Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline

Post 21
Post 21: Chapter 29


Chapter 29: July 1968 – December 1968

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

– Maya Angelou



For Running Mate, Jack picked Governor Grant Sawyer of Nevada, but Grant wasn’t Jack’s first choice. Carl Sanders and former segregationist George Smathers were vetted as possibly being able to win over southern voters, and Governor Lucey of Wisconsin or even Senator Mondale – you know, “Diet Humphrey” – could have possibly won over the rust belt, uh, mid-western states. But a deal could not be reached with Carl Sanders, Smathers declined out of the belief that his past would be too much of a detriment to Jack’s campaign, and Lucey and Mondale declined interest. Then we came across Sawyer, a dark-horse consideration at first, but he really believed he could appeal to both former Sanders and Humphrey backers. See, Nevada was often called “the Mississippi of the West” until Sawyer improved its image by finally pushing civil rights legislation through a conservative legislature and making the state economy healthier by modernizing the state’s casino regulations, fighting corporate ownership of those casinos, and renewing business responsibility for the use of the state’s land. By 1968, Sawyer, who I think was about 50, a year younger than Jack, had come a long way from his start in the conservative political machine of Senator Patrick McCarran that many powerful Nevadans considered his policies on education, the environment, and civil rights to be dangerously radical [1]. Jack figured Sawyer’s roots would win over conservatives while his more recent progressive actions would placate former backers of Humphrey, Morse and Gravel. Another plus was Sawyer’s open opposition to Republican-leaning special interest groups, which had led to him being known for feuding with the justice department of the Sanders administration. This made Sawyer be seen a fighter for his party and his ideals. The fact that he was the first governor in the country to back Jack in both 1960 and 1968 was another factor, too. But what sealed the deal was how well the two men got along.

– Ken O’Donnell, C-SPAN-I interview, 1988



NEXT GENERAL ELECTION SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER

The Daily Telegraph, UK newspaper, 7/7/1968



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– Jack Kennedy eating a jelly donut on the first day of the DNC, 7/9/1968



1968 Democratic National Convention

CONVENTION:
Date(s): July 9-12, 1968
City: Chicago, IL
Venue: International Amphitheatre
Keynote Speaker: Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii

CANDIDATES:
Presidential nominee: Jack Kennedy of Massachusetts
Vice Presidential nominee: Grant Sawyer of Nevada
Other candidates: Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Carl Sanders of Georgia

VOTING:
PRIMARY VOTING (by percentage share of popular vote):
Hubert Humphrey – 33.56%
Jack Kennedy – 31.79%
Carl Sanders – 16.28%
Mike Gravel – 7.11%
Wayne Morse – 4.47%
Mario Biaggi – 3.20%
George Wallace – 2.45%
Pat Brown (favorite son) – 0.61%
Pat Lucey (favorite son) – 0.37%
Lester Maddox – 0.07%
Bert Combs – 0.06%
Sam Yorty – 0.02%
Others – 0.01%

CONVENTION VOTING (by percentage share of delegates on final ballot):
For President:
Jack Kennedy – 53.4%
Hubert Humphrey – 28.9%
Wayne Morse – 16.4%
Mike Gravel – 15.9%
Carl Sanders – 7.6%
Mario Biaggi – 7.1%

For Vice-President:
Grant Sawyer – acclamation

– clickipedia.co.usa



SCHUMACHER: Tonight was the fourth and final day of the DNC, and with it came riots – riots possibly bigger than the ones seen at the DNC in 1964. The tumultuous commotion began after Kennedy formally accepted the nomination and may have been instigated by backers of Carl Sanders

HART: That’s right, David, Chicago did see some upheaval. Other sources claim the din was instigated by passive beatniks whom saw Kennedy as part of the “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower mentioned in his 1961 farewell address.

SCHUMACHER: Signs reading “We Want Sanders v Sanders in 1968” and “We Will Not Back Jack” were seen on the convention floor today and yesterday, though.

HART: Yes, and more active polniks, also derisively called shoutniks, began bellowing out their messages and phrases through bullhorns and group chants while standing on the top of vehicles in the area immediately outside the convention building. These vehicles included police cars.

SCHUMACHER: Indeed. According to a convention delegate we interviewed earlier, former Secretary of State Kennedy demanded that Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley not respond to the turbulent disruption with violence as it could, quote, lead to a repeat of 1964, unquote.

HART: And it seems Daley remembered the trouble of four years ago, and likely bitterly held his tongue, as after several hours of heated disruption, the truculent rioters departed. It seems all but the most diehard of the protestors grew tired and left.

SCHUMECHER: Nevertheless, the incident demonstrates the amount of Democrats left unsatisfied by this year’s nominee and compromise platform calling for a vague, quote, change in direction, unquote, in regards to foreign policy...

– Correspondents David Schumacher & John Hart, CBS News report, 7/12/1968



Kennedy hoped to win over the youth vote with more endorsements from liberal celebrities. However, polls repeatedly suggested younger voters actually favored Colonel Sanders due to his lowering of the age limit to 18, his ending of the war in Vietnam, and the “movie star”-like quality that came from his old film cameos, old TV commercials, and his face still in use on KFC products making him much more recognizable to young Americans than Kennedy. …A post-election demographic poll showed that Sanders had also won over the vote of married women over 40, demonstrating the Colonel’s appeal across generations...

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



POLL: KENNEDY LEADS SANDERS BY 5 POINTS: Jack’s Pa Says Election Will Be “A Formality For The Inevitable”

The Los Angeles Times, 7/17/1968



JOSEPH KENNEDY, POLITICAL FAMILY PATRIARCH, DEAD AT 69: Stroke “Most Likely” Cause

The Boston Globe, 7/20/1968



“Jack was now princeps de familia. That’s Latin for ‘head of the family.’ However, it was immediately assumed that that responsibility would fall to Bobby once Jack became President, and he began to be more involved in more family goings-on from the get-go… Father died convinced without a scintilla of a doubt that Jack was on his way to the White House come election night ’68.”

– Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, Boston Globe interview, 1989



In July 1968, the Red Sox, then the Phillies, and finally the Yankees [2] scouted a young graduate of Penn U’s Wharton Business School named Donald Trump. A New Yorker native aspiring to put a new economics degree to good use at his father’s construction company, Trump had been a student who had shown impressive skill in football, squash and tennis, but had always been a “huge” fan of the Yankees. Thus, Trump declined the Red Sox and Phillies offers, but was enthusiastic over the Yankee’s interests. “I have great feet – I can run to the bases really fast” Trump would often boast. After seeing him play, the Yankees determined he had potential and would be an asset to their roster. Putting “my business dreams for NYC…on hold for a while,” Trump began playing Major League Baseball in early 1969.

Pictured below: Donald Trump in 1968
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– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



“Under the Colonel’s supervision, the past three years have seen the most common image in American television shift from the horrific atrocities of War in Indochina and Cuba to the satisfying crispy tenderness of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and all that it represents – fulfillment, freedom, and proof that any goal can be achieved in the United States of America. Anyone with a dream and the will to work hard can form a business for the betterment of themselves and the betterment of society. And for that, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great honor and pride that the Republican Party will officially re-nominate Colonel Harland Sanders for President of the United States next week.”

– RNC chairman Ray C. Bliss’s at a private fundraiser, 7/29/1968 (leaked in December, but received little attention)



“There’s nothing us young people like more than freedom – freedom from oppression, freedom from regulations, freedom from fear. …The Colonel has proven in the past four years to be a man of his word. He’s brought our boys home from Vietnam, he’s lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, and he’s fixed the economy, and now, he wants to assure the American people can work, and that those who can’t will be covered with a monthly dividend. The Colonel deserves a second term and the youth of this nation will deliver it to him!”

– Bob Dylan addressing the RNC convention, urging young people to vote for Sanders, 8/5/1968 [3]



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– President Harland Sanders travelling from the Miami International Airport to the RNC via carriage, 8/6/1968



“Folks, at arrived at this here convention on a horse-and-buggy not as a publicity stunt, but as a callback to an era of progress and possibilities, and to reflect on how far we’ve come in the decades since untamed days of the Wild West. When I was ten years old and getting my first job on a farm, man could still only fly in dreams. But now, we’re less than a year away from stepping foot on the moon. When I joined the army in 1906, Americans workers in the cities and the countryside toiled in terrible conditions. But now, living conditions have improved phenomenally, and our economy is greater than it has ever been. Only in America can people come to together to get themselves so far in so few years. So now let’s continue that legacy into the next four years, and then into the 1970s and beyond!”

– Colonel Sanders at the RNC, 8/6/1968



1960 Republican National Convention

CONVENTION:
Date(s): August 5-8, 1968
City: Miami Beach, FL
Venue: Miami Beach Convention Center
Keynote Speaker: Sen. Bud Wilkinson of Oklahoma

CANDIDATES:
Presidential nominee: Colonel Sanders of Kentucky
Vice Presidential nominee: William Scranton of Pennsylvania

VOTING:
Total delegates: 1,333
Votes needed: 667 (majority)

Results (President):
Harland Sanders (KY): 1,232 (92.5%)
Harold Stassen (MN): 55 (4.1%)
Jim Rhodes (Favorite Son) (OH): 36 (2.7%)
Others: 8 (0.6%)
Not Voting: 2 (0.1%)

Results (Vice-President): 1333
William Scranton (PA): 1,089 (81.7%)
Joseph O. Rogers Jr. (SC): 152 (11.4%)
Bo Callaway (GA): 48 (3.6%)
Frank Farrar (SD): 32 (2.4%)
Others: 9 (0.7%)
Not Voting: 3 (0.2%)

– clickipedia.usa.org



Vote for the Heritage and Independence Party!
Defeat the Yankee Socialists in November!

On August 10, the H.I.P. National Convention listened to the real voices of the American people and formed the following ticket:

For President:
Decorated Rear Admiral and Democratic nominee for US Senate in 1962 John G. Crommelin Jr. of Alabama

For Vice President:
Former Republican US Congressman from 1955 to 1967 and H.I.P. nominee for US Senate in 1966 Bruce Alger of Texas

Join the party that favors:

– limiting the power and influence of the federal government

– local laws for local needs

– An America free from the chains of the UN and other foreign and un-American influence

– lower taxes for higher freedom

– preserving Americans’ history of being the greatest people on Earth

– law and order on all city streets

– …and a President and Vice President who uphold the principles of the constitution and YOUR individual rights

With your support, we will take America back from the special interests and weak big-government bureaucrats that seek to tell YOU how and where to work, where to live, where to send your children to school, and how to live your life!

Protect your Heritage and Independence! Join the Party Now and VOTE H.I.P. IN NOVEMBER!

– Pamphlet for the “Hippy” 1968 Presidential ticket, first distributed c. mid-August 1968



“I’ve always liked trains,” the Colonel explained. “After comin’ back from servin’ in Cuba,” all the way back in 1907, “I got a job on the railroad in Alabama. I had to doodle the ashes,” meaning he had to empty the ashes from the trains’ fireboxes at the end of the train’s voyage. “It was probably the dream of ninety percent of all young fellows my age in those days [4].” He asked, “May I?” gesturing to the air horn cord overhead keeping closed the valve of compressed air.

What would you say but “By all means, Mr. President!”? And with a mighty whoo-whoo!, he enthusiastically began the railcar campaign on Rail Force One. The museum was both surprised and elated when Sanders requested the Ferdinand Magellan be taken out of retirement. Last used in 1954, the train’s Pullman Car used as the Presidential Rail Car was now owned by the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. It was an old train constructed in 1929, when Sanders was 39 and had moved on from working the rails, but still loved it. Now President, he found the private cars “accommodating.” At the end of the first train car is the kitchen, and as you enter from there the storage lockers are to your right and the food prep area is to the left. The car’s hall then meanders to the right row of windows, and when you follow it, you pass the pantry and worker’s quarters. Then you enter the Dining Room – spacious enough for roughly ten people – before moving past the chairs to the rest of the worker’s quarters. Finally, the last car is the President’s own personal car, complete with a bed and bathroom. In 1968, the Sanders Whistle-stop Tour took the Ol’ F.M. across the nation upon leaving the 1968 RNC, with no need for the Secret Service to worry due to WWII-Era safety features [5].

– Cully Waggoner, Gold Coast Railway Museum, edutainment segment, PBS Kids, 2008



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– First Lady Claudia helps the President depart Rail Force One at a campaign stop in Omaha, Nebraska, 8/14/1968



COL. SANDERS GAINING STRENGTH IN YANKEE STATE POLLS

Jackson, MS – Several polls conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion have noticed an average 5-point increase in approval of President Sanders in several northern states, including Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, over the past month or so:

General Survey Question: “If the election for President was held today, who would you vote for?”
[snip]
Statewide average in Missouri on July 20:
Colonel Sanders: 46%
Jack Kennedy: 43%
Undecided: 9%

Statewide average in Missouri on August 10:
Colonel Sanders: 51%
Jack Kennedy: 38%
Undecided: 11%
[snip]
Statewide average in Oregon on July 20:
Jack Kennedy: 49%
Colonel Sanders: 39%
Undecided: 12%

Statewide average in Oregon on August 10:
Jack Kennedy: 46%
Colonel Sanders: 44%
Undecided: 10%
[snip]
However, the Kennedy campaign has consistently been optimistic, noting these very polls as evidence that their message of “strength and order abroad, and liberty and prosperity at home” is resonating well with voters in the north. Meanwhile, Republicans viewed the boost in areas won by Johnson in 1960 and 1964 and indications that “more people are coming to realize the successes of this administration because election season is a time for reflection on how the past four years have been,” according to a source close to the Sanders/Scranton campaign in Ohio…

The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi newspaper, 8/15/1968



Then in August, Apollo 7 was executed without a hitch, contributing to NASA’s optimism concerning the moon landing. Later that month, a date for the launch of the planned first manned mission to the moon was narrowed to March 1969.

We could have had the launch in December 1968, though. The Colonel liked the idea of landing on the moon on Christmas, but Farouk [El-Baz] opposed that launch date for precisely that reason. “Mr. President, this event must be a celebration of all of humanity and an event that unites all. Landing on that holiday will only unite Christians. It will be viewed by too many as biased. That will lead to division and anger among families, friends, communities that are more than just that one religion.” He insisted, “The date must be of no major significance if it is truly to be a day for humanity.”

“Plus,” Director Webb added, “What if something does go wrong after all?”

The Colonel considered another possible launch date in October, but he concluded it would become too political due to that year’s Presidential election, while we concluded it was too close of a date for us to prepare for it. And so, the March date was chosen as giving NASA enough time to finish preparing all involved for the monumental endeavor.

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



CRONKITE: Earlier today, President Sanders established another federal program meant to create jobs, this one specifically for troops returning from the Indochina Theatre. The program is meant to keep unemployment down. It seems that, in the vein of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Sanders is favoring massive construction projects and services positions for these unemployed heroes.

SANDERS (in footage): Our country is growing. That means more people means more mouths to feed, more bodies to clothe, more minds to teach, more products to make, more services to provide.

– CBS Evening news, 8/20/1968



President Wants to Debate Kennedy: “He Gave The Other Sanders The Courtesy.”

– The Boston Globe, 8/21/1968



AFTER TALKS, KENNEDY, SANDERS AGREE TO 2 DEBATES

Associated Press, 8/24/1968



“I think both parties bring something to the table. Democrat politicians are good at startin’ wars, Republican politicians are good at endin’ wars. See? They balance each other out! But in all seriousness, I think the best way for the people to see the leadership skills of their choices for President is to see how well the candidates can defend their ideas from one another. Jack’s a good fella for agreein’ to this. I look forward to the debate.”

– Colonel Sanders to a reporter at a campaign stop, 8/24/1968



…but the Colonel has an awkward amalgamation of voters on his side – an assembly of disheveled communard shoutniks and small-farm rednecks, both groups found in movements and groups favoring locally based communities and an end to the war-industry machine…

– Freelance Journalist Hunter S. Thompson, 8/26/1968 article



NATIONAL POLL: SANDERS-KENNEDY MARGIN NARROWING AS CONVENTION BUMPS FADE

The Question: “If the election for President was held today, whom would you vote for?”
Sanders: 43%
Kennedy: 40%
Crommelin: 8%
Other/Undecided: 9%

– Gallop poll, published 8/27/1968



Beginning in late February 1968, however, the Nigerian Navy successfully blockaded Biafra’s coastline, cutting off aid and food to the masses and causing starving to set in once supplies ran out. Under international pressure stirred up by Medgar Evers and his brother, fellow activist Charles Evers, Ojukwu and Gowon returned to the negotiating table in May 1968, ultimately culminating in a ceasefire in late August [6]. In exchange for returning to Nigeria, Biafra would become an autonomous territory within Nigeria.

The agreement was controversial as both sides viewed it as insufficient, and a revised agreement pertaining to the extent of Biafra’s autonomy was agreed to in September, which included relocating the nation’s capital.

…Between 300,000-to-500,000 Biafran civilians had died of starvation over a conflict stemming from regionalism and oil production...

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



After a long summer, Shelepin blamed Gomulka for the inability to suppress the protests which were only rising in energy in to the point that an overthrowing of the government in Poland was beginning to be seen as feasible by some Soviet higher-ups and inevitable by other Soviet higher-ups. Gomulka quickly passed the buck to General Moczar, his propaganda chief, and others. In early September, he announced the firing of half of his government officials and an end to the hostilities, but it was not enough. The protests saw Moczar and Gomulka as the perpetrators.

In a demonstration of the old phrase “enough a broken clock is right twice a day,” Shelepin did overthrow Gomulka after all, ironic describing him as being “too unstable and bloodthirsty to run a country.” Gomulka was replaced by Stanislaw Kania (b. 1927); he was a rubber stamp of sorts, loyal to Shelepin for giving him to job, but at least he was lucid and responsive; his relative youth, at just 41, gave the image of a generational shift in power that would favor the young activists. By the end of September, intellectual Leszek Kolakowski’s exile sentence was revoked, censorship laws were considerably reformed, the Jews of Poland were given a formal apology, and Gomulka, Moczar and company were on their way to a kangaroo court to take the blame for the atrocities of the past year.

But despite further reform efforts, the “Summer of the Shoutniks” damaged Poland’s relations with academics, the Catholic Church, Israel and Jewish people for many years to come.

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



I remember when I was 7 years old, and in the first week of the new school year, I came home almost crying and with a busted lip, which I managed to hide from Mom for about 25 seconds. She quickly learned how I had started a fight with a group of bullies who had seen her and Dad drop me off. They had been teasing me over having white parents and calling me an assortment of names. Mom was working as an educator then, teaching English to minorities she met with my teacher, and instructed me to conduct a campaign of peaceful, nonviolent resistance. When Dad learned of the incident, though, he brought me to the base’s gym to teach me how to win a fight. I remember being confused over which parent to listen to, and how the two of them fought when I received detention for punching out both bullies the next week.

Being a military brat, our family never stayed in one place for too long. However, I did not see it as a lack of stability – despite Dad always being away serving his country in Vietnam, then Laos and Cambodia – as my Mother was my best friend in those days. And we were not alone, of course. Mother and I would visit relatives on all three sides of the family – the Dunhams, the Obamas, and the McCains – whenever we could. Our family was scattered across the globe, with my biological father raising his own family in Kenya, Mom’s parents living in Hawaii, and Dad’s family sprinkled across Virginia, Mississippi, and other parts of the south (where some ancestors had fought for the Confederacy, starting the McCain tradition of military service).

But while we had many places to call home, we had none to call our own yet.

– Barack McCain’s Lessons From my Fathers, Sunrise Publishers, 1993



“As if his carriage and train rides were indicative enough I feel like I should point out that the president is too euphoric. Time is catching up to America, and we need a president who will focused more on the future than on the past.”

[snip]

“What the Colonel overlooks in his quest to cut red tape is how much that red tape holds up – unemployment insurance; old age annuities; safety regulations for food, airlines, railroads, and roads; vaccination programs; health insurance; business and residential zoning laws; construction standards; trade and monopoly restrictions; licensing doctors, lawyers, CPAs and other professions; and nation park and wilderness conservation. Cut all that red tape and all of that will fall apart to the detriment of millions of Americans nationwide.”

– Jack Kennedy at political luncheon, Baltimore, MD, 9/4/1968



“I have worked with this man for over a decade and I have seen his effectiveness. He is a man of strong moral conviction and of strong work ethics. A hard-boiled humanitarian who follows the practice of smiling while carrying a big stick – or in his case, a big walking stick. He is a man who truly views others through the course of their actions, not the color of their skin. And for that, he has my endorsement and full support in the November election.”

– Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in his official endorsement of Colonel Sanders, 9/5/1968



“I love pitching things. The communicating that goes on with people from all walks of life, the people I get to meet when I try to make a sale – they’re more valuable and informative than any liberal arts college degree. It’s through real people that you learn the ways of the world. I love learning people’s viewpoints, their wants and needs, and getting them to see things differently. To see why they need what I’m selling, why it’ll be to their benefit. It was like that on the drives of ’51, and on the campaign trails of ’55, ’64 & ’68.”

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



KENNEDY AND SANDERS CAMPAIGN AGREE TO TWO DEBATES: First One Scheduled For Saturday The 28th

The Washington Post, 9/6/1968



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– President Sanders riding in a motorcade past an unenthusiastic crowd in Boston, MA, as part of a tour of pro-Kennedy areas, 9/7/1968



“There is a theory that people on farms eat better than people in towns. That is true. And people who live on farms just naturally eat more. We worked harder so we demanded more food. We ate family style. We all helped ourselves from the same bowls. I even got so I liked cottage cheese with sour molasses.” [7]

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




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NIXON: “Wait, the Colonel would eat what now? Molasses?! How peculiar.”

CURTIS: “Is that – did you put cottage cheese on your cake slice, Dick?”

NIXON: “Don’t you judge me Carl!”

CURTIS: “Where’d you even get - ? Oh, never mind!”

– Richard Nixon and Carl Curtis at President Sanders’ birthday celebration in the Oval Office, 9/9/1968; transcript released by the FBI in 2012 (but nature of recording device classified until 2029), photograph published 9/10/1968



THE SHOUTNIK TICKET THAT TIME FORGOT

…From 1959 to 1961, William H. Meyer (1914-1983) was one of the most left-wing members of the US House of Representatives (D-VT), but lost re-election due to the Green Mountain state being heavily pro-Republican at the time. Meyer’s subsequent bids for higher office on an anti-Cuban War platform failed in 1962 and 1964, but in 1968, the loss of his preferred candidates – Morse and Gravel – prompted him to try to win an election one more time.

In early September 1968, Meyer assembled a small circle of friends and members of Timothy Leary’s Natural Mind party in his West Rupert, Vermont home to announce his intention to try to run as the Natural Mind nominee for President in November. The NMP held a small (roughly 200 people) convention in Syracuse, New York to make the nomination official.

On September 14, Meyer won the nomination in landslide, winning over two party organizers with no public office experience, .

Due to his prior work with Natural Mind regional candidates in 1966 and 1967, the party asked leftist political activist Carl Oglesby (1935-2011) of Michigan to serve as running mate, after former Congressman George McGovern and other higher-profile names declined. Oglesby reluctantly accepted the offer despite the fact that he would be only 33 years old on inauguration day 1969 – he would not become eligible for the Presidency or Vice Presidency until July 30, 1970.

Meyer and Oglesby mounted an almost exclusively grassroots campaign centered on visiting liberal college campuses. The ticket was heavily anti-corporatist and anti-big business, yet Oglesby famously dismissed socialism as “a way to bury social problems under a federal bureaucracy” [8]. Oglesby also seemed to split with Meyers on taxes, with the former favoring a more libertarian stance and the latter favoring a progressive one.

– minorpartiesmatter.co.usa/history/1960s/article#34758901



EXPOSE: STONEHOUSE RECEIVED THOUSANDS OF POUNDS FROM FOREIGN AGENCY!: Bank Deposits Traced to Czechoslovakian Secret Service!

The Daily Telegraph, 14/9/1968



“There is no substance to these claims whatsoever. I’m disappointed in our law enforcement agency’s failure to know fake documents when they see them.”

– Prime Minister Stonehouse, 15/9/1968



“I’m very satisfied with this administration’s handling of foreign policy issues, and I’m running for re-election because I think I have the knowledge, experience, and very importantly the energy that the President and the people of Kentucky need to have in the Senate.”

– US Senator Thruston B. Morton (R-KY), Meet the Press interview, 9/22/1968



CROMMELIN CRIES FOUL AFTER EXCLUSION FROM DEBATE

…The H.I.P. nominee is polling at a national average of 4%. However, in polls conducted in southern states such as Alabama and South Carolina, the former Navy Rear Admiral has reached as much as 28%, at teams beating Democratic nominee Jack Kennedy for second place…

Birmingham News, 9/26/1968



KENNEDY: [snip] I believe we can do more for our schools. President Sanders’ words promoting higher education are admirable, but the fact remains that his administration has discouraged the education programs of the Johnson administration, causing college rates to actually drop. I also think that teachers should have better salaries, because if children are our future then we have to ensure their minds are equipped for the future.

MODERATOR: President Sanders, your rebuttal?

SANDERS: Jack, I have nothing against colleges, or any types of schoolin’. But I am not going to let the federal government have absolute control over education because what teachers want to teach and what students need to learn in states like Arkansas and the Carolinas differ greatly from the wants and needs of states like Massachusetts and New York. With all due respect, Jack, the federal government cannot force cultural change to an extent as severe as what Johnson attempted and what you are suggesting. Now, I will concede that the drop in college rates over the past year – I think it went down 2% or so – is disappointing as education is essential to the future of our nation, and like you have said, federal assistance should be available. But government influence and control over the individual freedoms of the states should never be allowed outside of assuring that people are treated equally and indiscriminately. The teachers in New York City don’t teach farmin’ essentials; and the teachers in Nebraska don’t teach subway ridin’.

KENNEDY: If I may rebut that rebuttal –

SANDERS: Sure, go ahead.

MODERATOR: Um, alright, you have one minute to reply.

KENNEDY: Colonel, this is not about influence, but assistance. The federal government should provide more funding to the states, and then the states can determine what is taught.

SENATOR: Okay, that’s fairer – I can get behind that, Jack.

[snip]

KENNEDY: …Despite the Colonel’s claims the government can only reduce income taxes responsibly when the economy is prosperous. [snip] …I don’t believe that anyone is going to be able reduce the federal debt very much. [9] But I do believe that if the debt buildup under this administration is not reigned it in will bring fourth another recession like the one felt in 1958, after six years of Republican leadership.

MODERATOR: Thank, Mr. Secretary. Mr. President, your response?

SANDERS: Jack, we can’t burden the middle and lower classes with even more taxes.

[snip]

KENNEDY: I agree, Colonel, I agree – I – I think people should be able to do a pay-as-you-go form of it, in the same way as the Tennessee Valley Authority, but, like you, I believe in a balanced budget, and the only conditions under which I would unbalance the budget would be if there was a grave national emergency, or a serious recession. [10]

SENATOR: Jack, an unbalanced budget leads to inflation – that’s Economics 101 right there. I understand that, and I never even went to college!

[snip]

KENNEDY: …We need stability after these last hectic four years. America deserves an experienced leader… [snip]

MODERATOR: And President Sanders, your closing remarks.

SANDERS: …the economy will only be prosperous if people are encouraged to make consumer purchases, and the best way to do that is to lower taxes. …What we have here, on this stage tonight, is two ideas for how the federal government should work – centralized or decentralized – power to the fat cats on the nation’s capitol hill or power to the fat cats on the capitol hills of our 50 states. I promote the latter, as those cats aren’t so fat. I promote the concept that real change and progress starts at the bottom, at the local level, with small businesses and smart, hard-working people joining up with each other to improve their communities. That improves the local economy. And that improves the statewide economy. I have faith in the ability of the American people, when they are not burdened by bureaucracy, to make the right decisions. Because, you see, the free market only works when its users share a sense of morality, of doing the right thing due to standards ingrained into their hearts, not inked onto legislation telling them to do the right thing. That’s why the US economy is the strongest on earth! And it’s why we need education, to teach the next generation the same lessons that have made this nation so great – to teach children to care for not just themselves and their loved ones, but for their fellow Americans everywhere and from all walks of life, whether they come from the shores of Cape Cod or from fields of blue grass. That’s the beauty of America – we are the example to the world of just how much can be accomplished when men have freedom – freedom to speak their mind, freedom from federal overreach, and freedom to pursue their dreams! Thank you.

– First General President Election Debate, NBC transcript, 9/28/1968



Despite his one-liners and well-received closing statement, Sanders did not believe that he had performed well in the first debate, having stumbled a few times in stumbles in both the foreign and domestic policy sections, forgetting specifics and stuttering at times. Sanders had felt especially hurt when Kennedy had brought up his “ignoring” of the rising issue of busing students, as Sanders had openly questioned its effectiveness for years but had done little to “fix” what Sanders seemed to think was a “broken” policy. Political analysts, meanwhile, were divided practically 50-50 on who actually won the debate, while polling suggested a majority of viewers of the debate believed the Colonel had won.

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1968, Centurion Publishers, 2015



STONEHOUSE SCANDAL: INVESTIGATION FINDS MORE EVIDENCE OF WRONGDOING

The Daily Telegraph, 29/9/1968



It soon became apparent that Stonehouse had been a spy for the Czechoslovak Secret Service (a counter-intelligence police force) since 1962 and had provided secrets about government plans as well as technical information about aircraft in exchange for 5,000 pounds.

– Edward Wright’s History’s Greatest Scandals: Shocking Stories of Powerful People, Guardian Books, 2006



U.N. CONDEMNS VIETNAM’S PRESIDENT KHANH

Associated Press, 9/29/1968



Khanh’s wrath is simply pushing more and more communist sympathizers and former V.C. fighters out of his country and into ours. When will the Americans learn that Asians are stronger-willed than Cubans? That they cannot change our minds about a superior form of government by shooting us? Let’s hope never – in my eyes, the more dead Americans, the better!

The rain season is coming to a close in a few weeks. We will launch the attack soon enough – our victory is inevitable!

– Phoumi Vongvichit, high-ranking member of the Pathet Lao, 9/30/1968 log entry



VP TO LEAD BUSING ALTERNATIVE PROBE

Washington DC – After several meetings with members of congress concerned over the practicality of forcing children to travel great distances for their education, President Sanders has called for a special task force headed by VP Scranton to look into the effectiveness of busing and “any and all” alternatives to the policy…

The Washington Post, 9/30/1968



THE STONEHOUSE SCANDAL: WHAT MAY HAPPEN

…per the official rules, in the vacancy of the title of Prime Minister, the title, salary and functions of that role shall be conferred to the person bearing the designation of Deputy Prime Minister [11]. The current holder of that title is Michael Foot, who was a candidate for Prime Minister in this year’s May leadership election. …Queen Elizabeth II can dissolve Parliament and appoint a Prime Minister of her liking if she deems it necessary...

The London Gazette, 1/10/1968



STONEHOUSE SCANDAL UPDATE: HOUSE OF COMMONS MOVING FOR IMPEACHMENT!

London – a cross-party collection of MPs have tabled a motion in the House of Commons to impeach Prime Minister Stonehouse for “high crimes and misdemeanours.” The motion will likely be debated very soon, as the MPs in question plan to meet with the drafting team for the motion’s case and specific articles of impeachment later today…

The Guardian, 3/10/1968



…In light of the House of Commons’ steps to impeach Stonehouse grinding parliamentary legislation a halt, her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, has announced her decision to dismiss the Prime Minister, effectively removing him from office...

– BBC, 5/10/1968 broadcast



MICHAEL FOOT, DEPUTY P.M., BECOMES NEW PRIME MINISTER!

– The Guardian, 10/5/1968



Upon the Queen’s announcement, officers arrested Stonehouse at his home as he attempted to leave the premises with a suitcase, which contained a change of clothes, a prosthetic beard, and a false passport and ID. He was remanded in Brixton Prison without bail. Charged with espionage, possession of false documents, and conspiracy to defraud. Stonehouse experienced a relatively quick trial that captured the interests of the United Kingdom for all of its 34 days, during which the court revealed Stonehouse had an IQ of 140 and had met with members of the Czechoslovakian government at least twice during his five months as Prime Minister. On 28 November, Stonehouse was sentenced to 10 years of house arrest and fined 10,000 pounds. While the House of Lords refused his appeal against the charges, many Britons were outraged at what they considered to be too light a sentence. Most citizens, though, were simply glad the drama had concluded, and wished for the country to “move on,” as the new year, and, soon enough, a new decade, approached.

– Edward Wright’s History’s Greatest Scandals: Shocking Stories of Powerful People, Guardian Books, 2006



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– Former US Secretary of State Jack Kennedy (D-MA) shaking hands with enthusiastic supporters while on the campaign trail in Philadelphia, PA, 10/10/1968



NASA’s October 11 launch of Apollo 8, meant to test the lunar module docking maneuver and re-entry procedure, launch yielded a number of protestors higher than unusual in part due to the presence of far-left presidential candidate William Meyer on the picket line. TV reports covered the protestors’ complaints that the government should be spending more money on anti-poverty programs than on “big rocket toys.” Both Kennedy and Sanders avoided directly addressing their concerns as both men supported the Apollo program, as did conservative third-party candidate John Crommelin. However, this development took American media’s attention away from a situation developing in Panama that same day. This distraction allowed the Colonel to address the Arias-Torrijos conflict…

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1968, Centurion Publishers, 2015



Manuel Noriega had long been a sternly loyal apprentice to Omar Torrijos, allowing the former to get away with raping underage girls during his younger military years and with allowing the raping of prisoners. After an educational program in 1966 helped the recalcitrant Noriega “shape up,” his past crimes went unaddressed, especially due to the Johnson administration considering Noriega and Torrijos to be “assets” for their information-sharing activities. Due to this, both men assumed in 1968 that their plans to overthrow Panama’s President Arnulfo Arias would have America’s support.

Dr. Arias had a mixed record – he was an admirer of Mussolini’s fascism, but in his first term as President had built a social security program, granted women the right to vote, and strengthened labor laws. The US had already overthrown him once before in 1941, and, upon returning to the Presidency a few years later, was overthrown again by an alliance of the National Guard and wealthy families. [12] Torrijos, meanwhile, wanted to create schools and jobs for the members of Panama’s majority – the poor and mixed-race, not just the lighter-skinned social elite, the rabiblancos (white-tails) dominating Panamanian politics and commerce. When Arias came to power a third time, Torrijos began to plot a coup.

The only problem for Torrijos and company was the fact that US President Colonel Sanders supported the somewhat-populist Arias. While understanding the doctor was controversial, the Colonel also understood that his election had been fair and democratic, and did not believe a regime could be replaced without the people’s consent. Thus, upon the launch of the coup on October 11, orchestrated by Torrijos, Noriega, Major Boris Martinez, and the upstart Demetrio Lakas, the Colonel threatened to send in the US military to “restore the Panamanian people’s choice.”

A standoff of sorts ensued, with Arias holed up in the surrounded Presidential Palace thanks to what few military members still supported him. Lakas’ suggestion of Vice President Raul Arango serving as compromise successor was immediately rejected. Noriega, seeing the situation as a hostage crisis of sorts, demanded the United States “return the Canal” before any further actions occurred. The Colonel replied with “the Senate and I will never approve of handing over the Canal to a nation without liberty. Let Arias be and then we’ll talk.” The US President then wired Arias and demanded he “make concessions so you don’t lose it all.” On October 13, Arias announced a more liberal agenda for his presidency, and offered Torrijos the position of Vice President “with unprecedented influence on domestic policy” in exchange for Torrijos “calling off his dogs.” Torrijos agreed, and the military regrouped on the 14th.

Noriega expected to find himself in a highly influential position now. Instead, Torrijos pinned the coup on him, causing Noriega to be imprisoned for treason. The upper class rabiblancos were satisfied that the “ringleader” had been brought to justice and that “their man” was still at least barely clinging onto power, the nation’s poor were optimistic that Torrijos would ensure they would be helped, and Torrijos was happy to play semi-puppetmaster. Noriega, however, swore from his prison cell he would avenge himself.

In early 1969, talks controversially began over the administration of the canal, with “the Arias-Torrijos administration” arguing their country should take in revenue from the pivotal causeway. The Sanders administration, and conservative politicians in the US, countered the standard talking points – “we built it, we own it, we should keep it.” Arias suggested a gradual shift in control to the Panamanians, starting with more administrative responsibilities such as maintenance. These talks would continue into the 1970s.

– Ashley Carse’s Beyond the Big Ditch: Politics, Ecology, and Infrastructure at the Panama Canal, MIT Press, 2014



LABOUR PARTY FAILS TO PUSH BACK SNAP ELECTION

...the people will vote for a new parliament in December as planned…

– The Southern Daily Echo, UK tabloid, 10/15/1968



BROOKS: The candidates will now answer questions put by correspondents of the networks. Ladies and gentlemen, Sander Vanocur of NBC News, Stuart Novins of CBS and Bob Fleming of ABC.

[snip]

SANDERS: …And so I would say that all of these proposals that Jack has made will result in one of two things: either he’ll have to raise taxes or unbalance the budget. Unbalancing the budget means inflation and raising taxes hurts consumer spending. The government can’t bits off more than it can chew.

[snip]

KENNEDY: On this, I think a compromise can be reached. We can raise federal funding for teacher salaries so they can financial afford the materials that they need and want without the federal government directly directing them what those lessons and materials will be.

[snip]

SANDERS: Your question brings out a point that I am very glad to make. Too often in appraising whether we are moving ahead or not we think only of what the federal government is doing. Now that isn’t the test of whether America moves. The test of whether America moves is whether the federal government, plus the state government, plus the local government, plus the biggest segment of all – individual enterprise – moves. [13] America has done so well since 1963 because this administration backs that last segment, the spirit of the individual dreamer, the mom-and-pop stores of the land.

[snip]

SANDERS: …I think these proposed economic incentives would create and expand jobs and business opportunities across the U.S. and in turn educate the next and future generations so they are capable of performing useful skills, which will be a better focus of the government’s time and money than prolonging people’s dependency on handouts.

BROOKS: But Mr. President, doesn’t that contradict your pledge to help the poor?

SANDERS: That is the help they’ll be getting and much more – this’ll incentivize those who can help themselves to go and help themselves so more time is spent helping those who can’t help themselves. The lazy people in this country must understand that, in America, you do not ask what your country can do for you – you ask what you can do for you country.

KENNEDY: I disagree with that statement, Mr. President. It suggests blind loyalty; that people should give their all and receive nothing in return.

SANDERS: Haven’t you been listenin’, Jack? I already explained what they’re gettin’ in return – pride in their hard work. With hard work, not even the sky’s the limit, thanks to NASA.

BROOKS: Mr. Secretary, your rebuttal?

KENNEDY: I support the calls for effective tax reform to encourage productive enterprise and to discourage the nonproductive pursuit of tax loopholes; it means tax reform to end the erosion of the tax system, and prevent a progressive shift of the tax burden on to those least able to pay. It means using the massive fiscal and monetary powers of the Federal Government to combat recession and to stimulate growth.” [14]

[snip]

KENNEDY: “The coal industry is an example of the problems raised by new technology and by automation. It is too late now to take the steps we should have taken two decades ago to prepare for this problem. But automation will continue to loom large in our future, in the economy generally as well as in coal. The national government has a responsibility, I believe, to help to plan and program progress to avoid further dislocations and lost jobs. Through government-union-industry cooperation, we can provide against dislocation and job loss, retrain workers, and schedule change to avoid upheavals.” [14]

SANDERS: Well, Jack, here’s where we agree. Because there’s something inside of me that makes me want to help people, especially people who are having difficulty of some kind [15]. I can see it’s inside you, too, Jack.

[snip]

SANDERS: Folks, the world, the present, and the future are all what you make of them. If you – if anyone – has a vision for how to make the world a better place, don’t let people put it down. They shouldn’t. They should work together to make sure it’ll work – determine the strings attached and cutting them away the best you can – and make that vision a reality. Government should help with such positive endeavors, not against them. At least that’s what I think.

– Sanders, Kennedy, and moderator Ned Brooks, 10/15/1968 debate



“While the Colonel looked forward to the rematch, Jack believed he’d perform even better than he felt he had the first time around. We didn’t expect the second debate to backfire on us but it did. Sanders demonstrated his showmanship skills when describing foreign policy and economic plans and achievements, and it made him, at almost 78, seem not old, but wise but also energetic and physically and mentally sharp despite his years. It was around this time Goldwater called the Colonel ‘a man of conservative mind and liberal heart.’ Jack, though, was recovering from a flu at the time, and was trying to hide what must have been incredible back pain. He didn’t have the time for one of his natural remedies on the night of the debate, so instead he took some pills and downed a medical cocktail or two before going onto that stage. And that combination of elements led to Jack coming off as stiff, wooden, and at times even tired. Many viewers ended up complaining that he seemed disconnected and bored, when actually, he was trying to discuss complex issues at a time when he really needed to be resting. The image of Jack on that night was not at all that of a young and energetic politician, which was what Kennedy sought to present himself as to the nation, but instead the image of a 51-year-old apathetic member of the Democratic establishment class. For once, the cameras had actually not been good to Jack.”

– Harris Wofford Jr.’s autobiography Don’t Speak American With Just English Words: My Life In Washington, Simon & Schuster, 1999



IF THE US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WAS HELD TODAY, WHO WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?
Sanders: 48%
Kennedy: 43%
Crommelin: 3%
Other(s): 1%
Uncertain: 5%

– Gallup Poll, 10/16/1968



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– Colonel Sanders sits down with firefighters during a campaign trip across Missouri 10/17/1968



“You know who really creates jobs, Mr. Sanders? The customers, not the employers! Employers are just job-fillers, not job-makers!”

– X-Men leader Elbert X at a rally in Akron, OH, 10/18/1968



SOURCE: PRESIDENT SANDERS CHECKS INTO HOSPITAL, “MAY HAVE” PNEUMONIA

Associated Press, 10/19/1968 report



…now, back to today’s top political story: former Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for President Jack Kennedy was hospitalized in Baltimore earlier today. While an official reason is unannounced, we have received word from a member of the Kennedy campaign that Secretary Kennedy has suffered a hernia while campaigning in Maryland…

– ABC World News Tonight, 10/20/1968 broadcast



A few nights ago, both Kennedy and Sanders exited separate-but-close-by hospitals after being treated for a hernia and pneumonia, respectively. Nevertheless, the double-hitter health scare had now made health care a major issue for voters on bipartisan lines. Subsequently several politicians are calling for more funding for Medicare and Medicaid, while others call for more transparency to come from Presidential candidates. Going even further with this are Heritage and Independence Party co-founders Farris Bryant and Congressman John Rarick, who are calling for both Jack Kennedy and Colonel Sanders to submit to medical health examinations…

– CBS Evening News, 10/24/1968 broadcast



“The idea of harassing Presidential nominees into releasing their medical information is a preposterous invasion of personal privacy meant to turn two common incidents experienced my many Americans into a ridiculous tool for fearmongering and brewing up suspicion in the American democratic system. It’s immature at the least and unpatriotic at the most.”

– U.S. Senator George A. Smathers (D-FL), 10/25/1968



By July, the Pathet Lao had been split into two branches – one in the north, along the nation’s border with the former North Vietnam, and one in the South, mainly along the nation’s southern border with Cambodia. The town of Xam Nua in northern Laos, not very far from the Vietnam border, became the headquarters of the northern branch Pathet.

[snip]

Louangphrabang, a city resting on the Mekong River, was located to the left of the center of the “pan” that is northern Laos. In the nation’s south, its “pan handle,” insurgents were being repelled from Pakxe, a city on the Mekong River, and the town of Salavan, which was once a Pathet Lao stronghold.

[snip]

Communist insurgents in Laos had been helped by the fact that Laos had had a large Vietnamese population since long before the Fall of Hanoi. Understanding this, General Abrams countered by increasing US collaboration with other ethnic groups. The US Army worked closely with local Hmong tribesmen along with the Mien and the Khmu. A pivotal coordinator was Vang Pao (1929-2011), a King loyalist, a Major General in the Royal Lao Army, and member of the Hmong ethnic group.

The tide of victory had tossed between the two sides since 1965 as the status of the war in Lao’s north throughout the year generally depended on the weather. The dry season started in November and December, which was when the Lao and Vietnamese communists tended to launch military operations as fresh troops and supplies flowed down newly passable mountain trails. The US began assaults on their territory when the rainy season began in June and July.

The Laotian and American air forces worked to train more Laotian Nationalist troops, pilots and tank drivers. As 1968 continued, we slowly encroached upon Communist territory in the northern and southern fronts. When the Royal Lao Army and US Army launched a joint counter-attack in September, the weather was on America’s side – had it been a sunny day, and the sun was in the enemy’s eyes that morning.

Long Tieng, a small majority-Hmong military base hastily built in 1962, was nestled in a valley made by three formations of limestone mountains. It had runways for planes, storage for supplies and tools for equipment repair, making it a pit stop of sorts for the war effort. From Long Tieng, the offense against the Pathet Lao stronghold of Xam Nua was launched on October 1, roughly a month before the Pathet Lao planned to renew offensive maneuvers on Louangphrabang. Infantry regiments reclaimed the area as artillery/tank battalions concentrated troops on trails out of Xam Nua in a tactical operation meant to surround the enemy. Hmong commandos and US Air Force phantom jets then struck specific targets with cluster bombs. At the end of the month, the city finally fell to our forces, and most of its inhabitants were either KIA or became POWs.

– US Air Force veteran Jim Duffey’s Air America: An Aerial View of Laos 1959-1968, 1997



PATHET LAO H.Q. XAM NUA FALLS! Communists in Disarray!

…additional reports confirm that Phoumi Vongvichit, a high-ranking member of the Pathet Lao, is among the hundreds of casualties lining the streets of Xam Nua. General Creighton Abrams claims the communist guerillas are “leaderless and desperate, and now that they’ve lost this battle, they are disheartened.”

– Stars and Stripes, 10/27/1968



The Pathet Lao were unable to match the US assaults thanks to US-Royalist-Hmong alliance and coordination promoted by the sides’ respective leaders. A lack of coordination among the decentralized communists produced a splintering affect as small pockets of guerillas rallied around minor military leaders.

[snip]

In the far north, Pathet Lao guerillas fled from Louang Namtha north into China and west into Burma. In total, roughly 500,000 supporters of Communism fled to other countries (over half to Cambodia), while the rest were captured or surrendered.

– US Air Force veteran Jim Duffey’s Air America: An Aerial View of Laos 1959-1968, 1997



COMMUNIST LEADERS IN LAOS AGREE TO NEGOTIATE SURRENDUR TERMS!: Smaller Pathet Lao Factions Swear To Keep Fighting

– The New York Times, 10/29/1968



PROMISES MADE! – PROMISES KEPT!

– President Sanders re-election banner, c. late October 1968



Support for the President has swelled in light of the defeat of the Pathet Lao in Indochina …With two days left to go, Kennedy and the Colonel are traversing the country to win over remaining undecided voters. …The race for the White House still heavily favors Sanders, with polls depicting the President defeating Jack Kennedy by roughly a ten-percent margin, reflecting a margin widening of over five percent from polls conducted two weeks ago…

– NBC News, 11/1/1968 broadcast



RATHER: Yes, Walter, and as you can see, here behind me, we have set up a large map of the states to track the results. So far, the Colonel has won South Carolina and Indiana, and New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut are still too close to call. ….For the people at home watching this transmission on Black and White television sets, the lighter shade of grey, here, representing a Colonel victory, is Red, and the darker shade of grey, the one filling in Massachusetts, is Navy Blue, in honor of Kennedy’s service in the Navy.

CRONKITE: Why was red chosen, Dan?

RATHER: Well, Walter, that’s one of the first colors you think of when you hear “the Colonel” – you think of red and white, the colors of KFC.

– CBS News, 11/5/1968 broadcast



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[pic: imgur.com/VwMXZnU.png ]
Sanders/Scranton (Republican): 39,647,535 (55.1%)
Kennedy/Sawyer (Democratic): 29,213,973 (40.6%)
Crommelin/Alger (Heritage & Independence): 2,086,712 (2.9%)
Meyer/Oglesby (Natural Mind): 791,511 (1.1%)
All other votes: 215,867 (0.3%)
Total votes: 71,955,598

– clickopedia.co.usa



The seven narrowest states were all won by Sanders. The election saw an expectedly low turnout, especially for Kennedy in the South, where he only won the state of Georgia, the home state of former Governor Carl Sanders, whom campaigned for Kennedy/Sawyer in the fall despite his primary feud with Kennedy. This collapse in Democratic support in nearly all of the South has led to the election being considered the start of the Sixth party system, as, “while retained for some years afterward on state and local levels, The New Deal Coalition fell apart on the national level in 1968.” The coalition seemingly collapsed in the wake of Colonel Sanders’ strategy of campaigning on positions shared by both Black voters, and poor and rural white voters.

…But arguably the most prevalent contribution to Sanders’ victory was the end of military hostilities in Vietnam (early 1967) and Laos (October 1968), on which the Sanders campaigned heavily.

…Resentful segregationists and hard-right conservative disapproving of The Colonel’s more libertarian policies could vote for the Crommelin/Alger ticket in 25 states. Crommelin won 2.89%, with most of those votes coming from Mississippi and Louisiana. Other than these voters, most segregationists sat this election out, or voted for Sanders out of sheer protest of Kennedy’s connection to the Johnson administration…

…Kennedy managed to win Illinois by winning the city of Chicago, debatably thanks to the political machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Despite losing the Democratic primary in the states in 1960 and 1968, Kennedy’s constant visits to Appalachia led to win finally winning West Virginia. The presence of Meyer/Oglesby on Oregon’s ballot cost Kennedy that state by a .5% margin…

– clickopedia.co.usa/1968_US_Presidential_election/results



United States Senate election results, 1968
Date: November 5, 1968
Seats: 34 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Senate minority leader: Everett Dirksen (R-IL)
Seats before election: 57 (D), 43 (R)
Seats after election: 51 (D), 49 (R)
Seat change: D v 6, R ^ 6

Full List:
Alabama: incumbent James D. Martin (R) over Armistead I. Selden Jr. (D), John M. Patterson (HIP) and Robert Schwenn (I)
Alaska: incumbent Ernest Gruening (D) over Elmer E. Rasmuson (R)
Arizona: Paul Fannin (R) over Roy Elson (D)
Arkansas: incumbent J. William Fulbright (D) over Charles T. Bernard (R)
California: incumbent Thomas H. Kuchel (R) over Anthony C. Beilsenson (D) and Paul Jacobs (Natural Mind)
Colorado: incumbent Peter H. Dominick (R) over Stephen L. R. McNichols (D) and Gordon G. Barnwall (HIP)
Connecticut: incumbent Abraham A. Ribicoff (D) over Edwin H. May Jr. (R)
Florida: William Cato “Bill” Cramer Sr. (R) over incumbent George A. Smathers (D) and C. Farris Bryant (HIP) [16]
Georgia: incumbent John William Davis (D) over E. Earl Patton (R)
Hawaii: incumbent Daniel K. Inouye (D) over Wayne C. Thiessen (R) and Oliver M. Lee (Natural Mind)
Idaho: incumbent Frank Church (D) over George V. Hansen (R)
Illinois: incumbent Everett Dirksen (R) over William G. Clark (D)
Indiana: incumbent Birch Bayh (D) over William Ruckelshaus (R)
Iowa: incumbent Harold Hughes (D) over David M. Stanley (R)
Kansas: Bob Dole (R) over William I. Robinson (D)
Kentucky: incumbent Thruston B. Morton (R) over John Y. Brown Jr. (D)
Louisiana: incumbent Russell B. Long (D) unopposed
Maryland: Charles Mathias Jr. (R) over incumbent Daniel J. Brewster (D) and George P. Mahoney (HIP)
Missouri: incumbent Edward V. Long (D) over Thomas B. Curtis (R)
Nevada: incumbent Alan Bible (D) over Edward Fike (R)
New Hampshire: incumbent Norris Cotton (R) over John W. King (D)
New York: incumbent Jacob K. Javits (R) over Joseph Y. Resnick (D)
North Carolina: incumbent Sam Ervin (D) over Robert V. Somers (R)
North Dakota: incumbent Milton R. Young (R) over Herschel Lashkowitz (D)
Ohio: William B. Saxbe (R) over John Gilligan (D), incumbent Frank L. Lausche (I) and John M. Briley (HIP)
Oklahoma: Henry Bellmon (R) over incumbent Mike Monroney (D)
Oregon: incumbent Wayne Morse (D) over Wendell Wyatt (R)
Pennsylvania: Herman T. Schneebeli (R) incumbent Joseph S. Clark (D) and Frank W. Gaydosh (HIP)
South Carolina: incumbent Ernest Hollings (D) over Marshall Parker (R)
South Dakota: incumbent Joseph H. Bottum (R) over Wayne Peterson (D)
Utah: incumbent Wallace F. Bennett (R) over Milton N. Wellenmann (D)
Vermont: incumbent George D. Aiken (R) unopposed
Washington: incumbent Warren G. Magnuson (D) over Jack Metcalf (R)
Wisconsin: incumbent appointee Philleo Nash (D) over Jack B. Olson (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



United States House of Representatives results, 1968
Date: November 5, 1968
Seats: All 437
Seats needed for majority: 218
House minority leader: John McCormack (D-MA)
House majority leader: Charles Halleck (R-IN)
Last election: 225 (R), 212 (D)
Seats won: 236 (R), 201 (D)
Seat change: R ^ 11, D v 11

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



United States Governor election results, 1968
Date: November 5, 1968
State governorship elections held: 35
Seats before: 23 (R), 27 (D)
Seats after: 26 (R), 24 (D)
Seat change: R ^ 3, D v 3

Full List:
Arizona: incumbent Jack Williams (R) over Samuel Goddard Jr. (D)
Arkansas: incumbent Winthrop Rockefeller (R) over Marion Crank (D)
Delaware: Russell W. Peterson (R) over incumbent Charles L. Terry Jr. (D)
Illinois: incumbent Charles Percy (R) over Samuel H. Shapiro (D)
Indiana: J. Irwin Miller (R) over Robert L. Rock (D) and Melvin E. Hawk (Prohibition)
Iowa: incumbent Robert D. Ray (R) over Paul Franzenburg (D)
Kansas: incumbent Robert Docking (D) over Rick Harman (R)
Missouri: incumbent Ethan A. H. Shepley (R) over Thomas F. Eagleton (D), Lawrence K. Roos (Missourian) and Bill Beeny (HIP)
Montana: incumbent Tim M. Babcock (R) over Forrest H. Anderson (D) and Wayne Montgomery (New Reform)
New Hampshire: incumbent Harrison Reed Thyng (R) over Emile R. Bussiere (D)
New Mexico: incumbent David F. Cargo (R) over Mack Easley (D)
North Carolina: James Carson Gardner (R) over Robert W. Scott (D)
North Dakota: incumbent William L. Guy (D-NPL) over Robert P. McCarney (R)
Rhode Island: incumbent John Chafee (R) over Frank Licht (D)
South Dakota: incumbent Frank Farrar (R) over Leath Carroll Fullerton (D)
Texas: incumbent John Connally (D) over Paul Eggers (R) and John Trice (HIP)
Utah: incumbent Mitchell Melich (R) over Nicholas L. Strike (D)
Vermont: incumbent Philip H. Hoff (D) over Deane C. Davis (R)
Washington: incumbent Daniel J. Evans (R) over John J. O’Connell (D) and Ken Chriswell (HIP)
West Virginia: Arch A. Moore Jr. (R) over James Marshall Sprouse (D)
Wisconsin: incumbent Pat Lucey (D) over William Kaiser Van Pelt (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



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[pic: imgur.com/xVg6QgY.png ]
– Jack Kennedy conceding the election to Sanders, 11/6/1968



Once again, I thank you all for supporting me through this valiant endeavor to better our country. All of you, and all the people of the United States who went out and campaigned and voted, have shown your faith and loyalty to this great nation by participating in our vital electoral process. Through such process the future of this nation had been determined, and I will not stand in its way… I congratulated the Colonel with a phone call earlier tonight …While I may not be the President in the next year, I will not be a silent private citizen. I will continue to be a voice for the needs of the working man, the worried housewife, the wounded soldier, the small businessman, and all the men, women and children that make this country strong and proud. For while I may not serve as their voice as their president, I will still serve as their voice as a fellow American patriot as nobly as I can… Thank you.

– Jack Kennedy’s concession speech, 11/6/1968



LUCILLE BALL GAVE US STAR TREK, BUT LYNDON JOHNSON GOT IT TO FIVE SEASONS

…Drawing 6,000 letter a week, Star Trek was one of the more cerebral shows on the air, watched by a plethora of high-brow citizens, including actual scientists, doctors, college professors, and members of NASA...
[snip]
In the winter of 1968, former President Lyndon Johnson, back in the Senate and taking a break from political hubbub to unwind after that year’s elections, paid more attention to the show. Johnson had been directed to the show in early 1967 by aides who enjoyed its promotion of space travel. Lyndon himself became one of the many high-profile politicians (along with Nelson Rockefeller and others) who sent letters to NBC demanding Star Trek not be cancelled after just two seasons. The show’s renewal for a third season in March 1968 emboldened Johnson’s spirits. However, during a visit to the studio in mid-November, the former President was shocked to learn that the show’s budget cuts and inferior time slot (Fridays at 10:00 PM) were network decisions. Johnson soon met with NBC executives and, failing to convince them to “give Gene all of his five-year mission,” offered to use “a sliver” of his own hefty salary to cover and pay for extra production costs. In a follow-up meeting in December, Johnson again urged NBC to greenlight “the final two seasons” not just to support the Apollo Program but because “the future of America was connected to the stars, and do you want to be able to say your studio was a part of that legacy, or that your studio worked against destiny?”

In January 1969, NBC executives agreed to greenlight two more seasons, and in February would shift its time slot to a more preferable time and day, but the budget was kept at 10% lower than it had been for season 2, forcing Johnson to stick to his pledge of covering additional finances via quarterly donations to the Star Trek production company. For all his trouble, Roddenbery convinced the former President to guest appear in the Season 4 episode “The Truculent Sieve.” There, Johnson spends his entire five minutes of screen time portraying retired a starship captain named Logan Barzilai Jasper who supports Kirk and Spock’s attempts to defuse a hostage crisis:
O7is1Xf.png


[pic: imgur.com/O7is1Xf.png ]

– “Star Trek: The Ultimate Trip Through the Galaxies,” Entertainment Weekly Special Edition, 2003



As a result of the exodus of “undesirables” (as Nguyen Khanh called them) from Vietnam, and the defeat of the Pathet Lao in Laos, the rate of communist guerillas invading Cambodia through its northern border doubled between September and December 1968, where the rebel forces regrouped with each other and native Cambodian comrades-in-arms.

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



Pops always preferred a large hen turkey, the bigger the better. He’d cover the bird generously with butter, sprinkle its outside and its hollowed-out inside with salt and pepper, and put it in a roasting pan, breast up, keeping the heat low all the way through to make the meat more moist and minimize shrinkage [17]. Pops would then leave us in charge of basting while he went off the prep for the gravy and work on the other dishes. Thanksgiving was often like this when we were younger, and there was no reason to break with tradition now, even if this time we were celebrating the holiday in the White House.

[snip]

As the meal came to a close, Uncle Clarence declared with a belch, “that’s nothin’ better than your birds, brother!”

Claudia simply rolled her eyes with a smirk, and said, “Just pass the gravy boat over to me, will ya?”

“Oh, sure thing, Josephine.” Clarence said.

Both Father and Claudia flashed him a look of contempt with a bit of disappointment – Father had been married to Claudia for twenty year, yet Uncle Clarence still forgot at times.

“Oops, sorry,” he then offered to pour a helping from the boat for her.

[snip]

Upon seeing the number of empty plates, Aunt Violet went to clear the table. Millie interposed, explaining “we have help for that now,” and offered to call up the White House staff celebrating Turkey Day in their own ways in their dining room a quick walk away.

Aunt Violet insisted, “I’m perfectly capable of doin’ this myself. Been clearin’ tables for 63 years and I ain’t quittin’ now.”

Millie warned her to be careful, “that’s very expensive china.”

“A dish is still a dish no matter what you call it,” Aunt Violet retorted.

[snip]

Pops and Clarence went to the Lincoln room to watch some football on a television set while Aunt Violet and I went into the kitchen to make some Turkey Brunswick Stew out of all the scraps. I didn’t need to visit a soup kitchen to understand the importance of never throwing away food. Into a pot we placed the turkey scraps, tomatoes, salt and pepper, onions, broad beans, corn, butter and other bits, tasting as we went to check on the seasoning [Auto150].

[snip]

“You really should visit more often,” I told Uncle Clarence.

“Ah, I don’t like to bother your father when he’s working. And he’s the President – he’s always working! You never know where he’s going to be next.”

“Tell me about it,” Harley added, “You wouldn’t believe the amount of running around he’s done this year alone. It’s kind of amazing, really.”

I was just glad Pops was relaxing. He seemed more tired than usual, and for once seemed actually happy to just kick back and rest for a day with his family.

Uncle Clarence, though, seemed even more tired. Before dinner, he seemed under the weather, in fact.

As he left he coughed several times, each expulsion of air from his lungs sounding a bit more painful than the last.

“Say, you alright, Uncle?” I had asked him.

“Aw, it’s just a bug or something. Don’t worry, now, none. I’ll be fine,” he had assured me.

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997 [18]



After almost six years in office, the politburo had grown tired of Shelepin. On 10 December 1968, party leaders met with the Premier in Moscow, and informed him that he was being “let go,” to use an American phrase. Shelepin did not take easily the news that he was being effectively deposed, especially when the move was backed by former allies such as Aleksi Inauri and Nikolai Podgorny and Vyacheslav Molotov, whom disagreed with his switch to supporting détente. He refused to go quietly.

“Inauri, I made you! You’d still be heading the Georgian GB if it weren’t for me!” Those were reportedly his last words.

What happened next remains unclear. Their conservation turned violent, and words shouted turned into fists flown. Shelepin sought to physically defend himself and at some point pulled out a pistol. Then, either one of two things happened: He fired the gun into the air as a warning only for the bullet to ricochet and hit him. Or he fired the gun at someone in the room and one of the men of the room fired back in self-defense. Various sources have claimed different specifics to each version, and a highly-improbably third story claims he committed suicide.

But at the time, the events themselves did not matter as much as their end-result, that the ruler of Russia had been instantly killed by a bullet to the head.

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



SHELEPIN HAS DIED!: Beloved Leader Passes Away At 50 From Sudden Heart Attack

Pravda, Soviet newspaper, 12/6/1968



Nikita smirked with a huff. Of course he was still out of favor but even he knew Shelepin’s death did not simply coincide with the unofficial political discontent of late. “I’m not surprised,” Nikita said, “Shelepin was too unruly to be a good ruler, ignoring internal issues and doing a terrible job handling crisis after crisis.”

– Anastas Mikoyan’s The Path of Struggle: The Memoirs of Anastas Mikoyan (English translation), Sphinx Press, 1988 (written in 1978)



USSR’S FUTURE MAY DEPEND ON SHELEPIN’S SUCCESSOR

…Sovietologists are perusing the situation unfolding in the USSR. The political ramifications of Shelepin’s sudden and unexpected demise will depend on his successor – or successors. At the moment, the politburo seems to be supporting the formation of a troika, a triumvirate of leaders meant to govern without a single individual dominating alone. Such alliances were formed after Stalin and Khrushchev left office and lasted for a few months each time. The leading contenders to be part of this trinity of politicians are the following (in alphabetical order):

Leonid Brezhnev, age 62 – Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the effective leader of the moderate communists, Brezhnev is supported by Konstantin Chernenko; should he become part of a troika, Brezhnev’s support of the Leninist policy of focusing primarily on improving agricultural conditions could produce a shift from Shelepin’s city-based economic policies.

Aleksi Inauri, age 60 – a Colonel General in the Soviet Army and the former leader of the Georgian KGB, Inauri has effectively been Shelepin’s loyal right-hand man since 1965.

Alexei Kosygin, age 64 – the current Chairman of the Council of Ministers is a leading voice in the liberal wing of the party, and supported Shelepin’s push for improving industrial output in order to compete against the US economy.

Vyacheslav Molotov, age 79 – a close Shelepin ally, Molotov is a former member of the 1953 troika and fierce defender of Stalinism whom has some support among older members of the politburo.

Nikolai Podgorny, age 65 – a Ukrainian “old Bolshevik” hardliner critical of Shelepin’s shifts of late, Podgorny was a protégé of Khrushchev and is more moderate (and at times even liberal) than other members of the USSR’s communist party’s conservative wing; last year, for example, Podgorny engaged in talks with Pope Paul VI as part of the pontiff’s ostpolitik, culminating in greater openness for the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe.

Mikhail Suslov, age 66 – a Stalinist and the unofficial ideologue chief for the party, Suslov is an open supporter of inner-party “democracy” and heavily prefers collective leadership over individual leadership.

The combination of communists will work to determine the Soviet Union’s geopolitical and economic policies, and their view of the Shelepin-Sanders summit could either improve or deter the Sanders administration’s attempts at détente…

– The New York Times, special issue, 12/8/1968



After re-entering the race for his House seat at the last minute, narrowly winning re-nomination, and barely scraping by in the general election, Gravel found himself already looking at another political opportunity. On December 11, 1968, US Senator Robert Bartlett (D-AS) suddenly died in office. Alaska’s Governor at the time, a Republican, Mike Stepovich, eventually appointed state congressman and fellow Republican Ted Stevens to the fill the vacant seat. Days later, Stepovich announced that the special election to fill in the remaining four years of Bartlett’s term would be held in November 1969 (with party primaries to be held in September) [19]. Gravel announced his bid for the seat on March 3.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Mike_Gravel



A CONSERVATIVE SWEEP! POWELL TO BECOME NEW PRIME MINISTER

…In light of the Stonehouse scandal, the election results are not too surprising. Conservatives won 401 of the 630 total seats in the House of Commons, depleting Labour’s numbers to just 205. The Liberal party obtained 24 seats after party members successfully distanced themselves from the Labour party.

…with the UK’s GDP unsteady for the past three consecutive quarters, unemployment rising, and housing prices only recently beginning to recover, Enoch Powell will succeed Prime Minister Michael Foot with a clear mandate for his policies…

– The Guardian, 15/12/1968



…This is an all-points bulletin: be on the lookout for suspect in attempted murder. Suspect is a tall white male, reportedly dark sunken eyes and white glasses. Patrol car overheard shouting and officers spotted suspect holding two teenagers at gunpoint at the lover’s lane on Lake Herman Road. Suspect told to lower weapons and shots were fired when suspect attempt to enter a car, likely his own. Suspect fled scene on foot clutching hand and limping, most likely was shot. Suspect is still armed and is considered highly dangerous…

– A.P.B. broadcast from Benicia, San Francisco Bay, CA police to all of its personnel, 12/20/1968



WOULD-BE KILLER DIES FROM WOUNDS AFTER 2-HOUR GUNFIGHT WITH POLICE

– The San Francisco Chronicle, 12/22/1968



Apollo 9 lasted from December 21 to December 27, 1968. It was the closest human beings had ever gotten to the moon at that time… The next few weeks and months would be a very critical time for NASA – the next mission was the big one – the one where mankind would finally step foot on the moon.

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



COLONEL SANDERS’ ADMINISTRATION AT THE BEGINNING OF 1969

Cabinet:
Secretary of State: US Senator Carl Curtis of Nebraska
Secretary of the Treasury: former US Congressman Eugene Siler of Kentucky
Secretary of Defense: US Army General Charles H. Bonesteel III of Virginia
Attorney General: civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins of California (incumbent Walsh retired in January 1969)
Postmaster General: former State Supreme Court Justice Leif Erickson of Minnesota
Secretary of the Interior: outgoing Governor George Dewey Clyde of Utah
Secretary of Agriculture: US Senator Bourke Hickenlooper of Iowa
Secretary of Commerce: economist and University of Chicago professor Milton Friedman of Illinois
Secretary of Labor: former Undersecretary of State Herbert Hoover Jr. of California (incumbent Larson retired in January 1969)
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York
Secretary of Transportation: businessman and railroad executive John C. Coolidge III of Massachusetts

Cabinet-Level Positions:
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: incumbent Director Allen W. Dulles of New York
Director of the Federal Bureau of Information: incumbent Director J. Edgar Hoover of Washington, D.C.
US Trade Representative: US Congresswoman Florence Dwyer of New Jersey

The President’s Executive Office:
White House Chief of Staff: businessman Frederick B. Dent of New Jersey (incumbent McElroy retired in December 1968)
White House Deputy Chief of Staff: physician Dr. William Kemp Clark of Texas (incumbent Crisp retired in November 1968)
White House Counsel: political strategist and campaign co-manager F. Clifton “Cliff” White of New York
Counselor to the President: congressional staff member and advisor Bryce Harlow of Oklahoma
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: civil rights activist and employment reform advocate Whitney Young of Kentucky
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: economist and financial advisor Sylvia Porter of New York
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: publisher on the political economics of national security and atomic energy economist professor J. R. Schlesinger of New York
Chief National Security Advisor: former W.A.C. Lieutenant Colonel Ruth Briggs of Rhode Island
Special Assistant to the President: businessman Harland David Sanders Jr. of Kentucky
Assistant Special Assistant to the President (position created in 1969): banker Joseph Robert Wright Jr. of Oklahoma
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: economist Arthur F. Burns of New Jersey (incumbent Mayo reassigned in January 1969)
Other Counselors and Advisors: African-American speechwriter Andrew Hatcher of New Jersey, assistant speechwriter Jennifer Salt of California, others
White House Communications Director: campaign information director Lee Edwards of Illinois
White House Appointments Secretary: outgoing Deputy Assistant to the President Liddy Hanford of Washington, D.C.
White House Press Secretary: campaign press secretary Ronald Ziegler of California
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: State Senator and small business owner Marshall Parker of South Carolina
President Sanders’ personal secretary: incumbent personal secretary Wanda Boner of Kentucky

Other Notable Members:
Surgeon General: incumbent Luther Leonidas Terry of Alabama
Solicitor General (representative of the Federal Government before the Supreme Court): columnist and former US Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Vice Chairman Benjamin O. Davis Jr. of Washington, D.C. (incumbent Franke retired in January 1969)
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: US Navy Admiral Thomas H. Moorer of Alabama (incumbent Davis promoted in January 1969)
Secretary of the Army: West Virginia University President Elvis Jacob Stahr Jr. of West Virginia
Secretary of the Navy: Admiral Arleigh Albert Burke of Maryland
Federal Reserve Chairman: incumbent William McChesney Martin of Missouri
NASA Director: incumbent James Edwin Webb of North Carolina

Notable US Ambassadors (in alphabetical order):
To Argentina: Chief of Protocol of the US (July 1968-Jan 1969) Shirley Temple Black of California (incumbent Kaiser retired in January 1969)
To Austria: businessman Malcolm Forbes of New Jersey
To Brazil: US Congressperson Catherine Dean May of Washington
To Cambodia: US Army General William Westmoreland of South Carolina (Kane resigned in 1966, Acting Ambassador served between appointments)
To Canada: former Governor and former US Senator Lawrence Wetherby of Kentucky
To Cuba: former Ambassador to Spain John Davis Lodge of Connecticut
To France: former White House Assistant Staff Secretary John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower of Maryland
To India: incumbent diplomat Dalip Singh Saund of California
To Italy: oil tycoon, art collector, and social programs promoter Algur H. Meadows of Georgia
To Japan: incumbent diplomat G. Mennen “Soapy” Williams of Michigan
To Laos: businesswoman, aviation pioneer, WAAC co-founder, and WASP co-founder Lieutenant Colonel Jacqueline Cochran of California
To Mexico: lawyer and Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy Edward Hidalgo of New York
To Saudi Arabia: former S.A.G. President Ronald Reagan of California (incumbent Crichton reassigned in February 1967)
To South Africa: mining engineer Allan H. Hoover of Iowa
To South Vietnam: diplomat and former US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts
To the U.K.: former Continental Illinois Bank Vice President Robert Mayo of Illinois (incumbent Hoover reassigned in December 1968)
To the U.N.: former Ambassador to Japan, former Ambassador to Indonesia, and former Ambassador to Czechoslovakia John Moore Allison of Nebraska
To the U.S.S.R.: Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jack Crichton (incumbent Herter died December 1966)
To West Germany: journalist for the National Review John Rensselaer Chamberlain of Connecticut

– ColonelSandersPresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_members/1969



SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] Italicized part pulled from his Wikipedia article (the passage seems to have valid sources)
[2] IOTL, he was scouted by just the Red Sox and the Phillies, and he turned them down because he was a Yankees fan: https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/the700level/phillies-reportedly-once-scouted-donald-trump) You can blame the additional scout on butterflies.
[3] IOTL, Dylan was a Republican who supported Barry Goldwater in 1964!: http://fictionaut.com/stories/con-chapman/bob-dylan-republican-party-animal
[4] Italicized bits are from this article: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/venessawong/the-real-colonel-sanders
[5] Youtube: /watch?v=C2NNujJKJL4
[6] Roughly 1½ years sooner than OTL.
[7] Passage is from his OTL 1966 autobiography, page 15
[8] Quote found here: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/when-the-left-was-right/
[9] OTL quote from OTL 1960 debate: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/1st-nixon-kennedy-debate-19600926
[10] OTL quote from OTL 1960 debate, 31:53 mark: youtube: /watch?v=gbrcRKqLSRw
[11] As noted here: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-25136574
[12] Info found here: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/11/obituaries/arnulfo-arias-87-panamanian-who-was-president-3-times.html
[13] Nixon said this in the 1960 debate of OTL: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/1st-nixon-kennedy-debate-19600926
[14] Italicized segments are from OTL: https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/charleston-wv-19600411
[15] From his 1966 Autobiography.
[16] US Senator George Smathers (D-FL) doesn’t retire here due to the political situation being more prospective than it was IOTL (he loses re-election by a 2% margin, though): youtube video /watch?v=mG8QC_oTyFA (22:14 to 22:58 mark)
[17] Page 144 of his 1966 autobiography gives the recipe for this.
[18] Oh yeah, the Colonel had two younger siblings: Clarence Edward Sanders (b. 9/18/1892) and Violet Catherine Sanders Cummings (b. 9/24/1895)
[19] One year earlier than OTL because a different person is serving as governor here. Also, this website: http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vacancies-in-the-united-states-senate.aspx suggests the election should have happened in 1969 IOTL anyway, but for some reason did not.

Ogrebear said:
Interesting chapter.

You might want to check the second debate, I think you have Wallace called when it’s Sanders speaking.

Fixed it. Good eye, thanks!

Ogrebear said:
PM Stonehouse? Interested in this- also how is Britain’s industrial development going? Is the country still falling behind here? How’s the UK/Commonwealth space program going?

Rhodesia will be a mess for the UK. Not sure how involved we would get there?

Industry is suffering more than OTL due to Brown's Labour government failing to properly respond to the Salad Oil scandal. Furthermore, OTL factors such as the loss of the Suez and the closure of many operations in mining and manufacturing is hurting high-paid working-class labor. So yeah, they're not in a good place right now.

The British space program still focuses on unmanned launches like in OTL, the Blue Streak rocket are still being launched as the first stage of the European Europa carrier rocket, but funding for it is on the verge of being cut in light of the country's socio-economic/political situation unfolding.

Stonehouse has a score to even, so he'll want to get the job done. Plus, with the next general election coming soon, a rally-around-the-flag event wouldn't hurt.

Ogrebear said:
About ‘66-68 syndication numbers started showing Star Trek’s popularity and it was mooted about bringing it back as the sets and stuff still (just) existed. Will we see the Enterprise fly again ITTL?

Upon looking up Star Trek's history, I see I should have mentioned them in March. So instead, I've gone and thought up something else, and it is in this chapter! :)

Unknown said:
Who's Malcolm Forbes supposed to be the ambassador for? Good update, BTW...

Austria (good eye catching that typo!)

Thanks for all the comments, everyone! I really appreciate them!
 
Post 22
Post 22: Chapter 30

Chapter 30: January 1969 – July 1969

“If you doom the world, the survivors will make sure you’re not among them.”

– Hunter S. Thompson (TTL)



INTERVIEWER: So let’s move on now to some political questions. First up, since KFC’s been in the news recently, you were 5 years old when Colonel Sanders was first elected President. What it was like growing up under his presidency? Was weird seeing the President’s face on fast-food paraphernalia?

ALEXANDER: No, actually. I thought it was normal because I had no reason not to. Presidents have their faces on coins, so having his on a bucket seemed like impressive, to be honest! But yeah, I figured out before any of my friends did that the guy on the bucket was the same guy who’s picture was hung in the post office and the principal’s office and the like. Heh, I remember, my family loved Kentucky Fried Chicken a lot, and we at it all the time. As the son of two working parents, there were plenty of dinnertimes when a bucket of chicken and all the fixins saved the day. [1] I think I saw the local KFC counter more times than the inside of our family’s fridge! But eventually I did think it was weird that I never saw any other presidents on food except for the Quaker Oats guy, who I thought was Ben Franklin at the time.

INTERVIEWER: Did the franchise ever seem partisan, or conservative to you?

ALEXANDER: Well it was a family restaurant, so they were all about wholesomeness and keeping a happy and welcoming environment. On the other hand, from time to time, you would see a car waving the Confederate flag parked in a KFC parking lot. You still can today, in fact – but only from time to time.

– Oscar-winning actor Jay Scott Greenspan in an interview for Variety magazine, 2019



TOMMY CHONG: Hendrix was a wild one, man. We first met at the start of ’69 …He was a nasty drunk, though – violent and hateful, full of rage and wanting to hurt anyone who even looked at him even sorta in the wrong way. But he was full of love, and he was everyone’s pal, when he was high.

– usarightnow.co.usa/culture/interview, 2014



In early 1961, Hendrix was arrested twice for driving stolen cars, and was given a choice: go to jail, or join the US military. With news reports broadcasting American forces entering Cuba in April of that year, and after meeting with local injured WWII veterans, Hendrix decided that “an American prison was comparatively safer than a tropical war zone.” He began his sentence on May 31, 1961. Hendrix reported disliking the prison’s conditions, and was twice reprimanded for starting a fight. He described two racially prejudiced guardsmen as “nothing new” to him. In November, though, his attitude became less recalcitrant upon joining the prison’s music band. Hendrix was soon granted a few hours a day to play guitar, and after a month of good behavior, was allowed to ask his father to send him his red Silverton Danelectro guitar. In March 1963, Hendrix was released early on parole for good behavior. Hendrix had established a rapport with his fellow prisoners, and had had his troublesome attitude placated by the music he played in jail.

Needing a change in scenery, Hendrix moved to Nashville, Tennessee and formed a band called the King Kons. After two years of performing rhythm and blues music at venues in the South, the band broke up over creative differences, and Hendrix moved to Harlem for another change of scenery. In the Summer of 1965, he won first prize in an amateur contest at the famous Apollo Theater, boosting his music career enough for him to sign on to Little Richard’s band The Upsetters. It was around this period that Hendrix began using recreational drugs such as cocained, though some claim he did not try LSD until 1967. Friends noted his use of drugs produced the opposite effect that alcohol had on him.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Jimi_Hendrix



…57% of customers who took the survey identified as “conservative,” 52% as “Republican,” 56% as “male” and 45% as “white.” The numbers for each of these groups are increases from the 1967 survey results – in the respective order – by 5%, 4%, 7% and 2%. …While the number of customers has increased overall, non-white customers have slowly decreased at an average rate of 4% since 1965. In the past fiscal year (1968), however, these numbers have improved (going up 7% from the 1967 fiscal year’s rate), possibly in the face of easing racial tensions in the US overall since 1965…

This report concludes more focus should be made to win over more non-white, liberal, and female customers…

– KFC customer demographics report, 1/5/1969



MONROE DIVORCES DIMAGGIO – AGAIN!

…citing same reasons for their first nuptial break-up, with Marilyn accusing Joe of being “too controlling” and Joe accusing Marilyn of being unfaithful, an accusation Marilyn claim’s is “Joe’s green eye…showing.” Monroe and DiMaggio were first married from 1954 to 1955, but were then remarried in 1963. The announcement of their divorce comes weeks before the release of Monroe’s latest movie, “Rain,” a film adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story. It is Marilyn’s first movie since the 1964 black comedy “What a Way to Go!,” after which Monroe and DiMaggio “took a two-year vacation.” In development is another film, a biopic on Jean Harlow entitled “Platinum,” scheduled for release in 1970. However, in light of Monroe’s past incidents of emotional drama, it will not be surprising if this celebrity break-up stalls production.

The Hollywood Reporter, 1/8/1969



Democratic House leadership election 1969:
Date: January 10, 1969
Seats: All 201 Democratic-held seats
Seats needed to win: 101

MINORITY LEADER:

Description:
John William McCormack (MA), a protégé of Speaker Sam Rayburn, had been Speaker from 1962 to 1967, and had the support of the party hierarchy. Mo Udall (AZ), a Congressman since 1961, opposed McCormack due to the results of the November 1968 elections, which saw another Massachusetts native, former Secretary Jack Kennedy, lose the Presidential election by a surprisingly wide margin. Udall campaigned on the need for a reform of party procedures and a generational “changing of the guard” for the next generation of Democratic voters and leaders. He led a coordinated effort with fellow reformers, but he needed to form a coalition of Congressmen beyond the reformists to win; he won over doves, progressives, and pro-union congressmen in that endeavor by blaming the loss of the House in 1966 and 1968 on McCormack.

Results:
Udall – 102
McCormack – 99

MINORITY WHIP:

Description:
Carl Bert Albert (OK), a Congressman since 1947, had been Minority Whip since 1967 and was Majority Leader from 1962 to 1967. Albert’s expected re-election was derailed when he was arrested on January 3 for drunk driving and crashing into a car (and the other driver receiving non-serious injuries while Albert was not injured) in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington. Albert removed his name from consideration to address his alcoholism and the pending legal repercussions (which culminated in an out-of-court settlement) but did not resign. Congressman Hale Boggs (LA), a more conservative politician with a moderate streak, announced his candidacy on the fifth. Boggs’ challengers were reformists James O’Hara (MI) (whom allied with Udall in a coordinated effort to win over the party’s top leadership spots) and Tip O’Neill (MA), plus the liberal B. F. Sisk (CA) and the moderate Harding Noblitt (MN).

Results:
Boggs – 108
O’Hara – 72
O’Neill – 11
Sisk – 6
Noblitt – 4

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa [2]



“Chief Justice, Vice President, Speaker, former Presidents and First Ladies, and each and every one of my fellow citizens: it is with great pride and humility that, on this day, I begin to lead this country of ours into a new decade of innovation, freedom, prosperity and peace. …During these last four years we took one step out of the jungle and will soon reach out and touch a satellite of the heavens. But we still have many more obstacles to overcome down here on Earth before we encounter the new obstacles that may lay in store for us in space. There is still poverty, there is still corruption, there is still hunger, there is still pollution, there is still disease and warfare and death. But we’ve overcome wait ails us time and again before, and will again, because we are Americans. And Americans always rise up from the deep and dark wells of despair and together achieve the highest beacons of humanity’s greatness.”

– Colonel Sanders’ second inaugural address, 1/20/1969



“…I believe another certain Kentucky-born Republican by the name of Abraham Lincoln would be proud that his party still contains the energy and moral compass it possessed over one hundred years ago. …Colonel Sanders achieved bipartisan support in order to maintain the safety, sanity and security of this nation, and this will continue during the next four years.”

– Vice President William Scranton, 1/20/1969



Just days after attending the 1969 inauguration, Father received a phone call from Aunt Bessie. Uncle Clarence, Father’s kid brother, had died.

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



CLARENCE SANDERS LAID TO REST

Chicago – The brother of President Sanders, Clarence Edward Sanders, 76, passed away in his home in Cook County on the 26th. Secret Servicemen surrounded the grieving party to ensure the funeral service was held in a small and private venue earlier today. Reverend Billy Graham reportedly said a few words at the funeral. Clarence will be interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Lake County.

The Colonel’s brother was born on September 18, 1892 to Wilbert Sanders and Margaret Dunlevy, and was married to Bertha Northcutt before his second marriage to Bessie Chartier DeLor. His is survived by Bertha, Bessie, children James and Charles, brother Harland, sister Violet Sanders-Cummings, and many other relatives. Clarence was a boisterous presence in the White House, much like the Colonel. “They were cut from the same cloth, to believe in the high value to honest work and respect for one’s fellow man,” says his niece, Margaret Sanders. The Sanders family requests that donations be given to humanitarian organizations in lieu of flowers or cards.

Chicago Tribune, 1/29/1969



Many say it was solely Pastor Waymon that cured me. But I think another ingredient to it was my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They loved to visit the White House. They really brought life to that old building. And I didn’t want to expose them to the sin of swearing. Even still, I would cuss up a storm even if I wasn’t absolutely sure that any one of them wasn’t within earshot, behind a door or running down the hall.

After my brother Clarence passed away in January 1969, something compelled me to speak to Rev. Graham. I asked him to speak at Clarence’s funeral. He obliged, and I was captivated by the confidence of his words. After the ceremony, I asked him if I would be damned for all eternity for cursing. He told me to listen to God through the words of the bible. So I started reading a bit of the bible each night, keeping its thoughts and ideas stored in the back of my mind as the weeks went on.

About a month later, in February…

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



1969 was a year more focused more on domestic policies getting passed. I mean, foreign events occurred, of course, but the President wanted to focus on the concerns of the voters after so much time in his first term spent on concerns overseas. He called for decentralizing the education system for the US, but still urged vocational education and job training to cut down on already-low unemployment rate. He also strongly supported programs to help the poor, um, like building homeless shelters and food pantries, and federal assistance programs that fund statewide assistance programs, just in case the Federal Aid Dividend proposal fell through again like how it had in 1965.

– Former Press Secretary Ron Ziegler, 60 Minutes Interview, 1991



The troika between Inauri, Molotov and Kosygin was shaky at best from the very beginning. Immediately, Inauri sought to consolidate power, and was aided in that effort by the aging Molotov. Upon dismissing Kosygin without an official explanation, the troika dissolved and Inauri became the effective ruler of the USSR.

Below: Aleksi Inauri
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[pic: imgur.com/V4pbwP8.png ]

Inauri, who was 60 years old in early 1969, was a Soviet Colonel General and the commander of the Georgian KGB from 1954 until 1963, after which he rose through the ranks under the Shelepin era. As head of the Georgian KGB, Inauri, who was of Georgian descent (“just like Stalin,” as he often pointed out), responded vigorously to anti-Soviet dissident groups in Georgia with strict discipline and a large web of espionage of KGB undercover agents infiltrating dissident groups, which included the Georgian Orthodox Church at one point. His political support for Shelepin formed early; in 1963, he was the one who personally escorted Khrushchev out of Moscow. Co-workers in the politburo considered Inauri to be “clever” and “very cunning” when it came to getting things done…

– Victor Cherkashin’s Adamant: The Rulers of the USSR and the KGB, Basic Books, 2005



SEN. COOPER CALLS FOR CITY DEVELOPMENT REFORM IN NEW BILL

Washington, DC – Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-KT), a political ally of The Colonel, introduced on Capitol Hill today a new bill for “urban restoration.” …The bill’s goal is to “find and fund forms for fixing” sources of urban violence, Cooper explain on the Senate floor…

The Washington Times, 2/15/1969



As a United States Senator, Mondale worked hard to build up the center of the party on economic and social issues. Unlike like his own father, a fervent liberal, he was not a crusader for the New Deal. Instead, he realized the Democratic base (especially ethnic blue-collar workers) was gradually moving to the right and he worked to keep their support. Mondale showed little or no interest in foreign policy until about 1969, when he realized that some knowledge was necessary if he had loftier aspirations than the Senate. …He developed a centrist position on foreign policy, avoiding alignment with either the party’s hawks…or its doves. [3]

– clickipedia.co.usa/Walter_Mondale




CRONKITE: In political news, President Sanders has offered amnesty to Indochina draft-evaders in an official announcmenet at the White House earlier today.

SANDERS (in clip): A conditional amnesty program for deserters and draft-evaders of the Indochina Theater will waive such folks of any charges – provided they agree to work for a year in public service, and other requirements, pending the severity of each case.

CRONKITE: Ten months ago, Sanders created the Presidential Clemency Board to oversee the execution of the program. Today’s announcement comes at the conclusion of months of the board reviewing hundreds of related cases from all branches of the US military...

– CBS Evening News, 2/16/1969 broadcast



On February 17, 1969, a US B-52 Stratofortress on a routine exercise experienced an engine breakdown and crashed into the rocky highlands of northern Newfoundland, Canada [4]. While four of the six crewmen onboard successfully bailed out, the remaining two, plus two Canadian surveyors on the ground, perished in the resulting fireball. The plane’s nuclear payload was onboard, and while did not detonate in a nuclear explosion due to being disengaged at the time, the crash did cause a conventional explosion and the dispersion of hazardous radiation into the areas surrounding the mountains east of Daniels Harbour. While basically ignored by American media, due to being buried in the second page of most papers as a minor Air Force incident, Canada’s Prime Minister Hellyer accused Sanders of recklessness.

In the White House briefing room, Sanders pounded the desk with his cane in aggravation [5]. “Hellyer, don’t give me that bulls#*t!” he spouted into the receiver. “We signed off on sharing air space for military exercises back in ’66!”

On the other end of the line, Hellyer refused to back down on his assertion that the blame for the incident lies entirely at the Colonel’s feet, and hung up before the Colonel was finished ranting. Realizing his anger was not helping, he let out one last groan of frustration before composing himself. “Sorry y’all had to see that.”

“It’s alright, sir, we’re used to it,” Curtis assured him.

“Really?” The Colonel seemed a bit surprised. “Well, let’s get the head of the Air Force in here. We’ve got to get our stuff out of there. And figure out how to clean up the mess we’ve spilled.”

Bonesteel suggested “Shouldn’t we agreed to the specs for a joint US-Canadian cleanup plan with Hellyer’s men first, sir?”

“We wait for him to get off his high-horse and who knows how many people will die from this radiation cr*p? No, no, we’re sending in cleanup crews ASAP!”

American officials subsequently launched Project Zhivago (a reference to the 1965 film Dr. Zhivago, which contains famous scenes set in icy Siberia), an extensive operation to remove debris from ice and waterways in northern Newfoundland, where in February the temperature was often below -30 degrees Fahrenheit, and winds often blew at over 30 miles per hour. As such, equipment failure from freezing conditions slowed American efforts. These conditions were complicated by concerns that the spring thaw expected to arrive in several weeks would melt contaminated ice and spread the radiation. Nervous over the time crunch, local Canadians sought to help in any way they could.

In Ottawa, though, Hellyer called for tariffs on American imports as a way to financially compensate for the environmental damage caused by the stratofortress crash. Further talks between Hellyer and Sanders led to Hellyer finally agreeing to send in Canadian officials to assist with the cleanup, but talks of compensation persisted.

The incident’s renewal of tensions between the Hellyer and Sanders governments made citizens in both countries with families and friends across the border nervous of the possible economic ramifications. However, after weeks of uneasiness, Sanders offered an olive branch in the form of agreeing to cover financial costs for the cleanup in exchange for Hellyer ending his tariff proposal. Hellyer agreed to the offer after both leaders agreed to blame “the Cold War,” not each other, for the incident.

