Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline

Basically, during Politics class, I sit beside this guy whose whole existence is that he works full time at KFC outside school for a slave wage, and as such is willing to blame anyone or anything he sees as "feminist" for his being there (nevermind how he almost left, but chose to stay anyway a couple times).

As a joke I showed this TL to him as a way of saying "Hey, at least you're only serving a fast food chain, and not the leader of the free world".

He didn't take it well.
 
Chapter 24: December 1965 – June 1966
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!”

yVv31cJ.png

[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.”

jEv9zev.png

[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”…

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[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



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[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:

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[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



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– 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...
 
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That was a huge chapter!

Kroc in government will have a huge effect on McD’s.

Sanders going for the clandestine approach was a novel way of avoiding civilian casualties. Wonder if he’ll call in any French expertise on the area?

Oko didn’t marry John. Good.

Has Jacko found a mentor there I wonder?
 
I just realized something--we're where the Prologue started, IIRC...

Wonder what happens from here, and waiting for more...
 
Chapter 25: June 1966 – December 1966
Chapter 25: June 1966 – December 1966

“It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action.”

– Al Batt



HELEN THOMAS (United Press International): “Are the reports true that this was a failed invasion of the North?”

PRESS SECRETARY RON ZIEGLER: “No, those reports are speculative. Let me set the record straight – this was a surprise attack from the North Vietnamese during a routine bombing run near the North Vietnam border. The lopsided casualty count clearly shows we repelled their attempt to attack the Laos capital.”

THOMAS: “But what about the reports of high civilian casualties in North Vietnam?”

ZIEGLER: “Those reports are currently unsubstantiated and lack hard facts. We will release information concerning civilian deaths when they’re available.”

DAN RATHER (CBS News): “When did the President learn of this alleged attack?”

ZIEGLER: “At the usual time.”

DAVID BRODER (Washington Post): “How many of the civilian casualties were women and children?”

ZIEGLER: “David, I just said it, we’ll get that information when more concrete reporting arrives – ”

THOMAS: “So you don’t know what’s going on over there?”

ZIEGLER: “No, the, uh, the proper people are doing their job and the information is being passed along the chain of command. The President is aware of what has happened at the Laotian border, and the details will be released when they are confirmed to be fact and not just speculation.”

RATHER: “What does the President plan to do about this aggression from the North?”

ZIEGLER: “Well Dan, if we gave that away, the Viet Cong would know ahead of time, wouldn’t they?”

THOMAS: “Can you tell us anything about the deaths of American soldiers in this attack?”

ZIEGLER: “They died heroically defending an American ally. And, yep, that’s all the time I have. Thank you for your time, everyone.”

– Transcript of dialogue from White House press briefing between Ron Ziegler and the White House Press Corp, 6/17/1966



The American Press supported the Colonel’s story, but Shelepin knew the true details; American forces instigated a failed bombardment of key military strongholds and were now orchestrating a cover up. Publicly, Shelepin capitalized on the incident’s death toll regardless of its true context to finally publicly respond to the Colonel’s treaty proposal with the statement “The blood spilled in Indochina is proof of American oppression, and I refuse to engage in talks of such a treaty with an entity so uncaring that it kills innocents overseas without so much as a flinch.”

Privately, it seemed Shelepin did not enjoy the very existence of the direct phone line established between the Kremlin and the White House in early 1962, let alone the thought of using it. Nevertheless, he did speak with his American counterpart over the incident; the discussion was “short, cold and unproductive.”

Of course, I learned all this from my predecessors; I was only a 16-year-old secondary school student when all of this was happening…

– Alexander Korzhakov’s autobiography From Dawn to Dusk: A Cutthroat Career, St. Petersburg Press, 1997



I spent the three-day Fourth of July weekend that year back in Corbin. On the night of the fireworks, and the booming had ceased, I looked out to the fields of grass outside my old homestead. I saw the lightning bugs dancing around. Did you know that the lightning bug lights up to tell each other where they are. That’s why whenever one bug lights up, another one does, too. I watched them jump around and see each other, and it was nice to see how light can still be found in even the darkest places.

[snip]

I thought out loud, “The world ain’t gonna change for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re President, you can’t snap your fingers and make things alright in a flash. But you can make things a bit better, especially when you find someone in the darkness. Together you can get things going in the right direction at the very least.”

[snip]

After returning from the break, I resumed work on America’s domestic and foreign problems. First, I headed damage control: I demanded a better hold of equipment, telling the generals “you can’t let equipment be captured by the Charlies. It looks like they’re very resourceful this that kind of stuff.”

– Colonel Sanders’ Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good, Creation House publishing, 1974



“Let me be clear. I’m an ass-whooper – not a throat-cutter!”

– Colonel Sanders during an Oval Office meeting with Secretary Carl Curtis, 6/7/1966 (multiple sources)



INDOCHINA BOMBINGS HALTED INDEFINITELY OVER HIGH CIVILIAN DEATHS

The Colonel: “We Are Not Butcherers”

…The President is calling for a “tweeked traditional” approach to the US’s strategy in combating the Pathet Lao. ...According to one source, ground troops are reporting being trained to “fight differently,” those cause this means precisely is currently unclear…

The New York Times, 7/8/1966



The 1966 General elections were held in Cuba on 10 July of that year to determine who would serve as President for the next six years, and to determine who would serve in the Cuba Chamber of Representatives. The Chamber was dominated by three Chamber party leaders, all of which vied for party majority or party plurality in the chamber, which would make the party’s leader the next Prime Minister. Voter turnout was high as voter intimidation was ruled to be a highly criminal offense earlier in the year.

The presidential candidates were the following:
Rufo Lopez-Fresquet of the Conservative Party (heavily pro-American hard-right conservative party)
Carlos Prio Socarras of the New Authentic Party (“third position” party)
Col. Pepe San Roman of the Stability Party (left-leaning centrist party)

Due to lack of funds, the Nationalist Party chose to not run a candidate for Presidency in order to instead focus on gaining seats in the Chamber. …San Roman, 36, was a War Hero with strong ties to the United States… Former President Prio, whom had been overthrown by Fulgencio Batista in 1952, ran for his old position on a campaign that focused on civility, self-enrichment and major public-works projects…

[snip]

Presidential election results:

MpQCMys.png

[pic!: imgur.com/MpQCMys.png ]
The party leaders in the Chamber of Representatives were the following:
Manuel Ray Rivero of the Stability Party (left-leaning centrist party)
Manuel Artime of the Conservative Party (heavily pro-American hard-right conservative party)
Felipe Rivero Diaz of the Nationalist Party (anti-American and anti-Communist right-leaning centrist party)
Capt. Erneido Oliva of the New Authentic Party (“third position” party)

[snip]

Oliva was a brigade commander under the command of San Roman during the War, and fought valiantly in the 1963 Battle of Santa Clara.

…Artime won with a plurality of 43%, with Rivero Diaz coming in second place with 35%, Ray Rivero in third place with 14%, and Oliva in fourth place with 7%. Artime formed a coalition government with Ray Rivero to obtain majority control, making Artime Prime Minister and Ray Rivero Deputy Prime Minister. Despite feeling that he should have received the position of Deputy Prime Minister due to his second-place performance, Rivero Diaz, as a showing of good faith, declined to contest the election results as U.N. personnel closely observed the polling stations on election night of confirmed the results were “fair and unadulterated.” Instead, he held a rally where he congratulated his “good political friend.”

[snip]

Under Cuba’s 1965 constitution, the President can serve for more than just one 6-year term, but cannot succeed himself into office.

– clickopedia.co.cuba/1966_general_election/english_translation



It was a powder keg just waiting to go off at some point, and that point came on August 20, 1966. It was becoming increasingly difficult for us [African-Americans] to even exist in the city of Milwaukee. Oh sure, there was room for a Little Germany area, and a Little Poland community, and “polish flats” neighborhoods and all that, but no room for us Black folk, apparently. You see, many of us at the time were moving on up north to get away from the racists, would-be segregationists and Klansmen that pretty much still controlled the South at the time, no matter what the federal government said about it. But when we got up here, we surprisingly found ourselves in an oppressive and unwelcoming land anyway. Only colder. The city lacked any opportunities for fair jobs and education for its new Black citizens, and soon we went from fields and sweatshops in the south to factories and ghettos in the north.

The anger everyone felt from the predicament came to a head on that day, when 50 Germans, Jews and Poles got fired from a highway construction site off I-94. Some of the men went and got drunk at a bar, blaming their misfortunes on the Blacks. The men then got into their cars and drove to the north side of town, the predominantly Black side of town.

The first Black man they saw, they stopped, got out of their cars and started beating the poor guy. My walk that day led me to the scene just as the riot broke out. Several Black men came to the beaten guy’s defense with violence of their own. The unusually hot weather of that sunny summer day only added to the rage that quickly fanned out into the surrounding area, soon leading to homes ruined, blood spilled, and rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown. And then, well, it wasn’t long before the city made headline news across the country.

– Long-time Milwaukee resident C. T. Jackson, for the Alicia Garza documentary Blacks Still Matter, released 2013



Violent “Race Riot” Overwhelms Milwaukee Police & Residents

– The Wisconsin State Journal, 7/21/1966



VP SCRANTON VISITS MILWAUKEE AMIDST RACE RIOTS, PLEADDS FOR VIOLENCE TO END

…In his speech, the Vice President called for peace and reconciliation between “all members of this richly diverse city.” Arguing the negative attention that follows cities hit by riots, Scranton argued continuing the violence would inhibit the passing of laws that would help the rioters’ cause. …“This riot, as terrible and destructive as it is,” Scranton continued, “highlights the very issues that must end – not just here, but anywhere and everywhere else in these United States where school districts, neighborhoods, and entire communities are divided on race, and where these divisions are strengthened by education and employment inequality. …Any prohibition of any of our fellows American citizens from having a life that is free and equal, solely due to their skin color or any other type of prejudice, is a betrayal of the very foundations and ideals of this republic.” The Vice President then met with police officials and local community leaders in an attempt to deescalate the situation…

– The Milwaukee Journal, 7/23/1966



MILWAUKEE RIOT SIMMERS DOWN AS MAYOR ORDER INVESTIGATION INTO CITY POLICE BRUTALITY

VP Scranton Credited For Contributing to Defusing Debacle

The Chicago Tribune, 7/24/1966



RALPH NADER, PUBLIC SAFETY AUTHOR, SWORN IN TO NEW GOVERNMENT JOB TODAY

Washington, D.C. – Lawyer and safety advocate Ralph Nader, the author of the highly-acclaimed groundbreaking exposé “Unsafe at Any Speed,” has just become the first Administrator of the newly-created National Roadways Safety Administration. The agency, a subsection of the Cabinet-level Department of Transportation founded last year, was established one week ago, and aims to ensure that automobiles on America’s streets, and related public roadwork projects, meet federal safety standards. Nader, age 32, was sworn into office earlier today…

– The Associated Press, 8/7/1966



It was early August, 1966. During that summer, I joined Howard Baker’s run for a full term in the United States Senate. I was campaigning on the campus grounds of Middle Tennessee State University, in the city of Murfreesboro, when I met my future husband. George was earning degrees in music and drama while trying to start his own music career. I met him on the campus quad, where I was passing out fliers for Baker. After a few minutes of conversation, George formally introduced himself with a poor impersonation of James Bond that I, for some strange reason, found to be very charming: “the name’s Clinton, George Stanley Clinton.” [1]

– Hillary Rodham-Clinton (R-TN), in her autobiography The Decisions I Have Made, 2016




EDUCATION COMPROMISE BILL INTRODUCED

…aiming to placate conservative and liberal congressional leaders, the proposed legislation would deregulate school courses and agendas but not deregulate federal funding…

– The Washington Post, 8/12/1966



www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nzAQunevOQ
– KFC commercial for KFC’s BBQ chicken (NOT Ribs); the Colonel, busy being President, is noticeably absent from it; first aired 8/14/1966



ANCHOR: …Tragedy struck the affluent Kennedy political family today in the form of another Cam bombing in the Republic of Ireland. Details are not yet in, but it seems that Kennedy in-law Stephen Smith was killed in a car bombing in New Ross, County Wexford. Stephen Edward Smith, financial analyst and political strategist for former Secretary of State Jack Kennedy, and his wife Jean Kennedy Smith, were visiting Jean Kennedy Smith’s ancestral home in nearby Dunganstown when the taxi they were about to travel in detonated. Jean Kennedy Smith received non-serious injuries in the blast, and is being treated at a local hospital. According to the New Ross chief of police, a local politician vocally critical of the nationalist extremist terror organization, the I.R.A., was in the vicinity when bomb detonated. The current working theory is that the bomb was meant for the local politician and not for Mr. Smith… [2]

[snip]

…We have an update on the death of the American citizen in Ireland… The office of John D. J. Moore Jr., the US Ambassador to Ireland, has released a statement condemning the attack as one of, quote, “blatant disregard for human life and safety,” and a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said this just moments ago:

FOOTAGE: We are speaking with members of Prime Minister Brown’s government to determine the best path forward to bringing to justice the perpetrators in question. Rest assured, these zealot nationalists will pay for the deaths of Mr. Stephen Smith and the several Irish and British citizens killed by their reckless and malicious acts.

ANCHOR: Senator Richard Nixon, a friend of Ambassador Moore, has reportedly contacted Moore to discuss the situation further. Meanwhile, President Sanders and hundreds of others are contacting the Kennedy political family to express their deepest sympathies…

– NBC News, 8/20/1966 broadcast



…George Lincoln Rockwell, the founder of the American Nazi Party who was found guilty of attempted murder earlier this month, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison…

– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News 8/27/1966 broadcast



1966 was a critical year for the four. In April, Brian Epstein, their young and emotionally fragile manager, was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning following a bender in which he sought to drink away the stress and anxious woes of the band’s meteoric rise to fame. Reeling from nearly dying in that incident, the Beatles thanked him “for making [them] what [they]’ve become” with a mellow song that proved to be surprising therapeutic for Epstein – it was entitled “Breathe” “When Epstein would get stressed, humming it would help. Years of therapy and love and support did wonders for him, too,” Ringo noted in 1969. After “Breathe” was released as a single on June 4, 1966, it became one of the band’s most iconic songs, topping the charts and becoming “The Hit of Summer ’66.”

