first set of targets. How much we knew of what we were hitting was not much, but that does not matter as much as what was actually hit. CIA intelligence had identified several towns as weapons storage and manufacturing centers. Regardless of whom was to blame, though, we would later learn just how many more civilians were killed than were expected.
The most unexpected part of the phase was when our B-52s confronted the North Vietnam Air Force’s MiG-17s, an undetected gift from the Chinese. They caught us off-guard and forced us to abandon the rest of the mission as they V.C.s began picking us off one by one. The farthest any of us got was Joey’s bomber – it made it as far as five miles west of Hoa Binh, about the half-way point.
Anti-aircraft missiles on the ground near the Laotian border shot down several Omori f us down. We traced their equipment’s radar waves back to their sources and managed to eliminate some of them, but the damage was done.
Less than half of us made it back.
We had underestimated the weaponry and response time of the North.
William Franke may have labeled it a victory due to the initial targets being taken out, but due to our inability to complete the mission via acquiring the additional targets, Operation Fried Charlie Mock I was a complete failure.
– John J. Polonko Jr.’s All’s Fair: What War Makes Necessary, Hachette Book Group USA, 2007
[pic:
imgur.com/vqVqDwj.png ]
– Simple Map of planned U.S. military Operations in mid-June, 1966
Father was clearly shaken, “I made myself clear – I wanted low civilian casualties on both sides,” he seemed to say more to myself than the William Franke of the Joint Chiefs.
“It’s just a snag, Mr. President. We can still proceed with the Operation on schedule.”
Unfortunately for Franke’s optimism, it was just then that a report came in on the radio, “Sir!” the head radioman rushed over “This just in from Mahaxay, Laos – Pathet Lao forces are attacking the barracks. C.O. reports performing the Muang Xepon counterattack now will lead to Mahaxay falling. He's advising against launching the diversion attack.”
“Oh son of a bitch!” Franken uttered in a huff.
“My God, was Kane right?” I heard Father say to himself.
I asked where Ambassador Henry Lodge had gone to, seeing as how I was certain the media would soon be reporting on a massive aerial bombardment gone awry, and we needed a diplomat’s perceptive on how to spin it.
“Checking his office now, Harley,” said one of the operators.
“How many civilians?” Father ponder aloud to Franke.
Franke defended, “This was an unforeseeable consequence, Colonel. There usually are not civilians in these areas, but likely because of poor crops last year, many local farmers were expanding their fields and working hours – ”
“How many civilians on both sides did we lose?” he said a bit louder
“ – and well, suffice it to say, sir, casualties were higher than expected.”
Father’s shock had now turned to anger, “Consarn it! How many did we lose?”
“A lot.”
“Yes, but how many?”
“Dozens on our sides, over a thousand on their side at the least.”
"Oh, Dang-blast it,” Father’s face as turning red with rage.
“It’s a tactical victory, sir,” William commented.
Father was quick to reply, “Over a thousand, Bill! Have you forgotten what I said already?” Father groaned in frustration and returned to his spot on the couch, the situation weighing down on him like a flour sack on a runt mule. He folded his hands atop his cane as he mulled over his thoughts, venting the anger out through his nostrils until his breathing was calmer. Then he sighed to himself “Lord forgive me” before asking, “Any word on where Henry is?”
“Still waiting for a reply from his office, sir.”
Father sunk a bit in his seat. To me, he had a look that for most of his life he had rarely ever worn, but was wearing the look more and more often every day, it seemed. He looked like he was lost for what to do next.
I took a seat beside him, “Don’t worry, Pop. We’ll figure this out.”
[snip]
…Father replied …“We tried this approach here, and it hasn’t worked. In my opinion, the situation is now worse. They [the Russians] could now be even more reluctant to sit down with us…one thousand, my god…”
After a brief moment of thought, I commented, “we fought fire with fire, but it wasn’t the right fire.” My eye wandered over to the picture of George Washington hanging on the wall nearby, and I commented, “You know, you remind me a lot of him, Father. He swore like a madman and still found glory in the darkest of times through sheer resilience. Crossing the Delaware in the frigid cold and all that.”
Father suddenly lifted in head in revelation, “By gummit, that’s it!”
“What is?”
“Junior, how’d we win the Revolutionary War? By standing in orderly lines? No, that’s what the British did and they lost! Gentlemen!” He now turned his attention to his other advisers, huddled around at the main table.