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



“In 1969, I had a date with Tricia Nixon. It was a date arranged by my dad, as he had just started working as the national RNC chairman at the time, and Nixon was back in the Senate, and they thought, well, why not? It was interesting. I showed up to pick her up in a purple gremlin. I took her to a dinner held for Frank Borman, the astronaut from Houston who was a friend of my Dad. It wasn’t exactly a romantic dinner, but afterwards we did manage to have some time alone, and we got to know each other better. Our likes, our aspirations, our fears. Things like that. Dating the former VP’s daughter had its hurdles, though. It included things like sneaking away from the Secret Service, which really pissed off Senator Nixon from time to time. But, uh, he didn’t think little of me, we got along well enough, I’d say.” [6]

– George W. Bush, 2011 interview




While Dave Thomas’ Wendy’s was the shop primarily used for the introduction of new items, sometimes we would experiment in expanding KFC’s menu, too. In February 1969, Pop decided to visit me and the kids after an apparently stressful meeting with the Air Force over some issue or other, and he decided to see the new menu items he’d heard so much about.

“Don’t worry, Pop, they’re all based on your old recipes,” I assured him.

[snip]

Pop took a bite out of the new potato salad [7] made with fresh potatoes, fresh herbs, and creamy butter. After a few suspenseful seconds, Pop declared with delight “I like it! Great job, Mildred!”

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



…About a month later, in February, I quietly visited KFC headquarters Florence. Afterwards, I met with Governor Robsion in Frankfort. I was about to head to the airport when something compelled me to visit Louisville, maybe to check on some relatives or the city’s Republican mayor, I wasn’t sure. I convinced the secret service to take over there. It was Sunday morning, and as we passed the Assemblies of God church, I remembered why the Louisville had been on my mind – this was one of the many churches that had invited me to sit in on their services since becoming President. I thought back to Reverend Graham telling me to listen to the good word, and so I figured, “I’m already here, why not check in?” The Secret Servicemen were very wary of this, but I believed no harm could come from entering a church.

The Evangel Tabernacle Assembly of God’s pastor was an energetic middle-aged man named Waymon Rodgers. Finishing up his sermon, I was impressed by his raw emotional urge for his flock to follow the faith do good deeds, so I went and got to talk to him in private. He wasn’t expecting to talk to the President that Sunday, but sometimes unexpected things happen – how you respond to them, though, is what really matters in the end.

When I asked the pastor what he thought about my soul. I opened up to him about my swearing problem, but I went even further and told him about my insecurity over my actions as Commander-in-Chief. All the young men killed in Vietnam and Laos, and the innocents gone forever on both sides. And more recently, the men killed in the Newfoundland Incident. The more I thought about it, the more eager for I became to hear his answer. He told me I was preaching to the young man; he told me to kneel and pray to God directly. I did so, and I prayed for my very soul. I prayed for Jesus to save me, and to forgive me for the sins of my past actions. Pastor Waymon then knelt down next to me and asked if I’d like to be born again.

I told him, “I really would. Do you think that Jesus could save me to the point where he would take away my cussing?” I said at the verge of tears-shedding.

And Pastor Waymon said to me “Colonel, God is going to save you tonight and you’ll never cuss again.”

In that moment, I went from believing in Jesus to accepting him into my heart.

We left to return to Washington. A few weeks later, I managed to get a hold of him on the phone and tell him the most wonderful of news. It was like a curse had lifted. I told him, “Since I prayed the sinner’s prayer, things have completely changed in my life. I have not cussed even one time since then. It has really made a difference with me.” [8]

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[pic: imgur.com/g7em4Bu.png ]

Above: National Secretary of Radio Lee Shultz (left), me (center), and Revivaltime host C. M. Ward (right) sharing in a moment of prayer, circa 1969

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



I have already said all of this before in my book, but I think I can say it all again.

Basically, after the Invasion of Poland, when we killed all of those innocent people, young, old, anyone we spotted, anyone who couldn’t get out of the away or run fast enough, after all that, I was… broken. Not a single person back home even knew about it. What we did in Poland was the final straw; it was the catalyst for me. I was already so resentful of being forced into the Soviet Army in early 1968, but what they made us do in the army… in the invasion… it disgusted me, and it, um, distressed me, to my breaking point…

In late February, I was still in the army unit when I heard about Inauri honoring our latest cosmonauts with a motorcade parade in Moscow. It was for the docking of two crafts, or something, together up in space. They were called the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, I believe, and it happened a few weeks before. They may have been trying to downplay the upcoming moon landing. Anyway, the announcement gave me an opportunity that I did not want to lose. That night, I stole two handguns, both small enough to easily hide in my coat, and I fled from my army unit. I made it back, all the way back, to my home in Leningrad, my family’s home. There, I stole my brother’s police uniform and then I set out for Moscow.

It was very cold out on March 1, but all the people outside did not mind. It was always cold; there was no heat, no stores where you could go out and buy a coat or a scarf or even a pair of dry underwear to keep you warm, not like how it is now. No, back then you froze for the good of the country! Heh. But, no, no, back to what I was saying. The people, assembled on the street to wave at the celebrated cosmonauts, some of them were hoping to get waved at and others were hoping to catch a glimpse at their blindly-beloved leader. So none of them noticed me.

As I waited for my chance, my mind drifted to the Johnson and Sanders assassination attempts – the ones in 1963 and 1964, I believe, the ones spread all over the Soviet media in order to show how America was such a weaker nation as it could not even protect their leaders from harm. Those assassins had failed because they had never got a clean shot, as far as I knew; that’s what the soviet papers told us, at least Kommunist if not Pravda. And because of this, I waited until I actually saw Inauri exit the limo. I was glad I did this, or I would have fired into the wrong car, and who knows what would have happened after that! Heh. But when I saw him, Inauri, the latest symbol of the people’s oppression, I got up on this ledge for a better view of him, one that was clear, clean, and unobstructed. And I had to act very quickly. I took out both handguns and I fired right at him. I saw the bullets hit him. Then I was knocked to the ground.

– Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin, Russian-1 TV interview, 3/1/2009



Ilyin managed to fire all twelve bullets – that is six in each pistol – before being subdued by a frightened but angry crowd headed by security men. Five bullets hit parts of the limo. Three in total hit and injured others around Inauri, none severely. Of the four bullets that hit Inauri, one hit him in the arm, one grazed the side of his head, one hit the left-side lung, and one hit the side of the abdomen, slowed by a roll of fat the kept it from reaching anything vital. The one that cracked a bone in his ribcage was not so severe, though, so we did not focus on that one as much as we focused on other one. The one in his left lung. The leader immediately had trouble breathing, and he bled profusely. He was stabilized just as we were getting him into the operating room. It required hours of careful surgery to remove the bullet as it was in a position too delicate to risk removal, and we determined he could survive with it still in him. The KGB interrogated us to ensure we had done all we could. This however, just led to the KGB placing the blame for the incident, as they called it, on two members of Inauri’s personal guard, whom were executed for negligence. It was terrible, but understandable. The regime couldn’t suppress something witnessed by so many people, and once the news spread, the Russian people wanted blood. And if we couldn’t blame the Americans, then we would have to blame some of our own.

– Anonymous Doctor, Russian-1 TV interview, 3/1/2009



EXTRA: SOVIET LEADER SHOT AT PUBLIC CELEBRATION EVENT! Aleksi Inauri Expected to Recover, According to Reliable Sources

The Daily Sketch, 3/2/1969



ANDROPOV: Why did you decide that you are a judge and can decide with a gun in your hands?

ILYIN: Because a person should live, not exist.

ANDROPOV: What does that mean?

ILYIN: Now people try to survive by any means possible… something is very wrong in our society.

– Audio recording of KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov interrogating Viktor Ilyin, 3/1/1969 [9]



I went through a court case where I had no defender and was not permitted to do any talking! They then sent me to a lunatic asylum. I was tortured within an inch of my life. Inauri then decided I would be kept alive, as executing me would end my suffering. But I discuss that part of my life in my book.

– Viktor Ivanovich Ilyin, Russian-1 TV interview, 3/1/2009



With three years left to go in his seven-year term, early speculation that he would win re-election in March 1972 was perfectly understandable. President Mitterrand’s collective bargaining agreements and tax-and-spend economic policies were implemented despite several scandalous accusations. Conservatives, moderates, and even some liberals accused him of being a Soviet Spy, of using the Treasury for personal profit, and of weakening NATO. However, probes into these accusations produced nothing. Not even investigations into alleged mismanagement of funds for Mitterrand’s “Grand Projects,” a social agenda similar in some ways to American President Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda, proved nothing. Mitterrand’s approval ratings never significantly dropped to begin with, leading to his finance minister controversially stating “people care more about results than origins,” sparking another investigation that found nothing. Politically, Mitterrand was at times isolated even within liberal/socialist circles, leading to him making and breaking alliances whenever doing so favored his administration’s agenda. By doing this, France saw the abolition of the death penalty, the establishing a 39-hour-work week, and (despite what many thought a socialist President would never support) the end of a government monopoly on radio and TV broadcasting between 1965 and 1969. Mitterrand also formally apologized to the Huguenots on 2 February 1966. Such effectiveness made him popular among the people, but not among party leaders. The most unsettling aspect of his Presidency for conservatives was his closeness to China, even before The Colonel famously broke bread with Chairman Mao. In 1961, during the Great Chinese Famine, Mitterrand had visited China and denied the existence of such mass starvation [10]; however, this would not become a major stain on his legacy for decades. Mitterrand’s opening of trade relations with the PRC in 1969, though, was popular among 52% of the French people, according to contemporary polling. Overall, Mitterrand’s political future seemed very secure.

– Jonathan Fenby’s The History of Modern France, Scholastic, 2015



…Also in the news, President Sanders today signed into law the Rural Development Act, a broad act aimed at increasing the quality of life in rural areas across the country…

– NBCB News, 3/2/1969 broadcast



BLASTOFF!: APOLLO 10 HEADS TO THE MOON!

…the three Astronauts on board the historic flight are some of NASA’s finest. The Mission Commander is Air Force Colonel Gus Grissom, 42; the Lunar Module Pilot is Major Charles Bassett, 37; the Command Module Pilot is Capt. Ted Freeman, 39. If all goes as planned, Freeman will remain in orbit while Grissom and Bassett land the Lunar Module “Eagle” on the moon. Grissom will exit the vehicle first, making him the first man on the moon…

– The Orlando Sentinel, 3/3/1969



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[pic: imgur.com/YReNfwr.png ]
– Lyndon Johnson proudly looks on as Apollo 10 lifts off, 3/3/1969



For a long while we saw nothing out the window as the moon was cloaked in darkness, and it wouldn’t be until the sun rose onto it when we could finally see our destination. Back at home, 500 million people were following our voyage on television and radio sets across the globe. The largest audience in history was watching, and listening to our every move.

Gene Kranz, the flight director, helped us land in that wobbly strip of alien ground. One more task done, still more left to go, I remember thinking. The landing site had needed to be smooth, relatively free of problematic craters, cliffs, and hills, and give us with good visibility – The Sea of Tranquility (or Mare Tranquilitatis) beat out Central Bay (Sinus Medii) and the Ocean of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum) for the spot.

We had to make sure we had landed safely, and that all of our equipment was still working. Charles lightened the mood by joking “hey, I think I see Flash Gordon flying by!”

We opened up the hatch to the spectacularly flat region of the moon, and I remember gazing at the majestic mountain ranges way off in the background. As commander, I received the honor of becoming the first man to walk on the moon on March 7, 11:52, EST. We were 238,900 miles away from Earth, but the live broadcast being viewed worldwide brought millions of eyeballs to Earth’s satellite, and for a long moment all of them were watching just the two of us.

I had rehearsed saying the famous words over and over, and I think I did said them just fine: “This is just one small step …for… just one man, but it’s… also one giant leap… for all of… mankind.” It was a little wordy, I will admit, but I’m not a writer, and I was too concerned with the mission at hand at the time.

When I felt my boot finally make contact with the ground, I felt a huge surge of relief rush over me. We still had our work cut out for us, but we took a brief moment to let it sink in what we had already accomplished that day. The mission had made its mark in the annals of history; after thousands of years of dreaming, after 21.2 billion dollars and nearly a decade of hard work from thousands of people. After the losses suffered and so much sacrifice made, mankind had finally made it to the moon.

When we raised the American flag, it noticeably wobbled and waved a bit from the vibrations of sticking it into the lunar surface. We checked the cameras and equipment, and immediately went to work. The two of us spent roughly 3 hours outside the spacecraft collecting lunar material to bring back to Earth while Ted piloted the command module “Columbia” in lunar orbit.

[snip]

Right before we left, I commented to the millions still watching us at home, “we came here out of curiosity, and for the pursuit of knowledge, and in doing so, we also hope to bring the message of peace and love to every part of the Universe, starting with this natural satellite that we call The Moon.” We all felt a sense of true accomplishment, that because of this astounding feat, this worldwide celebration of the human spirit, the world’s future could only get brighter.

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– Gus Grissom’s autobiography Into that Glorious Vacuum: My Trip to the Moon and Our Trip Beyond It, St. Martin’s Press, 1987



Despite introducing its own TV sets 1960, Motorola was a 40-years-old company that was not shy about going for big and bold endeavors. When Gus Grissom spoke the first words from the Moon, he said them through a Motorola transceiver. …Motorola was all about the sales pitch that personal computer consuls were going to be the next big thing. One studio head described the concept as a “glorified robot accountant,” but they were certain it would change world of business. Turns out they undersold it!

– Former Motorola CEO Evan Williams, PBS edutainment special, 2009



“The moon landing was the only thing my fellow students were talking about in class that whole week, the day of the actual landing was on a Wednesday… [snip] …On Thursday, one kid in home room complained that his parents thought it was a waste of money, but everyone else disagreed – even the kid in question thought that it was still cool. Another kid in class claimed it would more than pay for itself once we start mining in space. The teacher backed him up on this and I think that made the poor kid feel better about it all. I felt even better when I learned on Friday that President Sanders had revealed that the Apollo 12 mission would include the only Black Astronaut qualified for the mission – Air Force Major Robert H. Lawrence Junior. At the time, it seemed that Lawrence would merely fly the Command Module, meaning that while he would not land on the moon, he would still be the first Black man to go to space.”

– Dr. Ben Carson, 2019 memoir



THE APOLLO 10 ASTRONAUTS: LANDING ON FAME

…The fifth crewed mission of the Apollo Program and splashed down in the Pacific, on March 11, eight days after blasting off from Florida. The mission fulfilled President Johnson’s 1961 promise of sending mankind to the moon “within the next ten years.” …the astronauts spent the next days in quarantine in case they brought back anything contagious… ...Since that celebratory photo-op at the White House, the Apollo 10 astronauts Gus Grissom, Charles Bassett, and Ted Freeman, have ridden in massive parades in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles this past week. …Millions of cheering fans fill the streets with their adoration and admiration for these sudden celebrities… Yesterday, during their time in Los Angeles, they attended an official state dinner held to celebrate the flight. A glamourous celebration of going to the moon and back was attended by a plethora of politicians, dignitaries, scientists and foreign ambassadors. Even some major Hollywood celebrities were spotted at the event, including Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Steve McQueen. …The three lunar men will start a worldwide tour that will take them several countries across the world, according to a reliable source…

The Hollywood Reporter, 3/23/1969



“What was the mood in the Soviet space program when American astronauts landed on the moon?”

“It was very similar to feeling among Americans when Gagarin went into orbit. Some of them tried to ignore it, some of them were insulted. …the Soviet propaganda did not play it up or give too much information… The Russian people had many problems in day-to-day life, they were not too concerned about the first man on the moon.”


– Interview with Nikita Khrushchev’s son, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/



People may say many things about Inauri, but to me, he was a comrade. A companion. I had never gotten along too well with Shelepin, especially towards the end of his life. This was mainly because he was hinting at shutting down the Star City projects and completely throwing away the Soviet Union’s plans for a lunar landing. Not only had the Americans beaten us to it, but our tests in N1 rocket program kept ending in disastrous failure. To him, the era of the Cosmonauts was reaching its end.

That changed under Inauri. Aleksi, new to the office and its administrative responsibilities and undeterred by the attack on his life, was a man of military background, like myself. He believed that space exploration was an expansion of the military; “outer space needs protection from capitalism, like any place does,” was how he put it. When I first went to speak with him about the lunar exploration programs, he listened to me. He respected my experience, and agreed with my assertion that a lunar landing of our own would revitalize Soviet morale and intimidate the Americans. As a result of our many conversations over the course of his reign, funding for Star City’s programs – from Zond to Soyuz – increased to unprecedented levels.

Among the Stars: The Autobiography of Yuri Gagarin, 1995



THE FEDERAL AID DIVIDEND – IT’S NOT JUST A FAD!: Everyone’s Talking About It, But Who’s Actually Working On it?!

…Senate Leader Dirksen expects the F.A.D. bill to be voted on by the end of the congress currently in session…

– Tumbleweed magazine, March 1969 issue



“Folks, the task force led Vice President Scranton has brought me some very revealing stats with this her report. Y’all have a copy? Yeah? Good. Because it seems forcing whites to go to black-majority school districts and forcing blacks to go to white-majority school districts may be worsening racial relations. In practice, the policies are wrong, but in theory, they are for the best of intentions. Still, the report paints the picture that voluntary integration of communities should be encouraged, and it can’t be rushed or forced under most circumstances. We live together in this country and we should live together in our towns and cities, and we should encourage whites and blacks with being okay with having each other as neighbors. That’s what it comes down to. Stereotypes and blind prejudices aren’t things you can simply legislate away. So I don’t think I’m going to support busing anymore.”

“Folks, folks, settle down, please. Folks, busing is already creating racial hostilities where there were none before. And since its implementation under President Johnson, it is hurting children and families on both sides of the issue. Children wake up early to spend what can end up being hours riding a bus to a school so far away from home that the parents themselves can’t afford to travel there for parent-teacher meetings or any school events at all. I think that if the federal government is going to interfere in this manner, it’s better to build up the disadvantaged than build down the advantaged. To that effect, I’m going to promote towns themselves becoming integrated naturally. I’ve spoken to some Governors and Mayors and I think many with racial problems should make penalties for biased realty maneuvers. Because that’s what determines these school districts in the first place!”

“Well because the fact is, folks, that housing segregation is still going on despite court rulings against it, as my domestic policy chief has pointed out and demonstrated with the Scranton report. Instead of forcing black students to travel far away from families for an integrated school experience, blacks should not be discouraged from moving into better school districts, and that starts with fair and color-blind housing and real-estate practices. Now I’m aware that getting rid of deep-rooted prejudice is not something that can get done in just four years, as it needs to be slow and it takes time and effort, but justice and social harmony are worth the time and effort.”

– Colonel Sanders at a press briefing, 3/27/1969



“I’m surprised. I think the Colonel is finally catching on to what his conservative friends on the hill are up to. Busing suggests that all white people schools are better than all black-people schools. It’s a sneaky, less open way to putting us down, by suggesting to our children that we can’t run a school without them and without their children in it.”

– Malcolm X to a reporter, 3/27/1969



“I’ve spoken to the President, and I’ve told him that increasing school funding overall, in a manner that is blind to racial demographics, would be a process much easier to handle than busing and it would be much more effective as well. I’ve told him that we need early teaching programs, and smaller classroom for the more problematic youths…”

– Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 3/28/1969



BYE BURGERS, HI HOOPS: McDonald’s Ray Kroc To Run San Diego Padres; A Woman To Take Over As CEO!

…Ray Kroc, the man who turned a Floridian small burger shack into a worldwide brand through streamlining mass production techniques, has stepped down as CEO of McDonald’s to take on a new role – manager of a California-based baseball team. “Baseball has always been my lifelong favorite sport,” explained Kroc at a press conference earlier today, where Kroc also announced who is replacement would be at McDonald’s.

Kroc’s designated successor is Board of Directors member June Martino, who he described as having the gusto and experience necessary to lead the company into the next decade. “Martino has the integrity and restless ability to deal with problems big and small.”

Martino, 51, began her career working for Kroc in 1948, when he hired her to do bookkeeping for his Multimixer milkshake enterprise. She previously served as McDonald’s Corporate Secretary and as the head of its Treasury. In the multimillion-dollar corporation, Martino also has often played the pivotal of peacemaker, mediating between opposing managers and directors, because she is the “only universally liked executive in McDonald’s,” according to one anonymous McDonald’s manager. Martino will join Mildred Sanders in being the female CEO of a major fast-food company, making her one of the most financially and economically powerful and influential women in the country.

– The Financial Times, late March issue



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[pic: imgur.com/hrcpCZJ.png ]

The New York Times, 3/29/1969



The 1969 Turkish military memorandum was the second military intervention to take place in the Republic of Turkey, coming nine years after its 1960 predecessor. It is known as the “coup by memorandum,” which the military delivered in lieu of sending out tanks, as it had done previously. The event came amid worsening domestic strife, but ultimately did little to halt this phenomenon.

Years of economic recession (brought on mostly by internal mistakes, but also by the economic ripple effects of the 1963 Salad Oil scandal) had led to a steadily-rising wave of social unrest in Turkey, marked by street demonstrations, labor strikes, and even criminal activities such as Cam Bomb campaigns, petty robbery and vandalism, and even political assassinations. Both left-wing and right-wing factions opposed the government rule of centrist PM Suleyman Demirel, whose failure to keep together factions within the ruling Justice Party caused legislation to come to a halt, which only worsened the situation. In March 1968, the death of a 21-year-old college student named Deniz Gezmis at the hands of police during a riot created a martyr and escalated hostilities. By the start of 1969, universities were unable to function properly as more and more students took to the streets, and pro-government factions violently assaulted liberal professors. Industry suffered due to striking workers.

On April 2, 1969, through the Chief of the General Staff, the armed forces handed the PM a memorandum amounting to an ultimatum. It called for a new government that “inspired by Ataturk’s views, will implement the reformist laws” needed to “neutralize the current anarchical situation.” Seeing the situation as a way of walking away from the problem without being seen as doing so cowardly, Demirel took the opportunity and resigned, putting opposition leader Ismet Inonu in charge

Inonu, wanting to remain in power through any means necessary, quickly became a puppet for the military, whose leader declared on April 3 “We are the liberators of the good Turkish people; we will reign in the chaos immediately.” The right-wing de facto military junta imposed martial law, established a curfew, banned youth organizations, prohibited union publications, and illegalized strikes. Hundreds were rounded up and tortured, other sent to state-run kangaroo court trials. The situation continued to worsen…

– Stephen Kinzer’s Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds, Farrar and Giroux Publications Ltd, 2001



REP.S KEN HECHLER & COYA KNUTSON

Washington, DC – Church bells rang out today in celebration of the Holy Union of Congressman Kenneth “Ken” Hechler and Congresswoman Cornelia Genevive “Coya” Knutson (nee Gjesdahl). “Today I did something I never thought I’d ever do – get married!” the groom proclaimed at today’s reception, “But of course, that was before I met Coya.” The two politicians, known for their down-to-Earth styles and humble attitudes, first met in Washington, DC in early 1961, as Hechler was beginning his second term in the United States House of Representatives and Knutson was beginning her third (and first consecutive) term. Hechler, age 55, represents West Virginia’s 4th district, and Coya Knutson, age 57, represents Minnesota’s 7th district. When asked about her surname, Ms. Knutson remarked “I will probably keep my name as is; the people of my district, not to mention all of my friends and family, are already used to ‘Ms. Coya Knutson,’ as am I. I’m just happy Ken approves this.” Mr. Hechler concurred: “I don’t mind, as long as she’s happy.” Hechler and Knutson are planning to continue to reside in Washington, DC.

– Celebrations section of The Washington Post, Sunday, 4/13/1969



[In April 1969, T]he Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China opened in Beijing, the first in almost 14 years. Defense Minister Lin Biao delivered the opening address warning of American encroachment: “Their Colonel peddles his capitalist wares in the Philippines and Japan, perched right off of our shores. We cannot let them in.” Zedong soon confronted Lin over the rhetoric, and demanded an explanation.

The rift between Lin and Mao had already started in 1967, when Lin insulted Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, which made it difficult for Lin and Qing to support each other over their shared view that Mao’s warming of relations with the US was a mistake. In 1969, Lin attempted to avoid being purged for suggesting the US was “a nation of liars that could not be trusted” by claiming his misspoke due to illness. Lin and Mao had disagreed in the past over the Korean War and the results of the Great Leap Forward, but this time, Mao would not tolerate his close ally’s opinion differing from his own even if it was unintentional. In fact, Mao may have possibly gone ahead with talks with US officials simply to spite Lin. Furthermore, Mao was critical of Lin’s recurring health issues – “Do not emulate the Ming emperor Shizong, who devoted so much of his time to searching for longevity medicines that he neglected his governing responsibilities” – despite Zedong’s own health beginning to decline at around this time.

As a result of this exchange, Zedong decided not to purge Lin, believing his actions were the result of health ailments, not a differing of opinion. Instead, Mao stripped Biao of his responsibilities and demanded he visit a hospital to revive his health. With the delegates of the Ninth National Congress approving unanimously, the moderate Zhou Enlai was promoted to the position of Vice-Chairman over the quietly more liberal (and ultimately purged) Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. This made Zhou Enlai officially Mao’s designated successor.

– Yu Changgen’s Zhou Enlai: A Political Life, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006



[On Thursday, April 18, 1969, T]he Colonel turned off the television set in anger, outrage at the continuation of youth protests. Youngsters that voted for him in 1968 were either disappointed at the lack of progressive legislation scheduled for the rest of 1969, believing their concerns should take precedent, or outraged at the Colonel coming out against busing. “Did you read about how one of the KFC outlets in Minnesota got hit by a Molotov cocktail the other day? It was just some light damage and no one was hurt, but the media treated it like it was nothing! That wasn’t nothing, that’s the action of violent hoodlums! Who ever heard of political activists acting like criminal vandals?”

Claudia was about to comment when the Colonel’s National Security Advisor, Ruth Briggs of, arrived at the Oval Office unannounced.

The Colonel remarked, “What is it, Ruth? I’m trying to figure out how to handle these picket-punks before they hurt someone.”

“Sir, we have a bigger crisis on our hands.”

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



The President, Secretary of State Curtis, Secretary of Defense Bonesteel, Chief Foreign Policy Advisor Schlesinger, Chief National Security Advisor Ruth Briggs, Special Assistant to the President Harley Sanders, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Secretary of the Army Elvis Stahr Jr., and Secretary of the Navy Burke all convened together to review the situation. In their respective offices, the US Ambassador to the U.N. John Allison and the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack Crichton were on secure lines.

“What calamity do we need to clean up before it spills everywhere now?”

“Sir!” Bonesteel shot up to exposit the collected information. “The Russian Navy is mobilizing warships. They were detecting leaving Rostov and passing through the Sea of Azov a few hours ago. They’re now in the Black Sea and heading south. We’re concerned the move may be against our PGM-19 Jupiter intermediate-range ballistic missiles set up in Turkey during the Johnson administration.”

“Sir,” a man at a desk jumped up, “Ships are now 200 miles north of Sinop.”

“What’s that, another abbreviation?” the Colonel inquired.

“No, sir, it’s a town on the northern tip of Turkey.”

“Y’all think they’re heading there?”

“It’s a possibility, sir.”

“Alright, alright, I know the drill – get me the Kremlin,” Sanders contacted Inauri through the hotline established for communication between Johnson and Khrushchev. Soon the Colonel’s counterpart was asked “Is this some kind of exercise or practice your men are doing over there? Because you’re getting very far from your coastline.”

The Premier’s reply was played so the whole room could hear it. “No, Sanders,” Inauri was blunt, “Turkey’s revolution has complicated travel of our ships through the Bosporus. It has thrown a wrench into Russian trade with the rest of the Mediterranean and Middle East. Also, Turkey is the host of many Russian exchange students whose lives are now in danger. The Soviet Union must protect its own. We will restore law and order to Turkey to do so. Goodbye.”

“Sir, he’s bulls#!tin’ us!” Ambassador Crichton exclaimed, “I was just talking to an education delegate of theirs at the UN last month. They’ve had no foreign exchange student pograms since Shelepin took over.”

“You sure that’s right?” The Colonel asked.

“Scout’s honor!”

Bonesteel remarked “He must be aiming at the Jupiter missiles in Turkey, sir. If he invades, he could try to obtain them.”

“And if we call him out on it, we’ll be confessing to their existence, embarrassing us on the world stage in front of our allies,” Ambassador Allison trailed on.

“Our only nuclear missile sites in the area are in Italy and Turkey [11], and Inauri could see our support of Turkey, despite the military now being in charge, as a threat to Russia,” reviewed Curtis.

After a moment of mulling, the Colonel asked “So. What are our options here? We can’t do nothing.”

“We can use diplomatic pressure to get the Soviets to leave,” offered Allison.

“Inauri doesn’t care about international pressure – we need to do some ‘intervening’ ourselves in Turkey,” Secretary Burke suggested.

“But invasion will escalate into another proxy war that could very easily spill into a nuclear one given there’s actual nukes in the hypothetical battle zone!” warned Harley.

“No, no, no, we need some leverage against Inauri to get him to abort the invasion. How long until their ships are in Turkey’s waters?”

“Just twelve hours, sir.”

“Make it ten hours – ten hours to find some type of leverage.” As the men and women in the room scurried about, the Colonel began to think aloud. “Now, why would Inauri be so interested in Turkey? It’s a democratic state, sure, an ally of NATO,” he suddenly shouted “hey by the way, will somebody see how our NATO allies British are responding to all of this?!” Causing several men at the phones to swivel around in their chairs and begin calling people. “Maybe they have some idea or something. We’re not the only country fighting communism after all.” He tapped his finger on the edge of his cane, “Something just seems off here.”

“Sir?” The Brooklyn-accented voice came from behind him. The Colonel turned around to see a young man, roughly 24 years young. An intern for Secretary Stahr, by the look of things.

“Yeah?” The President said.

“Sir, this may be nothing, but, um – ”

“Sonny, if you think you can help in any way, then let’s hear it, come on, come on!”

“Well, I play poker quite often and Inauri’s voice – it sounded like he was holding something back, like how when you hope nobody calls your bluff because your hand isn’t as strong as you want the other players to think it is.”

“Are you sure?”

“It could be there’s something more valuable in Turkey than he’s letting on.”

“Hmm… Charlie,” the Colonel called over Secretary Bonesteel, “Get the U2 planes over Turkey. Scour the area for anything suspicious.” As people began moving around once more, the Colonel thanked the young man for the suggestion, and resumed pondering aloud. “If we don’t reply to Inauri, Turkey could fall, and with it, our nuke sites and possibly the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. And if we do reply, to try to get out our nukes before the Turks arrive, we could end up going to war.” He leaned forward into the main table and tightly clasped his hands together. “Lord, please guise us through this challenge.”

Three hours later, Turkey’s military junta leaders responded to the invasion that they correctly deduced would soon be coming to their northern shores with an invasion of their own. In order to boost morale for the junta and to “scare away” the Soviets from invading, the Turkish military flexed its muscles with an invasion of Cyprus.

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



Both Greece and Turkey had joined NATO in 1952. In 1953, a signed agreement between Greece and the US provided for the establishment and operation of US military installations in Greece, including Crete Naval Base, a major military facility at the Greek island’s Souda Bay, on the northwestern coast of Crete.

[snip]

Greece was also an important ally of the US since the Truman administration’s policy of containment, meant to prevent the further spread of Communism in Europe, and American military assistance to the country had continued since 1947, despite Greece’s Civil War ending in 1949. Both Greece and Turkey important to the containment policy, which theorized that keeping Turkey and Greece communist-free would stop the rest of the Mediterranean and middle-eastern areas from falling to it as well. Turkey and Greece received special economic and military assistance in the post-WWII years. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Turkey was the bulwark of NATO’s southeastern flank, and was the host of Incirlik Air Base, a vitally important operations base of the US Air Force located at the bottom-center of the country, fairly close to the Syrian border.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Greek-US_relations



…reports are coming in that the nation of Turkey has sent troops into the island nation of Cyprus

– ABC News bulletin, 4/18/report



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[pic: imgur.com/zG6d5hp.png ]

– Iconic photo of the Colonel learning about the Invasion of Cyprus amid the Turkish Missile Crisis, 4/4/1969



Soon the Colonel was back in the situation room.

“Sir, relations between the Greek and Turkish communities on the island were worsening recently, and now they will only worsen. The British, due to their bases there, tried to keep the peace in the past, but their new PM – that Powell guy – he’s actively seeking to hand over the responsibility to NATO or the UN.” Bonesteel was very much in an exposition-saying role on this day.

Curtis continued, “Meanwhile, the President of Cyprus, the "hard-liner" Archbishop Makarios, is worsening the situation even further by being difficult to work with, and there’s the chance that insulting him in any way would lead to him supporting the Russians over us in his attempt to repel the Turks.”

“Like what happened to Fidel Castro in Cuba,” Sanders observed.

“Exactly. Holding the island is strategically vital in the region, as it lies in front of Israel and Egypt,” Bonesteel added.

“So the Archbishop would support the Russians against the Turks if we don’t get into another war,” said the Colonel.

“Right, sir,” both Curtis and Bonesteel this time.

“Alright, get on the phone lines the Inonu fella and the Greek king and P.M.,” referring to Greece’s Prime Minister Grigoris Lambrakis and King Constantine II.

In a four-person telephone conversation, Sanders threatened to cut financial aid to, or even impose an arms embargo on, both Greece and Turkey if either engaged in military activities against the other.

“Even if the other side is the only side to blame?” bellowed the dovish Lambrakis in outrage.

“You’re both looking for a fight, you’ll both get it if either of you starts it,” The Colonel would not tolerate two of their allies started a fight while a more pressuring issue lingered around in the Black Sea.

Before American military support began, Turkey had a large but weak and highly antiquated army that would not at all have been able to repel a Soviet invasion. Amid pressure from the Turkish military, which obviously enjoyed America’s support, Inonu agreed to pull back Turkish troops from Cyprus – but only because he believed he had made his point to the Russians (despite their ships not stopping), and even if he hadn’t, he saw the “military exercise” as “good practice” ahead of the Russian invasion.

Once off the phone, Harley expressed his dislike of Turkish leaders of the past. “I hope the junta leaders man up and confess what their predecessor refused to.”

“What do you mean, son,” asked the Colonel.

“They refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide, and their prison policies are full of human rights violations. I saw the effects of the Holocaust when I was in Germany. If I was in your shoes, dad, I wouldn’t let them off so easily.”

The Colonel sighed as he nodded and patted his son on the back. “One crisis at a time, son. One crisis at a time.”

[snip]

The ship would be at the coast of Kastamonu province in just two hours and fourteen minutes when the “dirt on Inauri” the US was looking for finally surfaced.

“A U-2 spy plane has produced clear photographic evidence of Soviet ballistic missile facilities were being installed in Turkey’s Kirsehir Province just before the revolution,” explained Bonesteel as the photos were brought in, “we believe nuclear material is there.”

“Then…their so-called intervention isn’t – or least not entirely – to remove our missiles after all! It’s to protect their own from the new Turkish regime! Turkey is unstable, but it’s still our ally.”

After a moment of contemplation, the Colonel returned to the Soviet hotline, and after several minutes, Inauri finally answered.

“You have sixty second starting now, Colonel”

“Inauri, listen to me! We can settle this without bloodshed.”

“What do you mean?”

“We can both get something out of this, we can reach an agreement of some kind, and I’m good at that sort of thing, you know, and – ”

“If you are trying to stall for time, you have failed. Goodbye, Colonel.”

“We know about the missiles in Kirsehir?”

“…”

“Inauri, you don’t have to invade Turkey to get your nukes back. If you invade, you and I both know that it can end with a lot of glow-in-the-dark suffering on both sides. Don’t be the man that dooms your own nation to spite someone else’s. We can stop the warfare now, but I need your help to do that.”

“…”

“Inauri?”

“…What exactly are you asking for, Mr. President?”

The ships came to a stop; the Turks were on the edge of their metaphorical seats. After several hours of tense negotiations, the Colonel and the Premier established an accord. The Soviet vessels would return to Russia, the Russians would remove their Kirsehir silos, and the Turkish conservative regime’s loaned Ilyushin II-28 light bombers would be returned to the USSR. In exchange for this, the US would dismantle their Jupiter MRBMs in Turkey and acknowledge the existence of their US missiles being in Italy.

[snip]

The crisis averted, the Colonel was sure to commend the young intern whose suggestion had prompted the canvassing of Turkey that had led to Russia’s Turkish Missiles being discovered. The Presidential citation was a boon for the career of the young man, who had already served his country in Cuba from 1963 to 1965, had begun interning for Advisor J. R. Schlesinger in 1966 (after failing to start a career as a baseball player), and had now done his part in another military conflict. That intern was future US Senator Gabriel Kaplan.

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



In subsequent talks with Greek and Turkish leaders, the Colonel agreed to travel to the region on official state visits later in the year. The visit to Greece in February 1970 would mark the first time a US President visited the region since President Eisenhower met with Greek PM Konstantinos Karamanlis at Maximos Mansion in Athens in December 1959. Similarly, no President had visited Turkey since Eisenhower met with Turkish President Celâl Bayar in the latter's capital city of Ankara a few days earlier in December 1959 (although there were talks of LBJ meeting with Turkey’s PM in 1965 if Johnson had on re-election).

The visit to Athens established a trade deal with Greece, allowing for the easing of Greece exporting to the US petroleum products, cement, marble, steel products, pipes and refractory products. A similar deal was signed with Turkey the next month.

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



Inauri was violent whenever he hit the bottle, and in the aftermath of the Turkish Missile Crisis, Inauri hit his alcohol collection like a speeding train. The military had failed to simply remove the missiles from Turkey before the Americans or their potential new Turkish friends (the junta leaders) could notice. Due to the U2 spy planes, the Americans learned of the ploy. Inauri conceded to repossessing supplies they had already given the junta. While America admitted to having silos of their own in Turkey, too, Inauri had truly wanted to invade Turkey to prove Russia’s military might. But the threat of American intervention in Turkey, and the off-chance of Americans obtaining their weapons, was too great. The risk was too great. The excessive downing of vodka and the works was too great as well, and the leader was clearly despondent over the failure of the confrontation to lead to his preferred outcome. Inauri soon started complaining of severe headaches on the left side of his head, the side that had felt the deep graze of an assassin’s bullet just months before.

In the early hours of April 29, the Premier was found unresponsive on a sofa in his home in Moscow. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. He was 60 years old. The official report reads he suffered from phlebitis, that an unattended blood clot, produced from stress, had burst in his skull while he was resting. Those close to Inauri, however, believed the General had died from a drunken stupor, possibly drowning in his own vomit during the night, or suffering liver failure.

Regardless, KGB leader Yuri Andropov was quick to voice the possibility that Inauri’s death was the work of an assassin, possibly a capitalist from the US. Without any evidence, Andropov tried to eject the US Ambassador from Moscow, but ultimately stood down due to pressures from the Politburo.

Speaking of which, with the Russian ruler gone, the issue of his successor stirred across the Soviet politicians. Inauri had made many enemies during his brief premiership, and it was decided that his remaining allies would not be considered. Ultimately, in light of Inauri’s hawkish conservatism, a dovish moderate establishment politician was chosen. Alex Kosygin promised thee politburo “these past six years of failure were the results of conservative inaction. I promise that the Soviet Union will achieve glory in the ’70s under my supervision!”

– Tom Smith’s Twelve Hours in April: The Turkish Missile Crisis, Simon & Schuster, 1999



…after roughly two years of appeals, disgraced former Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa begins his 12-year prison sentence today. Hoffa was found guilty of bribery, fraud, and jury tampering...

The Overmyer Network, 4/24/1969 broadcast



GOV. BROWN’S GAMBLING ADDICTION PROGRAMS YIELD RESULTS

– The Sacramento Union (Ted Kennedy’s newspaper), 4/25/1969



WHEN CAN CHURCH INFLUENCE STATE?: The Constitution vs. Colonel Sanders And His Budding Friendship with Falwell and Graham

The Atlantic magazine, opinion article, late April issue



“So the Colonel has met with some religious leaders. How is that a big deal exactly, I wonder? He’s praised Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham. So is the President not allowed to praise anyone who’s a religious figure? What else is he not allowed to do – he’s in his fifth Presidential year and I can’t even remember one incident of him even praising his own KFC chicken! Furthermore, I feel like I must point out how congress has an official religious figure – the Chaplain of the US Senate – and yet, none of the these complainers are making any mention of him. Why is this different, I wonder?”

– William F. Buckley Jr. (host), Firing Line, WOR-TV, Saturday 5/3/1969 broadcast



Due to a lack in government oversight at the federal level, California’s shoutniks, progressive politicians, and various environmentalists convinced Governor Pat Brown to impose higher safety regulations in regards to offshore oil drilling in late 1967. On May 8, 1969, the Golden State’s Santa Barbara Channel would experience a disaster that tested the strength of these regulations and the resolve of the people of California. Furthermore, it brought the dark side of industry to the sunny beaches of America.

– Robert Easton’s Black Tide: The Santa Barbara Oil Spill and Its Consequences, Delacorte Press, 1972



A blow-out off the California coastline, during drilling on Union Oil’s Platform A in the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field propelled oil into the water. Over the course of the next five days, between 40,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the channel and onto numerous beaches in Southern California, tarnishing the coastline from Goleta to Ventura as well as the shores of some of the Channel Islands. Drilling had been occurring in the area since 1896, but no spillage incidents had ever come even close to this extent. The well was immediately plugged, but oil and gas continued to emerge through additional rips on the ocean floor. Upon Union Oil’s contact with the US Coast Guard, Governor Brown was contacted and he immediately sent in local assistance despite Union Oil claiming “no significant level of oil is leaking” and that the situation was under control. This immediate action taken by Governor Brown is considered a pivotal moment in containing the amount of oil spilled.

However, state officials falsely believed the oil would be swept away from the coast, not towards it. On the second and third day, heavy winds pushed heavy amounts of oil onto shorelines, blackening hundreds of boats and beaches. Residents were even evacuated in some areas due to the risk of explosions from the sudden abundancy of hydrocarbon vapors.

On the third day of the disaster, President Sanders flew to Santa Barbara to personally survey the spill and cleanup efforts. The President spoke with horrified residents and visited a beach littered with sick and dying oil-covered seagulls, lamenting “no birds should get that oily.” After talks with Governor Brown, the Colonel “decided to not oppose” the governor’s decision to impose a halt on all offshore drilling in his state “until a greater understanding of what went wrong and how it can be prevented in the future has been obtained.”

This moratorium was amended to six months due to economic concerns. However, Brown also doubled the size of the channel’s ecological preserves and other environmental “buffer zones”. Stricter oversights were imposed, commercial fishing was suspended, and tourism took a heavy toll. Governor Brown blamed the incident on companies, saying “they need to be forced to care about things other than maximizing profits,” but he still received criticism for the catastrophe occurring under his care to begin with. Brown had been in office for over ten years, and so many political opponents blamed him for “not doing enough when he clearly could have.”

The main spill continued for days until finally tapering off on or around May 15, but the effects were felt for much longer. The spill left a significant impact on the area’s marine life, killing sea birds, dolphins, seals and sea lions. The incident was the worst oil spill in American history at the time, and its affects remained in the consciousness of Americans – especially California – for years afterwards. The public outrage to the disaster was so strong that it catapulted further environmental legislation at the California state and the US federal levels, most of which remain in effect today.

– K. C. Clarke and Jeffrey Hemphill’s The Santa Barbara Oil Spill: A Retrospective, University of Hawaii Press, 2002



The Santa Barbara spill made the pro-environment activism of the 1960s more accepted and valid to a much larger segment of the US population. The spill fueled interest in the Natural Mind party, which had opposed drilling in the 1966 gubernatorial election. Subsequently, the party received a stronger amount of support as the months continued on, and this support matched a rise in registered N.M. members as its co-founder Tim Leary began an early campaign for the 1970 gubernatorial election.

– Robert Wilder’s Listening to the Land and Sea: The Politics of Environmental Protection in California, University of Sacramento Press, 1999



…The President still has much to smile about: unemployment is down to its lowest point in eight years. …Soldiers returning from Vietnam and Laos are filling low-pay jobs created by the Sanders administration’s federally-funded/state-regulated urban renewal projects…

– The Wall Street Journal, 5/11/1969



MARILYN MONROE HAS REMARRIED!

…the 42-year-old starlet’s third husband (and fourth marriage overall) is Roy Hamilton, a 40-year-old African-American singer best known for soul singles such as 1954’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and 1955’s “Unchained Melody.” The surprise announcement of their marriage, in a private ceremony over the weekend, comes just months after Monroe’s divorce from Joe DiMaggio. The interracial union may cause an uproar among Americans opposed to mixed-race couples, despite them being legal in all 50 states since the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court Case of 1967…

– The Hollywood Reporter, 5/12/1969



MARCH TO MEXICO BUILDS: 100-Mile March In 110-Degree Heat

CALEXICO – Over 4,000 farm workers and their allies came together in this border town tonight in a showing of international solidarity and unity forged between farm workers of the United States and Mexico. The rally, attended by three US Congressmen, US Senators Walter Mondale (D-MN) and Ralph Yarborough (D-TX), a collection of movie and television stars from Hollywood, labor leaders from both nations, and thousands of farm workers from the Coachella and Imperial Valleys and Mexicali, was held at the conclusion of a 100-mile march from Indio to the Mexican border. The march was organized by the United Farm Workers Organization Committee, AFL-CIO, with the intention of demonstrating its commitment to improving wages and working conditions for all farm workers, regardless of race or nationality. UFWOC Director Cesar Chavez celebrated the marchers’ “boycott spirit” in the face of opposition… [12]

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[pic: imgur.com/xSS3LBl.png ]

...Senator Mondale, who is also working with Civil Rights Activists Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy on anti-poverty legislation, has praised that anti-illegal immigration worker rights champion Cesar Chavez for bringing the plight of “the men and women who toil to provide the most basic of human necessities – food, pure and simple food.” Mondale and Yarborough are also calling for better workplace treatment policies, and an increase in the influence of state unions. As Senator, Mondale has secured finances for his home state to build new roads, hospitals, and colleges, and for it, he obtained the endorsements and campaign contributions of many building and road contractors for his 1966 re-election bid, and is becoming a most popular politician among US labor unions.

El Malcriado, 5/18/1969




youtube.com/watch?v=6yTrFaHJZs4

– video clip on the earlier works of Cesar Chavez (former Assistant Secretary of State Robert F. Kennedy can be seen at the start), 1966



Apollo 11
was the second manned Apollo mission to land on the moon. It began with a launch from Cape Canaveral on May 18, 1969 and concluded with an Atlantic splashdown on May 26, 1969. The mission consisted of three crew members: Commander Jim Irwin (1930-91), Command Module Pilot Ed White (b. 1930), and Lunar Module Pilot Gordo Cooper (1927-2004)… Cooper would retire from NASA in 1970, shortly after a second trip to the moon…

– clickopedia.co.usa, c. 2019



The 30th Annual Horatio Alger Awards Induction Ceremony in Washington, D.C. is pleased to announce the selection of President Harland Sanders for the nomination of this year’s Horatio Alger Award. Sanders has been selected for starting out as a humble farmhand and ending up as President of the United States. The selection is also in light of the Colonel’s hand in ending warfare overseas through military intervention in Vietnam and Laos, preventing further warfare from unfolding in Turkey, in Vietnam, signing major legislation early this year, and his landmark discussions with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. The award ceremony will be held in one week, on the 25th [13].

– Horatio Alger Society, official statement, released 5/18/1969



BRADLEY BESTS YORTY!: Former Cop Will Become L.A.’s First Black Mayor!

…The April 1, 1969 primary saw Democratic city councilman Tom Bradley come in first place with 42% of the vote, followed by conservative Democratic incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty at 26%, Democratic KABC-Channel 7 TV news anchor Baxter Ward Baxter Ward at 17%, and Republican U.S. Congressman since 1961 Alphonzo E. Bell Jr. at 14%...

…In tonight’s May 27, 1969 runoff, Bradley won roughly 51.3% of the vote, while Yorty won roughly 48.7% of the vote...

…After 23 years of serving as a city police officer, culminating in a promotion to lieutenant, Bradley was elected to City Council’s 10th district seat in 1963. Since then, he has worked to “bring groups together” and improve the quality of life in the city. …Bradley successfully formed a coalition with former Ward voters, campaigned on the topic of improving the city’s low-income residential areas, and criticized incumbent Mayor Sam Yorty’s 1968 Presidential run: “It’s clear his focus is on a seat of power higher than the one he was elected to.” Touting his “prior life” in law enforcement, Bradley at times compared himself to the comparatively more conservative Mario Biaggi, the cop-turned-politician Governor of New York in order to reach out to conservative voters.

– The Los Angeles Times, 5/27/1969



Sanders had had enough of Khanh’s stubbornness.

On May 30, the CIA launched a bloodless coup in Saigon aiming at replacing Khanh with a more moderate leader who could earn the respect of the people while still maintaining loyalty to the United States.

In a phone call, Khanh demanded to know the meaning of the troops storming his home at 2:30 in the morning.

The Colonel explained, “Khanh, you stabilized your country very admirably. You reigned in the post-war confusion and chaos. But now you’ve taken things too far. By chasing away your fellow Vietnamese brethren, you are throwing salt and lemon on a wound. You are unravelling everything you worked to preserve.”

Khanh was curious as to whom his replacement would be.

“Nguyen Xuan Oanh,” Sanders pronounced the name as best he could. A banker trained at Harvard by trade, Oanh was the economist charged with managing country’s economy and finances. His military experience was minimal, but that matched the Colonel’s goal – he figured appointing one of the rare anti-Khanh generals to the Presidency would promote the continuation of hostilities. The Colonel believed the people of Vietnam had to move on from the fighting toward a brighter, more peaceful future.

“The people will never stand for this,” Khanh angrily warned over the phone.

“That’ll be for the people to decide – unlike you, Oanh actually intends on holding elections. The Presidential one will be next year. If you want, you can run in it. Convince the people to give you another shot. But that’ll be then, not now. Right now, you’re going to wallow in luxury while under house arrest. In many ways, you are a good man. But the ways in which you are a bad man can’t be ignored any more. Your reign of terror is over. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to accept a rags-to-riches award.”

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



“I was surprised and honored…when I was given the Horatio Alger Award. I didn’t even know who Horatio Alger was. Having to quit school in the seventh grade, I wasn’t familiar with Alger’s books. …When somebody hit it lucky, I’d hear someone say, ‘He’s a regular Horatio Alger,’ but it didn’t mean a thing to me. I figured someday I’d find out what it meant. All I knew was that it meant ‘from rags to riches.’ So when I got the nomination, I was surprised. I received a letter telling me I’d be nominated and asking if I could come to New York to the Waldorf-Astoria on a particular day in May… I told them I could. I looked into it and I found the association fosters the American way of life. It tries to convince young people that there are still opportunities for everybody who really looks for them. Those opportunities aren’t all gone yet. You don’t have to belong to a big corporation to make it. Take me. I came from nothing. The nominations committee picked 15 or 20 people they thought should receive the award. Then they sent those nominations to 500 colleges and they were distributed to 3,000 campus workers who read the stories and biographies. They were the ones who determined which 10 people were to receive the awards each year. President Eisenhower, President Hoover, Conrad Hilton and J. C. Penney have been among the winners. Some mighty fine folks have gotten it. Some of the smartest men I’ve ever known never finished high school or college but they have a native intelligence. There’s a lot of difference between a little book learning and being educated. It all depends on how you define education. The world seems to feel that they only educated men are those who’ve enjoyed a formal education. I know many successful men who never even got out of grammar school.” [14]

Pictured: Me receiving the Horatio Alger Award from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

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[pic: imgur.com/gJb4lJW.png ]

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



DICKEY’S BARBECUE PIT

Dickey’s is a family-owned casual restaurant chain first established by Travis Dickey in Dallas, Texas in 1941. Inspired by the success of other fast-food restaurants franchising during the 1950s and 1960s, Dickey’s began franchising in June 1969. Dickey’s serving of a delicious plethora of meats and side dishes, using the same recipes first used in 1941, has made it the largest barbecue franchise in the United States.

Dickey’s: We Speak Barbecue!

– dickeys.co.usa/about_dickeys



ELVIS FEVER HITS LONDON IN THE KING’S FIRST-EVER EUROPEAN TOUR

Variety, June 1969 issue



Walter Jenkins had lived a good life. At age 51 in 1969, he was a top aide to Senator and former President Johnson. He had a wife of 24 years, Helen, and six kids at home, four boys and two girls. Yes, he and Helen had separated in 1965, they but never divorced and remained close. Jenkins had worked for Johnson since 1939, and had become an understanding and temperamental navigator of “the shark-infested waters of the Potomac,” as journalist Bill Moyers put it in 1975. He was a pivotal member of Johnson’s staff, and kept himself away from public eye, working behind-the-scenes to help his boss. It was never his intention to attract media attention, and inadvertently start a national movement, when he entered that YMCA.

On June 9, 1969, Jenkins was arrested in a Washington, D.C. YMCA restroom, was booked with another man on a charge of disorderly conduct, and fined. While some newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Cincinnati Enquirer refused to run the story of a former President’s aide being arrested, most went ahead and did. On June 11, similar charges stemming from incidents at the in same restroom, having occurred on January 1959 and February 1965 [15], were uncovered, ruining Jenkins’ initial “fatigue” excuse.

It must be understood that homosexual behavior was widely condemned in the United States at this time…

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



Lyndon is disappointed. His earlier suspicion that Walter was framed seems to have dissipated in light of the prior incidents coming to light. So many are telling Lyndon to fire Water to save face, but I disagree. I think Walter can whether the storm. …Earlier today, Lyndon told some reporters, and I quote, “I couldn’t have been more shocked if Lady Bird had tried to kill the Pope.” [16] …Lyndon is still thinking of his Presidential aspirations. The urge to return to the White House is still burning within him; the thought of 1972 is clearly on his mind. …Understanding Walter’s importance to Lyndon’s Senate staff, Rev. Billy Graham has suggested that Lyndon “forgive the sinner, but not the sin.”

– Ladybird Johnson’s private diary, 6/12/1969 entry



“I knew Jenkins from serving as commanding officer of his Air Force Reserve unit roughly 20 years ago, so I know what kind of character he has. So, you know what? So what if he’s what you could call a curious fellow? It’s not like he’s been replaced by a body snatcher – it’s the same good and hardworking Christian man that I’ve known for years, and the same hardworking Christian man that D.C.’s known for years.”

– Senator Barry Goldwater (guest), Firing Line, WOR-TV, Saturday 6/14/1969 broadcast



It was a sad time for Jenkins’ wife and children, and I was not about to add to their private sorrow. There are some things, like loyalty to friends or lasting principle, that take priority over the game of politics.” [17]

– Barry Goldwater, Meet the Press Interview, 6/15/1969




Lyndon is surprised by how much mail isn’t hate mail. Some of the letters could even be described as ‘understanding,’ I want to say. …I visited Marjorie the other day. She’s moving back to Texas. She’s taking the kids with her…

– Ladybird Johnson’s private diary, 6/16/1969 entry



In support for his friend, Johnson encouraged the Dean of Washington National Cathedral Francis B. Sayre Jr. to defend Jenkins as “a good, religious man” who upheld the values of the church. With the former President’s encouragement, The American Mental Health Foundation published a letter on June 17, which read “The private life and inclinations of a citizen, Government employee or not, does not necessarily have any bearing on his capabilities, usefulness, and sense of responsibility in his occupation. The fact that an individual is homosexual, as has been strongly implied in the case of Mr. Jenkins, does not per se make him more unstable and more a security risk than any heterosexual person.” [18]

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019




The bipartisan problem of homosexuality is nothing new to Washington D.C. President Eisenhower faced the issue with would-be appointee Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., the son of a US Senator. Vandenberg Jr. had homosexuality problems and could not pass a security test to join that administration as the President’s appointments secretary. This was all the way back in 1953. [19]

– journalist Drew Pearson, Washington Merry-go-round column, 6/18/1969




…The Democratic Party has been the host of homosexuality for decades...

…In 1919, when he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt himself investigated “conditions of vice and depravity” occurring within the US Navy Training Station in Newport, Rhode Island, after the Democrat Woodrow Wilson’s Justice Department declined to investigate [20].

…In 1942, Democrat David I. Walsh found himself caught up in a complex scandal involving Nazi spies and Walsh being a patron of a Brooklyn brothel for homosexuals. Walsh had been a Senator from 1919 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1947, and Governor of Massachusetts from 1914 to 1916, yet his private activities went undiscovered until after decades of public service…

– The Arizona Republic, 6/20/1969



JOURNALIST JOE ALSOP DEFENDS JENKINS, ACCUSES ROY COHN OF HOMOSEXUALITY!

– The New York Post, 6/21/1969



“I’m surprised Joe just sold out his own kind. But then again, the man is a scrupulously closeted homosexual.” [21]

– Deputy CIA Director Richard Helms, Meet the Press interview, 6/22/1969




The truth was coming out, like a beautiful butterfly leaving its cocoon (though the phrase “coming out of the cocoon” would not catch on until much later). After Johnson tried to minimize the scandal by coming to his vital aide’s defense, Republicans tried to inflate the scandal by accusing the Democratic party of having harbored Blutags for decades. These accusations were countered by Democrats making accusations of their own. These exchanges came at the expense of the people they were outing, but the very fact that so many people were being outed brought to light a hidden truth – that Blutags had always existed. The political fighting led to non-straight people realizing that there were more people like themselves out there than they had thought, and led to straight people realizing that Blutags existed, period (though the term Blutag would not be coined until many years later as well). Same-gender Attraction was entering the sphere of public awareness, and soon enough, the bravest of the BLUTAG community were deciding to follow the advice of the ancient Romans: carpe diem...

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



SEN. MONDALE, LEADING INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE, FINES UNION OIL FOR NEGLIGENCE: Orders Company To Pay For The Spillage Cleanup Costs

– The Washington Post, 6/24/1969



…This year’s robust economic growth is believed to be the result of closing budget deficits in 1967 and 1968 after the end of the Vietnam Conflict…

– The Financial Times, 6/29/1969



…In recognition of the President’s support for higher education, including donating his salary of the last financial quarter to school fitness programs, a new major league baseball team has officially been founded – the Louisville Colonels. The public unveiling comes after licensing and advertising specifics were agreed to between MLB and KFC officials, after weeks of negotiations and legal research… There was a short-lived Louisville Colonels team in the 1880s; this new team is unrelated to that one... …This new baseball team should not be confused with the basketball team formed in 1967 called the Kentucky Colonels and named after Kentucky’s historically famous colonels, not after President Harland “The Colonel” Sanders…

Sports Illustrated, 7/2/1969



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[pic: imgur.com/dk7vekt.png ]
– The Colonel on Independence Day, 7/4/1969



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S):
[1] Based on this: https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2018/08/06/Jason-Alexander-takes-on-Col-Sanders-role-in-new-KFC-ads/1011533610836/
[2] Info from here: http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal71-1252389
[3] Mondale summary in italics taken from his Wikipedia article.
[4] 13 months later than a similar incident that happened in Greenland IOTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_crash
[5] According to this: https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/colonel-sanders-the-american-dream-inside-a-bucket-of-fried-chicken-1.386876, Sanders “‘made a lifelong habit of swearing at employees, his own and those of lucky restaurant owners, and knocking any surface with the end of his cane to indicate his displeasure at imperfectly cooked scrambled eggs.’ But for the most part, he was as well-behaved a corporate icon as the Jolly Green Giant.”
[6] 3:30 mark in this Jimmy Kimmel interview from 2017 youtube: /watch?v=5ir1hhpkwbo
[7] Based on this vintage KFC menu!: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/575405289870437237/
[8] All quotes (italicized parts) pulled from here: https://www.godvine.com/read/colonel-sanders-accepted-jesus-testimony-1545.html
[9] Exchange between Ilyin and Andropov is verbatim OTL: youtube, starting at the 2:50 mark: /watch?v=3jeHGVt8ucw
[10] OTL!: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/20/staying-power-3
[11] IOTL, the US had nukes in Greece from 1963 to 1984, but not here due to the lack of a certain missile crisis occurring in 1962; this also means that the US never had to remove their missiles from Italy or Turkey like how they agreed to in OTL.
[12] Paraphrase of first article found in the PDF of El Malcriado, Volume III, Number 5, found online via googling “Cesar Chavez 1969 march” (I still can’t figure out how to insert a link to a PDF, sorry, but hey, at least I’m citing my work! :))
[13] The date of the ceremony is based on OTL’s 2019 ceremony date (April 4-6) (found via https://horatioalger.org/news-events/events/ ) and from the first page of Chapter 16 of the Colonel’s OTL 1966 autobiography, which describes his OTL award being giving during a ceremony that was held “on a particular day in May”
[14] OTL quote, found on Chapter 16 of his OTL 1966 autobiography
[15] The 1959 date is OTL, the 1965 date is ATL
[16] OTL quote, found via Source 18 on Walter Jenkin’s wiki article
[17] Italicized portions are OTL and found somewhere in his autobiography, according to Walter Jenkins’s wiki article. However, no link is given and I couldn’t find Goldwater’s autobio online (though I may have not looked hard enough or even overlooked it), so take the quote with a large grain of salt just in case.
[18] OTL quote according to Source 35 on Walter Jenkin’s wiki article
[19] OTL Drew Pearson quote.
[20] FDR quote and other info found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20080122100424/http://www.projo.com/news/content/gay_history_newport_sidebar_01-20-08_HH7RMQV_v42.1676c8f.html
[21] OTL Richard Helms quote.
 
Post 23
Post 23: Chapter 31

Chapter 31: July 1969 – December 1969

“The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.”

– Aristotle



After Sanders quit swearing for good, he just wasn’t as fun as he used to be. One time, for instance, he got outraged at this lobbyist for borderline harassing the department of the interior over possible limited mining rights in a national park straddling the US-Canadian border. The old Sanders would have threatened the snot with his beatin’ stick, but in ’69, it was kind of sad seeing him holding back, getting’ all tense – his tiny eyes bulging out so far you could actually see the whites of ’em, veins bulging out, face all red, muttering and stuttering and finally telling him off – but the insults and swears were of the disappointedly kid-friendly kind now.

– Lawrence Wetherby (US Ambassador to Canada 1965-1973), 1991 interview



KOSYGIN INTRODUCES LATEST 5-YEAR PLAN

After the conservative successes of Shelepin and Inauri, the new and more liberal USSR leader will implement our union’s Eighth Five-Year Plan, which will last from 1969 to 1974. Kosygin’s plan is to boost the economy via consumer production. Our glorious new leader swears his plan will increase the Soviet standard of living by increasing the supply of food, clothing and other household appliances up to 50 percent, and increasing the union’s population’s cash income by 40 percent.

– Kommunist, Soviet magazine, July 1969 issue



Kosygin believed that too much focus on defense expenditures would be the USSR’s “complete ruin,” and sought to amend the ship’s course… In July 1969, Kosygin, with an entourage of close advisors, met with President Sanders, and his own advisors, at Camp David, marking the first time a Soviet leader had visited American soil since the infamous “kitchen debate” nearly a decade earlier.

Below: the Colonel walking around the Camp David grounds with Kosygin
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[pic: imgur.com/OcIM9Uv.png ]

The talks re-affirmed Kosygin’s commitment to denuclearization. The Colonel would later describe Kosygin as “a skillful negotiator, keen on details and alert when it came to complexities. He was very much passionate about policy, and would cut right to the meat of things. A real businessman-type personality, at bit impersonal or even unfriendly at times, but he was nevertheless effective and sincere when it came to work and working hard.”

– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



US LABOR SECRETARY DEAD: Herbert Hoover Jr. Passes Away Three Days After Stroke, Age 65

The Washington Post, 7/9/1969



KFC CELEBRATES OPENING OF 3,000TH LOCATION

– The Wall Street Journal, 7/10/1969



THE COLONEL CALLS FOR STATES TO IMPLEMENT “FREE ENTERPRISE ZONES”: Claims FEZs Will Support Black-Owned Businesses Forming In “Troubled Areas”

– The Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/17/1969



SOUL MUSICIAN ROY HAMILTON DIES AT 40

…the celebrity died suddenly from a massive cerebral hemorrhage while staying at his summer home with Marilyn Monroe, to whom he had been married for just two months… “Monroe’s marriage to the African-American singer was not without controversy, but it was one of love,” according to the singer’s stepson, Ron Eckstine…

The Atlanta Journal, Georgia newspaper, 7/20/1969



July 21, 1969, the day that Apollo 12 landed on the moon, was also historic, as it saw the first-ever African-American astronaut step foot on the lunar surface. The sixth man to step on the moon overall, the then-34-year-old Robert H. Lawrence Jr. followed the NASA veteran Alan Shepard in the lunar module while Neil Armstrong from Apollo 11’s backup crew served as the module pilot due to being the second-most senior member of the crew. …A civilian astronaut, Armstrong had served as command pilot for two Gemini missions and as backup commander for Apollo 10. …The Lunar module pilot (Lawrence) had to step out second due to the positioning of the seats and the hatch door. …The historic precedence and cultural "weight" of Lawrence’s trip was lost on television sets, where audiences simply saw two astronaut suits, the color and gender of their wearers undetectable by external eyes. Nor could most ears pick out which of the astronauts was which when they heard their voices, as Lawrence spoke in a non-stereotypical way. Audiences did not hear one white man and one Black man; they heard two men. Two Americans speaking to Houston from the surface of the moon.

To most watching, it was the actions of the astronauts that seemed to be more the more important aspect of Apollo 12…

[snip]

Below: Astronaut Robert H. Lawrence Jr., the sixth man on the moon

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[pic: imgur.com/MxnhudX.png ]

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



ANNOUNCER: The Cuyahoga River. A fixture of Northeastern Ohio, this Lake Erie-bound body of water was the sight of something one would find impossible were it not caught on tape last month – water on fire.

[SOUNDLESS FOOTAGE PLAYS]

ANNOUNCER (OVER FOOTAGE): On June 25, an oil slick polluting a riverbank caught fire, damaging a nearby bridge and causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage before firefighter put out the blaze. While the fire’s source is not currently known, this did not stop the incident from making headlines nationwide. The fire was a boon for Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes’ efforts to revive local ecosystems due to the increasingly severe presence of oil and other pollutants in the river worsening over the past several years. President Colonel Sanders has called on Congress to work on a Water Safety & Regulation Act, saying that the issue is not one of private business rights but one of public health.

SANDERS (IN FOOTAGE): “I don’t expect people to stand for their rivers being on fire on a non-rapture day any more than I expect Claudia to stand for her and me eating a romantic dinner over one of the White House toilets. You’ve got to keep your country clean, like what Ladybird Johnson strived for, and that means companies big and small being aware and responsible for what they’re doing to the nation’s nature.”

ANNOUNCER: The US Attorney General is looking into legal activities regarding allegations of local companies and the river’s water pollution, while congressmen are concurring with the President’s call for pollution control litigation or legislation...

– NBC News report, 7/22/1969



RONALD WEDDINGTON JR.

Sarah Ragle and Ron Weddington announce the birth of their second child. Ron Weddington Junior arrived on June 19, weighing 7 pounds 10 ounces. The newborn arrived just weeks after the mother had graduated from the University of Texas Law School, where she met the father (to whom she wed in 1968) and where she gave birth to first child, also in 1968, while working on her J.D. …

– The Houston Chronicle, Celebrations section, 7/24/1969



He was about to turn 19, in desperate need of real companionship, and was completely directionless. Arthur Bremer had left his abusive family home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as soon as he graduated from high school that June. He considered attending Milwaukee Area Technical College, but the life story of the President – who found his destiny by travelling around the country – inspired Bremer to go for a change of scenery. Deciding to put as much space between himself and “his old life” in the Midwest, Bremer quit his job as a busboy and hitchhiked to California. And on one hot July day, he found a new family. Manson renamed him “Leo,” after Bremer’s zodiac sign. …Soon Bremer/Leo, still determined to prove himself valuable to both the family and himself, was brought further into the fold. Manson revealed to him the plan meant to “finish what was started and then stalled in the Black Sea.”

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



CAN MCDERMOTT DO IT?: A Politician’s Crusade to “Eliminate Poverty”

…branding it a “negative income rebate,” McDermott’s wide-reaching version of a negative income tax is the cornerstone of the GOP nominee’s campaign for Governor of New Jersey. …State Senator Frank X. McDermott, who turns 45 in October, is a rising star in New Jersey state politics, having served as the Garden State's senate leader for a year and as Acting Governor few a few hours earlier this year. …Just before unveiling of his rebate proposal, a month before the Republican primary in early June, the liberal McDermott was trailing in the polls at third place, behind US Congressman William Cahill, a moderate, and US Congressman Charles Sandman, a conservative. Within a month, McDermott shot to first place and defeated Cahill and Sandman, along with two fellow state senators, for the Republican nomination for Governor…

Time Magazine, late July 1969 issue



FRIEDMAN: The free market economy would benefit from a Negative Income Tax Rebate, which would avoid the welfare trap by subsidizing income instead of replacing it.

BUCKLEY: So you disagree with your boss’s support for the Federal Assistance Dividend?

It’s a good idea, but I think it would be fairly unfeasible to implement, and if it was or is, it would only contribute to the complexity of our already-massive welfare system. Not only would the rebate streamline the anti-poverty endeavor, it would even be farther-reaching than a limited dividend.

THURMOND: But that’s the opposite of what we need – the responsibility of the downtrodden should rest in the hands of state-level institutions and leaders.

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: Many things are permissible at the state level, but poverty affects all 50 states. Thus, income assurance should be a federally regulated endeavor. Furthermore, I agree with the Colonel’s recent calls for management accountability – fair prices for farmers and fairer wages for families – The F.A.D., though has the potential to reduce poverty and even provide assistance as automation continues. Mr. Secretary, back in 1952, economic Wassily Leontief agreed with Keynes that labor will become less and less important as the twentieth century continues, isn’t that correct?

FRIEDMAN: Um, yes it is.

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: And Keynes himself worried in 1930 that “technological unemployment” would become only a more prevalent issue as the decades wore on, and that long-term worry could be addressed with the NITR.

BUCKLEY: But in the short term, it would only add to the cavalcade of welfare programs, as Secretary Friedman has pointed out.

FRIEDMAN: Yes, and my alternative proposal would be more effective –

THURMOND: Don’t you mean more liberal?

FRIEDMAN: – more effective than an F.A.D.: the NITR would extend the progressive tax system into the negative territory – meaning the IRS would give money to those below the poverty line just as the rich pay higher tax rates to the IRS.

BUCKLEY: So, by extension, the rich would be giving to the poor?

FRIEDMAN: That’s…one way of looking at it, I suppose.

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: But F.A.D. checks going through the mail to those who need it would promote equal opportunities –

BUCKLEY: – But where’s the cut-off, Senator?

THURMOND: That’s right, I could see at least some members of society working just little less enough to qualify for it, inflating the numbers. And regulating laziness would not exactly be easy.

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: An F.A.D. program would taper off with a rise in one’s income. The more money you make on your own, the less money the government has to provide you with to keep you from destitution, until ultimately you are earning above the poverty line and thus no longer need the FAD. The end-goal is to stop people from starving to death when their inability to hold down a job is not their fault. Money doesn’t equal happiness, but it does ease financial woes. The F.A.D. provides a social safety net of wages below which no worker will fall. It targets those who need it, not those who want it.

FRIEDMAN: Well the NITR would do the same without adding to the nation’s mounting programs of its social welfare bureaucracy. It would instead simplify things without financially ruining the economically vulnerable, such as the ill, the elderly, and the infirm. It would guarantee financial security for the elderly and the disabled without the dividend’s possible lowering of labor supply, which would harm the economy!

BUCKLEY: Unless the economy truly is self-correcting as Adam Smith writes –

THURMOND: Well the real issue then, Milton, is the need to re-write parts of the US tax law!

FRIEDMAN: Which is what the Colonel has been working on for months now!

– US Commerce Secretary Milton Friedman, host William F. Buckley Jr., US Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), and US Senator Eunice Kennedy-Shriver (D-MA) on Firing Line, Saturday 8/2/1969 transcript



In the month of August, the U.S. Congress returned from summer break, and Congressman Tip O’Neill (D-MA) wasted no time introducing a tax reform bill onto the house floor. The bill, dubbed the Tax Reform Bill of 1969, would simplify the tax bracket system, merge certain departments of the IRS, and create a Federal Earned Income Credit, a refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working families and couples, and, to a slightly lesser extent, individuals, especially such citizens with underage dependents (i.e., children). The law was the culmination of months of Colonel Sanders reaching across to Senators and Congressmen in all factions of both parties to win over enough support to pass what he saw to be a "very helpful" bill for "so many folks."

– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



The Colonel disapproved of Indonesian leader Suharto’s moves to take over West Irian via a rigged council vote held on August 2; “The voters had been selected by the Indonesian military. The corruption’s more noticeable than a drunk dog joyriding on a horse!” Sanders openly condemned Suharto for his treatment of his people, and privately held him responsible for causing guerilla activity backed by the USSR to form on the island of Papua. The Colonel and Suharto has a cold relationship from then onward. Nevertheless, the event was recognized by the UN General Assembly, albeit without clarifying if the absorption of the western half of the island was indeed “an act of self-determination.”

[snip]

August 1969 also saw Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk criticize the US military. Communist guerillas were still present in northern regions despite US intervention in the form of advisors and assistance, and the King became increasingly vocal of his “disappointment” as the summer continued on. Ambassador Westmoreland privately countered on August 8th “this guy’s ignoring how his own policies that have brought his country to the brink of destruction.” Secretary Curtis and Senator Nixon, as the latter’s memoirs revealed, privately considered the King to be “a pain in our side.”

The Colonel agreed with Senator Nixon that the King’s forces would fail to defeat the northern insurgency, but was hesitant to lead the US into “what would be our fourth war of the past eight years.” Harley Sanders then convinced The Colonel that the American people approving of troop-based intervention would be "very necessary." Not wanting to continually "handle" the actions and policies of “other leaders” such as King Norodom Sihanouk at the cost of ignoring “the actual warfront,” The Colonel decided to use television to his administration’s advantage, pointing out on the 19th the “the television set has always been my friend; now it’ll be our friend, Bill [Westmoreland].”

During mid-to-late August and early September, the Colonel loosened restrictions for media outlets to allow journalists to dangerously venture into the north if they chose to do so. Subsequently, the atrocities committed in the region – by the communist insurgents in general and communist leader Pol Pot in particular – slowly found their way onto newspapers nationwide. The exposés raised US approval of increasing intervention in Cambodia.

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



I first served time from ’52 to ’54 for mugging a taxi driver, then from ’55 to ’59 for using stolen money orders to take a trip from Missouri to Florida. The ’59 bust was the big one, though. 20 years for holding up a store in St. Louis. The MO State Penn wasn’t good to me, but thankfully the prison bakery’s security was kinds sloppy in ’67. I got out by hiding in a bread truck!

A first moved to Chicago, then Toronto, then Montreal, then Alabama. Birmingham was a nice town, except for all the Blacks acting all smug. I missed the best years, when Bryant was serving as a voice for real Americans. But I stayed. I still can’t believe I was able to get a driver’s license during my time there. Then again, I didn’t stay long enough to see if the pigs figured out I was there. Got a Ford Mustang a drove to Mexico later soon after, and soon found myself in Veracruz, Mexico. No longer was a James Earl Ray – I was now Eric Starvo Galt.

I loved America – I still do. It’s that too many of the people living there are a**holes. The President at the time, a clown in a white suit named Colonel Sanders favored pinko social views, and was always quick and gung-ho to be putting down grade school dropouts, which is ironic because I didn’t make it to the 12th grade, but neither did the Colonel. His successor wasn’t exactly better, so I stayed in Mexico. I even managed to get facial reconstruction in Mexico City in ’68. Did a bang-up job, too!

First I thought of moving to Rhodesia, where whites still controlled blacks. But Veracruz was such a great place. A sunny spot near the bottom of the gulf; Cuban and Americans love to take tours, party and take vacations there, including really hot American women.

By 1969, I was working as a tour guide. Every time a cop was part of the tour, I’d laugh inside myself, and the laughter grew bigger each year I stayed there, enjoying the beaches, chasing tail, and wallowing in the finer things in life (whatever things the richer tourists “lost” during the trip!).

– James Earl Ray’s memoir, How I (Almost) Got Away With It: The True Story of The Man Known As Eric Starvo Galt, Borders Books, 1999



HEALTH CARE ACT GOES INTO EFFECT TODAY FOR ENTIRE NATION

…Hellyer’s promotion of “universal health care” policies are catching the attention of both the people and politicians in the northern U.S. states such as Vermont and Maine, both of which contain many Canadian immigrants; Vermont’s Governor Hoff has described Hellyer administration’s left-wing social stances as “inspired and inspiring”….

– The Toronto Star, Canadian newspaper, 8/17/1969



HURRICANE CAMILLE RAVAGES EAST COAST!

– The Sacramento Union, 8/19/1969



sZY2Qsd.png


[pic: imgur.com/sZY2Qsd.png ]

– The coastal town of Pass Christian, Mississippi, before and after Hurricane Camille, 8/14-22/1969



With winds of over 150 mph, Hurricane Camille was the second-most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States. When it made landfall on August 18, it was at a peak intensity of 175 mph and first struck the aptly-named region of Waveland, Mississippi. Mudslides and flashfloods overwhelmed communities. Nearly everything along Mississippi’s coastline was flattened; over 240 people were killed and over $1.40 billion (roughly $9.5 billion in 2019) in damages.

[snip]

Federal, local, state and volunteer agencies responded to the disaster immediately, rescuing survivors from wreckage and tending to the injured and the displaced. Congress soon passed a bill providing $70million in disaster relief necessities for Mississippi and Louisiana.

President Sanders ordered 1500 regular military troops, plus 900 US Army Engineers and 300 US Navy Seabees, to bring food, clothing, vehicles for transportation, and other elements to the affected areas. The Governors of Mississippi and Louisiana declared martial law for two weeks to minimize vandalism.

President Sanders then applied what he learned in the wake of the 1956 floods in Kentucky while he was Governor to the situation. Sanders understood how to properly get people warm, fed, and relaxed. On August 24, President Sanders would visit the Biloxi-Gulfport Regional Airport to promote the rebuilding of the state, telling a crowd at one point “one of the few things stronger than a hurricane is the strength of the American people when faced with a challenge. …Are we going to let Camille have the last word? No!”

The storm was so destructive that the name Camille was retired.

– weather.gov.usa/HurricaneCamille



After meeting with department heads and the governors and other politicians present, I helped hand out canned goods and blankets. I wanted to sit down with many of them, like how I had handled the Kentucky floods of 1956, but I was the President now, and I couldn’t find the time to listen to all of them. Instead I listened to local leaders and volunteers, and commended them for their service. I called Mildred and convinced her to send free KFC to the affected areas. Like what happened 13 years prior, my chicken raised spirits and brought hope for recovery to the displaced people.

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



Leo, Tex and Arthouse held their position outside the Senator’s California house. The time to strike would soon be at hand.

Kuchel served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Manson convinced us that this made him privy to highly sensitive information regarding the nation’s defense and security. This meant that Kuchel had to die in order to stop him from helping the Beatles prevent Helter Skelter. We were the chosen followers – if anybody could pin his assassination on the Russians (thus starting the crisis that would lead to the submarines launching their missiles and ushering in a new era for America), it was us. Manson had his ways, and he made us certain of this.

But Leo was too egotistical. He loved Manson like the rest of us, but he wanted Manson – and maybe the world – to know that HE was the one to fire the fatal bullet. As soon as he saw Kuchel step out of his home emerged, Leo shouted “Penny for your thoughts!” before firing, which gave Kuchel just enough time to duck out of harm’s way.

Then an unplanned element reared its head in the form of a police cruiser passing by. Soon enough, two police officers had us pinned. Arthouse was clipped. Leo decided to play the hero – or martyr, the jury’s still out on it – and made a run for Kuchel’s position to “finish the job.”

He failed. Almost immediately, the cops turned him into a red and drippy imitation of Swiss cheese, after which he plopped down flat and motionless on the pavement.

There was, however, a silver lining to Leo’s action – it drew the fire away from Tex and Arthouse, allowing them to flee with their lives and return to Manson.

Both were punished for their failure.

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



SENATOR KUCHEL UNHARMED IN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

– The Los Angeles Times, 9/1/1969



If the CIA was not catching up to him, his many health problems were. Diabetes and poor blood circulation tired him so, and his hair had not been combed in months. He didn’t care to. His sole focus now was trying to support Pol Pot in Cambodia, hoping to spark a resurgence in popularity for Communism in Vietnam. He was still passionate, but he had effectively become a shadow of his former self.

On the day of his death, Ho and I carefully traveled to the remnants Banteay Srei, the capital of the ancient Khmer Empire to meet with a contact to discuss the latest developments.

Ho, perusing the area, observed, “Look at all that remains of what was once a great empire. A man who had a vision here. A man who once commanded that all these structures be built. What power, what influence they had. And look at it now. His mighty power, and his mighty people…all gone.”

Ho then became more despondent than usual when he noticed a small empty used bucket on the ground. Carefully bending down to pick it up, he turned the container around and came face-to-face with a man an ocean away. It was an empty bucket of KFC, lazily discarded, likely by an American, on the floor. Rolling along this site of former glory by the occasional wind gust until it had reached this spot. Ho held the bucket, and after staring at it for quite a while, thought aloud, “The man on this bucket had a vision, too. One that should not have come to pass.” Ho turned to me and lifted up the bucket to show it to me. With his lips almost trembling as emotions ran through him, but also with fury rising in his voice, he exclaimed “this was our downfall!”

1ILz0G0.png


[pic: imgur.com/1ILz0G0.png ] (above photograph taken by an assistant to Le Duane and released to the public in 1981)

Ho crushed the bucket in his hand, then leaned over as his recent chest pain issue suddenly grew in severity. He soon began to have trouble breathing. By the time we returned to base, my dear friend had already succumbed to heart failure.

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



…Reports Confirm: Ho Chi Minh, Commie Leader During Vietnam War, Died Last Week While Hiding In Northern Cambodia...Spotted At Historic Site and Followed to Hiding Place…Collaborators Captured Alive…

– NYT news ticker, 9/9/1969



JOE: Well it’s more than obvious that Ho Chi Minh and Colonel Sanders were secretly the same person! The Colonel was part of the military-industrial complex and as such he faked the death of the persona to tie up loose ends!

ART: But what about the body of Ho Chi Minh?

JOE: Don't you remember from our talk last time, Art? It was cremated – cremated in a war zone where a body can be found practically anywhere!

– Host Art Bell and frequent anonymous contributor “Conspiracy Joe,” Coast to Coast AM, 4/16/1994 radio broadcast



DIRKSEN DEAD IN CAPITAL AT 73

By E. W. Kentworthy

He was the very archetype of the politician, with all the politician’s shortcomings and virtues. Inconstant, often too apt in expedient, he was found, in the course of his career, on both sides of almost every question. But he also had the talent for compromise, adjustment and conciliation that is the secret of effective government under the American system… In a Senate increasingly composed of drab, machine-tooled men, Mr. Dirksen remained an original, a throwback to the more colorful, less inhibited politics of the Midwest at the turn of the century… Mr. Dirksen’s last years were burdened with illness and injury – duodenal ulcers, chronic emphysema, a cracked vertebra from a violent fit of coughing…But the juices of life and humanity flowed strong in him to the end... chest x-rays in August led to surgery to remove a mass of lung cancer, and while the it was successfully removed, complications led to a fatal case of bronchopneumonia for Mr. Dirksen… …he will lay in state at the U.S. Capitol rotunda, for all who wish to pay their respects…

The New York Times, 9/8/1969 [1]



We were disheartened, but not defeated. Kuchel was still alive, but all of us – even quite possibly Manson, too – couldn’t help but be glad we didn’t have to deal with Leo any longer.

Manson immediately returned to studying the music, and soon came to his latest conclusion. Jumping up from his spot, he frantically called us all to assemble before him.

“Our little hideaway beneath the waves,” he recited the lyric from the Beatles’ song Octopus’s Garden. “This refers to the Soviet submarines - little hideaways - hiding beneath the waves, destined to nuke the continental United States!” We all believed him. Manson then told us how we needed to develop a plan to use this knowledge to our advantage, and to keep others from learning the truth, lest the new age be stalled once more. “We must cut off our opponents at the source. We must silence the leakers of the future – the Beatles must not disrupt our destiny.”

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



Octopus’s Garden was written and sung by Ringo Starr and appeared on their 1969 album “Abbey Road.” Released September 26, 1969 after being recorded for the album from April to July 1969, Starr was inspired to write the song in 1968, when he was on a boat belonging to comedian Peter Sellers in Sardinia. The boat captain told Starr about how octopi collect stones and shiny objects from the sea bed to build “gardens.” Starr was inspired further by his desire to escape the sociopolitical fallout of the Stonehouse Scandal and the other events of that later; he would later admit that he had “just wanted to be under the sea, too, that’s all.”

[snip]

…Elvis never liked the Beatles, disagreeing with the idea of using recreadrugs, and refused to meet with them during his tour’s visit to London. He would, however, establish a “friendly acquaintanceship” with the Rolling Stones in 1969, according to Bill Wyman…

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



Needing a smile after the near-death of US Senator Kuchel, the real-death of Senator Dirksen and the many deaths of Hurricane Camille, and wanting to unwind from handling a particularly somber and hectic week overall, I convinced him to meet “an unconventional acquaintance” of mine. Dad and I soon stopped in on an unorthodox performer staying at an Arlington, Virginia, hotel for a rock concert to be held the next day.

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[pic: imgur.com/LBKJcYA.png ]

Above: Dad and Alice meet in the hotel’s main conference room, which was best for security. A waiter brought Alice more beer, while Dad had some coffee. I had first met Alice Cooper in 1967, right before he had really made his mark on the political scene. He was 19 years old, almost 60 years younger than Dad at the time, and we met through a friend of a mutual acquaintance of a friend of his.

The two men got along surprisingly well, just not immediately. At first, they have trouble finding anything in common. Alice was adamantly apolitical, once saying “When my parents would start talking politics, I would go in my room and put on the Rolling Stones or the Who as long as I [had to so I] could avoid politics.” [2] Dad, meanwhile, disliked the increasingly cacophonous music of the era’s youth, preferring the “understandable” tunes of Elvis and the Beach Boys out of all music of the “modern youth” genre, as he put. Finally, though, they find a common interest – sports [3]. Soon Alice was really enjoying himself, though much more so than Dad. In fact, Pops became antsy to leave as the night wore on, especially after Alice tried to guess what the “secret” to what made Kentucky Fried Chicken so delicious. We left at around midnight, with Alice clearly honored to have been in the President’s presence.

Dad later told me, “What do see in that, um, that rocker fella?”

I told him “He’s loud, outspoken, and searching for some kind of greatness. He kind of reminds me of you, Pop.”

The September 14th “Midnight Meeting” would eventually become public knowledge, sparking numerous rumors and theories ranging from Cooper being a government spy seeking to destroy shoutnik culture from the inside-out to being handpicked by the KFC corporation to hold onto the closely coveted “Secret Formula.” The “Kentucky Fried Chicken Incident” was none of those things. It was simply a semi-successful attempt to liven my father’s spirits after a sadder-than-usual week of being President.

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997



…The party establishment sought to promote Dirksen’s son-in-law, Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, to the now-vacant position of Senate Majority Leader. Goldwater challenged the selection of ideological grounds, while Senate Whip Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania challenged Baker over concerns of nepotism. The Colonel came to back Goldwater, and with the waning non-conservative factions of the party being split between Baker and Scott, Goldwater was narrowly promoted to Senate leader. This put him third in line for the Presidency after Vice President Bill Scranton, and House Speaker Charles Halleck...

– Liz Shermer’s Barry Goldwater and the Changing American Political Landscape, net-book publication, 2010



…a rift soon began to form between Sanders and fiscal conservatives on the hill wishing to repeal parts of numerous programs if FAD was implemented, including LBJ’s Great Society programs. During one of these discussions with Senator Cotton, Sanders defended his predecessor’s policies: “too many people rely on them”

“But they’re too constricting to businesses. The economy will hemorrhage under such immense pressure to maintain a government so big!” explained Cotton

“So we can remove some of these programs, but not all, and not the key ones, just the supplemental ones and the like” The Colonel gave an arbitrary response to placate D.C. conservatives for the time being.

– Coya Knutson’s Coya’s Story: A Life in Legislation, Simon & Schuster Incorporated, 1991



F.A.D. LEGISLATION MAKES IT OUT OF COMMITTEE: House Will Vote On Bill “Soon”

– The Chicago Tribune, 9/25/1969



SANDERS APPROVES FURTHER FUNDING OF SICKLE CELL ANEMIA RESEARCH AFTER TALKS WITH NIXON

The Washington Post, 9/27/1969



COPYCATING THE COLONEL CALCULATED TO CONTINUE KENTUCKY’S ECONOMIC CLIMB

…Governor Robsion’s new economic development plan is almost identical to that used by Colonel Sanders when he served as the state’s leader from 1955 to 1959. During that period, the state saw a rise in employment and population numbers as transportation projects attracted major businesses and corporations to the Bluegrass state. The Colonel’s 1955 strategy, however, may not work 14 years later, as the socioeconomic situation has shifted greatly since then, state economists warn... Nevertheless, the State Secretary of Commerce has “no doubt” that “returning to what worked” will grow the state’s presence on the US economic map. …Robsion, however, has announced even greater ambitions for the state: “Within the next 20 years, Louisville will be bigger than Indianapolis or even Nashville.” The Robsion administration has also projected the state’s largest city to reach a population of 2 million by 1989. [4]

The Advocate-Messenger, KY newspaper, 9/29/1969




...At the time [October 1969], Mr. Hoover was under mounting attack because of revelations that the bureau had conducted extensive surveillance of…war protesters… “We may have on our hands here a man who will pull down the temple with him,” [Senator Richard] Nixon said. [3]

– Ronald Kessler’s Clyde Tolson and the Cult of J. Edgar Hoover, Resistance E-Publishing, 2016




“Hoover, I’m madder than a wet hen at you!”

“I take it this is about the Posts’ alleged journalism as of late, yes?”

“I’ve checked you out this time, Hoovie – you’re still continuing on surveilling people despite me telling you to stop it months ago. Listen, Hoovie, I’m all about limits. Limited government and all that. But there should never be limits on two things: the number of times you can eat KFC for dinner, and the freedoms of the American people! What you’re doing, Hoover, is just plain wrong and you know it! Even worse, you don’t even seem to mind!”

“Colonel, you don’t seem to realize the value of all this. Just look at the information we gathered, just this month in fact. Here, I brought this over here. Just look at the kind of people Rock Hudson’s been shacking up with!”

“Unless their makin’ babies in the middle of a public square it’s nobody’s concern but their own who loves who. A man and woman have a right to privacy.”

“That’s not what he – ”

“I don’t want to hear your excuses, Hoover. Now shut this whole thing down immediately.”

“Mr. President – ”

“That’s right, I am the President. And as your President, as your boss, I order you to shut down this whole operation!”

“[Sigh] I’m afraid that is impossible, sir. This goes beyond just me. This is an all-encompassing network of informants and agents. All with families to feed, too. And they all understand the importance of this work. I shut it down, one of them will slip through the cracks and continue on where I’ve left off, making the shutdown pointless. This, sir, is all for the good of the country.”