Tumbleweed Magazine article, 1971 commemorative issue



YOUTH POWER IN THE MIDTERMS

By Hunter S. Thompson

…But Leary is not the only politician with enough uniqueness and energetic rebellion to likely get shoutniks off their asses and actually vote for them in November. Lar Daly of Illinois, the liberal Republican challenging Paul Douglas’s Senate seat, is winning over Chicago-based shoutniks... Up north, Alaskan shoutniks, even any even exist, must be pleased with the dovish rhetoric of the Democratic nominee for their at-large congressional seat, a charismatic state congressman and former real estate developer named Mike Gravel; Gravel criticized our Colonel President on the House floor last month for unofficially dropping calls to sign an anti-nuclear testing treaty with the Soviets, and Gravel has consistently called for the termination of nuclear testing in his home state, in a campaign showing that even the remote Eskimos are affected by the geopolitics of today. …An unlikely ally of the shoutniks in Leary’s home state is John Moss, the antithesis to Gravel in terms of flamboyancy... Mo Udall of Arizona and Don Edwards have embraced shoutnik endorsements concerning environmental and anti-war issues, respectively... But endorsements aren’t votes. If the progressive youngsters behind Morse ’64 want to actually see change happen, they’re going to have to lift up the record player needle and get in line to vote.

Tumbleweed Magazine article, Sept 1966 issue



The Colonel’s day was even busier than usual. First, he met with the main Generals and the Joint Chiefs in the Lincoln room to discuss something called the Red Bird Report and how to apply it to “Plan B.” I don’t have the clearance to know what all that is, but my guess is that it has something to do with that fumble back in the summer. I’ve heard through the grape vine it was not exactly a surprise attack on from North Vietnam, but I don’t buy it. I believe the Colonel; he’s never lied to me before. Besides, I don’t trust Debbie from Interior anyway! Then he met with several Congressmen about some bill…

– Private Journal of President Sanders’ Personal Secretary Wanda Boner, 9/2/1966 entry



CONSERVATIVES KILL BILINGUAL EDUCATION BILL IN COMMITTEE

...the bilingual education bill was rejected by the Senate after conservative opposition while the bill was still in committee. The bill was part of several lingering proposals from President Johnson’s Great Society programs... …Senator Cotton defended his position with the line, “We are already a divided people – divided over war, over liberal and conservative pools of thought, divided over culture and tradition, divided over many things. We can’t as a nation afford to become even more divided by creating language barriers between each other.” …Another Republican, Congressman Gerald Ford of Michigan, commented “Canada’s been doing the bilingual thing for decades, and they are still constantly arguing and debating and fighting over it. Let’s not be like Canada, and instead, let’s maintain unity in the form of everyone being able to understand each other in the easiest way possible – one nation, one language.” …The bill’s defenders pledge to re-introduce the bill next year...

– The Washington Post, 9/5/1966



…While several candidates vied for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Washington, D.C. tonight, the ultimate winner has surprised everyone, including the winner himself. While the early frontrunner were Walter Fauntroy and Polly Shackleton, both of whom have been members of the city council since early 1962, the winner ended up being an energetic underdog fueled by young voter turnout and heavily supported by members of the Civil Rights movement and the shoutnik subculture – Clifford Leopold Alexander Jr., a 33-year-old African-American lawyer. Alexander is not a political tenderfoot – he was a White House staff member from 1961 to 1964, and has served on the city council since early 1964. Still, his youth may make the general election competitive if it turns out to be a detriment to final home run of this campaign.

– ABC News broadcast, election night news coverage, 9/6/1966



…and in last night’s primary for governor of New York, Congressman Mario Biaggi has edged out city council President Frank O’Connor for the Democratic nomination. A political neophyte, the conservative Biaggi’s victory is an unexpected upset but is likely the result of the left-wing Democratic vote being split between O’Connor and Mr. Howard J. Samuels...

– NBC News, 9/7/1966 broadcast



September 20, 1966: Surveyor 2 is launched

www.nasa.gov/surveyor_program/timeline



G.I.’s Score Big Victory as US Airborne Unit Ousts Vietcong from Key Border Stronghold

…coupled with South Vietnamese ground troops, control of the eastern third of the Thua Thien Hue Province was wrestled away from the V.C. early Monday… When Charlies attempted a ground counterattack, the fighting moved out of the neighboring foliage and into the streets of A-Luoi. The V.C.s gave it everything they got, but in the end their numbers were overwhelmed by superior strategy and US-SV collaboration.

…Colonel Jack L. Hawkins at Headquarters is confident “the zealous lunatics tearing apart this country are doomed to failure.” He explains “The locals are welcoming us; we are liberating the villages and their communities of their oppressors.” South Vietnam troops proved to be capable of holding their own on the battlefield, which is pivotal to the army maintaining peace once this conflict concludes. “They’re getting better at coordinating,” Hawkins confirms, “We’re teaching them to respect rank, to pass along information; and we’re working with President Khanh to root out corruption – um, any alleged corruption, that is”…

Stars and Stripes, 9/21/1966



The Colonel began his administration wanting to settle foreign conflicts quickly, but the summer misstep gave him pause. He determined it was imperative for the CIA and the Pentagon regains credibility. As a result, Sanders met with Director Dulles on several occasions… Sanders was unwilling to announce a new and higher draft call, arguing “the folks who want to fight are the ones already over there. This is a fight for fighters.” The Colonel also decided that the U.S.-S.V. forces possibly needed outside help for the unofficially-dubbed “Operation Fried Charlie 2.0.” In late September, Sanders agreed with South Korea’s President Park Chung-hee to let South Korean volunteer troops participate in activities in Laos and South Vietnam under the Many Flags Program (a military support campaign still in use since its founding in 1963 under the Johnson administration) in return for monetary compensation and military defense support. The Republic of Korea Forces Indochina Field Command landed in the Lao capital of Vientiane in October.

The Colonel sought international support among European allies, but across the pond, Brown was already growing weary of foreign policy woes. Already troubled over Ian Smith’s calls for independence in Rhodesia, increasingly violent racial strife in South Africa, and an increasingly deadly Cam Bomb campaign on the Emerald Isle threatening to cause a refugee crisis as non-Catholic Britons contemplated fleeing Northern Ireland to the rest of the U.K., Prime Minister George Brown was hesitant to give Sanders any support. By September, Sanders convinced Brown to provide intelligence support, some military weapons, and jungle training. Publicly, Brown continued to refuse to help the U.S.; publicly and privately, he refused to send any U.K. troops to the region for fear of political reprisal from the doves in his party.

According to former White House staff member Jennifer Salt, the Colonel sought advice concerning Indochina from Charles de Gaulle instead of President Mitterrand due to political differences and the friendly acquaintanceship previously established between the two septuagenarians in question.

– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014



National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Bill Passes Senate: Sanders to Sign It “Soon”

– The New York Times, 9/29/1966



VP SCRANTON’S SON: WAR IN INDOCHINA IS “HELLISH”

…In a candid radio interview, freshman student and former army private William W. Scranton III said “I shouldn’t be saying this, because my dad and the Colonel really do want to do what’s right, but in my experience, war is the organized execution of mankind’s worst sins.” …Scranton explained further, “My experience was hellish…” and that “[war is]…only admirable to the sadistic.” …

– The Yale Daily News, college newspaper, 9/30/1966



McDonald’s CEO SAYS “Only the employed should have the right to vote.”

San Diego, CA – …addressing a crowd of immigrant farm workers earlier today, Ray Kroc proclaimed his opinion that “It doesn’t matter if you are here legally or illegally. If you’re getting paid in one way or another to contribute to the economy, then you should be able to vote for who’ll influence and control the economy. If you aren’t working, and helping society, why should you have the right to vote?” The remark was an attempt to win over the state’s Hispanic community, but instead may have backfired spectacularly. …several organizations supporting retirees and homemakers have sided with conservatives critical of immigrants in condemning Kroc’s remarks…

– The Washington Post, reporting on Kroc’s (in)famous gaffe, 10/3/1966



lqyah9Q.png

[pic: imgur.com/lqyah9Q.png ]
– US H.E.W. Secretary Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY), left, discussing with President Harland “Colonel” Sanders (R-KY), right, the monetary benefits and detriments of reforming to process of below-market interest loans for housing development projects in the next fiscal year, H.E.W. Department function, c. 10/5/1966 (autographed photo sold ontech, most likely signed by the President at a campaign event)



BROWN’S LSD CONTROL LAW ENTERS EFFECT; Leary Vows to “Fight” Its Enforcement

Sacramento, CA – On May 31 of this year, Nevada and California became the first states in the nation to outlaw the promsiscuous [sic] use of the dream drug LSD. Nevada Gov. Grant Sawyer and California Gov. Edmund G. Brown signed similar LSD control bills into law. The statutes were generally the same. Each outlaws the manufacture, sale and possession of the drug but permits its use in supervised research projects. The California statute makes possession or knowing use of hallucination- causing drug [sic] a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 or a year in jail. …Backers of both bills claimed the illicit use of LSD and similar drugs was reaching epidemic proportions on college campuses…

…Dr. Timothy Leary, a controversial supporter of LSD, said control laws were “hysterical” and “unrealistic.” He suggested that Brown (and presumably Sawyer) should take the drug and “discover first hand why the young people of his state are willing to risk prison to expand their consciousness.”
[3]

The start of the law coincides with another controversy surrounding the gubernatorial campaign of Dr. Leary. Opponents question his connection to the state as has only lived in California since 1963, after being dismissed from the staff of Harvard University for controversial experiments and testing of LSD on student volunteers.

Dr. Richard Alpert of Harvard, a supporter of Dr. Leary, claims the attacks on Leary are “corrupt exaggerations” and that Leary should be given “the same amount of respect that the more established politicians give each – publicly, I mean, the amount of respect they publicly give each other.”

– The San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/6/1966



My friend’s face had more blood than skin on it. But the bridge was worse – just a skeletal frame now. His death was not in vein. I called in the hit. Our CO radio it in, saying “Tell the Colonel we’ve taken out the target.”

– ret. U.S. Army Gen. Ronald Lawrence “Ron” Kovic’s memoirs Born on the Fourth of July, Spirit of Freedom Publishing, 2010



The key bridge at Lanong being destroyed part just a part of the overall campaign to wipe out as many of the Viet Cong’s amenities as possible. The VC were very adaptable and quick builders, “like tropical Amish devils,” General Kovic would once infamously call them. Roads and weapons and underground tunnels were one thing, but bridges were another matter for them. The materials and hours of manpower and labor required to reconnect the relevant trails inhibited their efforts. Subsequently, their attacks became less frequent as supplies took longer to transport. Like the man once said, “It doesn’t take a genius to know you should check if you’re packing for a knife fight or a gun fight,” and the months and months of studying the enemy were finally starting to pay off. Our morale was boosting. Sanders’ idea was working.

…In Saigon, Secretary Bonesteel coined the term “Foreign Americanization” for the process of training SV soldiers with their own knowledge of local terrain and customs…

…Charlies popping out of the ground like prairie dogs continued to be a thorn in our side, though...

Finally, on October 13, some good news came when an airborne unit took out Nguyen Van Coc – a N.V. fighter ace allegedly responsible for six air-to-air combat kills. His skill and precision with his aircraft set him apart from his fellow flyers – which allowed our men to spot him, outflank him, and finally take him down.

– John J. Polonko Jr.’s All’s Fair: What Makes War Necessary & What War Makes Necessary, Hachette Book Group USA, 2007



It was rejuvenating for Lyndon to return to a more active role in the Democratic Party. Of course, many Congressmen and Senators had their reservations about embracing the man they blamed for losing the White House just two years prior. Several former pro-segregation congressmen actively and vocally distanced themselves away from him. But Lyndon focused more on promoting those who embraced his support, believing those who didn’t would lose to primary challengers he backed, like what happened in 1962 over the Civil Rights Act. So in the fall, Lyndon resumed flexing his political muscles, starting with backroom meetings with local unions to promote Democrats in the rust belt to combat the Vice President’s popularity in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And while Lyndon kept himself busy, Ladybird was relieved he was now, in her words, “too happy being too busy and too happy to smoke.”

– Bobby Baker, RNN interview, 1979



George Brown’s Labour government lodged the UK’s second application to join the European Economic Community (known as the Common Market outside of the U.K.) on 20 October 1966. Without de Gaulle being in power to veto it like he did during the UK’s first application, relations with France warmed upon Mitterrand supporting the move, which allowed Brown to negotiate terms for admission in order for the U.K. to join the Community by the end of 1967.

– William D. Rubinstein’s Twentieth-Century Britain: A Political History, Palgrave Publishers, 2003



MIDTERM MANIA: G.O.P. SUPPORT LESS THAN EXPECTED BY PARTY LEADERS AFTER LATEST POLLING

…Congressman Gerald Ford (R-MI) was caught complaining, “We’ve revived the economy, Pathet Lao is on the run, and small businesses are sprouting up left and right! We should be trouncing the liberals in the polls.” …Senator Dirksen, on the other hand, is more optimistic, saying “The voters are well-informed and will make the right decisions in election night.”

– The Washington Post, 10/27/1966



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– Sanders with Senator Bud Wilkinson (right, adjusting his tie), Harley Sanders (far right, just out of frame) and two unidentified staffers at a campaign stop outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, c. late October 1966



SOUTH VIETNAM FORCES FALL BACK TO DEFENSE AS V.C. ADVANCE IN KON TUM PROVINCE

– The Washington Post, 10/30/1966



KIRK’S EX-WIFE: “CLAUDE’S AN OUT-OF-CONTROL ALCOHOLIC”

…With one week left to go until the election for governor, Republican nominee Claude Kirk’s numbers are suffering... Kirk’s counterclaim that the reports “are baseless attempts at character assassination” appears to be failing as his opponent, Mayor Robert King High (D), continues to lead in the polls….