“Yes sir!” they all barked.
“We have to try a more effective approach. We tried to go in there with our most advanced tools and
this was the response,” holding up one of the photos [an aerial image of the target sites]. “No, no, we have to be more clandestine. Gentlemen, I think we need to seriously organize a 'un-criticize-able' response to this mess. We need to tweak our traditional approaches. But not only that! There’s also something else on my mind.”
“You got some ideas, Pop?” I asked curiously, a small grin forming on my face.
“Oh, just wait, Junior,” Father chuckled, “Like my chicken before it’s fried, we ain’t licked yet!”
“Sir,” William interjected, “We’ve been over this before, superior firepower was absolutely necessary.”
“You and your so-called experts have been spoutin’ that line for six years and it’s gotten us nowhere. Now I’m the commander-in-chief here, and I say we finally give Abrams’ idea of a more careful approach a try, and finally lead our Indochinese friends into an invasion of the north. And if you refuse, well, the exit’s right over there!”
William conceded, “Alright, Mr. President, alright.”
“And if it’s obvious we won’t be done in Vietnam a year by this time next year, we’ll try something else. We'll, I dunno, do some more bombing or something. Deal?” putting his hand out like he was back to being a hand-shaking businessman.
“Very well, Mr. President,” William shook, and with the rest of Father’s advisors began to listen to the President on fine-tuning the time-table of the resolution of the conflict.
“Alright. Everyone listen up. Listen, if we have these Kongers firing at us from the bushes, we’ve got to crawl under those bushes. They shoot us down, now we’ve got to sneak up from below – uh, from behind. Back in March, we lost this Muang Xepon place because our giant choppers made ’em know we were comin’ for them, remember? And now we’ve got a hitch in the plans because our planes caught attention – why wouldn’t they? We used a
ginormous fleet of bombers for this! I think that we’re going to have to use more discreet and inconspicuous tools – tanks, trucks, even our God-given legs if we have to in order to not get the enemy’s attention. Because that’s what did this – we were too noticeable in the field. We’ve got to be more discreet. We’ve got to fight like how they fight – careful and attentively.”
“So what about the Operation?” Franke inquired.
“It’ll be too obvious now. The North already have their planes in the air and we didn’t take out the secondary targets. It’d be a bloodbath to attack now, when they’re expecting it. No, instead we’re going to put off the direct invasion for a little while, continue to train our troops, and get a better grip on the enemy’s view of things until we know for sure that the invasion can happen without a single hiccup.”
– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991
NOTE(S)/SOUCRE(S)
[1] According to the link given in the second footnote, P.B.L. actually approached her at some point in the year 1966, but the inevitability is sped up here due to there being more interest in French cooking earlier due to the election of the cook known as Colonel Sanders and the political events in France renewing American awareness of French cooking (and butterflies, but just a dash for flavor).
[2] Italicized lines and other information are from here:
www.mentalfloss.com/article/87058/how-julia-child-got-white-house-state-dinner-television
[3] Line is a paraphrase of a quote found here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/asia/norodom-sihanouk-cambodian-leader-through-shifting-allegiances-dies-at-89.html
[4] Here’s the cobbler recipe found in the Colonel’s OTL 1966 autobio:
https://imgur.com/ZLrKkYX.png
[5] Source of quote:
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/degaulle-offers-to-help-end-vietnam-war
[6] Quote from OTL:
https://psmag.com/news/the-freedom-of-information-act-and-the-hero-who-pioneered-it
[7] The Southwest monsoon is from April to September, and the northeast monsoon is from October to March. Source:
https://www.travelfish.org/weather/vietnam .
[8] OTL Quote!
[9]
I swear that I’m not ripping off Abe Lincoln’s Camelot TL here, as I’m going in a different direction with this!
[10] OTL Quote pulled from Chapter 1, Page 15 of Sanders’ OTL 1966 autobiography.
[11] Source 10 on Chong’s wiki article.
E.T.A. For the next Chapter: May 9
Note: I’m actually very wary about how I wrote this; if anything is confusing or poorly written, please let me know so I can fix/correct/expand upon/improve it. Thanks!
So Reagan out for the count?
Or will we see anymore of him?
Oh no, I have ...plans... for The Gipper...