“You don’t get to make that decision!”

“Every President since FDR has thought otherwise.”

“Then apparently, no President since FDR ever had the balls to tell you off!”

“Oh, what are you going to do, are you going to call me a whippersnapper or something?”

“Don’t you take that tone with me!”

“Going to cry for your son to defend you or will you spin some yarn about how much of hick you are until I pass out from boredom?”

“How dare you – ”

“You know something, Colonel, you may wear white, but you’ll always just be a dirty bum, a fish out of water, in-over-your-head naïve little sh-”

“Why you – !”

[striking sound]

“Ow!”

[pause]

“Ooh, f@#k, you hit me in the face!”

“Oh, sh- Shoot! You did it, Hoovie, you done made me lose my temper.”

“Oh, I think you loosened a tooth!”

“Yeah, a silver cane can do that, I figure. Sorry – ”

“Damn it, that f@#king hurt!”

“I’m sorry, Hoovie. Here – ”

“Don’t touch me, I don’t need your help!”

“[Sigh], Alright. Bu before you leave, Hoover, I want to be clear – this is your final warning. Shut this down, or you’re out of a job in D.C.! I mean it. And I don’t think the folks on the Hill will miss you all too much, either! [pause] You’ve got until the end of the month, otherwise you’re out.”

“Yeah. I’ll see myself out!”

[long pause of silence]

“[Sigh], Lord, please give me the strength to tolerate the bullsh- uh, the troublestarters.”

– Transcript of a discussion between President Sanders and Director Hoover in the Oval Office, nature of recording device classified until 2029; disclosed by the FBI in 2012 alongside numerous other files from the 1960s, 10/2/1969



On the morning of October 5, Director Hoover complained of having a headache and a lack of sleep in recent days, but declined to go to the hospital. Furthermore, he demanded that he not be disturbed for the duration of the day, not even for lunch. At approximately 11:45, Hoover’s private secretary discovered him unconscious on the floor of his office, having apparently vomited and then collapsed, likely from exhaustion. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The autopsy report revealed that the director had suffered a ruptured blood vessel near his right temple, a sensitive part of the body containing many blood vessels. Also detected was localized hematoma, meaning blood was seeping out from broken capillaries; this condition is known to cause headache and vomiting. What killed Hoover, however, was asphyxiation, as he had collapsed face-down into the puddle of his own vomit.

Upon Hoover’s death, his fiercely-loyal stern-faced private secretary of almost exactly 50 years, Helen W. Gandy, always known as “Miss Gandy,” began a process of destroying all of Hoover’s “personal files.”

The FBI’s Associate Director, Clyde Tolson, a close friend of Hoover, was visibly upset throughout Hoover’s funeral, while Miss Gandy retained her typical demeanor with an additional hint of ambiguous anger. Tolson then served as acting Director for several weeks. Despite, or rather because of, Tolson being Hoover’s right-hand man, he was not considered for the position due being in poor health ever since his 1964 stroke; instead, President Sanders appointed William C. Sullivan to the bureau’s top job, ushering in a new era of management for the FBI.

– Ronald Kessler’s Clyde Tolson and the Cult of J. Edgar Hoover, Resistance E-Publishing, 2016



FBI DIRECTOR J. EDGAR HOOVER IS DEAD AT AGE 74

– The New York Times, 10/5/1969



“Well ain’t that the darndest thing. I was just talking to him last week! He seemed healthy enough. How’d he die?”

“They’ve yet to perform an autopsy, sir, but we believe he had a stroke or heart attack since he was found unresponsive on the floor of his office.”

“Aw, that’s a shame – I was hoping’ the two of us could make amends when all was said and done.”

– Transcript of a discussion between President Sanders and Press Secretary Ziegler in the Oval Office, nature of recording device classified until 2029; disclosed by the FBI in 2012 alongside numerous other files from the 1960s, 10/5/1969



DID THE COLONEL KILL J. EDGAR?!

The recent declassification of a 1969 recording (hear full recording here) is an explosive revelation and an unprecedented view into the American government’s love affair with illegal surveillance…
[SNIP]
COMMENTS SECTION:
Comment 1: if you listen to the Oct8 recording the Colonel sounds sincere and surprised so I think if he did do it, he didn’t mean to
Reply 1 to Comment 1: I don’t think the old fool even made the connection!

Comment 2: Why the [CENSORED: MUST BE 18 OR OLDER TO VIEW WORD(S)] is the DOJ not looking into this?!
Reply 1 to Comment 2: I dunno, too circumstantial?
Reply 2 to Comment 2: In the Colonel’s defense, Hoover was egging him on

– CoasttoCoastAM.co.usa/news_articles/2012



On the TV, Cronkite prattled on about the Colonel possibly increasing American “advisory forces” remaining in Cambodia, Hoover kicking the bucket, and the F.A.D., but Manson finally turned around to the set when the man mentioned the Beatles. “…the popular rock band has agreed to travel to the United States for a tour that will include performances in New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles…”

“Perfect,” Manson smiled, “the time for Helter Skelter will soon begin at last!”

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



DOES EVERYONE HATE ENOCH?
[snip]
Powell defends the UK’s nuclear weapons numbers as being a modern necessity, explaining just last month that “Under God’s good providence and in partnership with the United States, we keep the peace of the world and rush hither and thither containing Communism, putting out brush fires and coping with subversion.” [4] Doves hate Enoch for such rhetoric, fearing it will lead to the Troubles returning the 1966-levels of intensity and deadliness, or even be used to justify military intervention there or in any former colony. This may come off as contradictory in the face of Powell’s attempts at ending all foreign aid endeavors, which has put wind in the sails of Steve Biko and his followers in South Africa as South Africa enters week 7 of its recession crisis.
[snip]
Enoch is not on good graces with many traditionalists in Parliament for decrying customs maintained in both houses as “nonsensical mummery.” ...Market regulators are incensed by Powell’s promoting of free-market policies despite them leading to major UK-American trade deals being signed in Washington, D.C. in August.
[snip]
Powell is popular among some lower-income and middle-income Britons for lowering the size of the Capital Gains Tax and Selective Employment Tax (albeit after failing to abolish them outright). Among other lower-income and middle-income Britons, though, Powell is losing support for his attempts to end all assistance to development areas and all housing subsidies (save for those who could not afford their own housing). Enoch has defended his actions repeatedly, stressing his “facts-based belief” that tax cuts would allow the public to spend those funds on projects like hospitals, roads, and “the firm and humane treatment of criminals” [5].
[snip]
Finally, we must cover the accusations made against Enoch Powell that his immigration policies are racist. Powell famously stated during last year’s campaign “As an intellectual, I care more for what works than for what feels non-racist.” [6] Still, upon learning of accusations of his immigration policies being racially-biased, Powell restated verbatim from a speech he had made in 1964: “I have and always will set my face like flint against making any difference between one citizen of this country and another on grounds of his origins.” [7]. Powell also sought to prove the claims of racism false by “flexing [his] multiculturalism,” as he put it, by speaking Urdu whenever he dined at Indian restaurants or met with Urdu-speaking officials. Unfortunately for him, Powell seemed to shoot himself in the foot last week by telling a reporter “Nations are, upon the whole, united by identity with one another, the self-identification of our citizens, and that’s normally due to similarities which are regarded as racial differences.” [8]
[snip]
Enoch seems to be uniting the country, as all factions of the British people – liberal and conservative; IRA and Constabulary; poor and middle-class; urban and rural; white and brown; immigrant and native – are all united in disliking him. If national unity, even of this sort, is the most important role of a great leader, then Powell is one of the greatest leaders we’ve ever had!

– The Sunday Telegraph, centre-right UK newspaper, May/10/1969



Flood v Kuhn was a June 1971 United States Supreme Court decision ruling on the legality of the antitrust exemption granted to Major League Baseball. The decision stemmed from an October 1969 challenge by St. Louis Cardinals’ outfielder Curt Flood when he refused to be traded after the 1969 season. [snip] In October 1969, the Cardinals’ Curt Flood, 31, sued the MLB over the reserve clause and his inability to become a free agent, comparing the organization’s practices to slavery. Precedence came in the form of San Francisco Warriors’ Rick Barry’s challenge of the reserve clause in court earlier in the year, which, albeit successful, worked as a reference when blueprinting the Flood side of Flood v Kuhn. The case quickly advanced to the Supreme Court after going through both New York’s Southern District and the Second Circuit.

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



COLONEL DEFENDS LBJ-ERA IMMIGRATION POLICIES

…Presidents Sanders supports visas for professionals immigrating to the US, which is part of an addition to the 1964 Hart-Celler Act that passed under President Johnson, which replaced the US’s previous quota system with an updated acceptance model...

The Washington Post, 10/28/1969



MARILYN MONROE MARRIES DEAN JAGGER

…in a private ceremony, Academy Award-winning actor Dean Jagger, 65, tied the knot with Marilyn Monroe… This is Jagger’s third marriage and Monroe’s sixth. Jagger as previously married to Antoinette Lawrence (1935-1943) and then to Gloria Ling (1947-1967), while Monroe was previously married to James Dougherty (1942-1946), Joe DiMaggio (1954-1955 and 1963-1969), Arthur Miller (1956-1961), and the late Roy Hamilton (1969). Monroe is now the stepmother of Jagger’s daughter from his second marriage…

– The Hollywood Reporter, 11/3/1969



PERICONI PUMMELS PROCACCINO: Mayor Wins Second Term, 65%-28%-10%

…Procaccino’s campaign was a watered-down rip-off of Governor Biaggi’s law-and-order 1966 campaign… the conservative Comptroller shot himself in the foot with a barrage of gaffes and generally failed to explain why he was the better man for the job.

– The New York Post, 11/4/1969



hOkKcUy.png


[pic: imgur.com/hOkKcUy.png ]
McDermott won 1,453,096 votes (61.4%) to Alexander Trowbridge’s 870,931 (36.8%) votes. …After McDermott adopted a central proposal for his campaign, the initial frontrunner for the Governor's seat, Alexander Trowbridge, grew to be seen as running a generic and uninspiring “theme-less” campaign, and his inability to respond to this "image" issue led to the race slowly narrowing until September, when McDermott began to outperform Trowbridge in polls. From there, McDermott's standing in the polls continued to rise sharply, possibly influenced by the rising approval of the Sanders administration. …The election also worked as a referendum on the debate over implementing federally assured income supplementation. New Jersey voters approved of McDermott’s proposed income supplementation dividend, or “Negative Income Rebate,” and demonstrated that support with a large voter turnout in McDermott's favor. Upon entering the governor's seat in January 1970, McDermott immediately began the "NJ-NIR" implementation process, which was eventually followed by the viewing of its immediate (and, later, long-term) results concerning the financial and social changes NIR brought about in New Jersey…

– clickopedia.co.usa



CALLAHAN BEATS HOWELL!

Richmond, VA – the results seem to repudiate the claim that the 1965 election of Republican Linwood Holton to the governorship was a “fluke,” as this is the second gubernatorial election in a row in which the GOP nominee won. Republican Lieutenant Governor Vince Callahan defeated the Democratic nominee, state senator Henry E. Howell Jr., by a 5% margin. Howell may have been hurt by school superintendent and John Birch Society member William J. Story Jr. of the Heritage and Independence Party, as Story may have split the Democratic vote by winning a respectable 10% of the vote.

After serving as a lieutenant in the Coast Guard from 1961 to 1965, during which time he helped oversee security operations in Florida related to the Cuba War that led to several citations, Vincent Francis “Vince” Callahan Jr. ran for Lieutenant Governor in November 1965, and won by a narrow margin.

…With the Callahan and McDermott victories in Virginia and New Jersey, respectively, signs point to things looking up for the Republicans on the Hill as the 1970 midterms and the ’70s decade approach...

– The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/4/1969



GRAVEL BESTS STEVENS IN SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION

…Congressman Gravel was better known among Alaskan voters than the incumbent appointee Stevens due to Gravel’s campaign for the Presidency early last year…

Anchorage Daily News, 11/4/1969



…After weeks of debate, the House of Representatives has scheduled the vote on the F.A.D. bill to be among the first activities that congress will perform upon reconvening after the winter recess…

The Overmyer Network, news broadcast, 11/5/1969



MLK ACCUSED OF SEXUAL IMPROPRIETY: Atlanta Journal Claims to Have Anonymously-Given Evidence [9]

The Chicago Tribune, 11/7/1969




“I must confess, Colonel – the temptation of relations of a nature that lies outside of marriage is my greatest weakness.”

“Is – that’s a problem, Martin. You’ve got to turn that ‘is’ into a ‘was’.”

“I’m going to need to address this, or it’ll eat away not just at me, but at our goals to end poverty as well. I’ll make a statement soon.”

“Ya think that’s wise? Adding attention toit could jeopardize the FAD talks. Maybe you should just keep a low profile until this whole thing blows over.”

“Colonel, the truth shall set you free.”

– Transcript of a discussion between President Sanders and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., nature of recording device classified until 2029; disclosed by the FBI in 2012 alongside numerous other files from the 1960s, 11/8/1969



MLK TO TAKE LEAVE OF ABSENCE FROM S.C.L.C.; In Announcement King Apologizes For “Past Improprieties”: “I Am But A Man, Vulnerable To Sin, As Are Us All.”

– The Chicago Tribune, 11/12/1969



My first thought when I heard those revelations was “How ironic.” Once upon a time, King was seen as a morality leader, calling for peace among the races, and I was vilified for my calls for the Black people to defend themselves. Fast-forward to November 1969, and suddenly King is being called a pervert and a hypocrite in the same week that [my wife] Betty and I were highlighting our family values and marital bliss, celebrating the birth of our seven child, our first son…

– Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, New York Grove Press, 1990



Apollo 13
[snip]
Launched: 11/14/1969
Splashdown: 11/24/1969

www.nasa.gov.usa/apollo_program/timeline



…prospecting in the North Sea started 1966... Phillips Petroleum Company discovered oil in Ekofisk field, almost exactly in the middle of the North Sea, as part of the North Sea Oil Fields spread across the body of water, in 1969 via reflection seismology. Quickly proving to be one of the largest oil fields in world, Phillips began production roughly two years later to the benefit of the Norwegian economy, allowing the nation and its economic allies to prosper…

– E. Van den Bark’s Ekofisk: the Energy and Potential of the Giant Oil Fields of Western Europe, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1980



STANFIELD STILL LEADING HELLYER IN POLLS

…Hellyer barely surviving the March 4, 1969 leadership election, though, is just one of many factors contributing to Liberals fearing that they will lose power next week. Liberals are struggling to shore up support among Quebecois voters due to Hellyer’s intolerance towards pro-independence Quebecois (themselves unpopular nationally due to the violence caused by separatist extremists as of late, which will very likely push back the movement years if not decades) …Another factor in Hellyer’s unpopularity may be his perceived inability to respond to the nation’s almost-stagnant economy…

– The Calgary Herald, 11/23/1969



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[pic: imgur.com/lQQee0s.png ]
– Prime Minister Paul Hellyer watching early results (which had him in the lead) pour in on TV, 11/30/1969



STANFIELD WINS!: NOVA SCOTIAN PLEDGES TO LEAD “ALL CANADIANS” INTO THE NEXT DECADE

…Stanfield, age 55, is scheduled to succeed Hellyer on the 17th…

Le Journal de Montréal, 12/1/1969



Canadian Federal Election, 12/1/1969:
[see: outgoing members]
264 seats in the House of Commons
133 seats needed for a majority
Turnout: 80.1% ( ^ 0.9 pp)
Progressive Conservative (PC) leader: Robert Stanfield (of Halifax)
Liberal (L) leader: Paul Hellyer (of Davenport)
Progressive (P) leader: Tommy Douglas (of Burnaby-Coquitlam) [10]
Ralliement Créditiste (RC) leader: Réal Caouette (of Témiscamingue)
Seats won in the last election: 99 (PC), 135 (L), 22 (P), 8 (RC)
Seats won in this election: 133 (PC), 95 (L), 25 (P), 11 (RC)
Seat change: ^ 34 (PC), v 40 (L), ^ 3 (P), ^ 3 (RC)

– electionscanada.co.can/English-mode



With the lawmakers on Capitol Hill beginning their winter break recess, here is a look back on what has been successful and productive bipartisan year…

…The law to receive the most attention was the Tax Reform Act, meant to simplify the bureaucratic processes of the IRS… The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act was seen as an olive branch to Jack Kennedy, who discussed coal jobs during the campaign trail last year… The Coastline Protection Act was The Colonel’s response to the Santa Barbara Oil Spill… The Airport and Airway Development Act, Rail Passenger Service Act, and Urban Mass Transportation Act were all, more or less, pet projects of sorts for the Colonel. This trio of the laws promote public works projects being constructed and then maintained in order to promote economic development… Shoutniks and liberals criticized the Bank Secrecy Act and Controlled Substances Act supported by conservatives, and some moderates, and signed into law by the Colonel... The bill to which the Colonel was personally attached to Early Education Priority Act that the Colonel signed into law in May to streamline the bureaucratic process regarding federal funding for schools – funding that Sanders managed to increase alongside the bill…

…“With so many things of his agenda being checked off this year, I think the Colonel can really afford to risk the rest to get the F.A.D. passed. It’s not a likely scenario, but I wouldn’t put it past some of my colleagues,” notes Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR)…

– The Washington Times, 12/15/1969



The late 1960s saw the slow rise of the McDouble, more famously called “The McDub,” “The DubMac,” and/or “The MacDub.” …While created in 1968, the double-pattied burger became a best-seller before the decade was out…

– John F. Love’s McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, Bantam Books, 1986



THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ’60S: An End-Of-The-Decade Review

…The Top 5 biggest news stories of the 1960s… No. 1: The Moon Landing… No. 2: The Wars in Cuba and Indochina… No. 3: The Civil Rights Movement… No. 4: The rise of the Colonel: the surprise nomination of the fast-food icon captivated the nation… No. 5: The rise of the Shoutniks…

Time Magazine, late December issue



As the accuser in question wishes to remain anonymous at the current time out of fear for her safety, she shall be henceforth referred to as Ms. Arkansas. On November 20, 1969, Ms. Arkansas contacted her U.S. congressman, John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-AR) with accusations that President Harland Sanders had “consistently harassed” her when she was working in the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce during the early-to-mid 1920s [11]. After a month of Congressman Hammerschmidt failing to return her calls and failing to set up a second meeting for her with the Congressman, Ms. Arkansas approached former Congresswoman Catherine Dorris Norrell (D-AR) for advice. She requested her accusation be kept confidential. Following the story being leaked to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on December 26, Congressman Hammerschmidt confirmed that a “complaint of a possibly serious nature” had been made against the President on December 28. On December 29, Ms. Arkansas’ story went public in the New York Times.

The Ms. Arkansas Effect: A Timeline Of Her Pursuit For Justice, Tumbleweed Magazine, 1970 article



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized parts of obituary are OTL: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0104.html
[2] Quote from here: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/alice-cooper-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-inductee-was-elated-when-he-got-the-news-247889/
[3] The Colonel appeared in numerous football-game-based parades, from which I’ve received many images for this TL. Alice Cooper, meanwhile, is a fan of hockey, baseball, basketball, and (later in life) golf.
[4] @BrianD gets the credit for this segment existing; thanks so much for the information/contribution!
[3] Un-bracketed parts of this entry are from here: https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/05/us/tape-shows-nixon-feared-hoover.html
[4] This is OTL statement that Powell said on May 26, 1967
[5] These policies were found under the “Morecambe Budget” section of his wiki article, and other parts of his wiki article as well
[6] This is an original quote!
[7] This quote was found on his Wikipedia article.
[8] This, too, is an OTL quote
[9] According to David Garrow’s 1986 book Bearing the Cross, King’s affairs were “a form of anxiety reduction [that caused him] painful and at times overwhelming guilt.” However, according to Sources 336 and 337 on MLK’s wikipage, CIA files emerged in May 2019 that suggest King may have “looked on, laughed and offered advice” during a rape, but the FBI tapes from 1963-1968 “that could confirm or refute the allegation” were placed “in the National Archives and sealed from public access” in 1977, and won’t be declassified until the year 2027.
[10] Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this (which means I really should go back and add it to a previous chapter at some point), but the ND and SC parties merged a little while back into the Progressive Party, with smaller parties opposing the merger failing to gain traction.
[11] According to Act Three (“How To Do The Funky Chicken”) by mark schone, starting at the 35:40 mark, at this website: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/145/poultry-slam-1999. She's apparently repeatedly tell him, "Harland get your hands off me, I get all I need at home.”

EDIT: fixed "60 years older/younger" blooper.
 
Post 24
Post 24: Chapter 32

Chapter 32: January 1970 – June 1970

“Remember the ladies and be more generous to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. [sic]”

– Abigail Adams, in a letter to her husband



“The President wishes that I express for him his regret in being unable to attend this briefing, but as congress is convening again, he is very busy going over legislation for this new year… The incident in question happened over 50 years ago, and an amount of time that, uh, large, is um, considerate. ...Many elements and aspects must be looked into, of course, before a better understanding of the situation can be found. …the President has no official statement at this time, thank you, and good day.”

– Press Secretary Ron Ziegler at a White House press briefing, 1/3/1970



The group of people hurt the most by the Ms. Arkansas Scandal was the children. Their innocence was hurt. Especially little girls who loved KFC. Harland’s own great-granddaughter, my daughter Tiffany, ended up in the situation where one day she come home from school and asked me what “sexual pestering” meant. And I remember being shocked, and asking, “Where’d you hear that term, honey?” And she said she heard another girl in school tell her that her great-grandfather liked to “commit” that to women. I dug deeper and learned that this other girl learned it from her mother. The point I’m getting at is that you can’t stop your children from hearing about the more awful parts of reality some way or another. Because keeping them locked up in a remote tower somewhere is illegal. Rapunzel’s mother didn’t get away with it; you won’t either. Instead, the best way to protect your children from harm is to work to make it so there is no harm out there to begin with. And if that doesn’t work, well, hold a funeral for the death of their childhoods. Then start teaching them how to survive and thrive in reality. That had to happen with my daughter when she learned about Ms. Arkansas. And I hated it. I hated seeing my little girl learning about sexual pestering that young, and seeing the world force on her the truth of men being forceful with women.

– Donna Adams, wife of Harland Morrison Adams (the son of the Colonel’s daughter Margaret), 2000 interview



It was an awkward situation, the incident resurrecting the whispers about how Harland and I got together and all that. People thought it was hypocritical that Harland, an increasingly Christian man at the start of the ’70s, had broken apart a family – despite his children being fully grown when we married. Everyone ignored Josephine’s inability to contribute to their marriage!

But thankfully, not all the judging eyes sought me out. Josephine had been married to Harland during the time of the alleged incident. And I was certain that she would spill whatever she had – maybe even lie – to spite Harland, to ruin him and his reputation. So, I remember, I quietly traveled down to Alabama to meet with her, to try to convince her to not say anything for the good of the country.

“These people are acting like men have never done this sort of thing before,” I remember her saying “And everyone knows Harland has an assertive personality – he got elected President on it, for crying out loud! But you don’t have to worry about my yammer – Harland’s perfectly capable of digging his own grave.”

It was not social call, of course, so I immediately cut to the chase. I asked her, “Is it true?”

And she said “Why are you asking me? You should already know. If you don’t, then ask your husband already.”

“I’m asking you,” I told her back.

Oh, and she got all stoic and ambiguous on me, and said something along the lines of “There’s a truth in every lie and a lie in every truth.” She loved seeing me angry, and so I left so I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

– Claudia Price Sanders, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) interview, 1979



I remember what it was like, the fighting and the shouting. Mother refused to accept that she alone could not satisfy Father’s physical needs, which from the very beginning of their marriage had seemed excessive to her. Father was not perfect, same as everyone, but he was not a pervert. Neither promiscuous nor a whoremonger, Father nevertheless had a libido which required a healthy, willing partner. He found one in young Claudia. [1]

[snip]

But by 1970, things had changed… Father’s libido had waned considerably from where I stood in the midst of all things. I’m guessing touring the country doing what you love would distract anyone from performing improper practices. With Father, though, I really think Claudia’s love for him was enough for him, because after meeting her in the 1940s and marrying her in 1949, he never fooled around with anyone else.

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997



My Attorney General, Lawrence Walsh, said “Don’t you worry none there, Mr. President. We’ll expose this woman for the liar she is. We can get the FBI to give her a polygraph test!”

“Larry – ”

“But the Reverend,” Whitney Young, my Chief Domestic Policy Advisor, interrupted. “I think the evidence against King came from the FBI. Who else could have recorded those things?!”

“Larry – ”

“Yes, sir,” Walsh resumed, “if Ms. Arkansas thinks she can get attention by spreading about this vexatious – ”

“Larry!”

“Colonel?”

“It’s true.”

“Beg pardon, sir.”

“It’s all true, everything she’s saying happened. I was a horny-toad of sorts when I was a younger man. Sometimes I would go further than I really should’ve. [2] Never meant to offend or to hurt, though. I was just looking for, well, you don’t need an abacus to figure it out, but I never meant to for it to be something for her to be bothered by, not for years, not even for a moment. It was just a bit of fun to me. I thought she didn’t mind it too bad.”

“Then that’s the angle we go with!” Walsh proclaimed, “We’ll say she’s exaggerating.”

At that thought I glanced over to the copy of the Good Book resting nearby. I picked it up and flipped through the pages, almost randomly, if I recall correctly, and ended up on Ephesians 4:25 – Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. It means it is always best to take the high road and be honest, especially when it comes to your fellow countrypersons.

“I won’t lie to the American people, Larry,” I told Walsh, “I won’t drag her name through the mud.”

“But why would she come forward now after almost 50 years?” pondered Young. “Why didn’t she come forward sooner, like back in 1964, when the Colonel was just a presidential candidate and not president?”

“Word is she was ‘inspired’,” Walsh derisively emphasized the last word as if to say it was an exaggeration, “by Martin Luther King stepping down from running the S.C.L.C. for a while.”

“So now people think they can take down the nation’s top dogs like the good Reverend,” observed Young. “Nah, I still think she was put up to it. She’s old, maybe someone’s manipulating her.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, “What’s done is done and we’ve still got a government to run. Now is she pressing charges against me or something?”

Walsh answered, “Not at the moment, sir, but – ”

“Are we going to have to set up hearings or something?”

“Maybe, but most likely not at all – ”

“Then I think we should just continue our work.”

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



CONGRESSMAN HAMMERSCHMIDT CAVES, RELEASES MS. ARKANSAS DOCUMENTS TO HOUSE COMMITTEE FOR REVIEW

– The Los Angeles Times, 1/5/1970



…Two Democratic Congresswomen, Martha Griffiths of Michigan and Julia Hansen of Washington state, have joined the list of politicians whom openly support Ms. Arkansas’ claims…

– ABC News, 1/6/1970



EXTRA! THE COLONEL “FREQUENTLY” RIDICULES WOMEN!

Everywhere he goes, he attracts crowds of housewives who are grateful for all the nights in the kitchen that K.F.C. has spared them. Even six years into his Presidency, The Colonel will stand by the hour with these women, signing autographs and posing for photographs. He knocks them dead with his flattery, but if you get close enough to him in a crowd you can hear him muttering a running commentary to himself: ‘Umm, that gal’s let herself go. . . . Look at the size of that one. . . . I don’t know when I’ve seen so many fat ones. . . . Lord, look at ’em waddle.’ [3]

– The New York Post expose, 1/8/1970




“The very women responsible for KFC becoming such a huge success are the target of the Colonel’s insults!”

– activist Betty Friedan, author of the 1963 best-seller The Feminine Mystique and the first President (1966-1970) of the National Organization for Women (NOW), at a 1/9/1970 rally



NATIONAL WOMEN’S POLITICAL CAUCUS FOUNDED

…the new organization promoting “feminism,” or “equality between the sexes,” urges women to “be more involved in the democratic process,” including canvasing for candidate “or even run[ning] for public office themselves,” according to activist Trudy Cooper of South Dakota…

– The Star Tribune, 1/10/1970



On January 11, another woman stepped forward to claim that President Sanders verbally attacked her with sexist and violent language in 1952, at a time when the Colonel was living out of his car as he attempted to sell his chicken to franchisees. She claimed Sanders “uttered a plethora of unprintable words” after inspecting her husband’s diner and finding it to not “match his tastes”…

The Arkansas Effect: A Timeline Of Her Pursuit For Justice, Tumbleweed Magazine, 1970 article



SANDERS APPROVAL RATINGS AT AN ALL-TIME LOW: 39%

…While beginning his second term with over 60% approval ratings, the recent series of “sexual pestering” scandals and related events have cut away at that number, inhibiting legislation, diplomatic relations, and threatening Republican politicians as the midterm elections near...

– Newsday, 1/12/1970



ACCUSATIONS AGAINST SANDERS, OTHERS, STIRRING TENSIONS AMONG CONGRESSMEN, SENATORS; “Crisis” May Leave Legislation For The Colonel’s Second Term In “Limbo” Indefinitely

– The New York Post, 1/12/1970



…After two weeks, pressure was only mounting for me to finally address the non-GOP elephant in the room head-on. I remember Nixon told me with a tone of total seriousness, “Mr. President, we need you to lead, and we need you to do so now!”

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



6oKvuvT.png

[pic: imgur.com/6oKvuvT.png ]
– In an iconic photographic, The Colonel overlooks the White House lawn, 1/12/1970



xHWTxJf.png

[pic: imgur.com/xHWTxJf.png ]
The Register-Herald, 1/14/1970



“I did not mean to offend or harm... I admit that in my younger years I said and did many things that I came to regret, but also, I will and I must say the following to Ms. Arkansas: Ma’am, I meant no personal offense, truly I didn’t, and I am truly very sorry for it all. I now know better, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive the indecent behavior of my younger self.”

– Snippet from President Harland “The Colonel” Sanders’s 1/14/1970 prepared statement



MX9153C.png

[pic: imgur.com/MX9153C.png ]
– The Colonel making a prepared statement at a press briefing, 1/14/1970



“I will not be pressing charges against Harland Sanders. I just wanted to let my President know that he should treat women better than I see his friend Dr. King seems to – um, allegedly. I also wanted him to acknowledge what kind of man he used to be, because if he truly is a Christ-loving man, then I knew he would have no qualm speaking the truth. And so I must commend him for opening up to the American people.”

– Ms. Arkansas in a 1/15/1970 public statement



MISS KFC PAGEANT TO BE HELD NEXT MONTH AS PLANNED

…An annual tradition since the first pageant was held on February 12, 1963, the multinational corporation has in recent days kept a low profile in the midst of accusations made against its founder. Today, however, three days after the scandal’s apparent conclusion, KFC CEO Mildred Sanders announced that plans for the pageant will proceed unchanged…

The Paducah Sun, 1/18/1970



…the moderate-to-conservative Republican Representative Charlotte Reid of Illinois was nominated today for the position of Secretary of Labor. …The office, vacated by the death of Herbert Hoover Jr. last year, has been held by an Acting Secretary since then... The nomination of Congresswoman Reid is already causing controversy as it comes amid recent claims that the President performed acts of misconduct in a professional settings during the 1920s, long before he entered politics or began his career selling fried chicken… If the Senate approves, Representative Reid will become the second woman to serve as Labor Secretary since Frances Perkins served from 1933 to 1945…

– Anchor Frank Blair, NBC News Today, 1/19/1970 broadcast



Public knowledge of King’s affairs tarnished the work of the Reverend, and sullied the legacy of the Colonel. But more importantly on a social level, The Ms. Arkansas Scandal convinced other women to tell their stories. The “openly hidden” subculture of misogyny proved to not be endemic to the leaders of the SCLC and the Oval Office just weeks after Rev. King’s scandal broke...

– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015



REP. WLBUR MILLS CAUGHT WITH STRIPPER WHILE SPEEDING, ARRESTED FOR DRUNK DRIVING

– The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/21/1970



JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH BECOMES 10TH LDS CHURCH PRESIDENT

The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah newspaper, 1/23/1970



REP. HORTON ACUSSED IN SCANDAL MIRRORING “MS. ARKANSAS”

…Frank Horton (R-NY), “the least partisan man on Capitol Hill,” is caught in the midst of a colorful sex scandal…

– The New York Post, 1/24/1970



…Despite accusations also being heralded toward Justice William O. Douglas and former President Lyndon Johnson, none stuck. Jack Kennedy survived several claims of having slept with multiple women while Secretary of State (before growing closer to his wife after leaving said office, according to friends and relatives of the couple), possibly due to many of the accusations being underplayed by Kennedy’s friends in the media (including his brother Ted)...

– Feminist writer Eleanor Clift’s The Way We Never Were, Simon & Shuster, 2002



“We have decided to probe the accusations concerning the President’s activities in 1952.”

– Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct Chairman John C. Stennis (D-MS), 1/28/1970



The merger was expected to go through unhitched until the lawsuit was filed in 1970: Robertson vs. NBA, antitrust lawsuit, would intend to settle the matter of fee agency rules and allow for the merging of the ABA and NBA without the loss of the basketball teams such as the Kentucky Colonels and the St. Louis spirits. Even still, it seemed that the San Diego Sails and Baltimore Claws would be lost anyway due to their own internal financial problems...

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



…with Prime Minister Powell sending these additional soldiers into Northern Ireland, he is only continuing and escalating the cycle of violence terrorizing the region...

– Sir Dingle M. Foot, Member of Parliament for Ipswich since 1957, BBC Interview, 2/1/1970



Former Rep. Lera THOMAS: “Maybe these waddling women are the Colonel’s fault after all. KFC did start out as a greasy spoon – in a gas station, no less. I wouldn’t be surprised if KFC turned out to not be the healthiest thing for one to eat every Sunday.”

Host William BUCKLEY: “You’re really trying to stick the chef with how you eat?”

THOMAS: “Well, no, I mean – ”

Sen. Richard RUSSELL: “Have none of these women ever heard of walking? The cook gives you food, but you decide to eat it and how much of it you eat. Nobody forced these women to be fat. If they want to eat so much and still be pretty, they should do something about it – exercise and diet and stuff like that!”

THOMAS: “When you’re a homemaker, you’re busy with laundry, housecleaning and keeping several kids from accidently killing themselves as they run around the house. You don’t have time to exercise.”

RUSSELL: “But you’re chasing kids around the house – that IS exercise!”

BUCKLEY: “Well regardless of who’s to blame the fact remains that the waddling comment is worsening the President’s approval ratings…”

– Transcript, Firing Line, WOR-TV, Saturday 2/1/1970 broadcast



NEW POLL: Support For Intervention In Cambodia Increasing, Shoutnik Protests Decreasing

– Gallup, 2/1/1970



…roughly 500 female members of the New York Radical Women organization, led by author Robin Morgan, arrived in Washington, DC today to picket outside the White House ...This is the one of the largest demonstrations ever held outside the Sanders White House…

– NBC News, 2/2/1970



…demanding that American citizens, quote, “exercise their rights to all the truths,” unquote, Senator Richard Nixon and Bud Wilkinson will lead a US Senate Committee investigation into FBI activities in regards to domestic surveillance policies… In related news, Helen Gandy, J. Edgar Hoover’s personal secretary, has agreed to testify in Washington D.C. later this month over allegedly misfiled or missing FBI documents…

– CBS News, 2/4/1970



REP. WLBUR MILLS WILL STEP DOWN FROM COMMITTEE ASSIGNS, BUT WILL STAY IN OFFICE AND RUN FOR RE-ELECTION

– The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2/6/1970



EQUAL PAY ACT ENFORCES LBJ’S 1964 ACT

– The Washington Post, 2/11/1970



Capitol Hill breathed a sigh of relief after passing another Equal Pay law, believing it would placate “the radicalized wives” as former Congressman Bruce Alger (R-TX) called them. As such, The Colonel increased his campaign to pass the F.A.D., and even was willing to agree supporting congressional leaders and committee members on legislation of their own in exchange for them gathering up the needed votes. Colonel would personally meet with other Congressmen to convince them “your constituents will thank you in November.”

Unfortunately, the political world was still feeling the effects of Ms. Arkansas, with another Congressman feeling the heat just a week after signing for the 1970 Equal Pay Act. Many politicians blamed their headaches on the Colonel, but even more pointed their fingers at Reverend King.

On February 8, the Colonel struck a deal – in exchange for withdrawing the King-backed F.A.D. proposal, Congress would pass the Milton Friedman-backed Negative Income Tax Rebate introduced late last year.

– Coya Knutson’s Coya’s Story: A Life in Legislation, Simon & Schuster Incorporated, 1991



Bob final started working for Bill Alexander in 1970. An admirer of the man who supported “capturing dreams and putting them on canvas,” Ross was paid to promote Alexander’s classes in Alaska. The classes, where Bob amazed onlookers with his ability to turn a blank canvas into a beautiful nature seen in an impressively short lapse of time, sold out, and soon caught the attention of others talented artists in the lower 48.
mnIzW6I.png

[pic: imgur.com/mnIzW6I.png ]
Above: Bob in the late 1960s/early 1970s

– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014



By the start of the ’70s, Cesar Chavez had become a big name among the Mexican-American community... At the start of the decade, I finally got to understand the phrase “out of sight, out of mind.” I was still with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, you know, before the band split up, and we went to play this gig in El Paso – we flew in, and were driven directly to the hotel. We didn’t see the poor side of town until after the gig. When we went out late that night, I saw a completely different city. The place looked like s#!t, and the people even worse. I had split from the group to follow a local man to what he said was the best bar in the Mexican part of town. But I’ve been to better bars, places where everyone was not there to try and hide their misery. People where not everyone’s in a depressing situation – starving kids, poor health, high rent, low pay. It was almost overwhelming, and when one patron chided me having it good, he kinda made me feel guilty that I wasn’t going more to help out my fellow Mexican-Americans. So, yeah, that trip really had an effect on me, learning about how f@#ked-up things were for the local farmers and s#!t – it’s actually what got me started in the Mexican Rights movement!

– Richard “Cheech” Marin, KNN interview, 2012



…Ian Paisley, the Anti-Catholic firebrand dousing the flames of rebellion since the middle of the 1960s, was killed during a police raid late last night….Paisley objected to negotiations and compromise on the British side of the Northern Ireland debate, and opposed the government of Ireland intervening in the allegedly local concern as well. Analysts fear repercussions will feature, quote, vengeance attacks, unquote, which could spell additional trouble for negotiators. Others, though, point to how support for Paisley has waned considerably in recent years, and the end of his objections could actually ease negotiations...

– BBC News, 2/15/1970



“All I ever disposed of was files and documentation of a personal nature – the Director’s doctor appointment, private journal entries, correspondences with friends and relatives – and nothing concerning the FBI at all.”

– Helen Gandy, in testimony on the US Senate floor, 2/22/1970



…earlier today, a nonviolent protest of American activities in Cambodia turned violent in Cleveland, Ohio. Famous draft dodger, radical pacifist, and dovenik David T. Dellinger was initially leading the protest outside an Army recruitment center before local police and more incendiary activists converged on the scene, culminating in Dellinger, two student activists, and one police officer being sent to a local hospital for injuries. Several protests have been arrested on rioting charges…

– CBS News, 2/22/1970



CAMBODIAN BUILDUP DEVELOPMENT: UK, Italy, Australia to Send Advisors As Well

– The New York Times, 2/23/1970



Equal Rights Amendment Introduced in Congress – for the 49th time

The New York Times, 2/25/1970



VIRGINIA JOAN BENNETT KENNEDY

Ted Kennedy and Joan Kennedy celebrate the birth of their fifth child, Virginia Joan Bennett Kennedy. Virginia joins a large family, complete with four older siblings: Kara Anne (b. 1960), Edward Moore “Ted” Jr. (b. 1961), Harold Wiggin (b. 1964), and Patrick Joseph II (b. 1967).

The Sacramento Union, Celebrations section, 3/1/1970



ZIEGLER QUITS OVER FATIGUE: Press Secretary Blames Press For Being “Run Ragged”

– The Washington Post, 3/2/1970



On March 4, 1970, the Colonel called for congress to review the Scranton Committee’s review of America’s health and weight issues…

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



New Research Study Results: President Sanders Is The “Most-Traveled” Of All US Presidents

…The Colonel has travelled to all 50 states, and to 17 countries across four continents throughout his life. During his presidency so far, though, the Colonel has visited 12 countries on three continents and has traveled to 28 states...

– The Washington Post, 3/9/1970



“I understand that Colonel likes to travel a lot. But seeing as how he’s still the President, the man has to stop travelling and get back to work already!”

– Governor Bob Casey, 3/10/1970



SANDERS BACK IN D.C.: In Light Of Recent Criticisms, Sanders Meets With Senate Leaders For Multi-Topic Talks

– The Washington Post, 3/11/1970



WHITE HOUSE APPOINTMENTS SECRETARY LIDDY HANFORD PICKED FOR PRESS SECRETARY

…analysts on both sides of the aisle have deemed the selection “a misstep” and a “desperate attempt to placate accusations of sexism”...

The New York Times, 3/12/1970



14 March 1970: On this day in history, Diana Ross and The Supreme performed at the White House, playing their three biggest hits for President Colonel Sanders and First Lady Claudia Sanders.

– onthisday.co.uk



N.I.T.R. QUICKLY PASSES HOUSE!

– The Washington Post, 3/15/1970



0ZmNnzU.png

[pic: imgur.com/0ZmNnzU.png ]

– KFC Australia advertisement, The Australian Women's Weekly, 3/19/1970 issue; the ad was part of a campaign to maintain The Colonel's approval among female customers in light of the Ms. Arkansas Scandal



ANCHOR: The “workplace pestering” scandals affecting American politics have found their way into Canada, as the nation to the north is reeling from a stunning expose on “maternity homes.” Here is our special report:

[FOOTAGE PLAYS]

NARRATOR: Their stories seem entirely out of place in the modern world: pregnant women shuttered away, violently restrained during childbirth, banned from looking at their babies – and, finally, coerced by social workers into signing adoption papers. This is the scene found in maternity homes across Canada, where unmarried and largely non-consenting Canadian women are sent to give birth in relative secrecy. Canada’s adoption policies has led to hundreds if not thousands of unwed mothers being forced to give up their babies for adoption, a policy that has been common practice in Canada since 1945. The revelation comes on the heel of the “Scoop of the Sixties,” which revealed that the Canadian government has a program that separates thousands of indigenous children from their families and put them up for adoption by non-indigenous parents.

QUEBECOIS MAN INTERVIEWED: Quebec stands in solidarity with our Indigenous brethren whom share our resentment at the Canadian government’s oppressive policies…

NARRATOR: Canada’s fresh new Prime Minister, Robert Stanfield, has vowed to end the policies, which fall under provincial and territorial jurisdiction but are funded through federal assistance grants.

STANFIELD IN SPEECH: The situation must be reassessed; this sort of thing has no place in modern Canadian society.

NARRATOR: The Canadian people, though, seem to be more divided on the subject than is the Stanfield government:

YOUNG WOMAN INTERVIEWED: It’s atrocious to punish someone for a lapse in judgement.

ELDERLY WOMAN INTERVIEWED: If you split your legs without a wedding ring, you need to be made an example of. I don’t see the problem here – it supports young ladies upholding a sense of moral decency, and being held responsible for their actions.

NARRATOR: An estimated 95 percent of women who give birth at maternity homes are convinced into giving their children up for adoption, and statistical data record over 500,000 births in Canada since 1945 as being “illegitimate.”

MIDDLE-AGED MAN: These homes make these hussies marriageable. So what’s the problem?

MATURE WOMAN INTERVIEWED: I went to one of them in 1963. They abuse you in these places – they control your movements, make you use a fake first and last name, and you’re allowed no contact with the outside world at all. I felt like a nonentity. Shame and sadness were constant companions. After I gave birth to my child and they took him or her away from me, I was told I would eventually get married and forget my baby. How does a mother forget her baby?

NARRATOR: The expose claims doctors would forcible strap women to beds, overmedicate them, and even refuse to tell the mother whether they had given birth to a boy or a girl before the child was taken away from them. And the Canadian government, seeing the fallout of the Ms. Arkansas scandal, is responding to the revelation with considerate swiftness:

STANFIELD IN SPEECH: An apology or an excuse won’t do; I am hereby calling for several officials to be investigated, and my ministers are looking at the situation from all angles to determine the best way to rectify this situation.

MATURE WOMAN INTERVIEWED: Stanfield can start by asking women what women want to do with their babies. Husband or no husband, the bond between mother and child is sacred, and any attempt to severe that bond is unforgivable.

– CBS News Special Report “Canada In Crisis: The Maternity Homes Controversy,” 3/20/1970 [4]



SENATE APPROVES OF N.I.T.R. BILL WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION, 52-47-1

– The Boston Globe, 3/22/1970



SENATE COMMITTEE ENDS PROBE: Sanders Cleared!

…the report found no evidence of any wrongdoing in the 1952 incident between Sanders and the wife of a would-be franchisee…

The Paducah Sun, 3/23/1970



COLONEL SIGNS N.I.T.R. BILL INTO LAW

…The ceremony marks the culmination of over a year of Treasury Secretary Milton Friedman’s plan to “keeping everyone above the poverty line”… The ceremony is bittersweet for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., as it was the shadow of accusations still lingering over the man’s head that caused congress to reject the FAD proposal, a work of anti-poverty that King had worked on for roughly five years…

– The Wall Street Journal, 3/24/1970



The Marathon
(1970)

Directed by: David Lowell Rich
Produced by: Ron Roth
Written by: Robert L. Joseph (teleplay) and Guardon Trueblood (story)

Starring: Sean Connery, Leslie Nielsen, Susan Strasberg, Barbara Anderson, David Tomlinson, Clarence Williams III, Burgess Meredith, George Maharis, Tina Louise, George Chakiris

Music by: John Cacavas
Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Edited by: Pembroke J. Herring

Production company: ABC Circle Films
Distributed by: American Broadcasting Company

Release date: March 25, 1970 (TV broadcast premiere)
Running time: 89 minutes

Country: United States
Language: English

The Marathon (distributed in Greece as Marathon: The Stylianos Kyriakides Story) is a 1970 film about the 1946 Boston Marathon winner Stylianos “Stelios” Kyriakides (1910-1987), who ran to raise money to provide food and shelter to Greeks experiencing severe poverty at the time.

Plot

Plot centers on the race and the events leading up to it, and on Kyriakides’ life before, during, and after WWII.

Born prematurely to a poor farming family in a mountainous village in Paphos, Cyprus, Kyriakides (Connery) worked various odd jobs before becoming an assistant to Dr. Cheverton (Tomlinson), a British medical officer on the island. Noticing his athletic potential, Dr. Cheverton became a running coach for the young Kyriakides, leading to him running in the Pan-Cyprian Games of 1932. His success there led to him going national.

A few years later, Kyriakides competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics, placing eleventh and briefly meeting Jesse Owens (Williams). Then, he is invited to run in the Boston Marathon in 1939; there, he meets Johnny Kelley (Nielsen), who has run in the marathon before but has never won it. On the race of the marathon, Kyriakides makes the mistake of wearing new shoes to it, and he injures his feet enough for him to withdraw from the race, albeit not before swearing, “Someday, I’m going to come back and win this race.”

In a sharp cut to 1942, Kyriakides has joined the Greek Resistance during the German occupation of Greece. He is captured by Nazis but manages to escape execution by running into a wooded area. Returning from the front lines in 1944, he is shocked by the extent of food shortages and is concerned about the rising hostilities between pro-US and pro-Soviet war veterans. By the end of 1945, Greece has devolved into Civil War, and Kyriakides sells all his furniture to pay for traveling to Boston for the 1946 Boston Marathon.

Ahead of the race, he interacts with the other runners; Kyriakides is noticeably emaciated from the lack of food in war-ravaged Greece, leading to doctors considering preventing him from running over concern he would die during the race. One of the runners is Johnny Kelley, who still has not won first place. During the race, Kelley is consistently ahead of Kyriakides, but the two of them are in first and second place, respectively, near the finish line. Kyriakides is exhausted, but when it looks like he will lose, he hears an elderly Greek man he met before shout out “For Greece, for your children!” and it inspires him enough to run past Kelley just in time to win, shouting “For Greece” as he crosses the finish line. He sets a new time record, and is only the third person to not be from either the US or Canada to come in first place.

In subsequent media appearances, he consistently pleads for Americans to send help to Greece, describing the food shortage and poverty brought on by years of warfare and famine. Almost a month later, Kyriakides arrives in Athens to a cheering crowd of over a million Greeks; he returns to Greece with $250,000 in cash, on a large boat revealed to be carrying 25,000 tons of supplies (food, clothing, medicine and other essentials, all donated by caring Americans). A formal ceremony honoring him is held at the Temple of Zeus, marking the first time since the Nazi Occupation that the Acropolis has been illuminated. Kyriakides gives a stirring speech on patriotism and humanitarianism, declaring “I am proud to be Greek,” which moves the crowd.

The closing title cards mention that a year later, the US government sent $400,000 dollars to Greece via The Marshall Plan. They also mentioned that Kyriakides passed away at the age of 77 – the same number that was on his shirt when he won the Boston Marathon.

Reception

The film initially received lukewarm reviews and a modest box office success in the US. However, it was wildly popular in Greece upon in airing on Greek TV in 1971 along with being very popular among the Greco-American community; this led to ABC making roughly $35million between 1991 and 2001 after its release on home video (LD in 1991 and Micro-LD in 1997). Kyriakides himself, having sold the film rights to his life story to the studio in 1965, was partially involved in the film’s production; he did not have any final say over any aspects of film, but was allowed to participate in meetings, and provide details and offer suggestions and advice to the film’s writers. Kyriakides praised the film in a 1971 interview, saying “most of it is 90% accurate.”

The film is now considered a cult classic. More recent analyses have led to American critics praising the film’s camerawork, editing, and its message of perseverance and dedication to universal brotherhood. Other critics, on the other hand, remain critical of its more “jingoistic” celebrations of both the US and Greece.

A remake of the film was released in 2009, starring David Krumholtz as Kyriakides. It was notably more historically inaccurate (for example, Kyriakides never met Harry Truman nor ever spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate), received negative reviews overall from critics and lukewarm responses from audiences, and financially broke even.

– clickopedia.co.usa



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[pic: imgur.com/40fqpVB.png ]

– Marathon runner Stylianos Kyriakides in real life (left) and actor Sean Connery, who portrayed Kyriakides in a 1970 biopic film (right)



Leslie, Suze and Pat finally drove into L.A. on March 30, giving them roughly two weeks to prepare…

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



M.L.K. ASSAULT CHARGES DROPPED DUE TO INSUFFICENT EVIDENCE

– The Baltimore Sun, 3/30/1970



…Paul Martin Sr. has defeated opposition leader and former Prime Minister Paul Hellyer in tonight’s national Liberal Party leadership election…

– CBC TV, 4/4/1970 news broadcast



…The Apollo 14 mission of April 11-17 [1970] had some trouble on the return trip, but it was largely unnoticed because of how quickly it was resolved…

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



I realized at an early age that humanity’s future rested in its ability to harness space and the computer. I realized at a slightly older age how awesome drugs can be. After that, I thought of how cool it would be to smoke pot in space. This is the story of how I finally got to do that not too many years ago.

[snip]

I started working as a programmer for NASA’s Institute for Space Studies in New York City in 1968 [5], then managed to get a job running numbers at Mission control center in Houston, Texas a little over a year after that. Around the office I was known as “the wild guy,” the flashy extroverted showoff. I made sure of it. I got under people’s skin like how only a man destined for greatness or an epidermal infection can, but the bosses kept me around because nobody could do the math like I could. I was instrumental in keeping Apollo 14 from blowing up. But nobody noticed. In my opinion, it got overshadowed by that terrible shit that went down in Los Angeles that same week.

– John McAfee’s autobiography Outer Space Deserves More Iguanas: My Life Being Me, numerous on-net publication sites, 2022



The Forum, the multi-purpose arena in Inglewood, next Los Angeles, has a holding capacity of 17,500 people, and on April 13, 1970, the site was packed full of American fans screaming in adoration for the Beatles perform live before their very eyes. The night marked the end of their American tour. Shortly after the four made the final curtain call, once John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney had returned to their more private accommodations, a fight broke out among the band mates. John accused Paul of being uncooperative, and of trying to “hogging up all the attention on stage.” This spat led to Ringo accusing George of looking down on him. Epstein failed to mediate, and sat back down in his seat. The four-way verbal exchanges escalated to the point that none of the men noticed the presence of three alleged groupies until a loud thud-like sound came from of Epstein’s location.

The Beatles all exclaimed when they saw Epstein face-down on the floor. Ringo rushed over, lifted Epstein’s shoulder, and exclaimed again, but with time with horror, upon seeing that their beloved manager’s neck had been sliced open, the wounded deep and almost-instantly fatal. Each of the three alleged groupies – Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins – promptly dew out a gun. All four of the Beatles put their hands up, save for Ringo, still squatting down on the floor next to Epstein.

“We’re here to do the Devil’s work,” Krenwinkel declared.

“This place has got to get better security. And we've got to get better bouncers,” Ringo quietly noted to himself.

The women tied up John first in a manner similar to how they had disposed of the security guards. Krenwinkel explained to the lead singer, “we’re saving you for the end.” Then Atkins tried to kick Ringo into standing up and away from the manager’s corpse. When that didn’t work, Atkins ran over to him, picked up Paul’s guitar, and smashed it over Ringo’s head. The musical instruments knocked him out cold.

Atkins then put away her gun and brandished a knife, the look of merciless bloodlust in her eyes.

At that moment, with Krenwinkel and Atkins distracted, Paul glanced over to George, whom nodded back with a very slight flinch of his head. The two man suddenly rushed the assailants; Paul lunged onto Van Houten as George grabbed a nearby lamp. One good knock on the head deserves another, and Atkins soon found herself in an unconscious state. George quickly proceeded to tackle Krenwinkel, whom struggled to pull out her gun. George finally managed to punch her out cold with his good fist.

For a moment, George breathed. And in that silence he realized Paul was still trying to subdue Van Houten. George stood and began to come closer when Van Houten’s gun finally went off.

Paul and Van Houten stopped fighting, the former having smacked her head on the table edge. George paused before inspecting a sudden tinkling feeling under his left armpit. “Whew, just a scratch,” he observed.

“No,” Paul stood up, “It wasn’t” and turned to George. The bullet fired had only hit George after passing through Paul.

With a roll of his eyes, Paul fainted, leaving George to unite John. The two proceeded to call out for help. Soon enough an employee of The Forum arrived and with assistants carried Paul out into the hallway.

And as that drama continued to unfold, the three would-be assassins recovered from their momentary involuntary naps, and fled. It is most likely that they escaped out down the back stairwell just moments before Forum Security arrived on the floor to secure the area.

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



On route to hospital, shock and severe blood loss led to McCartney slipping into a coma [71] …Papers such as The Daily Mail initially reported headlines such as “Paul is Dead!: Beatles Bandmate Slain In Attack!” [77] upon learning that McCartney had entered L.A.’s Good Samaritan Hospital “unconscious” [78] and “unresponsive” [79]… The Forum was severely criticized for its security...

– clickopedia.co.uk/Paul_McCartney



My head was overrun with emotions, going mad waiting in the waiting room. So I started scribbling down some ideas on some of the napkins near the coffee. It wrote very angrily. After leaving hospital, I showed Ringo and George what I’d jotted down. It was a way to do something, anything, to address what had happened. The three of us workshopped it and recorded early drafts of what became the basis for “War Against Death.” It’s one of our most aggressive songs, full of the raw instincts that I suppose one would typically feel after witnessing a close friend getting shot it a coma.

– John Lennon, 2008 interview



It was now the 25th. After twelve days in a coma, the doctors were losing faith. But not Paul’s bandmates. If anything, John, George and Ringo were increasingly determined to rectify the situation. With nothing left to lose, George started performing a piece of Paul’s favorite song, “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys, at his bedside. “I was hoping he would hear it,” George later explained in a 1971 interview. John soon came over with Ringo, and put on a private show for the man in the coma. Suddenly, as the song reached its peak, Paul’s eyes twitched, followed by detectable movement in the rest of his face. By the time the three mates had reached the song’s end, Paul McCartney had regained consciousness.

“What happened?” was the first thing the patient said.

“You fell asleep on us,” John joked.

“So you lot went and joined the Beach Boys, or are we into plagiarism now?” Paul responded quietly and hoarsely, and soon received some water.

“How long was I out?”

“John here wrote a song,” George answered.

“Two months?”

“Two weeks, mate,” Ringo explained.

“Did I miss anything?”

“Um…Earth Day.” Again, George answered.

“What’s that?”

John replied, “Some new holiday, I’m not sure who invented it – either shoutniks, or companies wanting to make money from shoutniks. Good cause either way, I suppose.”

“Do I really need to hear politics so soon out of a coma?” Paul replied.

“I got shot, too,” George showed Paul his scratch.

“Shot?!” Suddenly remembering how he had ended up in a coma in the first place, he threw a punch into his leg. “Oh, good, that hurt.”

“I could’ve done that for you, Paul,” stated John.

“That’s alright.”

“Well it’d have been no problem, is all, for me.”

The kidded around, but after George and Ringo left, their talk became more sincere.

“It’s my fault you’re here, Paul. If I hadn’t started the fight –”

“No, you were right, John. We are a team. It’s time we went back to being equals.”

John quickly went out the room and soon returned with a pen and a napkin. He crudely drew a hatchet, and said to Paul, “when you get out of here, we’ll bury this somewhere.”

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



On April 27, McCartney made his first public appearance since the attempt on his life, allowing vetted journalists to enter his hospital room to take photographs and film footage to ensure their fans that he was in fact recovering [83]. The appearance debunked rumors that he had died [84], but rumors swearing that “Paul is Dead” still persisted [85], and even can be found on-net today [86].

– clickopedia.co.uk/Paul_McCartney



POLICE CHIEF (IN FILM CLIP): …We are aware of how many people want these heinous assailants to be found, but we must stress that attempts at vigilante justice and flooding our phone lines with false reports will only inhibit our ability to do our job. As a result, we will not be increasing the reward money for information on the assailants. Furthermore, anyone calling in with false information will be tracked down and, if proven to be the prank caller, will be arrested for inhibiting an international investigation.

ANCHOR: Police hope this will cease the barrage of fake callers...

– BBC Special Report, 4/30/1970



Kentucky State Court Rejects Lawsuit Concerning 1952 Anti-Colonel Allegations

– Chicago Tribune, 5/3/1970



IOC Session No. 69
Date: May 12, 1970
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Subject 1 of 2: bidding for hosting the 7/17/1976-8/1/1976 (or XXI) Summer Olympics
Results:
Los Angeles, U.S.A. – 24 (Round 1) – 29 (Round 2) – 39 (Round 3)
Moscow, U.S.S.R. – 21 (Round 1) – 25 (Round 2) – 32 (Round 3)
Montreal, Canada – 16 (Round 1) – 17 (Round 2)
Toronto, Canada – 10 (Round 1)
End Result: Los Angeles won on the third round

Subject 2 of 2: bidding for hosting 2/4-15/1976 (or XII) Winter Olympics
Results:
Ryazan, U.S.S.R. – 17 (Round1) – 19 (Round 2) – 25 (Round 3) – 37 (Round 4)
Denver, U.S.A. – 18 (Round 1) – 20 (Round 2) – 24 (Round 3) – 34 (Round 4)
Innsbruck, Austria – 16 (Round 1) – 18 (Round 2) – 22 (Round 3)
Sion, Switzerland – 15 (Round 1) – 16 (Round 2)
Tampere, Finland – 3 (Round 1)
Vancouver-Garibaldi, Canada – 2 (Round 1)
End Result: Ryazan won on the fourth round

www.aldaver.co.usa/votes.html



L.A. TO HOST OLYMPICS IN ’76: Will Be The First Olympics Held In The US Since 1932

…credit must go to California’s Governor, Pat Brown, who pursued an active campaign to bring the games to his state…

– The New York Times, 5/12/1970



TONIGHT’S PRIMARY RESULTS: GOP BACKS HRUSKA AGAIN, DEMOCRATS PICK NEOPHYTE TED SORENSEN WIN GOP, DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES

…In his first bid for public office, Ted Sorensen won the Democratic nomination by a 7% margin. Sorensen, a 42-year-old practicing lawyer in his birth town of Lincoln, worked on the 1960 and 1968 Presidential campaigns of Jack Kennedy, and served as that politician’s chief aide, advisor, and speechwriter from 1953 to 1968. Sorensen, who is also the older brother of former Lieutenant Governor Philip C. Sorensen, will face off against the vulnerable and gaffe-prone incumbent Senator Roman Hruska in November…

– Nebraska City News-Press, 5/12/1970



“Cambodia will not become another Cuba”

– Colonel Sanders, 5/13/1970



ZakOW2v.png

[pic: imgur.com/ZakOW2v.png ]
– President Colonel Sanders and First Lady Claudia Sanders visit an elementary school to inspect the progress made one year after the increasing of federal school funding, while a Secret Serviceman (far left) patrols the area; 5/17/1970



ANCHOR: …Tonight’s top story is the growing debate in Washington D.C. over a proposed Constitutional Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, that would, in theory, ensure women and men be treated as equals. President Sanders, who has recently announced his support for the E.R.A. movement, is now butting heads with conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. Schlafly, the author of the 1965 best-selling novel A Choice, Not An Echo, is a candidate for Illinois’ 23rd Congressional district this year, and has openly accused the President of being a “L.I.D.,” or “Liberal In Disguise.”

SCHLAFLY (IN AUDIO CLIP): The Colonel does not stand for American tradition or values. The ERA would take away gender-specific privileges like the kind that help widows and mothers, and would eliminate separate restrooms for men and women. I am running as a real Republican to protect American women.

ANCHOR: …Yesterday, President Sanders finally told one of our correspondents his thoughts on the matter.

SANDERS (IN FILM CLIP): If a woman’s place was in the home, they’d be born wearing aprons. Women are not born wearing aprons because they can be anything the set out to be, and the ERA would ensue them their God-given right to try and do just that.

ANCHOR: …More of his fellow Republicans, however, remain critical of Sanders’ honesty, such as Michigan gubernatorial candidate William Millikan, who was reported to have said earlier today, quote, “I think he’s supporting the E.R.A. to make up for the sexism accusations,” end quote. Although the E.R.A. has been introduced in every congressional session since 1921, this time it seems to have a real chance of passing through committee and proceeding on to the floor of the House...

– NBC News, 5/20/1970 broadcast



A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEXUAL PESTERING IN AMERICA BEFORE MS. ARKANSAS

For most of American history, women silently endured mistreatment in the workplace, with little protection or recourse. During the 18th and 19th centuries, sexual coercion was a fact of life for female slaves in the South, as well as a common experience among free domestic workers in the North. In the early 20th century, women employed in new manufacturing and clerical positions confronted physical and verbal assaults from male supervisors. Union leadership was successful in enacting protective legislation that shielded women from performing physically demanding labor, but not from the propositions of lecherous bosses. By the 1920s, working women were advised to simply quit their jobs if they could not handle the inevitable sexual advances. For decades, there were few significant changes in the ways women were treated at work. Those who complained discovered that sexually predatory behavior on the job was dismissed as trivial and harmless. Women rarely talked openly about the issue, although the situation only became more pressing as their participation in the workforce increased throughout the 1960s. The turning point finally came at the dawn of the 1970s, as the women’s liberation movement began to challenge a justice system – as well as a culture at large – that failed to recognize women’s consent, spurred on by a series of politicians fell from grace in the wake of a wave of scandals regarding women in the workplace. The campaign against sexual pestering was the natural extension of the grassroots anti-rape and anti-battering movements, which grew out of consciousness-raising sessions in which women shared personal stories and realized they were not alone in their experiences. Secretaries, mailroom clerks, filmmakers, factory workers and waitresses shared their stories. Women spoke of masturbatory displays, threats and pressure to trade sexual favors for promotions.
[snip]
The phrase ‘sexual pestering’ was coined in January 1970… …A May 1970 survey by “Redbook” showed that almost 75% of respondents had encountered sexual pestering on the job.
[snip]
“Antifeminist crusader” Phyllis Schlafly believed these women were “asking for it.” At a May 1970 Senate committee called to review federal guidelines on workplace impropriety, Schlafly testified that “virtuous women are seldom accosted.”
[snip]
Catharine MacKinnon helped develop key legal theory by naming and distinguishing two types of sexual pestering – those which produce a “hostile working environment” for women, and the “quid pro quo” type wherein career opportunities are offered in exchange for sex.

Time Magazine article, 1987 issue [6]



Sunday, 31 May 1970: On this day in history, the Great Peruvian earthquake struck off the coast of the South American nation of Peru. Measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, the tremor triggered a landslide on the north peak of Huascaran Mountain, resulting in a “Debris avalanche” burying the towns of Yungay, Ranrahirca, and ten nearby villages. The mountain range had been considered unstable since 1962, yet provincial governments downplayed the danger to minimize the number of people moving away to safer areas. As a result, between 66,000 and 69,000 people were killed in the most catastrophic natural disaster in the history of Peru.

– onthisday.co.uk



…In tonight’s primary elections for the governorship, Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh won the Democratic nomination with 70% of the vote, with activist Florence Douglas coming in second place, and former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty coming in third. In the Republican column, US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ronald Reagan won the nomination over retiring state Superintendent of Public Instruction Max Rafferty by narrow margin, with our former Mayor, the moderate George Christopher, coming in third place, and moderate businessman William Penn Patrick and moderate activist Warren N. Dorn coming in fourth and fifth place, respectively…

– KFRC-FM, San Francisco-based radio station, 6/2/1970 broadcast



HAYDEN WINS SENATE NOMINATION

…the progressive 30-year-old anti-war political activist Thomas “Tom” Hayden has been declared the winner of last night’s race for the Democratic nomination for California’s Class 1 US Senate seat. Hayden’s victory of a plurality of the vote comes after a recount that resulted in his closest challenger, US Rep. John V. Tunney, losing by a margin of just 0.91%. The other candidates that were in the race for the nomination were Eileen Anderson, Arthur S. Bell Jr., Leonard Kurland, and Louis Di Salvo…

…In the fall, Hayden with face off against incumbent US Senator and former US Vice President Richard Nixon (R). The uncertainty of how well he will fare against the incumbent matches the uncertainty concerning the performances of two other candidates that will be on Californians’ November ballots. Both are the nominees of two minor parties – Charles C. Ripley of the far-right Heritage and Independence Party, and Robert Scheer of the far-left Natural Mind party…

The Sacramento Union, California newspaper, 6/3/1970



…The woman’s rights movement is catching some wind in its sails lately, and in France, the wind is reaching Hurricane levels amid city officials in Paris and Nice being called out for committing what is being called workplace pestering, the creating of a work environment that is uncomfortable to workers, particularly female workers, due to senior or superior coworker or employees performing unwanted and unsolicited acts. advances or actions of a sexual nature. President Mitterrand has yet to comment on these latest complaints, but is expect to do so very shortly…

– BBC World News, 6/6/1970 broadcast



…the anti-surveillance Nixon-Wilkinson Committee described their findings as surprising, but much of the committee’s official report will remain classified over nationwide security concerns...

– CBS News, 6/7/1970



“‘Failure’ is just a word for ‘a longer pathway to your destiny’. Never give just because the road to greatness is tougher than you thought it’d be – that’ll just make it more impressive when you make it. And it’ll make your life story all the more interesting, too.”

– Colonel Sanders, commencement speaker for Texas A&M University’s graduating class of 1970, 6/12/1970



crwyUZB.png

[pic: imgur.com/crwyUZB.png ]
– Colonel Sanders listening to a guide while visiting the ruins of the Ancient Agora of Athens during a diplomatic trip to Greece, 6/19/1970



DONALD TRUMP & BETTY LOU RAY

Donald Trump and Betty Lou Ray became man and wife at Marble Collegiate Church on the 20th… Trump, Queens native, is an outfielder for the New York Yankees… Ray, originally from Marshall, North Carolina, worked as a stewardess before moving to N.Y.C. in 1968 to become a weather girl for local station…

The Queens Ledger, weekly NYC newspaper, Celebrations section, 6/22-28/1970 issue



“We women are going to take our voices to the polls in November, and we are going to usher in a new era of change and progress in Washington DC and in all fifty states of the United States of America!”

– Congressional candidate Trudy Cooper, 6/27/1970



“Honest! I did not expect an entire movement of sorts to rise from it.”

– Ms. Arkansas, 1979 KNN interview



...In late June, the combined efforts of the CIA, MI6, and INTERPOL confirmed that the assailants of the Beatles were followers of Manson. On June 30, the CIA conducted a raid on the family’s desert compound, during which they apprehended the only two members present, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, both of whom were burning materials and coating the compound with gasoline when the raid commenced. Both attempted to stab the arresting officers with kitchen knives before being subdued.

Both women confessed to their roles in the attempt on the lives of the Beatles, but were adamant in protecting their leader. They claimed that the third woman seen fleeing the hotel, Susan Atkins, had died from the injuries she received when George Harrison had smashed a lamp on her head, sending sharp flakes and pieces into her scalp and face. The subsequent discovery and examination of Atkins’s body, however, proved she had ingested cyanide shortly after the failed attempt on the Beatles’ lives.

Through controversial interrogation methods, the CIA also discovered through them that Manson and the rest of his followers had fled the country, and that Van Houten and Krenwinkel had volunteered to stay behind to “handle the pigs at home” and destroy any possible evidence of Manson’s destination.

However, at the compound, agents uncovered one clue that pointed law enforcement in the right direction – a half-burned photograph of Christ the Redeemer...

– clickopedia.co.usa/Charles_Manson



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized lines pulled directly from her OTL book and can also be found here: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/venessawong/the-real-colonel-sanders
[2] Act Three, “How To Do The Funky Chicken,” by Mark Schone, starting at the 35:40 mark. The woman in question apparently would say “Harland get your hands off me, I get all I need at home.” https://www.thisamericanlife.org/145/poultry-slam-1999. On the lighter side of things, though, the audio snippet also has interesting story on the Colonel’s non-racist acquaintanceship with a Black employee, starting at the 40:20 mark.
[3] Italicized part of the accusation is from OTL!: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/02/14/kentucky-fried
[4] ALL italicized parts (so, most of this “entry”) is from here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/07/20/thousands-of-canadian-mothers-were-forced-to-give-up-their-babies-some-were-told-to-get-a-puppy-instead/?utm_term=.e81ab534de1f
[5] OTL!, and ITTL, LBJ’s 1961-1965 budget increases for NASA leads to them needing more employees in Houston ahead of upcoming Apollo missions.
[6] ALL italicized parts (so, most of this “entry”) is from this Time Magazine article: “A Brief History of Sexual Harassment in America Before Anita Hill”: https://time.com/4286575/sexual-harassment-before-anita-hill/
 
Post 25
Post 25: Chapter 33

Chapter 33: July 1970 – December 1970

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

– R. Jackson Brown Jr.



“I’m not too sure about this new defense spending bill,” the Colonel told House Speaker Halleck. Introduced earlier in the year, the bill was making its way out of committee, and Senator Goldwater, Nixon, and Cotton were openly backing the legislation, as well as Secretaries Bonesteel and Curtis. The President noticed, “We were able to defeat the Viet Cong with less money, and we’re already taking what we learned dealin’ with them and the Pathet Lao and applying it to the Pol Pot lunatics. It just seems too excessive.” For the time being, the Colonel remained on the fence.

Meanwhile, after years of research (supported by Vice President Scranton), the Senate Committee reviewing the nation’s health and eating habits finally handed the Colonel their report on American health habits. The report suggested that Americans would greatly benefit from better eating habits (eating less fatty foods, watching consumption levels of carbohydrates, etc.) and more exercise (dancing, jogging, hiking, gym, sports competitions) in their daily routines. The Colonel was certain to publish the report’s findings and send an abridged copy of it to every cabinet member, Senator, and Representative.

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



Yeah, we also took a hit during the Arkansas Scandal. Eldridge X, who’d been in prison from ’58 to ’66, had become the second-in-command in Malcolm X-Men, but he got taken down by the Rape Wave when several white women accused him of raping them in the ’50s. At start I didn’t buy, but as more witnesses came forward and the pressure got it Eldridge, he fessed up to it. But instead of facing the merciless wrath of the pigs-in-blue, you know, he fled Mexico to avoid arrest. That was dumb; that killed all chances of denying it all, and it seriously hurt our organization because we were trying to expand from being supporters of Malcolm X to being supporters of our respective communities. Kind of like what The Colonel President was always talking about at the time – helping people be independent at the local level to help the state and in turn the country.

– Huey Newton, 2001 interview



I was confronted with the reaffirmation of my family’s health history when my father died from a heart attack in the summer of 1970. The immediate impact was the same as when my Mother had struggled with polio. So many locals helped us through difficult times. The church gave us food, and neighbors dropped in to help out Mom around the house. It demonstrated how important community support is, the church in particular. That’s an extended family, and to this day, those people, whether it’s some of our cousins that were there then or people in the church, you feel like that’s family. That’s always had an impact on me and has given me appreciation for the need we all need – you need that type of support that’s more than just the immediate family. [1]

– Jim Edgar’s 11/3/2009 speech on the costs of highways and healthcare



William Henry “Bill” Cosby Jr.
(July 12, 1937 – January 14, 2001) was an American actor, musician, and military physical therapist. Cosby was once a “rising star” in the world of American stand-up comedy, rising to the height of starring in his own TV series, the Bill Cosby Show, until a series of sexual
pestering charges ended his career in the entertainment industry.

[snip]

Cosby began his career as a stand-up comic in San Francisco in 1961. He then landed a starring role in the NBC television show “I Spy” in 1965, which was followed by his own NBC sitcom, “The Bill Cosby Show,” which began airing in 1969. [2] After the end of Season 1 in April 1970 but before the start of Season 2, set to air in September, Cosby was accused of sexual pestering.

Downfall

On July 12, 1970, Kristina Ruehli, at the time reporting the incident as a “Jane Doe,” encouraged by the “Ms. Arkansas” scandal and its watershed effects felt in the months afterward, came forward with her claim of being sexual pestered by Cosby. Later in the year, Ruehli testified that Cosby had drugged and possibly attempted to assault her after being invited to Cosby’s Beverly Hills home in December 1965, when she was the 22-year-old secretary at a Beverly Hills talent agency:

“Mr. Cosby poured me some bourbon. I can really hold my liquor. I’m Irish. And I had a couple of those – just two – and then I just don’t remember much. I have vague memories of someone walking next to me at the pool. Off the pool in one direction was a bedroom. Whether it was his bedroom or guest bedroom, I really don’t know, but I think it was not the master bedroom, because there really wasn’t much to it. And somehow, I wound up in that bed. Two bourbon-and-7s don’t knock me out cold, believe me. I can drink most men under the table. It was a standard eight-ounce glass, and they were not overly strong, or I would have noticed it. He must have drugged me. There is just one point at which I was having a drink and feeling normal and the next I was somehow passed out completely. He must have slipped something into my drink. When I woke up, it was all foggy, and I woke up in the bed. I found myself on the bed, and he had his shirt off. He had unzipped his pants. He was attempting to force me into oral sex. He had his hand on my head. I remember looking at his stomach hair. I immediately came to and was immediately very sick. I pushed myself away and ran to the bathroom and threw up. I never get sick like that from alcohol. Once I threw up and left the bathroom he wasn’t there. I don’t know where he went, but I left right away. … I don’t need money and I don’t want attention. I just want the truth to be known: Mr. Cosby is not the good guy that he’s protrayed to be.”

Ruehli additionally stated that she did not bring up the incident until early five years later because “I was embarrassed that I had put myself in that postion, because the woman always blames herself, right?” [3]

Ruehli’s detailed description of the interior of Cosby’s home gave credibility to her story, and in September 1970, another woman came forward with a similar story. Cosby denied both claim, and accused the first accuser of being a racist despite her race, and identity, not being disclosed until 1972.

Amid the accusations, The Bill Cosby Show lost its key sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, which wished to uphold a “clean” image in the wake of the Ms. Arkansas scandals, on September 29. After the October 4, 1970 airing of the show’s Season 2 Episode 4 “There Must Be a Party,” NBC cancelled The Bill Cosby Show. The remaining episodes were not released until 1992.

Post-Ms. Arkansas Years

After several more years of struggling to restore his reputation in Hollywood, especially after being accused of attempted rape in 1975, Cosby re-enlisted in the US Navy, and returned to working in physical therapy with injured Navy and Marine Corp personnel and veterans in his home state of Pennsylvania. This led to him working briefly in the United Services Organizations Inc., or U.S.O., where he attempted to resurrect his entertainment career, until a fourth sexual pestering accusation led to him being discharged from the military in 1991. At 54, Cosby and his still-faithful wife found themselves relying on the assistance of their adult children to get by financially. In 1992, Cosby sued NBC over the release of the remaining episodes of The Bill Cosby Show concerning royalties, but lost the lawsuit. By the middle of the 1990s, Cosby’s health was reported to be poor. He died in early 2001 from diabetes, age 63.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Bill_Cosby/disambiguation/Bill_Cosby_(1937-2001)



SANDERS SIGNS WATER AND AIR PROTECTION BILL INTO LAW

– The Washington Post, 7/17/1970



REPORT: The U.S. Fed. Gov.t Is Sending More Aid To Indochina Than Originally Thought

– The Wall Street Journal, 7/23/1970



“I think the Colonel being willing to send food to our former enemies in Vietnam is a clear example of just how soft on Communism our President really is.”

– US Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-WA) to reporters, 7/23/1970



“The Colonel is far too liberal for the party of Lincoln.”

– Max Rafferty, San Diego Union-Tribune Op-ed, 7/25/1970



After serving two years in the US Air Force, I finally took Tricia’s advice and tried out for the Houston Astros. …My Dad and Dad-in-law may know a thing or two about politics, but playing in the major leagues was where I outshined them.

– George W. Bush, 2011 interview



MILLIKEN WINS GOP NOMINATION

…moderate Lt. Gov. William G. Milliken defeated retiring conservative U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford by a 10% margin, with James C. Turner coming in at a distant third…

– The Detroit Free Press, 8/4/1970



The COLONEL’ DECISION: WILL VETO MILITARY SPENDING BILL IF IT REACHES HIS DESK

– The Washington Post, 8/5/1970



…A Hollywood giant has come under scrutiny as the wave caused by the Ms. Arkansas scandal continues to spread further into the world of entertainment. Earlier today, several women came forward in a class-action lawsuit with claims that Harry Cohn, the late co-founder and President of Columbia Pictures, committed acts of sexual pestering during his time as their employer. Cohn, who lived from 1891 to 1958, had a legendary autocratic and intimidating leadership style. The women launching the lawsuit claim Cohn often pressed to exchange sexual favors for film roles…

– NBC News, 8/9/1970 broadcast



“Harry Cohn tried to have his way with me after I had signed on to a three-picture contract with Columbia, but I stopped him at the start. I told him to keep it in his pants because I was set to have lunch with his wife and children the very next day.” [4]

– Joan Crawford, “exclusive” The Hollywood Reporter interview, 8/11/1970




CYPRUS-GREECE UNIFICATION TALKS BEARING FRUIT

…After months of negotiation between Greek, Cypriot and British leaders, the island nation of Cyprus will merge with Greece. The move will be made official at a document-signing ceremony held later this year. …There remains, however, much controversy concerning the population of Turks/Muslims on the island. While the Greek government claims they will offer to pay for relocating the Turks whom voluntarily want to move to Turkey, Prime Minister Lambrakis has sworn “We have learned from the brutal mistakes of the past. We will not have another 1922 fiasco on our hands,” referring to forced population exchange programs of the early 1920s…

– The Daily Telegraph, 8/12/1970



HAYWORTH JOINS WAVE OF ANTI-COHN VOICES DEMANDING COLUMBIA “CLEAN ITSELF UP”

…Rita Hayworth was a screen idol in the 1940s, a femme fatale actress best known for her roles in 1944’s Cover Girl and 1946’s Gilda. She joins Joan Crawford, 66, who won an Oscar in 1945 for her role in the MGM film Mildred Pierce and retired from acting earlier this year, in claiming to have experienced “sexual pestering” while under contract Columbia. Hayworth claims that Cohn was “outraged” when she refused to sleep with him and was only kept under contract due to her box office successes…

– The Los Angeles Times, 8/12/1970



Hollywood Has Always Been A “Dirty” Place

– George Murphy, The Sacramento Union, op-ed, 8/14/1970



On August 18, 1970, one-and-a-half years after the death of Clarence Sanders, Chaplain of the US Senate Frederick Brown Harris passed away at the age of 87. After 25 nonconsecutive years of loyal service, Sanders wanted him to a well-respected successor. As such, the Colonel offered the position to Billy Graham. Upon Graham’s declination, the office ultimately went to the then-63-year-old Rev. Edward Lee Roy Elson, a Presbyterian minister born in Ohio and educated in Kentucky’s Asbury College and the University of Southern California.

– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000



MARILYN MONROE SHARES HER STORIES: Confirms Hollywood Has A “Perverted Underbelly”

The Sacramento Union, 8/19/1970 extra (“exclusive interview special”)



“THE TIME FOR CHANGE IS NOW”: Griffiths Makes Her Case

…Martha Griffiths is visiting every county in the state to win over voters in her bid to become the first woman to serve as Governor of Michigan. Griffiths, who hails from western Ann Arbor, certainly has the political experience, as she has represented Michigan’s 17th U.S. Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1955, winning election in 1954 and winning re-election in 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966, and 1968. Additionally, she served as a delegate for Michigan at the 1956 and 1968 Democratic National Conventions. Before serving in the U.S. Congress, she was the first woman to serve as judge of the “Recorder’s Court” in Detroit, doing so from 1953 to 1954. …Griffiths is a moderate known for her “implacable determination,” for her encyclopedic understanding of procedural niceties and details, and for having a “tongue like a blacksmith's rasp” whenever an opponent tries and fails to attack her. …Only Zolton Ferency, the former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party and unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1966, plus two very minor candidates, challenged her in the Democratic primary held on August 4; Griffiths won that contest with almost 60% of the vote…

– The Grand Rapids Press, Michigan newspaper, 8/21/1970



IT’S HAMMOND BY A HAIR: Will Run For Governor On Oil-Based F.A.D. Proposal

Juneau, AK – With Governor Stepovich retiring, tonight’s open primary saw State Senator Jay Hammond win over Lieutenant Governor Keith Miller, businessman Wally Hickel, and former U.S. Congressman Howard Pollock for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. Concurrently, Gene Guess won over lesser-known candidates Larry Carr and James R. Russell for the Democratic nomination.

The main debate leading up to the primary was how the Last Frontier should handle the $900 million dollars in state revenue created by the state’s North Slope oil leases, after the massive oil field in Prudhoe Bay was discovered in early 1968. The windfall is seven times the state’s 1968 budget, and expected to increase in size next year. Lieutenant Governor Keith Miller was the first Republican candidate to publicly propose the millions to go into a state dividend. State Senator Hammond concurred, but expanded on it into the primary aspect of his campaign; a believer of fiscal responsibility, Hammond claims a state version of the national FAD would allow Alaskans to “make their own decisions.” Moderate businessman Wally Hickel, however, opposed the dividend, believing the government should hold onto it and use it for statewide development projects: “an individual alone can’t pay for Alaska’s badly-needed infrastructure projects such as paved roads, and built bridges and hospitals.” Pollock offered a compromise solution: 50% of the oil results going to the state’s Treasury department, and the rest into the hands of Alaskans.

Ultimately, however, Hammond ran an active and efficient campaign, and defeated Miller by a margin of 0.5%...

Anchorage Daily News, 8/25/1970



SENATE VOTES DOWN CONTROVERSIAL DEFENSE SPENDING TAX REFORM BILL, 52-48

– The Washington Post, 8/27/1970



THE WOMAN’S WAVE

Washington, D.C. – Margaret Heckler, a two-term Republican Congresswoman from Massachusetts’s 10th district and one of a handful of females currently serving in the U.S. Representatives, welcomes in those she calls her “potential co-workers.” Over twenty women are carefully arranged among the seats for the photo-op… Several female candidates are on the ballot this November… …Among these candidates one can find passionate activists, such as Democrat Bella Abzug, who is running for New York’s 19th District. However, many more of these candidates have impressive prior experience. Democrat Katherine Peden, who is running for Kentucky’s 3rd District, worked for the Johnson White House before serving as Kentucky’s Commissioner of Commerce from 1963 to 1967. Democrat Ella T. Grasso, who is running for Connecticut’s 6th District, has serves as her state’s Secretary of State since 1959. …Boston School Committee Chair Louise Day Hicks and state assemblywoman Millicent Fenwick seek to bring their experience and ideas to Washington at a time when the role of women in the workplace is a subject seemingly more sensitive than ever before…

– Tumbleweed Magazine, 8/30/1970 special issue



The September 4, 1970 Chilean Presidential election pitted 74-year-old independent candidate Jorge Alessandri, a controversial former President, against Salvador Allende of the Socialist Party, and Christian Democratic Party nominee, former Chile Senator and Chilean Ambassador to the US Radomiro Tomic, a progressive politician of Croatian descent.

Both the KGB and CIA poured money into Chile, making the election a bloodless proxy conflict of the Cold War. The CIA painted Allende as a man who would lead the country into an era of violence of repression. Additionally, under the Colonel’s order, the CIA directly supported Tomic’s candidacy due to his lack of controversy and his open praise of the US in recent years.

Out of 3.5 million votes cast, Tomic won by a plurality (and thus was confirmed by a Chile Congressional vote) of roughly 22,000 votes, with Allende coming in second place. Another failure for the Soviets.

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



‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT!’: THE COLONEL TURNS 80

Los Angeles (CA) – President Sanders’ birthday is not until Wednesday the 9th, but today he receives the greetings and offering of merry celebrations of reaching the milestone of his 80th birthday. The President is celebrating his birthday two days early to coincide with a political fundraiser attended by nearly 12,000 persons…

The Los Angeles Times, 9/7/1970



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[pic: imgur.com/TZQ6C50.png ]
"Sorry I couldn't find the plates and utensils, Mr. President."
"Aw, that's alright. We'll just use the napkins as flexible plates!"
"Anyone have something I can clean my hand with?"
"Use the tablecloth - we'll just use it as an oversized napkin!"

– President Sanders celebrates his 80th birthday with unidentified interns in a private party held at the White House, 9/9/1970



11 September 1970: On this day in history, Ford introduces the Pinto, a subcompact car; its three body styles will be manufactured and marketed in North America from 1971 to 1979; over 3million were produced over its nearly-8-year production run, outproducing the combined totals of its two biggest domestic rivals, the Vega (Chevrolet) and the Gremlin (AMC).

– onthisday.co.uk



MI6 finally tracked down Manson and his cohorts to a section of land 150 km (150 miles) outside of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Religious leader Jim Jones had established a Peoples’ Temple community there at his ranch, The Oasis, in 1967 and had since then converted roughly 500 locals to live on the ranch and engage in their groups’ practices and customs. Shortly before the attempted assassination of the Beatles, Jones traveled to Brazil. Upon learning of this by visiting a Peoples’ Temple in California, Manson and company followed via plane.

At the Oasis, Jones oversaw a “rainbow family” where devotion to Jones was more important than skin color. When Manson arrived, he was reportedly “shocked” by the Oasis, racial diversity, but upon seeing how loyal they were to Jones, quickly justified “Jim’s crayon box” to his curious followers by telling them “these are the good ones. The ones who have seen the light and will join us in our fight against those who oppose the rebirth of the world.”

Manson soon convinced Jones that he and his motley crew had arrived because “the end-times [were] upon [them].” This worried Jones; on September 3, privately called his wife (still in the states due to being eight months pregnant with their latest child) to warn her to hide in their California home’s bomb shelter until she could travel down to Brazil.

Brazil’s Justice Department complied with international law and issued arrest warrants for Manson and his followers. On the morning of September 11, Brazilian and INTERPOL agents were driving to the Oasis with the intention to bring the suspects in for questioning.

At 30 feet away from the compound’s border, the motorcade of police cars received a barrage of bullets...

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



It wasn’t long before their reinforcements arrived. After one of the garbled something in Spanish through a bullhorn, they fired a series of “warning shots,” setting a portion of the south wing’s roof on fire. ...Manson was adamant that we all would be protected by God His Father, and taunted the stuffed uniforms through Jones’ compound speaker, telling then “You’ll never take us alive!” From the main watch tower, both Manson and Jones perused the scene unfolding – more police cars, then trucks, then tanks and helicopters. Jones predicted the unfolding confrontation would end in a decisive Manson-Jones victory on “this glorious site… a war worthy of scripture”; Manson concurred. …Meanwhile, the fire spread to the rest of the south wing of the compound...

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



…Reports are coming in that some sort of incident involving police is unfolding in Brazil. Smoke can be seen rising from some sort of compound several miles outside of the city of Belo Horizonte. Local authorities have declined to yet comment…

– BBC World News, 9/11/1970 report



Rounds and rounds of bullets propelled through the windows and into the walls. As he contributed to the spectacular but woefully one-sided gunfight, Manson loudly proclaimed, “The Messiah will never surrender!”

“Indeed!” Jones agreed as he attached another magazine to his weapon.

Slowly the officers wore the two men and their tower assistants down, the exchange of gunfire going on well into the night. Jones was becoming exhausted from the climate and the vigil depriving him of lack of sleep. As the first streaks of dawn began to break, there were only a few magazines left in the tower.

As Manson used the binoculars, Jones sat down on the floor and finally looked around the room. The barrage of bullets had ripped so many of his items apart, that he slumped over and began to quietly cry.

Hearing the tar-shedding, Manson sat down next to him while one of his diehard guards continued monitoring. Manson said “Do not lose faith, brother James.”

“But Charles, look at what they’ve done to my Oasis. This was my world, my vision for a better tomorrow. My dream! And now the bastards have gone and f@#ked it all… just…torn all up an’…” Jones put his hands to his face.

“Do not worry, I will lead us to victory over these pigs. I will save your Oasis as I will save humanity!”

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Jones looked at him inquisitively, “I am the savior of humanity!”

Manson’s eyes enlarged. “Blasphemer.” He dramatically stood up, “Everyone knows I am the second coming!”

“No, I am!” ones countered as he too got to his feet.

I am!” Manson insisted.

Quickly the shouts morphed into punches and the two men began violently wrestling with each other around the floor. Recognizing our moment to leave a sinking ship, the last of the disillusioned Jones followers and Jones followers hurried out the door, telling the still-loyal guards that they were going to look for more ammunition.

The last image witnessed by the last man to leave the room alive was Manson wildly swinging an empty AK-47 as an irate Jones charged him.

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



A small group of frightened and disillusioned followers dropped their guns, fled from the compound, and ultimately gave themselves up or were arrested in Belo Horizonte. According to the official reports and testimonies, at “around” 5:00 AM, Manson and Jones began arguing, possibly even physically roughhousing with one another; this explains the decrease in gunfire from the compound after 5:02 AM. Police took the lull in fire to charge the compound. The Charlie Team successfully broke through the second side entrance and headed for the main room, the source of the most gunfire and the last confirmed location of Manson and Jones. Several Manson followers still holding out tried and failed to repel the incoming law enforcement.

After ascending the tower staircase, the Beta Team tossed in a hand grenade before entering the room. Once in the team encountered the bewildered leaders Jones and Manson, having survived the grenade blast, attempting to compose themselves. Quickly, Manson reached for a rifle nearby. Even more quickly, a bullet sliced through his heart. Manson slumped to his knees, clutched his chest, and fell to the floor, the color quickly losing his face as the pierced artery discharged the man’s blood onto the floor. Before death took him, he uttered, “How dare you try to kill your Savior?”