– The Palm Beach Post, 11/1/1966



United States Senate election results, 1966
Date: November 8, 1966
Seats: 36 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Senate minority leader: Everett Dirksen (R-IL)
Seats before election: 55 (D), 45 (R)
Seats after election: 58 (D), 42 (R)
Seat change: D ^ 3, R v 3

Full list:
Alabama: incumbent John Sparkman (D) over John Grenier (R)
Alaska: incumbent Bob Bartlett (D) over Lee L. McKinley (R)
Arkansas: incumbent John L. McClellan (D) unopposed
Colorado: incumbent Gordon L. Allott (R) over Byron Johnson (D) and Henry Olshaw (HIP)
Delaware: incumbent J. Caleb Boggs (R) over James M. Tunnell Jr. (D)
Georgia: incumbent Richard Russell Jr. (D) over J. B. Stoner (HIP)
Idaho: incumbent Len Jordan (R) over Ralph Harding (D)
Illinois: incumbent Paul Douglas (D) over Lawrence J. S. “Lar” Daly (R) and Robert Sabonjian (HIP)
Iowa: incumbent Jack Miller (R) over E. B. Smith (D) and Robert D. Dilley (HIP)
Iowa (special): Harold Hughes (D) over incumbent appointee Henry Oscar Talle (R)
Kansas: incumbent James B. Pearson (R) over George W. Snell (HIP), James Floyd Breeding (D) and Earl Dodge (Prohibition)
Kentucky: incumbent John Sherman Cooper (R) over Gaines P. Wilson (D)
Louisiana: incumbent Allen J. Ellender (D) unopposed
Maine: incumbent Margaret Chase Smith (R) over Elmer H. Violette (D)
Massachusetts: incumbent Ed Brooke (R) over Endicott Peabody (D)
Michigan: incumbent appointee Robert P. Griffin (R) over Richard F. Vander Veen (D)
Minnesota: incumbent Walter Mondale (D) over Robert A. Forsythe (R)
Mississippi: incumbent James Eastland (D) over Prentiss Walker (R) and Clifton R. Whitley (I)
Montana: incumbent Lee Metcalf (D) over Tim M. Babcock (R)
Nebraska: incumbent appointee Dwight W. Burney (R) over C. Armstrong Callan (D)
New Hampshire: incumbent Thomas J. McIntyre (D) over Chester Earl Merrow (R)
New Jersey: incumbent Clifford P. Case (R) over Warren W. Wilentz (D)
New Mexico: incumbent Clinton Presba Anderson (D) over Anderson Carter (R)
North Carolina: incumbent B. Everett Jordan (D) over John S. Shallcross (R)
Oklahoma: incumbent Bud Wilkinson (R) over Fred R. Harris (D)
Oregon: Mark Hatfield (R) over Robert B. Duncan (D)
Rhode Island: incumbent Claiborne Pell (D) over Ruth M. Briggs (R)
South Carolina: incumbent Strom Thurmond (R) over Bradley Morrah (D)
South Carolina (special): incumbent appointee Fritz Hollings (D) over Marshall Parker (R) [4]
South Dakota: incumbent Karl Earl Mundt (R) over Donn H. Wright (D)
Tennessee: incumbent Howard Baker (R) over Frank G. Clement (D)
Texas: Lyndon B. Johnson (D) over incumbent John G. Tower (R) and Bruce Alger (HIP)
Virginia: incumbent A. Willis Robertson (D) over James P. Ould Jr. (R) and F. Lee Hawthorne (HIP)
Virginia (special): incumbent appointee Harry F. Byrd Jr. (D) over Lawrence M. Traylor (R) and John W. Carter (I)
West Virginia: incumbent Jennings Randolph (D) over Francis J. Love (R)
Wyoming: Gale W. McGee (D) over Clifford P. Hansen (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



BROOKE BEATS ODDS IN HISTORIC U.S. SENATE RACE!

…Edward William “Ed” Brooke III (R-MA) is set to become the first Black American to serve in the US Senate since Republican politician Blanche Kelso Bruce represented Mississippi in that chamber from 1875 to 1881. As Senators were elected by state legislatures in Bruce’s day, Brooke’s election tonight marks the very first time that a Black American has won the popular vote in a race for a US Senate seat. “Brooke’s victory tonight demonstrates the diversity of American ideology,” remarked his campaign manager to reporters ahead of Brooke’s victory speech, in which the Senator-elect pledged to pursue policy to aid “all families and all workers,” as Brooke put it. “Tonight has really shown how far we have come as a nation, especially in these past few years,” his manager adds…

The Boston Globe, 11/8/1966



United States House of Representatives results, 1966
Date: November 8, 1966
Seats: All 437
Seats needed for majority: 218
House majority leader: John McCormack (D-MA)
House minority leader: Charles Halleck (R-IN)
Last election: 224 (D), 213 (R)
Seats won: 214 (D), 223 (R)
Seat change: D v 10, R ^ 10

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa [5]



United States Governor election results, 1966
Date: November 8, 1966
State governorship elections held: 35
Seats before: 29 (D), 21 (R)
Seats after: 27 (D), 23 (R)
Seat change: D v 2, R ^ 2

Full List:
Alabama: William Ryan DeGreffenried Sr. (D) over John M. Patterson (HIP) and Arthur Glenn Andrews (R)
Alaska: incumbent Mike Stepovich (R) over Wendall P. Kay (D) and John Grasse (I)
Arizona: incumbent Paul Fannin (R) over Norman Green (D)
Arkansas: incumbent Winthrop Rockefeller (R) over James Douglas Johnson (D)
California: incumbent Pat Brown (D) over Ray Kroc (R) and Timothy Leary (Natural Mind)
Colorado: incumbent John Arthur Love (R) over Robert Lee Knous (D) and Walter R. Plankinton (HIP)
Connecticut: incumbent John N. Dempsey (D) over E. Clayton Gengras (R)
Florida: Robert King High (D) over Claude Kirk (R)
Georgia: Bo Callaway (R) over Jimmy Carter (D) and Lester Maddox (HIP)
Hawaii: incumbent John A. Burns (D) over Randolph Crossley (R)
Idaho: Charles Herndon (D) over Don Samuelson (R), Perry Swisher (I) and Philip Jungert (I)
Iowa: Robert D. Ray (R) over Robert D. Fulton (D) and David B. Quiner (HIP)
Kansas: incumbent William H. Avery (R) over Robert B. Docking (D) and Rolland Ernest Fisher (Prohibition)
Maine: incumbent John H. Reed (R) over Kenneth M. Curtis (D)
Maryland: Spiro T. Agnew (R) over Hyman A. Pressman (D) and George P. Mahoney (HIP)
Massachusetts: incumbent John A. Volpe (R) over Edward J. McCormack Jr. (D)
Michigan: incumbent George W. Romney (R) over Zolton A. Ferency (D)
Minnesota: Coya Knutson (D) over Harold LeVander (R)
Nebraska: incumbent Frank B. Morrison (D) over Philip Hart Weaver (R) and Philip C. Sorensen (Liberal)
Nevada: incumbent Grant Sawyer (D) over Wilford Owen Woodruff (R) and Lloyd E. Gilbert (HIP)
New Hampshire: Harrison Reed Thyng (R) over incumbent John W. King (D)
New Mexico: David F. Cargo (R) over incumbent Jack M. Campbell (D)
New York: Mario Biaggi / Orin D. Lehman (D/C) over incumbent Malcolm Wilson / John O’Leary (R) and Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. / James L. Farmer Jr. (Liberal)
Ohio: incumbent Jim Rhodes (R) over Frazier Reams Jr. (D)
Oklahoma: Dewey F. Bartlett (R) over Preston J. Moore (D)
Oregon: Tom McCall (R) over Robert W. Straub (D)
Pennsylvania: Robert Casey Sr. (D) over Harold Stassen (R)
Rhode Island: incumbent John Chafee (R) over Horace E. Hobbs (D)
South Carolina: Joseph O. Rogers Jr. (R) over incumbent Robert McNair (D) and Alfred William “Red” Bethea (HIP)
South Dakota: Frank Farrar (R) over incumbent Ralph Herseth (D)
Tennessee: Buford Ellington (D) over H. L. Crowder (HIP), Charlie Moffett (I) and Charles Gordon Vick (I)
Texas: John Connally (D) over T. E. Kennerly (R) and Ed Walker (HIP)
Vermont: incumbent Philip H. Hoff (D) over Richard Snelling (R)
Wisconsin: Patrick J. Lucey (D) over incumbent Warren P. Knowles (R)
Wyoming: Teno Roncalio (D) over Stanley K. Hathaway (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



The 1966 midterms produced lukewarm results.

One the one hand, Republicans lost three seats in the Senate. The night’s “hottest” political fight was in Texas, where former President Lyndon B. Johnson returned to the Senate by defeating incumbent Republican Senator John G. Tower for Johnson’s own former Senate seat. Republican leaders admittedly considered the net loss to be “lackluster,” and some of them blamed Conservative Republicans for the loss, claiming their killing of a promising bill in September upset “just enough” voters.

On the other hand, the GOP finally regained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 14 years, since the 1952 elections. The victory came amidst an uneasy stagnant conflict continuing in Indochina butting heads with an economic upswing. Democratic voters blamed the party for producing “poor candidates” and others pointed the finger at the return of Lyndon Johnson reminding voters of why they had made him a one-term President in 1964. This claim held only some water, though, as Johnson focused more on the Senate elections than the House elections.

Instead, the reason for the results was more twofold; In the words of Howard K. Smith of ABC News, “A referendum on the country’s posture in Indochina was held in the Senate; a referendum on the country’s economic strength was held in the House.”

Indeed, the “Indochina Imbroglio” and race riots emboldened Democrats while the Colonel’s untangling of the red tape confining small businesses emboldened the Republicans. Additionally, the Democrats sought to reassemble parts of LBJ’s 1960 coalition of voters – union leaders, white ethnic minorities, blacks and immigrants – with underwhelming results; Republicans sought to hold onto businessmen, east-coast intellectuals.

But why the Democratic increase in the Senate and concurrent decrease in the House, then? Because all politics is local, as the oddly-worded phrase goes. US Senators typically pay more attention to foreign policy because they can afford to – every two Senators represent an entire state, while US Representatives must cater more directly to the concerns of their districts. This usually leads to Representatives focusing on issues “closer to home.”

Indeed, local politics was where it was the most intense as most voters pondered one question above all others, if not in these exact words: “which is better, reducing taxes to allow for the citizens themselves to pay for social improvements and allow for better entrepreneurial opportunities, or raising taxes to pay for social improvements through government-run programs?” At the local level, voters appreciated The Colonel’s decentralization of business regulations that had allowed for a 12% increase in businesses being founded in the 1965-1966 period, and that had helped to lower the unemployment level in several states. As such, more financially-conscious voters leaned to The Colonel’s Party, while voters more concerned with foreign policy leaned away.

– David Pietrusza’s The Epic Campaigns of the 1960s, Scholastic, 2008



GRIMSBY: “…Tonight was a historic night for the people of Washington, D.C., as it was their very first direct mayoral election. John Kraft, our political analyst in D.C., joins us now. Can you walk us through tonight’s significance for us, John?”

KRAFT: “Certainly, Roger. From 1878 to 1962, Washington, D.C. was administrated by a three-member bipartisan Board of Commissioners, all of whom were appointed by the U.S. President. But then in 1962, amidst the Cuban War and the Civil Rights movement, Johnson quietly sent to congress a plan to give the residents of Capitol Hill more say in who serves them. The Board was replaced by a Mayor-Commissioner during the reorganization of D.C.’s government, and Johnson, to placate southern congressional leaders, appointed Edward Bennett Williams to be mayor-commissioner until the first election was held tonight. Williams was backed by the Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, but due to being widely unpopular, Williams did not run in tonight’s election.”

GRIMSBY: “So who did, John?”

KRAFT: “The Democratic nominee, city councilman Cliff Alexander, shared tonight’s election ballot with two independents – Sam Harris and Raymond Ellis – and a Republican named Jackson Champion, who repeated claimed Alexander was too young and inexperienced for the job. This claim apparently didn’t stick, though, as Alexander won with over 70% of the vote. This make Alexander the city’s first African-American head of stat. And at age 33, he is also one of the city’s youngest heads-of-state in decades.”

GRIMBSY: “If that’s the case, then it will be very interesting to see how well he does in office…”

– ABC News broadcast, election night news coverage, 11/8/1966



BROWN TROUNCES KROC!

Sacramento, CA – The Golden State is not a friend to the Golden Arches of McDonald’s tonight, as the people of California have voted for Pat Brown (D) over McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc (R) by a 10% margin. …If Brown completes this third term, he will become the longest-serving Governor in state history. ...Brown, meanwhile, maintained fairly high approval ratings for his handling of war protestors in 1963-64, leading to him defeating conservative opponent Sam Yorty in the June primary by a wide margin. …Kroc was repeatedly called an opportunist with no political experience unready to handle the responsibilities of the nation’s largest state economy and the most populous state in the union. Kroc making several gaffes and controversial statements, and, to be frank, receiving no love from the White House, likely contributed to his first foray into politics ending in failure…

– The Sacramento Bee, 11/8/1966



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[pic: imgur.com/T5dZto4.png ]
– clickopedia.co.usa



“but the worst part was the massive amount of debt Ray had accumulated during the campaign…”

– Former McDonald’s CEO June Martino, KNN interview, 1983



IT’S MARIO!: Cop-Congressman Elected Governor

Bronx, NY – Mario Biaggi has experienced an unbelievable meteoric rise. Just five years ago, in 1961, Biaggi was a veteran police officer who, inspired by President Johnson’s domestic programs and the war in Cuba, entered law school and a bid for a Congressional seat at roughly the same time. After a single term on Capitol Hill, he gave up his House Seat to successfully run for the Governorship. …While Biaggi’s biggest support came from the more conservative upstate New York, his campaign did also find appeal in the Big Apple. According one survey, Biaggi’s anti-crime stance, and his backing of a successful law-and-order bill earlier this year, resonated with middle-income voters. Another survey credited President Sanders’ support of Biaggi’s congressional activism (though not his candidacy) helped win over some registered Republicans. …“Rockefeller mismanaged and threw the state into spiraling debt and it will take a Democrat to fix it!” said former Mayor Wagner.

The New York Times, 11/8/1966



COYA WINS! Congresswoman Knutson Makes History In Being Elected Minnesota’s First Woman Governor!

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[pic: imgur.com/ZX6CKxh.png ]
Coya Knutson, now Governor-Elect, during a CBS interview last month in which she replied that, if she won this election, "My focus will not be on making history. My focus will be on making Minnesotan families be well-fed and financially well-off."

…last night, the people of Minnesota took to the polling booths and elected US Rep. Coya Knutson (D) to be the first female Governor of the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. Knutson bested Republican challenger Harold LeVander by a margin of roughly 4%, in a night that was favorable to Democratic nominee. Knutson’s candidacy was strongly endorsed by the likes of Senator Walter Mondale, former Governor Orville Freeman, and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Knutson’s race for the governor’s seat was also possibly benefited from high turnout among woman voters and young voters, who, along with rural voters attracted to the pro-farmer planks of Knutson’s campaign’s platforms, were able to outnumber LeVander's base of supporters, which were found primarily in urban and suburban areas…

The Minneapolis Star, Minnesota newspaper, 11/9/1966



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– US Representative-Elect Mike Gravel (D-AS) tours Washington, D.C. with other Representatives-Elect, c. November 1966



November 1966 marked the conclusion of the two-person Gemini Program and the start of the Apollo missions. Both became the most famous of NASA’s Mission Programs due to their historical feats. Right out the starting gate, we travelled around the moon – astronaut Jim McDivitt (b. 1929) achieved the honor of being the very first to orbit around the moon in the Apollo 1 craft...

– NASA scientist Farouk El-Baz’s Up and Away: How The Cold War Competition Pushed Us Into The Stars, MacFarland & Company, 1994



GREEK GOVERNMENT PASSES “UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER” OF LAWS WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT

…Queen Frederica’s death exactly one year ago today may have contributed to the cooling of tensions between the socialist and capitalist factions in the Greek government. The Queen was heavily unpopular among the people of Greece due to her unconstitutional intervention in national politics. …According to one poll, 15% of Greeks believe that the Queen may have been assassinated, but “no political leader would dare murder his boss’s wife,” according to one anonymous member of Greek parliament...

– The Daily Express, conservative UK newspaper, 12/1/1966



On December 2, N.R.S.A. Administrator Ralph Nader met with labor organizer Walter Reuther, the progressive President of the United Automobile Workers labor union, to discuss how to better labor relations concerning safety groups and the automobile manufacturing industry, and ways in which both groups could work together in an effort to repair and maintain America’s infrastructure projects. Nader would call the meeting “pragmatic and enlightening.” Because President Sanders’s trusting of his cabinet and cabinet-level “co-workers” (as he would often call them) to perform their duties “without [his] constant supervision,” this meeting would significantly help shape the way the NRSA approached road safety under Nader’s administration…

– From prize-winning historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed, 2011



HOME SECRETARY CALLS ’66 “THE DEADLIEST IN YEARS” OVER I.R.A. BOMBINGS

London – …The escalating violence in Northern Ireland has claimed 4 lives, destroyed thousands of dollars of property, and led to hundreds of arrests as the Irish Republican Army terror group continues to wreak havoc on Eire. The Brown government is working with American officials to combat hostilities, but it is possible that these activities are not endemic to the death of American citizen Stephen E. Smith. …IRA had first increased its levels of violence over the Macmillan government’s involvement in the Cuba War. According to Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, the group was also inspired by events in France during these past two years to “disrupt the basic functions of British society for their own gain”…

The Daily Mirror, liberal UK newspaper, 12/3/1966



U.S. Citizen Approval of U.S. Operations in Vietnam

Approve: 42%
Disapprove: 41%
Uncertain: 17%

– Gallop poll, published 12/4/1966



December 18, 1966
To: The President
From: General Abrams

Mister President,

The army is in higher spirits in response to the recent capture of a high-ranking Viet Cong leader. Muoi Khang, also known as Hoang Van Thai, was wounded and apprehended by a division of Army troops who were expanding U.S./South Vietnamese control of the Fourth Quadrant to the edge of the Cambodian border. Muoi Khang is a stubborn and wily man, refusing to talk and repeatedly trying to escape regardless of what punishment he receives during the attempts.

However, during the capture, important documents were discovered as well. Our specialist here is certain they are legitimate – a fake set of plans purposeless left out for us would be easier to translate, according to our expert – and they give strong evidence to there being major Viet Cong regional headquarters and recruitment centers in Memot, Cambodia. We sent out a reconnaissance division and it appears they are relocating. We are taking immediate action to meet them at the border to take them out before they can flee to parts unknown. We are currently attempting to inform Cambodia’s leaders of the movement. Even if we are unsuccessful of snuffing them out here, we will nonetheless be giving a crushing blow to them. The vulnerability of their headquarters and the compromising of the Ho Chi Minh trail – as you will recall, their new rerouted routes go farther into Cambodia and Laos – is raising our moral and possibly weakening theirs.

Meanwhile, troops are still maintain ground around Khe Sanh. The fighting is intermittent but intense, but our men are strong and fearless – we will be victorious in pushing them off.

– Private memo, declassified and disclosed alongside other documents by the Pentagon on 1/15/2013 by order of the US President



I was resting with Ho Chi Minh outside of his stilt house on the grounds of the presidential palace when a messenger was permitted to approach us. He came bearing grave news.

“Uncle Ho, if I may be so honored to call you that, sir, uh.”

“What is it, dear comrade?” Ho Chi Minh inquired.

“We’ve intercepted a memo from the Americans. They know of our men in Memot.”

“Oh dear,” he pondered.

After sending the messenger away, I sprang up. “Ho, this confirms what I’ve suspected!” Clutching the report in my hand, I reminded my compatriot, “we’ve been seeing the Americans increasing their focus on southern parts of the Truong Son Road,” which is what we called the Ho Chi Minh Trail, “for months now!”

“Yes, and they’ve also been redirecting troops and increasing attacks on our Pathet Lao brethren.” I though about all we knew about the Great Enemy – the activities of the Americans, the South Vietnamese, and the Lao. But also about all the talks between Khanh, the Lao and Comabodian Kings, and the Chicken Colonel – all deciphered apart from some utterances of ‘something big.’”

“Le Duan,” Ho Chi Minh said, “I think we should dedicate more of our brethren-in-arms to Cambodia immediately.”

“I concur.”

– Le Duan’s A Divided We Fall: The Real History of Vietnam in the Twentieth Century, Freedom Province Books, 2002



As 1966 came to a close, Father still wanted to sign an anti-nuclear testing treaty with the Soviets. But the timing just wasn’t right. Instead, the whole idea was put on hiatus as America’s land, sea, and air resources readied for the leading of Laotian-South Vietnam forces into the “D-Day” of the ’60s – the [January 1967] Invasion of North Vietnam!

– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991



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– Colonel Sander (left) and Ho Chi Minh (right)



These are the tests that try all leaders
These are the questions that they must answer
Will they bleed, like their soldiers?
Will they cry, like the widows of their soldiers?
Will they be worthy of memory, like all of those who fall in their name?
How strong is their spine, their vanity, their integrity?
Their stubbornness, their pride, their debt to the powers above them?
How much will they sacrifice, and for whom – their countrymen, their country, their puppet-masters, or their selves?
These tests try all leaders – and they also try us all.

– anti-war poet Adrienne Rich, 1966



NOTE(S)/SOUCRE(S)
[1] This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Clinton
[2] Similar to what almost happened to Caroline Kennedy IOTL!: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/24/archives/bomb-kills-a-doctor-near-london-home-of-caroline-kennedy-a-narrow.html?sq=caroline%2520kennedy&scp=12&st=cse
[3] All these italicized lines are taken from here: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19660531.2.6&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
[4] While narrow IOTL at 51.3%-to-48.7%, here it’s even narrower, at 50.1%-to-49.9%!
[5] Republicans managed to actually produce a net gain of eight seats by focusing on domestic economic prosperity in the House while Democrats bogged them down in the Senate with the year’s foreign policy slip-ups. The 1962 winners James T. McKinstry (R-DE-AtLarge), Hamer H. Budge (R-ID-2), George O. Chambers (R-IN-5), Coya Knuston (D-MN-9), Robert Bartel (R-MO-11), Hugh L. Carey (D-NY-12), John H. Rousselot (R-CA-25), H. L. Richardson (R-CA-29), John D. Fox (R-MO-4), Carrol M. Barringer (R-NC-10), J. Kenneth Robinson (R-VA-7), Floyd Spence (R-SC-2), John Pritchard (D-IN-9), Frank W. Less (D-IA-2), Harding C. Noblitt (DFL-MN-7), E. Dent Lackey (D-NY-40), Robert E. Cook (D-OH-11), and Wilkes Thrasher (D-TN-3) all won re-election again. Robert French (R-AL-5) was re-elected, Sam Steiger (R-AZ-3) was re-elected, J. E. Hinshaw (R-Ark.-3) won re-election over James Trimble (D), Robert C. Cline (R-CA-22) won re-election, and Shirley Temple Black (CA-35) succeeded James B. Utt (R). Republicans Jerry L. Pettis (CA-33), Patrick M. Martin (CA-38), Donald G. Brotzman (CO-2), John Chenoweth (CO-3), Abner W. Sibal (Conn.-4), Roscoe Pickett (GA-4), Edward Y. Chapin (GA-7), John Mattmiller (ID-1), Roger H. Zion (Indiana-8), incumbent Earl Wilson (Indiana-9), Don A. Tabbert (Indiana-11), incumbent Fred Schwengel (Iowa-1), incumbent John Henry Kyl (Iowa-4), incumbent Ben F. Jensen (Iowa-7), incumbent Gene Snyder (Kentucky-3), incumbent Clyde Middleton (KY-4), incumbent Walter Clay Vaan Hoose (KY-7), David C. Treen (LA-2), Floyd O. Crawford (LA-6) (over John Rarick (D/HIP)), William S. Walker (LA-8), George Meader (Michigan-2), incumbent August E. Johansen (Michigan-3), incumbent Victor A. Knox (Michigan-11), Richard D. Kuhn (Michigan-19), Robert J. Odegard (MN-6), incumbent Ralph F. Beermann (Neb.-1), incumbent Louis C. Wyman (NH-1), incumbent Milton W. Glenn (NJ-2), Marcus Daly (NJ-3), incumbent Frank C. Osmers Jr. (NJ-9), incumbent Steven Boghos Derounian (NY-3), Luigi R. Marano (NY-15), incumbent Robert R. Barry (NY-25), incumbent Katharine St. George (NY-27), incumbent J. Ernest Wharton (NY-28), incumbent R. Walter Riehlman (NY-34), incumbent John R. Pillion (NY-39), incumbent Don L. Short (ND-2), incumbent Carl W. Rich (OH-1), incumbent Paul F. Schenck (OH-3), incumbent Homer E. Abele (OH-10), Oliver P. Bolton (OH-at large), incumbent Irene Baker (TN-2), Robert B. James (TN-9), Bayard C. Auchincloss (OK-6), incumbent George Atlee Goodling (PA-19), James C. Gardner (NC-4), incumbent Walt Horan (WA-5), incumbent K. William Stinson (WA-7), incumbent Henry C. Schadeberg (Wisc.-1), incumbent William Van Pelt (WA-6), incumbent William H. Harrison (WY at-large) and incumbent James D. Weaver (PA-24) all won their respective bids for election or re-election. Dorothy R. Powers (R-WA-6) primaried incumbent Thor C. Tollefson (WA-6) and won in the election over Alice Franklin Bryant (D). Concerning Republican gains, Mike Thompson (R-FL-12) won over incumbent Dante Fascell (D). M. Blaine Peterson (D-UT-1) lost to Laurence J. Burton (R). Fletcher Thompson (R-GA-5) won over Archie L. Lindsey (D) after the incumbent Democrat retired. John J. Hoellen (R-IL-11) won over an incumbent Democrat, as did Tom Railsback (R-IL-19). R. Douglas Ford (R-KY-2) won over incumbent William Huston Natcher (D) by a hair. Incumbent Democrat John C. Mackie (D-MI-7) lost re-election to Donald Riegle Jr. (R). John E. Hunt (R-NJ-1) won over Michael J. Piarulli (D). Robert C. Davidson (R-NM at-large #1) bested incumbent E. S. J. Walker (D) in New Mexico. Dniel E. Button (R-NY-29) won over Richard J. Connors (D) and John Muller (Conservative). Richard B. Barnwell (R-NC-6) won over incumbent Horace Korngay (D); W. Scott Harvey (R-NC-11) won over incumbent Roy A. Taylor (D); Chalmers P. Wylie (R-OH-15) won the seat of the 15th district; Donald E. Lukens (R-OH-24) won over J. H. Pelley (D); Lawrence G. Williams (R-PA-7) won over John J. Logue (D); Robert Bear Cohen (R-PA-4) won the election after the incumbent Democrat retired; Albert Watson (R-SC-4) won over incumbent Robert T. Ashmore in an upset. George H. W. Bush (R-TX-7) won over Frank Briscoe (D) by a 7% margin despite LBJ campaigning for Briscoe. However, Incumbent Hastings Keith (R-MA-12) lost re-election to Edward F. Harrington (D). Walter Judd (R-MN-5) lost re-election to Donald M. Fraser (D) due to Judd’s foreign policy experience being criticized. W. A. Armfield (R-NC-5) lost re-election to Nick Galifianakis (D), Ed Foreman (R-TX-16), lost to Richard C. White (D) thanks to LBJ campaigning for White; similarly, Robert Price (R-TX-18) lost to Dee Miller (D). Democrats Howard W. Smith (VA-8) and William Pat Jennings (VA-9) both won re-election thanks to support from LBJ. And finally, the incumbent Lowell Thomas Jr. (R-Alaska at-large) lost re-election to Mike Gravel! 18 Republican wins – 8 Democratic wins = 10 Republican wins (if the math doesn't add up (if I forgot a name or miscounted, or left out an important election or something), please let me know).

That was a huge chapter!

Kroc in government will have a huge effect on McD’s.

Sanders going for the clandestine approach was a novel way of avoiding civilian casualties. Wonder if he’ll call in any French expertise on the area?

Oko didn’t marry John. Good.

Has Jacko found a mentor there I wonder?

Good idea!

more mentions of my boi
Good

Thanks; he really is an interesting character!

Is no one gonna mention Ms Wanda Boner? Reminds me of an old ad I saw reviewed by Nostalgia Critic.
She's a real person; her name's on that letter Sanders sent to Hoover (the link was in a recent chapter, I believe)

I just realized something--we're where the Prologue started, IIRC...

Wonder what happens from here, and waiting for more...

Next Update E.T.A.: May 23!
 
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Guess I'll be on vacation when the next one comes out. In the meantime...

I know little of the Vietnam War but it does seem like it's going better. So that one failed incursion was sort of like a test, it might even be said to be a diversion to make the North Vietnamese think that the invasion will be there and not elsewhere.

Good use of the saying that all politics is local. Who is the new Speaker of the House? I forget where Gerald Ford is now but I thought he was the minority leader at this point. He may not have been yet though.

Yeah, Ray Kroc went heavily into debt on this. I wondered before if he would be able to make McDonald's as big as he did in our timeline.

Even if Sanders wins a second term he will be out of office by the time the Padres are up for sale. I still love the idea of him buying them and the San Diego chicken taking on new meaning.

This invasion in early 1967 will probably make or break his foreign policy.
 