“For the last time (crunch!) I am Jesus!” the delirious voice came from the other side of the room. While the drama of Manson’s death was keeping the attention of the soldiers, Jones had just enough time to find his cyanide pill, which, with the help of a mid-sentence bite, ended him before the officers could do anything.

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



…We can now confirm that Charles Manson, the ringleader of the would-be killers of the rock band The Beatles, has been killed in a firefight with law enforcement officials in Brazil. Among the dead is American religious leader Jim Jones…

– BBC World News, 9/11/1970 report



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[pic: imgur.com/AkWkAsY ]
– Top to Bottom: Smoke rises from the Oasis Ranch Compound near Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 9/11/1970; a member of the Manson family stumbles out of the building before collapsing from burns and bullet wounds, 9/11/1970; the remains of one of the buildings two days later, 9/13/1970



23 September 1970: The first women’s-only tennis tournament begins in Houston; known as the Houston Women’s Invitation, at occurring soon after the “Ms. Arkansas Scandal,” it is promoted (both at the time and for years afterward (sometimes even in recent years)) by some as a sign of positive social change and progress.

– onthisday.co.uk



…In religious news, Pope Paul VI has named Saint Catherine of Siena as the official Doctor of the Church; she is only the second woman to receive this title…

– CBS Evening News, 9/29/1970 broadcast



VP VACANCY AMENDMENT TO BE SUBMITTED TO THE STATES

Washington, DC – Debates over the health of America’s top leaders have pushed congress into action. With the President having just turned 80, Vice President Scranton recovering from a nasty stomach virus he caught over the summer, and US Senate leader Richard Russell in poor health, a step toward answering calls to “assure the continuation of government in any scenario” was achieved today. After talks about such a law began during the 1968 election campaign in the midst of health scares in both major party campaigns, the 26th Amendment was submitted to the states for approval at noon today. If approved by at least 38 states, the amendment will stipulate that a vacancy in the Vice-Presidency is to be filled with an appointee chosen by the President and approved of by a majority of the total Senators in office at the time of the vote. The amendment also clarifies that Acting Secretaries are not in the Presidential line of succession, and that all leadership vacancies in the House and Senate must be filled…

– The Washington Post, 10/1/1970



COLUMBIA PICTURES CEO PROMISES TO “CHANGE” HIRING PRACTICES AND COMPANY CULTURE, BUT IS VAGUE ON DETAILS

– The Miami Herald, 10/9/1970



In the general election, Reagan sought to avoid the mistakes of Max Rafferty, whose accusations that liberals “harbor immorality and corruption” had only rallied conservatives and populists while alienating liberals and moderates during the primary season. Nevertheless, Tim Leary called Reagan a “fascist” for opposing labor, shoutnik protests, and federally-regulated healthcare.

– David Pietrusza’s The Epic Campaigns of the 1970s, Scholastic, 2012



TOMMY CHONG: [tokes] “[exhales] We’re all prisoners of our own cages, man. You don’t like your job? Quit! Hate your wife? Dump her! We all have the power to make ourselves have great and happy lives if we just stopped to think of how to do so, man. But too many people are just too tired from work or too tired from family s#!t or are just lazy or whatever, and can’t find the time in the day to just sit down and use that power that um, uh, that we have in ourselves to, um, fix s#!t, um, uh, what was I talking about?”

TIM LEARY: “[exhale] Oh, hey, that was good, Chongo, hey, let me write that down, I-I want to use that in my campaign.”

TOMMY CHONG: “Sure, man, um, uh, what campaign?”

– Tape #157 of Yoko Ono’s collection of home movies, marked 10/12/1970



…Outraged at The Colonel for turning a blind eye to state and federal assaults on his civil liberties of the smoking variety, the leading Democratic and Republican candidates being far too conservative to actually do anything good for the Golden state, and the incumbent Governor’s latest anti-drug moves causing him to frequently visit Mexico to use recreadrugs with fear of being arrested, Leary touted himself as “the only candidate for peace and liberty.” The Original Kleptonian Neo-American Church (OKNeoAC) once again endorsed Leary after convincing the church’s hierarchy that he was not in fact full of “excessive horseshit” by laying out his four-year plan to boost the state’s economy by legalizing the marijuana production and distribution industries...

– minorpartiesmatter.co.usa/history/1960s/article#32473852



BALTIMORE ORIOLES BEAT CINCINNATI REDS IN WORLD SERIES WALLOP!!!

Sports Illustrated, 10/15/1970



Tim Leary’s platform is so overtly progressive that it makes the Democratic nominee even more conservative by comparison – which could actually help Unruh win over some Republican voters hesitant to vote for the conservative Ronald Reagan. Most polls show Leary is chipping into Unruh’s support, but only incrementally. The latest polls show Reagan at 45%, Unruh at 44%, and Leary at 2%, with a worrisome 8% still undecided.

– The San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/20/1970



Mr. President:

We are making inroads near Stung Trang, alongside the Mekong River. The natives around here are much more accommodating than in Vietnam... [snip] The journalists are naïve in the dangers here, but their reports are accurate. I have seen the carnage and I can only describe Pol Pot’s atrocities as that of a tropical holocaust of sorts. This is more obviously a war of liberation than Vietnam and Laos, and that I believe is instrumental to the moral among the men…

At your service,

Gen. Abrams

– Memo from Abrams to Sanders, 10/22/1970



JERRIE COBB’S CRUSADE FOR A WOMAN-IN-SPACE NASA PROGRAM

The U.S. could have been first to put a woman up in space merely by deciding to do so. Way back in February 1960 a girl pilot named Jerrie Cobb successfully underwent the same grueling physical examination that the Mercury Astronauts had taken. By 1961, 12 other women had gone through the same battery of tests. All of them were experienced pilots with qualifications far more impressive than Valentina Tereshkova’s. Until Astronaut Alan Shepard made the first American flight in May of 1961, NASA steadfastly disclaimed any connection with woman-in-space training. Only then was Jerrie Cobb appointed to her job as a never-consulted consultant to NASA director James Webb. Even after her appointment, any training the ladies received was unofficial and due entirely to their own stubborn efforts. [5]

Cobb has been flying 20 years – since she was 12. She is an aircraft company executive in Oklahoma City, has won many flying awards and established four world’s records… Joining her in the fight to send women American astronauts to space is Trudy Cooper, a candidate for Congress married to retiring asronaut Gordon Cooper, as well as several women currently serving on Capitol Hill…

– Life Magazine, October 1970 issue



In the final month prior to the election, Reagan increased his campaign’s focus on distancing himself from Washington D.C., vowing to “restore honor to politics and to California,” [21] referring both to that year’s scandals involving GOP congressmen “making women uncomfortable,” as Reagan called it [22], and the incumbent Governor’s abysmal approval ratings [21]. Meanwhile, Unruh continued to run on his accomplishments while serving on the California state assembly from 1955 to 1969 [23], which included serving as State Assembly Speaker from 1961 to 1969 [24].

A pivotal moment in the Reagan campaign came in late October, when told off a heckler from the Natural Mind party [better citation needed]. The blunt reply was viewed as indicative of a strong-willed and determined man, and it appealed to anti-establishment voters:


[ youtube: ikqNvKJ9AKM ]
– clickopedia.co.usa



COLONEL SANDERS REQUESTS CONGRESS SEND AID TO MONSOON-RAVAGED VIETNAM

The Washington Times, 11/1/1970



United States Senate election results, 1970

Date: November 3, 1970
Seats: 34 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Senate minority leader: Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
Seats before election: 51 (D), 48 (R), 1 (I) [6]
Seats after election: 55 (D), 44 (R), 1 (I)
Seat change: D ^ 4, R v 4

Full List:
Arizona: incumbent Barry Goldwater (R) over Renz L. Jennings (D)
California: incumbent Richard Nixon (R) over Tom Hayden (D) and Robert Scheer (NM)
Connecticut: incumbent Thomas J. Dodd (D) over Antonina P. Uccello (R)
Delaware: William Victor Roth Jr. (R) over Jacob Zimmerman (D)
Florida: Lawton Chiles (D) over G. Harrold Carswell (HIP), Raymond Claiborne Osborne (R) and Claude R. Kirk Jr. (Conservative)
Hawaii: incumbent Hiram L. Fong (R) over Cecil Heftel (D)
Illinois (special): Adlai Stevenson III (D) over incumbent appointee Ralph Tyler Smith (R)
Indiana: incumbent Vance Hartke (D) over Richard L. Roudebush (R)
Maine: incumbent Edmund S. Muskie (D) over Neil S. Bishop (R)
Maryland: Rogers Clark Ballard Morton (R) over Carlton R. Sickles (D) and incumbent James Glenn Beall (Independent Republican)
Massachusetts: incumbent Eunice Kennedy Shriver (D) over John Volpe (R) and Josiah A. Spaulding (Independent)
Michigan: George W. Romney (R) over incumbent Philip A. Hart (D)
Minnesota: Hubert Humphrey (D) over Clark MacGregor (R)
Mississippi: incumbent John C. Stennis (D) over William R. Thompson (I)
Missouri: incumbent Leonor Sullivan (D) over John Danforth (R) and Gene Chapman (HIP)
Montana: incumbent Mike Mansfield (D) over Harold E. Wallace (R)
Nebraska: Ted Sorensen (D) over incumbent Roman L. Hruska (R)
Nevada: incumbent Paul Laxalt (R) over Howard Cannon (D)
New Jersey: incumbent Harrison A. Williams Jr. (D) over Nelson G. Gross (R)
New Mexico: incumbent Joseph Montoya (D) over Anderson Carter (R)
New York: Paul O’Dwyer (D) over incumbent Kenneth B. Keating (R), James L. Buckley (Conservative) and Allard K. Lowenstein (Liberal/NM)
North Dakota: Arthur Albert Link (D) over incumbent Thomas S. Kleppe (R)
Ohio: John Glenn (D) over incumbent Robert A. Taft Jr. (R)
Pennsylvania: incumbent Hugh Scott (R) over William G. Sesler (D)
Rhode Island: incumbent John O. Pastore (D) over John McLaughlin (R)
Tennessee: incumbent Albert Gore Sr. (D) over Bill Brock (R)
Texas: Lloyd Bentsen (D) over John Connally (R) and Jack Carswell (HIP)
Utah: incumbent Frank E. Moss (D) over Laurence J. Burton (R) and Clyde B. Freeman (HIP)
Vermont: incumbent Winston L. Prouty (R) over Fiore L. Bove (D) and William H. Meyer (Liberty Union/Natural Mind)
Virginia: incumbent Harry F. Byrd (I) over George Rawlings (D) and Ray Garland (R)
Washington: incumbent Henry M. Jackson (D) over John Ehrlichman (R)
West Virginia: incumbent Robert C. Byrd (D) over Elmer H. Dodson (R)
Wisconsin: incumbent William Proxmire (D) over John E. Erickson (R)
Wyoming: incumbent John S. Wold (R) over Edness Kimball Wilkins (D)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



…With the exception of incumbent Senators Leonor Sullivan and Eunice Kennedy-Shriver, no women won any of the Senate contests, though two Republican nominees, former state house speaker Edness Kimball Wilkins of Wyoming and Hartford Mayor Antonina Uccello of Connecticut, both came within a 1% margin of winning in their respective states...

– Walter Cronkite, CBS News, 11/3/1970



United States House of Representatives results, 1970

Date: November 3, 1970
Seats: All 437
Seats needed for majority: 218
House majority leader: Mo Udall (D-AZ)
House minority leader: Charles Halleck (R-IN)
Last election: 212 (D), 225 (R)
Seats won: 231 (D), 206 (R)
Seat change: D ^ 19, R v 19

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



…We now return to the latest House results. [pause] In South Dakota, Trudy Cooper, the wife of retiring astronaut Gordo Cooper, has been elected over incumbent Congressman E. Y. Berry of the state’s 2nd congressional district. Mr. Berry, a Republican, was running for a tenth term in office. Mrs. Cooper, a Democrat, has been a longtime activist for women’s rights, and she joins several other women winning public office tonight in what may be the electoral culmination of this year’s “women’s wave” of public debate over the rights of women and their roles in the workplace… Politically, the night's election results, while still unfortunate for the Republican Party, were not at all as poor for the GOP as initially expected earlier in the year... Our analysts believe the night's results are mostly due to party fatigue, after six years of a Republican White House...

– ABC News, 11/3/1970



ACTRESS IRENE DUNNE WINS CONGRESSIONAL SEAT!

…The 72-year-old Hollywood starlet, who nominated five times for an Oscar for a string of applauded performances during the 1930s, Dunne has also spent many years in the world of politics. Dunne served as an alternative US delegate to the UN in 1957 due to her interest in international affairs, and campaigned for Colonel Sanders in 1964 and 1968. A Roman Catholic Republican, she has consistently maintained close involvement in GOP causes after retiring from acting, and in 1965 became the first woman elected to the board of Directors of Technicolor. Dunne claims that the “success” of the Colonel’s Presidential bids inspired her to run for a California congressional seat. …Dunne did not discuss the fallout of the Ms. Arkansas Incident on the campaign trail, instead focusing on local issues and blaming her Democratic opponent of being “too removed from the real concerns of this district.”… Her victory was one of just a few Republican gains in both California and the nation…

The Los Angeles Times, 11/4/1970



ONE LAST HURRAY FOR PEACE AND EQUALITY: Jeanette Rankin Readies Her Final Return to Congress

At 90 years old, Jeannette Rankin was not content with retirement. After serving as a Congresswoman from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1941 to 1943, the ardent pacifist and women’s rights activist was inspired to run for Congress this year in the wake of several high-profile political scandals renewed calls for an Equal Rights Amendment.

…Fate seems to enjoy testing Rankin’s resolve. Roughly a month after becoming the first-ever female U.S. Representative, she became one of just 50 Representatives to vote against entering World War One. She was singled out for her vote, and it effectively ended her electoral career. Twenty years later, Rankin saw her lobbying endeavors were not enough to curb the calls to intervene militarily in Europe, and so ran for Congress again in 1940. Less than a year back in her old job, she once again faced criticism for her anti-war policy, this time for being the only person in either branch of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan, declaring “As I woman I can’t go to war and I refuse to send anyone else.” And once again, her career in congress was over after just one two-year term.

…Now, her decades of activism has led to her winning the hearts of the peacenik community, and to her winning a third term to congress…

The Montana Standard, 11/4/1970 [7]



United States Governor election results, 1970

Date: November 3, 1970
State governorship elections held: 35
Seats before: 27 (D), 23 (R)
Seats after: 32 (D), 18 (R)
Seat change: D ^ 5, R v 5

Full List:
Alabama: George Wallace (D) over Bull Connor (I), Asa Carter (HIP) and Bert Nettles (R)
Alaska: Jay Hammond (R) over W. Eugene Guess (D) and Ralph M. Anderson (I)
Arizona: Raul Hector Castro (D) over incumbent Jack Williams (R) and Evan Mecham (HIP)
Arkansas: incumbent Winthrop Rockefeller (R) over Virginia Johnson (D)
California: Ronald Reagan (R) over Jesse Unruh (D), Tim Leary (NM) and Max Rafferty (HIP)
Colorado: incumbent John Arthur Love (R) over Mark Hogan (D) and Albert Gurule (Labor United/La Raza Unida)
Connecticut: Fiske Holcomb Ventres (R) over Attilio R. Frassinelli (D)
Florida: Louis Bafalis (R) over incumbent Verle Allyn Pope (D)
Georgia: Lester Maddox (D) over James Bentley (R) and Udolpho Sikes Underwood (I)
Hawaii: Thomas Ponce Gill (D) over Samuel Pailthorpe King (R)
Idaho: incumbent Charles Herndon (D) over Jack M. Murphy (R)
Iowa: Armour Boot (D) over incumbent Robert D. Ray (R)
Kansas: incumbent Robert Docking (D) over Kent Frizzell (R)
Maine: Peter N. Kyros (D) over James S. Erwin (R)
Maryland: Marvin Mandel (D) incumbent Spiro T. Agnew (R) and Robert Woods Merkle Sr. (HIP)
Massachusetts: Pierre Salinger (D) over Francis W. Sargent (R)
Michigan: Martha Griffiths (D) over William Milliken (R)
Minnesota: incumbent Coya Knutson (D) over Douglas M. Head (R)
Nebraska: J. James Exon (D) over Albert C. Walsh (R)
Nevada: Rex Bell Jr. (R) over Mike O’Callaghan (D) and Charles Springer (I)
New Hampshire: incumbent Harrison Reed Thyng (R) over Meldrim Thomson Jr. (HIP) and Roger J. Crowley (D)
New Mexico: Bruce King (D) over David F. Cargo (R) and John A. Salazar (Labor United/La Raza Unida)
New York: incumbent Mario Biaggi (D/C) over Steven Boghos Derounian (R), Arthur J. Goldberg (Liberal) and Norman Mailer (Natural Mind)
Ohio: Buz Lukens (R) over Robert E. Sweeney (D), Roger Cloud (IR) and Edward T. Lawton (HIP)
Oklahoma: David Hall (D) over incumbent Dewey F. Bartlett (R) and Reel Little (HIP)
Oregon: incumbent Tom McCall (R) over Bob Straub (D)
Pennsylvania: Milton Shapp (D) over Raymond Shafer (R) and Andrew J. Watson (Constitution)
Rhode Island: J. Joseph Garrahy (D) over John Chafee (R)
South Carolina: John West (D) over Albert Watson (R)
South Dakota: George S. McGovern (D) over incumbent Frank Farrar (R)
Tennessee: Frank G. Clement (D) over Winfield Dunn (R)
Texas: Waggoner Carr (D) over Roger Martin (R)
Vermont: incumbent Phil Hoff (D) over John S. Burgess (R)
Wisconsin: incumbent Patrick Lucey (D) over Jack B. Olson (R) and Georgia Cozzini (NM)
Wyoming: incumbent Teno Roncalio (D) over William H. Harrison (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



HAMMOND ELECTED GOVERNOR

Juneau, AK – State Senator Jay Hammond has won the state’s gubernatorial election over Democratic state House speaker W. Eugene Guess. …Taking a page out of the playbook of New Jersey Governor Frank X. McDermott, Hammond, 48, campaigned on an oil-based “Permanent Alaskan Dividend Fund.” …Hammond’s running mate was Hazel Heath, the Mayor of Homer, Alaska, since 1968. …In the wake of the Colonel-King scandals, Heath became more active in state circles, and is poised to become the first woman to serve the number-two spot in the Alaskan state government…

Anchorage Daily News, 11/3/1970



REAGAN PULLS OFF VICTORY: Defeats Unruh By 5% Margin; Leary Demands Recount After Winning 6% Despite Polling At 12% Yesterday

The Sacramento Union, 11/3/1970



“[Tim] Leary would have won more if his core supporters weren’t always so stoned off of their asses.”

– Barry Goldwater, c. 11/3/1970, possibly anecdotal



MADDOX WINS GOVERNOR’S SEAT!

Atlanta, GA – In a clear and obvious rejection of the Republican Governor Calloway, Georgians tonight voted for a more conservative gubernatorial candidate. Businessman Lester Maddox had run on an ultra-conservative platform in the Democratic primary against former Governor Carl Sanders, which likely has put an end to Sanders’ rumored 1972 Presidential bid… Colonel Sanders is surely unhappy with Maddox winning, and that is making many Georgia Democrats smile with glee…
VI6lInL.png


[ pic: imgur.com/VI6lInL.png ]
Governor-elect Maddox making the "victory" symbol at his victory ceremony held earlier tonight
– The Augusta Chronicle, Georgia newspaper, 11/3/1970



D.C. MAYOR CLIFFORD ALEXANDER JR. RE-ELECTED IN LANDSLIDE

The Washington Times, 11/4/1970



THE WOMAN’S WAVE: AN UPDATE

…Katherine Peden, Bella Abzug, Ella T Grasso, Louise Day Hicks, Millicent Fenwick, and Trudy Cooper all won… Kathleen Z. Williams lost he bid for Indiana’s 5th district, as did Phyllis Schlafly in her bid for Illinois’ 23rd district, and Natalie Kimmel for California’s 28th district, but each still gave it their all. Nevertheless, they contributed to a historic moment in American history: these past midterm elections have produced the highest number of women ever elected to Congress at once…

– Tumbleweed Magazine, 11/3-9/1970 issue



“What matters now is working with the new batch of freshmen and the new Democratic majority majority in the House. I’m going to work to find common ground and get some more legislation done around here before the end of my term. I’m not going to have a lame chicken – uh, duck, a lame duck Presidency.”

– Colonel Sanders to reporters, 11/4/1970



WATSON REFUSES TO CONCEDE AS RECOUNT MAY BE ENACTED

Out of the total 482,145 votes cast, only 121 went to an independent candidate. The rest were split almost exactly even between Democratic nominee John Carl West and Republican nominee Albert Watson. Only .11% of the vote, or roughly 529 votes, separated Watson from victory. Watson, endorsed by the South Carolina chapter of the Heritage and Independence Party, has made clear that he doubts the election results, but has not so far suggested election tampering or fraud, instead stating “a discrepancy” may have occurred.

– The Post and Courier, South Carolina newspaper, 11/6/1970



INCOMING GOVERNORS PLEDGE TO UPHOLD WOMEN’S “WORKPLACE RIGHTS”

…14 Democrats elected Governor (Raul Hector Castro of Arizona, Thomas Ponce Gill of Hawaii, Armour Boot of Iowa, Peter N. Kyros of Maine, Marvin Mandel of Maryland, Martha Griffiths of Michigan, J. James Exon of Nebraska, Bruce King of New Mexico, David Hall of Oklahoma, Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania, J. Joseph Garrahy of Rhode Island, George McGovern of South Dakota, Frank Goad Clement of Tennessee, and Waggoner Carr of Texas) and three Republicans elected Governor (Fiske Ventres of Connecticut, Rex Bell Jr. of Nevada, and Buz Lukens of Ohio)…

The Washington Times, 11/11/1970



STAR POWER: THE RISE OF THE CELEBRITY POLITICIAN?

As Ronald Reagan readies for the responsibilities of the Governorship of California, he follows the pathways of four fellow Hollywood figures – Governor John Davis Lodge, Congressman Wendell Corey, and former Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas – in his shift from the stage and screen to the seat of a major national office. With Shirley Temple Black serving as an Ambassador, and Irene Dunne being elected to Congress this month, one has to wonder about the hows and whys of this phenomenon of actors turning to politics. One could suggest this to be the start of a trend, a new wave of politics, or simply a unique part of our times as the world of entertainment has shifted from trips out to theaters to less expensive visits to drive-ins to the privacy of our own homes. …One San Francisco-based academic explains that “it is actually very easy for such a phenomenon to occur due to the similarities found in both professions. Both the actors and politicians of the modern age are constantly in the public spotlight. Surrounded by cameras, they must look aesthetically pleasing, be comfortable in large crowds and speaking in front of recording equipment, and remember long speeches to perform for an audience without major incident.” …Another historian from Sacramento, however, suggests that electing “non-politicians” is “a way of the populace to reject a perceived sense of bureaucratic control over an institution meant to work for the common voter.” This notion would be especially applicable to this November’s midterms, which were not too friendly to the incumbent party… It is my opinion that voting for potential leaders based more on their name recognition and charismatic appearance, rather than where they stand on key issues, is a misstep. As such, I urge all voters to think wisely and carefully about whom they vote for whenever the time comes to enter that booth and participate in our democratic process.

– Opinion article, Associated Press, 11/22/1970



…On November 25, Thurman Munson was named Rookie of the Year over several contenders including fellow Yankee Don Trump. Trump, in his first major public incident of controversial rabble-rousing, claimed the vote was “crooked,” when the reality of the situation was that Munson had a far more impressive record, and had improved greatly since first signing onto the team...

[snip]

…Baseball’s Louisville Colonels, founded in 1969, should not be confused with the basketball team formed in 1967 called the Kentucky Colonels…

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



In late November, Lyndon confided in Bobby Baker that he would not run for President in 1972, and instead focus on re-election to the Senate that year. Despite the vulnerability of Republicans and Lyndon’s legacy improving, the former President was tired. “I thinks he wouldn’t survive the stresses of another run,” Baker would later write to a friend, “and he knows that he is so much more powerful and influential in the Senate than he could be as a President confined to one term.”

– Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon: Book Six: The Post-Presidency Years, A. A. Knopf Inc., 2018



LUNAR LADIES?!: COLONEL CONSIDERING PROPOSED FEMALE ASTRONAUT PROGRAM
Pres. Meets With Leaders of Push to Send American Women Into Space

Washington, D.C. – by John Noble Wilford

…The Colonel sat down with Jerrie Cobb, 39-year-old aviator from Oklahoma and part of a private non-NASA program held in the early 1960s, where a group of Cobb and 12 other women selected to undergo physiological screening tests concurrent with the original Mercury 7 astronauts’ tests… Afterward, Sanders met with a caucus of Congresswomen that included Representative-elect Trudy Cooper, whom are pushing for NASA Director James Webb to allow for women to become astronauts…

– The New York Times, 12/1/1970



EXTENSIVE RECOUNT CONFIRMS WEST WON BY 543 VOTES: Watson Still Refuses to Concede

– The Greenville News, South Carolina newspaper, 12/3/1970



“We will begin accepting women candidates for a new program at the start of the new year.”

– James E. Webb, in an official NASA statement after discussions with President Sanders, 12/9/1970



Dad met with Elvis in the White House many times; I think Dad was the favorite of the two Colonels in Elvis’ life. After meeting with Alice Cooper, though, the meetings happened more often. Both men seemed uneasy over the changing youth scene, especially Elvis, who was much more critical of the latest bands than Dad.

During one lunch at the White House that I got to sit in on, I listened to a heated discussion over the best way to make Fool’s Gold Loaf, a three-pound favorite of Elvis consisting of an Italian bread loaf stuffed with bacon, peanut butter, and grape jelly. On another occasion, Dad personally prepared a course of Elvis’ favorite foods – peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, barbeque chicken bites, fried dill pickles, and finally, sour cream pound cake; naturally, Elvis found it delicious.

Of course, they also discussed the more somber elements of the politico-musical scene, such as the near-murder of the Beatles. During that discussion, Elvis noted “It was a real shame what happened to that Paul guy,” to which Dad responded with “I was thinking of inviting them here. You know, show them a better version of American hospitality and all that sort of thing.”

“Not too bad an idea, Colonel.” Was the King’s reply.

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[pic: imgur.com/sz2ETqz.png ]

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997



The Vietnam War
(1957-1967), less commonly known as The War in Vietnam, was an armed conflict involving Vietnam, the US, the USSR, and France, along with China, Laos, and others. …Despite the US presence in Vietnam since 1957, the conflict did not become a “major” issue for the US until early 1963, when US President Lyndon B. Johnson sent advisory troops there after talks with his cabinet. An attack on the US embassy led to the US unofficially declaring war on North Vietnam in July 1963, leading to a steady rise in troop deployments to South Vietnam. Casualties quickly began to mount on the US’s side due to their inability to properly understand the Viet Kong’s fighting style. The situation worsened for the US as the year 1964 continued, contributing to President Johnson losing a re-election bid in November 1964. His successor, President Harland “Colonel” Sanders, re-analyzed the situation, culminating in a successful invasion of North Vietnam in early 1967, which capitulated the Communist government in Hanoi…. With the war officially over, “Vietnamization” ended when the last of America’s troops left the now-united nation in December 1970. …Defenders of Lyndon Johnson claim his attention was divided between Vietnam, Cuba, and re-election…. US President Sanders’ military success has created “a very common misunderstanding” that the Colonel was an experienced military person of that rank, when actually, Sanders was an Honorary Colonel.

– clickopedia.co.usa



The December 1970 talks with President Arias, Vice President Torrijos, US Secretary of State Curtis and the US Ambassador to Panama saw the outline of an agreement be agreed to; the agreement would stipulate that the US would hand over control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians in 1979 in exchange for U.S. preference in Panamanian markets via trade deal.

Conservatives in the U.S., already hurt by the drop in representation that follow the 1970 midterms, openly opposed the talks, with Senator Cotton claiming “giving them our canal would be an insult to the Americans who built it.” Governor-elect of California Ronald Reagan added to the opposition by stating “We built it, we own it, it’s ours!”

– Ashley Carse’s Beyond the Big Ditch: Politics, Ecology, and Infrastructure at the Panama Canal, MIT Press, 2014



Albert Watson, Self-Described Governor-Elect, Announces Early A Bid For A Congressional Seat

– The Spartanburg Herald-Journal, South Carolina newspaper, 12/12/1970



“I’m 79 and tired. I’m retiring.”

– Chief Justice Warren, 12/13/1970



THE COLONEL’S SECOND JUSTICE PICK: Who Will Succeed Earl Warren?

After failing to retire in late 1964 in order to allow Johnson to appoint a temporary liberal successor during the winter recess due to Republican threats of retribution, Warren begrudgingly stayed on the bench... Sanders is expected to announce a nominee for the position of Chief Justice, head judge of the country, in the following weeks, but “after celebrating New Year’s,” according to Press Secretary Charlotte Reid. Warren will remain in office until his successor has been confirmed...

National Review, special mid-December 1970 issue



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[pic: imgur.com/Jvpt5e9.png ]
– After a long day of festivities, President Sanders falls asleep at the White House, 12/25/1970



THE TOP FIVE ELEMENTS THAT MADE THE MS. ARKANSAS SCANDAL SO "MAJOR"
[snip]
1) The woman at the center of it all. The courage that Ms. [LOADING ERROR], a.k.a. "Ms. Arkansas," displayed when coming forward allowed the Ms. Arkansas Scandal to become a watershed moment.
2) Republican overreaction. While the Democratic Party of the 1960s remained so calm during their own scandals that they practically swept themselves under the rug, Senators such as Norris Cotton and Richard Nixon were too quick to deny the Colonel-King allegations, with Nixon going so far as to criticize the media for even covering them. This attitude prompted journalists to continue their focus on the scandals and investigate further, and inspired an entire generation of Americans to pursue the truth.
3) Television. The device that had made the Colonel a household name also lead to his (albeit temporary) fall from grace, as technology allowed for information to spread faster than Congress could respond to it.
4) Sanders’ own handling of the allegations. By openly admitting to his “past misdeeds,” Americans seeing the President “admit to it” had polarizing opinions - some were proud of their President for his honesty, others saw the same thing as a detriment that made America weak on the geopolitical stage - continuing national discussions on workplace impropriety in a more open manner.
5) The changing of the times. The scandal ended up eclipsing with the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement. The anti-war counterculture movement of the early 1960s led to women calling for equality and fairness during the mid-to-late 1960s, and this was the platform that elevated Ms. [LOADING ERROR] to the front page of newspapers across the country. Local politicians and congresspersons such as Mo Udall and Jean Kennedy-Smith were aware that the Colonel, ironically, had won the woman’s vote in 1964 and 1968 by wide margins, and the Colonel's reported support of serious investigations into the allegations that succeeded his (possibly in the hopes of winning over female voters ahead of the 1970 and 1972 elections), allowed him to survive the scandal at a time when patriarchal social norms were being stripped away to reveal the bare truth that is the extent of misogyny in America.

Women's Magazine, 2020 online article



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized part is an edited version of a passage found on page 17 of this pdf: https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/.../edgar/...EdgarJim/Edgar_Jim_4FNL_Vol%20I.pdf
[2] Paraphrase from Cosby’s OTL wiki page
[3] Quotes found here are edited versions of the quotes and information found in a short-but-detailed interview here: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/11/21/kristina-ruehli-says-bill-cosby-drugged-tried-sexually-assault-1965/
[4] Paraphrase from snippet found on Cohn’s wiki page.
[5] Actually, these Italicized pieces are from here: https://books.google.com/books?id=00sEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false
[6] The Independent Senator is Harry F. Byrd, Jr. (like IOTL)
[7] Okay, so this may not actually be that far-fetched because IOTL, she was considering another bid for public office in 1973, when she was 93 years old, at least according to this source: https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/R/RANKIN,-Jeannette-(R000055)/
E.T.A. of the next update: August 15.
 
Post 26
Post 26: Chapter 34

Chapter 34: January 1971 – August 1971

“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”

– George Carlin



After comparing these customer survey results with those from last year, it is evident that the company’s non-white customer base has improved… The increase in customer satisfaction and foot traffic in urban locations may be connected to the continuing easing of social-economic issues under President Sanders, particularly due to the President’s active supporting of state and federal education and urban renewal projects and programs...

– KFC customer demographics report, 1/5/1971



“YOU COULD BE THE NEXT COLONEL”: The Story Of Ollie’s Trolleys

By Keith Pandolfi, photos by Helen Rosner

The harsh rain of a Floridian winter was beating down on John Y. Brown Jr. that day, much like how it is for me revisiting the same famous spot, an iconic belly-filling eatery shaped like a trolley. Having skipped breakfast, I eye the entrance to the establishment, ready the hood of my jacket, and make a run for it through the downpour. Unquestionably, the upcoming meal is worth the splashy sprint.

Making my order comes so easy to me – one Ollieburger with Olliefries and a Josta – that I have to stop and think about how it was like the first time I ever visited one of Ollie Gleichenhaus’ trolleys. The thought returns my mind’s attention to Brown, who was in the same position one rainy noon in January 1971. The ex-KFC affiliate had not had the best four years of his life since his termination from the company, to say the least. And on the day in question, the 37-year-old businessman just needed to a quick bite to eat after finding Florida to be a refreshing change of scenery, albeit one where he was struggling to find success and prosperity. He may have chosen Ollie’s as the place at which he would satisfy his appetite out of convenience, or maybe he was intrigued by the cutesy, unique façade of the building, or maybe the trolley reminded him of the trolleys that once navigated the streets of his childhood hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

I spent my few minutes of waiting leaning over the to the side to view the five employers located in the kitchen performing their duties harmoniously, flipping burgers and oiling up fries and the like. Then I receive my order in a simple grease-strained eco-paper bag, and – given that this location’s seven stools and two booths are completely stuffed with other customers – I dash back out to my car to enjoy it there.

Eating an Ollieburger is like having a McCormick spice warehouse explode in your mouth. There’s a magic mingling of oregano and garlic, cumin, rosemary, and Old Bay – an Italian pot roast and a Maryland crab boil all in one. There are other flavors in there, too – some I recognize, like onion powder, paprika, and cayenne, and other I don’t. The same seasoning coats both the fries and the burger. And the more I eat, the more my taste buds re-acclimate themselves to those flavors, and the more convinced I am that the Ollieburger is the best burger in America.

I imagine that the range of emotions that flooded my senses – surprise, delight, intrigue, gluttony, joy, and possibly contentment (in that order) – swam through Brown’s mind as he took his first bite, as a detonation of flavors overwhelmed his taste buds. As the legend goes, Brown had not even finished his first Ollieburger when he bolted back into the location to order three more, and then demanded he speak to the inventor.

The genius inventor in question was a cigar-chomping, straw-hatted grouch named Ollie Gleichenhaus. With his cantankerousness mirroring that of Colonel Sanders, an unofficial idol to fast food vendors both then and now, Gleichenhaus and his wife had opened what they originally called “Ollie’s Sandwich Shop” in South Beach, Florida in the 1930s. Despite its small size, the place became a big hit among locals, tourists, and even visiting celebrities – Gleichenhaus would later claim Rodney Dangerfield used to write material in my place and that Don Rickles got all his material from him and his caustic demeanor. This is the location at which I now sit, and it is also the same location in which Brown found himself on that fateful day.

Brown metaphorically picked as his brain his metaphorical eating utensils, requesting how the creation – a third of a pound of lean beef seasoned with a blend of 32 spices – came to be. Gleichenhaus, approaching 60 in 1971, explained how it took him more than three decades to perfect the recipe, adding a new spice here, a different type of cheese there. He’d change up the bun, or grind up a new cut of beef. He used his customers as guinea pigs until he finally felt he’d nailed it. And once he nailed it, he was happy with himself and to simply just continue frying up burgers and basking in the Florida limelight.

Brown must have smiled widely as he thought of the gold mine he had stumbled across. He must have figured that with his experience in the fast-food industry, Ollie’s unique product, and the two giants of the fast food industry long gone – McDonald’s Ray Kroc now owning a basketball team, and KFC’s Harland Sanders now serving as President – Brown through Ollie could rise to unprecedented heights of fame and glory. Brown decided he would build Ollie’s Trolleys into the competition of KFC’s new Wendyburgers. He just needed to convince Gleichenhaus that his burgers could be the next big thing; “Ollie, you can be the next Ray Kroc. Hell, you could be the next Colonel Sanders!”

The only problem was that Ollie wasn’t interested. He was content with his business, and his first impression of Brown was that he was a “slick-talking sonofabitch,” and a such told Brown “I’m doing just fine here. If you don’t like, you can get the hell outta my store.”

Brown only saw the rambunctious personality as the same kind that sent the Colonel to the White House. Like the Colonel, Ollie “swore like a sailor and had quite a routine; if anyone came into his restaurant and asked for ketchup, he’d say ‘Get the fuck out of here!’” Brown would recall many years later.

But like how the Colonel never gave up trying to sell his chicken in the early years of KFC, Brown kept hounding Ollie, calling him several times each week with the same offer of partnering up with him to expand the humble local business into a nationwide franchise. Then one day, Ollie relinquished his resolve.

He finally got to me,” Ollie told the Post-Crescent. “With all the talk about the fun I’d have and the traveling, and how my name would be up in lights. Yeah, that fed my ego.”

Taking a page out of the Colonel’s biography, Brown toured the country for viable locations. He put together television spots featuring Ollie in an Archie Bunker kind of approach. A simple menu of hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, milkshakes and – most importantly – Ollieburgers and Olliefries was finalized. Brown also took a page out of McDonald’s playbook and sought out a way to streamline the production process.

“We’ll go nationwide within the year,” promised Brown. Whether obvious or not at the time, it is retrospectively clear that Brown had developed and put into motion a plan to make K.F.C. sorry for his dismissal.

[snip]

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– proudsoutherner.co.usa/food/ollies-trolley/you-could-be-the-next-colonel-sanders [1]



HUMPHREY JOINS CALLS FOR PRIMARY SYSTEM REFORM

…Humphrey claims “The current system does not provide enough representation for Democrats in all 50 states,” and that “convention delegates have more power than the would-be voters, which is unjust.” …Humphrey won the primary popular vote in 1968 but lost in delegate count to former Secretary Jack Kennedy, causing the former to lose the nomination to the latter...

– The Washington Post, 1/18/1971



SENATOR RICHARD RUSSELL IS DEAD AT 73

– The Savannah Morning News, Georgia newspaper, 1/21/1971



The Colonel’s first order of business for the new FBI director [William C. Sullivan] was to investigate the White Citizens’ Council, a southern white supremacist group plaguing the south with occasional intimidation tactics such as vandalism and arson to businesses, burning crosses on lawns, and death threats since its formation in 1954. The FBI had largely ignored the group under Hoover despite being responsible for violence during H.I.P. political campaigns in 1964, 1966 and 1968. Though already waning in influence and member size by 1969, FBI infiltration of the group led to the arrest of key leaders in 1971 and 1972, which in turn ultimately led to the council disbanding in 1974.

– Ronald Kessler’s Clyde Tolson and the Cult of J. Edgar Hoover, Resistance E-Publishing, 2016



…Colonel Sanders’ modest expansion of Social Security arose amidst fiscal concerns from the GOP and his own personal reservations toward the program. Believing American businessmen would thank him for the move later on down the road, Sanders approved of an increase of general benefit levels to 12 percent in order to better combat the effects of inflation [2] In January 1971.

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



The Colonel ushered in the New Year by beginning a tradition of daily walks around the White House property to promote exercise and to increase public awareness of the 1970 Scranton Report on US health practices.

– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1968, Atheneum Publishers, 1969



The communist insurgents in Cambodia initially welcomed in their Vietnamese counterparts, the lingering radical ex-members of the Viet Cong. But as the fighting continued, cultural, linguistic, and ideological differences between the native Cambodian guerillas and the immigrant Vietnam guerillas impede collaboration against western forces. By the start of 1971, the two group had become bitter nemeses, with the waterways of the Stung Treng region seeing the heaviest of the guerilla-on-guerilla fighting.

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



“I want all the war hawks in the White House to know that our military’s activities in Cambodia qualify as an illegal war. I am calling for an official vote on the status of our actions in Indochina, where I urge all of my co-workers on this hill to vote against this destruction of human life.”

– Rep. Jeanette Rankin (D-MT), 1/23/1971



POSTAL WORKERS GO ON STRIKE ACROSS THE U.K.

Powell Calls For “Peace And Order” As Workers Demand Raise Due To Low Pay And Poor Working Conditions

The Guardian, 1/27/1971



Mr. President:

Update: Get the Champaign ready.

In your service,

Gen. Abrams

– Private memo from Abrams to Sanders concerning the US Army's advancing on Cambodian despot Pol Pot’s location, 1/28/1971



SANDERS NOMINATES FRANK M. JOHNSON JR. FOR SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE SEAT

…the 52-year-old Alabaman District Court Judge was pivotal in the fight against segregation in the 1950s... Other rumored candidates to replaced the retiring Earl Warren had included Harold R. Tyler Jr. and William H. Mulligan of the 2nd Circuit, Paul Roney of the 5th Circuit, and Clement Haynsworth of the 4th Circuit (likely due to his pro-business rulings). Even more outlandish potential picks such as Senator Barry Goldwater, columnist William F. Buckley, and North Carolina state Supreme Court Justice Susie Sharp were rumored candidates, although such names were never confirmed to be considered seriously by the White House...

– The Washington Post, 2/1/1971 (Monday)



MIXED FEELINGS FLY ON WALLACE’S ACTIONS, APPOINTEES IN FIRST MONTH AS GOVERNOR

…Newly into office (again), George Wallace has already stirred up controversy for allegedly imposing liberal policies onto a conservative populace. The policies in question includes his appointing of a record-breaking number of African-Americans to public offices, such as over 100 to the state governing boards, hiring a 52-year-old African-American female to be his press secretary, and appointing two African-American men to his gubernatorial cabinet. …receiving less controversy, at least, from average white Alabamans is, Wallace’s push for anti-poverty legislation to help “the most poor and the helpless members of our state”…

– The Huntsville Times, Alabama newspaper, 2/2/1971



GOV. MADDOX APPOINTS ERNEST VANDIVER TO US SENATE

…Vandiver strongly favor segregation while serving as Governor from 1959 to 1963…

– The Savannah Morning News, Georgia newspaper, 2/4/1971



This report finds the efforts of the Governor’s office and the state legislature to lower crime in the state’s urban areas are working but not at the expected pace. The number of murders recorded in Albany dropped 20% from January 1967 to December 1970, but the number of recorded murders in New York City only dropped from 746 [3] in 1967 to 689 in 1970. Governor Mario Biaggi and Mayor Joey Periconi’s co-operative increase in security guards, plain-clothed police officers, and uniformed Transit Police are the cause of the drop. Furthermore, the state legislature’s tax incentives for producers and sellers to decrease the price of home security systems and locks have lead to a 15% drop in burglaries statewide. Switching transit police radios and above-ground police radios to transmit on the same frequency has significantly diminished the numbers of poor communication incidents in New York City.

[snip]

Reflecting advice once offered by Dwight Eisenhower to the city of New York in 1959, Mayor Periconi is calling for the taxing of drivers entering densely populated city limits. This study supports this proposal, as it could provide funds for the state’s crime-reduction programs.

– Summary of report from the office of the New York State Secretary of State, 2/5/1971



BUSH AND NIXON

…Church bells rang out today in celebration of the Holy Union of George Walker Bush and Tricia Nixon…

– The Houston Chronicle, celebrations section, 2/5/1971



On February 7, the weeks of transcontinental conversations culminated in Sanders and Kosygin signing the landmark Seabed Treaty banning the emplacement of nuclear weapons on all ocean floors beyond a 15-miles coastal zone. The UK’s Prime Minister Enoch Powell was hesitant to sign onto the multinational/multilateral treaty, despite polls showing that most Britons supported the treaty, as Powell did not approve of the notion of “tying down” the UK, a comment that proven to be controversial until Powell yielded and finally signed the treaty the next Month.

– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017



EXTRA! DEADLY EARTHQUAKE ROCKS CALIFORNIA! Over 30 Dead, Over 70 Missing As Bridges, Buildings Collapse!

– The Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1971



PRES. SANDERS VISITS POST-QUAKE CALIFORNIA, HELPS DISTRIBUTE SUPPLIES TO VICTIMS

…yesterday morning’s 6.5 earthquake was particularly damaging to communities in the northern San Fernando Valley, where a dam has partially collapsed. Governor Reagan has ordered the area downhill from the Van Norman Dams to evacuate, in case an aftershock weakens the dams any further…

The Seattle Times, 2/10/1971



While the 6.6 Sylmar Earthquake itself killed 37 people – mostly hospital patients buried under rubble and travelers crushed by damaged sections of the freeways – the wave of water that rushed out of the Lower Van Norman Dam broken by the quake’s aftershocks was the true tragedy of the moment. Back in 1964, a state inspection led to the State of California and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power agreeing to maintain the reservoir’s water level at a level 5 feet lower than usual for a dam of its size. The earthquake’s aftershocks broke off the remains of the top 27 feet of the structure, but even at the water level being 5 feet lower, it was still 2 feet too low. [4]

When the Lower Van Norman Dam partially collapsed, it unleashed a powerful and forceful wall of water out of the reservoir, damaging and taking with it 30% of the rest of the dam. Being just 2 feet below the dam’s new top, the water had enough force to spill out, but not enough to cause the rest of the dam to break. Nevertheless, the water wave more deadly than the earthquake itself.

The water hastily made its way into the valley below. When Governor Reagan called for the valley housing 80,000 people needed to be evacuated immediately on February 9, mass havoc overwhelmed the valley; the dam’s damage being clearly visible from far away didn’t help. Rumors were spread. Chaos ensued. People scrambled out of their homes and several car collisions happened. Thankfully, by the time the aftershocks weakened the dam enough for the water to breach, most of the downhill inhabitants had fled.

The breached dam’s results were much worse than the flooding that hit California in the 1963 Baldwin Hills Disaster. Roughly 1,100 people died, a number that, while not as high as the 2,000 people killed in 1963 when Italy’s Vajont Dam failed, was one the deadliest disaster to ever strike California on par with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that killed roughly over 3,000 people, or the 1928 St. Francis failure that killed 600 people in nearby Santa Clarita. Thousands more found themselves without homes.

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[ imgur.com/BgkU4ZB.png ]
Above: the Van Norman Dam after its partial collapse, prior to the earthquake’s aftershocks finishing what the initial first shake started. Concrete cracked and slumped; the Lower Van Norman Dam’s “sister” dam, the Upper Van Norman Dam, came just one foot away from being breached as well.

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



The media called it a “tragedy,” a “disaster,” and a “horrible loss of life”; Governor Reagan controversially referred to it as a “fiasco” and “engineering snafu,” attempting to downplay the deadly flooding of the valley. When that did not seem to work, Reagan shifted to blaming “poor oversight under Governor Brown” for the predicament; he also blamed it on inspectors instead of the dam operators. However, it was Reagan’s earlier call to “play it safe” before the dam finally partially collapsed that led to him being praised, as the decision undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of Californians.

The tragedy did have one unforeseen benefit, though – it revealed to a shocked public the flaws of California’s concrete building designs, ushering in an era of active public demand for higher standards, better building codes, stronger materials, a statewide review of older buildings, and other protective measures.

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



“Walter, I’m here in Arleta, a California community once like any other, only now it has been ruined by the wrath of a busted dam… But through the disaster, a glimmer of hope is seen in the millions of Americans donating to various charities whatever they can, and the many people travelling to pitch in and help the displaced survivors get back on their feet…”

– CBS Evening News, 2/14/1971 broadcast



Reagan designated the valley a disaster area, declared a state of emergency, and imposed a curfew on the San Fernando Valley to “curb nighttime looting.” The curfew instead led to accusations of police brutality against Black and Latino residents, which in turn increased racial tensions in certain parts of the state. As the days of reports on the dead, the newly homeless, and “constabularily abused,” as Dan Rather once called it, President Sanders was reportedly crestfallen over the loss of life and, according to one source, “choked up and cried a little” upon hearing the estimation of how many children had perished. …At one point, the President lamented to an aide, “America needs to hear some good news again.” Soon enough, such news came to remind Americans that good things were still happening.

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



EXTRA! POL POT CAPTURED ALIVE! CAMBODIAN DICTATOR CAUGHT BY U.S./LOCAL FORCES IN SEIGE ON HIDEOUT

Pol Pot Expected To Be Moved To Capital For Trial Soon; Followers Is Disarray As Capture Makes Leadership Void

– The New York Times, 2/12/1971



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[pic: imgur.com/EHzqVKA.png ]
– Pol Pot’s “mug shot,” taken 2/12/1971



Defense experts were certain the threat had been neutralized; communism had failed to take over a nation yet again. The Colonel was relieved that congress’s threats to impede the military’s defense of Cambodia from communist insurgency were now dissolute. “Now justice can be served to Pol Pot. The Cambodian government will now put that man on trial, for all the world to see the evils of his ways. I hope he likes the gravy train of righteousness, and his just desserts, too” the Colonel punned.

Pol Pot’s trial never came. Less than twenty-four hours after being temporarily placed in a prison in Kompong Cham, a merciless mob of local royalists stormed the jail and dragged him out of his cell. The villagers, many of them survivors of his atrocities farther north, executed him in the grisly manner of being beaten to death with sledgehammers – one of many methods Pol Pot had once commonly used when having others killed.

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



I don’t know how she got it, but the fact remains she got it. Maybe Harley or one of our girls gave it to her. Regardless, on one crisp February morning in 1971, I found myself arguing with Josephine, who’d somehow obtained the number for my White House bedroom telephone. She was upset that the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act I had signed into law in ’69 was not helping one of Josephine’s brothers and his new investments in some mining company in West Virginia. Her screeching on the phone frustrated me. It soon led to a headache, causing me to rub the top of my head. Up there, I could still feel the old scars, a small ridge hidden under my snowy locks. I suddenly found myself thinking once again about the time I careened into the ravine near our Camp Nelson home, taking two cars and that poor excuse of a bridge with me all the way down to the bottom of it [5]. I thought about how Josephine helped me put a large loose flap of scalp back where it belonged, doused the wounds in turpentine, and bandaged me up [6]. That thought led to me wondering just how many Americans can’t afford medical treatment for accident like that. I hung up the phone – Jo was still prattling on, and I think I absentmindedly told her “thanks a bundle, gotta go” – so I could call [H.E.W. Secretary Nelson] Rockefeller. I figured it was high time I took a firm stand for all the American men, women and children who wind up hurt in unforeseeable accidents.

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



COLONEL SANDERS CALLS FOR MORE HEALTHCARE LEGISLATION: Details Pending

With the recent events in Cambodia boosting his popularity, it appears the Colonel has decided to work, seemingly with the Democrats back in control of the House, to pass “some real meaningful” healthcare legislation. In a short announcement made at a press briefing held earlier today, the President explained, “I have recently made it to the big 8-0 milestone, and I think not enough people make it to this age. I think we should try and do something about that.”

– The New York Times, 2/17/1971



SENATE CONFIRMS SUPREME COURT NOMINEE FRANK M. JOHNSON JR., 89-11

– The Washington Post, 2/22/1971



…The Colonel’s first major disagreement with conservative Republican in 1971 arose in February, when Sanders called for the expansion of Medicare/Medicaid benefits. The move angered many politicians on the hill, even Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), who had a relationship with the President that was at times shaky but more often friendly in nature. Despite clarifying his belief that “not all of it should be controlled solely by the Federal government. Statewide and local differences should be involved as well to ensure what works best for those communities is respected and used when appropriate,” the Colonel continued to face backlash. Conservative Representatives, for instance, voiced opposition to Sanders’ newest medicine proposals by claiming they would inhibit the livelihoods of doctors. Governor Ronald Reagan of California opposed the move even further by actively working to reverse the medical laws established under his predecessor...

– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000



FIRST LADY CLAUDIA DONATES $2MILLION TO BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART

…the First Lady was attending an exhibit on 19th-century European luxury living when she announced the donation to the museum… [7]

– The Baltimore Sun, 3/2/1971




PAT BROWN UNDER FIRE FOR 1964 VAN NORMAN INSPECTION

The Sacramento Union, 3/3/1971



During the final two years of his Presidency, Colonel Sanders sided with Democrats over Republicans several times. For instance, in March 1971, arguments between Sanders and conservative Republicans (and some of the conservative Democrats) helped the Senate pass a bill that provided financial and medical aid for low-income aged and low-income disabled individuals. Spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid all increased slightly by the end of the Sanders administration as well. This careful overseeing of America’s socioeconomic situation contributed to the US poverty rate dropping from 16.7% in 1964 to 9.9% in 1973 [8].

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



“The President seems to be out for revenge for the G.O.P. rejecting his Reverend friend’s Federal Assistance Dividend proposal.”

– Former HEW Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby, National Review, early March issue



FRANK MINIS JOHNSON TAKES SEAT ON BENCH AS CHIEF JUSTICE

– The Chicago Tribune, 3/4/1971



POSTAL STRIKE ENDS: Management, Workers Agree to 10% Pay Rise As Economy Climbs

– The Guardian, 3/8/1971



…earlier today, popular 4-star US Army General Creighton Abrams was awarded another medal for leading operation that toppled Cambodia’s dictatorial Pol Pot regime. Abrams was then promoted again, this time to Chief of Staff of the Army, the most senior uniformed officer in the Department of the Army. Abrams is celebrated for his leadership skills in military operations in the nations of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia…

– The Overmyer Network Evening News, 3/9/1971



OVER 85% OF MALE BUSINESS MANAGERS ADMIT THEY ARE “UNCOMFORTABLE” WITH MENTORING WOMEN

…“We need clearer codes of conduct that are neither repressive nor ineffective,” argues Bernhard Willard Goetz Sr, a bookbinding businessman from upstate New York, “I and the men who work for me need to know what exactly the legal distinction is between honest flirtation and inhibiting a fellow employee’s workplace performance before we can feel comfortable hiring a woman.”…

– The Los Angeles Times, 3/10/1971



SANDERS SIGNS BILL INTO LAW DESIGNATING FUNDS FOR SYLMAR RELIEF

– The Washington Post, 3/12/1971



We have just confirmed reports that FBI agents have shot and killed a pro-socialist college professor resisting arrest in New York City. Lyndon LaRouche, a lecturer on Marxism at the city’s “Free School” establishment, was approached by FBI agents with a warrant for his arrest. While the charges have not been made formal, valid sources state he was being charged with espionage and treason. LaRouche had openly and publicly made several anti-government sentiments in recent years concerning America’s military activities overseas. Last month, for example, LaRouche called President Sanders “a tyrant who needs to be stopped.” After LaRouche began resisting arrest, a loyal cabal of LaRouche students attempted to physically stop the FBI officers from entering the building, but the students were overpowered. Details are currently sketchy, but for whatever reason, agents shot and killed LaRouche inside the building in question. This is a developing story…

– NBC News, 3/15/1971 broadcast



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– Colonel Sanders body doubles discuss strategy during the President’s political trip to a heavily Democrat part of Boston, Massachusetts, 3/17/1971



SUPREME COURT RULING: DUKE POWER CO. VIOLATED THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT

…Chief Justice Johnson Led the unanimous court decision just two weeks into the job… In the case of Griggs v Duke Power Co., the court determined that the public utility company Duke Power was discriminating against African-American employees via job application tests that disparately impacted ethnic groups, thus violating Title VII of the 1962 Civil Rights Act…

– The Washington Post, 3/18/1971



An unexpected side effect of the ruling was that it led to companies switching from administrating IQ tests to requiring workers to have college degrees. In his later years, as he became aware of the policy shift in more and more companies, Colonel Sanders denounced it as “discriminatory – no piece of paper or IQ test can prove if someone can’t do a job. Letting them try the job will do it!” and suggested the companies should promote or rely more often on trial periods in connection to their hiring processes.

– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



PUERTO RICO STATEMENT MOVEMENT GETTING ATTENTION

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[pic: imgur.com/1ohLJMr.png ]

…In recent months, Cesar Chavez, US Senator Joseph Montoya (D-NM), and three US Congressmen have voiced support for the idea of Puerto Rican statehood. The call stems from the crucial military role that Puerto Rico played during the Cuban War, which has in turn led to a rise in tourism and a healthier better economy in recent years. Backers also point to historical precedence – Hawaii and Alaska joined the union after playing key roles in World War II’s Pacific Theater…

The biggest hurdle for such a movement, however, would be the language barrier. While an overwhelming majority of Alaskan and Hawaiian natives spoke English at the time when our 49th and 50th states were admitted, less than 10% speak of Puerto Rican residents actually speak English fluently; over 90% of residents primarily speak Spanish as a primary language instead [9]. “A country needs its citizens to be able to understand one another – let English naturally develop more on the island before granting it statehood,” advices phonetics expert Professor... [10]

The Miami Herald, 3/19/1971




38TH STATE APPROVES 26TH AMENDEMENT: “VP Vacancy” Amendment To Become Official

The Washington Post, 3/21/1971



But the people of Corbin were more patient than the Colonel. And, despite past trends, were forgiving. They voted for my stepdad in a landslide, and continued his air-based proposal without him. And finally, after passing the feasibility study, the land approval and the hirings, and the endless piles of charts, cash flows, and construction, the Colonel Sanders Corbin Airfield opened on March 27. The product has since then proved to have been a good idea, as it did end up producing revenue for the town. And that led to it almost doubling in since from 1971 to 1979, quickly growing from a relatively famous small town to a bustling mini-metropolis of sorts...

– John F. Ruggles, WMOR 1330 AM radio, 1/8/1981 program broadcast



PM Holt Feels Heat In Australia’s Own Ms. Arkansas Scandal

…Seven female interns of five prominent national politicians, all belonging to the Liberal alliance, under which Holt governs the nation, are seeking legal action for workplace pestering. An eighth woman, a parliamentary secretary has accused her boss of attempted rape… Holt’s office has still commented on this developing story

– Mary McCarthy, reporting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 3/28/1971



Since entering office in March 19, 1965, Romania’s head of State, General Secretary Gheorghe Apostol had only continued his predecessor’s focus on left-leaning western nations such as France, and agitation toward the U.S.S.R.’s politburo. Under these conditions, Romania’s quality of life improved, while Apostol fell out of favor with even moderate Soviet leaders such as Kosygin.

Lying in wait for the chance to take Apostol’s job was Prime Minister Ion Gheorghe Maurer, who found an apparent ally in the form of Elena Ceausescu (cow-shez-coo), whom was often referred to as simply “Elena.” After the murder of her husband, most likely under the orders of Apostol’s predecessor, in 1965, Elena charmed her way into the Communist party and immersed herself into how the organization ran. In July 1967, she was elected a member of the Central Commission on Socio-Economic Forecasting, and in July 1968 became a full member of the Romanian Communist Party Central Committee. After convincing Emil Bodnaras to nominate her, she was elected to the party’s Executive Committee in July 1969. In March 1970, she was elected to Romania’s national legislature, the Great National Assembly, holding the seat for Arges County, in Romania’s important industrial region. In January 1971, Elena rose from once being a mere secretary working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to being the Minister of Foreign Affairs, where she made up for her lack for qualifications for the job and sometimes-poor understanding of geopolitics by charming the leaders of other Warsaw Pact nations with lavish dinner parties and trips.

On March 29, 1971, Maurer orchestrated a coup d’état while Apostol was visiting Austria that resulted in Maurer declaring himself the new General Secretary and Apostol seeking political asylum in East Germany. With her close ally now in power, Elena was again promoted, this time to serving as Maurer’s second-in-command. The next several weeks saw debate over how Maurer should rule internally as he repaired relations with the Soviet Union. Such talks ceased on July 12, when Maurer was shot by a sniper during a visit to a factory near Brazov. The killer successfully fled the scene.

As his successor, Elena Ceausescu became the nation’s first female General Secretary. The pro-USSR Elena being in power was acceptable to Kosygin, who was mostly preoccupied trying to improve the Soviet economy. Furthermore, members of both the Soviet and Romanian political systems saw her as the Warsaw Pact’s answer to the Ms. Arkansas Wave seemingly destabilizing western capitalist countries at the time. The logic was that the Warsaw Pact could avoid such destabilization by promoting feminism and the communist ideal of equality, and what better way then by the Soviets having a satellite nation that had a female head of state? Additionally, Elena was (at least initially) fairly popular. Her humble origins – born into peasantry in Wallachia in 1916 and failing to finish grade school – was relatable to many Romanians, whom Elena inspired by telling them that communism was “a means by which the working poor could have a larger,” or the only, “say in how the country was run.” [11]

The truth, however, was that Elena was as cunning as she crude, devious, and vindictive behind closed doors. As she was not well-educated, she instead had blackmailed and bribed her way into several government positions. Wanting to present herself as someone whose intelligence could not be questioned, Elena had used Maurer’s connections to get a PhD in chemistry 1969 despite handing in assignments clearly written by other people.

As General Secretary, an intense personality cult formed around the alleged “Mother of the Nation.” Romanian Television was quickly given strict orders to take great care portraying her on screen. For instance, she was never supposed to be shown in profile because of her large nose. [12]

The most consequential action Elena undertook, however, was the reversing of the liberalization/westernization efforts undertaken throughout the 1960s. Immediately after becoming General Secretary, Elena used the (suspicious) circumstances of her predecessor’s death to justify declaring marshal law and leading the Great National Assembly in passing several new rules that restricted travel and increased security. Under this veil of ensuring the nation’s safety, Elena sought to rule Romania with a totally totalitarian iron fist.

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Above: Elena, surrounded by five bodyguards, during an official visit to Moscow, c. August 1971

– Vladimir Tismaneanu’s Stalinism For All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Third Edition, 2023



HOST: What we’re talking about today was the Colonel’s apparent confusion during a meeting with, um, Juan, uh, Grullon, the president of the Dominican Republic, where the President kept referring to Bosch as the President of “Dominica.” Even worse, he seemed to forget the names of other attendees, and walked off the wrong side of the podium stage toward the end of the evening. Now, the White House has so far not commented on the incident, but I have seen the reports and believe the President’s age is catching up to him.

CO-HOST: I disagree, fella. The President just seemed to be tired. If I had to lead the free world, I wouldn’t have that many long night, you know? And in the President’s defense, there is a country named Dominica.

HOST: But the fact remains that as President he has the responsibility to be aware which is which.

CO-HOST: – and to get at least eight hours of sleep, I’ll give you that one –

HOST: – but I for one fear that it this incident could be the signal something much worse than mere drowsiness. After all, the President is eighty years old; the odds of him developing the early stages of, say, losing some of his faculties, are pretty high now.

CO-HOST: Uh! Being groggy and old doesn’t mean you’re not all there!

–Transcript of exchange between the Host and Co-Host of WHCV-AM, news/talk radio, 4/7/1971 broadcast



17 April 1971: On this day in history, MP Jeremy Thorpe stepped down from leading the Liberal party over revelations concerning his relationship with one Norman Scott, in a scandal often considered to be one of the many that came about during the “Ark Wave” of 1970

– onthisday.co.uk



Murphy managed to kick his gambling addiction thanks to veteran rehabilitation and addiction-combating programs set up during the third term of California Governor Pat Brown, followed by Governor Ronald Reagan’s April 1971 outlawing of all slot machines in California (a favor to the Religious Right that elected him to office), which bothered Murphy, as he disliked having to travel out of state to gamble. These factors helped Murphy to instead focus on getting out of debt, staring by appearing in numerous TV shows and, to a lesser extent, films, which also increased his fame…

– clickopedia.co.usa/Audie_Murphy



On April 29 [1971] another N1 rocket launch ended in failure, the third failure in a row. He engineer Vladimir Chelomey called it a “trial and error,” but I did not believe that we could afford any more such failures. Already, Americans were exploring moon, and while many appreciated Kosygin’s increase in some safety procedure requirements, the men were still being run ragged. Many were even being sleep deprived, causing them to be clumsy on the job.

“We must keep to the schedule,” Chelomey and his superiors would often say.

“An axman who does not stop to sharpen his blade will never finish his chores first,” I once told him.

“What the hell does that mean?” was his reply.

Finally, I said, “Vladimir, if we really have to keep to this schedule, let’s at least bring in some more workers.”

“How many more?”

“Five percent, maybe.”

He thought it over, thinking about the possibility that alleviating the work of each person could make them go faster “2-and-a-half percent”

“Deal.”

In December [1971], I was ebullient to report to Kosygin that the rate of progress had increased. I told him I was certain we could send a man to the moon in just two years. The working for said manned mission program was “Chelovechestvo,” [“Humanity” in Russian], which I found to give a positive message even if it was a bit wordy.

Among the Stars: The Autobiography of Yuri Gagarin, 1995



…Specifically, Father invited the Beatles in to the East Room, the main reception room and largest room in the White House. John Lennon’s wife Cynthia Powell joined Father, Maggie, Claudia and I, along with Linda McCartney, Maureen Starr, and Pattie Harrison.

During the informal shindig, John spent much of the talking politics with Father and sharing witty jokes and comebacks. George stuck out as the quietest of the four, not exactly an introvert but still the least talkative of the three. During the few moments when he did talk, it was cynical in nature. He sharply contrasted Ringo, the proverbial life of the party, who reportedly kept the group’s spirits high after the attempt on their lives. Maggie, a fan of the band, practically through herself at Paul.

The four seemed relieved to not have to talk about their music and instead just take a breather from the industry in which they worked. Toward the end of the evening, George summed up their occupation as “arduous and sometimes unrewarding.” Ringo added, “We all spend countless hours perfecting our songs, but nobody ever cares about that side of the scene, you know?” Father retorted with the notion, “Friends, family, laughter, love – those are the things that really make life rich and worth living. It’s the same stuff that is supposed to make the hard work you do in life worth doing. I work for the love of my friends, family, and country. When you work, you should work for those kind of things – that’ll make all the hard work worth it.”

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



An example of unsung heroism featuring the women being trained began in April 1971, when astronaut Scott Carpenter (b. 1925) was injured in a fire during a testing of Apollo 17’s exhaust system. Carpenter was ultimately cleared for service and landed on moon with Roger Chaffee and Alan Bean in mid-May 1971, but in 1987, Carpenter revealed what was once well-known within the walls of NASA – that trainee Janet Dietrich’s quick thinking during the fire saved his life. Her bravery and action impressed NASA’s higher-ups...

Time Magazine, 1991 commemorative issue



LT GOV. FLETCHER’S OFFICE BOMBED, 1 KILLED

Olympia, WA – A small explosion shook both the state capitol and its political world earlier today. A bomb detonated in the office of Lieutenant Governor Arthur Fletcher, killing Fletcher’s bodyguard and chauffer, a one Theodore Robert Bundy. Fletcher, who is an African-American Republican, was the likely intended target, according to police officials. Racist individuals and groups have been sending Fletcher death threats ever since his 1968 campaign and subsequent victory in a year favoring Republicans. None of those threats, however, were this severe. The bomb detonated at a time when Bundy was retrieving papers for Fletcher to review at the Lieutenant Governor’s home. Nobody else was injured or killed in the bombing.

The Olympian, Washington State newspaper, 4/14/1971



…In the case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Ed, the US Supreme Court has ruled 6-to-3 that busing students to promote integration is constitutional but cannot be enforced onto parents who refuse to partake in it. Chief Justice Johnson led the majority with Associate Justices Sarah T. Hughes, William O. Douglas, William Brennan, Hugo Black, and Tom C. Clark, while John M. Harlan led the dissident with Edward H. Levi and Potter Stewart...

– NBC News, 4/20/1971



UNNAMED ENOCH POWELL STAFFERS ACCUSED OF WORKPLACE IMPROPRIETY

The Guardian, 29/4/1971



“TOMMYOKO” ADOPT A SECOND CHILD

…“artistic power couple” Tommy Chong and Yoko Ono has adopted an infant girl from the war-torn Kingdom of Laos…

– The Hollywood Reporter, side article, 5/1/1971



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– US President Harland “Colonel” Sanders walking on the south lawn of the White House, approaching a podium to announce the end of active US military activities in Cambodia, 5/2/1971; the subsequent gradual withdrawal of American troop would last six months



WITH "THE TROUBLES" DYING DOWN, KFC FINALLY COMES TO NORTHERN IRELAND!

…the three restaurants are located in Belfast, Bangor and Newcastle, and are expected to help the local economy… KFC opened others restaurants earlier this year in the Republic of Ireland: one at coastal Dundalk, near the border dividing the Emerald Isle, and the other in the city of Waterford…

The Boston Globe, 5/2/1971



In February 1971, Senator Gravel sent a letter to the US Atomic Energy Commission hearings held in Anchorage. In it, Gravel proclaimed their planned testing of nuclear material to be not worth the risk of potential consequences to the environment in the earthquake prone region of Amchitka Island, which was being prepped for said tests (which were scheduled for May). The commission replied that such testing had already been scaled back significantly since 1969, but Gravel was joined in the call for the cancellation of the test by Senators Ernest Gruening (D-AK), Wayne Morse (D-OR), and Ted Sorensen (D-NE), and Representatives John E. Moss (D-CA3) and Trudy Cooper (D-SD2). Believing that “The Colonel needs to go even farther if he truly wants there to be no nuclear wars,” Gravel personally met with the Colonel, but, according to some historians, Gravel failed to explain when and where the test should occur, if not on the remote Amchitka Island.

Gravel next took the case to the US Supreme Court, which declined to issue an injunction against the testing; the test occurred three months later, as planned. Later in the year, however, Gravel sponsored a bill to impose a moratorium on all nuclear power plant construction and to make power utilities liable for any nuclear accidents. The bill came at a time when many American people and politicians considered nuclear energy to be a cleaner energy source and a better use of nuclear/atomic energy. Gravel’s activism eventually culminated in the December 1971 Atomic Liability Act, stipulating nuclear power companies would be held responsible for fatal nuclear accidents, but the act included no moratoriums. Nevertheless, Gravel proudly touted the bill as a success.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Mike_Gravel



Colonel Parker sought to capitalize off the success of Elvis’ tour of Europe, for which Parker opted to stay in the states and monitor the situation through constant phone calls to Vernon and Priscilla… Inspired by President Sanders’s historic visit to China in 1968 [13], Parker began preparing for a “worldwide celebration of Elvis.” Finally the day came on May 8, 1971; the long-awaited “Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite” live Elvis performance broadcast was an even bigger success than the Elvis in Europe tour…

– Ernst Jorgensen’s Elvis and the Two Colonels: Day by Day, Ballantine Books, 1999



OPINION: WALLACE STILL APPEASING BLACKS AHEAD OF PRESIDENTIAL BID

…Governor Wallace’s most recent attempt to alter our state, this new “Equal Tenant Treatment” law, is an attack on landlords and homeowners who wish to not lower their property values…

Birmingham News, opinion piece, 5/11/1971



…earlier today, President Sanders gave a speech calling for businesses and congress to support employee mandates that offer better private health insurance to more employees. The President also called for more funding for programs to help single mothers with minor children such as day care funding, pointing to the long-term success of federal school programs passed in his first term…

– The Overmyer Network Evening News, 5/12/1971



…And in tonight’s Republican primary for Governor, good ol’ Robison won over former nominee Louis Nunn. Robison was strongly endorsed by President Colonel Sanders, but the fact that Nunn won roughly 35% of the primary vote makes this reporter think that support for the Colonel is dropping – that the Colonel’s endorsement is no longer strong enough to bury political opponents, uh, metaphorically-speaking…

– WSFC (1240 AM), 5/25/1971 broadcast



…So, for y’all that may not have already heard, former governor Happy Chandler has won Democratic primary for Governor. Here’s a breakdown of what happened. First off, Happy face divided opposition. He was running against another former Governor, uh, Bert Combs, state Senator Wendell Ford, and several others who all together won about 4 or 5 percent of the total vote tonight. Second, Chandler has finally embraced the campaign features of the modern era, getting himself on TV and so on. Thirdly, while the other fellas in the run were eloquent and longwinded, Chandler was the only one who seemed to actually answer any of the questions asked on the campaign trail. He’s certainly learned from his previous unsuccessful bids. We’ll now just have to wait and see if he can beat incumbent Governor Robsion in, uh, November…

– WVLK (AM), 5/25/1971 broadcast



U.S. SENATE PANEL CONSIDERS EXPANDING, REFORMING PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY VOTING SYSTEM

– The New Hampshire Gazette, 5/12/1971



30 March 1971: House of Commons member Lord Lambton is accused of attempting to recruit two underage women he apparently mistook for call girls

26 April 1971: an aide to Powell’s Home Secretary resigns over allegations of sexual pestering.

13 May 1971: Lord Lambton resigns from government after his arrest for soliciting minors; he is ultimately acquitted.

14 May 1971: the Earl Jellicoe of the House of Lords admits to having had “some casual affairs” with call girls in the wake of an accidental confusion with Lord Lambton’s prostitution scandal. The name Jellicoe emerged as a result of a connection between Lambton and Lambton visiting a Somers Town tenement house called Jellicoe Hall, named after the Earl Jellicoe’s distant cousin Basil Jellicoe (1899-1935). Nevertheless, the admission led to him resigning from his position in the government.

8 July 1971: an aide to the Mayor of London is arrested for attempted rape of a female co-worker; he is ultimately acquitted.

– clickopedia.co.uk/The_Mrs._Arkansas_Wave/UK_ripples



SENATOR TOM DODD IS DEAD AT 64

– The Connecticut Post, 5/24/1971



Governors Wallace, Castro, And Sawyer Join Democratic Senators Calling For Expansion Of Party Presidential Primaries

– The Sacramento Union, 5/27/1971



HOLT BEATS WHITLAM IN PM ELECTION, BUT LIBERAL-ALLIANCE MAJORITY GREATLY DIMINISHED

– The Sydney Morning Herald, 28/5/1971



I had big shoes to fill after the [1963] death my father and the founder of Wal-Mart. I was young and not too experienced and almost ran this company into the ground. By May 1971, when I was 26, it felt like the banks were closing in on me. I was ready to throw in the towel. But with the help of family, friends, the good people of Arkansas, and the Colonel Sanders deregulation and tax incentive policies, we managed to expand Wal-Mart from a small chain of discount stores in Arkansas into an impressive franchise – stores were founded in, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma by 1972, and we expanded into eastern Texas and Missouri by 1973. And now look at us, our store, Father’s dream – an enterprise of over 2,100 stores strewn across 34 states. And our net total revenue this year, fellow Wal-Marters? (pause) $1.2 billion – our best year in nearly a decade! I couldn’t be prouder of all of you!”

– S. Robson “Rob” Walton (net worth: $2billion) at a private business-dinner function, 2/5/2013



GOP GOVERNOR VENTRES APPOINTS WOMAN MAYOR, ANTONINA P. UCCELLO, TO VACANT U.S. SENATE SEAT

– The Connecticut Post, 6/1/1971



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– Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA) eating KFC at a political function, 6/3/1971



On June 4, 1971, the vote composition ended up being 6-to-3: Chief Justice Frank Minis Johnson, John M. Harlan, and Potter Stewart sided with Kuhn, while Edward H. Levi, Sarah T. Hughes, Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, and William Brennan sided with Curt Flood. Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, baseball qualified as an interstate commerce, and the reserve clause violated the act. And with the dismantling of barring players from negotiating signing onto other terms for the first year after leaving a team, the court case effectively opened the door for Free Agency in major league baseball.

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



“I’d also like to take this moment to thank Senator Mondale for supporting this bill. Fritz has been in my corner since my mayoral run in 1947. He’s co-sponsored Medicare with me, and actively supported the Civil Rights Act with me. It’s nice to know that I can trust the Senator that I always sit next to in the chamber.”

– Hubert Humphrey at Democratic Party fundraiser in D.C., 6/5/1971



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– US Senators Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey, prior to either one publicly announcing their Presidential aspirations, c. May 1971



…Governor Phil Hoff (D-VT) signs into law today the Free Health Care Act, establishing a “universal healthcare system” for the state of Vermont… The legislation is reportedly based on and inspired by the legislation passed in Canada in August 1969 during their previous Paul Hellyer government…

– The Boston Globe, 6/7/1971



Détente’s continuation into 1971 is evident by the signing of the Strategic Planetary International Care Elucidation (S.P.I.C.E.) Treaty in June of that year. Meant to clarify the parts of the 1968 Strategic Universal Geopolitical Arms Reduction (S.U.G.A.R.) Treaty concerning the disposing of hazardous nuclear material in regards to transportation over international borders, the treaty was minor in scope. However, because the meeting in Geneva between Sanders and Kosygin developed an almost friendly atmosphere, with the two leaders smiling and telling jokes after the official ceremony, gave to many high hopes for the future.

– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017



SENATOR MONDALE ANNOUNCES PRESIDENTIAL BID IN EARLY MOVE

Minneapolis Star, 6/15/1971



Mondale: A Better Direction For the 1970s

– Mondale ’72 Slogan



COURTS STRIKE DOWN QUEBEC’S LANGUAGE BILL

Quebec’s Bill 203 [14], which would have made French the only official language in the province of Quebec, was struck down by the Canadian judicial system today on the grounds that English-speaking Natives would be at a disadvantage. …A major concern was that English-speaking motorists driving through the province could be endangered by French-only road signs. …A possible resolution may be to make English the province’s official “secondary language,” which would require it to be used on all road signs and public information signs, but would not make it a require it to teach it in schools in Quebec...

– The Kimberley Daily Bulletin, Canadian newspaper, 6/18/1971



As was the case in 1967, Humphrey decides against an active campaign for President. This time, however, it was over concerns for his wife, the introverted Muriel. In June of 1971, Humphrey spoke with freshman Senator John Glenn, whose wife Anne suffered at the time from a speech impediment. Glenn reportedly told the former Vice President “publicity is doing a number on her, and she’s a brave trooper.” Humphrey mulled back, “yes, and we just had a Senate race. But a Presidential race… More cameras, more prying eyes than anyone would, could, or should ever want.” Glenn would later write, “Politics can, have and will break up families. From what I have seen, I can say one definitive thing – when running for public office, your family has to be all-in on it. Not reluctantly, but willingly. All in.” Humphrey heeded Glenn’s advice, and determined that his positioning for the nomination was even more secure than it was four years ago, when Johnson’s Folley (i.e., Cuba) still lingered in the air and Kennedy managed to secure a large portion of the opposing vote. But in 1971, anti-Humphrey opposition seemed fractured. Humphrey ergo treated the race as a stroll instead of a marathon.

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



FIRST WOMEN ASTRONAUTS SELECTED!

Hundreds have women have traveled to training centers in Texas and Florida with the hopes of enduring a rigorous months-long training process. While over two dozen women have been hired for their ground testing programs, NASA hired the best five of the women for special training to actually go into space:

Jerrie Cobb: the unofficial leader of the “Lunar Ladies” movement, Cobb is now closer to achieving her goal of going to space than ever before.

Janet & Marion Dietrich: with these 44-year-old identical twin sisters, NASA may be able to study how spending time in space physically affects the human body.

Jane Briggs Hart: at 49, Hart is the oldest woman to be selected by the program. Her marriage to a now-former Senator was the source of much contention over her presence in the training program, and received flak from both media outlets and her fellow would-be “woman-nauts” for supposed political influence.

Irene H. Leverton: this 43-year-old aspiring moonwalker is a pilot and flight instructor who partook in the original 1961 trainings.

Emily H. Warner: at 32, this longtime-flying Coloradan is the youngest of the women hired to go into space.

– The Miami Herald, 6/22/1971



While I never experienced it, I do remember how many of the women who quit later claimed they dropped out because of the men at NASA created a hostile environment. Some even claimed some of the guys violating their privacy at whatnot. While I do remember one trainee who dropped out finding her locker broken into and filled with dildos, I think that really says more about the guys than us. I mean, where did the guys even get them? But like I said, I never experienced anything that wasn’t professional or friendly kidding around. We were there to get a job done, not to goof off and then some. Or, possibly, maybe the male astronauts were just too nervous to hit on us, what with the Ms. Arkansas Wave still going strong at the time and the heads NASA heavily monitoring our interactions with the guys, and visa-versa.

– Emily Warner, 2019 interview



SCRANTON TOASTS MITTERAND DURING PARIS VISIT

– The Washington Post, 6/27/1971



As the year progressed, Vice President Scranton’s increasing visibility in the administration led to whispers suggesting that the Man from PA was the one truly in charge, and not the octogenarian-in-chief. In reality, the Colonel had taken a liking to his younger understudy, and wanted to help him “become a household name” ahead of the 1972 Presidential election, according to Harley Sanders.

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



The drink was a family devil that not even Ted could defeat. We thought it wasn’t too serious until the incident. On July 7, 1971, Ted drove his Bentley off part of the highway to Reno and slide down a hillside until its rocky surface turned the car to the driver’s side before tipping it onto its top before the car stopped at the hill’s bottom. Ted received a broken arm and nobody else was injured, but Ted was arrest for driving drunk. Knowing the future of his newspaper – and more importantly, the future of our marriage – was at stake, Ted did the right thing, which coincidently was exactly what I told him to do. Ted held a press briefing on the 28th, wherein he admitted, “I am not proud of the fact that I am an alcoholic, but rest assured that I will be taking a leave of absence from the Union to begin counseling.” Years later, Ted would claim that the incident opened his eyes to the dangers of the drink, and the experience made him a stronger person. The experience also was what sparked his famous passion for healthcare and Alcoholics Anonymous...

– Joan Bennett Kennedy’s There Are Always Two Tomorrows: My Life in an American Dynasty, Centurion Publishers, 1999



POWELL FLIPS, FIRES “ARKIED” STAFFERS

…The decision is a reversal of his initial refusal to “abandon to the wolves” the staffers in question. …Sources state Powell had grown concerned in recent days over increasingly poor approval polling, and aides have been “repeatedly” reminding him of the political ramifications of the Ms. Arkansas Wave in the United States midterms of November 1970. “Powell has the next general election to think about, and maintaining the confidence of his own party, which has been waning as of late, is pivotal if he wants to stay in power.”

– The Guardian, 7/7/1971



MONDALE IS AN OPPORTUNIST: After Twelve Uneventful Years in the US Senate, Minnesotans Should Not Support His The Presidential Bid.

– Rep. Al Quie (R-MN), The Star Tribune, 7/9/1971 op-ed



Mondale is a friend and ally of unions. Never forget it was the unions that got child labor outlawed, brought us the 8-hour workday, worked in favor of healthcare plans such as maternity leave and sick leave, got us weekends and vacation time, and promote social security and Medicare and Medicaid. And Fritz Mondale supports all of those things, and consistently has ever since I appointed him to the Senate in 1961.

– Former Governor Orville Freeman, 7/10/1971 radio interview



In July 1971, under the advice of then-Congressman Ben Reifel, President Sanders recommended self-determination for Indian tribes to be a goal for the federal government to achieve before the end of his term. A year later, Sanders signed into law the 1972 Indian Self-Determination and Development Assistance Act, which allowed for federal government agencies to enter into contracts with federally recognized tribes – contracts which would assure tribes would have more control over funds used for their needs.

Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life, University of California Press, 1997



STRONG FISCAL QUARTER BOOSTS D.O.W. AS ECONOMY STILL GROWING STRONG

– The Wall Street Journal, 7/16/1971



Burger Chef was founded in 1957, three years after brothers Frank Thomas Jr. and Donald Thomas, operators of the General Equipment Corporation of Indianapolis, Indiana, patented a flame broiler and soon opened a restaurant in Indianapolis.

The Thomas brothers knew McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc back when they sold competing soft ice-cream machines in the early 1950s. The Thomas brothers, with their brother-in-law Robert Wildman, decided to enter the burger business after manufacturing a hamburger broiler for Burger King co-founder David Edgerton. Deciding to mimic McDonald’s company system but needing a unique angle for development, Burger Chef followed a strategy of opening franchises in small towns; by the time General Foods acquired Burger Chef in 1968, the restaurant had over 800 locations. Under new management, Burger Chef locations quickly spread out to over 1,000 nationwide by 1971, making it a burger giant on par with McDonald’s, and surpassing the availability of Burger King and KFC’s Wendyburger Menu.

At the start of the 1970s, however, the burger market began becoming saturated, and Burger Chef’s expansion strategy was beginning to fail as underperforming sales, especially ones in franchises in poor locations, caused the company’s yearly earnings to actually drop for 1970. General Foods went back to basics and sought out better locations. They also slowed growth to focus on quality and customer satisfaction.

This led to the 1971 introduction of “the Works Bar,” where customers added their own toppings from a wide variety of choices; the move set Burger Chef apart from the rest; following this was their 1973 “FunMeal” toy line for children, which was “the inspiration” behind McDonald’s “McHappy Meal” toy line of the 1980s.

Rival company’s responded to Burger Chef’s rise in different ways. The KFC Company, under the leadership of CEO Mildred Sanders, believed in Dave Thomas’s Wendyburger, and did not address the competition directly. McDonald’s CEO June Martino, however, decided to not take any chances, and began a second “burger war” to trounce the company’s latest competition. “Whenever a Burger Chef opened in a small town, McDonald’s was quick to open one of their own restaurants somewhere nearby, whether it was in the city next door, or right down the block,” states Martino’s former secretary...

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Above: Burger Chef’s logo in the early 1970s

– R. J. Anderson’s Burger Chef: A History, Arcadia Publishing, republished 2019



...In political news, the state of Mississippi is reeling from an ethics scandal. The Jackson grand jury has indicted, or formally charged, the Chief of Staff of the state’s Governor, Republican Rubel Phillips, for accepting bribes in exchange for supporting state contracts in his role as an advisor to Phillips...

– NBC News, 7/26/1971 broadcast



ANCHOR: Earlier today, senior rights advocate Maggie Kuhn sat down with President Sanders at the White House.

KUHN (in footage): “Old people and women constitute America’s biggest untapped and undervalued human energy source.” [15]

ANCHOR: Kuhn is an active promoter of “elder rights” activities such as nursing home reform, mental health studies, and anti-ageism organizations. Last year, upon being forced to retire from her job for the Presbyterian Church at the age of 65, Kuhn founded the Gray Americans Organization to promote the aforementioned causes, as well as to promote peace and truth-in-advertising legislation. [snip] …The G.A.O. has found support among young women, with Kuhn stating, quote, “adolescents should be taken seriously and given more responsibilities by society. With their wit and energy, they too are a valuable human resource to squander.” Kuhn has also claimed that retirement homes are “glorified playpens” that isolate elderly people from the rest of society, quote, “shunning them for living for so long.” At her meeting with the President, the two reportedly discussed how to address concerns of age-based prejudice in the American workplace and workforce…

– ABC News, 7/29/1971 broadcast



COLONEL SANDERS DONATES QUARTERLY SALARY TO TWO VETERANS ORGANIZATIONS

…the Marine Corps League a Congressionally-chartered organization, while the Retired Enlisted Association is a non-profit organization working to better the quality of life for enlisted soldiers and their families...

Stars And Stripes, 7/30/1971



PRIMARY REFORM DEVELOPMENT: More State Governors Agree At NGA Meeting To Host Presidential Primaries Next Year

– The Washington Post, 8/1/1971



MONROE AND FONDA SET CO-STAR IN CONTROVERSIAL NEW FILM

…While currently unclear of how audiences will respond to it, critics are already deriding the currently-untitled film’s premise. The studio’s press release describes the synopsis as follows: “When abused housewife Francesca (Marilyn Monroe) finds $7,000 dollars in a suitcase, she decides to seek out a better life – one without depending on her abusive husband Joe (Robert Wagner) for financial support – by using the money to secretly take night courses. Soon Francesca befriends a librarian named Lyra (Jane Fonda) who, after years of being sexual pestered by him, seeks to murder her boss (Peter Sellers). All while a mysterious duo track down the lost suitcase.” The script was written late last year…

– The Hollywood Reporter, 8/3/1971



“Well, it was an average day in Constantinople. It was peaceful – people were concerned over making a living than stirring up trouble. See, we usually got along with neighbors of different religions due to co-dependency – people other faiths contributed to the community through their trade or their skills or their wares, and so were cherished and loved. There was no need to fight until others convinced others to think otherwise. Idle hands are the devil’s playground, and apparently, the Bulgarians had very idle hands. I remember hearing the clamor, people running past my store window, and sirens going off. A went out and saw smoke rising. One of the Christian houses of worship – one of the important ones – was burning. You don’t need to be Christian to feel bad, to feel sorry for such a horrible sight as a House of God on fire. God doesn’t do harm to good people – but bad people do. A fortunately, for the sake of everyone, the bad people responsible were caught almost immediately!”

– Witness in 2001 interview for documentary of Greco-Turkish relations



ARSONISTS DAMAGE ICONIC GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH! [16]

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 5/8/1971




EXTRA!: GREEK POLICE CLAIM CHURCH ARSONISTS ARE BULGARIAN SPIES!

– The New York Post, 8/6/1971



“Alright, what on earth’s going on in Turkey this time?”

– President Harland “Colonel” Sanders to his foreign policy personnel, 8/5/1971 (multiple sources)



At the start of the 1970s decade, the Seventh Department of the First Main Directorate of the Bulgarian DS, or “State Security” (essentially, Bulgaria’s K.G.B.) developed “Operation Cross,” a plan to start a confrontation between the nations of Greece and Turkey, which the developers believed would compel the United States into “choosing a side.” The confrontation would arise from the destruction-by-fire of The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Turkey, which is a highly valued part of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches. The goal of the operation was to, eventually, pull the side “abandoned” by the U.S. into the Warsaw Pact via stoking anti-western sentiment, or, at the very least, destabilize N.A.T.O.’s east Mediterranean front. The Deputy Head of the Directorate, believing their destabilizing of the region would impress the Soviet Union, approved the plan in early 1970.

The “Bulgarian Plot,” as the operation was later called outside of Bulgaria, called for three Bulgarian agents (two being secret Turkish collaborators recruited by January 31) to study the location in question by November 30, 1970; determine places that would be best for the placement of incendiary devices by March 15; and the sending of two more agents, both professional arsonists, to the location by April 30. [17]

– clickopedia.co.usa/The_Bulgaria_Plot




Operation Cross was finalized in May, ahead of schedule. However, while Bulgaria’s defense personnel, led by Defense Minister Dobri Dzhurov, approved of the plan, the nation’s leader, Bulgaria’s leader, Todor Zhivkov, was generally cautious and was unwilling to risk squandering the past decade of warming Greek-Bulgaria relations (much to the irritation of the USSR) for such a risky and blood-spilling ploy. According to the testimony of their former aides, Dzhurov and Zhivkov argued over the plan for weeks, with Dzhurov accusing Zhivkov of being either “a puppet of the Soviets” or “a spineless puppet of the Soviets” at some point in July. Furthermore, while Yuri Andropov of the Soviet Union’s KGB supported the plan, Soviet Premier Kosygin did not. In early August 1971, the Seventh Department of the First Main Directorate executed the plan, though on whose orders remains uncertain. Analysts are certain Bulgaria’s Zhivkov would not have executed the plan without Soviet approval first.

Thus, the question the Colonel, the US Defense department, the CIA, and the Greek and Turkish governments wished to answer was who had given the order.

“It’s luck that they were caught red-handed,” the Colonel noted.

“Actually, sir, it’s incredibly unfortunate,” Bonesteel explained. The Secretary of Defense and his aides explained how the intelligence and security apparatuses of both Greece and Turkey had greatly improved since the 1969 Turkish Missile Crisis. Both Turkish and Greek agents picked up on Bulgarian agent activity in the area, and noted how similar their actions were to the instigators of a bombing of a museum in Thessaloniki, during a hostile period between Turkey and Greece reached a peak in September 1955. The fact that the Greek and Turkish agents failed to stop the Bulgarian agents before they could set fire to the church was a failure in the eyes of Greek and Turkish officials.

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



DIED: ATHENAGORAS I, 85, ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH

The spiritual leader of 125 million Eastern Christians, died in Istanbul while hospitalized for a broken hip sustained in a fall last Thursday, when an arson attack on the city’s religiously important Ecumenical Patriarchate created chaotic panic and disarray in the city. The Greek-born, white-bearded, 6-foot 4-inch prelate became Ecumenical Patriarch in 1948 after seventeen years in New York as Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America.

Newsweek, 8/8/1971



With the ecumenical see empty, the church looked for a successor, and found one in Makarios III. Having served simultaneously as the Archbishop of Cyprus and Primate of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus since 1950 and as the President of Cyprus since 1960, Makarios was a controversial figure amidst the move the absorb Cyprus into the nation of Greece. Greeks in Greece and Cyprus approved of the choice as a means of allowing Makarios to relinquish the Presidency for a “promotion,” while Turks in Turkey and Cyprus approved of removing a man seen as a nuisance whom was difficult to work with.

Ironically, the burning of the church actually eased tensions between Greece and Turkey by removing a controversial figure from the equation and giving the two nations a shared enemy – animosity toward Bulgaria lingered on in both nations for decades. The “Bulgaria Plot” had backfired by strengthening the region.

On August 12, Alexei Kosygin, having already disavowed all knowledge of the Bulgaria Plot, accused Bulgaria of “acting alone” in a phone call to President Sanders.

“I want to believe him,” said the Colonel, “because we’ve gotten along well before. But he’s the leader of the enemy, and he’s got to back up his words with some evidence.” The CIA concurred.

On August 15, agents working for Kosygin discovered flight logs showing that KGB head Yuri Andropov had flown to Bulgaria on July 28. Rather than firing Andropov for “going over his head,” Kosygin instead “tightened Andropov’s leash.” On August 17, Kosygin ordered Zhivkov to fire Dzhurov for insubordination; Zhivkov but as he was told. Dzhurov, failing to gather enough support to lead a planned coup in early 1973, moved to East Germany in the summer of 1972 “for health concerns.”

The whole situation left a feeling of awkwardness between Sanders and Kosygin that would last for months.

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



TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE GIVES WALLACE HONORARY DEGREE

…the governor is following through on his 1970 pledge to double the number of black voter registrars in Alabama’s 67 counties: a report last month shows an increase of 67%.

– The Birmingham News, 8/15/1971



COLONEL SANDERS BACKS PEPPER IDEA: Florida Rep.’s Push For Senior Rights Act Gaining Strength

…Claude Pepper, head of the newly-created House Select Committee on Aging, is making his way around Capitol Hill, gathering support for a proposed “Senior Rights Act,” also referred to as an “Elderly Rights Act,” which would outlaw ageist discrimination policies in all 50 states. Pepper is also getting his fellow lawmakers on the committee to head investigations and hearings into activist Maggie Kuhn’s claims of abuse occurring in retirement homes nationwide…

– The Miami Herald, 8/30/1971



Geopolitical trends

Tensions between the Cold War era’s superpowers were “cool” at the start of the decade, as the proxy confrontations of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to a period of détente, arguably led by USSR leader Alex Kosygin, who sought to stabilize his country’s internal political chaos following the Shelepin and Inauri periods. The US’s President Sanders cooled tensions with China to impede their support of communist organizations in southern Asia and to prevent war from breaking out on the Korean peninsula, significantly altering Cold War dynamics and opening Red China to the west.

Music

Musicians that either dominated, or rose to fame in, the 1960s, such as Bob Dylan and Tommy Chong, faded in popularity as newcomers such as Ambient Rock morphed into Razor Rock, its vanguards being groups such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and other performers that adhered to a younger coming-of-age audience of listeners. Women’s bands/singers such as Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt rose to prominence in the 1970s as well. These female performers reflected in their music the increasingly flexible and expanding variety of gender roles for women in the workforce of western countries, though an overwhelming majority of men remained the sole or primary breadwinners of households worldwide.

Film

The 1968 opening of the US and China’s economies to each other led to the introduction of Bruce Lee to American and western audiences.

[snip]

Television

…The UK’s Dixon of Dock Green had a “bold” episode concerning rape that was controversial, but was nevertheless an early highlight of British television’s move to “realism” in its programming, as also seen in Doctor Who, Z-Cars, and Z-Cars’ spinoff series (“Softly, Softly”) [18]. …Many members of baby boomer generation came of age during the 1970s, and they demanded “barrier-free” programs. Expanding beyond the typical sitcom tropes and styles of the 1960s, '70s saw an increase in program diversity. These changing demands were the result of the “Ms. Arkansas Wave,” popularized by the British as “The Ark Wave,” “The Ms. Arkie Wave” or “The Arkie Wave.” Programs such as All My Children and All in the Family addressed “the boon of the Women’s Liberation movement” while still focusing more on the lives of housewives. The Carol Burnett Show adapted to the changing times too. Concurrently, the big four (NBC, CBS, ABC, and TON) produced numerous shows for the purpose of capitalizing off the Ark Wave, such as Police Women, Wonder Woman, Maude, and spinoffs such as The Bionic Woman. The Overmyer Network was quick to set themselves apart from the older three major networks with more programs appeasing to younger and more progressive audiences.

At the same time, the subject of war began to be presented in movies and television in less glamorous ways, with shows such as M*A*S*H covering not only the physical destruction brought about by warfare, but the psychological damage it created as well...

…Audiences were treated to a growing range of shows starring African-American actors can could be enjoyed by all races; the decade’s first major hit of such kind was Redd Foxx’s Sanford and Son, but more programs arose as the decade progressed…

– clickopedia.co.usa/1970s/popular_culture



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[pic: imgur.com/8l6xTx8.png ]

– A painting of Colonel Sanders, c. 1971; The Colonel was a prominent figure in pop culture during and long after his Presidency, both in the US and abroad



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] All italicized portions are pulled from this informative article: www.bittersoutherner.com/ollies-trolley-worlds-greatest-hamburger
[2] Source: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v66n1/v66r…
[3] Statistic found here: www.nymag.com/news/features/crime/2008/42603/index5.html, which also states that IOTL, the number of murders in NY actually rose, from 746 in 1967 to 1,117 in 1970.
[4] Idea for the dam to fail courtesy of @Unknown. Here, the war in Cuba going on led to less time, energy, resources, and attention being allocated to the dam’s needs, leading to the dam’s water level not being lowered enough to prevent disaster like it did IOTL. As for the death toll, I looked at the records of other collapsed dams on Wikipedia for comparison, and considered the people evacuating ahead of the aftershock. If 1,100 seems too low, please say so.
[5] Found here: https://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/: (page 10): the car accident in November 1926 occurred when the Sanders’ were living in Camp Nelson, KY, and Sanders was working for the Michelin Tire Company; he owned two cars, a fancy Maxwell car and an old Model T Ford.
[6] Edited version of a quote found here: https://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/: (page 12): “Josephine helped her husband put a large loose flap of scalp back where it belonged, doused the wounds in turpentine, and bandaged him up.”
[7] According to the reviews on her 1980 biography found here: https://www.amazon.com/Claudia-story-Colonel-Harland-Sanders/dp/0891441026, Claudia’s personality was “mundane,” and she cared very much about the “styles of European and Asian” living.
[8] Based on this chart: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Number_in_Poverty_and_Poverty_Rate%2C_1959_to_2017.png (however, the Cuba War caused the rate to be lower than IOTL until 1963, when the Salad Oil Recession propelled it to higher than IOTL)
[9] See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Puerto_Rico#Population_at_large
[10] This entry is based on @Jackson_Lennock’s interesting thread/thought found here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/would-a-60s-cuban-war-result-in-puerto-rican-statehood.471661/#post-19221193
[11] Quote is from here: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/21/elena-ceausescu/
[12] Italicized segment pulled from her Wikipedia article.
[13] The OTL Hawaii broadcast was “inspired by [the 1972] visit made by U.S. President Richard Nixon to China,” according to this source: Guralnick, Peter; Jorgensen, Ernst (1999). Elvis: Day by Day. Ballantine Books. ISBN978-0-345-42089-3.
[14] Basically an early version of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language brought about due to the alternate Quebec controversies of TTL’s 1960s under the Hellyer and extended Diefenbacker premierships.
[15] OTL quote.
[16] Idea taken from here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-greek-turkish-war-in-1971.468559/
[17] Specifics covered here: www.archeologyinbulgaria.com/2018/02/28/communist-bulgarias-intelligence-plotted-gree
[18] Before anyone asks, I know absolutely nothing about Doctor Who (apart from the fact that the franchise is too large for me to become invested in it at this point in my life), so please forgive me for the lack of any details here.



Also, here: I made a poll for the 1972 Democratic primaries!: https://www.strawpoll.me/18421942

And here’s a breakdown of the candidates, both declared and undeclared, found on the poll:

Governor Mario Biaggi of New York (b. 1917, age 55) – proudly declaring himself the quintessential law-and-order candidate; Biaggi was the race’s early frontrunner, but now is facing criticism for his handling of the Attica prison riot-turned-massacre; still, the moderate is confident that he can bring together enough white-ethnic and suburban voters to form a “New Deal-like” coalition that can win him the nomination.

Former Governor Edmund Gerald “Pat” Brown of California (b. 1905, age 67) – after presiding over 12 years of economic growth, Brown is running on his moderate-to-liberal record (despite the controversies sprinkled throughout it) as governor of The Golden State and on his ability to be a unifying candidate in past elections.

Former Governor Robert Patrick “Bob” Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania (b. 1932, age 40) – the moderate “boy governor” has blue-collar appeal and could win over the youth vote, but some are concerned that his Catholic faith will doom him in the general election, as some have suggested that this was a contributing factor to the defeat the Democratic party’s last Catholic nominee, Jack Kennedy, who was nominated just four years ago.

Representative Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm of New York (b. 1924, age 48) – this African-American woman is mounting a serious campaign focused on bringing together a coalition of working-class voters from all ethnic groups; a progressive supporter of civil rights and women’s rights, her candidacy will at the very least provide a fresh perspective for multiple issues, or at the very most make for a historic and unprecedented campaign.

Retired Admiral John Geraerdt Crommelin Jr. of Alabama (b. 1902, age 70) – having spent 30 years in the US Navy, this perennial candidate brings military experience to the table and wants to greatly expand the US’s military capabilities and have the US take a firmer stand against Communism on the world stage; however, as a staunch defender of racial segregation and white supremacist talking points, who has run for public office several times since 1950 as a Democratic, Independent, or third-party candidate, he will have trouble winning over voters in a party that is quickly evolving away from such political positions; as if to emphasize how out-of-step he is with the national Democratic party, he has refused to debate Chisholm face-to-face.

Senator Maurice Robert “Mike” Gravel of Alaska (b. 1930, age 42) – calling for expanding social programs and environmental protection, Alaska’s energetic young lawmaker and political maverick is focusing more on domestic issues and foreign policy matters during what is his second run for the Presidency; he passionately supports expanding America’s healthcare system, denuclearization, environmental protection, grassroots political involvement, and détente.

Governor Philip Henderson “Phil” Hoff of Vermont (b. 1924, age 48) – a progressive and pragmatic pioneer of environmental, development, and social welfare programs concerned about racial justice and women’s rights, the Green Mountain state’s best-known Democrat was a potential pick for the Democratic nomination for Vice President in 1968 if Hubert Humphrey or Mike Gravel had won the Presidential nomination that year; as Hoff is transparent about being a former alcoholic, he has been endorsed by the moderate Harold Hughes of Iowa, who praises Hoff’s “open honesty” in discussing such “taboo” health-related topics during his bids for public office; his signature policy is converting the US healthcare system to a new system modeled off of Canada's.

Senator Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. of Minnesota (b. 1911, age 61) – former VP is running once more after coming so close to receiving the nomination in 1968; he may face a tough challenge from fellow Minnesotan Walter Mondale, who is running as a moderate with liberal appeal and as a younger and less “establishment-friendly” alternative to Hubert “The Happy Warrior” Humphrey.

Senator Henry Martin “Scoop” Jackson of Washington (b. 1912, age 60) – a career politician accused of being a “corporatist” for his deep ties to the aviation industry, Jackson believes he can break out from the crowded field by focusing on his impressive and lengthy record, especially his early support of civil rights (but not the bits about him supporting the Japanese internment camps during the 1940s).

Senator Eunice Mary Kennedy-Shriver of Massachusetts (b. 1921, age 51) – if she runs, this deep-pocketed advocate of healthcare expansion could capitalize on the “wave” of feminism brought about by the ripple effect of the Ms. Arkansas Scandal, though some are concerned that it may be too soon to nominate the sister of the man who lost the last Presidential election just four years prior.

Governor Cornelia Genevive Gjesdal “Coya” Knutson of Minnesota (b. 1912, age 60) – with an inspiring backstory and an impressive governing record, this moderate feminist icon has the experience for the job, and if she runs (and the campaigns of Mondale and Humphrey collapse), she just might be able to win over enough female voters, rural and suburban voters, and middle-class voters to clinch the nomination.

Governor Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. of Georgia (b. 1915, age 57) – as running as merely a controversial businessman in 1968, Maddox’s second presidential bid has more clout to it, as he won public office in the interim; a conservative who swears his opposition to racial integration was not racist, he may be able to win over social conservatives in the party.

Representative Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink of Hawaii (b. 1927, age 45) – a champion of civil rights and woman’s rights, Mink is running on a campaign focused on early childhood education, environmental protection, and “direct democracy” reform; in office since 1965, she believes she has the experience and progressive record to win in the primaries or at the convention, and then in the general election.

Senator Walter Frederick “Fritz” Mondale of Minnesota (b. 1928, age 45) – coming from the liberal side of the party, Mondale is poised to oppose Humphrey in the primaries, as he is positioning himself as a younger alternative to the former Vice President who could appeal to more primary and general-election voters.

Senator Wayne Lyman Morse of Oregon (b. 1900, age 72) – this liberal Republican-turned-progressive Democrat is known for supporting D.C. home rule, opposing American alliances with dictatorial regimes, strongly opposing both the Cuba War and the Indochina Wars, and for pledging to “reverse the big money and big business domination of government.”

Former Senator Maurine Brown Neuberger of Oregon (b. 1907, age 65) – though she has not declared her candidacy, this progressive lawmaker may run if Morse bows out early; she is ideologically similar to Morse and Hoff, but could also win over women voters, or become a “compromise” candidate in the event of a deadlocked convention.

Former Representative John Richard Rarick of Louisiana (b. 1924, age 48) – deeply conservative with a reputation for using racially-tinged rhetoric while speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rarick is running because he believes he is more experienced and “likeable” than Maddox.

Representative Joseph Yale Resnick of New York (b. 1924, age 48) – the moderate-leaning congressperson is retiring from his seat to attempt an “underdog” campaign for the White House; best known as the inventor of a TV antenna in the 1950s that was inexpensive, easy to assemble, and install without the expertise of a specially trained technician, Resnick, in office since 1965, has backed civil rights legislation, the Indochina Wars, and animal protection laws, empowering the USDA’s ability to regulate animal use in research facilities; a heart attack survivor, he also supports expanding America’s healthcare system.

Former Governor J. Terry Sanford of North Carolina (b. 1917, age 55) – this moderate has been out of office for eight years, but is still popular and relevant in his home state for his impressive time as governor; currently serving as the President of Duke University, this undeclared candidate is favored by several southern politicians who are hoping to find someone (other than the populist George Wallace) to be the face of the “New” (post-segregation) South.

Former Governor F. Grant Sawyer of Nevada (b. 1918, age 54) – touting his successes during his three terms as Governor and hoping to receive the endorsement of John F. Kennedy should his sister Eunice Kennedy not run, the 1968 Democratic nominee for Vice President has streaks of libertarianism in his record that could appeal to some in both major parties, along with his record on promoting civil rights and social programs to help low-income families.

Governor George Corley Wallace Jr. of Alabama (b. 1919, age 53) – more populist than moderate this time around, Wallace will be a major candidate when he finally enters the race; he plans on running on a “forward-thinking” platform focused on early education and creating more jobs for blue-collar workers.
 
Post 27
Post 27: Chapter 35

Chapter 35: September 1971 – January 1972

“Try listening. You’ve got one mouth and two ears; there’s a reason for that.”

– Red Green, The Red Green Show, Episode 298 (11:49 mark), 2005



“The Colonel’s promotion of higher education greatly benefited the prep school [Lakeside School in Haller Laker, Seattle, WA], at least in the departments I was interested in. But I didn’t stick around to see the long-term benefits. Instead, after forming Traf-O-Data with Paul Allen in 1971, I took the summer of 1972 – the summer before my final year there – to serve as a congressional page. An old friend of my parents, Brock Adams, was now a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, and Adams thought the experience would do me so good – especially since experience as a page is a big boost for college graduates trying to be accepted into law school, and at the time, I did not know what I wanted to do for a career [1] As a House Page, I learned a lot, it was a formative experience [2].”

– Bill Gates, KNN interview with Bill Gates and Kent Allen, 9/1/1995



BOURKE HICKENLOOPER, US AGRICULTURE SECRETARY, DIES AT AGE 75

The Washington Post, 9/4/1971



…On September 5, 1971, Henry Kissinger left the State Department over disagreeing with Father on several ideas for foreign policy strategy one time too many. It was an amicable departure, with neither man really missing the other. I recall Kissinger even telling Secretary Rockefeller, “Truth be told, I get along much better with Senator Nixon.” Indeed, Kissinger had worked closely with the former Vice President from 1965 to 1967. Kissinger began serving as an Assistant Secretary of State starting in 1967, and served as a link of sorts between Nixon and the White House. However, Kissinger never rose to prominence or to a truly influential position inside the White House, instead always being on the outermost edges of Father’s inner circle of advisors.

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[pic: imgur.com/tKeNN1e.png ]

Above: Father shaking hands with Henry Kissinger in 1967

Kissinger’s departure led to speculation that he was preparing a run for a US Congressional seat, but Kissinger was not interested in being involved in politics in that particular way. Advising candidates was more his style. Instead, Kissinger returned to his career in academia, but also continued to work with Senator Nixon by branching out into the DC lobbying scene.

I mention him because he did leave behind one lasting idea – a term coined by 19th century writer Ludwif von Rochau to refer to the utilizing of pragmatism and practicality in the face of political and diplomatic challenges – a little concept known as “realpolitik,” which was adopted and used much more frequently by Father’s successors than by Father himself…

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



SANDERS BACKS BELOW-MARKET INTEREST LOAN EXPANSION

Breaking from his administration’s normally fiscally conservative practices, Sanders today approved of expanding the use of below market interest loans for rehabilitating housing in designated urban renewal zones. H.E.W. Secretary Rockefeller will oversee the implementation of further programs under his department.

A “below-market loan” means that interest is payable on the loan at a rate less than the applicable Federal rate. According to a spokesperson for the H.E.W. Department, the move is currently affordable due to the currently healthy market interest rate, which is a rate of interest paid on deposits, which are determined by the interaction of the supply of and demand for funds in the money market [3]

This action means that more rents will be set at market rate after rehabilitation is completed. The move will focus on the rehabilitation of existing dwellings in urban renewal. Homes in competitive housing market areas are applicable for a loan to pay for existing home. The move may also assure more funds for insuring loans for multifamily projects in designated urban renewal areas.

– The Associated Press, 9/7/1971



George Jackson
(9/23/1941-8/21/1971) began his life in prison (initially for armed robbery) in 1961, and became a Maoist-Marxist revolutionary writer during the Cuba War. [snip] He subsequently openly opposed America’s presence in Indochina. In 1970, while being held in San Quentin Penitentiary in California, he was accused of murdering a prison guard to avenge the killing of two Black prisoners during a prison riot days earlier. On August 21, 1971, days prior to the start of the murder trial, Jackson and several conspirators smuggled a gun into the prison, to be used in a prison escape attempt. Upon killing five hostages and travelling to the prison yard, Jackson was shot from the observation tower and his accomplices surrendered. Jackson's death would be a catalyst for events that unfolded less than a month later...

– clickopedia.co.usa (note: stub article)



At approximately 4;20 a.m. on Thursday, September 9, 1971, 5 Company lined up for roll-call. Hearing rumors that one of their companions was to remain in his cell after being isolated for an incident involving an assault on prison officer Tom Boyle after he was hit in the face with a full soup can by inmate William Ortiz, a small group of 5 Company inmates protested that they too would be locked up and began walking back toward their cells The remainder of 5 Company continued towards breakfast. As the protesting group walked past the isolated inmate Ortiz, they freed him from his cell. They then rejoined the rest of 5 Company and proceeded on their way to breakfast. A short time later, when the command staff discovered what had occurred, they changed the usual scheduling of the prisoners, but did not tell prison officer Gordon Kelsey, the correctional officer in charge of leading 5 Company to the yard. Instead of going to the yard after breakfast as they usually did, the prisoners were led there to find a locked door, puzzling them and the correctional officer Kelsey. Complaints led to anger when more correctional officers led by Lt. Robert T. Curtiss arrived to lead the prisoners back to their cells. Officer Kelsey was assaulted and the riot began.” [4]

– clickopedia.co.usa




umwXDIv.png


[pic: imgur.com/umwIv.png ]
The New York Daily News, 9/9/1971



The rioting prisoners took control of the D-yard and the central control room, which the inmates called “Times Square.” They took 42 officer and civilians hostage, and produced a list of grievances demanding their conditions be met before their surrender. [4] The prisoners agreed to negotiate with Correctional Services Commissioner Russell G. Oswald. They made their demands clear in a hastily-assembly treatise entitled “The Attica Liberation Manifesto,” which called for better medical treatment, fair visitation rights, an end to physical brutality, better sanitation, and improved food quality.

– clickopedia.co.usa



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– Governor Biaggi at his desk, 9/10/1971



Expecting a reply of force, several prisoners began fortifying Attica. They dug trenches, electrified the metal gate, carved table ends into weapons, and poured gasoline on certain places “just in case”. The prison’s command center was fortified the most.

Biaggi saw the event as an opportunity to demonstrate the might of his mantra “law and order.” When we advised him to meet with the prisoners, he outright refused the notion. “We’re taking about criminals – not one-minor-misdemeanor type, we’re taking about cutthroat killers,” is what he said, “When you commit a crime that heinous, you don’t deserve the Governor visiting you.” Biaggi instead demanded the releasing of hostages under the threat, or “stressed warning,” as he called it, of using deadly force against them.

Even a telephone call from the President, Colonel Sanders, couldn’t change his mind. Biaggi respected the Colonel and the two men agreed on several things, but Biaggi did not take the Colonel’s advice of reaching out to the rioters; he believed the Colonel just didn’t know enough about the situation.

After three days of Oswald failing to negotiate the rioters into submission, Biaggi ordered the prison be retaken immediately. Oswald pleaded, practically begged for Biaggi to visit the prison, but to no avail. Biaggi was disappointed in the negotiations failing and demanded force to, in his words, “set an example of zero-tolerance of the dangerous criminal mind.”

– Former employee of the NY Governor’s office, 1981 KNN interview



So many of us died on the 12th. We were expecting them to try to take back the school, we were prepared for it, but they still got the drop on us. The bastards threw tear gas over the walls. Helicopters flew overhead to drop a s#!t-ton of tear gas into the courtyard. Then they breached the doors. Then they opened fire. They slaughtered us. We became sitting ducks as the pigs on the side and in the whirly-birds fired into the smoke. They didn’t give a s#!t if we were part of the rioters resisting them or not, if we were black or white, it didn’t matter because they didn’t care.

A hurricane of metal mosquitos from the guns from above and from the side.

I slammed myself down, right onto the ground, and I covered my head. After over three minutes it all went quiet, then I heard them barking. I heard them approach and the helicopters leave, and I just stayed there, scared s#!tless on the ground as the pigs checked out their victims.

– Attica Prison Riot Survivor “Eye-Dog McGrath,” 1981 KNN interview



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– A police helicopter circles overhead moments before the start of the siege, 9/12/1971



MASSACRE IN ATTICA!: Prison Standoff Ends With State Police Killing “At Least” 60

– The Times-Union, 9/12/1971



“Mario’s response to the hostage crisis is an outrageous and irresponsible abuse of his gubernatorial powers.”

– Former Governor Nelson Rockefeller, 9/12/1971



RIOTS ENVELOPE URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS OVER ATTICA MASSACRE

Breakouts of Violence Hit Chicago, NYC, Boston; Accusations of Racist Prison System Fly

The Houston Chronicle, 9/13/1971



One of the victims was 21-year-old Elliott James “E.J.” Barkley, an ardent orator whom played a key role during the pre-massacre negotiations. The riot began just days away from his scheduled release date. A “Justice for E. J.” campaign formed in his home town… [snip]

Despite forming a special committee to investigate the actions of Attica’s warden leading up to the riot and subsequent hostage crisis, beatniks, peaceniks and shoutniks continued to protest outside Biaggi’s office and home. His September 14 utterance of “good riddance to bad rubbish” continued to offend a public horrified by the newspapers’ photographs of the dead inmate. He repeatedly tried to spin the events, but all people could see were the blood the the bodies.

Still wanting to run for President, though, Biaggi tried to find someone else to, as he put it, “credit to” the events. At one point, he blamed California’s Governor, uh, Ronald Reagan, by claiming the riot was the result of a prison hostage crisis that had happened in San Quentin just about, uh, I want to say, about a month or so earlier. Reagan claimed the prison conditions were still in effect from the previous Pat Brown administration, and pointed out how, as Biaggi had been governor since 1967, “Mario really should take credit for the results of his own policies.”

– Former employee of the NY Governor’s office, 1981 KNN interview



The Attica Prison Massacre, also known as the Attica Prison Riot, Attica Prison Uprising, and Attica Prison Crisis, occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, in 1971. The incident, stemming from prisoner demands for better accommodations, remains the most prominent deadly prison riot in US history. Occurring two weeks after the killing of George Jackson at California’s San Quentin State Prison, roughly half of the prison’s 2200 inmates rioted and took control of the prison, take over 40 staff members hostage [5]

The Governor of New York at the time, Mario Biaggi, refused to visit the prisoners, controversially saying “you waiver your rights when you deprive someone else of theirs” about the prison’s murderer inmates. On September 12, after 3 days of negotiations between the prisoners and the warden, an impasse had formed. After US President Colonel Sanders refused to send in the National Guard, Governor Mario Biaggi ordered state police to retake the prison. By the end of the “retaking,” 94 people laid dead: 75 prisoners, 2 state troopers, 7 correctional officers, and 10 civilian employee hostages.

[snip]

By the end of the year, the New York State Attica Prison Riot Special Commission called the police assault, “with the exception of Indian massacres in the late 19th century, …the bloodiest one-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War.” Investigations also determined the prison had been violating state regulations, as the jail held over 2,200 prisoners despite the structure being designed to hold no more than 1,200 prisoners.

[snip]

Prison officers retaliated against surviving prisoners with actions of the physical abuse variety, such as beating them, and forcing them to crawl through mud naked, among other acts. Doctors inspecting prisoners just one month later noted how brutality in the prison had increased since the riot. The Special Commission subsequently subpoenaed several officers. The prison warden promised to reform the jail at a December 2, 1971 court hearing.

[snip]

An unseen benefit of the Attica Massacre was that the devastating event led to a much-greater push for communication between all parties involved.

[snip]

Charges of violations were made against the state’s prison system. Racial prejudice was reportedly rampant in the prison; a majority of the prisoners were Black, but most of the correctional officers were white. [snip] Within four years, over 50 inmates involved in the rioting, hostage-taking, and priosn-fortifying were charged in indictments totaling over 900 separate counts, while only two state troopers were indicted for reckless endangerment. The families of inmates killed sued the State of New York for many more years.

– clickopedia.co.usa



US SENATOR WINSTON PROUTY IS DEAD AT 65

– The Burlington Free Press, Vermont newspaper, 9/15/1971



GOV. HOFF TO APPOINT STATE HOUSE LEADER TOM SALMON TO U.S. SENATE SEAT

– The Rutland Herald, Vermont newspaper, 9/16/1971



SEN. GOLDWATER: SCRANTON IS “TOO LIBERAL” TO “LEAD” THE G.O.P. IN ’72

– The Arizona Republic, 9/17/1971



…In international news, the Dominican Republic’s government has officially been reformed into a tri-cameral legislature. The Caribbean nation now has not only a President and a Supreme Court, both also three chambers of congress – an Enarooclia (First Senate), a Deorooclia (Second Senate), and a Triarooclia (Third Senate)…

– CBS Evening News, 9/18/1971 broadcast



ASSOCIATE JUSTICE HUGO BLACK DIES, LIKELY STROKE, AGE 85

…Black had been struggling with poor health for “several weeks” or “several months,” pending on the source...

– The New York Times, 9/19/1971



ASSOCIATE JUSTICE JOHN M. HARLAN ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT, CITING POOR HEALTH

…According to one of Harlan’s aides, the death of Justice Black prompted Justice Harlan to plan on vacating his seat on the Supreme Court “as soon as a successor has been confirmed.” Harlan reportedly does not wanted his “poor health” to “impede his judgement on the bench.”

– The Washington Post, 9/22/1971



SENIOR CITIZENS’ RIGHTS BILL PASSES HOUSE, EXPECTED TO PASS SENATE

…with President Sanders’ backing, the bill, if it becomes law, would mirror the Civil Rights Act of 1962 in prohibiting age-based discrimination during housing, public utilities, and employment actions. The bill would also provide states with federal funding for adequate housing and medical care meant for retirees and people requiring assisted living essentials, with exact qualifications for people to obtain such funds to be determined at the state level…

– The Washington Post, 9/23/1971



BIAGGI APPROVAL RATING SHRINKS TO 42%

…the situation appears to be polarizing New Yorkers on political and racial lines, as a clear majority of white residents in rural New York and New York City surveyed by Gallup this week approved of the Governor’s “tough-on-crime” response to the Attica hostage crisis, while most non-white residents in both regions surveyed in the same poll disapproved of said response by wide margins…

The New York Post, 9/30/1971



GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL TO “SIGNIFICANTLY” RESTRUCTURE STATE TAX LAW

…the new Revenue Act includes a new sales tax and a new income tax, both of which will replace the state property tax and several other taxes. Furthermore, the massive omnibus narrowly approval by the unicameral legislature will create a new department of economic development along with a state personnel office… “The way is now open for a surge in Nebraskan jobs for Nebraskan workers,” says the Governor, “we are going to construct more highways and better sewage treatment plants. We are going to improve our state’s healthcare facilities and enhance our fair housing practices.” The bill package also includes the state’s first-ever minimum wage law…

The Grand Island Independent, Nebraska newspaper, 10/1/1971



DNC APPROVES OF SEVERAL ADDITIONAL PRIMARIES FOR NEXT YEAR

...we aim to make the Presidential selection process more open and inclusive to all registered Democratic voters...

The Washington Post, 10/8/1971



DISNEY WORLD OPENS

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Life Magazine, 10/15/1971 issue



…George was not by any means a perfect man, but, even still…I miss him. I remember, the last thing I ever said to George was “I love you, George. And be careful.” He replied back, “Relax, honey – Weather forecasts are just horoscopes with numbers! I’ve got to go now. I love you,” then he hung up the phone. Their plane was ready to take off. Dangerous conditions like poor visibility never intimidated George. They should have, but they didn’t.

– Lurleen Wallace (1926-1996), 1989 interview



GEORGE WALLACE, RALPH ABERNATHY, 4 OTHERS DIE IN PLANE CRASH!

– The New York Times, 10/5/1971



…Wallace had proven to be instrumental in the implementation of racial integration in Alabama, one of the most conservative and pro-segregation states in the Union when the practice was abolished in 1962... The Governor of Alabama was travelling with the native-Alabaman Civil Rights leader Ralph Abernathy in a private aircraft. They and two interns, a pilot, and a co-pilot, were flying from Atlanta, where Wallace had met with political donors, possibly ahead of a planned Presidential campaign. They were heading to a charity fundraiser being held in Pittsburgh. While travelling over Beckley, West Virginia, it seems that their plane either ran into some sort of engine problem or weather problem, and the pilot attempted an emergency landing. Instead, the plane crashed into a patch of forestry… There were no survivors… The state’s Lieutenant Governor, a notably more conservative Democrat named Samuel Martin Engelhardt Jr. [6], will officially succeed Wallace into the governorship upon being sworn in “as soon as possible,” according to an official at the capital. Now, as this is a developing story, the information available to us at the moment is limited. Stay tuned as the details of terrible tragedy continue to come in…

– CBS Evening News, 10/5/1971 broadcast



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– clickopedia.co.usa



RALPH ABERNATHY LAID TO REST: Rev. King Gives Eulogy

– The Chicago Defender, 10/9/1971



MUSIC ENTERTAINER JIMMY SAVILE ACCUSED OF SEXUAL PESTERING

– The Guardian, 10/10/1971



Of course, the changes the industry felt in the early 1970s were not all positive. The exposure of its filthy underside during the decade truly began with Jimmy Savile. While accusations of child abuse were made against the 45-year-old radio personality and TV programme host as early as 1963, it was the social climate of the early 1970s made the 1971 allegations of assaulting young children become widely publicized feed for a public hungry for “celebrity dirt.” Being a regular visitor of the Duncroft Approved School for Girls in Surrey, Savile came under fire for lewd conduct on the premises in October 1971. At a time when prominent public figures were falling from grace left and right, reporters, keen on getting the latest addition to the “hottest” trend of the era, descended upon Savile’s hidden private activities. His career was damaged, but not dead. In 1972, Saville fought the charges in court, and, due to insufficient evidence, was acquitted – save for one related charge of endangering a minor, which led to him serving two years in jail, from 1972 to 1974. Naturally, the court ruling outraged the alleged victims and their supporters. In 1975, Saville re-entered the music industry, only for a new sexual pestering claim to arise – this one with physical evidence of attempted rape. In 1977, Saville began serving a 15-year prison sentence. In December 1980, Saville was murdered in prison at the age of 54.

– Donald S. Passman’s Sing-and-Dance Backwash: The Struggle for Transparency In The Entertainment Industry, 1945-onward, Borders Books, 2006



With Justice Black dead and Justice Harlan retiring, President Sanders had two seats to fill at the same time. The Colonel understood that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any President, both long-term and short-term. Immediately, the candidates for the vacancies could salvage Sanders’ waning popularity (nationally due to his connection to the Ms. Arkansas wave and within the party due to the disappointing 1970 midterms and perceived shift to the left over medical care, the SCRA, and the ERA) and could strengthen the chances of Republican victory in November 1972. The long-term result would be that the new justices would determine the composition of the Supreme Court for the next several years. And with Sanders already having appointed Edward H. Levi and Frank M. Johnson Jr. to the court, two more appointments would make four of nine Justices be Sanders appointees – an impressive legacy.

On October 12, after weeks of speculations, the Sanders White House finally released a list of twelve potential candidates for the two vacant seats. Time Magazine hailed half of the list as forward thinking and the other half as uninspired:

Sylvia Bacon (age 40), a South Dakota native, was young but had an impressive resume: judicial law clerk 1956-1957, US Department of Justice employee in various capacities 1956-1969, Associate Attorney General of the US 1965-1969, and Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia since 1969. She was seen as a liberal choice.

Alexander M. Bickel (age 47), a Romania-born, Connecticut-based law professor who was also influential writer on constitutional law and a celebrated expert on the US Constitution; he would appeal to hardline conservatives in the US Senate, but would possible be challenged by the chamber's most liberal members.

Harry Blackmun (age 63), a Minnesota-based Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit since 1959, was viewed one of the most conservative names on the list.

Samuel Conti (age 49), a Judge of the US District Court for the Northern District of California since 1965, who was a strong Sanders supporter with a centrist voting record; he could potentially serve as a compromise candidate that liberals and conservatives could tolerate confirming.

Edward Thaxter Gignoux (age 55), a Judge of the US District Court for the District of Maine since 1957, and a fairly safe and experienced moderate-conservative choice.

William H. Hastie Jr. (age 67), the former Governor of the United States Virgin Islands, a Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit since 1949, and the Senior Judge of said circuit since 1970. The oldest choice offered, Hastie was African-American and had a moderate-to-conservative record.

Margaret Heckler (age 40), a Boston College Law School graduate admitted to the bar in Massachusetts, Heckler had been serving in the US House of Representatives from the Bay State’s 10th District since 1967 and was seen as a moderate-to-conservative choice.

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. (age 43), a judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since 1964. Higginbotham was a liberal who, if selected, would be the first African-American US Supreme Court Justice.

Thomas Russell Jones Jr. (age 58), a New York State Assemblyman from 1963 to 1964, and an Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court since 1967. Jones, an African-American, was viewed as the most progressive of the 12 offered.

Mildred Lillie (age 55), a little-known judge serving on California’s intermediate state appellate court, the Second District Court of Appeal, since 1958. Added to the list under advisement from Senator Richard Nixon, Lillie came under scrutiny for her lack of qualifications for the job and was ultimately rejected by the American Bar Association.

Wade H. McCree (age 51), an African-American Judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1961 to 1966, and a Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 1966. McCree had a moderate/centrist voting record.

Lawrence Edward Walsh (age 59), born in Canada to Canadian parents, was a lawyer, a Judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1954 to 1957, the US Deputy Attorney General from 1957 to 1961, and the US Attorney General from 1965 until his retirement in 1970.

Liberal Senators were wary of Blackmun, Conti, Gignoux, and Heckler, while Conservative Senators directed most of their criticism toward Jones, Higginbotham, McCree and Walsh. This left Bacon, Bickel and Hastie. While Bacon’s age and voting history were scrutinized, her resume and knowledge of constitutional law were impressive; the same could be said for Hastie. Bickel was overwhelmed by the Senate vetting process and withdrew his name from consideration.

After meeting with the President, Bickel and Walsh agreed to serve as a designated “first back-up” nominees “in case Plan A failed.” Sanders agrees to the “balanced double-offering” of the left-leaning Bacon and the right-leaning Hastie, with the former appealing to liberal Senators and the latter appealing to conservative Senators.

– Linda Greenhouse and Morton J. Horwitz’s The Johnson Court and the Pursuit of Justice (Second Edition), Sunrise Publishing, 2018



T.C.U. COACH JIM PITTMAN HOSPITALIZED AFTER MID-GAME COLLAPSE

…according to the Texas Christian University football assistant coach, Pittman several a heart attack while the team he coaches, TCU’s Horned Frogs, were leading 5-to-1 in a SW Conference games against longtime rival Baylor. …Pittman’s alleged heart attack come one day after Detroit Lions wide received Chuck Hughes also suffered a heart attack in the middle of a game, with the Lions playing the Chicago Bears on their home turf. “Both Chuck and Jim are going to be alright,” says the President of TCU. “They are strong and resilient, and I have been told that both of them are receiving the best medical attention that money can buy”…

The Houston Chronicle, 10/25/1971



“BACON? THAT SOUNDS GOOD!”: COLONEL SANDERS OFFERS BACON TO SENATE!

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– The New York Post, 10/26/1971



BILL HASTIE NOMINATED FOR HARLAN SEAT; Would Be Fist Black Justice If Confirmed

– The Houston Chronicle, 10/27/1971



KEEPING SEXUAL PESTERING ON EARTH AND AWAY FROM SPACE: The Latest Developments

By Lucinda Franks

...after weeks of investigations into the claims of former recruits that they experienced “sexual pestering” and a generally “hostile environment” at N.A.S.A., Director Webb has yielded to a US Senate Committee’s orders and has agreed to “revise” the agency’s H.R. regulations and code of conduct rules.

The New York Times, 10/28/1971 (note: this article was part of a series)



PHILLIPS’ FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF ACQUITTED OF BRIBERY CHARGE: Court Case Attention Worries State GOP Candidates

– The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi newspaper, 10/29/1971



FBI BEGINS HIRING THEIR FIRST-EVER FEMALE AGENTS TODAY

– The New York Post, 10/31/1971



A. WILLIS ROBERTSON, LONG-SERVING U.S. SENATOR, DIES AT 84

– The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/1/1971



Kentucky General Election Results, 11/2/1971:

For Governor:
John M. Robsion Jr. (Republican) – 459,807 (49.84%)
Happy Chandler (Democratic) – 454,917 (49.31%)
William Smith (Heritage and Independence) – 7,924 (0.85%)
Total votes cast: 922,566
Turnout: 28.89% Total Population

For Lieutenant Governor:
Mary Louise Foust (Republican) – 460,179 (50.96%)
Julian M. Carroll (Democratic) – 438,776 (48.59%)
Jesse N. R. Cecil (Heritage and Independence) – 4,063 (0.45%)
Total votes cast: 903,018
Turnout: 26.77% Total Population

– ourcampaigns.co.usa



…we have received confirmation that Walter Nixon has won tonight’s election for Governor of Mississippi. A Democrat, Nixon won over Republican nominee Gil Carmichael, and independent candidate Charles Evers. Nixon has served as the state’s Attorney General since 1967 and is a moderate in a conservative state. His GOP challenger is a businessman and an active member of the state’s Republican party, while Charles Ever is an African-American who worked for the NAACP before being elected mayor of Fayette, Mississippi in 1969…

– CBS Evening News, 11/2/1971 broadcast



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– Senator-turned-President-turned-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson walks and talks with Senator-turned-VP-turned-Senator Richard Nixon on Capital Hill, possibly discussing the then-ongoing Senate hearings for President Sanders’ Supreme Court nominees; 11/5/1971



U.S. SENATE APPROVES BACON FOR SUPREME COURT, 61-38: US’s Second Female Justice To Start Term “Within The Month”

The New York Times, Wednesday, 11/10/1971



Hastie’s confirmation was even more difficult than Bacon’s. Nevertheless, the Senate approved of Hastie with a 54-44-2 vote count. As part of a backroom bargain made between Southern Senators who cared more about Hastie’s skin color than his somewhat conservative views, Bacon was sworn into her seat first, given her seniority, albeit by a few days, over Hastie.

– Linda Greenhouse and Morton J. Horwitz’s The Johnson Court and the Pursuit of Justice (Second Edition), Sunrise Publishing, 2018



12 November 1971: Arches National Park is established in eastern Utah, US; adjacent to the Colorado River and located 4 miles (6 km) north of Moab, Utah, the park covers over 77,000 acres and over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, including the iconic “Delicate Arch” along with other unique geological features, formations and resources, making up the most dense natural collection of natural arches in the world

– onthisday.co.uk



GOV. CALLAHAN APPOINTS REP. SCOTT TO SENATE SEAT

Washington, DC – Governor Callahan has appointed William Lloyd Scott, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1967, to the U.S. Senate Seat left vacant by the death of Senator A. W. Robertson. With this appointment, Scott becomes the first Republican to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate in 84 years…

The Roanoke Times, Virginia newspaper, 11/15/1971



I remember part of a speech Kosygin gave in November 1971 at Star City, directed to Vladimir Chelomey and the other lead scientists there: “Over the past decade we have seen failure after failure in our venture to send one of our men to the moon. But we will have failure no longer! We will work together, unifying our efforts and ideas and putting aside our selfish desires. All for the prosperity and glory of Mother Russia seeing one of its children take steps on the moon.” Indeed, competitiveness among the scientists and chief designers was still threatening to doom the program; all of us would most assuredly be blamed and reprimanded for such selfishness under Kosygin – he would have to in order to placate the conservative wing of the national party. The leader then continued with a shocking announcement, “We will have this, but not only this! We will take one step further than the Americans. Due to our increasingly healthy economy, I have decided to fund a program to design and construct our own permanent lunar base. This will supply the Soviet people with employment and prosperity for years to come. As soon as we reach the moon, we will begin the process necessary to establish this base, for by building this base will firmly and concretely establish in the minds of capitalist suppressors everywhere whom it is that truly controls the Earth’s natural satellite. …And this base will be up and running, fully functional and working, by the end of this century. …Long live the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics!”

Among the Stars: The Autobiography of Yuri Gagarin, 1995



“And after lunch, I’ve got to go – .”

“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah.”

“Heh. You seem distracted, Millie.”

“Huh? Oh. Sorry, Margaret. I’m just concerned about the rise of these Ollie Trolleys. Just look at these numbers! They’re sprouting up everywhere, and the fact that the brains behind the operation is a bitter ex-employee is, well, troubling.”

“Aw, you’re always frettin’ about something.”

“It’s different this time! You know June Martino, the CEO of McDonald’s? I heard through the grapevine and even she’s concerned!”

“Really?”

“Word is they’re already filming attack ads. Not outright do-not-eat-over-there types, but still, their readying their armaments.”

“Huh. Well, at least KFC is still dominating the fired chicken industry.”

“For now, but – ”

“ – And it makes sense, when you think about it, Millie. Those Burger Chef places have also been poppin’ up all over the place recently. The market saturation’s gotta be jumpin’ June!”

“Yes, but the new competition could jeopardize our Wendyburger. That’s jumpin’ me!”

“Ooh, yeah, that’s right. Dang, I forget about that.”

“Yeah. But, uh, anyway, you were talkin’ about – ”

“ – And have you ever tried an Ollieburger?”

“Huh! Of course, you’ve got to inspect the competition!”

“And…? What’d you think of it?”

“Honestly, Maggie, I don’t get the appeal. Too rich for my taste, I suppose.”

“Well I’ve tried them, and I for one have always loved bold, exciting and exotic dishes.”

“You don’t think the Ollieburger’s too overwhelming? I mean, right now hope that, at the most, it becomes, like, a niche-market kind of burger. I don’t think such complex flavors can have wide-reaching appeal, at least not in the U.S.”

“You know what, Mill, I bet people said the exact same thing about chicken less than fifty years ago, back when it was considered a delicacy because of how expensive it was.”

“Oh, damn, you’re right!”

“Big sisters always are, Millie.”

“I mean, health food stores weren’t really a thing until the beatniks came around, right?”

“Exactly!”

“Yes…then it wouldn’t help to, well at the least consider trying to, uh, beat them at their own game.”

“Meanin’ what?”

“Meanin’ maybe KFC should make, like, a richer, fancier version of the Wendyburger. Make it a limited offer-for-a-limited-time type of thing.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to – ”

“ – Yes, yes that could work!”

– Audio transcript of Security Camera footage, KFC Inc. headquarters, Florence, KY, 11/20/1971



COLONEL DECLARES WAR ON CANCER WITH LATEST LEGISLATION:

Washington, DC – President Sanders signed the Nation Cancer Act into law today. The new federal law, which amends the Public Health Service Act of 1944 by strengthening the National Cancer Institute, aims to increase cancer research funding in order to “improve humanity’s understanding of cancer and the treatment of cancer patients,” said Sanders at the ceremony. This law means that scientists conducting drug trials and preventative/early detection research now have access to further funding. [snip] Health activist Mary Lasker, who has championed the increase in research funding for health problems sicne 1943, played an instrumental role convincing Congress to pass the law earlier this year…

– The Washington Post, 11/23/1971



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– Coya’72 logo, c. late November 1971



…In other news, The Leyland Motor Corporation, a prominent British firm, has today announced the sales of over 2,000 buses to the Cuban transportation company Straight Arrow Transportation, in a landmark business deal for the post-war island nation of Cuba that aims to create hundreds of jobs for both countries. Also in Cuba, the Mayor of Havana is the target of a smear campaign by political opponents who allege he is maintaining business ties to KFC-Cuba due to his recent approval of three more outlets being built in the nation’s capital city…

– BBC World News, 30/11/1971 broadcast



STANFIELD SO FAR: A 12-MONTH REVIEW

As Canada marks the 1-year anniversary of Prime Minister Stanfield entering office, let us take a look back on the highlights of his administration so far: …Keeping true to his campaign promise, Stanfield immediately introduced wage and price controls to help end inflation encroaching Canada’s economy, based on the fair success of President Sanders’ 1968-1969 wage freeze. …In January, the federal government announced plans to convert the nation to the metric system. …In February, the use of phosphates (and other dangerous chemicals and substances) in laundry detergent is banned nationwide. …In June, the federal voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. …In July, Stanfield, being a promoter of free trade, met with Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai in Beijing in order to establish formal relations with the People’s Republic of China, a move opposed by Paul Hellyer during the last year of his tenure in office… In August, Stanfield was hailed for his swift response to the destructive Sudbury, Ontonario Tornado Event of 1971, which killed 4 people, injured 230, and caused $16 million dollars in property damage... Stanfield at first seemed to united the post-Diefenbaker P.C. party, and Stanfield’s blunt and laconic speaking style allows him to translate complex political concepts into related layman’s term. Most recently, though, he is upsetting conservatives over his (arguably tepid) support for official bilingualism. Nevertheless, his gentlemanly and civil manner amid situations and vital diplomatic moments have helped to keep his approval ratings hover at around 63%.

– The Kimberley Daily Bulletin, Canadian newspaper, 12/17/1971



A United Nations Secretary-General selection process occurred December 17-21, 1971 to find a successor to U Thant, who had opted to step down after serving for two full terms. The winner selected would begin him term on January 1.

Background

In January 1971, U Thant announced that he would not serve for a third term, having held the office since 1961. Despite there being strong support for U Thant to serve for a third term due to his opposition to Apartheid and colonialism (even the US delegation was not opposed to a third term for U Thant despite his opposition to past American activities in Southeast Asia), U Thant was adamant in his decision.

Candidates

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan – the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (a citizen of France, Iran, and Switzerland, but nominated by the U.S.)

Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe – the Permanent Representative of Ceylon to the UN

Max Jakobson – the Permanent Representative of Finland to the UN

Endelkachew Makonnen – the Minister of Communication of Ethiopia and the former Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the UN

Kurt Waldheim – the Chair of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and unsuccessful candidate for President of Austria in April 1971

Campaign

Max Jakobson ran for the position on a strongly anti-colonial stance, and eventually obtained support from the US and the UK, while Arab countries believed he would be subject to Zionist pressure due to his Jewish ancestry. Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan touted his coordinating of the response to the refugee crisis that had begun in March 1971. [7] Waldheim gathered support from France and the USSR. While the US and USSR had played kingmaker in past selections, the warming of relations between the US and China complicated matters, as it remained unclear who China would support. Soon Jakobson presented himself as the only candidate who could be acceptable to Mao’s China.

Voting

The Security Council voted via secret ballot while in a closed session; a candidate required 9-vote majority to win. On the first ballot, the UK and US opposed Waldheim, while the USSR opposed Jakobson; additionally, China remained on the fence. The Second ballot yielded basically the same results. After the first round of voting failed to produce a winner, US Ambassador to the UN John More Allison visited the Chinese delegation. [8] Gaining their confidence led to China deciding not to veto Jakobson on the second ballot, allowing him to win over Waldheim and Prince Sadruddin on the third ballot. Jakobson was sworn into office on January 1, 1972.

[snip]

Months after the election, an investigation into Waldheim’s contradictory statements concerning his actions during the 1940s led to the revelation that archived and stored files from a post-WWII UN War Crimes Commission had labeled Waldheim a suspected war criminal due to his involvement with the Nazi German army. The scandal damaged, but did not finish, Waldheim’s public career.

– clickopedia.co.uk/UN_Secretary-General_selection,_1971



TIM LEARY ARRESTED FOR “SO MANY” DRUG-RELATED LAW VIOLATIONS

– The Sacramento Union, 12/5/1971



SPOKESPERSON FOR LEARY CLAIMS CHARGES ARE “TRUMPED UP”: Legal Team Believes They Are “Part Of A Vendetta Against Freedom And Personal Liberties”

– The San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/6/1971



As the 1972 primary season neared, I felt conflicted. For roughly two years, I had worked to lead the G.O.P. to the right as Senate minority leader. Butting heads with non-conservatives in the party, and tackling the issues near and dear to me was fulfilling. The President being on my side more often than not also made my day.

But then there was Scranton. Personally, I had no qualms with the Vice President, but politically, he was a generic moderate who kowtowed to New England Republicanism without contributing anything original to the political conversation. He had the skills needed to lead, but not to inspire; the man brought no new ideas to the political fray. The more apparent it became that he was eyeing the nomination for President – traveling abroad to beef up his foreign policy bona fides and increasing his visibility at home via one talk show guest spot after another – the more convinced I was that he was too bland, unenthusiastic, and uninspiring to win in 1972. I knew from the ’64 season that running for the Presidency was something like trying to stand up in a hammock [9], and Scranton was too much of a greenback to stand up in November. Plus, at 64, I thought that this election was possibly my last chance to take charge of a federal government still out of line, to weaken the power of the reigning bureaucrats, to reduce the spending, to abolish nonproductive programs, and to emphasize the harm overregulation was inflicting on our country. [9]

– Barry Goldwater’s autobiography No Apologies: My Personal and Political Memoirs, Morrow Publishers, 1979




“I agree with the President. I have faith in the wisdom and the ability of the President. I cannot in good conscience say the same about the Vice-President. His policies and ideology are too dangerously liberal for the party and the nation. …If the Republican Party offered me the nomination next year, I would unapologetically accept it.”

– Barry Goldwater to an Associated Press reporter, 12/12/1971



I figured, at the very least, that I could influence the party platform better, or cause Scranton to shift to the right. However, openly opposing the presumptive nominee would likely offend the other party leaders; as senate minority leader, I could not afford to burn those political bridges. Instead, I reminded my fellow conservatives that I was still interested in becoming the party’s nominee someday. Soon enough, William F. Buckley was calling for me to run; a “Draft Barry” movement slowly but surely gathered momentum.

0YqQ56W.png


[pic: imgur.com/0YqQ56W.png ]
Above: a picture of me, ready to take on the woes of the country I love

– Barry Goldwater’s autobiography No Apologies: My Personal and Political Memoirs, Morrow Publishers, 1979



…The President signed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act into law earlier today, creating the largest land claims settlement in American history. …After being supported by Alaska’s Senators, Mike Gravel and Ernest Groening, and Alaska Governor Hammond, in the early stages of development, the bill found a strong ally in US Senator and potential dark-horse Presidential candidate Scoop Jackson. The law aims to both settle land claims in the state and promote economic development through the union’s largest state. …The size, scope and generosity of the law can be compared to similar laws passed in the last year of the Lyndon Johnson administration...

The Overmyer Network, 12/17/1971 broadcast



DAVIS BESTS LONG IN DEMOCRATIC RUNOFF

…the second of three rounds of voting in the race for governor of Louisiana has resulted in a clear winner of the Democratic nomination. In tonight’s runoff, former Governor Jimmie Davis (who previously served from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964) defeated former Governor Gillis W. Long (who served from 1964 to 1968) by a margin of roughly 4%. Incumbent Governor John J. McKeithen, a Democrat, declined to endorse either candidate ahead of the contest, finding both men – who advanced from a crowded Democratic primary on November 6 – to be “insufficiently supportive” of defending civil rights legislation. …As the state is heavily pro-Democratic, tonight’s election results all but guarantee Davis the governor’s seat early next year… Republican nominee Robert Max Ross claims he can pull off an upset, but according to all polls taken since the November 6 primaries, the Democrats are heavily favored to win in the general election, which is set to be held on February 1st…

The Times-Picayune, Louisiana newspaper, 12/18/1971



Roy O. Disney, Instrumental Aide to Cartoonist Brother, Dies at 78

…Mr. Disney’s sudden and fatal stroke struck only roughly two months after the grand opening of Walt Disney World in October of this year. Roy had finally retired from the company after the opening ceremonies, announcing he accomplished all that he "ever possibly could" for the landmark production company...

The New York Times, 12/21/1971



MS GOV. RUBEL PHILLIPS ANNOUNCES LONGSHOT BID FOR PRESIDENT

Jackson, MS – Phillips has announced his intention to run for the GOP nomination for US President, claiming Vice President William Scranton and US Senator Barry Goldwater are “not conservative enough for America.” Phillips disagrees with Goldwater’s support of President Sanders’ more liberal political stances, and, and plans to run to the right of Goldwater, a Senator who is already considered to be to the right of the Republican party.

In his announcement speech, Phillips touted his reform of the state education system, his 1969 reinstating of compulsory attendance laws that were repealed in 1958, and his deregulating of the state government. …One GOP committeewoman states that due to Phillips and other republicans such as Alabama’s US Senator John Martin (who, like Phillips, is a racial-moderate), the GOP has “throw off the tag of being a racist, segregationist party in the south.” This claim, however, contrasts with several prominent Republicans whom are racial-conservatives, most notably US
Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina…

…Phillips concluded his speech by explaining he would win over delegates due to the lack of Republican primaries being held in any Deep Southern states next year: “The party of the people will not let the people down.”…

US News and World Report, 1/2/1972, p. 25



“If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be a woman would you vote for that person?”

1955: 4% Yes, 44% No, 52% No Opinion
1959: 4% Yes, 39% No, 57% No Opinion
1963: 4% Yes, 41% No, 55% No Opinion
1967: 5% Yes, 38% No, 57% No Opinion
1969: 7% Yes, 40% No, 53% No Opinion
1970: 11% Yes, 35% No, 54% No Opinion
1971: 15% Yes, 29% No, 56% No Opinion

– Gallup [10]



EUNICE KENNEDY-SHRIVER DECLINES PRESIDENTIAL RUN: Claims A Woman “Could” Win the Nomination This Year, But Not “Another Kennedy”

– The Boston Globe, 1/3/1972



In the weeks leading up to the incident, Humphrey’s doctors would repeatedly call and admonish him for missing and rescheduling appointments for checkups in order to spend more time campaigning for President. The Minnesotan believed time was fleeting, telling his wife, “for all I know, this could be my very last chance at this.” At the start of the new year, Humphrey looked as if he had no health concerns. Then on January 7, the Presidential candidate collapses at a political fundraiser. No photographs of the incident are known to exist, but news quickly spread of what the Minnesota Star labeled a “simple stumble.”

Humphrey the politician was underperforming in polls taken in early primaries; pundits blamed the lack of enthusiasm on his apparent failure to overcome his connections to the Lyndon Johnson administration, despite Johnson himself salvaging his legacy in the Senate in recent years.

Similarly, Humphrey the man’s bladder illness was not improving as well as hoped. Doctors demanded he undergo treatment with radiation and intravesical thiotepa, - treatment that would plague him via the pain from the treatments, all while continuing to serve in the Senate and run for President, albeit making much less appearances of the Trail of ’72 than Humphrey had initially anticipated. [11] The seemingly sporadically active campaign would hurt Humphrey in the early primaries…

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



Gravel’s 1968 had primarily focused on foreign policy at a time when American forces were embroiled in conflict in three Southeast Asian nations. Four years later, the political situation was much less hectic – the Indochinese Wars had been won, the threat of Soviet bombardment was being cautiously cooled in the face of bilateral treaties, and China was slowly and tepidly reaching out to foreign markets. Thus, when Gravel announced his 1972 Presidential bid, he focused more on domestic issues. His new campaign highlighted his calls to eliminate the “corrupt” federal income tax in exchange for a national sales tax, abolish the IRS, expand on the Negative Income Tax Rebate, expand guest worker programs for immigrants, ease the naturalization process, and oppose the death penalty. Gravel also called for “saving our inner cities.” He did, though, on occasion, touch on his support of cutting military spending by “at least” 10 percent, arguing that “treaties even stronger than the ones passed under the Colonel” would make such an action “feasible.”

– David Frum’s How We Got Here: The ’70s, Basic Books NY, 2000, p. 298




REP. SHIRLEY CHISHOLM ANNOUNCES LONG-SHOT BID FOR PRESIDENT

“I do not represent Black power or woman power; I represent the power of all the people”

– Associated Press, 1/25/1972



NBC TO HOST DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY DEBATE ON FEBRUARY 16 AT 9:00 PM; Debate Schedule Rules And Timetable Finalized

The Chicago Tribune, side article, 1/26/1972



A WOMAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE?: A Look At Three Women Running For President

QQJ5GVd.png


[pic: imgur.com/QQJ5GVd.png ]
Above: US Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), Governor Coy Knutson (D-MN), and US Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI)

…A committee to draft the reluctant Knutson into the field led to Knutson announcing her candidacy for President “as a compromise candidate” in the event of a deadlocked/contested convention. She also will run as a “favorite son” candidate in her home state of Minnesota, which will hold a caucus in March… Mink and Chisholm, on the other hand, are actively running for the nomination. According to an anonymous member of her campaign, Mink is targeting her home state’s caucus and the winner-take-all California primary as the contests she can most likely win.

…All three women acknowledge the odds they face in the race, with Knutson calling it a “rock-wall of an uphill climb.” This awareness makes one wonder why they are even running. The answer to that may lie in their campaigns. Mink is calling for better treatment of “lesser-discussed” ethnic groups such as Asian-Americans and Hispanics. Chisholm, on the other hand, is campaign on the more reconciliatory message “a leader for ALL of us,” promoting peace and communication between white and non-white, and male and female Americans. The “Draft Knutson” campaign, meanwhile, touted her gubernatorial accomplishments prior to her tepidly throwing her hat into the ring. …While none of them may become President, it is possible that if they can still prove to be significant players in the upcoming primaries, Coya, Patsy and Shirley may wind up in higher office, cabinet positions, or even as the running mate of the 1972 Democratic nominee. We shall find out how it all unfolds as the year progresses.

Time Magazine, late January issue



1972 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES:
(dates are on map)

jZlUuHB.png


[pic: imgur.com/jZlUuHB.png ]

Dark blue = primary

Light blue = caucus

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



“When I leave this here office in less than a year, I’m not going to run off to no library with my name on it, hang up my hat, and call it a life. I don’t believe in retirement, not a bit in the world. There’s a time and place for resting, and it’s called the afterlife. When the Good Lord put old father Adam here, he never told him to quit at 65, now did he? No, no he didn’t. Adam kept going, and he kept working, and he didn't stop until he died at the age of 930. And I’m only 73 – that’s nothing compared to 930, and you don’t need a college degree to figure out the arithmetic on that.”

– Colonel Sanders to a reporter, 1/27/1972



28 January 1972: On this day in history, Disney’s “Chanticleer” is released in theaters in the United States; based very loosely on the rooster character Chanticleer that appears in the 12th century fables of “Reynard the Fox” (another prominent character in the film) and also appearing as a character in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” told in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” the film follows a series of interconnected misadventures centered around Chanticleer and Reynard, and their animal friends and enemies; the film had been in “development hell” for several years and had experienced a “rushed” production, with a budget that was much lower than those of previous Disney films; as a result, the film, while still yielding a profit for the company, was considered a box office disappointment by Disney executives and “underwhelming” by contemporary film reviewers such as Variety…

– onthisday.co.uk



“Kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don’t have a little sister cougher her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that. That’s why I sing these songs. That’s why I tell these stories, dammit. No root, no fruit!”

– singer-songwriter and labor rights activist Utah Phillips [12], 1/30/1972



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized parts of this run-on sentence are pulled from page 34 of Michael A. Schuman’s “Bill Gates” Computer Mogul and Philanthropist,” Enslow Publishers, Inc. (2008): https://books.google.com/books?id=snqgWnX3q5QC&pg=PA34#v=onepage&q&f=false
[2] Italicized parts are from page 196 of Marcie Sims’ “Capitol Hill Pages: Young Witnesses to 200 Years of History,” McFarland (2018): https://books.google.com/books?id=L1NLDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA196#v=onepage&q&f=false
[3] Definition taken from here: https://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Market+interest+rate
[4] All from the Attica Prison Riot Wikipedia page, so basically, the crisis starts out the same as it did IOTL
[5] Slightly rewritten version of the start of the Attica Prison Riot wiki page
[6] Who? This guy!: https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w66q64g4
[7] Oh yeah, that whole thing happened; it’s basically the same here as in OTL.
[8] IOTL, US Ambassador G. H. W. Bush feared that talking to the Chinese delegation would “only arouse suspicion” and instead asked other ambassadors about how China would vote; with a different, less fearful ambassador, things go differently!
[9] Italicized part is a Goldwater quote from OTL found here: https://archive.org/details/withnoapologies00barr_0/page/n341
[10] Pre-1970 Data found here!: https://news.gallup.com/poll/3400/longterm-gallup-poll-trends-portrait-american-public-opinion.aspx
[11] Edited version of sentence pulled from here: https://jurology.com/S0022-5347(14)02010-2/abstract...
[12] OTL quote, but I can't find a source saying when he actually said it; if any of y'all know, then please do say so!

EDIT: fixed Bickel sentence. Good eye and thanks, dude!

RyuDrago said:
Charming update as usual!

I wish to ask, if possible, to any expert in matter, why the two parties made limited voting primaries for a certain period of time, I mean organize elections just in few states, until allowing all the states to be part of the process? It was always like this in even older periods, what was the social and political reason to do this from those parties?

I'm not sure; I think it had to do with a combination of factors like the complicated impracticality of hosting contests in so many states, and the belief that party leaders determining the ticket at a national convention was the superior method.

DTF955Baseballfan said:
You know that's true, we'll have a new challenger for each, why not make a predecition?

GOP. Scranton is VP and while Nixon made the leap to the top spot in '60, I don't think Scranton can make the leap to the top spot. Humphrey did OTL but otherwise it took till '84 when Mondale tried, and I just don't think Scranton has quite enough backing. Whereas Goldwater doesn't have OTL's blowout going against him - though he is getting old. He might be a collage of Nixon's comeback and the '80 reagan OTL, though, and there's enough GOP backlash against Sanders' more liberal policies on things like health care - plus he was someone who was "only" a one-term governor that I don't think they intend to repeat.

So, in the end, I suspect Goldwater has the popularity of someone who has been in the Senate for a long while, and his age doesn't matter as much after we had a President who was in his 80s. Attica and other things will make people wantg more law and order, and REagan may be an optgion but as I said, I don't think they want just a governor - Reagan will seem too much like a risk of "Sanders II" since he wasn't in offfice before that. So, Goldwater gets the nod, with a slim chance of Nixon.

For the Democrats, I don't know about Humphrey's health,I think he'd have a shot, but will he also be connected too much to LBJ? Johnson is probably getting rehabilitated some, he did win theCuba War, but I'm thinking they might pick Robert Kennedy if he wants to run, I think John's Addison's Disease might still be slowing him down too much even if it's been slowed by his not having the pressure, and he'd gladly campaign for Bobby. John might also back awaay because of the Ms. Arkansas thing; I think Bobby's less of a womanizer.

(Just checked - it's been a crazy 2 months, I forgot he ran in '68, but Nixon came back and it was possile he'd have tried, too.)

We really Havoline seen a lot about the Democrats, though - it's a much more open field. America isn't going to want an extreme peacenik, no McCarfthy or McGovern, but I don't think they'll want someone extrmely hawkish, either.

I also predict a somewhat narrow Democratic win, maybe with 300-350 electoral votes, 16 GOP years out of 20 has meant there's probably enough desire for a change, and Sanders is getting up in years enough that I doubt you'd see him actually campaigning for the GOP candidate actively. He's more likely even without the age bit to say he's done his part for the country and now he just wants to relax.
Click to expand...

House leader Halleck would likely back Scranton, especially if he campaigns on his record as VP, such as helping to cool down those race riots in 1967, and his recent diplomatic trips abroad. But yes, the conservative faction of the party may rally behind Goldwater - if he keeps gaffes to a minimum and Rube Phillips doesn't act as a spoiler. Both are possibilities.

Robert F. Kennedy served as Undersecretary of State from 1961 to 1965, then worked on Jack's 1968 campaign; he now heads a successfully law firm and a political think tank in D.C. while raising his (still!)- growing family in McLean, VA. He and newspaper magnate Ted could play a role in the primaries if Jack decides to play a larger role, too, and endorses someone (also: Jack's currently heading a think tank while concurrently serving as the head of the Kennedy family (after Joe Sr. died in '68)). It is yet to be determined which way the American voter will sway come November 1972.

Great analysis, dude! Thanks!

Electric Monk said:
What's up with Haddon Salt? (Almost Famous: The King of Fish and Chips by Ben Proudfoot / NYT) It seems utterly perfect for this timeline :)

Great idea! I'll be sure to mention him (somewhere...)

Ogrebear said:
Another great chapter @gap80

1) I cannot see Governor Mario Biaggi surviving next election cycle, if he makes it that far!

2) RIP Wallace- racist you may have been, but you where turning it around towards the end.

3) Goodbye Saville- no one will miss you. I wonder of Rolf Harris avoids his own entanglements given the Saville scandal. I bet the 'permissive/no one talks about it' culture of the 70's UK entertainment industry had been shaken up. Far less affairs, and sex rings. More press scrutiny. Does this cut the amount of booze/drug/sex parties I wonder?

4) FBI hiring women? Surprised that didn't happen already for an intelligence gathering service!

5) KFC limited time Wendyburger offers? Might work.

6) Sink Waldheim sink!

7) I wonder if the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act encourages other Native Americans to examine their deals with the governments of the USA and Canada?

8) Three Women running for President in the same year? Some sort of record?
Click to expand...

1) I dunno, IOTL Governor Rockefeller became VP just three years after Attica (which was less bloody IOTL, but still). I think the question is whether Biaggi can downplay the incident and lessen sympathy for the victims, since most of the victims were convicts.

2) Indeed. He'll definitely be remembered better here, and his hypothetical survival may even be the premise of many "what if" threads on TTL's version of Alternate History Forum!

3) Well, when a light's turned on, the rats don't stick around, they crawl into the darker parts of the basements. The wave of apprehended perverts could encourage others to be more cautious and clandestine in their activities. On the other hand, it could increase/enhance steps taken to apprehend more of them. We'll see how it plays out...

4) I was surprised by that, too!

5) Yes, indeed!

6) Unoriginal Joke: "Hey, you know how to save a Nazi from drowning?" "No." "Good!"

7) They could, especially when one considers the pro-NA actions taken toward the end of the LBJ Presidency.

8) I believe it is!

Unknown said:
Goodbye, Mr. Savile. 1) One thing's for sure: Jim cant fix this!!!XD

2) RIP, George; at least you were better ITTL with regards to Civil Rights...

3) Governor Mario Biaggi, when Ronald Reagan is calling you out on the Attica riots and your handling of them...yeah, you'll be very lucky to survive to the 1974 governor's race. A parallel can be drawn between Biaggi ITTL and James Rhodes, the governor of Ohio, and his handling of the Kent State Shootings; while Rhodes did serve two more terms as governor, it destroyed his national hopes...

4) Three women running for president in 1971--that's impressive!!!

5) Welcome to the late 20th century, FBI...

6) Can't wait to see how the 1972 Democratic and Republican primaries turn out...
Click to expand...

1) Indeed!

2) Yep.

3) I suppose a parallel can be drawn there!

4) Indeed

5) Yeah-huh!

6) The E.T.A. of the next update is September 5
 
Post 28
Post 28: Chapter 36

Chapter 36: February 1972 – August 1972

“I read in the papers that the Los Angeles police are hunting for a Chicago gangster. But why do they want one from Chicago? Can’t they be satisfied with a hometown boy?”

– Gracie Allen



The Declaration of Independence says “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with uncertain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” There’s two things in there I want to point out. The first is that it says “endowed by their Creator,” not “the Creator” or any specific creator; it supports the old saying of “to each, his own,” while confirming at the same time that America is in fact a nation with religion – a nation with religious people, a nation with religious roots. A nation of people who share the same basic set of values: Love thy neighbor. Do onto others, uh that, um, that you’d want them to do unto you – y’all know what I mean. And lend a helping hand to those who need it – or at the very least, don’t be a jerk to them. The second thing about that passage is that it says “among these” rights. That means that people have other rights as well – rights to safety, security, education, the list goes on and on. Thomas Jefferson wrote those words. He was a very smart man. And I should know – I use to sit next to him when we were in the fourth grade together! Always raising his hand, he was.

– President Sanders at the National Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, 2/3/1972



VOICE-OVER (as footage rolls): “…In Irvington, the family at this house had an argument with their daughter. With the creation of the NJ Negative Income Rebate, the oldest daughter of five child, Susanna [1], plans to move out of her family home when she turns 18 in two years, in order to, in her words, ‘have some breathing room.’
“Just down the street from her, the oldest son of an African-American family gave his first N.J.N.I.R. check to his father, to help him pay for car repairs, and to pay for a new refrigerator for his mother.
“In this dilapidated home in Toms River, police arrested a man after threatening his wife at gunpoint, allegedly attempting to take money from her cashed-in N.J.N.I.R. check to gamble at the horse track.
“And in this apartment in Tenefly, a high school senior has begun saving for Princeton without worrying too much about the cost.”

STUDENT: “I know that if I fall, the rebate will keep me from landing on hard times.”

VOICE-OVER (as footage rolls): “This is the new world in which many of New Jersey’s over seven million residents finds themselves.”

REPORTER (in footage): The NJ Negative Income Rebate Law, which oversees the issuance of an income supplementation dividend, was passed in early 1970, in the Garden State’s first legislative session under Governor McDermott. McDermott came under scrutiny last year as after workplace production and employment dropped after the rebate law took effect, but in the most recent quarters, productivity has risen. College applications have increased, and applications for higher-up jobs have, too. The biggest benefit the rebate may be having on the state, though, is in consumer consumption. People in New Jersey are now buying more in light of a new confidence in their financial security. The risen demand is leading to a rise in production.
“Additionally, the number of people moving into New Jersey has increased. From 1960 to 1970, the state grew roughly 18% in size, averaging at 3.6% every 2 years. In the past two years, though, the population has risen roughly 4% in size, with many of the new residents hailing from New York City…”

– ABC Special Report, Friday 2/4/1972 broadcast



By the start of the primary, the candidates had found their corners:

Walter Mondale, running an energetic and fairly youthful campaign on a platform appealing to working class voters and the generic slogan “The Change We Need,” found support among establishment politicians despite also being heavily backed by many unions, including most Hispanic farm workers and their unions.

Hubert Humphrey, swiping at Mondale’s candidacy with the slogan “Some Talk of Great Change – Others Create It,” also found support among members of the party establishment, including Chicago Mayor Daley and Jack Kennedy; he also found support among urban laborers and white ethnic groups.

Mike Gravel was a passionate progressive grassroots campaign highlighting his accomplishments; with the slogan “Putting People First,” Gravel won over young people, Hollywood celebrities, and college-educated individuals. Gravel was also best known for his 1968 campaign’s heavy focus on dovish foreign policy prior to announcing his candidacy. While that rhetoric was beneficial at a time, when American forces were fighting in Cambodia and Laos, the US was at peace at the start of ’72; as such, Gravel switched to focusing more on domestic policy, with a heavy focus on regulating businesses.

Mario Biaggi, the conservative New York Governor and former primary frontrunner, sought to recover from the Attica Massacre scandal and return to frontrunner status by doubling down on what had brought him victory in 1966 and 1970: “Peace and Prosperity Through Law and Order;” the most conservative Democrat in the race, accusations of racism threatened to hurt his campaign in northern states. Biaggi was also the least critical of the President, even after their openly contrasting views on Attica.

Shirley Chisholm’s historic run immediately pulled in many progressives, feminists, Black activists, and shoutniks, but the Congresswoman continuously emphasized her ability to appeal to a wider range of voters, including white suburban voters.

Scoop Jackson, seemingly the second most conservative Democrat in the field, ran on the message “Great at Home, Great Abroad,” and focused on his long resume and legislative experience, betting it would propel him to the front of the pack.

Wayne Morse, and his slogan “Wayne All the Way,” was the focus of other progressive voters, too; peaceniks and people nostalgic of his prior runs gathered around the septuagenarian to support his fourth consecutive bid for President.

Bob Casey, at age 39 the youngest of the candidates, ran on the message “Never Too Early to Lead;” Casey, a favorite among Catholics, it seemed, sought to appeal to the party as a moderate.

Grant Sawyer, capitalizing on his 1968 stint as Jack Kennedy’s running mate, promoted his 12 years as governor of an example of him being a pragmatic “Western progressive”/left-leaning centrist candidate.

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’70s, Basic Books NY, 2000, p. 298



Humphrey: “I’m happy to have a debate. Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.” [2]

[snip]

Mondale: “This is a campaign for all working Americans, from the immigrant farmers of New Mexico to the factory workers of New England. I have the experience needed for leading effectively from the White House. I’ve been a Senator since 1961, and before then was the Minnesota Attorney General.”

[snip]

Gravel: “We need to provide more funding for these social programs. So I would transfer money from the military budget to cover these expansions.”

Jackson: “Uh, if I may make a rebuttal? Thank you. Mike, what you propose is dangerous and frightening. When you say we must take risks for peace by cutting the meat from our military muscle, I say you are unwittingly risking war. [3]

Morse: “He’s not saying make America vulnerable – he’s saying he’d rather spend the money meant for missiles on medicine and meals instead.”

[snip]

Humphrey: “Despite Senator Jackson’s claims, compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism. [2] [snip] As President, I will fight, as I always have, for minorities of all races and religions, for all who deserve to share in the fullness of American life.[2]

– Snippets from the transcript of the 2/16/1972 Democratic Primary debate between Humphrey, Mondale, Gravel, Jackson and Morse




The lack of any wars, the kind which had helped the candidacy of many an anti-war candidate in 1968, took the wind out of those same sort of sails in ’72. Morse and Gravel had to instead focus on the Colonel’ opposition to regulation and his censoring policies, largely ignored by most major media outlets and a minor issue in political world until their campaigns promoted them to the front page of newspapers nationwide. [snip] In the first Democratic primary debate, Morse looked old, worn out and tired, while Gravel looked too radical to be able to win in November, his flair for flamboyance coming off as wiry to many. Nevertheless, Gravel’s passion stole away Morse’s thunder. Making his fourth consecutive bid for the nomination, the aging Senator Morse had developed a “used goods” vibe – while Gravel was picking up the mantle of being the bold “new face” of the Democratic far-left.

– Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President: 1972, Atheneum Publishers, 1973



…The troubled nation’s February 20, 1972 Presidential election saw Salvadorans nationwide, after years of military dictatorships and corruption, take what could have been the nation’s last attempt at reform through peace.

President Gen. Fidel Sanchez Hernandez’s plans for electoral fraud – PCN Presidential candidate Col. Arturo A. Molina – were blatant and poorly disguised. A native political coalition called the United National Opposition soon formed thanks to organizational efforts by leftist parties, trade unions, and activist Roman Catholic clergy. The coalition was not taken seriously by conservative sectors [4]. Nevertheless, the incumbent administration commenced making political activities the targets of National Conciliation Party (PCN)’s harassment and assault tactics; creating increasingly restrictive voting qualification rules also occurred. By January, the coalition had finally rallied around one candidate – Jose Napoleon Duarte of the Christian Democratic Party. Understanding the need for him and the broad-based reform movement united behind him to win the Presidency, all other candidates other anti-Molina dropped out by the end of January.

As the election date neared, Max Jakobson stepped in. The new Secretary-General of the UN, in light of his narrow selection for the post, and continuing criticism from Middle-Eastern nations, felt compelled to prove his ability to be a pragmatic leader on the world stage. Jakobson lead the international pressure that urged Fidel Sanchez Hernandez to host “free and fair” elections. Taking the Monroe Doctrine to heart, the US President Harland “Colonel” Sanders took the situation “one step further” by threatening to send in a U.S.-led deployment of UN peacekeeping troops to the country if “open and honest” election were not held.

On election night, the Central Election Board in San Salvador announced Duarte had won by over 26,000 votes, after 900,000 votes were cast (a high number which many observers alleged was the result of ballot stuffing). On February 22, President Sanchez Hernandez claimed the results were inconclusive. Jakobson and Sanders subsequently increased the international pressure over the following weeks, threatening the President’s regime with economic boycotts and other leverage, until the incumbent relented. On June 23, just days the July 1 1972 inauguration, Sanchez Hernandez announced that Duarte had won. He subsequently fled to Venezuela upon leaving office, while Molina supporters shocked by the “betrayal” of Sanchez Hernandez failed to launch a paramilitary coup against Duarte and his allies that same week.

While the nation itself continued to dapple with warring anti-reform factions for a few more years, the election itself became a powerful symbol of how through the democratic process – and a little international pressure – reform can come without bloodshed.

– Ashley Carse’s The Sins of The Savior: Politics and People in El Salvador, MIT Press, 2019



HERE’S JIMMY!: DAVIS IS BACK FOR A THIRD TERM AS GOVERNOR!

Baton Rouge, LA – In tonight’s gubernatorial election, 72-year-old former Governor Jimmie Davis won a third nonconsecutive term. …Davis, a Democrat, bested a Republican nominee – the 39-year-old activist-turned-former state party chairman Robert Max Ross – by a 7% margin. The narrowness promotes the notions of psephologists of late who believe the South is becoming more open to the ideals and philosophies of the Republican party, in part due to the popularity of President Sanders, and the seemingly rightward shift in the party’s principles in the Senate under Senate minority leader Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). …Davis, who ran on a left-leaning moderate platform that appealed to lower-class voters, previously served as Governor from 1944 to 1948 and again from 1960 to 1964…

– The Times-Picayune, 2/1/1972



Jones’ wife, Marceline, was put on trial. As there was no evidence of her knowing of the motives of her husband or Manson, she was acquitted in February 1972 and soon she returned to the Peoples Temple church as its new leader. Seeing the need to repair their image, she renamed church “The Temple of the Followers of Christ’s Love,” and began advocating policies such as “Active Humanitarianism” and “Unilateral Forgiveness.”

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



THE XI WINTER OLYMPICS IN JAPAN: Feats Surmounted & Records Broken
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[pic: imgur.com/ipCQJKl.png ]
Sports Illustrated, 2/13/1972 special issue



…Earlier tonight, Ms. Coya Knutson, the Governor of the North Star State, won the Democratic Minnesota caucus with 33% of the vote, with Senators Mondale and Humphrey coming in second and third place, respectively, and several other candidates making up the bottom 10% of votes cast. In this reporter’s analysis, the mudslinging that occurred between the Humphrey and Mondale camps is mutually destructive for the candidates, as the negativity is uninviting to decent, well-to-do, undecided Minnesotans voters. The results may be the boon the campaign of Coya Knutson needs…

– The Overmyer Network, 2/22/1972 broadcast



MITTERAND RE-ELECTED!

…Running on the big-tent Unified Socialist Party label, the incumbent President of France bested Georges Pompidou of the UNR in tonight’s second and final round of voting. Two weeks ago, Mitterrand and Pompidou were the top two finishers of the first round, which they won over Alain Poher (Popular Republican Movement (MRP)), Jacques Duclos (French Communist Party (PCF)), Gaston Defferre (French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO), Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour (Miscellaneous far right (DVED)), and Gaston Monnerville (Reform). …The Reform (“L’ Réforme”) Party, the nation’s newest party, favors an electoral college to France’s current Presidential selection process…

…Mitterrand’s team of advisors, which included Marxist academics Etienne Balibar, Jacques Ranciére, Pierre Macherey, and Henri Lefebvre, proved to be controversial surrogates on the campaign trail; this may account for Mitterrand achieving a margin of victory of only 4%.

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 27/2/1972



MINK JABS AT SCOOP FOR BACKING JAPANESE INTERNMENT DURING WWII, SUPPORT FOR WARS, AND CONNECTIONS TO DEFENSE INDUSTRIES

…In the speech, the Congresswoman accused the Senator of racism for being “both an enthusiastic defender of the evacuation” of Japanese-Americans from their homes and communities, an opponent of Japanese-Americans serving in combat, and a “staunch proponent of the campaign to keep the Japanese-Americans from returning to the Pacific Coast after the war.” [5] Mink ended the speech by saying to the cameras, “Senator Jackson, when you look at me, what do you see? A color, or a fellow American?” …Despite Jackson’s stronger record on civil rights, the remarks are valid… Mink is also critical of Jackson’s opposition to détente...

– The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 2/28/1972



…In tonight’s Democratic caucus held in the state of Washington, Senator Scoop Jackson of Washington won the contest, but real winner of the night was Congresswoman Patsy Mink, who scored an impressive 20% of the vote against Jackson. Only two other candidates, Senators Mike Gravel and Wayne Morse, appeared on the ballot…

– NBC News, 2/29/1972 broadcast



“The response to Attica was necessary. Those prisoners were not exactly in there for swiping candy. These hooligans were murderers, horrible lying thieving monstrous individuals who refused to play by society’s rules. These were truly dangerous, dangerous men. That is why they were in prison!”

– Governor Mario Biaggi (D-NY), 3/1/1972 stump speech



BIAGGI DESCRIPTION OF ATTICA VICTIMS COMES UNDER FIRE: Relatives Call Some “Exaggerated,” Others “Outright Wrong”

– The Concord Monitor, New Hampshire newspaper, 3/3/1972



GRANITE STATE PICKS GRAVEL, SCRANTON IN 1972’s 1st PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

…Humphrey came in second by a 5% margin, while in the Republican race, Senator Goldwater raked in roughly 32%... Knutson underperformed... Goldwater tonight performed better than expected by many pollsters…

– The Daily Hampshire Gazette, 3/7/1972



Earlier today, congress passed the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act. Introduced by Philleo Nash in the Senate in October and by Presidential candidate Patsy Mink in the House in November, the amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all federally funded education programs and activities. President Sanders is expected to sign the legislation into law fairly soon…

– ABC News, 3/11/1972 report



TULIPS AND FINGER LICKS: K.F.C. Opens First Outlet In The Netherlands

– The Los Angeles Times, 3/12/1972



BIAGGI WINS FLORIDA PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY

…The controversial Governor of New York won over conservatives in the Sunshine state. Biaggi received little support from Black voters, whom have been rallying behind Gravel and Humphrey in recent weeks… In regards to the female candidates, Chisholm surprised pundits with a strong showing while Knutson and Mink again underperformed...

The Los Angeles Times, 3/14/1972



The political establishment’s preferred candidate won the Illinois primary once more in 1972. Humphrey won 40% of the popular vote, but 75% of the state’s convention delegates. The March 21 contest was essentially a breeze for Ol’ Hubie thanks to the perennial string-pulling of Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. “Big Dick” Daley. Fortunately for America, Daley’s stranglehold on the democratic process was lingering. The efforts of Nevada Governor Grant Sawyer to expand the number of primaries weakened Daley’s influence in the nomination selection process…

– Roger Stone’s The Liberal Elite: How They Strive to Regulate Us All, Vol. I, Stone Stallion E-Publishing, 2007



Walt Disney first began contemplating the idea of an animated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” even before Snow White premiered, but the story and titular character appeared to be not relatable enough to the audiences of the 20th century. This was proven to be true by the 1952 live-action MGM version of the fairy tale starring Danny Kaye and directed Charles Vidor, entitled “Hans Christian Andersen,” which failed to “properly” present the story and character. The concept was shelved indefinitely.

Fast-forward two decades. Walt Disney and Roy Disney are dead, and the Walt Disney Company, under Card Walker, is searching for a way to retain the years of glory and success experienced under their founder. By 1972, the company was suffering on numerous fronts. Films were seemingly decreasing in quality and popularity (especially live-action films, such as “The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit,” “The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band,” “Never a Dull Moment,” “The Boatniks,” “Million Dollar Duck,” and “The Biscuit Eater” [6], and older members of the company were retiring or itching to do so (if not quit over rumored layoffs to save costs). Several department heads – and, especially, Board of Directors member Roy E. Disney – soon can to believe that “some diamonds” could be found among Walt Disney’s earlier shelved works. “I feared creatively the company was starting to go nowhere interesting,” Roy E. Disney later recalled. Turning to the proposals that Walt had never lived to see become reality, Disney animators suggested an attempt to bring the Snow Queen to the big screen.

According to Charles Solomon’s The Making of: Disney’s “The Snow Queen” (Disney Chronicles Books, 2005), the inspiration behind the notion was surprisingly not artistic possibility, but geopolitics. At the time of the studio’s “grand search,” the policy of détente was warming tensions between both sides of the Cold War. Due to the efforts of political leaders such as Colonel Sanders and Alex Kosygin, the company opted to look for a concept that both Russian and American audiences could enjoy, and found it in a story set in snowy Scandinavia.

As Production on The Snow Queen began, production on Robin Hood stalled. But before anything more could happen, the company had to overcome one major problem – the story. Andersen’s original fairy tale consists of seven long “stories” with complicated plots and over a dozen characters. To condense it down to a standard 80-to-90-minute feature, the writers decided to “skim away” as much as possible… [snip] The story’s tone was also changed from dark and grim to more hopeful and light-hearted. The redesigning of the main character to be more of an anti-hero than a sympathetic villain was a pivotal move that “made the whole thing come together,” according to Solomon.

Finally came the second step: determining the animation style. In early 1972, Disney sent several artists on a tour of Alaska to draw inspiration from the snow-capped state, while others researched similarities between American and Russian customs.

This is where a young Fairbanks-based painter taking the Alaskan art world by storm came into the Disney picture…

– James B. Stewart’s Disney War, Simon & Schuster, 2005



…Earlier tonight, the United States Senate finally voted to send the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification…

– CBS Evening News, 3/22/1972 broadcast



FORMER MCDONALD’S CEO AT CENTER OF DONATIONS CONTROVERSY

Washington, DC – Ray Kroc, the former CEO of McDonald who now owns the San Diego Padres, donated $255,000 to Senator Goldwater’s Presidential bid last week… [7] Senator Philleo Nash (D-WI) now claims that the contribution is an attempt to persuade the Senator’s political positions for financial gain. According to Nash, who serves on several Senate committees connected to election finance law, Kroc hoped the donation would encourage Goldwater to oppose talk of a nationwide minimum wage raise proposal going around congress in recent months. The proposal would directly affect teen-aged employers, who make up “the very center” of McDonald’s work force, according to the Senator. Kroc has furiously denied the allegation, claiming he “wants the best man to be President – a man who, like me, understands the importance of self-reliance and opposes government handouts.” When asked if the donation was then a jab against the President, with whom he was once a business rival, Kroc replied, “We buried the hatchet some time ago.” Nash is nonetheless considering calling for an investigation into the matter.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, 3/26/1972



HUBERT WINS WISCONSIN BY A HAIR: Scranton Beats Goldwater By “Fair” Margin in State's Presidential Primaries

– The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/4/1972



CHISHOLM IS THE LEADER WE NEED

– The Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper, endorsing Congresswoman Chisholm for President, 4/5/1972



For years, the media had discussed, either jokingly or seriously, the idea of Father cooking his famous Kentucky Fried Chicken on live TV at the White House Correspondence Dinner. Father was personally against the notion over fears of political opponents claiming it to be a conflict of interest. Months ahead of the final W.H.C.D. of the Sanders administration, however, after discussions with the appropriate judges and law experts, the Attorney General convinced the Colonel that such an activity, if done dramatically enough, would be considered an act of showmanship and not a promotion of KFC products. After eight years, the Colonel finally relented.

[snip]

On the stage, Father joked that he had been so busy over the last seven years that he could not remember how to make it, only to expertly dance through the steps of the KFC-making process, culminating in the President pounding his hands onto the pressure cooker’s lid to make sure it closed. After just seven minutes, the Colonel passed the pieces over to the tables closest to the stage.