Guess I'll be on vacation when the next one comes out. In the meantime...
Have fun on your vacation!
I know little of the Vietnam War but it does seem like it's going better. So that one failed incursion was sort of like a test, it might even be said to be a diversion to make the North Vietnamese think that the invasion will be there and not elsewhere.
Exactly!
Good use of the saying that all politics is local. Who is the new Speaker of the House? I forget where Gerald Ford is now but I thought he was the minority leader at this point. He may not have been yet though.
When the GOP won 31 seats in the House in 1964 under Halleck’s leadership, Halleck’s popularity in the party was high enough for Ford to decide against challenging him for party leadership like he did in 1965 IOTL. So Halleck will now become Speaker (I’ll mention it in the next chapter).
Yeah, Ray Kroc went heavily into debt on this. I wondered before if he would be able to make McDonald's as big as he did in our timeline.
We'll see... [insert shifty-eyed smiling emoji-thing here]
Even if Sanders wins a second term he will be out of office by the time the Padres are up for sale. I still love the idea of him buying them and the San Diego chicken taking on new meaning.
I’ll look over my notes for the 1970s, because I’m not a baseball/basketball expert, but rest assured, some fun stuff will happen concerning fast food and sports teams.
This invasion in early 1967 will probably make or break his foreign policy.
Indeed!

Interesting to see that Agnew still becomes Governor of Maryland, with Mahoney being the third-party candidate this time.
Agnew benefited from Mahoney siphoning conservative Democratic voters away from the Democratic nominee.

To the now-deleted reply concerning Colonel Sanders' secretary, Wanda Bonner: she’s a real person (see Source 2 in Chapter 22)

Nice update!
Thanks!
‘Nam seems to be going better?
Shame about Soviet relations.

Any changes in computing history so far?

Sanders’ promotion of small businesses may help aspiring entrepreneurs, but no noteworthy changes have occurred so far…yet…

Early Mayor Clifton Alexander? Nicely done. What a fantastic chapter, I love the deeply sourced detail of this timeline :)
Thanks very much!

Looks very promising.
Thanks!

I like the detail in TTL, too; I also like how Colonel Sanders isn't President Perfect (that's more realistic, IMO)...
Thank you!
 
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Chapter 26: January 1967 – June 1967
Chapter 26: January 1967 – June 1967

Through his life
He had dreamt the dream of peace
The hope that war will finally cease
And the prayer of new found goals
To find love in our souls

– part of an untitled and undated poem by Teresa Jane McGovern (OTL)



Halleck Calls For “Compromise” Legislation On His First Day As House Speaker

...Charles Halleck, whom served as House Majority leader from 1947 to 1949 and again from 1953 to 1955, and as the House Minority leader for the last eight years, may be attempting party unity amid ‘concerns’ over the growing conservative wing of the Republican Party, according to our sources on The Hill. …“He wants to find common ground among moderate, liberal and conservative Republicans and build up some meaningful legislation on that base,” explains Congressman Leslie Arends (R-IL), the new House Majority Leader…

The Washington Post, 1/3/1967



“Freedom is a God-given right, but in some places it is not a birthright, but a right that must be earned, not given or received straight out. The Laotian and South Vietnam men in Southeast Asia are fighting valiantly for the right to have this freedom for their people. They are fighting for all freedom-loving people in Southeast Asia and the world, and with our supervision they will be victorious.”

– President Harland Sanders, The State of the Union address, 1/10/1967



“The mosquitoes here aren’t as bad as the ones down South,” the more seasoned men would say. But I guess a stab wound is nothing compared to a bullet wound… Passing through those steep valleys gave us all a sense of trepidation, especially when the fog rolled in. Cloaked and reliant on the signals of the men ahead of us, we became a caravan of silence – the entire platoon of 30-to-40 men, led by a lieutenant colonel better known for barking than clamming up. The hot jungle terrain gave our legs quite the workout, and the humidity made us sweat profusely. …Repeatedly, we would come to a halt and wait for the platoon ahead of us to signal that it was clear for us to advance another half-klick [1], and continue the slow and meticulous march alongside the mountain’s edge. When scaling the higher parts of the path, we were advised not to look down, but at one point, curiosity got the best of me. The distance to the jungle floor was unnerving, I will admit, but more because of the fear that a slip would alert Charlies to us, rather than the fear of the slip itself.

– ret. US Army Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell’s memoirs The Games We Play For Freedom, Spirit of Freedom Publishing, 2010



sHOLOhQ.png

[ pic: https://imgur.com/sHOLOhQ.png ]
– A valley in the Moc Chau District, roughly 30 miles from Hoa Binh, (North) Vietnam



Cuba was a wake-up call for us. From that conflict, we realized that we could not always charge into an enemies’ territory like a bull in a China shop, blind to the conditions that make each foreign territory unique from each other and from our own terrain. “Knowledge will remain a crucial tool of any battle,” Johnson advisor Harold Keith Johnson once said, “and if anything came out of the Fried Charlie fiasco in Vietnam, it was that air power couldn’t do the job[2]. Indeed, the Vietnamese only adapted their war strategies to circumvent our superior bombing capabilities.

[snip]

The President reiterated his view of the military – as a branch of politics, meant to enforce order in order for peace to be maintained. Sanders wanted absolute assurance that Operation Spicy Strychnine (but more often called Operation Fried Charlie 2.0) would succeed, and that the military could assist in him reaching political goals.

“What about air power?” The Colonel replied, “We can’t have the men on the ground exposed.”

“We’ve reached your requested number of jets; the south division will shoot down enemy aircraft and lead a distraction seven klicks north of the DMV to give the idea of an offense playing out there. The north division will shoot down any enemy jets not sent to the diversion, and they are not to drop their payloads until they’ve reached the capital.”

Toward the end of the last-minute discussion, I confided in the President, “I cannot promise an easy victory; blood is always spilled. But at the current rate, our forces are just outside of Hoa Binh and the border, and so far more blood of the enemy is being spilled than the blood of our own. And I cannot promise a quick victory; success cannot be rushed. But the force of the American Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force are stronger than they have ever been before. We’ve done the recon; we now know the land, we know the people, and most importantly, we know the enemy. We are determined and united behind the ideals of the freed world and as such, no American soldier or allied soldier that dies in this conflict will do so in vain. For I can promise this – this campaign will end the war in a great and glorious victory for freedom and Democracy.”

The Colonel thanked me, and I said, “Thank you, Mr. President.”

– General Creighton Abrams in his personal memoirs, 1974



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[pic: https://imgur.com/jEjLE5m.png ]
– Smoke rises from a building hit by US & SV tanks rolling into the city of Qui Chau, two provinces south of Hanoi, 1/23/1967



The Americans and their Lao and South allies invaded the North in a three pronged strike – tanks rolled past the North-South border while stealth ops and guerillas snuck into the North’s western provinces from their hub near Xam Nua, Laos, followed by the US Navy landing along the coast to besiege the cities of Thanh Pho Vinh and other spots. After getting past the border valleys, the land troops took control of several villages and settlements in Son La Province, then shot straight for Hoa Binh, a pivotal city just 20 miles west of Hanoi.

We learned of that location’s fall as SV/US jets continued to hammer the city prior to their ground counterparts arriving.

“I really was not expecting them to get past Hoa Binh,” I remember saying.

Ho Chi Minh was more incensed: “I was not expecting them to even get near the border! Those messages, they were purposely send out for us to detect and decipher; they were all a ruse to move our [Viet Cong] leaders away from here!”

After another bomb shook the ground, I reiterated “Ho Chi Minh, we must relocate!”

“No! We must stay here to join our comrades when they repel these invaders.”

“But what if they don’t?”

“They will! They’ll be helped by the men sent to the South returning in time. It must happen!”

“Ho Chi Minh, you are too valuable to us for us to risk your life on the chance, no matter how small, that this may end poorly for us.”

Ho Chi Minh stood up and looked out onto Hanoi’s skyline, burning, as red as the blood being spilled.

“My city...”

...Naturally, we travelled lightly...

– Le Duan’s Divided We Fall: The Real History of Vietnam in the Twentieth Century, Freedom Province Books, 2002



geUIdrj.png

[ pic: https://imgur.com/geUIdrj.png ]
– ARVN Rangers advancing on VC ground forces 5 miles from the Presidential palace, 1/24/1967



URBAN WARFARE HAS COME TO HANOI

…a school building has become a makeshift emergency center as local hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded citizens and soldiers. I was visiting one medical center when SV men raided the building, holding everyone at gunpoint. Wounded VC troops were handcuffed to their beds, and several gunshots came from the rooms of the most rebellious patients. …I was allowed to leave after presenting one of the COs with my press pass and other papers. After wishing my new cohorts “good luck” in their tongue (“chuc may man”), I “borrowed” a motorcycle to follow the caravan of tanks rumbling passed, heading north, to the heart of the city…

– Journalist and VC sympathizer Wilfred Burchett, reporting for The Morning Star (British communist daily), 1/24/1967



The blood is still rolling off my flak jacket from the hole in my shoulder and there are bullets cracking into the area all around me. I scream at Jim “keeping going!” but then I realize he can’t feel his legs anymore, let alone use them. The wind blows to us the smoke from the building burning behind us, making breathing difficult. ‘I have to get out of this place,’ I remember thinking, ‘I have to make it out of here somehow.’

Fire, run, crouch, fire, wait, turn, fie; repeat on and on. We have lost many good men in the slow capture of each street and building. We were like fumigators, eliminating commie cockroaches from treacherous dens of delusions. But now it looked like a sniper, or maybe a weapons bin, had us pinned.

Someone shouts an order but a barrage of bullets drown him out. A Southern ’Nam ranger runs by with his back on fire. Another crack and he falls motionless to the ground. A voice calls for orders from the Sargent. But this time I fail to hear it; the only thing I can think of, the only thing that crosses my mind, is living. There seems to be nothing in the world more important than that.

Hundreds of rounds begin to crash in now
. I return fire from my cover, popping up like a prairie dog and dipping back down. And repeat. Then a fellow soldier runs past me, screaming like a maniac without regard for his life, firing almost blindly into the street. I carefully suck the air to remain calm, to not get too excited, to not think too hard and subsequently panic. ‘Now is the time to be brave, or else all of this is for nothing,’ I tell myself. I block out myself, my memories, thoughts, dreams, and focus only on this moment.

Some other soldiers and I leave our spots to follow him in this makeshift and unplanned assault. The maniac gets shot down first. I feel one of the bullets speed past my ear. Another rips through my pant leg but misses the skin. We run across the wide open city street with all our might, diving and sliding face-first into any cover we can find – mostly the remains of cars and the corners of buildings. But the sniper’s nest gets taken out. [3]

The attack is lifted. They carry Jim past me, his legs dangling off the sides of the stretcher. As they carry him into away I fail to find the right words to say; I don’t think such words exist.

[snip]

At long last, we reached the seat of the communist government, the National Assembly building, the unicameral legislative workplace of the Communist Party of Vietnam. [snip] Granted, it wasn’t the most glamorous of the key assets apprehended – the party that raided the mango-tree-covered Presidential Palace in the Ba Dinh District got the most attention instead. [snip] Almost immediately after the invasion I heard that Ho Chi Minh’s tea in his garden overlooking his carp pond was still warm, reminding me of something I once read about Dolly Madison and, I want to say, porridge.

– ret. U.S. Army Gen. Ronald Lawrence “Ron” Kovic’s memoirs Born on the Fourth of July, Spirit of Freedom Publishing, 2010



…We can now report with certainty that early this morning, the city of Hanoi, the Capitol of North Vietnam, was been successfully occupied by U.S. and South Vietnam forces. The North Vietnam flag of red and blue with a red star has been lowered, and now the flag of South Vietnam – uh, yellow with three red lines – is now flying over the Flag Tower of Hanoi, a 33-foot-high monument and symbol of the city [4]

– Mary McCarthy, reporting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1/25/1967



…as our vessel departed from the shores, we look back at the city.

“So… What is our next move?” I humbly asked.

“We lay low. Once we reach our destination, we’ll make our way back to the interior and re-organize our brethren.” After a moment of silence, he added “Damn you, Mao.”

“Beg pardon?”

“How dare he abandon us like this? I know Beijing received our calls requesting they intervene. But instead of choosing involvement, they chose abandonment.”

The rapport between Mao and Ho Chi Minh was waning at the time of America’s “Operation Fried Charlie 2.0” in light of our military preferring Soviet weapons (guns, artillery, bullets, artillery shells, radio transmitters, telephones, tanks, planes) to Chinese weapons. With this in mind, Ho was certain Mao would not let us fall in order to upstage the Russians and demonstrate the Chinese military’s abilities. But instead, China’s forces failed to arrive in time, and upon word of Hanoi’s captured, Mao had cancelled the reinforcements.

“Damn you, Mao,” Ho bitterly sighed, “Damn you.”

– Le Duan’s Divided We Fall: The Real History of Vietnam in the Twentieth Century, Freedom Province Books, 2002



Glasses clinked as the White House celebrated the news of the decisive victory overseas.

“Hey Colonel, come on over here already!” Secretary Curtis jovially hollered over to the commander in chief, still nursing the phone with his ear.

“And your certain of those casualty numbers?” He uttered before thanking the party on the other end and heading over to Curtis an company near the center of the room.

“Come on, Colonel, smile! Yeah, Ho Chi Minh got away, but the North’s capitulated! We kicked Charlie’s ass today!”

“You know how many of our boys died doing so?”

“Oh, you can’t enjoy your omelet if you’re busy mourning the broken eggs. Here – have a drink,” the Secretary offered the Colonel a glass.

“You know I don’t drink. My mother taught me not to as soon as I was old enough to hear.[5]

Despite later claims that on special occasions the Colonel would divulge in a bit of champagne [6], the Colonel declined the glass and ultimately resumed reviewing the aftermath of the operation.

Soon he would send in relief aid, coining the phrase “build and pacify” in the process. This was the precursor to the “Building Brotherhood” Initiative that began execution in July 1967.

[snip]

After the fall of Hanoi, the Viet Cong were disorganized and decentralized. Under the Colonel’s orders, General Abrams shifted to overseeing smaller operations to “win over the rebels denying their defeat,” and was reportedly “happy” that the operation had happened in “such a copacetic way.” …However, as Abrams disagreed with the “Building Brotherhood” Program, he placed many of its responsibilities in the hands of the Lieutenant Generals and other subordinates operating in Vietnam while he continued to focus on eliminating the remaining communist groups from Laos and Cambodia...

– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014



“Good evening, my fellow Americans.

Just a few hours ago, the United States military, under my order and command, completed the launching of a massive operation to liberate the people of North Vietnam from the chains of Communist dictatorship. Our land, sea and air forces worked with local insurgents, Laotian allies, and South Vietnam’s northern brothers to enter the nation and lift its people out from the oppression under which they had suffered for far too long. Ho Chi Minh has fled the country, and his top generals have been either killed or captured. The Viet Cong is not destroyed, but is now decentralized. Like a headless chicken, the Viet Cong will now be directionless, but also more desperate to disrupt the peace that can now finally come to the Vietnamese people. Vigilance will be maintained as the last of the Viet Cong are apprehended and the nation of Vietnam becomes whole once again.

The liberation of the North Vietnam capital of Hanoi was carried out with precision, quickness and bravery not seen since the Invasion of Normandy. We have the United States Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, and the South Vietnam military and America’s other allies, to thank for its absolute success.

However, we did not execute this operation, nor have we spent so many years in Indochina, without the spilling of blood. Every time I, as Commander-in-Chief, write to a parent that their child will not be returning home, or meet with the soldiers permanently scarred by the horrors of war, the atrocities of warfare weigh on me heavily. Because too often, America feels to burden of war.

That is why I believe that a military’s purpose should be to defeat and then pacify aggressive enemies, to bring hope and life to the shell-shocked cities. To replace the blood-soaked fields of battle with green fields of peace and prosperity. As such, the time has now come for the people of Vietnam to come together and rebuild their country. The transition from a divided nation to a united one will not be quick, a concept Abraham Lincoln clearly understood when he warned that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” In light of this, our advisory troops will remain in the area until the Vietnamese are securely back on their feet.

But after serving their country, the several thousand American heroes who changed history today are set to return home to their loved ones. To those defenders of liberty, I say this: ‘Your nation welcomes you home, and we salute you.’

The number of people to thank for the actions that have transpired today measures in the millions. Thanks must be given to all who’ve served and supported, who’ve worked for peace over terror, love over hate, liberation over oppression. To those who’ve lost loved ones in this endeavor, to those forever changed by what they’ve experienced in this operation, to the Vietnam people who must now continue the job. Thank y’all for being part of the greatest aspect of humanity – our ability to right what has been made wrong.

Thank you, God bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.”

– Colonel Sanders’ 2/5/1967 televised Presidential Address to the Nation



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[ pic: https://imgur.com/4MfTK91.png ]
– A couple watching President Colonel Sanders’ Address to the Nation, 2/5/1967



AFTERMATH: How Will We Handle An Occupied Hanoi?

…The soldiers’ celebrations of a decisive victory was cut short when Molotov cocktails were thrown at their barracks by local civilians who were promptly arrested. The incident is reflective of a lingering issue – the North Vietnam people clearly resent American and South Vietnamese presence, and attacks will likely continue to occur as long as they view these soldiers as invaders instead of liberators. …Some Northerners are fleeing into the country’s northern mountains and into China, Laos and even Cambodia according to one local merchant hoping to profit from “all these uniformed American tourists,” as he calls them… The one family I stayed in Hanoi’s southern district told me their son had fled south, hoping to join the Viet Cong along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and “continue the fight for Uncle Ho.”

– Harrison Salisbury, The New York Times, 2/6/1967



Viet Cong counterattacks on targets in South Vietnam’s interior in the days and weeks that followed the Operation all failed as the SV army stepped up its infiltration of the ranks of the Viet Cong. Along the Ho Chi Minh trail, many soldiers would recollect on feeling the ground rumble as VC tunnels caved in thanks to the sabotage conducted by SV spies and double agents…

– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014



...Nurses recruited to serve in Indochina were sometimes assigned to combat zones, but they were never allowed onto an actual battlefield. This did nothing to shield them from the plethora of other issues facing them – insufficient supplies, abysmal sanitation, and sexual harassment…

Vietnamese nurses, on the other hand, consisted of all-female units that participated in the war effort more directly by engaging in battle with the enemy whenever they were attacked. This book covers the lives and experiences of such women, beginning with North Vietnamese nurse Dang Thuy Tram (1942-20170, whose bestselling book “Last Night I Dreamed Of Peace,” based on her experience serving in Vietnam, led to an award-winning film in 1999. This informative treatise then moves on to Texan twin sisters Eleanor Vietti (1927-2008) and Teresa Vietti (b. 1927). Eleanor worked in a leper colony before heading to post-VC Hanoi to aid the wounded. Eleanor still operates a cleft-palate repair center in Missouri and remains a leader in religion-based humanitarian movements alongside Rev. Jerry Brown. Teresa became “the mother of pediatric cancer therapy.” …Let this book inspire a new generation to understand the importance of peace and to value all lives the world over…

– forward of First Lieutenant Sharon Ann Lane (1943-2017)’s War Nurses: The Forgotten Veterans of the Cuba and Indochina Conflicts, Phoenix Press, 2009



“I have already told this piece of advice to the Colonel – the best thing to make out of an enemy is a friend, but that cannot happen without love persevering. Without love for one another, the Vietnamese will remain separated and at war with each other in spirit. Continuing resent of the north in the former Confederate states of the American South is proof positive of the lasting effects of unity without proper reconciliation. But the Colonel has proven himself to be an absolutely excellent leader, and I am confident that under his supervision, the US military will do a commendable letting the Vietnamese govern themselves, and that under his supervision, fraternal love will return to the people of Vietnam”

– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 2/7/1967



MLK PRAISES US MILITARY DESPITE PAST CRITICISMS

The Post and Courier, South Carolina newspaper, 2/7/1967



Shelepin and Mao Tse-Tung were taken aback by the swiftness of America’s invasion of Hanoi. Both Moscow and Beijing had been competing for dominance and influence over North Vietnam, and had spent their time on match each other’s military support instead of on gathering intelligence on America’s pre-invasion maneuvers.

Shelepin was outraged at being blindsided. Privately, he considered launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike in response to America’s “re-enactment of Hitler’s invasion of Poland.” However, less trigger-happy members of Shelepin’s inner circle managed to blame Russia’s intelligence slip-up on party members who had rightly feared a return to Stalinist practices under Shelepin (Shelepin pushed for the further centralization of the Union, and strict disciplined oversight of all domestic officials). While potential successors such as Brezhnev paid attention to Shelepin’s lack of absolute party loyalty, Shelepin himself sought to achieve “better loyalty” with a good old-fashioned inner-party purge of the politicians Shelepin blamed for the fall of Hanoi.

[snip]

Shelepin’s Ambassador to China Mikhail Yefremov wrote of his inability to get information on Mao, with officials in Beijing physically blocking the door and assuring him that Mao was “handling the situation.” Yefremov wrote in his 1967 journal: “China’s silence was the most frightening aspect. Ever since the Sino-Soviet split, it has become highly difficult to determine what our Asian comrades are thinking and planning.”

– Alexander Korzhakov’s From Dawn to Dusk: A Cutthroat Career, St. Petersburg Press, 1997



Mitterrand was an unpredictable young man. In February [1967], for instance, he became the first of the Western powers to open diplomatic relations with Red China. The move indicated an independent foreign policy and was meant to show his bravery and leadership skills, but in the US and UK, it fueled fears of Mitterrand being a Communist puppet. Our boys in the state department were worried it would damage or even destabilize our “containment policy,” and just after we had worked so hard to contain the threat in Indochina! [snip] …Mitterrand valued a nation’s economic potential over their ideology; that was good for business, but bad for morality. Nevertheless, his actions and the world’s responses to it were helpful reference points for what my White House went through the next month.

– Colonel Sanders’ Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good, Creation House publishing, 1974



I was also present during the Apollo 2 fiasco. The capsule re-entered the atmosphere too quickly, and from this and other variables, the astronauts inside almost burn up. Then went the capsule landed in the Atlantic, they almost drowned from multiple factors. The astronauts were right to credit the 1962-1964 investigations for creating the safety features that saved their lives that day; John Glenn, by then contemplating a political career but for the time being still working for NASA, noted “If anything, the incident should be more encouraging because they’re survival proves we are on the right track to making the future of space travel safe and reliable.”

– mathematician Dorothy Vaughn’s Human Computers: Me and The Other Women at NASA, Langley Publishers, 1997



US’S CIA TO WORK WITH IRISH, UK OFFICERS ON SLAIN AMERICAN CASE

Washington, DC – The Colonel Sanders Administration today released a press statement describing its sending of CIA agents and advisory experts from the U.S. State Department to help local British officials determine those responsible for the death of an American tourist last year. The agents are to also attempt assistance in combating the rise of T.I.R.A. (True Irish Republic Army)’s domestic terror agenda. The Americans’ actions are also a collaborative effort with Ireland’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, and Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Terence O’Neill.

The Daily Express, UK newspaper, 2/25/1967



…in the world of finances, McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc is expanding the million-dollar fast-food corporation’s number of outlets, and plans to increase its number of locations open 24/7 by 40% over the next two years… When asked about concerns over Kroc’s financial debts associated with his gubernatorial candidacy last year and alleged connections between them and McDonald’s current financial woes, Kroc simply replied “I’m leaving the politics to Sanders from now on, it’s a lot messier than patty-flipping.”

– ABC News, 2/27/1967 broadcast



After the de facto capitulation of the North Vietnam government, the US sought to assist in rebuilding agriculture, transportation, and urban areas to quicken Vietnam unification. [snip] On March 3, 1967, Colonel Sanders visited Saigon, mainly to meet the soldiers and to sit down for a discussion with Nguyen Khanh over what do about the V.C. soldiers still fighting in the jungles of the Laos-Vietnam border, and how to contribute to the defeat of the Pathet Lao still plaguing much of Laos.

“This is too similar to Cuba for comfort,” the Colonel informed Khanh.

Khanh was quick to point out “The Vietnam people’s priorities are still the same as before: 1) a united country, one way or another, 2) all strangers out!, 3) the life of the country is worth more and is more valued than the life of oneself. These ideals form the mindset of all Vietnam people, especially the Viet Cong.”

“How honorable and disgusting,” General Abrams quietly remarked.

At the end of the meeting, the Colonel asked, “So how do you plan on winning over the formerly Communist folks?”

Khanh “Do not worry, we will deal with the traitors.”

The Colonel inquired “What d’ya mean?”

“We will deal with them,” Khanh restated as he calmly and confidently left the room.

“Khanh. Khanh!” Colonel called out to him.

As the Vietnam President left, a smirk could be seen creeping up the side of his face.

“KHANH!”

“Mr. President!” an assistant interrupted the Colonel’s holler.

“What?!”

“There’s been a development in Korea.”

– – – –

On the opposite side of China, South Korea’s President Park Chung-hee was demanding information over North Korean troop activities at the Demilitarized Zone that divided the two countries. Soon the Colonel was back at the Army headquarters in Saigon. “Alright, what’s the trouble?”

“The North Koreans are saying one of our men began firing into the North at Panmunjom, leading to a firefight,” the translator by a radio informed the Colonel. “Three of our men are being held at the border. Sir, this could get ugly very quickly.”

“Is China behind this?” Sanders asked.

“Undoubtedly,” Defense Secretary Chuck Bonesteel informed him. “According to our intel, Mao sees Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan as three fronts that make China vulnerable to an American invasion. With Vietnam defeated, he’s flexing his military muscle through the North Koreans.”

The Colonel thought, “Maybe Mao’s bluffing. I remember the Korean War – that had put tremendous stress on China’s domestic economy; another direct proxy war with us in Korea would do the same thing all over again, wouldn’t it?”

“We believe Mao is willing to take the risk to defend his country. But I see where you’re coming from, sir. The latest reports suggest that Beijing’s commitments to Hanoi were limited due to China’s poor economy and outdated military. The pride of North Vietnam Generals reportedly caused some tension with Chinese military officials, too. Ho Chi Minh himself may have been preferring Moscow over Beijing due to the former’s superior weapons.”

The Deputy Secretary of Defense chimed in next to get the conversation back on track. “Sir, the situation in Korea.”

“Right, of course, what do we know so far?” The President probed.

“According to our counterparts in Seoul, Kim Il-Sung has been pushing for a South Korea-based insurgency for months now, most likely concentrating on the Taebaek Mountains if the coded radio activity there is anything to go by. According to Seoul, Kim is hoping our manpower in Vietnam will stop us from coming to the aid of the South Koreans. We think the victory in Hanoi has made him jumpy, and now he’s trying to speed up the process.”

“Then Kim’s delusional! South Korea’s, at least economically-speaking, in a real strong and prosperous place right now! Gee, maybe he’s started believing his own propaganda...” The President pondered.

“If it was just the north versus the south,” we wouldn’t have to worry,” Bonesteel place a large chart on the side board. “The North’s Korean People’s Army (or KPA) has about 386,000 soldiers compared to the South’s 585,000, plus the 900 of our men stationed over there via ground combat units Infantry Divisions 2, 7 and 9. We’ve got superior rifles, jet and tanks. The North, meanwhile, is dependent on the Soviets for technology, and Shelepin seems pretty busy at the moment cleaning house over in his defense departments.” He put up another chart, “At the DMZ, both countries have watch towers, wired fences, a wide mine-filled kill zone. We have more troops on our side, plus naval patrols on the coasts, and President Park has greenlit counter-guerrilla operations to defend South Korean interior.”

“What’s the bad news then?”

“If China’s getting involved, the North could suddenly double their digits. They’d give us one heck of a fight.”

The Deputy then added, “Furthermore, sir, President Park very reluctant to call for war. He thinks it’d be unpopularity among his people, because they are not blind followers like the North Koreans.”

Sanders sat back in his chair in a moment of contemplation, and nodded his head as he went over the information in his mind. “What are our options?”

Bonesteel suggested, “We can order a show of force with a major deployment of air and navy assets to the border.”

“Yes, but it could be seen as an intimidation tactic that keeps this snowball rolling from a detaining crisis to a full-flung war,” was Sanders’ rebuttle. “Who’s our current Ambassador to South Korea?”

“Um,” the deputy’s assistant hastily rummaged through his notes before blurting out, “the former Ambassador to Laos, Jacqueline Cochran.”

“Good, she’s a tough cookie,” the Colonel ordered, “We’ll instruct her to begin negotiations for the return of our captured boys detained at border.”

“And what about Mao, sir?”

“Let me handle that.” In an unconventional move, the President asked for a direct line of communication with the Premier of China via a back-door channel. After several hours of waiting anxiously, a representative in Beijing agreed to speak with the Colonel on behalf of Mao. The Colonel accepted these terms. The Colonel then proceeded to try to sweet-talk Mao into deescalating the activities of the North Koreans, but Mao’s representative refused to see how China would benefit from the action.

After failing to convince the representative of the cost of a US-Chinese War or entice Mao with the prospect of being seen as a peacemaker on the world stage, the Colonel went for a Hail Mary pass. “How about open trade and recognition of your China instead of that Taiwan China country?”

“Sir!” Bonesteel jumped up in shock. The Colonel raised his hand in a way that signaled ‘have patience’ more so than ‘wait’ “Just one minute, please,” he said to the translator. “Yeah, Chuck?”

“Mr. President, Taiwan is an important ally in the region!”

“Did they give us any troops for the Hanoi invasion?”

“Um, 10 volunteers, I believe,” noted the deputy.

“Any nukes, lad?”

“No, sir,” he said.