– 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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– Senators Mondale and Humphrey feign smiles for the cameras while at a charity dinner in their native Minnesota, 4/17/1972



ALABAMA GOVERNOR, DISAPPOINTED IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, FILES AS A “HIPPY”
Conservative Governor Engelhardt May Run For H.I.P. Presidential Nomination This Year

Birmingham, AL – In an official press conference, Governor Sam Engelhardt of Alabama changed his party registration from "Democratic" to "Heritage and Independence." Engelhardt explained that he disapproves of all of the Democrat candidates running for President this year, and believes the party has shifted “too far to the left for them to be viable in future elections. The Hippies,” an awkwardly-assembled moniker for members of the conservative Heritage and Independence Party, “have a far better understanding of the issues facing Americans.” When pressed about a potential Presidential bid, Engelhardt remarked, “We’ll see. Well, you will.”
Samuel Martin Engelhardt Jr., 59, started out as a planter and ginner in Shorter, Alabama. He began his political career in the state House of Representative from 1950 to 1954. From 1954 to 1958, he served as a pro-segregation state senator. Nevertheless, his legislative accomplishments included authorship of the Alabama Placement Act of 1956, and the Tuskegee Gerrymandering Act of 1957. Engelhardt ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1958 and for Governor in 1962. Until last year, he was associated with the White Citizens Council. From 1959 to 1963, Engelhardt served as the state highway director under Governor Patterson and as the chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee. Under Engelhardt's directorship, the Highway Department built, maintained, repaired many roads and bridges throughout the state. However, his tenure was marred by an investigation and charges related to a highway striping contract. Engelhardt was also investigated by the U.S. Civil Service Commission for allegedly violating ethics laws via serving as both the highway director and chairman of the State Democratic Executive Committee. After being cleared of all charges in 1968, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress on the H.I.P. party label. He successful ran for Lieutenant Governor in 1970. As Lieutenant Governor, he often sparred with the late George Wallace.

– The New York Times, 4/18/1972



…Governor Phil Hoff won tonight’s Democratic Presidential caucus in his home state of Vermont. Hoff, an active Presidential candidate whose campaign is heavily focused on healthcare concerns, has fared poorly in all previous primary contests… …As of tonight, the tally for the delegates allotted to the Democratic candidates so far are as follows: Hubert Humphrey holds the lead with 135 delegates, while Fritz Mondale is in second with 81 delegates. Senator Gravel holds 40, Senator Jackson holds 35, Governor Biaggi holds 34, and the rest hold less than 10 each…

The Overmyer Network, 4/20/1972



DEMO. PRIMARIES: GRAVEL WINS MASS.; CASEY WINS PENN.; KNUTSON DROPS OUT, ENDORSES MONDALE
Gravel Campaign Expecting “Big Boost” In Support Now

The Washington Times, 4/25/1972



I think my favorite trip abroad as First Lady, I’ve got to say, was the time when Harland and I met with Francois [Mitterrand] and [his wife] Danielle in Paris for the third and final time. It was in April 1972, and because there was only nine months or so left for our time in the White House, neither of us worried too much about making any faux pas in front of the now-familiar and recently re-elected President. The political pressure was off our backs and the four of us could really relax more than before. It was still a political meeting, an official state visit, of course, but it was the most comfortable one we had. Naturally, we dined on chicken – fine-roasted Chicken Provencal with chestnut stuffing. Oh, and the pastries were to die for!

– Claudia Price Sanders, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) interview, 1979



GOLDWATER: Peace Through Strength; Lower Taxes; Morality In Government

– Pamphlet circulated in Nevada, c. mid-to-late April 1972



Gravel: “The state of Alaska has produced great riches for the entire United States. The gold rush era I think has to be done today, uh, as this wealth is being taken from the ground and taken from our seas, that the efforts have to be made to see that this wealth is used to benefit people. [8] And Alaska is going to be relying on its oil deposits and other resources to cover its Permanent Alaskan Dividend Fund now, so I wouldn’t oppose drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge [9], but as President I would implement the precautions needed to protect and preserve the local ecosystems during such use.”

[snip]

Mondale: “Workers need work. They need job security, to be able to trust their employees to not be exploited. We need to close up loopholes, and ensure that unions remain key players in the workforce.”

[snip]

Gravel: “We need to raise the standard of living in rural places, create opportunities for decent living – job, housing, education for children. The people who say it can’t be done either haven’t the will or are running for the wrong office.”

[snip]

Moderator: “Governor Biaggi, critics persist that you demonstrated poor leadership skills in last September’s Attica Incident. Could you clarify the reason behind this and what I says about your leadership style?”

Biaggi: “I’ve said this many times before – the prison needed to be retaken to return law and order to it. The rioters inside were threatening the lives of the hostages, and I had to respond. Leadership requires action, and action yields results, and the results were that the prison as reclaimed and the rioters were brought to justice. My leadership style is pragmatic and effective, and it’s the kind of style that America needs in the White House in the 1970s.”

Gravel: “May I have this rebuttal?”

Moderator: “Senator, you have one minute.”

Gravel: “Thank you. Gentlemen, Biaggi won’t say it so I will. What happened in upstate New York last September was not a riot gone awry or an incident or a kerfuffle. It was a massacre. The killing of civilians whom the courts had ruled would live and serve time in that prison for their crimes, not for them to be treated like they were less than animals and to be shot down like they were nothing. If we were describing another country, we’d be discussing human rights abuses and sanctions at the UN right now.”

Biaggi: “Mike, you exaggerate, like many other politicians who are soft on crime because they don’t understand it. They fail to understand the necessity of the rule of law, the thin blue line that separates order and chaos. Those prisoners were threatening the lives of dozens of hostages, and with them the foundations of our criminal justice system. If they didn’t like prison, they shouldn’t have committed crime in the first place. .”

– Snippets from the transcript of the 4/22/1972 Democratic Primary debate between Gravel, Mondale, and Biaggi (Humphrey declined an invitation to participate due to a “family emergency,” later revealed to be a medical emergency concerning cancer treatment)



FORMER GOV. SAWYER WINS FIRST-EVER NEVADA PRES. PRIMARY

…The three-term Governor of Nevada appeared elated at his home state’s participation in the nomination selection process. However, the smiles, confetti and balloons littering “Sawyer For The Seventies” headquarters could not hide the unaddressed elephant in room – that the odds of winning the nomination are highly unlikely for the former running mate of 1968 nominee Jack Kennedy. Political analyst David Brinkley theorizes the Nevada primary was “more about the democratic process than the victory itself.” Local ardent backers of Sawyer, though, truly believe the former Governor will gather momentum now. “His record as governor will translate into votes for him, I’m sure of it,” argues one Sawyer supporter…

– The Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/25/1972



THE PENDULUM EFFECT: What Past Presidential Trends Can Tell Us Now

…Will the Democratic party nominate a friend of the labor unions to try and succeed the man many Democrats and liberal shoutniks see as “a businessman President,” or will they nominate a peace dove who wants to never fight another war overseas to try and succeed the president who has overseen three wars and has won all of them?

Tumbleweed Magazine, 4/28/1972



“I opposed opening relations to China four years ago because I believe it was bad form to abandon Taiwan. But the past is past. The best thing we can do now is ensure the exposure of China to the world will affect China more so than the world.” [snip] “While I am a great believer in the free competitive enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government action against important segments of our national economy.[10]

– Barry Goldwater at a campaign stop in Morgantown, WV, 4/30/1972




“Now I’ll admit I had some reservations on signing this here Consumer Product Safety Bill. I was concerned it would inhibit business-led innovation, but I trust Ralph Nader’s judgement, and I know even of the folks on the hill to know who wants what. I think this bill will inform consumers without trampling on the rights of business owners.”

– President Colonel Sanders signing the Consumer Product Safety Act into law, 5/1/1972



The Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972 established a new independent agency of the US government called the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, which seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by researching and addressing “unreasonable risks” of injury, and developing safety standards (though none established under President Sanders were mandatory). Passed by the 92nd Congress and signed into law by President Colonel Sanders, the act, which became effective on June 1, 1972, placed a Chairman as head of the CPSC and headquartered it in Bethesda, Maryland.

[snip]

Lead-based paint was widely used due to its durability. However, cases from as early as the start of the 20th century cited lead poisoning from such paint. After years activism based on studies conducted by doctor Philip J. Landrigan, the government began to response to lead-based health concerns during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Congress banned the use of lead-based paint in residential structures in 1969, and founded the CPSC in 1972.

– clickopedia.co.usa



Tonight was a busy night in the world of politics: three states each held two presidential primaries. On the Republican side, Vice President Scranton won all three contests held in Ohio, Indiana, and Washington DC. On the Democratic side, though, things were more complicated. Um, huh. In fact, we’ve only just now learned which Democrat won Ohio. Um, ah. The bulletin states that Hubert Humphrey achieved a plurality in the Buckeye state, and may receive 58 of Ohio’s 140 party delegates, if not more. Earlier in the night, Mondale edges out Humphrey and Gravel to win Indiana, also by a plurality. Washington, DC, however, was a historic outcome. With over 55% of the vote, Representative Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American to win a party primary. She will likely be allotted all, if not most, of the District of Columbia’s 15 convention delegates. Undoubtedly a boon for her campaign, Chisholm likely won the primary thanks to both the capital district’s large African-American voter population, and her outreach to low-income voters of all races…

– NBC News, 5/2/1972 broadcast



…In tonight’s Democratic primary election for US Senator from Alabama, the incumbent Senator Sparkman has lost re-nomination in a major upset to underdog opponent John LeFlore. Sparkman has held the seat since 1946, and was the pro-segregation nominee for Vice President in 1952. LeFlore is a 67-year-old African-American political and civil rights activist whom was elected to the Alabama state senate in 1970. A third primary candidate was Allen Cavett Thompson, the 66-year-old former Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Prior to tonight’s runoff, Thompson accused Sparkman of “betraying the South,” and falsely claimed Sparkman “sat out the calls to defend segregation.” This likely damaged Sparkman’s candidacy ahead of the runoff. LeFlore will run against Republican nominee Winston “Red” Blount Jr. in the general election and – hold on, mm-hmm, we have an update: Senator Sparkman has just announced his intention to run in the general election as an independent. And from reporter’s perspective, the move could benefit Blount. This could split the Democratic vote in November and ascend Blount to the Senate on a plurality, much like how Alabama’s other Senator, the Republican, uh, John Martin, was first elected in 1962. Such a result would make one of the biggest pro-Democrat states in the South have both of its Senators be Republican…

The Overmyer Network, 5/2/1972 broadcast



HOST: “Hello and welcome back to our discussion on tonight’s Presidential primary results. Goldwater won tonight’s GOP Tennessee primary, while Biaggi won the Democrat version. Both men are conservatives and the state is fairly conservative, but the two men differed greatly on the extent of the federal government and have suffered numerous controversies this primary season.”

HUNTLEY: “Yes, between Goldwater’s gaffes and animosity shared between Biaggi and more progressive Democrats, it seemed both of their campaigns were floundering. I deduce the unexpected victories are the result of vote-splitting, at least in Biaggi’s case.”

HOST: “Goldwater received roughly 52% of the vote over Vice President Scranton’s 43%, with the remaining 5% or so going to Mississippi Governor Rubel Phillips. Biaggi, meanwhile, won 40% against Humphrey, Mondale, Gravel and Chisholm, with the only other conservative Democrat on the ballot, uh, Scoop Jackson, receiving under 5%. What do these numbers mean?”

HUNTLEY: “That conservatives in both parties have found their respective standard-bearers, and are rallying behind Goldwater and Biaggi.”

– Exchange on Meet the Press, 5/2/1972 broadcast



GOLDWATER GAINS GROUND: Wins Nebraska Primary In Landslide; Scranton Scrapes By In W.V.

DEMOCRATS STILL SPLIT: Mondale Wins NE, Biaggi Takes WV Despite HHH’s Best Efforts

The Washington Post, 5/9/1972 main articles



MONDALE, SCRANTON WIN MD, MI PRIMARIES

Associated Press, 5/16/1972



SCOOP JACKSON DROPS PRESIDENTIAL BID: Cites Poor Primary Results, Low Funds

– The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 5/17/1972



I was in a bind. Two men that I admired were asking for my endorsement. It was the 1956 Senate race between Wetherby and Cooper all over again! [White House Counsel] Cliff White was urging me to choose Goldwater – a passionate man of honesty and ideals, who understood that small businesses cannot thrive if government limits or even monitors every action they take. [Chief Domestic Policy Advisor] Whitney Young, meanwhile, wanted me to endorse Scranton – a loyal apprentice who had proven his ability to lead on many occasions, most notably housing and employment reform, the 1966 Milwaukee Race Riots, the 1969 busing probe, and 1970 health committee report. In the end, I decided to repeat what I had done in 1956. I refused to take a side, arguing that the primary voters should decide who the party’s standard-bearer should be in November instead.

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



NRSA HEAD RALPH NADER TAPPED FOR NEW CONSUMER PROTECTION COMMISSION

…Bipartisan praise is ringing through the halls of congress for “Nader the Crusader,” who has served as the Administrator of the National Roadways Safety Administration since 1966…

– The Washington Post, 5/19/1972



BEAVER STATE BACKS MORSE IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

…Senator Gravel came in second place, losing the contest by roughly a mere 1,200 votes. Gravel was gracious in his concession speech, telling the crowd “Morse is a worthy opponent whose care for his constituents and the well-being of this nation are genuine. If I was destined to lose this race to someone, I’m glad it was him.” However, the second place finish may boost the Senator’s campaign, as Humphrey and Mondale underperformed…

The Oregonian, Oregon newspaper, 5/23/1972



SCRANTON SECURES DELEGATES NEEDED TO WIN NOMINATION OUTRIGHT!

Oregon Puts VP Numbers Over Threshold

– The Washington Post, 5/28/1972



I was angry at the Colonel for not supporting my bid. We finally had a confrontation about it in May, where I hollered “I’ve added a thousand times more input to this administration than that little Scranton s#!t has.”

The Colonel bellowed “Watch the language, darn it!”

“Argh!” was my immediate reply.

Sanders then became more conciliatory, suggesting Scranton and I come up with a compromise like what the two of us had agreed on back in ’64.

“Barry Goldwater doesn’t compromise,” I said. “And it’s not like I can afford to wait until the 1976 or 1980 primaries come along. I’m already 64!”

“And I was 74 when I started this job. I waited and good fortune came to me for it,” the Colonel noted.

“The American people can’t wait – we need a pragmatic President.”

“Then work with Scranton like how you worked with me. Lead him down a path of pragmatism.”

I sighed, “At this point, I guess that’s the only option.” However, in order to ensure that Scranton did not ignore the party conservatives and their ideals, I had to increase my influence ahead of the RNC, and that meant winning as many of the remaining contests and delegates as I could.

– Barry Goldwater’s autobiography No Apologies: My Personal and Political Memoirs, Morrow Publishers, 1979



Post-Khanh Vietnam established a unicameral government consisting of a Preisdent and Council of Representatives, with the latter having more strength and influence over the President than does the US Congress. This situation accommodated Vietnam’s composition of culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse citizens which required multiple viewpoints to be heard.

[snip]

Vietnam’s first Presidential election was held in May 1972. After a blanket primary was held on Tuesday the 16th, the final runoff was held on Tuesday the 30th. The runoff saw incumbent President, Harvard-trained banker-turned-politician Nguyen Xuan Oanh (of the Peaceful Today and Tomorrow Party), lose to the popular Mayor of Saigon Nguyen Hop Doan (of the Heal and Rebuild Together Party).

– Ellen Joy Hammer’s Settling The Dust: Vietnam After Khanh, E. P. Dutton, 1975



For the third and final Democratic primary debate, Mondale, Gravel, Humphrey and Chisholm converged in Sacramento, in the vitally important winner-take-all California primary…

Mondale called for further influence of labor unions in business activities directly effecting workers, as “an implemental and instrumental force for worker protection from the bureaucratic oversights of their bosses in the collective bargaining agreement.”

[snip]

Gravel: “I would be fine with raising the age for eligibility for the US military to 21.”

[snip]

Mondale: “Hubert, in 1963, you called American involvement in Cuba to be, and I quote, ‘our greatest adventure and a wonderful one it is.’ [11] Do you still think that way after seeing the number of veterans from that war still suffering permanent loss of intact bodies and minds, not just here in California but across all 50 states?”

[snip]

Humphrey: “Senator Gravel’s defense proposals would greatly diminish the influence America has around the world. We can’t risk the US falling into the category of ‘second-rate nation.’”

[snip]

Humphrey: “We need an electable politician for America, and Senator Gravel, you are too radical to win.”

Gravel: “And you are too moderate to lead!”

Humphrey called for the closing of $16 billion in tax loopholes, while Chisholm instead called for raising inheritance taxes.

[snip]

Humphrey: “My economic plan is to spend $11.5 billion on welfare programs, including Social Security benefits and, pending circumstances, the Negative Income Tax Rebate.”

Chisholm: “Sir, that will boost consumer spending but you must also address the continuing discrepancies between employment and education levels among racial lines. We need to promote welfare programs that will both lift the people’s spirits and get results, that will inspire and encourage all to seek out their full potential and reach out for the American dream. That starts with Social Security, and goes on to more spending on programs for domestic workers, vocational schooling, reducing mortgage interest rates, and the removal of racial and gender-based bias from national, states and local governments.”

CBS’s Face the Nation describes Chisholm as the most radical of the four candidates…

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1972, Centurion Publishers, 2021



…hello and welcome back to tonight’s coverage of the final round of Presidential primaries for the Democratic and Republican parties. Already, Scranton has won all of the G.O.P. contests save for California, which is still too close to call. Democrats are also waiting on results from the Golden State, where one of the race’s underdogs, Senator Mike Gravel, was polling surprisingly well in the last few weeks. California seems to be experiencing a three-way race between Humphrey, Mondale and Gravel, and it is not surprising why – the state is allotted a whopping 271 delegates – and this is a winner-take-all primary...

[snip]

…hold on, we have an update, yes, and the Democratic Presidential primary in California has been called for Mike Gravel. This is a game changer for the election, and puts Gravels delegate count ahead of that of Biaggi, Chisholm and many other candidates…

[snip]

…Mondale’s best performance of the night was in New Mexico due to his support among Hispanic voters. Representative Chisholm, on the other hand, won the New Jersey primary due to other candidates not competing for it. However, she did outperform polling in New York, where she obtained roughly 19% of the vote. Compare this to New York Governor Mario Biaggi winning roughly 15% of the vote, who was plagued by the Attica Massacre for his entire campaign. To recap, Mondale won New York by a plurality, Humphrey won South Dakota in a landslide due to his roots there, and Gravel exceeded expectations…

– CBS Evening News, 6/6-7/1972 broadcast



The Goldwater campaign shifted from seeking the nomination to influencing the party platform. With Governor Reagan by his side, the Arizonan canvassed California. On June 6, Goldwater won the state and its hefty share of convention delegates. Scranton still maintained a majority, but it was one much smaller than what he thought it would be six months prior. The strength of the Goldwater campaign would now certainly influence both the party platform, and who Scranton would pick to be his running mate.

– Stephen E. Ambrose, Unforeseen Victories: When Politicians Triumph Over Politics: 1953-1973, NY Simon and Shuster, 1989



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[pic: imgur.com/ButGH8i.png ]
Popular Vote Count:
Scranton: 3,293,214 (55.2%)
Goldwater: 2,392,359 (40.1%)
Phillips: 280,398 (4.7%)
Total Votes Cast: 5,965,971

– clickopedia.co.usa



khdRUtv.png


[pic: imgur.com/khdRUtv.png ]
Delegate Count on 6/6/1972:
Mondale: 462
Humphrey: 455
Gravel: 385
Chisholm: 124
Casey: 117
Biaggi: 82
Jackson: 24
Morse: 20
Sawyer: 12
All others candidates: 3
Total delegates: 1,684
Delegates Needed to Win: 843

– clickopedia.co.usa



A lack of strong winds, soil saturated from light rain that fell just a few days earlier, and overlapping cloud formations pushed in from Canada and Colorado created the perfect conditions for the creation of consistent rainfall in the areas around Rapid City, South Dakota. The intense rain that began on the afternoon of June 9 would not cease on until after midnight on June 10.

Immediately, the flash flood made the area’s creeks overflow, carrying rubble along Rapid Creek to western South Dakota’s Canyon Lake Dam, creating a barrier in front of its spillway. Not wanting a dam-related disaster like what had occurred in California just last year, Governor McGovern ordered the debris to be cleared as soon as he learned of the clogging. This action helped keep the depth of the water behind the dam down to just 4 feet, as opposed to the estimated 10-to-15 feet it would have risen to otherwise, which would have only contributed further to the floodwaters.

The flood’s waters (estimated to have been “1 billion metric tons of water”) uprooted trees, trailers, automobiles and even entire houses. Thousands of homes and businesses were ruined in some capacity across the Back Hills of South Dakota. The destruction in Rapid City tallied up to $46 million, and almost $1mill in Keystone (in 1972 dollars); the entire flooding cost the state a total of $165million. 82 people died, and over 4,000 were injured.

[snip]

After the flood, more warning systems were placed across the regions. Additionally, while houses and motels were not barred from being built in the flood zones, Governor McGovern did order all that were there to be raised and/or moved to avoid the chance of people drowning while sleeping the next time a flood so intense occurred.

– clickopedia.co.usa/The_Black_Hills_Flood_of_1972



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[pic: imgur.com/rum3pCO.png ]
– Two local residents walk past the effects of flooding in Keystone, SD, 6/11/1972



GOV. MCGOVERN SHOWERED WITH PRAISE AFTER HANDLING DEADLY FLOOD; Actions Likely Prevented Dam Disaster

…Credit also goes to the National Weather Service in Rapid City, whose personnel who used their training, tools and skills to issue effective forecasts and warnings with the information and technology at their disposal. However, it should be noted that they had such tools and training due to Governor McGovern increasing the service’s budget size last year...

– The Capital Journal, South Dakota daily newspaper, 6/11/1972



STAND UP: The Beatles’ “Stand Up,” the band’s first album since the attempt on their lives at L.A.’s The Forum, is a celebration of life peppered with both positive accolades and darker imagery. A diverse collection of songs, the tracks almost have a pattern to them, as light melodies – focused mostly on the importance of family, friendship, love and the best of mankind and the potential of humanity – are followed by gloomy and very intense records about pain, suffering, anguish, loss, the worst of mankind, and the inevitability of death.

– review, Tumbleweed Magazine, 6/15/1972



…With the conclusion of the Presidential primaries two weeks ago, Vice President Scranton is on his way to becoming the nominee at the Republican National Convention in August, where the party platform will be finalized and a running mate will be selected. The Democrats, meanwhile, will have a much more daunting atmosphere entering what could be a brokered convention, after an expanded primary season yielded more candidates, only for none of them to secure enough delegates for them to win the nomination on the first ballot. While Senators Mondale and Humphrey are in the lead, it is currently uncertain who will win the nomination and who will be their running mate…

The Overmyer Network, 6/19/1972 broadcast



In 1972, Disney artists and writers travelled to Alaska seeking inspiration for the then-planned animated adaptation of “The Snow Queen.” During their stop in Fairbanks, locals told them to the most famous artist in town: our Bob. Word soon spread of the animators’ presence, and Bob’s family convinced him to approach them with a humble proposal. Bob found 30-minute pocket of time at the animators’ hotel, where Bob was permitted to demonstrate to some of the artists his quick-rendering skills. Most present were impressed at his style. Shortly afterwards, Bob was asked to visit the company’s studios in Los Angeles to repeat the rendering technique. In the Golden State, Bob wowed other members of the Disney family with the pace of his ability to quickly create backdrops – particularly the wintry backdrops. After some hesitance over his lack of professional art schooling, the Disney men agreed with Bill Alexander and offered Bob a job working for the animation studio.

Bob was initially hesitant, wondering if they would trick him into signing a contract prohibiting him from painting outside of Disney projects. To protect himself, Bob contacted the best lawyer that he could find – and after two weeks, Bob contacted Disney with the best lawyer that he could actually afford. A contract was agreed to and signed, and the army granted Bob a six-month leave of absence.

Bob worked with Disney artists (officially, as an "advisor") and taught them how to work with fast-drying paint, from the brush-beating to the pairing of trees. He would return six months later for some additional weeks when assistance and suggestions on additional background scenes were needed.


[pic: imgur.com/Z32YuMu.png ]
Above: an early test image from The Snow Queen

– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014



“I remember this one time in, I want to say, mid-summer, 1972, when SBA Administrator Marshall Parker, went ahead and showed off to Father his new electronic digital wristwatch. He boasted that it cost him $2,100, like it was a real sign of his success. The joke was on him, though, as by the end of the decade, those kind of watches were being sold for just 10 bucks a pop! Seriously, go look it up!”

– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., 1999 interview



BOB CRANE SUED IN NUDE FILMING SCANDAL!
Hogan’s Heroes Star Swears He Told Lover He Would Film Their “Intimate Time”

The Hollywood Reporter, 7/7/1972



By the start of July, Lennon was enthusiastic to go on a global tour calling for World Peace. As Paul was one who was shot, he supported John’s vision on the grounds of raising awareness on the issue of gun violence. The tour could also promote their new album, and assure their loyal fans that the band was still as powerful as it was prior to The Forum Incident. Apart from “Stand Up,” it would be their first major event without the guidance of [their slain manager] Brian Epstein.

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



The 1972 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. After the collapse of the Nationalist Party, the elections were largely dominated by three major parties. The major presidential candidates, in alphabetical order, were the following:

Aureliano Sanchez Arango (1907-1976), the nominee of the heavily pro-American hard-right Conservative Party, a former Minister of Education under President Carlos Socarras who originally sided with Castro during the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista, but changed sides after Castro declared himself a communist. Sanchez developed a positive reputation in the late 1960s by serving as Lopez-Fresquet’s Secretary of Commerce from 1966 to 1971.

Manuel Francisco Artime Buesa (1932-1977), the nominee of the left-leaning centrist Stability Party, who had served in Cuba’s Chamber of Representatives since 1966. Like Sanchez, Artime had fought for Castro before switching sides. His call for complete amnesty for all former Communists helped him win a seat in congress in 1966, but the idea was largely unpopular at the national level, resulting in him coming in third place.

Erneido Andres Oliva Gonzalez (b. 1932), the nominee of the “third position” New Authority Party and the youngest candidate in the race (turning 40 just days before the election), who had served as the outgoing President’s Foreign Policy Advisor from 1966 to 1970 and as Minister of Defense since 1970. He supported strengthening ties to the US.

[snip]

Presidential election results:

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[pic: imgur.com/84UboEf.png ]
[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/1972_general_election/english_translation



The course of action for the serious candidates ahead of the July 24-27 convention was to try and convince former candidates to relinquish their delegates to them. In an attempt to shore up support from former Morse supporters, Gravel made an unprecedented and unconventional announcement at a press conference on July 12: “When I receive the nomination for President, Congressman John E. Moss will be my running mate!” Moss soon joined him at the podium where he, somewhat controversially, remarked “This campaign is a fight to restore openness and truthfulness to DC. The Colonel’s anti-obscenity laws are too oppressive for them to be tolerated. A government cannot regulate morality or the freedom of expression!”

– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1972, Atheneum Publishers, 1973



Mondale studied his options. He could go for the nomination at the convention, and do whatever it took to appeal to as many state delegates as possible. But this would take too long for the two weeks we were working with. He could promise concessions and appointments to the various “favorite son” candidates, like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, which would also consume up our time. Then he studied a sort of Hail Mary pass – appeal to the one sole candidate beside Humphrey who could provide him with enough delegates to put them over the edge.

I arranged and then sat in on the meeting between Mondale and Gravel. Mike Gravel would appeal to the left, yes, but the main benefit of him being in No 1 Observatory Circle was his removal from congress. Since entering the chamber in January 1970, Gravel had repeatedly had difficulty collaborating with his fellow Senators, relying more on showboating tactics to draw attention to issues rather than play by the Senate’s rules. Mondale knew this, that the Senate would be glad to see him be promoted if the ticket won, and so did Gravel.

To sweeten the pot, Mondale agreed to add a stronger peace plank to the party platform.

“And what about Moss?” Gravel asked about the Congressman who had been his running for only a week.

“A cabinet position, or head of some commission or organization or some other cabinet-level job.”

After a long pause, Gravel answered, “This better be worth it.”

“Well then,” Mondale smiled, “several Senators are going to be ebullient when they hear about this.”

– political strategist Mark Shields’ memoir The Pundit Next Door, Borders Books, 1993



…breaking news! Mondale and Gravel have just held a press conference, in which they revealed that Gravel has dropped his presidential bid to serve as Mondale’s running mate. This move will certainly lead to Gravel throwing his delegates to Mondale, and that could lead to other candidates, such as Senator Morse and Representative Chisholm, following suit, which would push him comfortably over the threshold of 843 delegates on the first ballot, which is needed to win the nomination without creating a brokered convention…

– CBS Evening News special report, Thursday, 7/20/1972



“I’m outraged that after expanding the primaries to more than half of the states, our ticket may be again chosen not by the people but by another backroom deal!”

– Former Governor Grant Sawyer (D-NV), 7/20/1972



The election had once again not run in his favor, even after promising to make Bob Casey his running mate won him most of Pennsylvania delegates. “After all this time,” he complained, donors were “still wary of betting on another member of” the Johnson administration. Humphrey regretted his “Stroll” through the early primaries as they cost him momentum and allowed Mondale to seal his thunder. Thirdly, the election proved to be more exhaustive than he initially envisioned it would be. “Th[is] presidential election took something out of me [but] I heal rapidly,” he confided in [his wife] Muriel.

[snip]

On the final day of the 1972 DNC, Humphrey’s bladder ailment had again flared up, and the doctors swore that he needed to spend at least "a couple of weeks" convalescing after surgery to correct an infection. …Humphrey would later describe the recovery process as “An agonizing period, both in worry and discomfort” [12]. Despite this and the loss of the nomination, he seemingly optimistic about his future, telling is wife “I may not get to be President, but I’m still on Capitol Hill, and I’m going to make the most out of my time there!”

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



1972 Democratic National Convention
CONVENTION:
Date(s): July 24-27, 1972
City: Miami Beach, Florida
Venue: Miami Beach Convention Center
Keynote Speaker: Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa

CANDIDATES:
Presidential nominee: Walter Mondale of Minnesota
Vice Presidential nominee: Mike Gravel of Alaska
Other Candidates: Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota

PRIMARY VOTING:
Results (by popular vote):
Walter Mondale – 26.1% (and 935 delegates on the first ballot)
Hubert Humphrey – 25.7% (and 574 delegates on the first ballot)
Mike Gravel – 19.3% (and 15 delegates on the first ballot)
Mario Biaggi – 7.2% (and 82 delegates on the first ballot)
Shirley Chisholm – 6.5% (and 25 delegates on the first ballot)
Scoop Jackson – 4.9% (and 24 delegates on the first ballot)
Bob Casey – 3.2% (and 12 delegates on the first ballot)
Wayne Morse – 1.8% (and 5 delegates on the first ballot)
Grant Sawyer – 0.7% (and 12 delegates on the first ballot)
Terry Sanford – 2.4% (and 0 delegates on the first ballot)
Phil Hoff – 1.1% (and 0 delegates on the first ballot)
Coya Knutson – 0.9% (and 0 delegates on the first ballot)
Patsy Mink – 0.3% (and 0 delegates on the first ballot)
Lester Maddox – 0.1% (and 0 delegates on the first ballot)
Others – 0.1% (and 0 delegates on the first ballot)

Total delegates: 1,684
Delegates Needed to Win: 843

– clickopedia.co.usa



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[pic: imgur.com/4Ev8UAG.png ]

– Governor Lester Maddox (D-GA), formally dropping his bid for the White House after failing to win the nomination for President at the Democratic National Convention, 7/27/1972; in his concession speech, which received little media attention, Maddox criticized the national party ticket and refused to endorse it, instead saying "I hope everyone votes for the best ticket they find on their ballot, regardless of the party label next to it"



Fritz & Mike: Real Governing For a Change

– Mondale/Gravel’72 bumper sticker, c. late July 1972



…breaking news out of Little Rock, Arkansas, where the state’s governor, Winthrop Rockefeller, has announced that he has suspended his re-election bid and that in two days he will resign from the office of the governorship in order to better combat a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer [13]. Rockefeller was the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since the Reconstruction era of the 1870s and has served as the state’s governor since 1965. Upon his resignation, Rockefeller will be succeeded by lieutenant governor Maurice Lee “Footsie” Britt, a Medal of Honor recipient who once played professional football for the Detroit Lions…

– NBC News, 8/5/1972 broadcast



William Scranton’s running mate had to appeal to his own base of supporters and to the more conservative Republicans to avoid the latter staying at home. Stuart Spencer swears “Scranton believed that a lack of party unity had doomed Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 re-election bid, and sought to not repeat LBJ’s mistakes.” Ahead of the convention, the Vice President met with conservatives leaders, including southern conservatives and their leader, Strom Thurmond. A longtime former Democrat, Thurmond had quickly developed a following in the G.O.P. hierarchy despite only being a Republican since 1962. Nevertheless, Scranton needed the conservative faction’s blessing in regards to his choice of running mate, and so presented several options before them:

Senator Rogers C. B. Morton of Maryland was an experience legislator, but he also was too geographically close to Scranton.

Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada was a fiery conservative who, to Scranton, was too reminiscent of Goldwater’s negative campaign.

Governor Bo Callaway of Georgia was also a conservative, who could have appealed to both sides of the Democratic party.

Governor Charles Percy declined interest to instead continue running for a US Senate seat

Governor Paul Robsion of Kentucky seemed like a possible compromise choice until he, after much hesitance, declined to be considered in order to better focus on his economic development plans. Nevertheless, his positive activities as Governor placed Robsion on Scranton’s list of possible cabinet members.

Scranton initially was eyeing Senator Jacob Javits of New York to serve as running mate, but even his aides considered this to be “more than just” unwise.

Senator James D. Martin of Alabama, similar to Laxalt and Callaway, was pushed by southern conservatives; however, Scranton did not believe he could help him win votes outside the south.

Governor Mitchell Melich of Utah was a tempting choice to pick due to his successful two terms, but was not well known outside of his state and was instead placed on the list of potential cabinet members.

By process of elimination, Scranton and the representatives of the party’s growing conservative faction chose a soft-c conservative political dark horse: Mike Stepovich. The Governor of Alaska Territory from 1957 to 1958 and Governor of Alaska from 1963 to 1971, Stepovich was born to a Montenegrin Serb father and a Montenegrin Croat mother in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1919. Scranton believed Stepovich could win over (white) ethnic communities in northern cities, bolster the party among libertarian-minded voters in the west, and cut into Walter Mondale’s home-state advantages in the Midwest, a place of many Americans of Eastern European descent. Ideologically, it was the “soft” part of “soft-c conservative” that Scranton hoped would appeal to both the waning liberal and waxing conservative sides of the party while also appealing to independents.

– Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President: 1972, Atheneum Publishers, 1973



SCRANTON TAPS MIKE STEPOVICH, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR, FOR RUNNING MATE!

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[pic: imgur.com/RDxPTHZ.png ]
– The Washington Post, 8/15/1972



REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION BEGINS TODAY

– The New York Times, 8/21/1972



MARY SCRANTON’S SPEECH DEEMED THE BEST ONE GIVEN AT THIS YEAR’S R.N.C.: Goldwater’s Speech Endorsing Ticket Seen As Lackluster

The Los Angeles Times, 8/23/1972 side article



WHY NOT THE BEST?

– Scranton/Stepovich ’72 logo, c. late August 1972



THREE WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT-WING PARTY

“I think it’s time for the hippies to make a comeback” was the misguided battle cry bellowed out by the rambunctious Samuel “Uncle Sam” Engelhardt, America’s sole “H.I.P.” Governor, on August 27, 1972. It was the final line of his speech on the first day of the Heritage and Independence Party National Convention, a gathering of conservatives, populists, and warhawks registered with the party founded by former Governor C. Farris Bryant in 1964. In light of the Democratic and Republican parties nominating tickets the “hippies” perceived to be unacceptably liberal, attendance was higher than the 1968 HIPNC. The atmosphere seemed to suggest that 1972 would be the year the hippies would finally return to national prominence.

Engelhardt was alone in vying for the party’s nomination – other candidates included Lieutenant General Edwin Walker, who oversaw operations during the Cuba War before launching three unsuccessful bids for Governor of Texas; Bruce Alger, a former US Congressman from Texas’s fifth district for 10 years; and the former US Congressman John Rarick of Louisiana, who, after failing to win a single delegate in his run in the 1972 Democratic Presidential primaries, had bitterly rejoined the hippies.

As the nominating process proceeded, it became increasingly evident that the party was splitting over how to move forward. Former HIP member Sam Nunn noted in 1976, “The question was ‘should we focus on fiscal conservatism, social conservatism, or double down on both?’ The answer we got from the convention goers was ‘D: all of the above.’”

The competition turned negative, with each candidate slinging mud onto at least two others. Upon making a back-room deal with Rarick, Engelhardt finally wrestled away the nomination from Walker and Ager on the fifth ballot. The party then saw two factions walk out on the convention to form tickets of their own. Thus how 1972 had three HIP tickets: Sam Engelhardt (AL)/John Rarick (LA) (of the Heritage and Independence Party) represented a greater focus on social conservatism than fiscal conservatism; Ed Walker (TX)/Robert J. Morris (NJ) (of the aptly-named Defense Party) focused heavily of fiscal conservatism, isolationism, and higher military spending in the name of “national protection”; and Bruce Alger (TX)/Iris Faircloth Blitch (GA) (of the Country Party) ran on the theme of small government, reinstating segregation “in willing areas” and “reinforcing traditional social roles,” which was ironic given how the Vice-Presidential candidate was a woman who served in the US House of Representatives for eight years.

[snip]

– minorpartiesmatter.co.usa/history/1970s/article#15223679



CchLDBD.png


– A quote by Colonel Sanders, said shortly after the 1972 RNC during a speech in support of the Scranton/Stepovich ticket, c. 8/29/1972



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] My mom.
[2] Italicized part is an OTL quote!
[3] OTL quote, according to his Wikiquote page.
[4] As covered in the 1970 chapter, Salvador Allende lost the 1970 Chilean election; as a result of this, and the repulsion of communism from Cuba, fears of communism encroaching central America are not at all as high here as they were IOTL!
[5] Source 24 on Scoop Jackson’s wiki (toward the end of the long blogspot)
[6] All real movies, by the way. Yeah – even “The Boatniks”!
[7] In OTL, Kroc in 1972 donated $255,000 to Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign: https://people.com/archive/the-mc-donalds-man-what-ray-kroc-hath-wrought-around-the-world-vol-3-no-19/
[8] Gravel’s first words in his OTL 1968 campaign video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhaia2tod9U
[9] According to his wiki page, he did not oppose such activities while a Senator.
[10] OTL quote!, according to Source 81 on his wiki page.
[11] OTL quote, according to ourcampaigns.com’s article on the Third Democratic debate of 1972.
[12] Page 416 of Carl Solberg’s Hubert Humphrey: A Biography, as seen and found on Google Books.
[13] Because he’s still in office ITTL, the cancer is detected a month earlier, possibly due to the stress of another term worsening his health.
 
Post 29
Post 29: Chapter 37

Chapter 37: September 1972 – January 1973

“Get busy living or get busy dying”

– Stephen King (OTL)



Two weeks before the start of 1972 R.N.C., [then-boyfriend] George [Stanley Clinton] and I struck a deal: he would be more supportive of my political interests in exchange for me learning to play at least one musical instrument. I chose the violin, as that is a great counterpart to George’s piano.

When we went to that year’s convention, George was not impressed by the affair. On the trip back home he complained “I get that it’s all important, but does it have to be so boring? So sterile?”

“What do you mean? Goldwater and Mary Scranton were very passionate speakers,” I said in my defense.

“Apart from them and the Colonel, all these politicians just seem to phone it in,” he somewhat grumbled.

I replied, “Well, change starts somewhere, so why not with us?”

“You mean with you, honeybun.”

After a moment of hesitation, I decided to finally break the news to him. “Funny you should say that – I’ve signed on to Scranton’s campaign. I’ll be coordinating with teams of canvassers who will be registering voters across Tennessee and North Carolina.”

Clinton looked at me before asking, “We’ll still see each other every day, right?”

“Of course!”

“Then you can run around bothering people all day long if you want to, honey.”

“Thanks for understanding, George.”

“Ol’ Bill Scranton’s lucky to have a gal like you in his corner.”

“Hmm, Bill,” I thought, “I really like that name.” Years later, I would honor our son with that name.

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



The two Democrats serving as Alaska’s US Senators at the time were very inspirational to me. Ernest Gruening had led the state throughout World War Two, and was a fierce opponent of America’s military actions in Cuba during the LBJ years. Gravel was more inspirational to me, and not just because of the anti-war rhetoric. Here was a man who just took off to America’s own little great white north without any connections to the state and without that much money, and just 15 or so years later, at age 42, was the Democratic nominee for Vice President. It convinced me that Alaska was a land of possibilities.

That spring, I had campaigned for Mondale in the Midwest. In the summer, I requested being assigned to work on the Mondale/Gravel ticket’s Alaska division. I figured that if a guy like him can make it big by going up there, maybe there’s something waiting for me up there too.

I worked closely with Gravel and his inner circle to try to win the state away from Stepovich. Early polls showed the Republicans had a ten-point lead. I liked a challenge. In those eight weeks I rubbed elbows with Alaskans of all kinds – from Mayors and state Senators to housewives, drillers, fisherman, and Native Inuit hunters – in all corners of the state. I was exposed to the majesty of the land and the political opinions of the people, many of which I agreed with…

– Bill Clinton’s Putting People First, University of Alaska Press, 1986



jcEAzAa.png


[pic: imgur.com/jcEAzAa ]
– Scranton for President advertisement, c. September 1972



MONDALE AND SCRANTON AGREE TO TWO DEBATES

…for both debates, candidates will discuss foreign policy in the first half-hour and domestic policy in the second half-hour, with an additional ten minutes of time allotted to any other concerns. The nominee of the Heritage and Independence Party, Governor Sam Engelhardt, has not been invited to attend…

– The Washington Post, 9/3/1972



…we are getting reports of some kind of shooting occurring at the Munich Olympics… it appears that armed men attempted to scale a chain-link fence on the border of the Olympic Village. The men in question had with them duffel bags from which they produced pistols, and then assault rifles, upon security spotting them. We’ll have more information for you as further details come to light… For those just tuning in, it seems that would-be terrorists tonight attempted to sneak into the Olympic Games in Munich, but were spotted by security officers. When they were discovered, one of the trespassers shot the officer, drawing the attention of other personnel. A gunfight ensued in which the terrorists attempted to use their weapons to march into the Olympic village, but were repelled by security. While our correspondents in Munich believe but cannot confirm that the trespassers had more firepower than security, they can confirm that many of the security personnel who arrived on the scene were shot, but no deaths have been announced. All of the trespassers, meanwhile, were shot by security after officers fired upon the trespassers from the roof of a nearby building. Of the unconfirmed number of five trespassers, only one received non-fatal injuries, and the yet-to-be-identified man is currently in police custody… Our correspondents in Munich tell us that security personnel at the Olympics, publicly known for being relaxed to present a “carefree” atmosphere, report that security measures were heightened last week after Prime Minister Enoch Powell and several secretaries of his premiership quietly threatened to boycott the games if their safety was not assured…

– BBC News, 9/5/1972



THE MUNICH SUMMER OLYMPICS CONCLUDE TODAY: “The Cheerful Games” Lived Up To Nickname, Despite Shooting Incident

The Guardian, 9/11/1972



Australia’s last major “Arkie-wave” scandal of 1972 concerned the misconduct of Rolf Harris, a 42-year-old singer-songwriter. Accused of sexual pestering, Harris went from being called an entertainer to being called a “pest,” a word quickly taking on a whole new meaning in a “post-Ark” world. In mid-September, sufficient evidence was brought against Harris concerning charges of alleged assault against females aged seven-to-eight in 1968-to-1969 [1]. Harris vehemently denied the charges, but the evidence was clear. In 1973, Harris was sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he served from 1974 to 1994. In 1997, though, Harris was arrested for violating parole and for sexual pestering 13-year-old schoolgirl. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1998, and was released early in 2012. Since then, Harris, now approaching the age of 88, has maintained a low profile, and currently resides near his hometown of Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.

Political activists observing the 1972 fall from grace demanded the passing of the Protection of Women and Children bill being worked on in Canberra at the time, and pushed the issue of “women’s rights” to the forefront of Australia politics just days ahead of that year’s Liberal coalition leadership election…

– Donald S. Passman’s Sing-and-Dance Backwash: The Struggle for Transparency In The Entertainment Industry, 1945-Onward, Borders Books, Second Edition, 2018



Prime Minister Harold Holt, after six years in office, had lost party confidence, and on September 1 announced he would resign over the internal unpopularity. John McEwen, officially of the “Country” political party, expanded his base of support (grazers, farmers, rural residents) via garnering the support of women’s rights organizations by being the first national politician to publicly condemn Harris “and all who actively seek to pester women,” siphoning support from more liberal candidates without alienating his base of supporters. McEwen subsequently won the Liberal coalition leadership election over Holt favorite Malcolm Fraser and several others, making McEwen the 18th Prime Minister of Australia on September 24, 1972.

– Rodney Smith and Ariadne Vromen’s Politics in Australia: An Overview of Histories, Theories, Practices and Issues, Cambridge University Press, 2012



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[ pic: imgur.com/d7TuyUY ]
– still from a campaign film on the Mondale family, first aired 9/20/1972



WHATABURGER! TEXAS FRANCHISE COMES TO CALIFORNIA

Harmon Archibald Dobson stepped off his private airplane beaming with pride. 22 years prior, Dobson founded Whataburger as a “wooden box” stand in Corpus Christi, Texas; now, after expanding in several more states over the years, the franchise was celebrating the grand opening of its 100th location, and its first one in the Golden State [2]. Dobson stood in front of the distinct A-frame building and its Flying W logo, meant to be reminiscent of a plane’s wings, and faced the crowd of attendees to cut the ribbon officiating the restaurant’s opening. While “other burgers on the market are meant for quick convenience,” Dobson says, “I wanted to make a burger that took two hands to hold and tasted so good that when you took a bite you would say ‘What a burger!’[3]. Even so, the Whataburger will certainly face competition from local franchises, not to mention nationwide giants such as McDonald’s, Burger Chef, KFC’s Wendyburgers, and the newest fast-food major player, Ollie’s Trolleys.

– The Sacramento Union, 9/23/1972



Mondale: “the Santa Barbara oil spill is just one of many examples that demonstrate why businesses need to be regulated to ensure they protect workers and the environment from harm.”

[snip]

Scranton: “young and old Americans have much to thank Colonel Sanders for. Medicare and Medicaid costs dropped under this administration. Housing costs are down, and several studies have proven that the Colonel’s promotion of vocational programs has increased college enrollment and allowed college tuition rates to drop. I think we should keep the good times rolling. …Lincoln would be proud to know his party still contains the energy and moral compass it possessed over one hundred years ago. …Colonel Sanders achieved bipartisan support in order to maintain the safety, sanity and security of this nation, and I will continue this on during my time as President.”

[snip]

Scranton: “My opponent would raise taxes.”

Moderator: “Senator, your rebuttal?”

Mondale: “Yes, I would raise taxes, but I would raise taxes on the rich, not on the lower classes.”

– Snippets from the transcript of the first Presidential debate between Mondale and Scranton, Tuesday 9/26/1972



Mondale shined when asked economic questions, but did poorly on foreign policy in the first of two debates. Scranton, for his part, again played up his activities in the Governor’s office and his actions as Vice President, but executed his talking points in a manner many pundits called “dry” and “uninspiring.” Most observers considered the debate to be a stalemate, with Scranton having a slight edge over Mondale.

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



Scranton: 45%
Mondale: 40%
Other: 5%
Undecided: 10%
– Gallup poll, 10/1/1972



Despite the 10-months-long freeze on prices and wages in that was implemented in late 1968, inflation is still on the rise. The economy has suffered no major downturns since 1963, making for a record period of growth at eight years and ten months, but the threat of rising prices and drop in value could end this expansion.

– report, The Wall Street Journal, 10/1/1972



Labor leaders such as Walter Reuther and George Meany stumped for Mondale after the White House began floating the idea of announcing a second price freeze in order to keep the economy afloat and stabilized.

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



HOST: So why do you think your campaign tanked when it had the potential to go all the way?

JACKSON: I should have won and I could have won, but I lacked the name recognition of the bigger candidates more familiar to voters thanks to their 1968 runs. I think my brand of international involvement would have resonated really well with primary voters if that had been the sole thing discussed about me.

HOST: You’re alluding to Patsy Mink, correct? Do you think she was the main factor in your campaign failing?

JACKSON: Ah, I don’t think so. It had more to due with a lack of name recognition in my opinion.

HOST: Well, you’ve recently publicly endorsed Mondale despite his anti-intervention running mate. Did you back Mondale out of party loyalty?

JACKSON: No, I’m backing him because Mondale is the better man for the job out of the men we have to choose from. I don’t think Gravel can really do any damage to anything as the Vice President.

– Scoop Jackson interview, KAFE 104.1 FM radio broadcast, 10/2/1972



ADVISOR 1: “Mary, we want to cut down your time spent on the campaign trail.”

MARY: “The crowds don’t seem to mind.”

ADVISOR 2: “That’s the thing – they like you more than your husband. If anything, your energy is making voters more aware of how, well, boring your husband is.”

ADVISOR 1: “Opinion polls show it, he has a charm deficit that your charm is only amplifying.”

MARY: “Well wouldn’t people notice me suddenly being off the trail?”

ADVISOR 2: “We think you should take a few days off to recover from an illness.”

MARY: “How about instead, you gals show that when people vote for Bill, they’re not just voting in a new President – they’re voting in a new Frist Lady.”

ADVISOR 2: “...uh, I guess that might work.”

ADVISOR 1: “Hmm… alright, we’ll try it your way.”

MARY: “And I’ll try to get Bill to show more of his personality on the trail. I’ll work on it with him and his PR people.”

ADVISOR 1: “Deal.”

– Second Lady Mary Scranton and two campaign advisors, A/V security camera footage from a hotel lounge in Kansas City, MO, 10/3/1972 (footage discovered in 2011)



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[pic: imgur.com/hHHDFgI ]
– Scranton at a campaign rally near Jefferson City, MO, 10/6/1972



HOST: The biggest question I have is this: Why Stepovich? He is not that well-known nationally and he comes from an electorally-small state.

SCRANTON: Well, yes, the state of Alaska does not have a lot of people but it does have a very diverse people from the state’s rich history. As Governor, Mike presided over a period of economic growth due to a responsible handling of Alaskan resources, which shows he has the leadership skills for the job. Alaska is also a western state, or I consider it a western state, at least, so with him the ticket represents both sides of the Mississippi. And most importantly for this race, is he is a representative of conservatives in the party of Lincoln.

HOST: But some conservatives such as Senator Goldwater have complained that Stepovich is not conservative enough to appeal to that base of voters.

SCRANTON: I disagree. And, well, I think Mike’s record as Governor speaks for itself.

– Scranton and host on Meet the Press, 10/8/1972



SANDERS DECLARES FREEZE ON WAGES AND PRICES FOR NEXT THREE MONTHS!

– The New York Times, 10/9/1972



Mondale: “Some of the biggest tasks for the next administration will be economical and geopolitical. America as a duty to protect allies and to maintain both immediate and long-term prosperity. ...America needs the E.R.A. …I believe we can finally lead the globe in education innovation by 1982.”

[snip]

Scranton: “Too many people fear finances – they vote for high taxes for high services so they have less responsibilities. I believe the American citizen can stand on his or her own two feet when given the opportunity.”

[snip]

Scranton: “We need criminal justice reform. We cannot have another massacre like the one that happened under Democratic Governor Biaggi.”

Mondale: “I agree, but I would take things a step further and promote transparency in government, so we know exactly what our government is doing for us, how our taxpayer money is being spent, and how laws truly affect things.”

– Snippets from the transcript of the second Presidential debate between Mondale and Scranton, Tuesday 10/12/1972



Mondale was seen as the winner of the debate. Scranton again gave a milquetoast performance, while Mondale presented himself as well-informed and energetic without appearing unprofessional. Additionally, in wake of his response to the administration’s 1972 price freeze initiative, Mondale gained a slight lead to most post-debate polls.

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



So now we have to pick between two puffy-eyed vampires. They look and sound like robots or clones; one’s an evil twin to business, the other’s an evil twin to unions. Because of their aesthetic boredom, I actually find the irrelevant running mates more interesting! A Polack chameleon, changing his policies to match whatever’s popular, versus a bleeding-heart Quebecois peacenik, both from the politically unimportant state of Alaska. But the voters were deprived of a debate between those two. Instead we got stuck watching tweedle-dope and tweedle-dumbass drone on and on for nearly an hour – twice! This may have been fascinating to watch for stuffy politicos, but for average Joes with lives of their own, this is just going to keep them even farther away from the potentially-fascinating world of political discussion.

– Hunter S. Thompson, Tumbleweed Magazine article, 10/12/1972



“Bill [Scranton]’s a good man, but I think he really could have done better in those debates. He’s got the right ideas, he’s just got to work on his showmanship to actually sell them.”

– President Sander to a reporter in a moment later considered to be a gaffe similar to one made by President Eisenhower made in 1960, 10/13/1972



A CONSERVATIVE CRUSADE: Goldwater Takes His Message To The People

…the passionate Senator is stumping for conservative candidates such as Senate nominees Hank Hibbard (R-MT) and Governor Harrison Thyng (R-NH), and the results are already evident in the latest polls…

National Review, 10/15/1972 issue



Mondale: 48%
Scranton: 45%
Other: 6%
Undecided: 7%
– Gallup poll, 10/1/1972



WORLD SERIES: OAKLAND AS BEAT CINCINNATI REDS, 5-2

Dick Allen Wins Triple Crown In Kansas City, Vida Blue Talks Pitching Record

The New York Post, 10/22/1972



…Meanwhile, the owner of the Louisville Colonels of the American League, and other managers, congratulated George Steinbrenner on finally purchasing the Cleveland Indians…

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



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[pic: imgur.com/heXPW1l ]
– Mondale campaigning in Gary, IN, 10/23/1972



SURVEY: DOMESTIC ISSUES MORE IMPORTANT THAN FOREIGN POLICY AMONG EARLY VOTERS

…Economic fears, heightened by the ongoing price and wages freeze, seem to have overshadowed this administration’s past foreign policy successes. Hoping to capitalize on this, democratic candidates are now focusing more on the economy, while more conservative and Republican candidates see foreign policy as the higher priority in this race…

– The Washington Post, 10/28/1972



SNYOPSIS

“Archie gets upset when Mike donates money he recently inherited towards Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign instead of contributing towards his room and board, and Gloria is appalled that Archie is considering voting for one of the conservative “hippy” candidates.”

SCRIPT

[snip]

Archie: “Nobody living under my roof for free is voting for some droopy-eyed pinko.”

Mike: “Arch, Mondale’s nowhere close to being a socialist.”

Archie: “Eh, all them Democrats are pinkos. Especially that Gravel guy.”

Gloria: “What do you mean especially, Dad?”

Edith: “Oh, that Mike Gravel is so handsome, just like a movie star.”

Archie: “Edith, will you stifle yourself, please?”

Mike: “Go on, Archie, I’d like to hear this.”

Archie: “It’s very simple. He’s from Alaska, right? Right. And who’s Alaska’s neighbor? Russia!”

Gloria: “So?”

Archie: “So if he don’t like pinkos, why’s he living next to them?!”

Gloria: “Well at least that means you’re voting for Scranton.”

Archie: “The guy with the Russian running mate? You’re crazy!”

Mike: “Oh, what now?!”

Archie: “Hello? Stepovich! His name is ‘Stepovich.’ The Russians aren’t even trying to hide their spies anymore!”

Mike: “What? Stepovich isn’t even Russian; it’s Polish!”

Archie: “(dramatic) Oh-ho-ho! So, one of your kind, eh? That explains so much! Also – Russkie, Polack, same difference, both kinds are pinkos!” [4]

[snip]

– Transcript from All in the Family, Season 3, Episode 8, “Mike Comes Into Money,” first aired 11/4/1972 [5]



“It is now time for another great American to hold high the torch of liberty.”

“Apollo 10 and the Hydrogen Bomb are both testaments to mankind’s potential, as they are examples of our constructive and destructive nature and our constructive and destructive potential. We must understand that we must always look to the constructive ways, with diligent consideration and contemplation, and in the years ahead I believe that, if elected, my good friend William Scranton will do just that.”

– Excerpts of Colonel Sanders’s 11/3/1972 national address



KTEHwRi.png


[pic: imgur.com/KTEHwRi ] [6]
Popular Vote
Mondale/Gravel: 39,383,725 (48.2%)
Scranton/Stepovich: 35,870,241 (43.9%)
Engelhardt/Rarick (H.I.P.): 2,859,812 (3.5%)
Walker/Morris (Defense): 2,287,851 (2.8%)
Alger/Bitch (Country): 1,062,216 (1.3%)
Jenness/DeBerry (N.M./Socialist Workers): 163,418 (0.2%)
All other candidates: 81,709 (0.1%)
Total votes cast: 81,708,972

Close States
Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, Florida and Nevada were the closest states in that order. Early polls suggested Scranton would win all four, only for him to win Arizona, Florida and Nevada in the end.[49] Scranton won Alaska by a margin of 3.7%, possibly due to media scrutiny of his running mate made more Alaskans aware of Stepovich than Gravel.[50-better_citation_needed] Scranton also came within 5% of winning California, which would have given him the election via its hefty 45 electoral votes[49].

Analyses
Many contemporary pundits agreed “Scranton lost an election he should have won quite easily,”[51] but failed to “bring new ideas to the table,”[17] “appeal to enough party conservatives to unity the party before election day;”[52] others criticized his “flat”[53] and “uninspiring”[18] personality for the loss. Mondale, meanwhile, was considered “energetic”[33] and subjectively “charismatic,”[34] and pundits commended him for his “work-heavy” coalition of blue-collar voters “ranging from Latino farmhands in New Mexico to construction workers in Chicago to the white ethnic groups of New York City to hard-working and assiduous-but-unsung housewives nationwide” and young progressive college-educated voters.[54]

Records Broken
The election made Mondale the first Norwegian-American US President, the second youngest President in American history (elected at the age of 44, but turning 45 fifteen days before the inauguration), and the first person under the age of 50 to be elected President in 68 years, since Theodore Roosevelt won a full term in 1904 at the age of 46. The Electoral College, conservative former US Representative I. M. Blitch became the first woman to receive an electoral vote in a US Presidential election, via a faithless elector. ...On Inauguration day, the oldest American to serve as President was succeeded by the youngest American elected President.

– clickipedia.usa.org



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[pic: imgur.com/VpMth4X ]
– Mondale holds up the arm of his running mate in front of a cheering crowd shortly after receiving over 270 electoral votes, 1:57 A.M., 11/8/1972



United States Senate election results, 1972

Date: November 7, 1972
Seats: 35 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Senate minority leader: Barry Goldwater (R-AZ)
Seats before election: 54 (D), 45 (R), 1 (I)
Seats after election: 56 (D), 43 (R), 1 (I)
Seat change: D ^ 2, R v 2, 0 - I

Full List:
Alabama: John L. LeFlore (D) over Winston “Red” Blount Jr. (R), incumbent John Sparkman (Independent Democrat), and Herbert W. Stone (Conservative)
Alaska: Eben Hopson (D) over Howard Wallace Pollock (R)
Arkansas: incumbent John L. McClellan (D) over Wayne H. Babbitt (R)
Colorado: incumbent Gordon L. Allott (R) over Floyd K. Haskell (D) and Secundion Salazar (La Raza Unida)
Connecticut (special): incumbent appointee Antonina P. Uccello (R) over Gloria Schafer (D)
Delaware: incumbent J. Caleb Boggs (R) over Joseph Biden (D)
Georgia: Jimmy Carter (D) over Fletcher Thompson (R) and J.B. Stoner (HIP); incumbent appointee Ernest Vandiver (D) lost nomination
Idaho: Richard H. Stallings (D) over incumbent Len Jordan (R)
Illinois: Charles Percy (R) over Roman Pucinski (D); incumbent Paul Douglas (D) retired
Iowa: Dick Clark (D) over incumbent Jack Miller (R) and William A. Rocap Jr. (HIP)
Kansas: incumbent James B. Pearson (R) over Arch Tetzlaff (D) and Gene Miller (Conservative)
Kentucky: Lawrence W. Wetherby (D) over Jesse Nicholas Ryan Cecil (R), Louie Nunn (I) and Helen Breeden (HIP); incumbent John Sherman Cooper (R)
Louisiana: incumbent appointee Jack P. F. Gremillion Sr. (D) over B. C. Toledano (R) and Hall M. Lyons (HIP)
Maine: William Hathaway (D) over incumbent Margaret Chase Smith (R)
Massachusetts: incumbent Ed Brooke (R) over John J. Droney (D)
Michigan: incumbent Robert Griffin (R) over Frank J. Kelley (D), Jerome P. Cavanagh (Independent), Patrick Dillinger (HIP) and Barbara Halpert (Human Rights)
Minnesota: incumbent Walter Mondale (D) over Phil Hansen (R)
Mississippi: incumbent James Eastland (D) over James H. Meredith (R) and Prentiss Walker (I)
Montana: Henry S. “Hank” Hibbard (R) over incumbent Lee Metcalf (D)
Nebraska: Orrin Hatch (R) [7] over Philip C. Sorensen (D) and Terry Carpenter (I); incumbent appointee Dwight W. Burney (R) retired
New Hampshire: Harrison Reed Thyng (R) over incumbent Thomas J. McIntyre (D)
New Jersey: incumbent Clifford P. Case (R) over Balfour Bowen Thorn Lord (D)
New Mexico: Roberto Mondragon (D) over Pete Domenici (R) and Jack Daniels (Independent Democratic); incumbent Clinton Presba Anderson (D) retired
North Carolina: Terry Sanford (D) elected over Jesse Helms (R); incumbent B. Everett Jordan (D) retired
Oklahoma: incumbent Bud Wilkinson (R) over Ed Edmondson (D) and William G. Roach (HIP)
Oregon: incumbent Mark Hatfield (R) over Edith Green (D)
Rhode Island: incumbent Claiborne Pell (D) over John Chafee (R) and John Quattrocchi Jr. (Independent)
South Carolina: incumbent Strom Thurmond (R) over Eugene N. Zeigler (D)
South Dakota: James Abourezk (D) won over Robert W. Hirsch (R); incumbent Karl Earl Mundt (R) retired
Tennessee: incumbent Howard Baker (R) over Ray Blanton (D)
Texas: incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson (D) over Bruce Alger (R)
Vermont (special): Robert Theodore Stafford (R) over incumbent appointee Thomas P. Salmon (D)
Virginia: John Otho Marsh Jr. (D) over incumbent appointee William Lloyd Scott (R) and Horace E. Henderson (Independent)
West Virginia: incumbent Jennings Randolph (D) over Louis Leonard (R)
Wyoming: incumbent Gale W. McGee (D) over Keith Thomson (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



…Tonight’s map favors the Democrats. Of the 35 seats, Democrats hold 15 and Republicans hold 20. …Four incumbent US Senators died last year, and that tipped the Senate composition in favor of the GOP by a net of 1 seat. One seat made vacant by the death of Democratic US Senator Thomas J. Dodd, but was then filled in by the Republican Antonina Uccello. Governor Callahan of Virginia, meanwhile, appointed a Republican to Democratic Senator Robertson’s seat, and Governor Hoff appointed a Democrat to the seat of the late Republican Senator from Vermont… The seat of the late Senator Richard Russell stayed in Democratic hands. …All in all, tonight’s senate elections saw the election of 14 new Senators. …Overall, the night’s US Senate results were a mixed bag of sorts. The most likely explanation for the Republican losses, in this reporter’s opinion, is plain old voter fatigue...

– CBS Evening News, 11/7/1972 election coverage broadcast



While city councilman Joe Biden initially trailed Boggs by almost 30 percentage points, the young neophyte narrowed the gap to a loss of just 2% due to his running of an energetic campaign. Boggs, suspecting the year to be a bad one for Republicans, increased the time he spent on the campaign trail starting in early October, and outspent Biden 2-to-1 by Election Day. The narrowness, however, greatly impressed Delaware Democrats, who decided to keep his name in mind for the 1974 midterms and the 1976 governor’s race.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Joseph_Biden_(Delaware_politician)/1972_Senate_campaign



United States House of Representatives results, 1972

Date: November 7, 1972
Seats: All 437
Seats needed for majority: 218
House majority leader: Mo Udall (D-AZ)
House minority leader: Charles Halleck (R-IN)
Last election: 231 (D), 206 (R)
Seats won: 228 (D), 209 (R)
Seat change: D v 3, R ^ 3

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



Most leaders and prominent members of the G.O.P. blamed Goldwater for the election loss, but Barry fought back the accusations. “They brought this upon themselves by not listening to the voices of the millions of conservatives that supported my campaign. They wanted their voices heard, and Scranton failed to hear!” he told a reporter on November 10. As the weeks passed, the passion seemed to subside as analysts realized how well Republicans had performed. Republicans only lost 2 out of 20 seats, but due to earlier reports suggesting further losses, the slight increase in conservatives entering the House, the gaining of 2 new conservative Republicans in the Senate, and Goldwater’s opponents failing to unite behind a single challenger, it seemed Goldwater would be narrowly re-elected Senate minority leader. However, just days before the January leadership election, half of the anti-Goldwater candidates withdrew their names from consideration and threw their support behind US Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, the son-in-law of former Senate leader Everett Dirksen. The election was narrow, but Goldwater in the end found himself out of the position. His brand of conservatism was the leading Republican voice in the Senate no longer, but conservatism in the GOP remained on the rise.

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



United States Governor election results, 1972

Date: November 7, 1972
State governorship elections held: 19
Seats before: 32 (D), 18 (R)
Seats after: 37 (D), 13 (R)
Seat change: D ^ 5, R v 5

Full List:
Arkansas: Dale L. Bumpers (D) over incumbent Maurice Lee “Footsie” Britt (R)
Delaware: incumbent Russell W. Peterson (R) over Sherman W. Tribbitt (D) and Virginia M. Lyndall (HIP)
Illinois: Paul Simon (D) over Richard B. Ogilvie (R); incumbent Charles Percy (R) retired
Indiana: Robert L. Rock (D) over Otis Bowen (R), Berryman S. Hurley (HIP) and Finley N. Campbell (NM); incumbent J. Irwin Miller (R) was term-limited
Iowa: incumbent Armour Boot (D) over Fred Schwengel (R)
Kansas: Morris Kay (R) over incumbent Robert Docking (D)
Missouri: James W. Symington (D) over Christopher S. “Kit” Bond (R); incumbent Ethan A. H. Shepley (R) was term-limited
Montana: Thomas Lee Judge (D) over Ed Smith (R); incumbent Tim Babcock (R) retired
New Hampshire: Malcolm McLane (D) over Chester Earl Merrow (R); incumbent Harrison Reed Thyng (R) retired
North Carolina: Walter B. Jones Sr. (D) over James Holshouser (R), Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles (Independent Democrat) and Arlis F. Pettyjohn (HIP); incumbent James C. Gardner (R) was term-limited
North Dakota: Aloha Pearl Taylor Brown Eagles (R) over Arthur A. Link (D); incumbent William L. Guy (D) retired
Rhode Island: incumbent J. Joseph Garrahy (D) over Herbert F. DeSimone (R) and Philip W. Noel (Independent)
South Dakota: incumbent George McGovern (D) over Carveth Thompson (R)
Texas: incumbent Waggoner Carr (D) over Henry Grover (R) and Ramsey Muniz (La Raza Unida)
Utah: K. Gunn McKay (D) over Nicholas L. Strike (R); incumbent Mitchell Melich (R) retired
Vermont: Consuelo Bailey (R) over Randolph T. Major (D) and Pete Diamondstone (Liberty Union); incumbent Phil Hoff (D) retired
Washington: incumbent Daniel J. Evans (R) over Albert Rosellini (D) and Vick Gould (Taxpayers)
West Virginia: incumbent Arch A. Moore Jr. (R) over Jay Rockefeller (D)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



…James Callaghan, then the leader of the UK’s Labour Party, congratulated Mondale by phone call, as did President of France Francois Mitterrand. …Canada’s Prime Minister Stanfield announced he looked forward to “developing a strong relationship” with Mondale; in Quebec, though, more excitement was made over the election of Vice-President-Elect Mike Gravel, who is the son of Quebec immigrants. Similarly, Norway’s Prime Minister Lars Korvald gave a speech celebrating Mondale’s victory, adding “the win is one for us as well because of Mr. Mondale’s roots here; his paternal grandparents were from here.”…

– clickopedia.co.usa/US_presidential_election,_1972/results/internation_reaction



…The night’s gubernatorial results also confirmed the election of two female governors. The people of Vermont and North Dakota voted for their respective Republican nominees, Consuelo Bailey and Aloha Eagles [8].

…Bailey is a 73-year-old former Lieutenant Governor who was successfully drafted to run for the nomination earlier in the year. Having first won election to public office, winning a seat in the Vermont state senate, in 1930, Bailey was over 40 years of experience, which also includes time spent as the first female speaker of the Vermont house of representatives…

…In North Dakota, Bismarck Tribune’s front page read “Gal Succeeds Guy,” a play on the name of outgoing Governor William L. Guy. His successor is state representative Aloha Eagles, her full name being Aloha Pearl Taylor Eagles (nee Browne). Eagles, 56, was an underdog in the state primary, having only served in the state house since 1967 (she was elected in 1966, 1968 and 1970), but defeated more established candidates by touting her experience as a homemaker to relate to women voters, who gave her a plurality victory in the primary. Eagles is fiscally conservative but socially progressive, which has often put her at odds with other Republicans in the past. In 1969, before the Ms. Arkansas Wave, she promoted women’s rights by authoring a bill to legalize abortion in North Dakota, leading to her receiving death threats; while the bill failed, she nevertheless showed fear in the face of violent opposition, which only contributed to her rising fame in her home state…

Woman’s Day Magazine, special “election ’72” edition, 11/9/1972



“Well, on one hand, too many politicians fudgel [9] around the place, and others are real snollygosters [10], so when it comes to them, I’m glad to be leaving their world. But on the other hand, even more politicians are sincere, or at least try to be. There are politicians who do, or at least try to do their best to do good, or who may not look it but will do what’s right when push comes to shove. Those are the folks going to miss working with.”

– Outgoing President Sanders to a reporter, 11/11/1972



REPORT: TIM LEARY, SHOT OUTSIDE OF HOME, TREATED FOR “NON-FATAL” WOUND AT HOSPITAL

– The San Francisco Chronicle, 11/11/1972



…We never found who tried to take me out, and while I got plenty of sympathy from it, I got the cold shoulder from Mondale. I privately met with him before he became President, and I talked to him about legalizing pot. Mondale outright opposed it, both nationally and even on the state level. I wasn’t going to get backed up by him and his administration over the next four years, I knew that much. So moved up here, to Canada [11]. Decided the best course of action was to continue to fight for my rights, and the rights of all Californians, in political exile.

Timothy Leary, 1989 KNN interview



CONGRESSMAN-ELECT BILL MORGAN SHOT BY ASSASSIN!

– The Columbus Dispatch, 12/1/1972



BILL MORGAN, OHIO POLITICIAN, AGE 44

William Alexander Morgan had a colorful and controversial life that did not at all seem like the kind that would be maintained by a successful Congressional candidate. For many years, Morgan was a man unpopular with the US military. In 1948, he went AWOL, was captured, and spent two years in a military prison. Perhaps spurred by this experience, Morgan initially supported the overthrowing of pro-American Batista, the dictator of Cuba until 1959. Morgan even contributed to Fidel Castro seizing power on the island, over for the American to turn on Fidel in 1961. Morgan then redeemed himself in the eyes of America’s fighting forces by becoming a gunrunner during the Cuban War, and was instrumental in several early battles. After the end of the war in 1965, Morgan returned to his native Ohio a hero. In a move reminiscent of Jean Valjean’s journey of redemption, Morgan’s best-selling 1967 autobiography propelled him into making a successful bid for state senate in 1968. There, he promoted veteran affairs and social programs, and co-authored an unsuccessful “Assured Income” bill. Less than a month ago, he and his wife Ellen, a former snake charmer, and their three children (Anne, b. 1955; William Jr., b. 1957; Carl, b. 1966) were celebrating his election to the US House as a Democrat from one of Ohio’s most liberal congressional districts. Now, a bitter veteran and former member of the Communist Cuban front has slain William Morgan, taking from us one of America’s most compelling characters. He will be greatly missed.

– The Washington Post, obituary column, 12/2/1972



Almost ten years had passed and my Communist Cuban brethren still held contempt for Americans. From Morgan’s assassination, I knew I would still not be forgiven, and that my life would remain in danger as long as I stayed here. I had to leave America after only just having come back a few days prior. I managed to meet with my brother for moment before leading back to the port. I made Robert [E. Lee Oswald Jr.] promise me he would not tell Mama I had been back but had not managed to see her again.

When I asked him how Marina was doing, he told me about how she had he declared legally dead in 1965, had remarried two years ago, and now had a third child, a son named Harland.

I felt so betrayed.

– Lee Harvey Oswald’s autobiography “Call Me By My Real Name: Confessions From a Fallen Hero,” published posthumously



WILL MONDALE REALLY PUSH FOR A GREAT SOCIETY MARK 2?

…The programs are certainly popular among an overwhelming majority of Americans… From January 1961 to January 1965, federal aid for the poor rose from $9.9million to $24.1million despite the heavy amount of the 1963 and 1964 budgets going to the military. From 1965 to 1973, that number only rose to $31.2million due to Sanders’ focus on balancing the federal budget and more libertarian policies. Also during the Johnson administration, almost half-a-million citizens received vocational training from previously inexistent programs. Because Sanders retained most of Johnson’s Great Society legislation, that number of citizens increased to 3 million citizens between January 1965 and January 1972 [12]… Mondale’s calls for expanding programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the N.I.T.R. played well in the November election, but his middle-of-the-road record in the US Senate makes many progressives pause. Congressman Don Edwards, a supporter of Vice-President-Elect Mike Gravel during this year’s Democratic primaries, says “we [the growing progressive wing of the Democratic party] will work to ensure the President upholds the promises he made during the campaign.”…

– The Los Angeles Times, 12/10/1972



The end-of-the-year report for 1972 was pretty pessimistic – sales were dropping in both foreign and domestic markets. Dave [Thomas]’s Wendyburgers were doing particularly poorly as the market became saturated with more and more competitors. The fancy limited-time-only Wendyburger Supreme, or “Super Wendy,” our response to the surprising successful Ollieburger, was the only silver lining of the year, as it showed there was an audience for more artisanal foods. However, it didn’t seem to be enough. We need a new approach, and that sparked the idea of expanding KFC’s menu.

At the end-of-the-year staff meeting, Pete [Harmon] objected to changing what Pops had left behind, announcing, “I say we stay the course and use the surveys to improve customer experience to stay better than the rising competitors.”

Millie seemed to disagree, instead suggesting that KFC launch a negative ad campaign against the competition, or even implement cost-cutting measures or employee layoffs to cover losses. Harmon, Thomas and I shot down those ideas due to historical backlash to such moves. KFC has always been a positive-minded company, and I wasn’t going to see it resort to attack ads. I instead countered with, “Playing it safe won’t be enough. We need to expand into new territory. The Super Wendy’s proof-positive we can add more offers to the menu without having to remove or change any old classics.”

Millie looked over the numbers and replied, “Even if we bring back the Super Wendy, it won’t be enough to combat the drop in sales. We need something else to renew interest in our brand. Something familiar to remind our customers why KFC became so popular and successful in the first place.”

I knew what she meant.

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997



In December, Margaret dropped by the White House to ask for what she called “a little favor.”

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



GOV. KNUTSON APPOINTS LT. GOV. BOB SHORT TO MONDALE’S VACATED SENATE SEAT

– The Star Tribune, Minnesota newspaper, 12/26/1972



COLONEL SANDERS’ ADMINISTRATION (1965-1973)

Cabinet:
Secretary of State: Carl Curtis (R-NE)
Secretary of the Treasury: Eugene Siler (R-KY)
Secretary of Defense: Charles H. Bonesteel III (I-VA)
Attorney General: Lawrence Edward Walsh (D-NY) (1965-1969), Wayne M. Collins (I-CA) (1969-1973)
Postmaster General: Leif Erickson (D-MT)
Secretary of the Interior: George Dewey Clyde (R-UT)
Secretary of Agriculture: Bourke Hickenlooper (R-IA) (1965-1971), Walter Judd (R-MN) (1971-1973)
Secretary of Commerce: Milton Friedman (R-IL)
Secretary of Labor: Arthur Larson (R-SD) (1965-1969), Herbert Hoover Jr. (R-CA) (1969), Charlotte Reid (R-IL) (1970-1973)
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY)
Secretary of Transportation: John C. Coolidge III (R-MA)

Cabinet-Level Positions:
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: Allen W. Dulles (R-NY) (1965-1969), Joseph H. Ball (R-MN) (1969-1973)
Director of the Federal Bureau of Information: J. Edgar Hoover (I-DC) (1965-1969), William C. Sullivan (D-MA) (1969-1973)
US Trade Representative: Florence Dwyer (R-NJ)

Other Notable Members:
Surgeon General: Luther Leonidas Terry (I-AL)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: William B. Franke (I-NY) (1965-1969), Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (I-DC) (1969-1973)
Federal Reserve Chairman: William McChesney Martin (D-MO) (1965-1972), George Wilder Mitchell (D-WI) (1972-1973) [13]
NASA Director: James Edwin Webb (I-NC) (1965-1972), Harold Brown (D-NY) (1972-1973)

– ColonelSandersPresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_members/1969



MONDALE TEAM REVEALS POTENTIAL CABINET MEMBERS

Washington, DC – Upholding his pledge to maintain a transparent administration, President-Elect Mondale today allowed his transition team to release the names of several politicians currently being vetted for positions in the upcoming Mondale White House. The list features many “outsider” considerations alongside well-known names. …US Senator Philleo Nash (D-WI) may be chosen for Interior or even State… US Congressman and former state senator Fred R. Harris (D-OK) may be selected for an advisory position… Former Treasury Undersecretary Robert Roosa in being vetted for Treasury… Prominent lawyer Warren Christopher may be tapped for Attorney General…

In regards to the Mondale White House’ inner circle, Sam W. Brown Jr., who worked on the Mondale campaign from the beginning, will likely become the White House Communications Director. …Former Undersecretary of State Robert Kennedy, famous for campaigning with labor activist Cesar Chavez and the late Ralph Abernathy, may be nominated for Secretary of Labor, H.E.W., or for a diplomatic position…

The Washington Post, 12/29/1972



DyOd4W1.png


[pic: imgur.com/DyOd4W1 ]
– Mondale meets with Ralph Nader to discuss the possibility of the latter being nominated for Secretary of Transportation; Mondale’s Senate office, 12/29/1972



ANNOUNCER (as newsreel footage plays): …”The Great Roberto, the roaming and batting Roberto Clemente, arrived in Nicaragua yesterday to deliver aid to earthquake victims. Clemente’s activism lead to him organizing emergency relief flights after the nation’s capital city of Managua suffered a massive earthquake on the 23rd, only for the relief equipment of the first three flights to land in the hands of corrupt government officials in the troubled South American country. The baseball right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates has opted to personally oversee the transfer of the goods, sparing no expense as he climbed into a brand-new airplane in Miami for the long trip over. [footage of Clemente boarding plane] Clemente spends much of the off-season doing charity work, and to him, Nicaragua is no exception. [footage of plane at capital] Hundreds of locals wave and cheer as Clemente hands out towels and sandwiches. [footage of Clemente distributing aid] When asked, Clemente says he is not discouraged by the corruption.”

CLEMENTE (in footage): “You have to help out those who can’t help themselves no matter who may want to stop you because they want to worsen the situation. You have to do your best and be the best you can be, because you never know what can happen tomorrow. You could wind up in their shoes someday.” [14]

ANNOUNCER (as footage plays): [footage of plane landing] “As the Grand Roberto received a warm welcome home today, his mind seemed to linger on the prospects of the people of Managua. It may just be that his humanitarian work has only just begun.”

– BBC World News report, 1/4/1973



HE’LL ALWAYS BE THE COLONEL

...Sanders leaves behind a mixed legacy in the eyes of fiscal conservatives. “On the one hand, he and his treasury were generous when it came to promoting free enterprise via subsidies for industry. On the other hand, his use of federal funds for social aid and development programs bordered on socialism,” [L. Brent guy] laments. Other conservatives remain critical of the N.I.T.R., a landmark bill, but most conservatives and business owners seem proud of the Colonel’s effective calls for industry self-regulation, albeit “self-regulation within reason,” as the Colonel once put it, establishing guidelines instead of mandatory regulations.

…Farmers supported Sanders due to his paradoxical support of both anti-centralized-government policies and the expansion of the government’s role in assisting in crop price support, disaster relief, flood control, national weather warning systems, trade details, farm loans, highway development, rivers being dammed, food and drug safety, and medical in rural areas.

…What’s next for the Colonel? At 82, he would be forgiven if he retired from public service, but most of the people close to him disagree. “Even now, he’s still a man who likes to keep himself busy. He’ll find something to do, some problem to fix, some idea to build upon, and when he does he’ll roll up his sleeves once more,” promises First Lady Claudia…

The New Yorker, 1/6/1973 issue



The Five Best and Five Worst Aspects of the Colonel Sanders Presidency

The Best Aspects

1 Negative Income Tax Rebate Act of 1971 – A moderate alternative to the Federal Assistance Dividend proposal, the NITR changed the composition of poverty in the United States.
2 The Cold War Thaw – while roughly the first half of the Sanders Administration handled an icy relationship with the USSR’s Premier’s Shelepin and Inauri, Sanders and Kosygin managed a friendly détente; furthermore, in order to prevent war from breaking out on the Korean peninsula in 1967, Sanders achieved success in the game-changing task of opening up trade to the People’s Republic of China.
3 The Ms. Arkansas Scandal – While it sullied the reputation of the man America had grown to almost idolize (albeit temporarily), the scandal turned out to be a watershed moment for feminism that left a positive impact on the world in the long-term.
4 Winning the Indochina Wars – Overseeing a strategy of utilizing the land of Southeast Asia to American advantage led to the unification of Vietnam in 1967, the defeat of the Pathet Lao in 1968, and the capturing of Cambodia’s Pol Pot in 1972.
5 Promoting Healthy Practices – The Scranton Report impacted the tobacco industry and promoted exercise and healthy food consumption practices

The Worst Aspects
1 Deregulating Business – While it initially boosted the economy in the aftermath of the Salad Oil scandal, the Colonel’s moderate pro-management laws were partly if not mostly to blame for the economic effects that occurred after he left office.
2 Alleged Conflicts of Interest with KFC
3 Strengthened Censorship Regulations
4 Alleged Religious Bias
5 Temper – until his fifth year in office, the Colonel was infamous among his inner circle for having a temper; though no public incidents of cane whacking ever happened while he was in office, later reports, most notably an incident concerning FBI Director Hoover, have confirmed his aggressive personality trait.

Overall: The Colonel is general considered to have been an above-average President, often ranking in the second-highest tier of Presidential rankings, most often between numbers 5 and 10. Americans remember his administration as one of prosperity for the nation, with the Colonel’s negative aspects often being either overlooked or, given his positive aspects, forgiven.

– The President Colonel Sanders Historical Society website, c. 2019



In my last month in office, I took things both slow and fast. I knew that if I ever wanted to see the White house again, it would have to be through invitation or via the tour, so I made the most of it without stressing myself out. I made some Presidential Pardons. I watched the Super Bowl with friends and family; it was a good game. I helped Claudia and the staff with the packing. I passed some executive orders, too. Most were small things, but one included an increase in funding for welfare programs.

I also spent a great number of hours conversing with Mondale over what was in store for him once he went and sat behind the President’s desk. On the first day, the tenth of January 1973, I met with the President-elect to help Mondale learn the ropes, which I hope starts a tradition of the outgoing President participating in the transition process. I think it would help ease the switch. Anyway, I called him to the White House to discuss how to implement exercise into what I call the “American routine.” Typically, that’s sitting down at all three square meals of the day, sitting while traveling to work, sitting while traveling from work, and sitting after work to relax. A part of me thinks that if the average American works hard enough, sweating and cracking their backs to make a living, they’re already keeping themselves fit. But in this modern work of unhealthy food and typewriter desks and more people riding subway trains than tractors, working hard isn’t always body-working. Those kind of folk need to be encouraged to move around so they can keep themselves well fit. Promoting exercise regimen recommendations and programs was the best I could do on my way out the door, and I hoped my successor would continue it.

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



The former fast-food giant promoting healthy living was ironic and even a bit funny to me, I will admit, but it was not the only baton he passed to me. In his last meeting with me before I started the job, the Colonel brought me over to the Resolute Desk. He pulled out a manila folder from the bottom drawer and handed it to me. Inside was a very blunt letter of resignation, dated June 1966.

“What’s this?” I asked him.

“Fritz, after the first try at stormin’ into northern Vietnam failed, I was feeling so low over the deaths overseas. I felt this unbearable guilt hit me like a slow-moving train. I figured I alone was to blame for forever taking those boys away from their loved ones. In those moments of shock, I felt so unworthy of the Presidency, I thought I didn’t deserve to stay on any longer.”

“What made you stay on?” I inquired.

“I had to right the wrong. To leave would have been cowardly, which is not my style. I soon figured that if it was my responsibility, then it was my duty to make sure they did not dies in vain. It was my mess, and I had to clean it up.”

“Why are you telling me this?” was my final thought.

“Because I want you to remember two things above all, Fritz. Number one: never, and I mean, never, back down from what you know is the right thing to do. And number two: always own up to your mistakes. The buck has to stop here, because that’s an unwritten part of the job description.”

“I knew this was a tough job went I applied for it, Colonel,” I assured him.

“Well, remember those two things just the same. Because you’d be surprised by how much running a country is not at all like running a chicken franchise. Instead of grease-fires and exploding pressure-fryers, you got fire-bombings and the threat of nuclear explosions. Instead of annoying customers, you got annoying legislators,” he sighed, and, breaking off into a tangent, ranted, “And there’s rarely a moment where, instead of ordering the cook to do it, you can actually go and sneak on down to the kitchen to make some of your own chicken for yourself!”

The Colonel came off as a very deep and passionate man.

– Walter Mondale’s The Good Fight: An Autobiography, D. McKay Company, 1995; second edition (note: passage not found in first edition from 1981)



SUPER BOWL ’72: MIAMI CLIMAXES PERFECT SEASON, BEATS REDSKINS 14-7

– The New York Post, 1/14/1973



“My fellow Americans, in just two days I will return to being a citizen. Serving in this position has been a most tremendous honor. …Now, we look for a moment into the very future of America, a future that has been opened up to us by the hard work done during this administration and assisted by the advancements of the previous administrations, and smile with optimism at what the next administration promises to bring. In short – so long, D.C.! It’s been a heck of a ride!”

– Colonel Sanders, live from the Oval Office, multi-channel TV/radio broadcast, 1/18/1973



The Colonel finally stood to give one last speech. “Gentlemen,” he began, “There’s nothing more for us to do on these grounds but to grab as many office supplies as we can. Then, we’ll watch over the long-term effects of all the good work that has been accomplished during these last eight years. Some of you have been here since the beginning, others for much less. But I must say that it was equally wonderful working with y’all. It was a real honor. I couldn’t be more proud of what we have done together.” And picking up his glass of ginger ale, he toasted the room. “To us, and to America!”

– Former WH Press Secretary Lee Edwards, recounting the final meeting held at the WH house during the Sanders administration, 2010 KNN interview



ytxvIIL.png


[pic: imgur.com/ytxvIIL ]
– The Colonel, on his last walk around the White House grounds as the incumbent President, early 1/20/1973



“The world is constantly changing and we must change with it, or fall behind and be left in the dirt and dust that lies behind the path of progress and prosperity.”

“And as your President, I pledge to secure your safety at home and abroad, to support your right to speak as loud and as passionate as you can, to protect your prosperity, and to defend the American way from all forms of harm!”

– Quotes from Walter Mondale’s inaugural address, 1/20/1973



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[pic: imgur.com/jFjXNHP ]
Walter Frederick “Fritz” Mondale, the 37th President of the United States of America



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] OTL: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-25489501
[2] So here, Dobson: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16533251/harmon-archibald-dobson doesn’t die in a plane crash on April 11, 1967. Like Walmart founder Sam Walton, Dobson was a pilot (Huh. I guess the fates of Dobson and Sam Walton ended up reversed for this TL. Hm, wasn’t planning on that, but, you know what? I like it, I think it works.)
[3] Quote found on Whataburger’s wiki page.
[4] My apologies for the insensitive language, but this really is how that character would talk.
[5] OTL episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RI3-IayM7E
[6] Florida received one less electoral vote than IOTL due to its slower rate of increase in population here. IOTL, Florida’s Cuban population increased dramatically in the aftermath of Castro’s consolidation of power on the island; between 1959 and 1974, “about 500,000 Cubans…arrived in Miami,” according to https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_migration_to_Miami. Here, communism was defeated in Cuba, and so the Cubans who migrated post-1965 in OTL never did so here; some may have even moved back to Cuba (this also means that Miami has a bit less of a Cuban influence, but is still becoming the preferred tourist destination of the state). Wisconsin gets the additional vote due to its OTL rise in population, based on the chart in the demographics section of Wisconsin’s wiki article.
[7] IOTL, Hatch moved from his native Pennsylvania to Utah in 1969 to practice law. Here, butterflies make him end up in Nebraska instead.
[8] Real person!: http://politicalstrangenames.blogspot.com/2014/07/aloha-eagles-1916-1992.html
[9] It means “to pretend to work while actually doing nothing.”
[10] It means “shrews and unprincipled persons.”
[11] He wouldn’t stay and fight his legal battle because he fled from them in OTL!
[12] All statistics based on the data found on Wikipedia’s Great Society article, but here the 1965-1969 trends have been adjusted to demonstrate how they likely would have played out in 1961-965 instead, and under President Sanders.
[13] Secretary Friedman declined the Colonel’s offer to give him the job due to a lack of interest, the F.R.C.’s early opposition to some of Friedman’s views, and preferring to return to academia.
[14] Italicized part is OTL quote (Source 68 on his wiki page).

Stretch said:
Bob Ross and Disney sounds like a match made in heaven.
Thanks!

RyuDrago said:
Well, considering this is the proper thread to talk about, I wonder what you would think of this latest OTL KFC PR idea... Don't blame me for posting this.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...in-this-official-kfc-dating-sim?sf108668094=1

I wonder what would or could happen TTL... Ideas, opinions on the matter?

o_0 Um, uh, I don't, um, what in the - I mean, the Colonel would certainly never - would he? No! Argh... [insert "there is no emoticon for what I am feeling" gif here] (I don't blame you, but IMHO, that is no way to honor a legendary American. Then again, neither is "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," yet most folks in my high school were not offended by the disrespect and historical inaccuracy.)

Pop culture does what it does. If it's what (a portion of) the people want, who am I to oppose it?

Good eye, @Sciox , fixed it! (It was originally one speech and it seems there was some overlap when I split it into two small speeches) Thanks!