“Not that important an ally, then, Chuck.”

– – – –

On March 4, Ambassador Cochran arrived at the DMZ to negotiate the release of the captured soldiers. An even exchange was agreed to – three US Army soldiers for three KPA soldiers captured during a failed ambush attempt in January. Afterward, Cochran, under the Colonel’s orders, granted President Park $100 million worth of immediate military aid with the proviso that he did not cave to military advisors and instead refuse to “Go North.”

Over the next several weeks, agitation along the border began to return to pre-1966 levels and the coded radio chatter around the Taebaek Mountains simmered down. Kim Il-Sung had been “convinced” his insurgency scheme would be a bust.

– – – –

Sanders met with Senator Nixon for further advice as soon as he returned to Washington, D.C. the next day, on March 5.

Nixon was intrigued by the notion. “Hmm, opening up to China? That’s going to be one hard sell for the American people to swallow, Colonel.”

“But Richard,” the President remarked, “If I’m anything, it’s a salesman!”

Nixon would prove to be instrumental in fleshing out the details, along with the Colonel’s brand-new Assistant Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger… [7]

– Colonel Sanders’ Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good, Creation House publishing, 1974




The Capitol Is Abuzz Over Sanders’ Sudden Shake-Up In U.S.-Red China Diplomacy

…“The President is hoping to utilize his sky-high approval ratings to carry out a potentially game-changing shift in US-Red Chinese relations,” opines columnist Rowland Evans. Conservatives such as Senator Norris Cotton (R-NH), on the other hand, are calling the proposed warming of tensions between the US and Red China to be “a hazardous misstep”…

The Washington Post, 3/5/1967



On March 6, 1967, A Program for Action, a landmark federal report on educational television in American society, was published. Discussion of its contents swiftly make “public television” become a household term. Nine months later, on November 9, President Colonel Sanders, whom had used public radio and television station broadcasting in the 1950s to expand his fast-food enterprise KFC, enthusiastically signed into law the Public Education Broadcasting Act of 1967 (PEBA). PEBA allowed for federal aid for programs focusing on public education via television and radio broadcasting. Today, we honor Sanders by giving him the PTN Humanitarian of the Year Award.

– Ted Turner, CEO of Public Television Network (PTN) (founded 1976), 3/6/1990 announcement



Back at home, I met with my Economic Advisor, Sylvia Porter, and the Treasury Secretary, Gene Siler, to discuss the best ways to maintain the economy.

“It’s all about finding the holes in your dike, the spots in the spreadsheet where money is being invested without sufficient returns, and getting rid of such money-wasters,” I remember Siler saying one time.

Then you have to negotiate with all these different groups – each wanting a piece of the pie larger than the one they got – and get them to give concessions in the name of tightening the government’s wasteful spending. And of course there’s also the very important matter of pushing for domestic production and more open trade policies. We needed to drum up more consumer demand, because that leads to more things being built, and that means more jobs and more jobs means less unemployment. Even products built overseas see jobs forming at home – a car built overseas but driven here will be serviced, cleaned, repaired, and overall used over here, not over there.

– Colonel Sanders’ Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good, Creation House publishing, 1974



I remember how versatile Mildred was when it came to tackling company issues. For example, towards the end of the ’60s there were some grumblings here and there over the complexities of the chicken’s signature gravy. In, oh, 1967, I believe, Mildred overheard a high-up company employee lament, and I quote, “Let’s face it, the Colonel’s gravy is fantastic, but you have to be a Rhodes Scholar to cook it… It involves too much time, it leaves too much room for human error, and it is too expensive.” [8]

While these concerns would inevitably be addressed, Mildred’s immediate response to the perceived attacks on her father’s brainchild was to nip suggestions of changing the formula in the bud, with staff meetings and the threat of more staff meetings for every time the tried-and-true gravy formula was challenged. A bit horse, but it got the job done, as such talks never resurfaced under her time as the CEO of KFC.

– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes interview, early 1992



ANCHOR: …At a press conference today, President Sanders announced a gradual de-escalation of American military presence in at least one Indochinese nation.

SANDERS (footage): “…with the conflict with North Vietnam having successfully concluded in a South Vietnam victory, the United States will soon begin a careful and gradual withdrawal of troops from Vietnam in order to allow the nation of United Vietnam to determine their future for themselves.”

ANCHOR: Towards the end of the announcement, he added his administration’s current plans for the countries of Laos and Cambodia.

SANDER (footage): “…we will maintain our men in Laos for the time being, and sustain efforts to quell the assaults on the Lao people by the terror-spreading Pathet Lao insurgency.”

– NBC broadcast, 3/10/1967



BLACK MILITIA GANG “X-MEN” KILL 2 IN HAYWARD

– The Los Angeles Times, 3/11/1967



In response to “the rise in hoodlum violence,” such as a widely-publicized shooting of two racist white men in Hayward, California in March 1967, California state assemblyman Don Mulford introduced a gun restriction bill meant to repeal the state’s public carrying law in April of that year and outlaw civilians carrying loaded weapons in public. The bill targeted the vigilante justice cop-watching group known as The (Malcolm) X-Men… Governor Pat Brown opposed the Mulford Act on the grounds of violating “the freedom of self-defense” and the Second Amendment, and of inhibiting the livelihoods of rural Californian workers, namely the hunters he had won over in his latest re-election bid. Republicans in turn called him “irresponsible” and “dangerous”… X-Men were controversial within the Black activist community. X-Man Robert Seale’s caused a stir in April 1967 with his assertion that Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy’s talks of patience made them “a pair of Uncle Toms, enjoying visits to the White House while promoting no advancements for us since the President’s failed push for that $125-dollars-a-month plan he proposed two years ago.”

– Herb Boyd and Ilyasah Shabazz’s Malcolm vs. Martin: Violence and Peace After the End of Segregation, Chicago Third World Press, 2013



On March 27, 1967, Harry Belafonte, the “King of Calypso” musician-tuner-actor-turned-activist met with Sanders at the White House for a discussion on the movement against Apartheid in South Africa. They discussed the work of leaders such as the “old guard” Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress, and the “rising star” Steve Biko of the Black Consciousness Movement. The BCM was more militant in nature than Mandela’s ANC; fearing violence would worsen Apartheid for all, Mandela sought to develop a relationship with the younger generation of South African activists despite his confinement to a jail cell. Mandela managed to tell Biko that he should accept help from white anti-apartheid activists, but Biko disagreed, saying “Africa must be liberated from the white invaders by Africans and not with the help of white invaders. This is our fight to win, not theirs.” In light of this schism between anti-Apartheid elements forming in South Africa, Belafonte hoped for a third route – international pressure. To this end, Belafonte hoped the Colonel could lead a worldwide call to condemn the South African government into ending its segregation system.

At the meeting, the Colonel reportedly said, “There’s already been enough blood spilled this decade, so I like the idea of seeing if economically pressurin’ them into rethinkin’ their laws will do something.”

The federal government started by encouraging France and Great Britain (two nations more pivotal to South Africa’s international trade than the United States was) to impose tariffs on wealthy commodities, as this would be felt more immediately on wealthy South Africans than the lower-class ones.

– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014



Cv7TwPn.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/Cv7TwPn.png ]
– Colonel Sanders throws out the first pitch on Opening Day of Major League Baseball in front of an enthusiastic crowd, 4/10/1967



HIGH PRIORITY ISSUE ENCLOSED:

An increase in the purchasing of stock under anonymous accounts has been detected.

Identify the party or parties behind this occurrence.

Signed, Ray Kroc

– McDonald’s Corporation internal memo, signed 4/10/1967



“Ah, no, I hadn’t met Tommy by then, heh. I mean I knew who he was, hell everyone knew who he was, but I wasn’t anyone just then. I was just a college dropout happy I didn’t have to worry about the draft anymore. Truth be known, I was kinda sorta thinkin’ of taking a very long vacation in Vancouver for a while, but that’s, you know, neither here nor there. Nah, instead, man, in, I think, uh, I wanna say, uh, April of that year [1967] I auditioned to sing for Frank Zappa [9] I got in and I joined the Mothers of Invention band as a backup player, so it was nothing big at first but I was making enough dough and enough girls for me to get by.

– Richard “Cheech” Marin, KNN interview, 2012



On March 12, a month after Manson had been released from McNeil Island on March 21, [10], he and Jones first met at a roadside supply store near Sacramento, selling gas, guns and other travelling and camping supplies. Manson and company were travelling north in another drive across California in a search for more followers; Jones was travelling south after visiting a Peoples Temple in Oregon. Manson drove into the parking lot a few minutes after Jones; half of his growing entourage of young adult girls followed him in while the rest guarded the van.

At the counter, both asked the cashier, almost in union “Do you sell any paper?”

Jones was quick to say, “Writing paper, that is! It’s um, uh for writing,” Jones clumsily defended his question.

“Uh, yeah, same,” coolly replied Manson.

“You, uh, travelling with your family?” Jones inquired.

“Yes.” Manson said.

The cashier brought over some typewriter paper pads before Manson and Jones began to separately inspect the store’s contents. A little under a minute later, Jones overheard Manson talking with Mary about preparing for “the end and the beginning.” To this, an inquisitive Jones turned to look directly at Manson, only to turn away upon Manson noticing.

Then Manson walked over to say, “I recognize you from TV,” and introduced himself with a firm handshake and a flash of a smile.

Jones responded by with “I take it you were discussing revelations?”

“Something like that, yes.”

The two then began to talk about when and how the world will end, and the continued conversation out to the parking lot while Manson’s cohorts gathered and paid for the purchases.

Beside Jones’ truck, Jones was heard telling the acquaintance, “I see you understand. Assure peace by preparing for war. Understand safety by first experiencing danger. Enjoy pleasure by first feeling pain.”

Manson nodded in agreement. He studied the man, and likely expressed his desire to “fix the world” without not revealing his belief that he was the destined ruler of all humanity.

Jones, according to his wife’s testimony, thought Manson had “good intentions if he could move beyond the sins of the physical body,” though was one to talk, as he had several biological children at home among the adopted ones.

Observing his watch, Manson judged it was time to leave. Before doing so, he promised Jones, “When the end begins I’ll be sure to find you.”

Jones responded with “good luck with your community construction project,” then gave Manson a card with the phone number to nearest Peoples Temple outlet location.

Manson added, “But in case we never see each other again, let me give you some advice.” He proceeded to tell Jones about the tranquil isolation of southern California’s deserts.

Jones returned the favor by quickly regaling Manson of his trips to Guyana and Brazil.

After Jones had driven away, Manson said to Mary, “Hm. Brazil... Land of beautiful young women in need of a leader. And they got that giant statue of me!”

The Fire Oasis: Our Recollections of The Mad Men of Brazil, collaborative work (multiple authors), Deodendro Publishers, 1982



KFC COMES TO THE PHILIPPINES

...An arguably bold move to establish outlets in a location so close to a War Zone – Manila, the capitol of the Philippines, is roughly 1,000 miles away from Saigon, southern Vietnam – the implementation of the fast-food giant will be on a small scale. KFC reports only three franchises will open, all on the island of Luzon. …Kent Prestwich, a regional manager for KFC, believe “not only American soldiers stationed in Indochina” will benefit from the latest expansion. “When it comes to foreign locations, KFC always seeks to bring quality food to the locals in order to maximize the ‘enjoyability’ of the KFC experience and to benefit the local economy.”

– The San Diego Tribune, 4/18/1967



April 21, 1967: Surveyor 3 is launched

www.nasa.gov.usa/surveyor_program/timeline



Vladimir Komarov was supposed to fly the Soyuz 1, but he badly busted his arm – it got broken in three places – just one week before it was originally set to launch on 23 April 1967. He told me he fell down the stairs listening to the latest radio report concerning the American’s Apollo program. Because of his injuries he could not operate the flight. I was his backup cosmonaut, and the Soviet Union could not afford to have me, their national hero, perish in a launch. So the men at Star City delayed the launch for, oh, two week or so, and I made sure they went over all the safety concerns that I and all of the other cosmonauts were concerned with. We quickly used this one machine to replace the original hatch. We then made a new hatch wide enough for a fully suited cosmonaut to exit, and we ensured the solar panels would fully deploy. These last minute changes, primarily meant to ensure I would come back to Earth alive, enabled Soyuz 1 to be a complete success. And that sort of scared the Americans…

– Yuri Gagarin, Russia-1 TV interview, 30/6/2012



HOUSE VOTES TO LOWER VOTING AGE TO 18

Washington, DC – Today the US House of Representatives voted by a 4-to-1 margin in favor of a bill meant to extend the right to vote to citizens of 18 years of age and older. If it passes the US Senate, and then is ratified by the required number of states, it will become an Amendment of the United States Constitution. The bill, which had bipartisan support, came about as a result of the noticeably high amount of college students across the United States protesting over the Cuban War, followed by the President’s recognition of the high number of American soldiers old enough to serve their country but not old enough to vote... Specifically, the bill will allow Americans aged 18 and older to be able to vote in federal, statewide, and local elections, …

The Washington Post, 4/28/1967



HOFFA OFF-A TO JAIL!

...Hoffa was found guilty of improper use of the Teamster’s Union pension fund in connection to a securities fraud scheme that began in the aftermath of the Salad Oil Recession, in which Hoffa sought to capitalize on the economic confusion the followed the 1963 stock market downturn... The conviction is a win for Governor Biaggi and his tough-on-crime emphasis...

– The New York Post, 5/1/1967



UNEMPLOYMENT DROPS TO 3.9%, DOWN FROM 5.6% IN 1964

Are economists right to credit Sanders’ 1965 tax cuts for it?

– The Financial Times, 5/16/1967



Francis Arinze became the youngest Roman Catholic bishop in the world when he was consecrated on 29 August 1965 at the age of 32, and became the first native African Archbishop to head the diocese at Onitsha two years later. However, the new Archbishop did not have much time to settle into his office before the Nigerian-Biafra War broke out. The entire archdiocese was located in the secessionist Biafran territory during the Nigerian Civil War. As a result of the war, Archbishop Arinze had to flee his see city of Onitsha and to live as a refugee in Cameroon, where he led fellow refugees in religious guidance to help them persevere. Archbishop Arinze worked tirelessly for refugees, displaced persons, the sick and the hungry, offering support to priests and religious, and giving the faithful hope for the future. Working with the Red Cross and other organizations to efficiently distribute relief materials led to one relief worker calling it one of “the most effective and efficient distributions of relief materials” in history. His separation of the Church from ongoing politics led to him gaining respect from all factions in the country, making him famous among Catholic leaders around the world. He subsequently met with Reverend Jerry Brown in 1968 to discuss humanitarian aid and rebuilding efforts in Nigeria. The war was still ongoing in 1968, and as a result, thousands of Nigerians were without homes and some with their businesses and livelihoods gone. Arinze sought to have Nigerians battle poverty instead of each other. Despite the lack of resources, especially after the Nigerian government confiscated all Catholic schools in the country, Francis managed to have Christian and Muslim Nigerians work side by side to reach their shared goal of rebuilding the war-torn nation. Arinze also sought to emulate Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement in promoting defensive resistance to the militant factions of the war, believing “the voices of the peacemakers must be louder than all the bullets fired.”… [11]

– Roy Schoemann’s God’s Invisible Hand: The Life and Work of Francis Arinze, Ignatius Press, 2006




The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigeria-Biafra War and the Biafran War, was a pivotal moment in Nigeria’s history. On 30 May 1967, C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, Governor of the Eastern Region, formally declared the Republic of Biafra to be an independent entity. General Yakubu Gown, head of the Nigerian Military Government, responded with invasion, and sought to use the secession attempt to unite the remaining ethnic groups. The U.K. offered support to Gowon because the U.K. had once owned Nigeria, while the French government supported Biafra, with Mitterrand claiming Gowon to be “a dictator who must be shown he cannot will without the consent of the people.” China also supported Biafra, while the US and USSR gave tepid support to Nigeria.

The supplies of weaponry seemed poised to determine the war’s outcome as Ojukwu and Nigeria failed to agree to negotiations early into the conflict. In June, Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers offered to mediate negotiations in the neutral but nearby nation of Morocco. After several more weeks of neither side gaining ground, Ojukwu and Gowon sat down in Marrakesh. Biafrans demanded better representation in the North-dominated Government, so a relocation of the capital was considered, as was establishing US-style bicameral legislature. The former idea gained support, but not the latter. While there were also many economic, ethnic, cultural, and religious differences, the main drive behind Gowon denying Biafra independence was the region’s oil production in the Niger Delta. Tensions rose over Gowon’s denial of the persecution of the Igbo ethnic peoples, and negotiation broke down.

– Introduction/Overview section of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Blood Spilled In Nigeria: A Civil War And Its Aftermath, 2014



In May 1967, the former Vice President, now serving as a professor at the University of Minnesota, spotted blood in his urine [12]. Humphrey promptly visited the Mayo clinic, leading to his June surgery that discovered a tumor in his bladder [13]. After inspecting it, clinic doctors declared it was benign, believing Humphrey did not have cancer, and decided against further treatment. However, the politician was planning a presidential run in the next year, and thought it best to get a second opinion, which determined that the tumor was in fact malignant [14]. Humphrey perused his options and, still wanting to run for the nomination, declining undergoing a second surgery, this time to remove the tumorous part of his bladder, to instead opt for radiation treatment. The treatment would take several weeks, thus preventing Humphrey from undergoing an active campaign. In the meantime, Humphrey contacted donors and organized supporters from phone lines at the hospital and his home…

– Carl Solberg’s H.H.H.: A Biography, Borealis Books, 1984 (2001 edition)



In early June 1967, The Vancouvers unceremoniously broke up without an unofficial reason [230]. The most widely accepted cause behind the band is Chong trying to reduce the number of players covered by the Vancouvers' contract, intending that only he, Bobby Taylor, and Wes Henderson would constitute the group, while other members would be classified as sidemen and session artists [231][232]. Many persons involved [233][234], including Bobby Taylor [235], have in the years since accused Yoko for the break-up, alleging she had “too much control” [234] over her husband’s career [235].

– clickopedia.co.usa/The_Vancouvers



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[pic: https://imgur.com/6ezbX3i.png ]
– Tommy Chong and Yoko Ono, undated archival footage



Finally the date came, and Apollo 3 was executed without a hitch – a major improvement from the incident concerning Apollo 2 earlier in the year…

– NASA scientist Farouk El-Baz’s Up and Away: How The Cold War Competition Pushed Us Into The Stars, MacFarland & Company, 1994



ANNOUNCER: This was the scene at airports across the nation. At O’Hare, Idlewild, and others, fathers, husbands, and sons are returning home from the conflict in Indochina. Their families are ebullient to see them, running up and jumping into their arms, or hugging with excitement, or even sitting down to blot up tears of joy.

WOMAN IN FOOTAGE: God bless Colonel Sanders for bringing back our boys.

– NBC report, 6/12/1967



In June 1967, the US expanded its training of SV troops in order to quicken the pace at which American military personnel would leave. The Sanders Administration’s unofficial “kill ’em with kindness” policy continued in full force, following advice from politicians such as US Senator Ernest Gruening, US Congressman Mike Gravel, and US Senator Gene McCarthy that it was imperative to win the people’s trust and assist in improving their post-war lives.

To this end, VC defectors and double agents oversaw the delivery of American supplies such as food and medicine to remaining VC-dominated regions in eastern Laos. Documents released in 2013 describe how Sanders instigated the classified orders to sneakily send American aid in this attempt to win over remaining VC soldiers…

– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel Country: The Trials and Crises of Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014



“Don’t be fooled, America, these are the actions of either a traitor or a simpleton! We must not present even the false illusion of weakness in the face of an enemy as dangerous as Red China! To even entertain the idea of warming relations with the reds in any way – even an agreement as simple as a time-share in Australia – is appeasement, pure and simple! If the Colonel continues down this path he will be make himself the Neville Chamberlain of America!”

– Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin Jr., Alabama AM public radio, 6/19/1967 broadcast



[Back in 1965] The Colonel had formed a special Senate Subcommittee to determine whether or not the military could maintain its then-current strength through an all-volunteer army, a concept endorsed by Secretary Friedman. In June 1967, the subcommittee’s finding were handed in, to put it bluntly, they concurred with the Colonel assumptions – the U.S. could maintain military numbers with an all-volunteer army. Sanders immediately requested the Department of Defense to suspend conscription immediately, meaning that the Secretary of Defense would no longer issue draft board orders.

“But sir, the existing draft law is already set to expire in 1971,” Bonesteel reportedly defended the draft with enthusiasm.

“People aren’t going to wait that long; people can’t put their lives on hold to see if they’ll be forced into an unknown land and get killed,” The Colonel defended his decision. The move was strongly supported by former Vice President Hubert Humphrey on Minnesota, highlighting bipartisan appeal.

On June 29, Sanders ended the lottery draft system via executive order, concluding the war department inquiry that originally started in 1963. The Colonel was sure to note that “an instrumental part of this” was the work of Walter Oi. A blind Japanese-American economist in the Colonel’s State Department, Oi was “brilliant with numbers, he managed to calculate exactly how we could afford to finally make the military an institution where all the fellas in it are in it not became they have to serve this country in that way, but because they want to this country in that way!”

– Rick Perlstein’s Colonel’s Country: The Trials and Crises of the Chicken King Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2014



In June 1967, John Y. Brown Jr. requested a meeting with Margaret, Pete Harman and I, though its purpose was intentionally vague. We expected he had good news concerning the sales of our barbeque restaurant chain. When the appointed time came, Brown entered the board room with a briefcase in his hand and a wide smile on his face.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he cheerfully declared, “I’ve got some mighty big news for y’all!”

Brown opened his suitcase and promptly plopped three identical manila folders onto the desk.

“What’s all this?” I asked upon retrieving my copy.

“Copies of share certificates of McDonald’s stock.”

“You’re investing in the competition?!” rejoined a surprised Margaret.

“No sir, I’ve taken over the competition.”

“What?” Stated a flummoxed Harman.

Brown explained, “Slowly and carefully, I’ve been anonymously buying McDonald stock and selling it at a loss in order to lower its value, in turn allowing me to buy even more stock. They’d issue more stock, I’d just purchase more. With Kroc busy trying to pay off his debt from the little campaign I sent him on – ”

You sent him on?” I exclaimed.

“I may have put the idea in his head that the publicity would benefit McDonald’s. If he won, he’d be too focused on the governor’s seat to notice the stock purchases, and if he lost, he’d need the stock purchases to help pay off his campaign debt.” Brown smirked, “And the plan worked. Kroc needed the money from the sold stock. And so, heh, Ma’am, just hours ago, I amassed 51.2% of his company.”

“But if you own this stock, why even tell us?” Margaret inquired.

“Because when I purchased them, I had the ownership of the certificates registered in the name of the KFC Corporation,” Brown explained. As it turned out, Brown’s father, a former U.S. Congressman, had used his legal expert connections to research the legality of such a move. It was ambiguous at the time, but since it was not illegal to issue share certificates to companies instead of to people, he was confident the move would hold up in court. “A circuit court ruled in favor of it just last year, in fact.”

“Who on Earth appointed such irresponsible judges?!” Harman bellowed.

“Um, I believe several of them were early Sanders appointees.” Brown observed.

Harman said nothing.

Returning to his presentation of sorts, Brown triumphantly boasted “With these latest shares, Kentucky Fried Chicken now effectively owns McDonald’s! But that’s not all! I have here,” presenting another trio of folders to us, “the leaders – regional managers, board members, and other members of the McDonald’s company – we’d most likely be able to win over.”

“What do you mean?” Margaret asked.

Brown explained, “Well, Ms. Sanders, in order to commit a hostile takeover like this, to oust Kroc from the CEO spot and put one of our own at the top, we’ll need allies on the inside.”

“Who else knows about this?” I asked.

“Just my trusted legal team,” he responded slyly, “I didn’t want word of this to get out and ruin all of it.”

We sat there without speaking, taken aback by this most unexpected development. We looked at each other with uncertain looks.

“Um, permit us one minute,” I gestured for Brown to temporarily leave the room.

“Yes of course,” Brown complied with a tiny spring in his step, like a school boy happy to be getting brownie points from his teacher.

We huddled:

“Okay, so, how do we handle this?” Margaret asked.

“What do mean, handle this?” I replied.

“What Brown’s done isn’t exactly good for P.R., is it? He said it himself – we’re talking hostage takeover!” Margaret said.

“And how legal is it to put down a company as the owner of another company’s stock. That can’t not be covered by the law, can it?” Harman chimed in his two cents.

“What’s his end-goal here? I’m thinking he’s thinking of being put in charge of McDonald’s.” Margaret was clearly suspicious of the whole development.

“Why wouldn’t he? Brown single-handedly bought majority control of our biggest competitor!” I defended the man. Holding up the documents authenticating that we as a company now had majority stockholder, I added “From a financial standpoint, this is the golden goose. But when the public learns about it, it can easily be seen as underhanded.”

Margaret guessed, “Our stock price could drop…”

“Or it could rise as investors grow confident in KFC’s financial prowess,” I pondered.

Harman noted, “Then there’s the moral angle – it just seems plain wrong to trick someone out of a company.”

“But that’s exactly what Kroc did to the McDonald brothers,” I counter-argued.

“So we should stoop to the same low level?” Margaret disapproved.

“All’s fair in financial wars, Margaret” was my reply. “But I will concede how odd it all is. Kroc announced his bid back in early last year, so that means Brown’s been working on this scheme for well over a year, and yet, he never let us onto it. He kept this a secret this whole time.”

“I want to run this by Dad. He founded the company, so I want to see what he thinks of running McDonald’s.” Margaret suggested stalling for time.

“We’re in charge here, Margaret, because Pops did not expect us to be lost without him.” Eventually I buzzed the secretary. “Send Mr. Brown back in.”

Upon Brown returning, we feigned our best smiles. Very carefully, I told Brown, “John, we approve of this endeavor and look forward to the opportunity to incorporate burgers into the KFC Corporation experience in the immediate future.”

“Wonderful!”

“But um!” I quickly motioned to the documents, “I want to run those by our lawyers to ensure nothing has been overlooked by your, um, team. Please bring us the actual documents when you can.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve looked them over thoroughly,” Brown said.

“Just the same,” I insisted, “This company has the best lawyers chicken can buy. Bring us the actual share certificates as soon as you can.”

Brown was visibly reluctant but nevertheless agreed before cordially departing. Harman picked up one of the papers. “Are we really going to do what Dave Thomas has kept on saying we should? Is the KFC Corporation expanding into the burger business?!”

Margaret wondered aloud, “What would Pops do with a situation like this?” [15]

– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000




qM39tb5.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/qM39tb5.png ]
– John Y. Brown Jr. at age 33, c. early 1967



NOTE(S)/SOUCRE(S)
[1] The US Army converted to metric in 1962-3 to better work with NATO during the Cuba War; this conversion happens two years earlier than it did in OTL: https://www.quora.com/When-someone-in-the-army-says-%E2%80%9Cone-click%E2%80%9D-what-does-it-mean
[2] He really said the italicized parts.
[3] Writing style based on Kovic’s OTL autobiography: https://books.google.com/books/about/Born_on_the_Fourth_of_July.html?id=dVCpDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
[4] OTL city monument: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Tower_of_Hanoi
[5] OTL quote from the Colonel.
[6] Pulled from here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/02/14/kentucky-fried
[7] All military specs based on the information (and sources) found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_DMZ_Conflict
[8] Quote spoken in the past tense by a company executive in OTL according to https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/02/14/kentucky-fried
[9] Marin, Cheech (2009); Greasy Love Songs (Media notes); Frank Zappa, Zappa Records].
[10] OTL release date according to his wiki page
[11] Italicized lines pulled from his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Arinze
[12] Taken from here: https://www.apnews.com/c37eeadf637a244c7add5a3d590966ad
[13] Pulled from here: https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2011/05/final-chapter-hubert-humphrey-returns-public-life/
[14] IOTL, the tumor was erroneously believed to be cancer-free, and so was not treated for it. But here, Humphrey is not the incumbent VP, and so has the time to get a second opinion; https://www.deseretnews.com/article/351388/SCIENTISTS-FIND-GENETIC-FLAW-THAT-KILLED-HUBERT-HUMPHREY.html

[15] Before the next chapter is finalized (and posted on June the 5th), I’d like to know what YOU think Millie, Mags and Harman should do! Any suggestions...?
 
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Oh wow, KFC stealing their biggest competitor out from under Kroc through double dealing and a Sanders appointed judge? This is a catastrophe waiting to happen, right when Sanders is about to perform an incredibly sensitive movement on Red China.
 

nbcman

Donor
Woah, KFC owns majority share in McDonalds! Sounds like a good fit for Mr. Dave Thomas as he should still be working for KFC in 1967. I'd keep McDonalds as a separate entity though - no rebranding as McKFDonalds.

Maybe Ray Kroc can have a consolation prize of owning the San Diego Padres in 1969 as opposed to Arnholt Smith who only owned it for a few years before selling it to Kroc when another buyer wasn't allowed to move the Padres to Washington, DC.
 
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