DTF955Baseballfan said:
1) Vida Blue may well have played all year without a signed contract. I'd expect Oakalnd (if that where's the Athletics are) to still win the World Series, their first since 1930 back in Philadelphia (and first pennant since 1931), but questions will swirl if Blue becomes a free agent. OTOH, Steinbrenner didn't yet have the Yankees, he bought them in early 1973, so who he goes to will be a good question.

2) TTL the A's might be known as the Berded Bunch. OTL Charlie Finley told all his players to grow mustaches for publicity and also becasue that was such a stand against the system. TTL, however, President Sanders has a mustache and even a small beard. (Would that be considered a goatee?) Facial hair is therefore not a onerous as it was OTL. OTOH, some of the more conservative franchises will still forbid faciaal hair, I'm sure.

3) 1972 in Decemberis whenRoberto Clemente died in a plane crash - he could survive here.

4) I presume that the Braves still moved to Atlanta? Hank Aaron might get a couple extra home runs and set the record on one of the last days of 1973 - hopefully against the Dodgers still, as Vin Scully's call is a thing of beauty

5) The more I thinkabout it, it's possible the financial straigts of the Pilts inSeattle are known early and Louisville is an Ameircan League team. Knsas City was going to get an expansion team becasue of the A's move, so that means the White Sox could move to MIlwaukee and announce it in 1972 - Dick Allen nearly won the Triple Crown for them (and could TTL) but that might not even be enough.

Or, they could have moved in 1972, and Allen's Triple Crown comes for the new Milwaukee White Sox.

If they move, they are actually sold to Bud Selig.

6) I guess you *could* throw us a curveball, though - Finley almost moved his A's to Louisville in 1965 or so but league owners rejected it. You haven't told us who the Louisville team is. What if Finley is fought for a couple years and that Louisville Colonels franchse is really the Athletics - and it's Louisville with its garish green and gold winning the 1972 World Series?

7) Oh, boy, I can see it now - Finley would have promoted that name by inviting every colonel, both real and fictional, to the ballpark at one time or another. He could give away monocles like Colonel Klink with the team emblem, oh what a face3!

But, more likely, he stays. Expansion was set for 1971, but they moved it up 2 years because of Finley's antics. You have the Colonels forming for the 1970 season or maybe 1971, so it's just as likely there are expansion teams in Montreal and San Diego in the N.L and theAl.L. has Milwaukee andLouisville, with Finley forced to stay in Kansas City. Maybe he sells to Ewing Kauffman early and becomes the Colonels' owner anyway - the Athletics still win in 1972 but Finley's team comes close to a division title

8) Another thought - Ray Kroc could own the Padres but in the American League. Gene Autry wanted a 2nd west coast team in the A.L.. If the A.L. gets the Padres, because Finley stays in Kansas City (and the commissioner might have forced him and then brokered that agreement for him to sell and get an expansion club), then you have your pick of which other club goes into the A.L., the Brewers or Colonels. With the other joining the Expos in the N.L..

So, to summarize:

1. Athletics win first World Series since 1930, maybe in Kansas City.

2. Vida Blue doesn't have his contract tiff if they are in Kansas City becasue Finley probably sells the team and gets an expansion one.

3. Dick Allen might win the Triple Crown, leading the league in battling average, home runs, and RBIs.

4. Roberto Clemente could survive his plane crash TTL.

5. Hank Aaron will come closer and likely break Babe Ruth's home run record at the end of next year, especially if the Padres are in the A.L. - having to play in San Diego, a horrible park for hitters, 9 games a year for 5 years definitely took at least 2 home runs from Aaron between 1969-1973.
Click to expand...

Alright then!...

1) Interesting. Apart from Steinbrenner (do you really think he'd end up somewheres else? ITTL, Donald Trump's playing for the Yankees (I mentioned it in the later 1968 chapter), maybe that changes something?), I'd say all this stays the same.

2) What a fun detail about how the Colonel's facial hair (I think it is a goatee) affects the MLB!

3) Already working on it (as a news(paper?) report covering his humanitarian actions set either in January 1973 or much farther into the future).

4) Consider it canon!

5) But would their financial situation be the same as IOTL if the economy is doing better at this point ITTL than it was in OTL?

6) I'm not an expert on professional baseball (not even close); I'm not even sure what you mean when you ask "who" is the Louisville Colonel's baseball team? But I suppose Finley could join them, sure! The Louisville Colonels' colors are red and white (and gold, too, if I'm remembering my own TL correctly).

7) Whoo, that'd be fun!

8) Could the Padres face off against the Colonels in the American League (and when?)? That means it's still Oakland v Cincinnati in the 1972 World Series (instead of the Colonels vs someone else)?

A lot of interesting ideas here!

DTF955Baseballfan said:
Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

1. Steinbrenner could buy the Cleveland Indians - he bid on them OTL but was in trouble for campaign donations to Nixon that likely don't come OTL.

5. According to this, the stadium was a dump and there were protests that prevented the building of it where the voters originally approved it. The team might end up moving to Milwaukee anyway; a California bank caalled in a $4 million loan they took out to get the team in the first place. However, this brings up my answer to #6.

6.By who the Colonels are, I mean were they an expansion club and if so in which league? Or a team that moved.

Expansion only came in 1969 because of Finley's move. Otherwise it wouldn't have happened till 1971. Since you have a new commissioner (who could well block his move, unlike OTL, Finley had driven American League owners crazy threatening to move everyplace under the sun almost since the day he bought the club) they could be awarded an expansion team when you say, in the summer of 1969, and then prepare for the 71 expansion which was planned. This lets Finley be the maverick owner of the Colonels and have those wild promotions. The Athletics are thus in Kansas City, and win the World Series (Blue wasn't a big factor in 1972, due to the contract and also arm fatigue), the Padres are an American League team, and so are the Colonels, who are a substitute for the Pilots of OTL.

This means the Colonels and Padres are both American League clubs, and face each other in 12 or 18 games a year, spending on whether the Colonels are in the East or West.

Option B: The Expos almost didn't form in 1969. Butterflies preventing the N.L. President from going to a game at a 3,000 seat facility and being impressed by it, could have caused the deal to fall through, as could not being able to meet with Charles Bronfman after every other member of the group that had put money in on the team dropped out.

NOw, I don't think the Colonels would be a National League club - they would only be about 100 miles from Cincinnati, and thus more likely to be an A.L. city. Mikwaudde and Chicago are about the same distance, though, and if it's an emergency situation then American League history can play out like it did OTL, and the Colonels placed there on an interim basis before everyone realizes, "Hey, the Reds and Colonels are *both* drawing really well, this isn't a problem like we thought." Thus shelving plans to try and move the Colonels somewhere else long term.

The Expos could have even formed in 1969 but then the blurb about the Colonels could mean that they are the ones who failed to make it after a year, too. In this case, the Braves would move to the East and the Colonels would become rivals to the Reds in the West. AAnd, the Colonels and Padres have 18 games against each other in the National League.

Which is more likely? Finley original asked the A.L. to let him move his club to Louisville OTL - he even had a 2-year stadium lease. (WHich of course meant he could move if he wasn't happy.) A more effective Commissioner, like you have TTL, might well say, "Look, FInley is a creep, let's give him an expansion club and make hi sink some investment into it (though he ran everything on a shoestring)." Ewing Kauffman got the expansion club OTL, he could buy the Athletics and then Finley be given the expansion club. No club in Oakland for now, but they could get one later with the new Coliseum, and in fact the Giants might move there instead! (Yes, Candlestick was an awful place to play, its placement at Candlestick Point meant it was 10-15 degrees chillier than the rest of the area and very windy)

And, Finley could even trade for Blue. If his club is playing starting in 1970 (a compromise between the 1969 of OTL and the planned 1971), Blue is just a young minor leaguer who had a few games in 1969.Yes, Finley might have to give up a fair number of players, but as noted, the Athetics can still win the Series in 1972 in Kansas City, while Blue - a CY Young winner and MVP in 1971 who got his club to 2nd place almost singlehandedly - plays without a contract and then blots Louisville as a free agent.

The White Sox are probably going to move to Milwaukee, maybe for the 1973 season, maybe they already did in 1972. Or, Bud Selig might just join forces with Seattle and push for expansion by the mid-'70s. Because a delay of a year means those protests in 1969 keep a domed stadium from being started ont he site which had been promised, which dooms the Seattle bid, but Seattle would still want a major league club.

I hope this helps, and that it hasn't made it more confusing for you. This was really an interesting time in the major leagues.
Click to expand...

1) Very plausible that he ends up with the Cleveland Indians

I guess Finley owning the Colonels and them being in the American League is more plausible, especially if TTL's Commissioner decides to keep his eye on things.

BrianD said:
I'd go with option A, and keep the team in the city long-term. I think there would be enough local businesspeople to buy the club when Charlie Finley sold it.

If you keep the idea of the Louisville Metropolitan Statistical Area growing to 2 million in the coming years, it could easily support a Major League Baseball team as well as an NBA team. Which leads me to the basketball Colonels.

IOTL, the Colonels didn't make it into the merger because the Chicago Bulls coveted one of the Colonels' star players -- Artis Gilmore -- and would have nixed the ABA/NBA merger unless the Colonels agreed not to go along. The owner, John Y. Brown -- later governor of Kentucky -- sold out, brought the Buffalo Braves of the NBA, then sold off that team's best assets until swapping ownership of the Braves for Irv Levin's ownership of the Celtics. Brown then sold his majority share in the Celtics after making a series of bad deals, basketball-wise.

So when the baseball Colonels get sold, you do NOT want John Y. Brown involved.
Click to expand...

I concur, option A is a less chaotic/complicated scenario. Well here, J.Y.B. is busy trying to make Ollie's Trolleys the next big thing, so he wouldn't be the owner. I don't know who would be, but for the sake of simplicity, let's assume it's someone competent and reasonable. I thought I already covered the inclusion of the Colonels into the merger (I'll check). Anyhoo, if the Colonels had to trade Gilmore for inclusion in the merger, and if that's the most sensible thing to do, then I guess they'd do that.

I honestly didn't know there was this much complexity and activity in professional baseball, with there being different leagues, levels, trades, moves, negotiations, interactions, complications, etc.

Personally, I just prefer simply hitting (okay, trying to hit) the ball and then running along the diamond. That's sports to me - playing around in the fresh air with good friends in a healthy bit of competition and camaraderie. Good air, good friends, good food, good times, good game.
 
Post 30
Post 30: Chapter 38

Chapter 38: January 1973 – January 1974

“I’ve never met a Kentuckian who wasn’t either thinking about going home or actually going home”

– Happy Chandler [1]



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[pic: https://imgur.com/bW7vugo ]
– Mike Gravel retaking the oath of office for the Vice Presidency in a private ceremony, after tripping over the words at the public ceremony [2], as his wife and children look on, 1/20/1973



WALTER MONDALE’S ADMINISTRATION AT THE BEGINNING OF 1973

Cabinet:
Secretary of State: US Senator Philleo Nash of Wisconsin
Secretary of the Treasury: former Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs Robert Vincent Roosa of New York
Secretary of Defense: outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired US Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. of Washington, D.C
Attorney General: attorney and former Deputy Attorney General Ramsey Clark of Texas
Postmaster General: former US Senator Maurine Neuberger of Oregon
Secretary of the Interior: former state senator Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma
Secretary of Agriculture: former Governor Ryan DeGreffenried Sr. of Alabama
Secretary of Commerce: US Congressman John Emerson Moss of California
Secretary of Labor: former Undersecretary of State Robert F. Kennedy Sr. of Virginia
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: former Governor Albert Rossellini of Washington state
Secretary of Transportation: outgoing Administrator of the National Roadways Safety Administration Ralph Nader of Connecticut

Cabinet-Level Positions:
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency: banker and former US Congressman Joseph Walker Barr of Indiana
Director of the Federal Bureau of Information: incumbent William C. Sullivan of Massachusetts
US Trade Representative: President of the United Automobile Workers Walter Reuther of Michigan

The President’s Executive Office:
White House Chief of Staff: Chief of Staff to Senator Mondale Richard Moe of Minnesota
White House Deputy Chief of Staff: African-American attorney Joseph W. Hatchett of Florida
White House Counsel: outgoing White House Appointments Secretary Liddy Hanford of Washington, D.C.
Counselor to the President: lawyer Warren Christopher of California
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: US Congresswoman Julia Butler Hansen of Washington state
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: former President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Harold F. Linder of New York
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: businessman and former US Army combat technician Robert Dale Maxwell of Colorado
Chief National Security Advisor: Columbia University political science professor Samuel P. Huntington of New York
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: former First Lady of Florida Mary Call Darby Collins of Washington, D.C.
White House Communications Director: political activist and campaign organizer Sam W. Brown Jr. of California
White House Press Secretary: former Assistant White House Press Secretary Malcolm MacGregor “Mac” Kilduff Jr. of New York
White House Appointments Secretary: political activist and former campaign press secretary Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: businessman Alexander Buell “Sandy” Trowbridge III of New Jersey

Other Notable Members:
Solicitor General (representative of the Federal Government before the US Supreme Court): state Supreme Court Associate Justice William Wayne Justice of Texas
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: African-American US Navy Commander Wesley A. Brown of Maryland
Federal Reserve Chairman: incumbent George Wilder Mitchell of Wisconsin
NASA Director: incumbent Harold Brown of New York

Notable US Ambassadors (in alphabetical order):
To Brazil: former Governor Carl Sanders of South Carolina
To Canada: outgoing Governor Phil Hoff of Vermont
To China: US Congressman Lester Wolff of New York
To France: former Governor John J. McKeithen of Louisiana
To Ireland: actor and political activist Gregory Peck of California
To Japan: businessman, former coast guard commander and former Governor of Guam Carlton Skinner of California
To Lebanon: journalist, peace activist and President of Earlham College Landrum Bolling of Indiana
To Panama: Ambassador to Costa Rica and former Ambassador to El Salvador John Gordon Mein of Washington, D.C.
To Saudi Arabia: outgoing Governor William L. Guy of North Dakota
To Sudan: former US Congressman Alec Gehard Olson of Minnesota
To the U.K.: former First Lady of the United States Ladybird Johnson of Texas
To the U.N.: retired US Army Lieutenant General Keith Lincoln Ware of Colorado
To the U.S.S.R.: US Congressman Joseph Karth of Minnesota
To West Germany: Mayor of Detroit Jerome Cavanagh of Michigan

– MondalePresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_members/1973 [3]



My first destination out of the White House was a familiar one: Kentucky – known for horseracing, moonshine and bourbon distilleries, coal mining, car manufacturing, tobacco, bluegrass music, college basketball, and my kind of chicken. I had missed the leisurely pace of a good Kentucky morning, the sights, the sounds, even the smells. It felt great to be back in the state I call home, but as I’ve said many times before, I don’t like to rest for too long. My time on Earth wasn’t up, so my work on Earth wasn’t done either!

For months, people had been telling me to write a book. This book. Now that I was out of office, I finally decided to try and write it. But I was too antsy sitting in front of a typewriter all day, and it didn’t feel right to use a Dictaphone, so I wrote this whenever I could while also keeping myself busy doing other things. One of the biggest things that I have done while writing this book by far was me returning to KFC as Official Spokesperson and Chief Senior Advisor. Mildred believed my presence in the company would alleviate its recent decline in profits.

But I don’t want to spend the last chapters of this book telling you about how I wrote this book last year. I’ll tell you what I’ve actually done in this past year instead.

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



“Now I’ve worked with the French, and while they are good people, when it comes to food I don’t care what anyone says – Kentucky cuisine is the best cuisine! We have more than fried chicken to offer. We’ve got fried catfish and hushpuppies, country fried steak, fresh green beans, pinto beans with cornbread, fried green tomatoes, corn pudding with cheese grits, fried okra and barbecued mutton, burgoo, chili, pecan pie, blackberry pie, bread pudding, and hot browns. We even have derby pie, though that wasn’t around until the late ’50s, so it’s kind of a new thing, but I digress. The point is, folks, I’ve tried the food of every state, from Alaskan king crab to Louisiana gumbo to New England’s clam chowder and lobster rolls to Chicago deep-dish pizza and Michigan’s coney dogs. All that food is wonderful, and I still prefer the good ol’ home cookin’ of good ol’ Kentucky. And I want everyone to know what that’s like. KFC is a slice of Americana experienced outside of Kentucky, across the country and around the world, and as the years go on I want to bring the experience and joy of KFC to even more places on the globe. Because Kentucky Fried Chicken is too good a thing to miss out on!”

– Colonel Sanders’ comments at a “return-to-KFC” ceremony held at KFC headquarters in Florence, KY, 1/31/1973



…The Colonel had many ideas on how to boost KFC sales, and the most popular one was him appearing in new commercials…

[snip]

The biggest change made to the franchise that Sanders ultimately came to accept was replacing the hydrogenated vegetable oil used in his chicken for animal fat. HV oil was cheaper, which was why it had replaced lard in the chicken-making process in the early 1960s, but in 1972, HV oil’s trans fats were linked to artery blockages. Ironically, the revelation came about due to the Scranton-led health-promoting investigations that the Colonel himself had called for while he was President.

Upon his return to working for the company he had founded, The Colonel immediately went to work tweaking the recipe just right, so customers could not taste the change. The Colonel spent days in the kitchen until finally the perfect mixture was found. Cooking is an awful lot like chemistry – you need to understand which elements will create what results under what conditions; this makes me find it funny that the Colonel had quit school all those many years ago over algebra when the man was quite the chemist.

I was not alone in being surprised by his acceptance to change even this central aspect of the company. It seemed we all thought for sure that he would throw a fit. Well, he did, but it was not the tirade we were all expecting; it was much mellower, more serene. Maybe he was slowing down in the temper area as he grew older. Maybe it was his born-again Christian attitude of accepting positive change. Or maybe he had dealt with so much while he was President that something like animal fat replacing hydrogenated vegetable oil was not a top priority to him anymore.

– Dave Thomas’ Under the Colonel’s Wing, Mosaic Publishing, 1982



On February 3, President Mondale proclaimed “A coordinated national government is critical to political stability and economic growth by assuring businessmen do the right thing for their country and do right by their hard-working employees.” Keeping true to his campaign promises, one of the new leader’s first actions in office was the push for further business regulations at both the federal and statewide levels of government. Labor Secretary Kennedy would explain during an appearance on Meet the Press that “many corporations are much older than the agencies that oversee their actions, but many of the laws are outdated or too ineffective.” Kennedy also defended Mondale’s call for workers to have “a better, fairer seat” during C.B.A. negotiations by explaining, “Right now, we are a largely industrialized nation, but we fall far behind the people of Western Europe in regards to unionization.”

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



ASSOCIATE JUSTICE CLARK RETIRES TO AVOID CONFLICT OF INTEREST

…the Justice’s son, former Assistant Attorney General, Ramsey Clark is Mondale’s official nominee for Attorney General…

– The Washington Post, 2/4/1973



“I’ve travelled all over North America as a restaurateur, and I think I can safely say that Toronto has taken prodigious strides in establishing many fine restaurants. Tourists are now aware of this feature of Toronto, and so is KFC,” I told the room of investors. It was my first trip abroad post-Presidency, and I wanted to improve the company’s situation in Canada. For our Francophone customers, I “even attempted to speak French for regional commercials, but the results were mangled[4]. …The best part of the trip, as it was with many trips, was when the youngsters would see me and recognize who I was. One Ontario-based KFC manager, Ted Gogoff told the local paper the Star... “They’d flock around all the time when he was here. And he was delighted to see them. He loved kids. To them, he was like a year-round Santa Claus.” Ted’s words, not mine. [4]

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




MONDALE CALLS FOR HOUSE TO PASS NEW CIVIL RIGHTS ACT

Washington, DC – Mondale spoke before the U.S. House of Representative today to make the case for another Civil Rights Act… The new Civil Rights bill, introduced by Emanuel Celler on September 2 of last year, will add to and protect the laws put into effect under the Civil Rights Act of 1962, and expand on the section of that law concerning fair housing and employment practices for African-Americans…

– The Washington Post, 2/19/1973



…Okay, we can now confirm reports coming in from down in Oglala Lakota County, that the, uh, chairman of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Richard A. “Dick” Wilson, has just been assassinated. On the ninth of this month, impeachment charges were brought before Wilson for corruption. The prosecution, apparently, did not fully prepare for the case despite months of calls for the chairman to resign over quote, “irresponsibly corrupt actions,” end-quote. And, um, upon being escorted out of the city council meeting where the attempt to impeach the chairman had proved unproductive, a reportedly young and angry young man fired several bullets into Chairman Wilson. He died shortly after arriving at a hospital... Um, oh and the assassin, whose name is currently being withheld by police for the time being, was immediately captured at the scene. This development follows months of accusing Wilson of abuse of power such as nepotism, and corruption…

– KBHB (810 AM) South Dakota radio, 2/23/1973 broadcast



FIRST SON’S FIRST BIRTHDAY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

Washington, DC – Billy Mondale celebrates his 11th birthday by blowing out the candles on his cake like any other 11-year-old. But not all kids his age get to have a live elephant at their birthday party. The elephant is on loan from Labor Secretary Robert Kennedy’s home in McLean, Virginia. William H. “Billy” Mondale, the youngest son of President Mondale, is joined in the festivities by his older siblings: Theodore A. “Teddy” Mondale, age 15, and Eleanor Mondale, age 13.

The White House south lawn today hosts a plethora of child-friendly activities: slip-and-slides, clowns, animals, food, and games galore. The festivities culminate in the presentation of a multi-tier chocolate and vanilla cake. The kids dig in mercilessly and soon return for seconds despite the weather beginning to become a bit nippy out.

“It’ll just keep the cake from melting away,” one energetic 11-year-old guest observes.

The Star Tribune, 2/27/1973



LORD OF THE LAND?: Mondale Nominates Miles W. Lord For Supreme Court Seat

...Miles Welton Lord has served as a Judge of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota since 1961… Damon Keith, an African-American judge from Michigan, was rumored to be a potential nominee. Most pundits, however, predicted the nomination would go to William Joseph Nealon Jr., a Judge of the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania since 1962…

– The New York Post, 2/28/1973



“Another liberal judge on the court will lead to another Lochner Era, a time when the Supreme Court enforced their own laws on the land in complete violation of and in complete disregard for States’ Rights!”

– Conservative US Senator Henry S. “Hank” Hibbard (R-MT), 3/1/1973



“Harland was not the kind to chit-chat small-talk. He disliked the slow pace of Washington, and would later confess to me that he may have made more executive orders than he should have at the start of his administration. But neither the cabinet nor the boardroom could break Harland’s passionate spirit. [snip] …Harland would strive to be present at the grand opening of every KFC outlet in the United States. Often he would go into the kitchen to meet the new employees and oversee how they did the work. And if he ever saw one of the workers cooking the chicken incorrectly or making the gravy or biscuits the wrong way, he’d fume and stir up a storm, keeping himself from using adult language, but still making his outrage known, swinging his cane and sometimes even throwing the ruined food onto the workers. More than once in his lifetime Harland poured gravy onto someone’s head, or slapped someone in the face with a pipin’ hot piece of bird.”

– Claudia Price Sanders, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) interview, 1995



NORTHERN IRELAND VOTES TO REMAIN IN UNION, 98%-TO-2%

…With a turnout of 58%, it is clear that a majority of the people of the province have voted to remain a part of the UK…

The Daily Telegraph, UK newspaper, 9/3/1973



WINNER BY A FOOT!: MP Dingle Foot Elected New Labour Leader As Party Eyes This Year’s Upcoming General Election

Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot has served in Parliament since 1957 and has, in the years since the Stonehouse Scandal, become a leading critic of PM Enoch Powell. Foot calls for a moderate, “peaceful approach” to the Northern Irish debacle. At age 67, he is the oldest person to become Prime Minister since Winston Churchill...

The Guardian, 13/3/1973



The controversial Conservative leadership of Enoch Powell saw record unemployment as deindustrialization in turn saw the end of much of the country’s manufacturing industries. Paradoxically, though, Powell also oversaw a time of economic growth as stock markets as state-owned industries became privatized. Additionally, inflation dropped; however, so did the power of trade unions. Overall, the Powell years seemed plagued with both fortune and misfortune. Workers kept going on strike, Powell’s own conservative MPs voted against reinstating capital punishment in a vote held in the British House of Commons in 1972, and let’s not even start on the Cod Wars (until the next chapter).

By 1973, Powell’s task of running to maintain office in the upcoming general election seemed to be increasingly difficult. Leaders in Northern Ireland backed the Labour party’s “peaceful pathway” campaign, while Powell’s more aggressive handling of Northern Ireland had been proven to be both ineffective and unpopular. Powell thus sought to capitalize of the fiscal successes of his time in office. Public sector unions had risen consistently due to the tax system remaining robustly progressive and top marginal federal income tax rate was 70%. [5]

However, organized workers heavily backed Labour. When government workers began to organize in large numbers in the 1960s, state school teachers helped lead the way. During the 1960s, the N.U.T. and the N.A.S./U.W.T. grew at a furious pace; in the 1970s, teachers were the most militant government workers, willing to strike even when it was illegal in order to press their demands. Through this period teachers elevated their pay and benefits and won significant reforms, especially reductions in class sizes and increases in education funding. [5] Privately, Powell feared he could not overcome the increasingly powerful political influence of these organizing groups.

– Andrew Marr’s Modern Britain: A History, Pan Macmillan Publishers, 2002 edition



Objectively, the Black September Organization did not have a good record. Since its inception in 1970, the most notable successful act of terrorism they had committed was the assassination of Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi al-Tal in November 1971. From then on, it was attempted assassinations, botched bombings, and half-baked hijackings. After the failed attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Olympic Games, Yasser Arafat approved of a plan he called their “last chance.”

On March 1, 1973, eight Black September terrorists assaulted the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, taking 13 people hostage and demanding the release numerous Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Among the hostages was our Ambassador to Sudan and two American assistants. Mondale demonstrated strength throughout the crisis, outright refusing to negotiate with the terrorists. Instead, the Sudanese government collaborated with us at the CIA to apply pressure to the terrorists holed up and surrounded. On March 3, CIA snipers removed four of the terrorists before the local military stormed the embassy, killing the remaining hostages in the basement, presumably moments before they could murder all the hostages. In the skirmish, two hostages were injured by friendly fire, but made full recoveries.

With this failure in mind, Arafat approved of the PLO shutting down the organization that April, believing “these acts of violence [are] not proving to be beneficial to [their] cause.”

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994



The Way Home
is 1973 drama film directed by Hal Ashby from a screenplay written by Waldo Salt from a story by Cuban War veteran John Gilbert. The film stars Jane Fonda and Jon Voight in the lead roles, and stars Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, and Peter Graves in supporting roles. The film’s narrative follows a young woman, her US Marine husband, and a paralyzed Cuban War veteran she meets while her husband is stationed in post-war Havana.

The film was released theatrically on March 16, 1973. Upon release, the film was a critical and commercial success with critics and audiences; the film grossed $32 million against a budget of $5 million, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 1973. The film also received seven Academy Award nominations, and won three Academy Awards (one each in the categories of Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay).

– clickopedia.co.usa



SEN. EUNICE KENNEDY-SHRIVER CO-AUTHORS SINGLE-PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE BILL

…financed by taxes and with no cost sharing, the concept has received tepid support from President Mondale in recent weeks, while newspaper mogul Ted Kennedy is an enthusiastic backer of the proposed legislation...

– The Boston Globe, 3/25/1973



Last year, coincidently around the same time Senator Shriver was introducing health reform, I felt ill and decided to check into a hospital. It was discovered I had a polyp on my colon. The doctors were afraid the polyp was an indication of cancer. So after calling my minister, the great Reverend Waymon Rodgers of Louisville, Kentucky, he came by to visit me and I prayed with him about my case. I promised to God I would spend whatever days I had left doing right by my fellow man if I made it through the cancer. Pastor Waymon came in and prayed for me. And God healed me. The next day, the tests showed that the polyp had disappeared. The doctor said, “Colonel when I opened you up there wasn’t any polyp.” The doctors pronounced me “cured”! Call it a coincidence all you want to, but I believe that the power of faith saved me that day. And I am determined to stick to my promise to God. [6]

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




MILES LORD STARTS TENURE ON SUPREME COURT BENCH TODAY

Washington, DC – After a lengthy search to replace the seat of retiring Justice Tom Clark, Judge Lord of Mondale’s home state of Minnesota official began his time on the bench this afternoon…

– The Washington Post, 4/2/1973



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[pic: https://imgur.com/5DsMXQz ]
– The Colonel, discussing business concerns with his son Harley and other KFC executives, while also inspecting a KFC kitchen work station, c. April 1973



…in other news, Ray Kroc, the owner of the San Diego Padres basketball team and the former head of McDonald’s, was cleared of any wrongdoing in a senate committee investigation of his campaign contribution to the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign last year...

– NBC News, 4/10/1973



On Monday, April 16, weeks of deliberations and debates culminated in the House passing a wide-reaching Tax Reform Bill. Then came for the Senate to debate the merit of restructuring tax margins to alleviate the burden felt by the lower and middle classes. Freshman Senator Hank Hibbard, R-MT, was the most vocal opponent of the bill, claiming “this goes too far to the very edge of socialism.” Senator Eastland, Long, and Dole soon followed suit to lead a bipartisan wall of opposition.

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



King Zahir Shah was facing a crisis. He had been the ruler of Afghanistan since he was 19, following his assassinated father into office in 1933. 40 years later, his nation was failing to combat the effects of the severe drought of 1971-1972. In April 1973, the King traveled to Washington, D.C. to strike an agreement with President Mondale. The King secured grain and other supplies from the United States in order to repel famine in exchange for more open trade relations. The relief appeased the discontented masses.

Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister of Afghanistan and the King’s cousin/brother-in-law, Mohammad Sardar Daoud Khan, had been planning to overthrow the King over allegations of corruption made against the longtime ruler. The grain deal, however, made his supporters fear the coup would now fail in the wake of the people’s renewed faith in the monarchy. Ultimately, the CIA uncovered the plot, and Mohammad Sardar Daoud Khan was exiled.

In gratitude for saving his country from a possible coup-based civil carnage, King Zahir Shah developed even closer ties to the US. This development angered members of the Soviet Union’s politburo such as Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev, whom wanted the USSR to have stronger influence over the region and quietly disagreed with Premier Kosygin’s backing of “razryadka” (détente) with the West. Their view of the situation subsequently led to Andropov and Brezhnev assuring increased financial support of the pro-Soviet Khalq and Parham Communist parties in Afghanistan’s bicameral legislature.

– Tamim Ansary’s Games Without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan, Hachette Book Group, 2012



Billy Graham’s relationship with Mondale was considerably less personal than the one he experienced with Lyndon Johnson and the Colonel. For instance, Graham reported feeling “snubbed” by the new President during the White House Easter Egg Roll of April 22, 1973. The President’s less-than-warm reception of the reverend, though, may have had to do with another, considerably more liberal religious figure – Mondale’s older half-brother, the Unitarian minister and Humanist Rev. Lester Mondale.

– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000



[vid: youtube.com/watch?v=0_RZTrnPiQo ]
– The 1st KFC commercial to feature the Colonel since 1964, in which he discusses his faith in a bright future for the next generation, first aired 4/29/1973



TAX REFORM BILL NARROWLY PASSES SENATE! Mondale Will Most Likely Sign It Into Law Next Week

…The Tax Reform Act of 1973 repeals the investment tax credit, increases the minimum standard deduction from $300 plus $100/capita (a total maximum of $1,000) to simply $1,000, and taxes high-income earners who had previously avoided incurring such tax liabilities due to various exemptions and deductions implemented from 1965 to 1972…

The Washington Post, 5/3/1973



Attention: K.F.C.’s first system-wide approved line of desserts, to be entitled “The Colonel’s Little Bucket Desserts,” which officially will be sold as individual portions of approximately 3 ½ ozs. for approximately 40 cents each on May 21. As always, please contact the home office for any additional information. [7]

– KFC memo from HQ to all outlets in the US and Canada, dated 5/7/1973




FOOT BEATS POWELL IN LABOUR LANDSLIDE

…The Labour party, led by Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, needed only 318 seats of all 635 seats of the House of Commons to obtain a majority; tonight saw the party’s number of seats swing from 205 to 368. The Conservative Party, led by Enoch Powell, saw their number of seats swing all the way down to 225, in a clear rejection of five turbulent years of Powell’s “Enochonomics” policies... Meanwhile, the Liberal party, led by Eric Lubbock [8], lost five seats, leaving them with a total of 19 seats. Additionally, the Scottish National Party received a total of 15 seats, and the Ulster Unionist Party received a total of four seats, while Plaid Cymru won just two seats.

The Guardian, 15/5/1973



MONDALE’S A.G. ON THE WARPATH!

Washington, DC – The newly-confirmed US Attorney General Ramsey Clark is launching a crusade against Governors and statewide governing bodies across the southern states with the intention of enforcing the 1962 Civil Rights Act. At a press meeting held earlier today, Clark claims “numerous organizations” are “still dragging their feet” in regards to the removal segregated and racially biased policies from establishments and institutions. This query on local practices officially began with investigations into colleges and major multi-state businesses in South Carolina and Georgia this week…

The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi newspaper, 5/18/1973



EX-REP JEANETTE RANKIN, “AMERICA’S CONSCIENCE,” DIES AT 92

…Rankin was elected to three nonconsecutive two-year terms in the US House from Montana. She was elected to Congress in 1916, 1940, and 1970. She was the first Women elected to Congress, and was the sole member of Congress to vote against US entry into World Wars I and II. Rankin was a lifelong activist for peace and women’s rights who declined to run for re-election last year due to poor health.

The New York Times, 5/20/1973



In light of the US-Afghan grain deal, the USSR’s Secretary of Agriculture, intellectual reformist and Kosygin ally Alex Yakovlev, landed in Washington DC to discuss the possibility of a much larger grain deal between the US and USSR. Yakovlev was aware of the US’s decline in steel production continuing on since the late 1950s while maintaining “a breadbasket in the middle of the country,” while the situation was reversed in the USSR – Kosygin’s industrialization practices kept his comrades busy, but not well-fed. While Yakovlev did not meet with Mondale, he did meet with the more eager Vice President Gravel, who believed the idea could “become a key step in finally ending the Cold War.” The next step, then, was to pass the ideas on to their respective bosses…

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



MONDALE ADMIN. ENACTS COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENTS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY: Dow Drops As Markets React

The Wall Street Journal, 5/27/1973



That June I travelled the world with Claudia to check on the KFC restaurants established across the globe since 1964. I relished in the freedom to work at a pace much quicker than that found in Washington. No more three-day weekends, long vacations for every holiday, and political fundraiser dinners for me. However, I would often remember to enjoy my time with Claudia while staying active with work – before Claudia would often make sure I didn’t forget it. Anyway, the first destination was Australia. While not my first time visiting the Land Down Under, it was my first time ever visiting the outback, a sparsely populated desert that in many ways reminded me of the American West. I enjoyed the whole experience immensely, even with the strong winds getting my suit absolutely covered in sand! When one of our guide saw this and look concerned, I told him, “relax, I have more than one set” of my iconic clothes. Claudia, on the other hand, did not appreciate any of the dust, wind, or sand.

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



At Mondale’s request, Congress established the US Department of Education with the Department of Education Organization Act of 1973. The act, approved 31-19 by the Senate in June, effectively split the responsibilities of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare into two newly formed Cabinet Departments: The Department of Health and Welfare, and the Department of Education. HEW Secretary Rossellini opted to become the new HW Secretary, which kept control of the Center for Disease Control in the bill, while former Governor Grant Sawyer of Nevada was sworn in as the inaugural Secretary of Education by the end of the year.

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



LOUISVILLE POP. REACHES 400,000 AS LOCAL, STATE ECONOMIES BOOM

– The Courier-Journal, 6/4/1973



In retrospect, the Shawwal War, also known as the Eid al-Fitr War, was inevitable. The 1967 Sukkot War had left the Arabic nations in the region bitter of their defeat, and subsequent negotiations for a peaceful return of territory had gone nowhere. Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat had built up his country’s supply of aircraft, artillery and tanks, and had replaced political military generals with competent military generals.

One element working on the side of peace, though, was Kosygin’s use of détente, which would be jeopardized by instability in the Middle East. However, due to Sadat being supported by Andropov (but, curiously, not Brezhnev, as later reporting revealed), Kosygin all but confessed to having little power of Egypt’s actions in the region in a phone call to Mondale on June 7 [9].

[snip]

The Israel Defense Forces, overconfident in their abilities since the 1967 war, were caught completely off-guard as they truly did not expect an attack during Shawwal. Initially, the war heavily favored the allied nations of Egypt and Syria, and much land was reconquered as Israelis retreated in disarray. However, the Israelis began to bounce back by the fourth day of fighting, recovering from the surprise attack to launch a well-organized counterassault that dug deep into the Sinai. While Kosygin only offered moral support, the United States came to the side of Israel. This very much angered the Saudis.

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994



…In a shocking development that will surely reverberate around the world, the multinational group called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, has proclaimed and imposed an oil embargo on all nations financially and militarily aiding Israel in the current war raging between them and Egypt. This embargo thus impacts us here in the United States, as the US government is allied with Israel…

– Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, 6/24/1973 broadcast



OIL CRISIS ROCKS WORLD!: AMID CUTOFF, PRICE FOR GAS IN SOME PLACES JUMPS 200%!!! D.O.W. Holding…For Now

– The Houston Chronicle, 6/25/1973



WHITE HOUSE IN PANIC MODE AS US LOSES KEY OIL ACCESS: Press Secretary Answers “We’re Working On It” 15 Times During Briefing

– The Washington Post, 6/26/1973



The US’s wavering support of the Saudis in exchange for their oil all started with a handshake agreement made in ’45 between FDR & King Abdul Aziz. I would be a hypocrite if I had opposed such a deal when I was in office. The Saudis have always been good to United States and I saw no reason in stirring up trouble over there when I was president. Now, though, now they’ve broken their end of the deal by joining their other friends in this embargo nonsense. And welching on a deal, that’s, well, it’s very disheartening.”

– Former President Harland “Colonel” Sanders to a reporter, 6/25/1973



CONSERVATIVES STAY ON!: Stanfield Secures Thin Majority Of Seats

…Robert Stanfield led his part to victory over Paul Martin Sr. of the Liberal party, Ed Broadbent of the Progressive Tomorrow party, and Réal Caouette of the Ralliement Créditiste party…

The Globe And Mail, Canadian newspaper, 7/12/1973



SYRIANS RETREATING AS ISRAELI, EGYPTIAN TANKS BATTLE IN DESERT

The New York Post, 7/14/1973



The Oil Crisis was hurting the economy and Fritz’s approval ratings. Hundreds and hundreds of soldiers were being killed on both sides. Damascus was being shelled by Israeli forces stretching themselves thin across two battle fronts. Everyone was exhausted.

We needed the war to end. With Egypt being overwhelmed at the back-and-forth of territory on the Sinai Peninsula, Mondale’s prayers were answered when both sides agreed to a ceasefire, the second one that was proposed and to be brokered by the UN. Then the administration learned of OPEC’s announcement – that even though the war was over, the OPEC embargo would stay indefinitely. Naturally, Mondale was downright ticked off, but we soon decided to try and figure out how to get the embargo to be lifted.

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994



HARMAN: Well, we decided to invest in the three-year-old Huntsman Container Corporation because it was a struggling business looking to produce superior egg cartons, replacing flimsy paper and cardboard models with a sturdy-yet-lightweight plastic variety. A contract lead to them producing the clamshell carton for KFC products that has become a classic staple of the KFC experience. Containers, plates and bowls were also produced for KFC as the years continued on; these superior plastic containers ensured the food’s flavor did not leak into the packaging, see? Especially the gravy, that was what sealed the deal for us. And that deal saved the Huntsman Corporation from cash flow issues plaguing them since it was founded, and has greatly advanced the career of its CEO…

INTERVIEWER: So do you believe KFC is responsible for Huntsman’s success?

HARMAN: I don’t like to boast, but it does seem like the company played a major role in it.

[snip]

HARMAN: The Colonel thought one way for KFC to stand out above the other fast-food chains was to open an outlet where no other American fast-food chains existed, but a place that he’d been to once before…

– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes interview, early 1992



“We are pleased to announce the beginning of negotiations for establishing and opening the People’s Republic of China very first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise outlet!”

– KFC CEO Mildred Sanders at a press conference in Florence, KY, 7/28/1973



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[pic: imgur.com/a1HHto4.png ]

– Colonel Sanders, dropping in at a social event in Bangor, ME, gives autographs to some fans while secret serviceman stand guard in the background, 7/30/1973



…The Northern Ireland Assembly elections held on June 28 yielded an unprecedented result, as the government’s white paper revealed… The elections led to an agreed state of power-sharing between Unionists and Nationalists for the first time ever. In the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly today, respective party leaders shook hands in front of the assembly to promote the message of, in the words of UUP party leader Brian Faulkner, “peace over harm and words over stones”…

– BBC World News, 7/31/1973 broadcast [10]



In subsequent cabinet meetings, Transportation Secretary Ralph Nader believed the 1973 Oil Crisis could work as an opportunity to move the country away from foreign oil. Vice President Gravel enthusiastically supported the nation, but Mondale was more concerned for the short-term detriments than the long-term benefits of such a shift in nationwide policy. Mondale believed that he would be a one-term President if Americans were denied a decent price for oil for much longer, and was generally dismissive of Nader’s thoughts on long-term energy investments.

On August 1, Mondale travelled to Saudi Arabia to visit the King of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to try to convince him to end the embargo. The King held persuasion over OPE – if anyone could force its hand, it was he. President Mondale offered the expansion of Saudi rights and benefits in and to the American oil industry, to be made official in via treaty. Ultimately, the King agreed to end the embargo in exchange for setting prices on oil at 30%, which the President bartered down to 18%.

The situation was an embarrassment for the White House, as many saw it as the first real time in recent memory that the US had been at the mercy of another nation – or in this case, a multinational organization. It made the country seem weak. Average Americans’ confidence in their nation’s military, political, and diplomatic leaders noticeably dropped…

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



…While have unconfirmed reports coming in that Elvis Presley has been taken via ambulance from this hotel room here in Chicago to a local hospital, we can confirm that his South Side concert planned for tomorrow has been “postponed indefinitely,”…

– The Overmyer Network, 8/7/1973 broadcast



One good thing that came about from the Colonel’s Waddlin’ Incident – uh, y’know the whole Ark Wave phenomenon – is that it made me eventually start to think about what I myself was shoving into my mouth. I mean, I’m The King, not The Slob. I loved KFC and all, and I would eat at that place all the time too, but after my mini-heart attack back in 1973, I knew I had to cut back on the rich and fatty food. I was 38 and dying, and I went from figurin,’ “with my music, I’m immortal,” to “Holy crap, death is f@#kin’ terrifying!” Heh. Of course, putting down fried chicken and hearty burgers was a struggle – not as bad and slow and as painful as putting down the drugs, but that’s another story, um – but, uh, you know, in the end, it was worth all of it…

– Elvis Presley, KNN interview, 1993



MONDALE SIGNS EMPLOYEE PROTECTION BILL INTO LAW: Bill Meant To Close Loopholes, Protect Union Benefits, And More

– The Chicago Tribune, 8/10/1973



FROM POVERTY TO PROFITS: Local Businessman Tells His Story

For most of his life, local man Sam Byck struggled to make a living; now he owns his own store. Samuel Byck, 43, dropped out of the ninth grade to work odd jobs to support his destitute family, only to repeat the routine upon having a family of his own after two years of service in the US Army. By the end of the 1960s, his wife and four children were often without food despite Byck’s best efforts to make ends meet. Then the economy improve, and the Negative Income Tax Rebate was introduced. “The rebate really helped us stay afloat,” Sam Byck, whom also credits the Small Business Association granting him a loan in 1970 for his newfound success. Given “the chance to prove [him]self,” and with the help of his “family, friends, and consumer confidence,” Byck went from selling tires out of an old school bus to opening his own autoshop here in South Philly…

– The Philadelphia Inquirer, minor “fluff piece” article, 8/11/1973



The UN brokered, US-sponsored ceasefire was signed between Egypt and Israel on August 15, roughly two months after the war had begun, and with it, the oil embargo was lifted.

– Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership In Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, 2018



CORRESPONDENT: …while some registered Democrats we spoke to praised Mondale for ending the Oil Crisis, polls show he still has an under 50% approval rating average.

MAN 2: “He dug us out of a hole he put all of us in to begin with.”

WOMAN 3: “He’s the President, he should’ve known backing Israel would make the price of gas shoot up.”

– Overmyer Network special report, 8/29/1973 broadcast



Everybody works as a team and they think nothing of working 12 to 14 hours a day. I guess that’s my influence. I set that example. My telephone is open 24 hours a day. I’m on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week of the month. Before I was President, I once worked three years without taking a single day off. We here in the KFC family had a picnic once on the Fourth of July but I even worked during that. I don’t believe in vacations. My theory was if I could do without them two weeks out of the year, I probably didn’t need them the rest of the time. [11]
– Colonel Sanders, discussing his new advisory role at KFC, Overmyer Network interview, 8/30/1973




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[pic: https://imgur.com/Fy03Sya ]
– The Colonel celebrates his 83rd birthday at KFC headquarters in Florence, KY, 9/9/1973



MONDALE CALLS FOR BETTER WAR VET PROGRAMS

“We need to help veterans suffering from drug addiction… The worries of our veterans do not go away as soon as the war ends or as soon as the cameras stop rolling. The wars in Cuba and Vietnam are over, and the constant news coverage of them is gone, but many of their scars, especially their mental scars, have yet to heal.”

– The Washington Post, 9/12/1973



The Colonel approached the PRC government with the idea of opening a single KFC outlet in Beijing “where Mao could keep an eye on it” in the midst of sweeping economic reforms within the country. In the months leading up to the historic opening, many doubted that a distinct and visible American enterprise like KFC could make a profit in the Chinese market or that a western company could survive in such a climate… Mao era China was far behind the world economically, but the 1968 Mao-Sanders Summit had nevertheless opened up the country to trading with capitalist nations. The Colonel hoped to bring the positive aspects of capitalist business to China for the benefit of his enterprise and the Chinese people, and to strengthen the bond between the two lands. Mao was quietly shying away from the chaotic mixed results of the revolutionary idealism of the Cultural Revolution and inching closer to elevating his country’s economic development in order to build a modern, market-oriented nation. In doing so, Mao was altering the Chinese economy and restructuring Chinese society and culture. Under these conditions, KFC landed what many dubbed “the deal of the century.” [12]

Deng gave me a second chance by allowing me to join him in welcoming the Colonel at the airport to discuss negotiations for opening outlet there. Deng said to Sanders, “I again must apologize for our great Chairman being unable to visit,” as Mao and Vice Chairman Zhou were under the weather.

“Ah, don’t sweat it none, I know how busy running a country can be!” was the Colonel’s reply.

As we walked to the motorcade, Deng watched as the Colonel’s Secret Servicemen perused the area.

“I see you still have a flock of black suits following you,” he observed.

“As a former President, they were part of my farewell package. I’ve tried getting’ rid of ’em, but they just keep followin’ me around like a pack of bloodhounds!”

In the meeting, the Colonel covered every detail that would go into the deal, from the quality of the restaurant’s façade (“I’m okay with fancy stuff, but I want there to be a focus on family and high-quality food”) to the quality of Beijing’s closest chicken farms (“Back in the states, a lot of our chicken comes from local places. A lot more, though, come from Arkansas, specifically the town of Springdale, Arkansas. There’s so many chickens there, you wouldn’t believe it! But still, I want to make sure the customers of the PRC’s KFC outlet are getting the finest locally-raised chicken available”).

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



RALPH NADER SAYS SELF-DRIVING CARS “COULD CURB ROAD ACCIDENTS”

…In a radio Q & A interview, Secretary of Transportation Ralph Nader was asked for his opinion on the concepts of flying cars and self-driving cars, popular elements in science-fiction short stories and comic books since the 1940s. While he described the first idea as “fantastical but not impossible,” he replied to the second concept with “That is a genuinely interesting notion. It’s actually not that outlandish, we’ve been trying out the idea since at least December 1926 [13], by my recollection. We just need to improve the technology for such a thing. It’s my opinion that some sort of computer-based guidance system could curb road accidents.” The Secretary elaborated with “The driver has dozens of variables to judge. Speed, signs, other drivers, pedestrians, disruptive passengers, engine trouble. That’s a lot of stimuli. Some kind of semi-autonomous device for the car could help drivers do some, if not do all, of the driving, at the least for the sake of safety.”…

– The Hollywood Reporter, 9/21/1974



HILLARY RODHAM AND GEORGE CLINTON

…church bells rang out today in celebration of the Holy Union of Hillary Diane Rodham and George Stanley Clinton…

The Nashville Tennessee, celebrations section, 9/25/1974



In September [1973], KFC started regulating what frying oils were being used for their non-chicken products, as uh, what was used differed in some regions – sunflower oil was in parts of California, soybean, canola, or palm oil was used in other parts. And of course the chicken itself was inspected, too – corn-fed chickens taste different from wheat-fed, see? Don’t ask how the Colonel could tell, because it’s very subtle, but he had the taste buds for it, he could always pick out which was which ….The Colonel found my burgers at Wendy’s to be delicious, and when he inspected how the kitchens were kept, he happily approved of my handling of the franchise.

– Dave Thomas, KNN interview, 1993



Another perk to not being President anymore was finally being able to drive again. I no longer had secret servicemen demanding that I always have a driver to the fun part of riding in a car. Having let my old one expired, I finally found the time away from everything to get my license re-issued shortly after turning 83. The same day, I hopped into a trusty old Ford pickup and toured the old roads that I'd driven down so many years ago. I noticed that while I’d grown older, they had grown younger, trading in their gravel and dust for smooth new pavement.

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




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[pic: https://imgur.com/frvACUn ]
– The Colonel’s driver’s license, reissued, late September 1973



So I spent the next few years advocating for better working conditions for Mexican Americans. Convinced Zappa and the gang to play at a few benefit gigs in ’72 before we went our separate ways in ’73. After that, I started working on the Mexican Rights movement almost full-time, writing music and joining in on protests and sit-ins. The rest of the country may have been movin’ on, but it was still like the early ’60s for some of us. I got together with some protestors sometimes and we’d drive from injustice spot to injustice spot, crusading against high rent, low pay, unsafe working conditions, and so much f@#kin’ discrimination against the same people who pick the crops that feed you and your family. And of course, we did drugs at the end of the day. After seeing all the misery we were trying to undo, we kind of had to do drugs to remember there was still joy and wonder in the world. And, well, I guess I got careless with how I, uh, stowed away the stash one time too many.

– Richard “Cheech” Marin, KNN interview, 2012



WORLD SERIES: OAKLAND A’S BEAT PIRATES, 4-3!

…Roberto Clemente was still celebrated for bringing the Pirates to victory over the Mets in the National League East division…

Sports Illustrated, 10/21/1973 issue



SCHLAFLY: The ERA will eliminate gender-segregated bathrooms and remove the concept of maternity leave, as that would not be equal to male workers. They can’t get pregnant, so by the law’s own logic, maternity leave is a biased practice!

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: That is not at all what the amendment will do! It ends discrimination, it doesn’t remove benefits that level the playing field. Women too frequently get the short end of the stick when it comes to divorce, employment, wages, and sexual protection laws –

SCHLAFLY: But men and women are not equal at the biological level. The amendment works against women by acting like they are. The ERA will remove dependent-wife benefits from Social Security. It would eliminate the judicial tendency for divorced mothers to receive custody of their children, as it would replace consideration for a mother’s love for the concept of equality based on financial capabilities, and thus judges will always rule in favor of the breadwinners.

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: What? That contradicts the whole point of the ERA. More widows will be eligible for Social Security benefits. The Era addresses this, and how few divorcees receive the alimony the courts call for. Housewives will be given the fair and equal opportunity to develop skills they need to enter the labor force if or when necessary. They no longer have to sit at home tending to an empty nest. They can go out into the world and pursue their interests if given the same opportunities experienced by their male counterparts!

SCHLAFLY: Equalizing the law will benefit men by removing protective aspects upheld by the differences in the law!

KENNEDY-SHRIVER: Ugh, what? A – Have you even read this Amendment, Phyllis? You’re saying nothing but lies and, you know what, I think you know it!

SCHLAFLY: You have to read between the lines, Eunice; everyone knows that.

– US Senator Eunice Kennedy-Shriver (D-MA) and political organizer Phyllis Schlafly (R-IL) on Meet the Press, Saturday 10/6/1973 transcript



…Governor of Massachusetts Pierre Salinger signed the commonwealth’s Free Healthcare Bill into law today… the law establishes a, quote, “universal,” unquote, type of healthcare system for the commonwealth’s residents that will feature options regarding patient’s doctors, hospitals, and insurance; the law is also meant to work with the federal healthcare laws such as Medicare and Medicaid… critics of the bill claim it will only compound and contribute to the state’s rising debt crisis. …Salinger credited former Governor Phil Hoff of Vermont for the concept of the bill gaining support in Massachusetts, as Hoff had campaigned on the subject when running for President early last year. Hoff’s own legislation was inspired by the health care system established in Canada under Prime Minister Hellyer in 1969…

– NBC News, Tuesday, 10/16/1973 broadcast



In October 1973, Mondale, the Joint Chiefs, and the President’s top aides and military experts convened at Camp David to review both the US military budget and US’s strengths and weaknesses in nations around the globe. The biggest good news was that no major socialist or pro-socialism movements were threatening American allies or neutral countries at the moment, but the biggest bad news was that the energy crisis had lowered Americans’ approval of defending US and NATO allies. Mondale decided to deflect the negativity by increasing his focus on domestic concerns.

Immediately after the meeting, Mondale traveled to New York City, where economists were concerned that the metropolis’ debt would trigger a recession, end the past nine years of growth.

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



FRITZ TO NYC: I’LL HELP YOU!

New York City Hall, NYC – After meeting with US Congressmen, US Senators Javits and O’Dwyer, Governor Biaggi and Mayor Periconi, Preisdent Mondale today announced that the federal government would “bail out” the city of New York. “We still worry about a domino effect oversees, but we have to focus on the more immediate potential for a domino effect at home. If NYC falls, so will the rest of the nation’s economy,” Mondale proclaimed at the announcement in New York City today… The agreement to alleviate the city’s financial woes could benefit Periconi’s approval ratings, especially so close to the next mayoral election. As of the time of this publication, the Republican-Liberal Periconi led the Democratic-Conservative nominee by only roughly 7%...

The New York Post, 10/27/1973



Amtrak Improvement Bill Signed Into Law

The Washington Post, 11/3/1973



…In tonight’s gubernatorial elections, Francis X. McDermott was re-elected Governor of New Jersey in a landslide over state assemblywoman Ann Klein…

– CBS Evening News, 11/6/1973 broadcast



DEMOCRATS WIN BACK GOVERNORSHIP: Elmo Zumwalt Beats Mills Godwin By 5%

…Zumwalt, 53, one of the few Democrats elected in tonight’s elections, ran a conservative campaign… As a retired Navy Admiral, Zumwalt was highly critical of President Mondale’s leadership during this summer’s Oil Crisis...

– The Daily News-Record, Virginia newspaper, 11/6/1973



…And in the city of New York, Mayor Joey Periconi has won a third term, defeating his Democratic challenger, 37-year-old state senator Harrison Jay Goldin, by a wide margin…

The Overmyer Network, 11/6/1973 news broadcast



KENTUCKIANS VOTE TO RATIFY E.R.A. IN OFF-YEAR STATE MIDTERMS

– The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky newspaper, 11/6/1973



THE COLONEL RETURNS TO CHINA: Will It Pay Off For K.F.C. And The P.R.C.?

…As of now, Kentucky Fried Chicken has over 6,000 locations in over 50 nations and is bringing in over $2 billion in revenue annually according to its January 1973 public disclosure forms. …If negotiations are successful, the franchise will become the first Western Chain to open in China [14] …For the first time ever, Chinese citizens will be able to experience not only the flagship pressure-fried chicken of 11 herbs and spices, but also the chain’s classic gravy, fluffy potatoes, and hot rolls with honey, jellied salads, cheese tray and delicacies fore and aft [4].

The New Yorker, 11/14/1973



Their moment seemed to be approaching. Both Mao and Zhou Enlai were in increasingly poor health. The insolence of Mao’s warming of relations to the US was too dangerous for their taste, believing it was a corruption of communist ideals. Even Mao’s wife agreed he was taking things too far. They hoped “the return of the Chicken King” would be the final straw for other leading members of the Communist Party.

In mid-November, Generals Huang Yongsheng and Li Zuopeng, and hard-right ideologue Chen Boda met with Lin Biao and his son Lin Liguo in the basement of a cannery factory four miles outside of Guangzhou, in southern China, where local politicians disliked the idea of capitalism “infesting” the northern region around the capital of Beijing. They needed to be discreet but productive. Via Yongsheng’s connections in Xianning, the Group of Six began to spread the word of their plans, though only through ears and mouths they could trust, starting with official military officials who were promised greater freedom and funding once China “returned to fulfilling the goals of the Cultural Revolution”…

– Jung Chang’s Mao: The Untold Story, Knopf Books, 2005



Heh. Man, I was so pissed off when I got arrested in Fresno [California] for possession of marijuana. It was just a little bit, only 10 kilos, but they threw me in jail and tried to throw away the key. But the great thing about being a political activist is that when you end up behind bars, you become a martyr for your cause, and a political prisoner, kind of. Or at the very least, you’ll have friends working for ya on the outside. Well at least I did. But, uh, honestly, I didn’t expect the “Free Cheech” Movement to become such a huge thing when my friends started it, you know? And I was really surprised when it grew into this whole phenomenon. Doroles Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Zappa, and so many big names made me into thing rallying call for fairer treatment of Hispanics, for prison reform, even for legalizing Mary Jane, something Tim Leary used to be the face of. It was crazy! But it was also kind of awesome! I just wish it hadn’t taken so long for it all to get me out of there.

– Richard “Cheech” Marin, KNN interview, 2012



The Rodina-1 mission was riddled with issues from the start, pushing it back from its initial launch date in June. Both big and small details needed to be returned to: the safety locks, the decompression methods, the landing specifics, they all had to be redesigned as tests suggested they would break off or burn up during the travel, or it would kill the cosmonauts inside. We did not want a repeat of the 1971 Soyuz 7K-T tragedy. The rocket itself also needed to be redesigned and readjusted to match the landing pod after an initially rushed job.

[snip]

On December 3, I joined Vladimir Komarov and Vladimir Chelomey at Star City to witness the culmination of years of work – the launching of the Rodina-1 to the moon!

The landing location was essential, as we needed a surface smooth enough to cover any human errors we may have overlooked. Americans have a great term we, after so many failures due to oversights, were starting to use ourselves: “better safe than sorry.” As John Glenn would later tell me, the Rodina-1’s landing in the Taurus-Littrow Valley had NASA nervous, as the cosmonauts could conceivably visit the site of a previous Apollo landing, which they estimated would take 90 minutes to walk to, and 40 minutes for the unmanned Lunakhod 2 lunar rover to reach. I laughed at the thought, because the mission was to conduct research of our own, not the salvage another nation’s vessels like some sort of lunar vultures.

The real focus never really was on the location, anyhow. Instead, viewers in America, the Soviet Union, and the world over paid attention to the crew: 40-year-old Oleg Makarov and 36-year-old Irina Solovyova. Solobyova was world champion parachutist before being recruited into the USSR’s Female Group cosmonaut training program in the 1960s, who joined Makarov in the landing pod while 38-year-old Georgy Shonin remained in orbit. On December 7, after a successful touchdown, Makarov became the first Soviet to step foot on the moon, and Solovyova became the second Soviet and very first female to step foot on the Earth lunar satellite.

Of course, America’s press could not uphold their First Amendment if they stayed silent on another nation making it to the moon, so the Big Four – ABC, NBC, CBS, and Overmyer – covered the event and it was published in their newspapers. But they ensured people remembered that they had gotten there first, and had return thrice since.

Of course, some newspapers downplayed it with headlines like “Soviets Get to Moon Four Years Too Late,” or printed small articles that were not put on the front page. NASA really downplayed it, and some broadcasts tried to trivialize the milestone. It was understandable. They had done the same thing with Sputnik and I, and the Pravda did the same thing with Apollo 10.

But the fact remained that the Soviet Unions had proven to the world that they were still a major player in space. This got to many in Washington, D.C. to worry that the space race was still far from being over.

Among the Stars: The Autobiography of Yuri Gagarin, 1995



JIM CROCE RETIRES FROM MUSIC!

Bryn Mawr, PA – In a shocking announcement, musician Jim Croce has announced that he is retiring from the music industry [15]. The announcement comes just weeks after completing his extensive “Life and Times” tour while also creating new songs for an album, which is still set to be released next year. The revelation that this will be Croce’s last album comes as a surprise to many fans and supporters of a young musician many see as being at the height of his popularity.

Croce, 30, stated the reason for his departure from music to be of a personal nature. “I want to raise a family. My son is two years old now and I want to be there for him while he’s growing up. You can’t raise a kid on a tour, and to try to do so would be asking too much of Ingrid,” referring to his wife, Ingrid Jacobson, a musician who performed and recorded music as a duo with her husband from 1964 until her own retirement two years ago.

Croce elaborated, “I’m going to stick to writing short stories and movie scripts, but my main focus for the next several years is going to be on raising a family with love and devotion.”

Hope springs eternal for followers of the popular singer-songwriter, though, as Croce did not rule out a permanent departure from the music scene. “In time, I might make it my profession again. I guess time and my wallet will tell.”

The Hollywood Reporter, 12/12/1973



Kosygin would prove to be a very competent administrator, with the Soviet standard of living rising considerably due to his moderately reformist policy. …Kosygin attempted to revitalize the ailing economic system by decentralizing management… Historians Evan Mawdsley and Stephen White claim that conservative members of the Politburo such as Dmitri Ustinov, Leonid Brezhnev, and even Kosygin’s biggest critic, Yuri Andropov were unable to remove Kosygin because his removal would mean the loss of their capable administrator. [16] …The moon landing further cemented Kosygin’s position in the party and his popularity among the Soviet people, who for the first time since Sputnik were genuinely proud of their country’s endeavors in outer space.

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



“Colonel Sanders will tell you today that there is a big, big difference between being a church member and being saved. He speaks from personal experience. And no one loves the Church, regardless of denomination, better than Colonel Sanders. Those who know him best know that it is his first love, beyond even the preparation of original food. He tells his associates today, ‘There is an inner experience, a new birth that brings peace. Morality and good works cannot accomplish it. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.’

Colonel Sanders' testimony today is this. ‘You can join the church. You can serve on committees. You can be baptized and receive communion. You can become the superintendent of the Sunday school—and not be saved.
’ You need to know something deeper within your soul. And for that you need more than songs, and prayers, and church suppers. You need a personal experience with Jesus Christ." [17]

– Pastor Waymon Rodgers of the Evangel Tabernacle of Louisville, KY, Christmas service 1973




6JjhbZC.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/6JjhbZC ]
– A 1973 KFC greeting card featuring Colonel Sanders and Harley Sanders, found at a yard sale in 2002



MONDALE SIGNS COMPREHENSIVE EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ACT INTO LAW

The Washington Post, 12/28/1973



SUPREME COURT JUSTICE DOUGLAS TO RETIRE FROM BENCH

My ideas are way out of line with current trends, and I see no particular point in staying around and being obnoxious.” [18]

– The New York Times, 1/5/1974




We found that the new commercials featuring the Colonel were increasing sales 70%. The advertisement were noticeably differently from the ones filmed prior to the Colonel’s stay in the White House. Sanders was now more serious and dramatic, more sincere. Due to his age, he had trouble enunciating clearly and loudly at times, and so would have much on-screen time in the post-Presidency commercial. Still, the ads demonstrated that the octogenarian icon still had physical strength, agility and stamina that was impressive for a man of his age. With market studies showing positive results, production on the commercials continued on and on!

– Pete Harman, KNN interview, 2003



[vid: youtube.com/watch?v=pwURoueDzFo ]
– A popular KFC commercial, first aired 1/12/1974



…Also, tonight, the people of Finland took to the polls to determine who should serve as their President for the next six years. The incumbent President, Urho Kakkonen of the Centre Party, was elected to a fourth six-year term over Raino Westerholm of the Christian League Party. Kakkonen’s time in office has seen the continuation of his predecessor’s “active neutrality,” the establishing of the Nordic Nuclear-Free Zone, and the continuation of fair relations and trade practices with both NATO countries and Warsaw Pact countries… [19]

– BBC World News, 1/16/1974 broadcast




NEW CIVIL RIGHTS BILL IS GATHERING MOMENTUM IN HOUSE

– The Washington Post, 1/27/1974



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] OTL quote!
[2] This happened to Obama in 2009: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_inauguration_of_Barack_Obama#Oath_of_office
[3] Some cabinet pick explanations: Gregory Peck would have been nominated for that post if LBJ had won re-election in 1968 IOTL!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Peck#Politics. IOTL, Nixon considered making Ladybird Johnson an ambassador, according to source 33 on her wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Bird_Johnson#Later_life. John Moss ends up in charge of Commerce as he chaired two subcommittees relating to Commerce IOTL, and commerce concerns the buying and selling of things such as colorful adult comics, meaning he can use the position to oversee the deregulation of censorship and improve consumer protection, which he also advocated for IOTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_E._Moss.
[4] Italicized parts from here: https://torontoist.com/2015/12/historicist-a-finger-lickin-good-mississauga-colonel/
[5] Parts in italics are pulled from Wikipedia’s articles on the history of the modern UK.
[6] True story; this passage is a paraphrase of one found here: https://thegreatindoorsman.wordpress.com/2012/05/13/breast-man-the-life-and-career-of-colonel-harland-sanders-originally-posted-around-2000-18-2/
[7] Introduced two years earlier than in OTL: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1975/05/19/curmudgeon-ribs-chickens
[8] Jeremy Thorpe stepped down from party leadership in 1971 over a sex scandal brought about in the Ark Wave (which I may or may not have forgotten to include in one of that year’s chapters (to quote Rick Perry, “oops…”).
[9] Also, another slipup I may have made was misreading Shawwal as starting in June, either on the fifth or the seventh or so, so maybe it changes each year like Easter... If the date is inaccurate, please let me know so I can change the name of the war to the correct [holiday] (an easy fix) or change the date (a quick edit job).
[10] For the record, I’m not at all an expert of Northern Ireland politics, just the generic/basic gist of the OTL Troubles conflict, so if something’s inaccurate here, please let me know. Also, a reminder that Ian Paisley was killed in 1968 ITTL.
[11] OTL quote from Sanders’ 1966 Autobiography!
[12] All italicized part found in this intriguing and detailed source here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140423045238/http://www.armstrong.edu/Initiatives/history_journal/history_journal_west_meets_east_kfc_and_its_success_in_china
[13] Really!: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=unBQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QQ8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7304,3766749
[14] Info found here: https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-fast-food-chain-in-china-kfc-photos-2018-4
[15] According to https://web.archive.org/web/20120807083834/https://www.jimcroce.com/articles/article-written-by-barry-weber.html and according to sources 3, 19 and 20 on his wiki page, Jim Croce (prior to his fatal OTL plane crash which is butterflied away here) really did plan on retiring from music and withdrawing from public life to focus on family, and writing stories and movie scripts!
[16] Italicized parts pulled from his Wikipedia article
[17] Passage pulled from here: fgbt.org/Testimonies/colonel-sanders-story.html
[18] OTL quote found on William O. Douglas’ wiki page.
[19] IOTL, according to Wikipedia, “on 18 January 1973, the enacting of an emergency law saw Kekkonen's presidency extended by four years;” here, the country’s in better shape, at least well enough for this to not happen, or at least fail to happen. Just some minor butterflies, that’s all…

E.T.A. of the next chapter: October 3rd!

nbcman said:
I have a question on the 1972 Senate results. It lists "Minnesota: incumbent Walter Mondale (D) over Phil Hansen (R)". Did Mr. Mondale run for 2 positions with the expectation if he won the Presidency that the Governor of MN (Coya Knutson - D who won in 1970 per prior post) would appoint his replacement? Or did the MN Dems run another candidate for Senate?

In OTL/TTL, LBJ had TX state law amended so he could run for President and the Senate at the same time in 1960. In 1969, before Humphrey had even announced his candidacy for the 1970 Senate election, Mondale's allies in the Minnesota state legislator pushed through a law clarifying that one can run for both a Senatd seat in the state and for the Presidency concurrently. NJ recently did something similar IOTL for Booker 2020: https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/can-you-run-for-congress-and-president-depends-on-where
Knutson is mentioned appointing her Lt Gov to be Fritz's successor in the Senate.

Ogrebear said:
1) Nice update there!

2) Bye Rolf- UK art TV in the 70/80’s won’t quite be the same without you, but I think we will manage.

3) No 1972 Munich Olympics disaster- what effect on Israeli politics?

4) Bill Clinton moves to Alaska?

5) Mondale should be wary of open topped cars- esp now he is President. Even more so if he pushes his tax rises on the rich through. I hope Pres Fritz really tries to fix the tax holes the rich and corps exploit.

6) What’s Mondale’s stance on alternative energy and such given the Wind Tribune and solar panel are viable tech in the early 70’s?

7) I noticed a lot of .co.usa domains - is there no .com and the USA uses a local domain like .co.uk? Maybe the UK keeps .gb in this timeline.

8) President Colonel Sanders sounds like a great President overall.
Click to expand...

1) Thanks!

2) Indeed!

3) I guess we'll see what happens; would Black September become more desperate or would its membership drop in light of their failure?

4) I got the idea from a post in the alternate presidents thread. I can't find the post now, but within it, the person who posted the list accidently wrote "(D-AS)" instead of "(D-AR)" after Bill Clinton's name, and someone commented jokingly something along the lines of "ah, yes, I forgot Bill Clinton was Governor of Alaska." And that got me thinking, "Hey, why not? Moving there seemed to work out well for Mike Gravel, so why not Ol' Slick Willy, too?!" :)

5) We'll see!

6) As this very long article points out: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2000/03/prodigal-sun/ , solar energy was a popular notion in the 1970s. Mondale campaigned on jobs and protecting workers, so he could see him supporting it if it is beneficial to the workforce, but his dismissal of solar energy in the article suggests he would not make it a passion project. Either way, he would most likely want the industry to be regulated.

7) I usually add ".uk" to the UK websites; as ".com" is short for "commercial," here they just shortened it by one more letter.

8) Thanks!

Unknown said:
Bye, bye Rolf; no one will miss you, just like Savile...

I concur.

Bookmark1995 said:
I'd describe him as what Compassionate Conservatism ought to be: a belief in traditional values, tempered with empathy and respect toward change.

Great analysis!

AndyWho said:
Much as my luck may be, I come in to an amazing timeline at the brunt end of the focus of the Colonel's Presidency. I do hope you plan to continue on with this timeline (especially noting on the fate of KFC as a Sanders family-owned public company and even the long-term effects of his Presidency and the political sphere).

If anything, I have no doubt my late maternal grandmother (whom had a hatred for LBJ like no other, even when living out on base with my late grandfather) would have voted for the Colonel happily.

We'll see how things go in regards to continuing the TL. I do want to cover how the Sanders Presidency affects things in the long-term, so, yeah, we'll see how things go...

And The Colonel would have greatly appreciated her vote!

Sceonn said:
Happy for Mondale Win. Hope TL continues. High expectation for greater regulations.

Thank you!

Glad you're happy that Fritz won.

You're very welcome! :)
 
Post 31
Post 31: Chapter 39

Chapter 39: February 1974 – December 1974

“[Perfection is a man-made idea]. Nothing in nature is that even; man is the inventor of straight edges.”

– Stephen King (OTL)



RED CHINA WELCOMES K.F.C.!

The New York Times, 2/9/1974



KFC’s entry into China was unprecedented, as was the company’s eventual success. The first KFC in China, a short walking distance from Tiananmen Square, the political heart of traditional and Communist China “opened to the warmest embrace imaginable by the citizens of Beijing.” Unlike any other business in China, Beijing’s first KFC was also unlike any KFC found in the US: “occupying three stories and 12,000 square feet, [the restaurant] had a seating capacity of 500, and a staff of more than 150.” This enterprise was American business with Chinese characteristics. For the Chinese, KFC was novelty and social curiosity, a permanent exhibition on capitalism served with a side of fries. The Western-style food, however, was only one among a myriad of temptations: customers came from miles around to enjoy a new, American way of eating, heralded by a smiling bearded mascot, speedy counter employees, and spotless bathrooms. This new business model was a complete about-face from the Mao’s China of ten years prior, merging foreign innovation and a new prosperity. For China, KFC was the definition of modern.
In its early days, KFC in China was not simply “fast food,” but rather an “exciting, unique, and brand-new experience never before encountered…like taking a tour of American, with all its connotations: political, cultural, time, and space – real or imaginary.” The “idea of KFC” was so distinctive, that many customers at the Beijing flagship restaurant “spent hours talking to each other and gazing out the huge glass window that overlooks a busy commercial street—thereby demonstrating their sophistication to the people who passed by.” One important aspect of this perception of KFC in China is the meaning of fast food. The emergence of KFC by no means marked the beginnings of fast food in China. To the Chinese, fast food or “kuaican,” is synonymous with “hefan,” cheap meals found along every street in major Chinese cities, served out of Styrofoam containers and plastic bags. Judged by this standard, KFC is hardly considered fast food
as far as the people of China are concerned. [1]

M7Fwq5A.png


[pic: imgur.com/M7Fwq5A.png (note: please view the ".com" in the corner as a typo)]
– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



COLONEL SANDERS: THE ULTIMATE DIPLOMAT?

The Colonel’s decision to break bread with Chairman Mao may have actually been bigger than just a move to make the company stand out in the saturated fast-food market of the 1970s.

According to a new book by historian Joseph Hildebrand, “Our Grand Old Flag: The People Who Love It (And The People Who Hate It),” a possible reason for the Colonel deciding to bring KFC to China was his belief that the sharing of popular culture, namely foods, would tie the people of China and America together, lowering the chances a war occurring between the two nations long after he had died. Hildebrand explains “The ‘capitalist peace theory,’ or the ‘commercial peace theory,’ which in 1996 New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman simply called it ‘the Fast Food thesis,’ simply states the following: ‘No two countries that both have at least one KFC have ever fought a war against each other,’ which has been true ever since KFC exploded into the international food scene in the early 1960s.”

Rebecca Weisser, a researcher at the Centre for Independent Studies, points to prior historical incidents of such consumer-based diplomacy as proof that the Colonel’s idea had merit. “The relative peace globally between 1815 and 1914 is attributed to the dramatic rise of international trade, investment and migration whereas the downward spiral in international trade in the 1930s contributed to the hostilities that led to WWII.” [2]

Tumbleweed Magazine article, e-publication, 11/8/2014




By the start of 1974 there were almost 100 Ollie’s Trolleys nationwide, most of them east of the Mississippi River. But despite its rapid growth, the place had yet to find its footing among enough customers to surpass KFC on the fast-food market. Many Americans, whose collective idea of an ideal burger was focused more on ketchup and mustard than thyme and oregano, found Ollieburgers a challenge to their taste buds. It seemed that, while Americans were quick to embrace spicy fried chicken, spicy hamburgers were something else entirely.

Already deeply invested in Ollie’s brainchild, [John Y.] Brown convinced the founder that they needed to modernize, and they soon began installing drive-thrus to numerous locations, like what several competitors were doing. [3]

– proudsoutherner.co.usa/food/ollies-trolley/you-could-be-the-next-colonel-sanders



The Venceremos Front
was an American organization that focused on militant urban guerilla warfare as a means of enforce left-wing ideas. The organization was formed in 1969 and gained a foothold in the post-Arkwave shoutnik scene of the early 1970s before slowly losing membership and ultimately dissolving in 1977.

BEGINNINGS

The “front” was based in Berkley, California, and was one of many left-wing pro-Prison Reform organizations to either form or gain prominence and membership in the aftermath of the Attica Prison Massacre. The organization’s members mostly conducted acts of vandalism, but occasionally also committed acts of armed robbery.

Army veteran teacher and linguist at the University of California Berkeley Colston Westbrook gave the Venceremos Front credibility via his involvement in their ideology, but this did little to help it expand in popularity. By the start of 1974, it seemed that support for Prison Reform on the national level was waning in the face of other issues such as the rise in gas prices and the Equal Rights Amendment. The organization became more militant during this time under the leadership of William Lawton Wolfe and Patricia Soltysik. [4]

KIDNAPPING ATTEMPT

In early 1974, Wolfe, Soltysik, and a former ex-convict who went by the name Rathbone X, decided to travel to New York to kidnap Mario Biaggi in order to pressure the government into releasing wrongfully incarcerated individuals in several prisons located in New York and California. Biaggi was the Governor of New York who was controversial for his role in the events leading up to the Attica Prison Massacre.

[snip]

– clickopedia.co.usa/The_Venceremos_Front



Continuing with our bid to boost Wendyburger sales, the KFC parent company, KFC Inc, also established some KFC-Wendy’s “Combo” Locations, where both buildings were used, and both menus were given. For older customers, it was a throwback to the early years of KFC, when the chicken was sold in other people’s establishments alongside said place’s menus instead of there being places actual run entirely by KFC. For others, it was a convenient merger of their two favorite joints. For customers eating in groups, it was convenient because you could order a KFC bucket and a Wendyburger at the same ordering station. It was introduced in early 1974, but discontinued in 1980...

– Dave Thomas’ Under the Colonel’s Wing, Mosaic Publishing, 1982



GOVERNOR MCCALL SIGNS OPT-IN FREE HEALTH CARE ACT INTO LAW

The Portland Tribune, 3/5/1974



…After months of deliberations, President Mondale has nominated state Judge Constance Motley of New York for a seat on the US Supreme Court being vacated by the retiring Justice Douglas…

– CBS News, 3/6/1974 broadcast



INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us what the 1974 kidnapping experience was like for you?

BIAGGI: Oh, yeah, that thing. Man, what ridiculous failure that was, let me tell ya! Now they did study the layout of the Governor’s mansion, because they drove around to the back, er, side entrance. It was also impressive that they got past security by setting fire to a nearby dumpster as a distraction, but it was obviously their first rodeo. Once inside, they didn’t know how to keep quiet, and they didn’t know the layout of the actual interior of the place. And they didn’t know how to whisper softly enough, nor know where my office or my bedroom was. At least they knew I was home, they knew that much, and fortunately, my wife was out with a friend. They found me in my inner office, which was on the first floor, near this study-library room on the side. That’s the room they came in through. They gave me and my secretary a startle bursting into the room, wearing those ski masks, and started hollering something at her and I. But I thought it was some joke, see, so I said, “What kind of gag is this?” So the one guy tried to show they were serious by firing the gun into the air, only for the gun click. The idiots still had their safeties on.

“Dammit, you said this was how you worked it, X,” one of them said.

“Shut up, just nab the f@#ker,” said the first one. That’s how I knew they weren’t kidding around. I’ve been around enough guns to know when one was real, and those were legit. Plus, if they were joking, they would have known better than to call me “f@#ker.” My secretary trembling at the sight of them was another tipoff.

So I took the moment to get us out of there. Now my desk didn’t have a nameplate – or is it a name plaque? – You know, the Toblerone thing at the front of desks? I didn’t have one of those in the Governor’s mansion, but I did have a bust of FDR on the desk. I grabbed it, and pow! I whacked the one trying to grab me right in the face! I grabbed my secretary by the hand, and as the other two struggled to put the safeties on their guns, we dashed to the study and locked the door behind us. Then they started firing into the door, so while my secretary called security, I grabbed the commemorative rifle we had in the room. It wasn’t loaded, but I shouted out to our assailants the claim that it was. I threatened to blow them away if they kept it up. I heard them talking to each other over whether or not I was bluffing, but we didn’t get to hear the conversation’s conclusion. Law enforcement arrived in the office with their guns drawn before they could even disperse from the area.

Afterward, security was doubled, and I started keeping a gun right in the desk drawer of my inner office and also in my study, instead of just in the master’s bedroom, guest rooms, front-door closet, back-door closest, butler’s pantry, hallway closets, basement, attic, outer office, main bathroom, main washroom, linen closets and drawing rooms. Kind of an oversight on my part, really. After twenty years of being a cop, eight years of being a governor had led to me putting my guard down. So, yeah, that was sort of embarrassing, but that’s not how the newspapers reported it, let me tell ya!

The experience was frightening, I’ll admit, but in retrospect, those would-be kidnappers did so many things wrong, it was ridiculous.

– Mario Biaggi, ABC interview, 1998



HERO GOVERNOR VANQUISHES WOULD-BE KILLERS!

Personally Holds Back Assailants, Saving Secretary’s Life

The New York Post, 3/16/1974



FORMER FIRST LADY CLAUDIA FOUNDS SCHOLARSHIPS FOR MUSICIANS

tvVqQrM.png


[pic: imgur.com/tvVqQrM.png ]

The Louisville Times, Kentucky newspaper, 3/19/1974



POLICE REVEAL NAME OF MAN KILLED IN LAST WEEK’S WALSENBURG SHOOTOUT

…the man who robbed a bank before fleeing the scene, being cornered by police officers, and then firing upon them until he was killed has been identified as local ex-soldier Michael Corbett. Corbett reportedly suffered from violent outbursts in public, and had recently been evicted from his apartment in Walsenburg, Colorado for "unruly behavior" and "threatening to kill" a fellow tenant, according to his former landlord...

– The Fort Collins Coloradoan, Colorado newspaper, 3/21/1974



MONDALE SIGNS WATER RESOURCES PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT ACT INTO LAW

– The Washington Post, 3/22/1974



MONDALE FIGHTS DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVES OVER SPENDING PACKAGE

…the Senators in question disapprove of a massive multimillion-dollar spending omnibus package – four bills focused on urban utilities development and urban renewal; research and development of domestic oil and gas reserves; farm aid; and water sanitation – for being too “invasive and wasteful,” according to Senator Hank Hibbard (R-MT).

Secretary Ralph Nader joins others in strongly backing the package, stating “It should be noted that a majority of these Congressmen hail from white-collar districts, and polling shows upper-middle classes are upset at the president for ignoring their needs. But these needs, the needs of the lower classes, they can’t wait.”

oFzRO67.png


[pic: imgur.com/oFzRO67.png ]
Above: Secretary Nader looking over his prepared notes ahead of speaking to the press

The Senate plans to review the package next week…

The Washington Post, 3/23/1974



“Can I get anything salty?”

“For the hundredth time, no!” I stressed.

Jack and I were walking out of a meeting with Ted about his involvement with Jack’s think tank in DC, and we were discussing what to have later for dinner. The Addison’s-induced salt cravings only worsened the disease’s other side effect, dehydration. I recall, on that day, Jack was being more stubborn than usual, and was refusing to use his crutches.

As we were approaching the building’s main staircase, I asked him if he would reconsider using leg braces, similar to what Franklin Delano Roosevelt used.

Jack didn’t appreciate the comment, “Jackie, I am not a cripple,” he huffed and quickly moved past me down the stairs, “I just have weak legs, that’s – ”

Jack either mistook a step or he slipped. I yelped as Jack fell down the stairs, his body doing a sort of somersault as he tumbled down to the landing in the middle of the staircase. Witnesses immediately rushed over, and soon Ted and I were helping him into a car around back.

At the hospital, I remember asking him, “How much longer is this going to go on for, Jack, before you admit you need the damn braces?” Maybe I was being a bit dramatic, but I didn’t want to lose him, and he his stubbornness kept him from resting to address his affliction head-on. Instead, he was ignoring it by running off the think tanks and Democratic fundraisers, sailing on yachts and partaking in cigars everyday it seemed. In my mind, I began to think that it was not a question of “if,” but “when.” When would his disease take him from me?

– Jackie Kennedy’s autobiography, With My Own Eyes, Simon & Schuster, 1993



Patient received moderate injuries during incident. The carpeting of the staircase softened the blow the body received, but injuries were still substantial. Patient received a lightly sprained neck, pulled and sprained muscles on his back, a compound fracture in his left hand, and contusions to his neck and both legs and right arm.

The most serious injury, however was received by the patient’s scapula, the area around the right shoulder blade. Patient’s scapula received a pull muscle and some light internal bleeding, which may cause significant local inflammation and pain. Due to Patient suffering from Addison’s disease, his immune system is weak, and prone to infection. As a result, it is imperative that the area of the internal bleeding is heavily and routinely observed to ensure it heals properly.

It is of this director’s professional opinion that Patient must cut back on strenuous activities in order to build up his mental and physical strength and stamina. The body’s system cannot fight the disease if the body itself and the person himself are not helping the system along in its fight.

– George Washington University Hospital, internal memo, 3/29/1974



FORMER SENATOR JACK KENNEDY IN HOSPITAL FOR PNEUMONIA, SAYS FAMILY

– The Boston Globe, 3/30/1974



46GGv2t.png


[pic: imgur.com/46GGv2t.png ]
– An F5 tornado, one of seven to reach the F5 rating to touch down during the 1974 Super Outbreak, ravages southwestern Ohio, 4/3/1974



Over 100 tornadoes touched down in 13 states and one Canadian province, killing 295 people and injuring over 5,000 in roughly 18 hours. Seven F5s were observed—one each in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, three in Alabama and the final one which crossed through parts of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. 31 were killed in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and 28 died in Guin, Alabama. The tornado the struck Windsor, Ontario, Canada, killed nine and injuring 30 others there, all of them at the former Windsor Curling Club. During the peak of the outbreak, a staggering sixteen tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously. At one point forecasters in Indiana, frustrated because they could not keep up with all of the simultaneous tornado activity, put the entire state of Indiana under a blanket tornado warning. This was the first and only time in U.S. history that an entire state was under a tornado warning. [5]

– farmersalmanac.co.usa/1974_Tornado_Outbreak




QkLGyMh.png


[pic: imgur.com/QkLGyMh.png ]
The New York Times, 4/8/1974



…with the local economy increasing due to nationwide recovery efforts and the city’s population increasing as well, the Mayor of Colorado Springs has announced a 25% increase of the city’s police fund…

– KOAA-TV, Colorado TV station, NBC, 4/9/1974 broadcast



CONSTANCE MOTLEY WITHDRAWS NOMINATION FOR SUPREME COURT SEAT

…the 52-year-old African-American female had an impressive resume. Motley had previously served in the New York state senate, as the Borough President of Manhattan, and has served as a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York since President Sanders appointed her to that seat in August 1966 (in exchange for Sanders appointing a deeply conservative judge to a different seat). However, conservatives in the US Senate strongly opposed her progressive ruling history…

– The Washington Times, 4/10/1974



…Another issue that I’d like to discuss tonight is President Mondale’s Secretary of Labor, Robert Kennedy, who is allowing unions to increase the power and influence they have over honest businessmen. The Secretary’s attempts to make a Mondale-esque espirit de corps among white and non-white workers is admittedly working to keep them from blaming each other for job losses, but his policies in office nevertheless border on the edge of socialism, or at the least on the edge of violating several federal overreach laws. Most recently, Mr. Kennedy has begun to push for increasing communication between the federal government and private enterprises to reduce employment and employee treatment concerns whenever businesses fail to surrender to the demands of unions. Americans everywhere should be outraged at this, but for some reason are not, most likely because they are not adequately informed as to what is really going on here. I would like to start to change that with tonight’s discussion…

– William F. Buckley Jr. (host), Firing Line, WOR-TV, Tuesday 4/16/1974 broadcast



In April 1974, during an excellent season for his team, pitcher Douglas James “Dougie” Rau of the L.A. Dodgers tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm. Months later, Rau underwent a surgical graft procedure where the odds of success were at 1 in 100. While the surgery put Rau out of commission for the rest of the season and all of the 1975 season, his arm reacted positively to the surgery, and he returned for the 1976 season good as new. His recovery was deemed “miraculous,” and it increased public awareness of the surgery to such a height, that by the time Rau retired from MLB in 1991, the procedure was better known by its nickname: a “Dougie Rau” surgery.

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



TWO MEN FOUND DEAD IN SAN FRANCISCO BATHHOUSE

The Sacramento Union, 4/20/1974



REBELS SEIZE CONTROL OF PORTUGAL

Lisbon, PORTUGAL – Army rebels are in control of Portugal tonight after an almost bloodless dawn coup ended nearly 50 years of dictatorship... [6] Locals are beginning to call the peaceful overthrow the Carnation Revolution as the leaders of the rebels have proclaimed their goal of restoring democracy to the people Portugal. …It remains unclear what this development means for the overseas territories of Portugal…

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 25/4/1974



MARY SCRANTON FOUNDS URBAN RENEWAL ORGANIZATION

Pittsburgh, PA – Former Second Lady of the United States Mary Scranton is the brainchild behind “Keystone Opportunities,” a non-profit organization based in this state that intends to collaborate with local governments to implement community development programs in poverty- and crime- striken areas…

The Philadelphia Inquirer, PA newspaper, 5/2/1974



HOUSE PASSES “CIVIL RIGHTS BILL 2”

The Washington Post, Tuesday, 5/7/1974



NASA ANNOUNCES THEY WILL “SOON” SEND PROBE TO MOON TO VERIFY SOVIET MOON LANDING

The Miami Tribune, 5/12/1974





FRITZ NAMES NEW SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

After floating the names of judges June Lazenby Green, Damon Keith, and surprise early favorite A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. as possible candidates, President Mondale has formally nominated William Joseph Nealon Jr. for Justice William O. Douglas’ Supreme Court seat. Nealon, a Judge of the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania since 1962, has already won the support of the retiring Douglas and several Senatorial leaders…

The Washington Times, 5/16/1974



On May 18, 1974, a new player entered the nuclear arena. India became a nuclear power – the first nation outside of the UN’s permanent Security Council to do so – with the success of their “Smiling Buddha” test in the Pokhran Test Range of Rajasthan, northern India. Declaring it a “peaceful nuclear explosion” – a term to describe non-military purposes for nuclear testing, the most common use being excavation – the test revived Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s waning popularity.

This development changed the dynamics of international relations with India. The most negative reaction to the test, however, came from their western neighbor. Pakistan went on the offensive, claiming the test was not “peaceful,” and the nation’s Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto promising to fight back against the perceived threat of “Indian hegemony or domination over the subcontinent.” Furthermore, the Prime Minister saw the test as justification for his late 1974 decision that Pakistan would develop and test a nuclear bomb of its own. However, Pakistan’s progress on fulfilling this promise was slow from the very beginning…

– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017



MARGARETHA
…and his wife Christine Chubbuck are ecstatic to announce the successful birth of their first child, a daughter weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces [7].

– The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, celebrations section, 5/23/1974



KFC’s growth as the ’70s continued allowed for KFC franchisees to take the risk and try out new expanded menu selections. In some places, customers could find offerings such as the Colonel’s personally created versions of ham and bean scallop, sausage shortcake, orange coconut custard, cheese meatloaf, and of course, in the UK, one of the nation’s most popular dishes of the ’70s – Chicken Kiev. More versions of chicken-based foods were tried out with every piece of the bird – breasts, thighs, wings, organs, and feet. Even fried chicken heads were available in select locations in Mississippi and Louisiana. KFC’s expansion of its regional menus may have also been in response to regional competitors...

– Paul Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



“THE DEEP” WAS WORTH THE WAIT

Orson Welles’ long-anticipated work “The Deep” has finally premiered, after infamously being worked on for well over a decade. Based on the 1963 Charles Williams novel “Dead Calm,” the film is a dramatic suspense thriller that follows two honeymooners in the middle of the ocean who discover a mysterious young man in a lifeboat. The film is posthumously dedicated to its lead star, Laurence Harvey, who passed away late last year. Production on the film stalled until 1968, when the state economy allowed Welles to find funding for remaining scenes to be completed and edit over the next five-to-six years...

Variety magazine, 6/7/1974 film review



SENATE APPROVES NEALON FOR SUPREME COURT SEAT; Will Begin Time On The Bench “Within The Month”

The Washington Post, 6/12/1974



Under President Mondale, the federal government agency entitled The National Science Foundation began compiling a comprehensive study that when published in June 1974, claimed that years of data agreed with a 1956 abstract [8] that suggested Earth is experiencing “anthropogenic global disruption,” the idea that the actions of decades of burning feul was increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, affecting the world’s climate. The linking of global temperature levels to human activity was a landmark declaration. However, it was met with scrutiny by manufacturers who claimed the report was inaccurate and, “if taken seriously,” would create “unnecessary panic,” according to commentator William F. Buckley. For President Mondale, the report conflicted with his goal of ensuring manufacturing jobs for American workers, and while he did not openly comment on the report at the time, he did not inhibit the NSF’s calls for increasing “responsibility and awareness” among industries emitting “too much” carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As the report came at a time of increased environmentalist activism, arguably beginning with the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969, it found support in the Global Weather Protection movement, founded the same time as other groups favoring a massive change in “industrial nature treatment” worldwide…

– Robert Wilder’s Listening to the Land and Sea: The Politics of Environmental Protection in California, University of Sacramento Press, 1999



COLONEL CAUGHT CAUSING CHAOS IN SUPERMARKET SCANDAL!

…It seems outspoken women are causing headaches for the Chicken King once more, as seen in new photos capturing what primary sources confirm was a heated argument between the former President and a concerned citizen. Speaking her mind, the unidentified woman was heard calling Colonel Sanders a “warmongering pervert” as she waved her hands in his face. The former leader of the free world proceeded to scold her “like she was a schoolgirl,” says a second witness, who explains the Colonel eventually walked away “like a cowardly schoolgirl” to regroup with Secret Service agents waiting for him at the store’s entrance, “like a clique of schoolgirls,” says the same witness…

National Enquirer, tabloid newspaper, 6/16/1974



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– Photograph of The Supermarket Incident, captured by an onlooker, 6/14/1974



Oh. That thing. That was just an unfortunate run-in with a very ill-informed woman. Called my husband a bunch of names, so Harland told her off. It was embarrassing, but on the plus side, Secret Service started keeping a tighter leash on him to keep such things from happening again. I don’t want to talk about it any further. Next question, please.

– Claudia Price Sanders, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) interview, 1979



Derided as “Worzel Gummidge’s other brother” for him and Michael’s “rumbled” appearances, Dingle was not as left-wing as his brother had been while Prime Minister, but nevertheless, Dingle was willing to make concessions to the most left-leaning members of Labour in order to preserve party unity.

[snip]

Dingle was a masterful diplomat who improved the monarchy’s reputation abroad. [snip] Relations between France and the UK improved that month [June 1974] when Dingle Foot met with Francois Mitterrand in Paris. [snip] Due to his past career as a solicitor or practitioner for nations such as Ghana, Northern Rhodesia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, and Nyasaland during the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, Dingle Foot was successful in strengthening relations between the UK and many countries in Africa. Dingle’s support of nuclear disarmament, however, put him at odds with India, where he also had once worked as a Senior Advocate for the Indian Supreme Court, once the subcontinental nation became a nuclear power.

– Kenneth O. Morgan’s Putting Our Foots Down: The Days of Michael And The Years of Dingle, Guardian publications, 2011



MONDALE SIGNS WORKING IMMIGRANTS ACT INTO LAW

…The law is meant to cut down on “unreasonable” qualification measures in regards to worker visas to allow “the best and the brightest in the world and America’s best and brightest to join together in the American workplace,” Mondale explained at a press conference early today... …It is the President’s attempt to find a balance between appealing to white native-born workers and to the immigrant labor force that began his Presidential candidate three years ago…

The Washington Post, 6/27/1974



COLONEL SANDERS TO CAMEO IN GRIZZLY ADAMS FILM!

…set for release in November, the former President will briefly show up as “a customer in a general goods store,” says the anonymous source close to the casting process for the independent film. It is currently unclear if The Colonel will have spoken dialogue in the scene, or will simply appear in the background, a la Alfred Hitchcock…

The Hollywood Reporter, 7/1/1974



…On July 12, police discovered the serial killer had struck again when five men were discovered to have been killed in a San Francisco bathhouse. While publicly calling on officials to “do your duty,” Governor Reagan amended the declaration to “do your duty despite the immoral activities of the victims’ personal lives” for a private fundraiser held two weeks later….

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



Morse Loses Last of Many Battles

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By Henny Willis – The Tiger is dead. Wayne Lyman Morse, the old “Tiger of the Senate,” died at 8:10 a.m. today of kidney failure at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland. He was 73. One of the most dynamic and controversial figures in Oregon’s political history, Morse died in the midst of a re-election campaign for the US Senate he held for over 29 years, from 1945 until his death. Morse was in Portland organizing his campaign when he was stricken Wednesday with a severe urinary tract infection. He was hospitalized and physicians said he was responding to antibiotic treatment, but he slipped into a coma at 5:50 a.m. today and never regained consciousness. Funeral services were incomplete as of noon today…

– The Eugene Register-Guard, 7/22/1974 [9]



…as the Senator passed away only a few weeks after obtaining the Democratic nomination for that November’s senatorial election, the party had enough time to replace Morse’s name on the ballot” with state politician Betty Roberts…

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa/Wayne_Morse_bio



…In other news, any customers travelling from Virginia to Texas will no longer be confused by the existence of the What-A-Burger franchise of Virginia and the Whataburger franchise of Texas. The two separate and independently created companies have settled out of court in order to end a federal trademark infringement lawsuit concerning the similarity of their names. Upon learning of each other in 1970, the Texas Whataburger publicly vowed to not expand into Virginia. However, the larger Texas Whataburger broke this promise in 1972, during a period of great expansion for the company, and this is what sparking the lawsuit. With this new development, though, the Virginia-based company has announced that, in order to avoid confusion, they will change their name from “What-A-Burger” to “Bestburger,” allowing both companies to compete for customers regardless of the other’s presence in the area…

The Overmyer Network, 7/27/1974 broadcast



“Kentucky Fried Chicken had owned H. Salt Esquire Fish & Chips since 1969, but after just a few years was experiencing a decline sales, adding to the parent company’s woes. So the Colonel – busy guy that he was – decided to help us out. Helped us revamp our menu, increase the quality, uh, you know, how we kept the interior all cleaned up and everything. He even recorded a commercial for us! That’s how much the Colonel cared for every single member of the large and diverse KFC family – that he’d go out of his way to have himself a spot in an ad for a restaurant chain that mostly sold the British fish and chips dish across what back then was only a few US states.”

– Former H. Salt Esq. Fish & Chips employee, interview for ABC report on KFC, recorded 2002



FAMILY EDUCATION RIGHTS AND PRIVACY ACT BECOMES LAW

The Washington Post, 8/5/1974



Oh, well, Harland had been thinking about the Arab-Israeli conflict long before deciding to actively get involved. At first, I thought he was only joking, but the wars in Israel in 1967 and 1973, they had an effect on him. I’d say, shortly before the publication of his autobiography was when he really started thinking about how he could help. I remember how he spent several months discussing what he called his “duty as a Christian” with his pastor, and how he’d run around to, uh, run the idea by his friends and business associates. He even reached out to his former diplomats who were happy to advise him on the feasibility and the extent to which he could work to bring peace to the middle east.

– Claudia Price Sanders, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) interview, 1979



…the House of Commons has approved on Prime Minister Foot’s tax plan to combat the country’s rising inflation crisis…

– BBC News, 8/19/1974



A lot of things have changed over the years – business strategies and complicated economic theories – but they haven’t been able to change the Golden Rule. That one still works and my story is the proof.

– Colonel Sanders’ Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger-Lickin’ Good, Creation House publishing, 1974 [10]



The businessman-turned-President-turned-businessman’s memoirs, “Life As I Have Known It Has Been Finger Lickin’ Good,” is a reflection on his many careers over the decades, wherein he expresses his many views and touts his many accomplishments. While other politicians may shy away from, or attempt to justify, the most negative aspects of their administration, Sanders attempts to address the biggest blunders of his years in office, most notably the aborted 1966 attempt to invade northern Vietnam, and the sexual pestering accusation that started a multinational phenomenon. However, he does spend little time covering his restricting of “underground” comics. Nonetheless, the detailed book is a must-read for anyone who likes colorful and Horatio Alger-type characters and stories with twists, turns, and politics…

The New York Times, book review, 8/29/1974



MONDALE SIGNS MASSIVE OMNIBUS SPENDING PACKAGE INTO LAW

– The Chicago Tribune, 9/1/1974



“BLUTAG BUTCHERER” SUSPECT CAPTURED IN OAKLAND: Accused of Killing 19 Men Since January

…“we have reason to believe the suspect in custody is tied to cases going back nine months concerning 19 murdered homosexual men across the state of California,” reads the official statement… Neighbors describe the suspect as a quiet middle-aged man who was often seen driving in and out of his garage but seems to have had visitors to his home. “We just though he was a very private man,” notes one concerned neighbor… The string of killings has raised sympathy for and awareness of the BLUTAG community in California and the United States, albeit in the worst and most tragic of ways...

The Los Angeles Times, 9/5/1974



JUVENILE JUSTICE AND DELINQUENCY PREVENTION BILL SIGNED INTO LAW TODAY

Biaggi Claims New Law Will Do Little To Inhibit “Dangerous Young Punks”

The New York Times, 9/7/1974



COLONEL SANDERS TURNS 84 TODAY

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The Washington Times, side article, 9/9/1974



It was clear that, after 45 years in power, Haile Selassie would soon be out of a job. The Wollo Famine, the inflation and economic recession brought about by the rippling effects of the 1973 oil crisis, and the rising riotous resentment felt towards the King among a majority of the people all created the conditions necessary for the Derg to come to power. The Derg, a Soviet-backed communist military junta, overthrew the 7,004-year-old monarchy, prompting the 83-year-old King to flee to Oman, an adamantly neutral country during the Cold War.

In the United States, public reaction to the military junta led to criticism of their President’s handling of foreign affairs. After the Cuban and Indochina Wars that successfully propelled communist elements from four nations, polls showed many expected the hubristic U.S. to send troops to Ethiopia. When their leader, President Mondale, only admonished the junta for their violent rise to power, his approval ratings dropped among both “dove” and “hawk” Americans. The former group wanted the President to treat the junta as a humanitarian crisis, while the latter group supported military intervention; thus, both groups considered his ignoring of the event to be weak.

– Saheed A. Adejumobi’s The History of Ethiopia, Greenwood Press, 2007



AS MIDTERMS NEAR, SENATE DEBATES PASSING NEW CIVIL RIGHTS BILL

The Houston Chronicle, 9/22/1974



…Mondale welcomed West Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to D.C. in September to boost strengthen relations with that country. This meeting was also met with criticism, as reporters observed the lack of any discussion on the Berlin Wall (their conversation instead mainly focused on trade and commerce), which only reinforced the notion that Mondale was ignoring some troubled parts of the world such as Berlin, while unnecessarily interfering in other parts such as Israel and Egypt…

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994



…A new Gallup polls shows that most Americans do not approve of the President’s handling of foreign affairs. 57% of Americans polled ranked the President’s foreign policy as “poor,” 30% as ranked his handling as “well,” and 13% ranked it as “unsure”…

– The Overmyer Network, 10/3/1974



KILDUFF: The United States is maintaining fair relations with the nations of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In fact, the President is currently meeting with the Ambassador from Chad.

DAVID BRODER (Washington Post): Speaking of which, is it true the US is establishing warmer relations with Chad over the uranium deposits found in the Aouzou strip area that Chad and Libya are at war over?

KILDUFF: No, we have offered to establish relations with Libya’s leader, uh, Muammar Ghaddafi, and he has been less responsive than Chad, that’s all.

DAN RATHER (CBS News): What about the civil war developing in Ethiopia?

KILDUFF: That is a regional issue, Dan.

– Transcript of dialogue from WH press briefing between WH Press Secretary Malcolm MacGregor “Mac” Kilduff Jr. and the WH Press Corp, 10/5/1974



WHO ELSE THINKS REAGAN IS UNWORTHY OF A SECOND TERM?

…his fiscal policies are dangerous and his social policies are oppressive…

The Sacramento Union, op-ed by Ted Kennedy, 10/9/1974



The rise in Wyoming’s population starting in the 1970s can be accredited to the actions of Governors Teno Roncalio and Thyra Thomson.

Roncalio was a tax-and-spent Democrat, but was otherwise a middle-of-the-road moderate. His investments of taxpayer money into roads, hospitals and affordable housing made the state alluring to urban Americans yearning for the romanticized life of the country. Roncalio significantly reorganized the state government and passed of new environmental laws regulating higher air and water quality standards, and higher surface mining standards. Roncalio improved the state’s economy by increasing the quality of state parks, and actively promoted tourism on the belief that more people would move to Wyoming if they were exposed to it. This led to the start of Wyoming’s rise in population.

After twelve years as the state’s Secretary of State, Thomson ran for Governor in 1974. Facing off against Edgar Herschler in the general election, Thomson called for the regulating of sales of new issues of securities in order for Wyoming investors to have “a fair balance between risk and reward” in mid-October 1974. This issue appealed to Wyoming business owners, and lured wealthy, out-of-state political backers to her campaign in the weeks leading up to election day. These backers of her forward-thinking campaign helped Thomson be elected the state’s second female Governor in a landslide.

Governor Thomson worked to improve Wyoming’s economy through international relationships. In 1975, she person traveled to Taiwan to promote Wyoming products at the non-federal USA-ROC Trade Forum and in doing so was instrumental in Taiwan's purchasing of one-fifth of the State's entire wheat crop in 1976. Seeking further foreign trade agreements for the benefit of her state, Thomson courted businesses in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and secured summer scholarships for Wyoming High school seniors to Jordan, Tunisia, and Egypt in 1977.

Domestically, in 1975, Thomson enacted the state’s first mineral severance tax; during the energy boom experienced across the rural western states during the late 1970s, provided the funds for constructing highways, schools, and other public infrastructure projects that continued to make Wyoming an appeal place to move to. Additionally, in 1976, Thomson established a Permanent Mineral Fund very much akin to Alaska’s own oil-based Permanent Dividend Fund, in that it imposed a 1% tax on the extraction of minerals in the state and the proceeds being distributed evenly to all registered Wyoming residents regardless of their wealth. This made Wyoming only the second US state to establish an across-the-board income assistance dividend system.

The policies of Roncalio, Thomson and (some of) their successors allowed Wyoming to see its population increase 41.0% between 1970 and 1980 [11], and to continue on well past the 1980s…

– Welcome to the Big River Flat: The History of Wyoming, Victory Publications, 2019



SENATE PASSES CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, 75-11-4; Mondale To Sign It Into Law “Soon”

…while the 1962 Civil Rights Act of 1962 prohibits discrimination “based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin by federal and state governments,” this new act will prohibit discrimination “in sale, rental, and financing of housing, transportation vehicles and secondary education necessities based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.” Senator Norris Cotton, alongside Senator Strom Thurmond, Peter Dominick, and Joseph Bottum, lead the “nay” vote in the Senate on the grounds that the act is too detrimental to businesspersons. “This will outright remove the right of businesspersons to refuse service at all, creating an imbalance in the buyer-seller relationship where people will have no power their own stores,” Dominick said in defense of his “nay” vote earlier today. Curiously, Senator Barry Goldwater, who uncharacteristically took a back seat of sorts during the debating segment of the law-making process, joined three other Senators in abstaining from voting on the bill…

The Chicago Tribune, 10/17/1974



On October 23, 1974, the International Olympic Committee held their 75th meeting in Vienna, Austria. To allow both American and Soviet athletes to compete in both the Winter and Summer games of 1980, a deal is made: the US’s Lake Placid is selected to host the Winter Olympics, while the USSR’s Moscow is selected to host the Summer Olympics. South Africa was once again banned from the Olympics due to their continuation of Apartheid.

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



NEVER BEFORE HAVE WE BEEN SO CLOSE!: THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT IS ALMOST HERE!
Only Four More States Need To Ratify!
When you vote on November 5, vote in a state legislature that understands the need for fair and equal treatment for women!

– brochure distributed in several states by the National Organization for Women, c. late October 1974



“Who you look out for depends on who you are. Not everyone has a congregation, or debt holders, or employees, or stockholders to look out for. But we are all Americans, and it is the patriotic duty of all of us to look out for each other. To look out for our country, fellow citizens, our impact on the world and our allies overseas, and of course, the people we love, family and friends. What makes us South Carolinans so great is our conviction to our patriotic duty to look out for one another. And on Tuesday the Fifth, I hope y’all look out for my name on your ballot.”

– Former Ambassador to Laos William Westmoreland at a campaign rally, 10/29/1974



United States Senate election results, 1974
Date: November 5, 1974
Seats: 34 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Senate minority leader: Howard Baker (R-TN)
Seats before election: 54 (D), 45 (R), 1 (I)
Seats after election: 52 (D), 47 (R), 1 (I)
Seat change: D v 2, R ^ 2, 0 - I

Full List:
Alabama: incumbent James D. Martin (R) over Clair Chisler (D) and Sam Engelhardt (HIP)
Alaska: Clark Gruening (D) over incumbent appointee Ted Stevens (R)
Arizona: incumbent Paul Fannin (R) over Jonathan Marshall (D)
Arkansas: Dale Bumpers (D) over John Harris Jones (R); incumbent J. William Fulbright (D) retired
California: incumbent Thomas H. Kuchel (R) over Kenneth Frederick Hahn (D) and Gayle Justice (NM)
Colorado: George L. Brown (D) over incumbent Peter H. Dominick (R) and Henry John Olshaw (HIP)
Connecticut: incumbent Abraham A. Ribicoff (D) over James H. Brannen III (R) and Arthur F. Capozzi Jr. (Country)
Florida: incumbent William Cato “Bill” Cramer Sr. (R) over LeRoy Collins Sr. (D) and Thomas Burton Adams Jr. (HIP)
Georgia: incumbent John William Davis (D) over Jerry Johnson (R)
Hawaii: incumbent Daniel K. Inouye (D) over James D. Kimmel (R)
Idaho: incumbent Frank Church (D) over Robert L. Smith (R)
Illinois: incumbent Adlai Stevenson (D) over George M. Burditt (R)
Indiana: Richard Lugar (R) over incumbent Birch Bayh (D)
Iowa: incumbent Harold Hughes (D) over David M. Stanley (R)
Kansas: incumbent Bob Dole (R) over Bill Roy (D)
Kentucky: incumbent Thruston B. Morton (R) over Wendell Ford (D)
Louisiana: incumbent Russell B. Long (D) unopposed
Maryland: incumbent Charles Mathias Jr. (R) over Barbara Mikulski (D)
Missouri: Thomas B. Curtis (R) over incumbent Edward V. Long (D)
Nevada: Barbara Vucanovich (R) over Mike O’Callaghan (D) and Jack C. Doyle (HIP); incumbent Alan Bible (D) retired
New Hampshire: incumbent Norris Cotton (R) over John A. Durkin (D) and Carmen C. Chimento (HIP)
New York: incumbent Jacob K. Javits (R) over Lee Alexander (D) and Barbara A. Keating (Conservative)
North Carolina: Nick Galifianikis (D) over Wood Hall Young (R) and William Stevens (Country); incumbent Sam Ervin (D) retired
North Dakota: incumbent Milton R. Young (R) over James R. Jungroth (D) and Kenneth C. Gardiner (Country)
Ohio: incumbent William B. Saxbe (R) over Howard Metzenbaum (D)
Oklahoma: incumbent Henry Bellmon (R) over Ed Edmondson (D)
Oregon: Tom McCall (R) over Betty Roberts (D); incumbent appointee Earl T. Newbry (R) retired
Pennsylvania: Bob Casey (D) over incumbent Herman T. Schneebeli (R)
South Carolina: incumbent Ernest Hollings (D) over Gwenyfred Bush (R)
South Dakota: George McGovern (D) over incumbent Joseph H. Bottum (R)
Utah: Jake Garn (R) over Wayne Owens (D), Utah Phillips (I) and Kenneth Rex Larsen (HIP); incumbent Wallace F. Bennett (R) retired
Vermont: incumbent George D. Aiken (R) over Nathaniel Frothingham (D)
Washington: Daniel J. Evans (R) over incumbent Warren G. Magnuson (D)
Wisconsin: Roman Blenski (R) over incumbent appointee Gaylord Nelson (D)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



ED BROOKE CROSSES AISLE TO CONGRATULATE AFRICAN-AMERICAN SENATOR-ELECT

…George L. Brown (D-CO) will become the second African-American Democrat to serve in the Senate, and the fifth African-American to serve in the US Senate overall. Additionally, for the first time ever, three African-American men will be serving in the US Senate at the same time come January 3, 1975 (Brown, Brooke, and John LeFlore of Alabama)…

The Washington Post, 11/5/1974



…The President has led the nation through a troublesome couple of years, and tonight the voters have clearly shown that a majority of them believe that his performance could have been better...

– CBS Evening News, 11/5/1974 broadcast



United States House of Representatives results, 1974
Date: November 5, 1974
Seats: All 437
Seats needed for majority: 218
House majority leader: Charles Halleck (R-IN) (retiring)
House minority leader: Mo Udall (D-AZ)
Last election: 209 (R), 228 (D)
Seats won: 225 (R), 212 (D)
Seat change: R ^ 16, D v 16

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



United States Governor election results, 1974
Date: November 5, 1974
State governorship elections held: 35
Seats before: 37 (D), 13 (R), 1 (HIP)
Seats after: 32 (D), 18 (R), 0 (HIP)
Seat change: D v 5, R ^ 5, v 1

Full List:
Alabama: Jeremiah Denton (R) over Richmond Flowers Sr. (D); incumbent Sam Engelhardt (HIP) was term-limited
Alaska: incumbent Jay Hammond (R) over Chancey Croft (D) and Joe Vogler (I)
Arizona: Sam Steiger (R) over incumbent Raul Hector Castro (D) and Jack Ross (I)
Arkansas: David Pryor (D) over Frank D. White (R); incumbent Dale Bumpers (D) retired
California: incumbent Ronald Reagan (R) over Robert Moretti (D) and Elizabeth Keathley (NM)
Colorado: Rick Lamm (D) over John David Vanderhoof (R) and Earl Dodge (Prohibition); incumbent John Arthur Love (R) retired
Connecticut: Ella T. Grasso (D) over incumbent Fiske Ventres (R)
Florida: incumbent Louis A. Bafalis (R) over Wayne Mixson (D)
Georgia: Bert Lance (D) over Ronny Thompson (R); incumbent Lester Maddox (D) was term-limited
Hawaii: incumbent Thomas Ponce Gill (D) over Randolph Crossley (R)
Idaho: Jay S. Amyx (R) over Vernon Ravenscroft (D); incumbent Charles Herndon (D) retired
Iowa: incumbent Armour Boot (D) over Arthur Alan Neu (R)
Kansas: Robert Frederick Bennett (R) over Vern Miller (D) and Marshall Uncapher (Prohibition); incumbent Robert B. Docking (D) retired
Maine: incumbent Peter N. Kyros (D) over James B. Longley (I) and James Erwin (R)
Maryland: incumbent Marvin Mandel (D) over Louise Gore (R)
Massachusetts: incumbent Pierre Salinger (D) over John Frederick Collins (R)
Michigan: incumbent Martha Griffiths (D) over Marvin Leonel Esch (R)
Minnesota: Odin Langen (R) over Edward J. Gearty (DFL); incumbent Coya Knutson (DFL) retired
Nebraska: incumbent J. James Exon (D) over Richard D. Marvel (R) and Ernie Chambers (I)
Nevada: incumbent Rex Bell Jr. (R) over Henry W. “Hank” Thornley (D)
New Hampshire: incumbent Malcolm McLane (D) over David L. Nixon (R)
New Mexico: Jerry Apodaca (D) over Pete Domenici (R) and Gene Gonzales (LRU); incumbent Bruce King (D) was term-limited
New York: incumbent Mario Biaggi (D/Conservative) over Peter A. Peyser (R/Liberal)
Ohio: incumbent Buz Lukens (R) over Robert E. Sweeney (D)
Oklahoma: incumbent David Hall (D) over Jim Inhofe (R)
Oregon: Edith Green (D) over Wendell Wyatt (R); incumbent Tom McCall (R) was term-limited
Pennsylvania: Martin P. Mullen (D) over Drew Lewis (R); incumbent Milton Shapp (D) was term-limited
Rhode Island: incumbent J. Joseph Garrahy (D) over James Nugent (R)
South Carolina: William Westmoreland (R) over William Jennings Bryan Dorn (D); incumbent John West (D) was term-limited
South Dakota: Benjamin “Ben” (Lone Feather) Reifel (R) over Richard F. Kneip (D) and John E. Olson (Country); incumbent George McGovern (D) retired
Tennessee: Lamar Alexander (R) over Ray Blanton (D); incumbent Frank G. Clement (D) was term-limited
Texas: incumbent Frances Farenthold (D) over Jim Granberry (R) and Ramsey Muniz (LRU)
Vermont: Harry H. Cooley (D) over Walter L. Kennedy (R); incumbent Consuelo Bailey (R) retired
Wisconsin: Bronson LaFollette (D) over Bill Dyke (R); incumbent Pat Lucey (D) was term-limited
Wyoming: Thyra Thomson (R) over Edgar Herschler (D); incumbent Teno Roncalio (D) retired

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



Reagan was only elected to a second term by a margin of 4.2%. While initially popular, he was increasingly scrutinized for the annual budget, his handling of the economy, his tax plans, his seemingly abandonment of environmental protection, and the worsening of Latino-American working and living conditions under his watch. Reagan was especially criticized for his response to the "BLUTAG Butcherer" serial killings of 1974. A 1975 investigative report revealed that in the immediate aftermath of the murders, the Governor was more concerned with how the murders would affect his “law-and-order” image. However, Reagan's Democratic opponent in the race, Robert Moretti, may have scared away some undecided voters by appearing “too supportive of that group of people,” most notably by meeting with local political activist Harvey Milk, an outspoken BLUTAGer, in the aftermath of the killer being captured. …The Golden Era of the Natural Mind party seemed to be nearing its end that year, as its gubernatorial nominee Elizabeth Keathley won only 3.1% of the vote, a noticeable drop in support from the 6.4% Tim Leary had won in 1970...

– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015



“THE COMEBACK COP!”: Biaggi Wins Re-Election In Upset

…After barely winning the Democratic and Conservative party nominations, the embattled Governor faced off against US Representative Peter A. Peyser of both the Republican Party and the Liberal Party. A serious challenger in August – when he was outpolling Biaggi at an average of ten percent – Peyser failed to combat Biaggi’s active campaign in which he visited every county in the state and repeatedly met with prominent Black politicians to curb allegations of racism tied to the Attica Prison Massacre… Distancing himself from President Mondale, who is currently averaging at 48-percent in approval ratings, may have helped Biaggi’s campaign pull off last night’s three-percent margin of victory.

The New York Times, 11/5/1974



HlsQKNd.png


– Colonel Sanders with a young fan, near Tallahassee, FL, c. mid-November 1974



…a Colorado Springs resident identified as a one Freddie Lee Glenn has been killed in a shoot-out with police officers after police witnessed him attempting to kidnap a local resident working at Four Seasons hotel just as a police cruiser was driving by; the man who was nearly kidnapped was injured, but survived, while Glenn was chased down a nearby street and became cornered behind a dumpster...

– KOAA-TV, Colorado TV station, NBC, 11/21/1974 broadcast



HOW NEW BILL SIGNED INTO LAW WILL IMPACT INDUSTRY

…Emissions trading is a new market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for companies to achieve reductions in the pollutants they emit…

The Wall Street Journal, 12/2/1974



The Soviet Moon landing had put a strain on the nation’s economy as the program had siphoned off too much money, manpower, and resources from state-directed agricultural projects. As a serious consequence of this mismanagement, the wintry months of early and late 1974 and early 1975 saw hundreds starve. Kosygin soon agreed with Agriculture Secretary Alex Yakovlev and looked to the breadbasket of the west…

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



…After the 1974 report found minimal change in American smoking habits, Mondale met with safety and health advisors and professionals, and came to conclude that long-term benefits outweighed short-term controversy. The narrowly-passed December 1974 Comprehensive Public Health Smoking Act outright banned TV and Radio advertisements of cigars and cigarettes, and mandated larger print ratios for advertisements in nationwide and/or daily newspapers. Conservative pundits vehemently opposed the law over claims that prohibiting private companies from promoting harmful products was “unveiled socialism,” as Senator Hank Hibbard (R-MT) called it. The most controversial detail of the law was its banning of smoking on the premises of all federally-funded public schools, by which some teachers felt “betrayed” according to a 1975 study conducted by the federal Department of Education. As later DoE studies proved, the act led to less students and teacher smoking on school grounds, but also led to more students (and even some teachers) smoking off-grounds via playing hooky or waiting until after school to smoke. While the school detail did little to combat smoking, the elimination of advertising was highly effective in the long-term.

– C. Everett Koop and Lisa Bero’s The Cigarette Papers, University of California Press, 1996



DISNEY’S THE SNOW QUEEN WILL WARM YOUR HEART

…the iconic studio has released an instant classic, with dynamic and fun characters, and stunning visual effects… The plot impressively condenses Hans Christian Anderson’s lengthy epic into an 80-minute journey that never lags nor feels rushed… The hand-drawn Anna, the Snow Queen (portrayed marvelously by the award-winning singer Dottie West), and the rest of the characters interact impressively with beautifully painted backgrounds that capture the majesty of Scandinavian winter…

Variety magazine, 12/20/1974



CDXsXTY.png


[pic: imgur.com/CDXsXTY.png ]
– Teaser poster for Disney’s The Snow Queen [12]



CAST:
Anna: Dana Laurita (note: Anna was named “Gerda” in the original story from 1844)
Kristoff: Billy Whitaker (note: Kristoff was named “Kai” in the original story from 1844)
The Snow Queen: Dottie West
Hans the Head Troll: Fernando Rey
Mugren the Troll: Candy Candido (note: this “villain’s sidekick” character did not exist in the original story from 1844)
Anna’s Grandma: Shirley Booth
Gamelkone the Good Witch: Agnes Moorehead (note: the film was released six months after Moorehead’s death)
Sven the Robber Baron: John Amos
The Crows: Alan Young, J. Pat O’Malley and Paul Fiedler
The Prince and Princess: Frederic Fenimore Forrest Jr. and Lynn Anderson
Bae the Reindeer: Frank Welker (note: Bae is often called Anna’s “animal sidekick”)
Finn and Lapp: Faye Dunaway and Ford Rainey
Additional Voices: see list

– www.mediarchives.co.usa/The_Snow_Queen_(disambiguation)/Disney’s_The_Snow_Queen



DISNEY’S LATEST FEATURE IS STILL DOMINATING THE BOX OFFICE!

The Wall Street Journal, Monday 12/28/1974



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized parts all from this informative source here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140423045238/http://www.armstrong.edu/Initiatives/history_journal/history_journal_west_meets_east_kfc_and_its_success_in_china
[2] Parts in italics are quotes from this article: https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/why-colonel-sanders-is-the-ultimate-supersoldier/news-story/1f5389dbdcb3e63612ba2bc8b07241be
[3] Italicized portions are pulled from here: www.bittersoutherner.com/ollies-trolley-worlds-greatest-hamburger
[4] Donald DeFreeze is not a member of the this group because in this timeline, he failed to escape prison in March 1973 (since he’s only in his first term here, Reagan decides to enforce his law-and-order image by increasing funding for state prisons, leading to a guard being present during DeFreeze’s activities during the day of his OTL escape), and so never formed the Symbionese Liberation Army with members of the Venceremos Organization.
[5] Passage directly taken from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Super_Outbreak#Events_and_aftermath
[6] Lines pulled from here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_4754000/4754581.stm
[7] In OTL, she was in a serious relationship when she was a teenager with a man in his 20s who died in a car accident; here, he doesn’t die, they marry, and she has two children before needing to have her ovaries removed like IOTL. Of course, she still suffers from some bouts of depression because depression is a lot more complicated than “no longer being lonely,” but at least she’s not suicidal here; instead, she gets treated for a bipolar disorder in the early 1980s, but that’s for a later chapter...
[8] Really!: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2153-3490.1956.tb01206.x/abstract
[9] Text in italics taken verbatim from OTL obituary: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7aNVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OOADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6234%2C4792927
[10] The last lines of his OTL 1966 autobiographical book.
[11] Wyoming’s population apparently jumped 41.3% between 1970 and 1980 IOTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming#Population; the state’s governors during those years were Stan Hathaway and Edgar Herschler. According to Wikipedia, Hathaway created the state’s “Department of Recreation to oversee and improve care of state parks and to provide support for Wyoming's tourism industry, and a Department of Economic Planning and Development to promote economic growth in the state. Wyoming's economy had been in the doldrums when Hathaway was elected governor, but he set in motion a number of initiatives which turned the economy around and saw it booming by the time he left office.” Wikipedia also states that Herschler was in office “during the 1970s energy boom which nearly doubled the Wyoming population in a decade. Coal mining began in earnest…during Herschler's first term [1975-1979], and severance tax revenue from this development provided funding for construction of modern highways, schools and other public infrastructure.”

[12] Here is a “dark” version of this poster, in case anyone was interested:
L2yZgjg.png


(pic: imgur.com/L2yZgjg.png )

Thanks for all the comments!:
Bookmark1995 said:
So KFC was the answer to world peace? If only KFC existed in Sarajevo, then Gavrillo Princip might've gone there instead of the sandwich shop he went to.
Should the Colonel invest time and money into hiring a team of scientists who'll invent the time machine for him, just so he can sell KFC in 1914 Sarajevo? :)
miner249er said:
that monarchy has been around for a while
At least it reached the 7,000-years milestone...
ajm8888 said:
@gap80 unless I missed something, which I could have, Minnesota does not have term limits on governors, they usually stand down after two full terms.
Ooh, you're quite right; I've amended that to "retired"
Bookmark1995 said:
I'm guessing Mr. Chicken is going to have one hell of a post-Presidency.
Oh yes indeed!
sprite said:
Big fan, hoping for an Australian nod at one point. We are after all the home of Red Rooster, Chicken Treat, Oporto and Chooks Fresh and Tasty.
Well since Red Rooster began franchising in 1979 (maybe earlier here due to inspiration from the success of KFC franchising?), Chicken Treat not being founded until 1976, Oporto not opening until 1986, and Chooks not existing until 1991, I'll cover the first two in the late '70s (1977 or so).
DTF955Baseballfan said:
Interesting to see a Mondale Presidency - and a kid in a White House, which is always nice. Fun to see the "New Ideas" bit since that was something he chided his opponent about having no meat to in the '84 primaries.

Good to see Robert Kennedy and Lady Bird active in different roles.

Looks like the Colonel is staying really active.

So, Elvis doesn't seem to have his drug problem, or maybe this causes him to get off of them. It'll be interesting to see him as an older rocker.
Click to expand...
Yep, yep, yep, and yep.
AndyWho said:
Did Elvis still marry Priscilla TTL? Or has he found someone else?
No, he still ended up with her.
BrianD said:
Good to see another update!

What's been decided regarding baseball expansion ITTL?
You mean the 1969 expansion? Basically the same as IOTL, albeit with the Colonels being an increasingly prominent team, free agency being a bigger thing, etc....

Ogrebear said:
1) Another interesting update.

2) Did Powell go all Thatcher during his time in office? Deindustrialization and privitization would be very risky given that Britain still had a decent industrial base at the time. No wonder he is unpopular. Did he keep the NHS though or ditch it?

3) Dingle: Only just becoming Leader and already PM?

4) Northern Ireland: During the 1960s, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association - these do not sound like British Unions.

5) Black September: "CIA snipers removed four of the terrorists before the local military stormed the embassy, killing the remaining hostages in the basement, presumably moments before they could murder all the hostages. In the skirmish, two hostages were injured by friendly fire, but made full recoveries." - presumably they killed all the kidnappers in the basement?

6) Good news regarding Afghanistan. Long term effects there.

7) Interesting variant on the Middle Eastern oil wars there. Saudi will play hardball with the West. What did Iraq and Iran do?

8) KFC in China? Well why not. Is there one in Hong Kong already?

9) Elvis alive in 93 due to the Colonel? Awesome.

10) Heh... Hillary still ends up a Clinton

11) Is Mondale going to stop NYC turning into the Hellhole it was in the 80's?

12) Amtrak Improvement Bill - High speed rail?

13) Soviets on the Moon = fantastic, that should galvanise NASA. Perhaps the President fixes NASA's budget? 1-2% of GDP should give them enough for a Mars shot.
Click to expand...

1) Thanks!

2) Yeah he tried to deregulate, decentralize, and privatise several industries, and it proved to be unpopular with unions and the masses. His attempts to replace the National Health Service with an inferior alternate failed in the face of public outrage.

3) The party kind of was in disarray after Prime Minister Stonehouse, and Foot quickly rose to prominence amid the chaos.

4) Whoops - I think I got my notes mixed up for this. Will go back and fix - thank you for bringing this to my attention!

5) Yes.

6) Yep!

7) Iraq stayed out of it after the result of them getting involved in the 1967 Sukkot War. I'll cover Iran and Iraq in 1975, as they signed some interesting treaty IOTL then.

8) Ooh, good question! Not yet, they'll see how well things go in Beijing, first.

9) Thanks!

10) Glad you liked that!

11) He can't predict the future, but his current actions may just do that, perhaps...

12) Maybe!

13) Yep!

iani said:
Public schools have a very different meaning in the UK, they were almost stamped out when labour were at their zenith, perhaps ITTL they were?
NUT and NAS/UWT were the two main teacher's unions, the former being a little more militant at the time.
Labour still holding on as best they can in the face of Powell trying to stamp them out.
It seems I somehow messed up that entry, so thank you for this info! Will fix!

Thanks again for all the comments, everyone! And stayed tuned for the next update (it should be posted in no less than 14 days)!
 
Post 32
Post 32: Chapter 40

Chapter 40: January 1975 – February 1976

“Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship”

– playwright Robert Anderson




Air travel in the United States saw a rise in security measures during the US-Cuban War, especially after June 1962, when an American Airlines plane crash sparked fears that Cuban terrorists were targeting American airports [1]. These measurements were deregulated under President Sanders, though many airlines initially opted to maintain the measurements for profit, charging passengers extra for “higher safety features.” However, such attempts to milk their customers as best they could led to many of said customers opting to use cheaper airlines as the decade wore on; the fear of plane bombings dropped as American forces achieved victory overseas in 1965, 1967, 1968 and 1971. By the end of Sanders’ presidency, plane safety features had returned to pre-1961 levels, as did the amount of time Americans spent travelling by air. In 1973, Mondale sought to centralize the air travel industry, but saw little reason to resume security measures.

This all might not sound like it has anything do to with the ISF Virus (or Immunity System Failure Virus), but it actually does highlight how close the United States may have gotten to experiencing an ISF Virus-related health crisis during the 1970s. In 1970, the first case of a Sexually-Acquired ISF Virus, or SA-ISF Virus, was discovered in the form of “Patient Z,” a gay cisgender male citizen of France who had recently traveled to Zambia and other African nations prior to becoming ill in September of that year. Were it not for the restrictive measures that American Airlines still had in place at the time (public safety and sanitation rules that prohibited anyone demonstrating “suspicious behavior” from flying), Patient Z, who was denied a plane ticket due to looking visibly unwell in May of that year, would have been allowed onto a flight bound for Miami. According to the in-depth documentary “If Words Could Kill,” Patient Z’s behavior made airport security suspect he was “some sort of terrorist, likely a member of the Malcolm X-Men organization.” Ironically, this discriminatory profiling of the dark-skinned French citizen prevented Patient Z from bringing ISF-V to the United States.

Instead, the first confirmed case of an American with the ISF Virus did not occur until January 1974, when “Johnny One” of California was admitted to a hospital in San Francisco. The two incidents were confirmed to be of the same virus in January 1975; under the watch of French President Francois Mitterrand, aided by his convivial relationship with President Mondale, French scientists had begun to lead the charge to uncover the cause of the then-mysterious virus starting in mid-1974. Dr. Robert Gallo oversaw the studies of the virus in both France and the US concerning Patient Z, Johnny One, and, beginning in 1976, Norway’s “Arvid Noe.” Gallo was joined by two more French virologists who would prove invaluable to their search for understanding the virus that was affecting these and dozens of other men: Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, a young straight cisgender female French virologist, discovered correlations among victims in late 1974, and Luc Montagnier, a young straight cisgender male French virologist also began working on isolating the cause after being called in for assistance by hospital administrators observing Johnny One’s condition in 1974.

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



Do You Support American Military Intervention in Ethiopia?
Yes: 53%
No: 40%
Not Sure: 7%

– Gallup Poll, 1/2/1975



Mondale sat behind the desk and sighed. The attacks from political war hawks, the media, and opinion polling was making him re-assess him position on Ethiopia to the frustration of his cabinet. The calls for the US to engage in a proxy war with the Soviets, despite the ongoing period of détente, was understandable given the attitudes of the time – the sentiment that America had never lost a war and never would was still very strong, even with the remaining voices of the shoutniks hollering and screaming that American intervention was irresponsible and villainous. One of the most prominent of those voices was the Vice President.

“Fritz, sending our men over there to kill and be killed would all sorts of wrong! We’d be throwing away years of good relations with the Soviets. And think of the innocent people who always get caught in the crossfire!” pleaded Gravel.

Secretary of State Philleo Nash, who was pushing for a US-led diplomatic armistice to be signed in the troubled country on the horn of Africa by the end of the year, opined, “Plus, if there’s one thing Ethiopians don’t like, it’s white imperialists entering their continent and trying to tell them what to do.”

“Our very presence in Africa would cause Malcolm X to call all of us ‘racists,’ and he still has some weight to his name,” noted Attorney General Clark. “It could hurt your poll numbers among African-Americans.”

“So would letting the Ethiopians get slaughtered under some backwards Communist regime,” suggested Defense Secretary Davis, the highest-ranking African-American member of the cabinet. “If we save the lives of thousands with the deaths of half as many, is that not a battle won.”

“Americans would never settle for a Pyrrhic victory,” Mondale noted. “If you go in, we go in for it all.”

Gravel again made his case, this time asking “And how would the Soviets counter? By supporting rebels in some other country? And then what, we just keep hopping around from nation to nation until the whole planet sees Americans as bringer of war?”

“If we let Ethiopia fall, there’s no telling how much of Africa will follow. Tensions in South Africa over Apartheid is the perfect breeding for a second Ethiopian Situation,” Davis countered. “Fighting for peace is an uncomfortable reality of our times, Mike.”

Gravel grasped at another straw, “Well strategically it’s risky. Look at the map – our closest ally in the region is Israel all the way on the other side of the Middle East. The only place closer is Djibouti, and they’re allied with France, and Mitterrand’s against intervention, too.”

Davis brushed off the concerns with historic precedence: “We had supporters in Indochina; we’ll find supporters in Ethiopia.”

For what it was worth, Secretary Kennedy summed up Davis’ perspective on the situation with a quote from Aristotle: “We make war that we may live in peace.”

Then Mondale remembered the Wheat Proposal. Initially brought to him through Gravel, the USSR needed to feed their factory workers, but plans were still in the air. “How about this, Mike – leverage. The Soviets still want that wheat deal, right?”

“Yes,” Gravel confirmed.

“If they withdrew their support, or at the least, turned a blind eye to our troops going over there, they can have a slice of our breadbasket.”

Gravel remarked, “What?”

Scanning the room, Mondale called out, “Joe?”

“Right here, sir,” the US Ambassador to the USSR Joe Karth said, standing up from the far end of the side couch, “I’ll see what can be arranged.”

“Good, and get Kosygin on the phone when you do.”

Gravel was torn and outraged over the turn of events, later privately lamenting to Secretary Kennedy “I wanted to feed my fellow man, but now it’ll happen with the blood of other men?” It would be a moral dilemma that would bite at the back of Gravel’s mind as the months continued.

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



FRITZ ENDS THE GOLD STANDARD ERA

By Paul Lewis

Washington, DC – Early today, President Mondale took the US off the gold standard via directing his Treasury Secretary, Robert Roosa, to unilaterally cancel direct international convertibility of the US dollar to gold. In a short announcement, Mondale explained the decision was made in order to address the fiscal strain of the expanded “welfare state” programs and lingering federal expenditures for the Indochina Wars, and to combat both inflation and the negative aspects of “hectic nature” of the Gold Standard system itself.

[snip]

Fritz’s predecessor, President Colonel Sanders, has called the cancellation “a huge mistake.” Sanders was a firm supporter of the Gold Standard, calling it “a tangible anchor” the economy needed to have in order to “function the right way.” Sanders credited this view of the economy for the ending of the Salad Oil recession and for how Kentucky, during his time as Governor, went through the 1959 recession largely unscathed.

The New York Times, 1/12/1975



HOUSE DISBANDS H.U.A.C. ON BIPARTISAN LINES

…The controversial committee had lost its usefulness, effectiveness, and popularity… Basic elements of the committee will be re-organized into a new committee, reportedly to be named “The Committee on Internal Security”…

Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 1/14/1975



MONDALE CALLS FOR UNITY IN OPTIMISTIC STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS; APPROVAL RATINGS HOVER AT 50%

The Washington Post, 1/15/1975



CIA DIRECTOR ADMITS AGENCY SPIED ON U.S. CITIZENS FOR YEARS; Testifies To Senate Subcommittee Agency Had Acted “With The Best of Intentions”

The Pittsburgh Press, 1/17/1975



One exceptional argument happened in early February, 1975, over the song compilation for their latest album Check the Marks.

John defended the line-up with “it’s experimental, it’s edgy, it’s what they’ll love to hear.”

Paul exclaimed, “These songs are just too out there, John. And how come most of the songs on the album are largely yours, anyway?”

The fighting became more intense, and at its height, Ringo sought to intervene.

Ringo remarked, “Well we can add one or two more Paul and George song. Of course, we could always use of one my songs, too.”

McCartney blurted out, “You wrote one song for us and it nearly got us all killed.”

The room was silent for a moment as Ringo stayed speechless, shocked at the low blow.

“I’m sorry, mate. Lost my head there for a sec.”

“Paul, we’re a band, we’re a team. We do this together. John gets it. You don’t. What’s doing on with you? You can tell us.”
“We are a band, but a band can’t play two types of music at once.”

Paul’s analysis jabbed at the truth of the matter, that the band member’s ideas and interests were becoming increasingly contrasting and incompatible. The album’s release date was ultimately postponed from March to July – it’s final composition contained an exact-even number of “Paul” songs and “John” songs, plus one song worked on largely by both George and Ringo.

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



US TO SEND “ADVISORY TROOPS” TO ETHIOPIA

– The New York Times, 2/3/1975



The Haicheng Earthquake of February 4 killed roughly 2,000 people in northern China. The lack of government relief (as Mao ushered in Chinese New Year (officially called “Spring Festival”) on February 10 with spectacle, exuberance, crapulence and overall lavishness in Beijing) worked to Biao’s advantage, allowing the Gang of Seven to finally begin finding more recruits north of the capital…

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



The Colonel’s embrace of God’s love continued to build as the Colonel allowed God to change him in many ways. In 1975, Sanders felt God tell him to take a fateful trip to Jordan, where he was baptized at 84 in the River Jordan. [2]

– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000




22wvxwf.png

[pic: imgur.com/22wvxwf.png ]
– The Colonel being baptized in the River Jordan, in his first visit to the Middle East, 2/9/1975



“That trip was initially a selfish thing, but while I was there I decided to take in a few sights. We traveled to a small city outside of the capitol Amman to inspect a restaurant our guide claimed served the best chicken – which turned out to be a lie, by the way – and I remember, some kind of riot broke out nearby over some sort of religious debate, concerning Palestine, I think. I saw as the police officers all clamored over and my Secret Service friends forcing me indoors but not before I saw people hurting each other. And I thought then and there that to have such passion only for it to be spent of wanton violence and destruction is senseless. It was very upsetting, seeing first-hand how tense things had become over there. According to our guides, the times were only worsening as bad blood continued over from the 1967 and 1973 wars. It was there in that little restaurant that I thought, ‘but I’m a former President. I have influence and connections,’ and decided right then that I would try and do something about it all! Because you can’t let people live in fear and misery any more than you can let a horse live in a doghouse.

And it wasn’t long before I’d hatched an idea…”

– Harland “The Colonel” Sanders, KNN interview, 2/9/1980



After seven years of life under First Secretary Vasil’ Bil’ak, Czechoslovakian shoutnik activism was resuming with a vengeance. On February 20th, the reformers came to power in a bloodless political inner-party coup, taking advantage of Bil’ak’s frosty relationship with Kosigyn to force him into retirement and replace him with Ota Sik. Writer-journalist Ludvik Vaculik subsequently became the nation’s second-in-command.

The first order of business was abolishing censorship, claiming it had outlived its usefulness as “the antagonist bourgeoisie has already been defeated in Czechoslovakia.” A big reversal and a big social change for the people, the “The Forward Programme” placed greater emphasis on consumer goods in order to create a more fulfilling life for the Czechoslovakian people. The shift from Stalin-era focus on heavy industry, raw materials and physical labor to the latest tools and jobs created by scientific and technological achievements was controversial among Communist party leaders in Czechoslovakia and the USSR, but nevertheless allowed by Kosygin. Sik sought to keep it this way by warming relations with both the USSR and US, offering themselves as a place in the Warsaw Pact that Americans could be comfortable visiting while still being a country loyal to the Soviet Union. Sik also sought to shake off the image of his nation being police state in order to increase tourism and investments overall, and, more importantly for the politburo, in order to restore faith in the communist system. The reforms were popular with the masses, and would turn out to effect on geopolitics as the Cold War continued on…

– Maskim Gorky’s Behind the Iron Curtain: The U.S.S.R. And Eastern Europe, Academic International Press, 1980



I just don’t see no use of anybody dying and leaving an estate of half a million or a million dollars when he knows a big percentage of that is going into taxes. A man should get to say exactly what’s done with his fortune if he has worked hard and honestly for it. I say, if you can give back to the community in some way other than taxes, than you are obliged to do so!” [3]

– Colonel Sanders announcing the donation of $250,000 dollars to the local children’s hospital in Louisville, KY, 3/2/1975




IRAN, IRAQ SETTLE BORDER DISPUTES IN ALGIERS ACCORD

Algiers, ALGERIA – After negotiations, Iran’s Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Arif signed a treaty settling several disputes concerning their shares border. Negotiations began two years ago over Iraqi concerns for the rise in Kurdish rebels in the northern and eastern regions of the country. Talks were sporadic but accumulatively productive… …both sides agreed that the border will now follow the demarcation laid out by the 1913 Treaty of Constantinople… International observers hope that this resolution will be a stepping stone in warming relations between the two regional powerhouses… …while both parties have signed the treaty, said treaty will not be ratified for another several months at the earliest. [4]

The Globe and Mail, Canadian newspaper, 3/6/1975




CONSTRUCTION STARTS ON THE TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE SYSTEM TODAY!

1oZqcM8.png

[pic: imgur.com/1oZqcM8.png ]
Above: Vice President Gravel, with his prepared speech in his right hand, sits atop an uninstalled segment of the pipeline near the site of the groundbreaking ceremony

– The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 3/9/1975



Governor Reagan borrowed a phrase coined by Will Rogers to describe his second-term policies as those of a “trickle-down tax plan.”

“I just don’t see how this’ll help poor and middle-income folks. Maybe I just don’t get it, but others I’ve shown it to don’t like the looks of it either, so I know I’m not alone on this,” I remember Father remarked “The plan only works if the richest Californians voluntarily do the morally right thing and take the money freed up by their tax breaks and invest it back into the community – give their workers raises and better equipment and safety gear, expand their R & D departments, something that will benefit the lower classes. But morality alone is not enough in the face of more money.”

Father criticized his former Ambassador for creating a “dangerous loophole” by passing such “poorly designed” legislation. Most of Father’s own party, however, seemed to not pay his remarks any mind; Reagan had become a prodigal son of sorts in the eyes of political supporters and conservative leaders such as Senators Orrin Hatch and Paul Laxalt, and the Buckley brothers, respectively.

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



The communist South Yemen, which from a geographical standpoint, should have been named East Yemen, aided Ethiopia’s communist insurgents, while North Yemen gave tepid support to the anti-communists. As the fighting escalated, Somalians began rebelling to the country’s eastern region, expanding the civil war into a three-sided confrontation. Much of the bloodshed, however, was concentrated around Eritrea, which was the nation’s region to the north…

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



On March 25, King Faisal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, an anti-Israel reformer whom backed the 1973 O.P.E.C. embargo, was assassinated by his own nephew. The death was a shock to the Western and Muslim worlds, and the potential of causing severe ramifications for the US economy. Many officials in Mondale’s State Department were fearful the new leader, Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, would reverse the 1974 oil agreement made between Mondale and Faisal. Instead, the new king chose not address the issue – at least, not so soon into his reign – a neither raised the price of oil being sold to American companies, nor dropped it.

– Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership In Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, 2018



Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston
is a seminal utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter. The author himself claimed that the society he depicted in the book is not a true utopia (in the sense of a perfect society), but, while guided by societal intentions and values, was imperfect and in-process. [5]

– clickopedia.co.usa/Ecotopia




2,800 ATTEND “FREE THE CHEECH” BENEFIT CONCERT IN FRESNO

The Sacramento Bee, 4/5/1975



COLONEL SANDERS SEEN VISITING U.N. OFFICIALS FOR REASONS UNKNOWN

Associated Press, 4/8/1975



GOLDWATER: You really want to get yourself involved in this?

SANDERS: I know I don’t know that much about the whats and the whys but I can meet with the whos when and wherever and by any whichever way to find out the whats and the whys.

NIXON: What?

GOLDWATER: But it’s a very delicate subject. Even talking about it – you have to be very careful, Colonel. One little slip-up, one generalization or misunderstanding and you’re going to be seen by one group as siding against them.

SANDERS: Well the thing is, Barry, this annual summit won’t be for the radicals who want everything and are okay with killing everyone to get it. This will be for the real Palestinians and the real Israelis – the ones who want peace in the region. Peace for friends, family, children, heck, even their own safety.

NIXON: What exactly do you think you could even accomplish?

SANDERS: At the very least, ya mean?

NIXON: Sure.

SANDERS: At the very least, I hope to discover as much common ground as possible there is to discover, and to bring in as many voices as I can find to try and establish a better way of looking at this situation.

GODWATER: And who’s even going to attend this shindig?

SANDERS: Yeah, about that, Dick?…

NIXON: You lost Kissinger’s phone number, didn’t ya?

SANDERS: Sorry.

NIXON: I got you a rolodex for Christmas three years ago – please use it instead of random loose-leaf paper already.

SANDERS: I’ll try. And I’m gonna try to get as many big names for this thing as I can. It shouldn’t be too hard to get Israel and Palestine to break bread, right?

GOLDWATER: Hoo-boy. Good luck, Colonel. Not even a former President like yourself could change things over there overnight.

SANDERS: That sounds like a challenge. And I never back down from a challenge.

– Colonel Sanders with Senators Goldwater and Nixon, Nixon’s Senate office, 4/11/1975 (recorded on Nixon’s personal tapes; transcript released in 1995)



CRONKITE: Tonight’s top story…former President Colonel Sanders has shocked the political world with the announcement his plans to form what he calls “the Annual Chicken Dinner Peace Summit,” a social gathering meant to promote peace between nations over in the Middle East.

SANDERS (in footage): …I’m hoping for the first summit to be held in Jerusalem sometime later this year. This yearly concentration of peace-loving minds will be to celebrate the similarities found between different cultures and to promote peace between them. I want to host the first summit in Jerusalem because I want to discuss Israeli-Arab-Christian relations in a relaxed and peaceful environment over something that all three religions can get behind: the deliciousness of a good and hearty chicken dinner. The people of the Middle East share many beautiful things – history, land, even traditions. Their respective governments may have different systems and different goals, but in my travels I’ve found most people want the same thing – safety for their family and friends, and to leave behind a better future for their children and grandchildren to live and grow up in.

CRONKITE: The former President’s announcement is already receiving mixed responses in Israel and several Islamic countries and communities…

– CBS Evening News, 4/19/1975 report



I remember how the Jerusalem Post celebrated his “intervention,” while everyone else over there basically declared that Harland had no business, ah – “meddling” – yeah, I think that was the word – yeah, “meddling,” in their affairs. I remember, though, there was some serious talk of representatives from Israel and Jordan being willing to participate, but nothing concrete at the start. Overall, it was a pretty big thing because of how well-known, famous even, Harland was, even all the way over there!

– Claudia Price Sanders, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) interview, 1979



MONDALE SIGNS TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT BILL INTO LAW

The Washington Post, 4/14/1975



Mondale face a relatively small international incident in April 1975, when a 13-year-old Romanian gymnast and her family defected to the US. The naturally-energetic Nadia Elena Comaneci (born 12 November 1961) began gymnastics in kindergarten and was the youngest gymnast ever to win the Romanian Nationals. While she initially competed under the Romanian banner, her family was falling out of favor with Romania’s dictator Elena Ceausescu, and were fearful of their lives. In March, Ceausescu announced that all sports programs for women would be cancelled in order to promote “traditional household roles.” Comaneci defected with her parents and brother immediately winning gold in the April 1975 European Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Skien, Norway. Right after the ceremony, the four traveled to the American embassy in Oslo. Famously, Nadia told reporters that she wanted to attend the 1976 Summer Olympics, which were being boycotted by Romania by Elena Ceausescu decree, and to “make proud a country who will give me the chance to try to do the best I can do.”

Romanian officials demanded Nadia and her family be handed over, even threatening to use military action if necessary. How Romania would exactly carry out an attack on Norway was never explained by her government, her defense minister merely stating “it’ll be a surprise.” Russia’s Premier Kosygin, apart from a short speech in which he said he was “disappointed” in the Comaneci family, was silent during the incident. Wanting to end the situation, Mondale ordered the family accompany the US Ambassador back to the US. The media attention commended Mondale’s smooth handling of the incident, and Nadia’s winning of gold medals in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics helped popularized gymnastics across the western world.

– Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership In Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, 2018



Both nations kept their allies informed while the scenario’s chief negotiators were instructed to avoid relinquishing “not even half of ‘too much’” during the talks. The Soviet Union’s Foreign Trade Minister concurred with the notion that the deal could stabilize concerns at home, and committed the USSR to purchasing 8 million tons of a year of American grain for the next six years, but for a fraction of the cost. In exchange, Kosygin reluctantly agreed to turn a blind eye to America’s troops in Ethiopia by withholding weapons and supplies from the nation for the six years of the trade deal.

It was the largest deal ever made between the two nations. On May 3rd, the Secretary of Commerce John Emerson Moss announced the deal had been made at a White House Press Conference. In the USSR, Kosygin announced on Russian Television with much enthusiasm that he had secured enough grain to feed the nation’s factor workers: “In America, a great man called Lincoln promised 40 acres and a mule, and a man called Hoover promised a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage; in the Soviet Union, Lenin promised peace, land and bread. Now, both of our nations promise food in every fridge and every freezer with this grain sale agreement.” Neither country would admit to the “blind eye” detail of the agreement for decades.

While Russians overwhelmingly approved, public reception to the deal was mixed in the US. Some, such as retired General William Westmoreland, saw the deal as “a show of weakness,” while others applauded it as a sign of hope for peace between the two nations. Grain farmers were the most upset, though, as the deal affected the price of their grain which was their livelihood…

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



Lin Biao finally struck on May 4. It was the three-month anniversary of the Haicheng Earthquake. Thousands were dead. The survivors needed help, but none came from the national government. These people were angry and many had little left to lose. Many of these were part of the front lines.

When Lin Biao launched the siege on the Chairman’s palace, it was a two-pronged attack. Supporters from the southern cities attacked from the one direction and the new recruits from Manchuria attacked from the. The siege saw hundreds killed as the initial wave was slowed by Mao guards regrouping. They held off te insurgents just long enough for Mao escape. However, other Mao loyalists were either captured or killed.

Biao declared himself to be the new leader, but most don’t Chinese citizens outside of rural China (where the Cultural Revolution actually increased the quality of life for villagers) did not recognize the regime change as news spread that Mao was still alive. The remained loyal to Mao

Soon the coastal regions saw fighting, as the lines for “battle zones” were drawn on the map. To combat the “treasonous lies seeping through my beloved nation like a virus,” Mao commanded former members of the Red Guard place the major cities and industrial centers on lockdown, establish curfew, and round up and torture any suspected “traitors.” Confident in the popularity of their leader, many Mao loyalists pledged to end the “rebellion” before National Day (October 1)…

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



…In light of the breakout of warfare among rival communist factions in the People’s Republic of China, Kentucky Fried Chicken Incorporated, over safety concerns, has called back home all of its American citizens employed at the KFC restaurant. However, in an official statement, the company will keep open KFC-Beijing, for, um, quote, “for all Chinese citizens who wish to pick up a good meal instead of a gun,” unquote. Additionally, KFC CEO Mildred Sanders has also announced that Chinese citizens employed by KFC Inc at KFC-Beijing, are, quote, “fully aware of the risk of the ongoing conflicts in China and will not be reprimanded for abandoning their posts if the situation becomes more dire,” unquote…

– NBC News correspondent, 5/12/1975 report



Mondale militarized the US Embassy and ordered all American tourists to return home immediately. Mondale even went as far as to float an idea thought up by Gravel – to offer Mao political asylum – around his inner circle. Mondale believed that increasing US-PRC relations would further intimidate the Soviets and keep the US “on top” as the Cold War continued. Most of his inner circle, however, opposed the notion. Secretaries Kennedy ad Nash were particularly opposed to the notion given Mao’s policies being responsible for the deaths of millions of Chinese people.

The controversial idea was made moot in mid-May when Mao, and the bulk of his loyalists, fled the industrial centers north of Beijing…

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994



As 1975, the reverend Jerry Brown became a spiritual advisor to Mondale alongside the President’s brother, effectively pushing out the more conservative Billy Graham from having further major influences inside the White House...

– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000



NBA Finals: Western Division: Warriors Beat Bulls 4-3, Colonels Beat Celtics 5-1

– The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky newspaper, sports section, 5/25/1975



Chicken Kiev was the UK’s first chilled ready meal and was one of the most iconic foods of the ’70s. At a staff meeting with department leaders in May, the heads at R & D suggested the company latch onto the popular dish by creating and offering chilled already-made KFC meals at supermarkets.

Pops predictably blew a gasket at the idea of lowering his brainchild down to the level of frozen TV dinners, but others around the table wanted to keep it in consideration. For the time being, the proposed project was postponed in the face of a larger issue that was bothering both Pops and the company…

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997



KFC SUPER-OUTLET DAMAGED IN WAR-TORN BEIJING STREET BATTLE

By David Halberstam

…While the riotous incident between Mao militia members and Biao supporters led to several injuries and dozens of arrests, no Americans, Chinese customers or KFC employees were injured inside the building, as the restaurant was “temporarily shut down” by roughly two weeks ago over customer security concerns…

7oS9QPE.png

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Above: Onlookers are kept back from broken glass from the windows damaged on the second floor of the KFC restaurant in Beijing, reportedly one hour after injured rioters have left the vicinity.

– The New York Times, investigative foreign correspondent report, 5/28/1975



The Colonel sought to assist in ending the horrors unfolding in China by trying to get in touch with his contacts in the PRC government, but to not avail in the face of rising anarchy over there. Shocked and saddened by his inability to do anything to alleviate that situation, the Colonel turned his mind to other issues.

In June, he started by opposing Mondale’s call to give federal subsidies to the faltering car companies. The Colonel believed that such intervention in the free market system would make the car companies too dependent on such a “security blanket,” and soon would be unable to compete on the world stage without them.

In a private meeting at the White House between the two men, Secretary Kennedy, and I, Sanders voiced his concerns, only for Mondale to counter them by noting the effects of the 1973 oil crisis on the US car industry and the rise of Japan’s automotive industry’s output. Mondale explained, “Ten years ago, passenger car exports from Japan were at only 100,000. And now? It’s over 1.8 million!”

Mondale stand firm on his own analysis, that the US car industry – and the jobs connected to it – would suffer in the face of growing international market if the federal government did not execute a “helping hand” approach.

– Ralph Nader in his autobiography All For The People: A Life’s Journey, 2019



GOV. KYROS SIGNS FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE BILL INTO LAW TODAY

…the event marks the culmination of a rigorous campaign for such a bill that began two years ago and was a central part of Governor Pete Kyros’s successful re-election campaign last year…

– The Bangor Daily News, Maine daily newspaper, 6/4/1975



…tonight’s referendum asked voters the question “Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?” The answer has been a definitive yes, with roughly 59% of the populace voting “yea” and roughly 41% voting for “nay.” This referendum, the first national referendum ever to be held across the entire United Kingdom, was backed by the Conservative party and was the brainchild of Enoch Powell. After attempts to remove the UK from the EC failed in 1969, 1971 and 1972, Powell supporters initiated the referendum. Prime Minister Foot will speak about the referendum results very shortly…

– BBC World News, 6/5/1975 report



As the western world’s eyes turned to the chaos sweeping across China and Ethiopia, Guatemala saw their chance. On June 10, the Guatemalan military invaded the U.K.’s Belize over a decades-old border dispute. The U.K.’s Prime Minister, Sir Dingle M. Foot, would not tolerate the act, and swiftly responded to the land invasion with an immediate counter-attack.

– Ashley Carse’s Land of Eternal Spring: A History on the Warfare, Ecology, and Infrastructure in Guatemala, MIT Press, 2005



“This new virus hitting the BLUTAG population in France – they’re now calling it the Immunity System Failure Virus, right? – it’s possible that this outbreak, which used to be over there but is now coming over here somehow, is the result of Soviet biological warfare, and it must be investigated!”

“I see. How did it get over here, then?”

“This Johnny One patient was from San Francisco. You know what they have over there? Refugees who immigrated over from Indochina. And Indochina was communist, which means the Soviets and the Chinese had their grubby paws all over that area. They could have developed it there and given it to the refugees. Same for the people coming in from Ethiopia, which is in Africa, where Patient Z was from.”

“Wouldn’t be simpler to just begin spreading it here from the get-go, instead of starting the spread elsewhere?”

“The Russians are too sneaky to do something so straight-forward.”

“Huh, really?”

“Well, there is another theory that the ISF Virus originated from African trade with the Caribbean and smuggling of things from there to Cuba, leading to BLUTAG soldiers in Cuba returning it to the US, but I don’t really know about that one.”

“Ah. How interesting. Well, can we please discuss your state budget now?”

– Governor William Westmoreland (R-SC) (guest) and William F. Buckley Jr. (host), Firing Line, WOR-TV, Saturday 6/13/1975 broadcast



I used a phony passport to travel to Angola to help out the low-funded [6] Communist MPLA party, short for the “People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola.” I didn’t know the language and I didn’t know the people other than my contact, but I could fire a gun and wanted to fight for them. More importantly for me, I was eager to prove myself worthy of forgiveness, to prove I still was an asset to the cause of Communism.

– Lee Harvey Oswald’s autobiography “Call Me By My Real Name: Confessions From a Fallen Hero,” published posthumously



The Guatemalans were overwhelmed by the U.K. forces, outnumbered and outgunned on both the land and the sea. Guatemala’s President Kjell Eugenio Laugerud Garcia, in the wake of political opponents vying to overthrow him, called for a peace treaty on June 29. The subsequent armistice included Guatemala formally relinquishing land claims in exchange for U.K. assistance in rebuilding the communities of Guatemala damaged during the surprisingly-brief war. With the fighting having begun and having ceased within a month, Foot was applauded at home for the response. This popularity prompted a snap election in the UK…

– Ashley Carse’s Land of Eternal Spring: A History on the Warfare, Ecology, and Infrastructure in Guatemala, MIT Press, 2005



SIX KILLED, DOZENS HURT BY BOMB IN ISRAEL

– BBC World News, 7/4/1975



“Attacks like this are exactly why I’m trying to hold annual talks with regional leaders. This attack, what they’re now calling the Zion Square Fridge Bombing, wounded two American tourists, and killed three Jewish folk and three Arab folk – co-existing peacefully, by the way – who were innocents in all this. They weren’t attacking it other, but they were guilty by association? That’s ludicrous! I’ve been around long enough and I’ve met enough people to know that acts of violence like this do not represent the true people of this planet. The average person wants peace and I aim to help them get peace in any way I can.”

– Colonel Sanders to a reporter, 7/7/1975



Mondale had been a sharp critic of NASA since his role in the US Senate safety investigations of the mid-’60s. But with the Space Race back on, Mondale yielded to public support and lobbyist pressure and reversed his earlier decision to cut back our 1975 budget to .5% of that year’s national budget; it would instead stay at 1.2%. Naturally, we were aiming for more – 2.5% was most preferable, but above 1% was still doable. Nevertheless, Mondale continued to push for more unmanned missions, leading to the conclusion of the Apollo Program that year. But at least it ended on a high note.

A feminist milestone was reached via the landing of the last Apollo mission, Apollo 24. On July 15, 1975, 44-year-old Jerrie Cobb became the first American woman to step foot on the moon.

tGn5rE3.png

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Above: Jerrie Cobb, first American woman on the moon.

Of course, the program’s conclusion did not mean the end of American space exploration. In fact, Mondale publicly promised future lunar missions to be “more thorough,” in regards to collecting information on our natural satellite, under the new Aries Program focused more on unmanned than manned accomplishments…

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



JUST THREE MORE STATES!

Women across America need just three more state legislatures to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment!

Contact your state legislature and demand they vote for equality – before it’s too late! Anti-ERA forces are attempting to have several states rescind their ratifications of the ERA. YOU can help us stop the reversal of history and progress!

– Brochure distributed in several states by the National Organization for Women, c. July 1975



“I’m sickened by the recent casualty numbers coming in from Ethiopia. The Derg are killing us in Mekele, at the Afar Front, and they just killed hundreds of our men and their fellow Ethiopians taking the city of Gonder. I think Walter’s decision to intervene in Ethiopia was a mistake and you can quote me on that.”

– Vice President Mike Gravel, 7/20/1975



MONDALE FRITZ SHOULD DROP GRAVEL FROM THE ’76 TICKET

By Scoop Jackson

…his disrespect toward America’s valiant defenders of freedom weaken American morale and its standing on the world stage by falsely depicting “a House Divided Against Itself”…

The Washington Post, opinion article, 7/21/1975



The summer heat only boiled our blood. Mao, still hiding somewhere in the north, ordered an assault on Beijing to reclaim the capital. Concurrently, Lin Biao support was swelling in the South as urban Chinese citizens fled from the atrocities being committed by the New Red Guard (a loose paramilitary collection of young Mao loyalists based on the original Red Guard from 1966 and 1967) plaguing the coastal cities. These anti-Mao urbanites allied with Lin Biao, while some either went into hiding or left the country altogether.

On July 23, a wave of Mao supporters tried to permeate Biao’s defenses north of the capital, but were completely overwhelmed. Lin Biao being the more Soviet-friendly side in the civil war assured Lin had ample weaponry for his counterattack. Hundreds were killed in just four days, and Mao had one of his General executed for his “failure.” Lin Biao seemed to have the upper hand.

Little did Lin realize that a third side to the war was slowly winning over both Mao and Lin Biao supporters. Informally called “The Third Road,” Deng Xiaoping called for a political agenda the promoted both rural development, “Mao lite” ideology, and a “primitive” limited market economy as the best way for China. This third flank in the war began gaining a foothold in several pockets across the bloodied map of China as fighting escalated overall.

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



After 14 years in the military, from 1961 to 1975, Bob retired at the rank of master sergeant in late July 1975. Years later, his C.O. would commend Bob by saying, “Ross is highly patriotic, but it was clear from what he went through off the coast of Cuba that he deplored the violence of war. Still, his remaining for all the years that followed the injuries he suffered [in 1963] really highlights his loyalty to the flag.”

zSqhvn1.png

[pic: imgur.com/zSqhvn1.png ]
Above: Bob in the mid-’70s.

– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014



The race to capitalize on the newfound resources led to hastily-assembled sites, increasing the chances of disaster. On August 3, a poorly-welded flange plate combined with cyclical stresses common in the North Sea caused the Norwegian oil rig named Ocean Skimmer to capsize, killing 104 of the 215 men on board, making it the worst disaster in offshore Norway history since World War Two. The disaster quickly became a rallying cry for better safety regulations and an in-depth inspection of all drilling rigs assembled at Ekofisk since 1973. Despite assurances that the deadly capsizing was a “fluke,” the tragedy contributed to an increase in Norwegian interest in alternate sources of energy (particularly wind and water turbines) and environmental protection. In addition to these changing attitudes in post-Ocean Skimmer Norway, the late 1970s also saw a rise in fish-farming enterprises along the nation’s coasts.

– E. Van den Bark’s Ekofisk: the Energy and Potential of the Giant Oil Fields of Western Europe, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1980



Sanders’ second trip to the Middle East of that year sent him to Egypt, where his company had first opened a restaurant in 1967. The fried-chicken tradition of the American South, with its communal connotations and complicated racial history, may not have meant anything to the citizens of Egypt, or even to the rest of the people living in the Middle East. But the people there ate chicken, and they ate salt, and they ate fried, crunchy things of varying degrees of spiciness, and so Kentucky Fried Chicken made sense in a way that its burger-based rivals didn’t. [7] KFC-Egypt’s menu offered items unique to regional tastes, too: KFC Tikka Masala, KFC Kabab Roll, KFC Gyros, and KFC Tandoori were well-received staples of Egypt’s fast-food scene by the end of the 1980s.

But in 1975, Sanders’ main focus was using KFC to achieve a goal more diplomatic than capitalist. He hoped that a well-publicized visit to Egypt would shore up regional support for his other project, the Chicken Dinner Peace Summit.

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Above: The Colonel, on his 1975 trip to Egypt

– Josh Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



“Ray believed KFC was doomed to eventual failure because the Colonel was always going around trying to perfect an imperfect world. Whether by the Middle East, or Africa or China, he was always distracted from his own company. I disagreed, thinking instead that the Colonel's experience as President had opened his eyes to the bigger issues facing the world, and he thought he was in a unique situation to do something about it.

Ray shook his head at this. ‘He’s taken his eyes off the prize,’ he once said. He also saw the Colonel as a stubborn old man unwilling to change with the times. He once called him ‘a tumbleweed refusing to tumble, even though tumbling is what i'ts best at and what all tumbleweeds are meant to do.’ To that, I scratched my head.

‘Leave the similes and metaphors to the Colonel, hon,’ I told him.”

– Joan Kroc, KNN Interview, 1983



“Are you thinking of running for President?”

“Bill, I don’t like to wear two hats at once. You can’t serve as both a General and as a Major General at the same time, and I don’t think you can serve as both a Governor and as a Presidential candidate at the same time. So no. Now, don’t get me wrong, none. I’m tempted, but no, I won’t wear two hats at once.”

– Governor William Westmoreland (R-SC) (guest) and William F. Buckley Jr. (host), Firing Line, WOR-TV, 8/16/1975 broadcast



UK PM FOOT’S LABOUR PARTY GAINS 15 SEATS IN SNAP ELECTION

…Foot’s popularity stems from the UK ousting Guatemala from Belize earlier this year, settling an archaic land dispute...

– The New York Times, 8/17/1975



Then in August, in the wake of his semi-retirement, Bill Alexander “passed the brush” to Bob, who became the primary host of Alexander’s PBS show “The Magic of Oil Painting.”

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Above: The first episode of the 1975-1976 series begins with Alexander handing over hosting duties to his most famous understudy.

Under Bob, the show’s format and tone was simplified, the subjectively distracting set being swapped out for a simple black backdrop so keep the focus on the painting being made. Soon into the new series of episodes, Bob adopted the iconic “afro” look of his in order to minimize costs. Annette Kowalski explains “He got this bright idea that he could save money on haircuts [this way], so he let his hair grow, he got a perm, and decided he would never need a haircut again.” [8]

– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014




According to Zhou’s private diary, the assassination of Mao ally Grand Gen. Luo Ruiqing – struck by a sniper visiting a city “purged of traitors” (mostly burned to the ground) – only worsened Mao’s depression… [snip] Mao’s supporters became increasingly disorganized as Mao’s remaining top military followers were poor at working with each other, with disastrous results for their side of the war. At the Battle of Jining, for instance, hundreds of Maoists were killed by a smaller Linist militia battalion because the Maoist Lieutenant Commander and Commander disagreed on war strategy and each of them gave out conflicting orders to their subordinates. Both leaders were executed soon after for “incompetence” and “failure to carry out Mao’s will,” despite Mao having no known orders or thoughts on strategy for conquering the region prior to the battle in question.

– Yu Changgen’s Zhou Enlai: A Political Life, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006



“Well, with the movie on your early years coming out this week, eh, I’d like to know – will they be accurate in how they depict you?” [9]

“They, uh, well they called me several times to run some things by me during the writing stage of the project, back in, um, back, eh, last year, but after that I had nothing to do with it. But they seemed like nice folks, and so I think they’ll do me justice.”

“Did you meet with the cast and crew?”

“I did talk with the fella playin’ me. He’s not as handsome as I was back then, but he can act just fine, he’s got my mannerisms down pat and everythin’!”

“Well, you probably will get a lot of royalties for it anyhow.”

“I don’t give whit about making even more money, I’ve got enough as it is. Any I get from this picture will go to charity.”

– Colonel Sanders and Phil Donahue on “The Phil Donahue Show,” 8/22/1975



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– KFC-Canada poster celebrating Colonel Sanders’ 85th birthday (September 9), first distributed c. late August 1975



PARAMOUNT’S “THE COLONEL” SINGS CHICKEN KING’S PRAISES – AND HIS FLAWS

…rising star Nick Nolte, 35, portrays the Colonel during the 1920s, long before founding KFC during his first exposure to law and politics… The film opted to not shy away from the Ms. Arkansas Scandal, depicting the woman in question in several scenes depicting casual workplace pestering. The inclusion of this aspect of the Colonel’s life makes the film surprisingly deep, depicting the younger Sanders as an imperfect man, and, just maybe, his own enemy…

Variety, film review, 8/30/1975



NEW POLL: SUPPORT FOR QUEBEC INDEPENDENCE DROPPING

…“nay” supporters claim independence is an unnecessary manner in which to handle the provinces concerns. Others point to the country’s economy being prosperous both in and out of Quebec. The biggest development, however, may be the recent incidents of bombs being sent through the mail by Quebec’s more violent separatist organizations and supporters. This actions may have actually sullied the “yea” movement, as it is dropping in polls ahead of the independence referendum still scheduled for the end of this month…

– The Edmonton Journal, Canadian newspaper, 9/3/1975



Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Panagoulis of the Center Union party was in office for only a month when he received sharp multi-partisan criticism for, in an unprecedented move, calling for the sending of relief aid to Turkey in the wake of the M6.7 earthquake that struck the country on September 6, 1975, killing over 2,000 people in Diyarbakir and Lice, in eastern Turkey. The decision only strengthened relations between the two countries, a shift in policy that had started in the aftermath of the 1971 Bulgarian Plot. While some politicians were outraged at the idea, the Greek populace were ultimately won over by news reports of Turks and Kurds praising Greece for their humanitarianism. Their additional praise of the Turkish government for allowing the aid into the country assured said government’s stay in power…

– clickopedia.co.usa/Greek-US_relations



In 1974, accountant and five-time divorcé Sara Jane Moore of West Virginia became obsessed with Patricia Soltysik, one of the famous would-be kidnappers of New York Governor Mario Biaggi. In September 1975, Moore was arrested outside of the New York state capitol building for attempting to conceal a revolver from security officers. The incident only contributed to the Governor’s image. Upon state police learning that Moore had also contemplated attempting to assassinate President Mondale, and that the Secret Service evaluated her but had determined that she was of no risk to others, Biaggi harshly criticized the Secret Service for allegedly not “do[ing] their jobs,” and for not considering current Presidential security measurements to be a major concern. Despite making headline news, the incident was all but forgotten until a certain number of years later...

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’70s, Basic Books NY, 2000, p. 298



While the guest list was impressive, the list of speakers for the occasion was light. In early September, we finally landed a big fish. The Imam of Amman, Jordan, the main Islamic church leader of Jordan’s capital city agreed to attend the dinner summit and give a short speech.

“Well, it’s not the King, but it’s better than nobody,” Father replied. “He is aware of the rules, though, right?”

“Yep,” I assured him, “I told the translator and our translator confirmed it, the Imam has agreed – no jabs at other religions, the focus is on common ground.”

“As long as they keep their promises,” he remarked, “this shouldn’t be a bloodbath.”

“You’re not having second thoughts, are you Pop?”

“Well,” he admitted, “I do feel like I just dug a pond and now I’m just waitin’ for ducks to show up.”

“Come on, Dad, don’t doubt yourself. This is a good idea. I really think we can make a difference here.”

“You sure, son?”

I answered, “Just as sure as ten dimes buys a buck!”

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



…Activists are protesting in Austin, Texas over the state legislature’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, which they plan to vote on later this month. The Texas state legislature is one of a handful of remaining state bodies to have not passed the ERA, keeping the proposed Constitutional Amendment just one more state ratification away from becoming law…

– CBS Evening News, 9/12/1975 broadcast



Johnson met with Governor Frances Farenthold to drum up support in what would be his last political trick. The lion of the Senate, now visibly wasting away was the grim specter of death inched closer and closer, still wielded a mighty air of intimidation as he went around to the homes and offices of everyone anti-ERA state legislator. With classic lean-ins, threats, and unnerving closeness, Lyndon gave each of his fellow Texans the Johnson Treatment. Some were not a persuadable as others, seeing Lyndon not as a powerful career-wrecker, but as a desperate dinosaur on his last legs. Their respective careers soon ending in scandal proved them wrong – that even in the shadow of oblivion, Lyndon was a master of the power of suggestion.

– Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon: Book Six: His Final Years of Power, A. A. Knopf Inc. New York, 2018



TEXAS RATIFIES E.R.A.!

…becoming the 38th state to approve it, the E.R.A. will now become law as a part of the U.S. Constitution…

The New York Times, 9/23/1975



…The Channel Tunnel project was almost halted today. The cost to complete the British end of this historical project is projected to be $4.1 billion, but enough MPs believed the improving economy means that the U.K. can afford the cost. The suggestion of Environment Secretary Anthony Crosland to impose a 5-year-hiatus on construction to give the U.K. time to come up with cost for project was criticized for being too cautious, and the House of Commons narrowly voted against proposal earlier today, with 267 voting against it and 245 voting for it...

– BBC News broadcast, 25/9/1975



DEATH TOLL RISES IN ETHIOPIA, FRITZ’S AGGREGATE APPROVAL RATING DOWN 2%

– The Boston Globe, 9/26/1975



QUEBEC SECESSION REFERENDUM: QUEBEC VOTES TO STAY, 55.4%-to-44.6%

– The Toronto Star, 28/9/1975



On that day in early October, the moment had arrived.

There had been lots of speculation as to why Father had put such a thing together. One rumor was the horrors of warfare in Indochina had “broken” him and he was desperate to repent before dying. Another rumor claimed it was a business ploy to end the warfare in China so he could re-open the KFC outlet in Beijing. But really, his experiences with diplomacy and his experience with violence made him believe that he could change the conversation and help convince more people to choose negotiations over atrocities. Quoting a line from the April 1975 made-for-TV film “I Will Fight No More Forever,” Father opened the first Annual Chicken Dinner Peace Summit by saying, “Folks, it’s easy to pick up a gun, but it’s much harder to put it down.” Father gave the first speech of the evening, calling for the end of hostilities in Ethiopia, China, and the Middle East because “the people suffer on both sides of the conflict, each and every time.”

The representatives of Israel, led by Israel’s former Ambassadors to the US Abba Eban and Yitzhak Rabin, commended Sanders for his enthusiasm, with the former stating “the voice of Israel’s people should be louder than the voices of the war-makers.”

The Lebanese church representatives gave a surprisingly secular speech that, among other positive things, proclaimed that Father was “right to focus the summit around chicken, a meat enjoyed by all three major religions. The three also share a love for sports, music, dancing, and art. The details may vary, but the understanding is there. Jews, Christians, and Muslims also share important ideals – honor life, honor country, love your family, love your friends. And like the Colonel when he was a young boy, all three groups also love the comfort of a well-made loaf of bread. Of the thrill of adventure, the potential of improving the lives of those around you, and the great feeling of a job well done.”

The delegation from Egypt, led by one of Anwar Sadat’s Prime Ministers (the highest-ranking official at the summit), gave the most controversial speech, summarizing the commonalities found between Jewish and Muslim people in terms of religion. “Allah is the same Creator, Sustainer, and Provider that Jews and Christians worship, just by a different name. Moses was a great man and a great prophet. And Jesus was a great man and a great prophet of God whose mother Mary was the greatest of all women.” [10]

Other than that tense moment, those hours in Jerusalem were overall amicable. Translators accompanied their bosses around the convention-like congregation before and after the delegates’ tables were served. The attendees were treated to a variety of halal and kosher chicken dishes from which to choose, as well as appetizers and desserts, all catered by local Jewish, Christian and Muslim restaurants (as Muslims are allowed to consume an animal if it is slaughtered properly by a Muslim, Jew or Christian).

Once the speeches had concluded, the mingling among the attendees was even friendlier, causing Father to have high hopes for next year’s summit: “maybe things will be organized better, more formal maybe, and hey, maybe we’ll get the actual Presidents of these countries together next time.” Regardless of its guest list, Father considered the summit a success because it opened a dialogue and established comradery among incumbent officeholders from three Middle Eastern countries. “A small step is always alright when it’s merely the first step,” I remember Father said.

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



THE COLONEL’S SUMMIT: A Sincere But Toothless Call For Peace

The New York Times, 10/9/1975



“SNL”: HOW A “VARIETY SHOW” IGNITED A COMEDY REVOLUTION

On October 11, 1975, TV history was made. Or at least the variety-show format was turned on its ear, thanks to producer Lorne Michaels, a group of relative unknown comedians – and Johnny Carson, who’d insisted NBC stop running
Tonight Show repeats on the weekends, forcing the network to create a replacement series. NBC’s Saturday Night, as it was first known, premiered with George Carlin as host with Tommy Chong as musical guest, and it looked different than it does today: the cast had less airtime, and the host and musical guests got more. But the show became an instant success, and despite the arrival of Second City Television, the technet, and rival comedy shows and viewing formats, it has maintained its status as the standard-bearer of American pop-culture relevance 40 years later. [11]

– usatoday.co.usa/SNL_40th_anniversary_review




GOVERNOR REAGAN LAUNCHES PRESIDENTIAL BID

The Los Angeles Times, 10/18/1975



L.A.’S MAYOR TOM BRADLEY DENOUNCES REAGAN FOR “IGNORING THOSE IN NEED” AND DOING “A TERRIBLE JOB” IN OFFICE

The Sacramento Union, Ted Kennedy’s newspaper, 10/19/1975



MARTIN AND MALCOLM: FINDING NEW ROLES IN THE 1970s

The Reverend Martin Luther King of 1975 is not the same man from the 1950s and 1960s. After his 1969 fall from grace that led to the watershed event that was the Ms. Arkansas Scandal and the subsequent “Ark Wave” of 1970, King became resigned to sit on the sidelines of the Civil Rights Movement. Neither King nor Malcolm X are the main faces of the movement, being effectively replaced by a new generation of young activists such as Jimmie Lee Jackson, Ron Dellums, and John Lewis. However, King has recently regained national attention for comments concerning both a recent riot and a Presidential candidate.

On October 15, King shocked longtime followers by announcing that he had become more accepting of violence “when it becomes clear that a necessary evil must be wielded for good.” In the informal speech, King gave a strong endorsement of longshot Presidential candidate Charles Ever, the Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi since 1969 and the first African-American ever to serve as that city’s mayor. Evers, who is running for the Republican Party nomination next year, is noticeably more conservative than most veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. Evers’ younger brother and fellow Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers, who is much more liberal, has yet to endorse his brother.

King also took the moment to comment on a riot that broke out in St. Louis on the 12th, in which five people were injured and several were arrested. “There are still many issues we have yet to overcome – police brutality, unfair incarceration rates, healthcare disparities, white flight and other forms of allegedly-natural segregation leading to poorer funding for majority-black schools,” King remarked, “Riots can be self-defeating and socially destructive, but if it is for the right reason, and if it brings attention to a serious issue, than the riot is the language of the unheard.”

Sitting down with the reverend for this article (on the condition that I did not bring up the 1969 scandal), it is clear how much the years of challenging racism has worn him out. He is only 46, but he has grey streaks on the sides of his head and wrinkles on his forehead and under his eyes, making him appear to be in his 50s or early 60s. I ask him about his recent comments, and he doubles down on them: “The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are distorted a form of social protest.

The comments seem to highlight what appears to be a reversal of the prior roles of King and controversial African-American community organizer Malcolm X. While X has continued to be an activist at home, in recent years, he has expanded to activitism in South Africa and Namibia over Apartheid and other local issues with a noticeably more pacifist approach. Two months ago, X came to side with Medgar Evers over the idea that busing was “a misunderstood missed opportunity.” Nevertheless, X conceded that the progress made under Presidents Sanders and Mondale to resolve racial issues “have made the case that peaceful apporaches may actually be able to work.”

[snip]

Both King and X both agree on foreign policy, though – they are vehemently against American “intervention” in Ethiopia, it being what King describes as “another illegal war.” [12]

[snip]

Tumbleweed Magazine, 10/21/1975 article



1975 saw the Louisville Colonels finally make their way to the World Series. After besting the Red Sox and the Oakland A’s in the ALCS, the Colonels went up against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Colonels gave it their all, but Roberto Clemente earned MVP on October 22 by bringing his team to victory, the final game wins score being 5-to-2. [13]

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994




LOCAL NRA ASSOCIATE DIES IN GUN ACCIDENT

…former NRA president Harlon Bronson Carter passed away yesterday at the age of 62. According to an employee working at the gun range, Carter was arguing with a fellow range patron over the role guns had in last year’s Governor Biaggi Hostage Crisis when the gun accident occurred... Franklin Orth, Executive Vice-President of the National Rifle Association, released a statement earlier today calling Carter “a fiery and passionate champion of the second amendment,” adding “his death is a reminder of the responsibilities that come with owning and operating a firearm. As with any powerful tool, a rifle can be helpful was used correctly and carefully, but destructive when mishandled.”

– The Arizona Republic, 10/25/1975



LYNDON B. JOHNSON DIES!: Senator, Former President Likely Suffered Heart Attack; Was Age 67

– The New York Times, 10/30/1975



peqBL8I.png

[pic: imgur.com/peqBL8I.png ]

– clickopedia.co.usa



EDWARDS ELECTED GOVERNOR IN STATE’S FIRST-EVER BLANKET PRIMARY

…The incumbent Governor, Democrat Jimmie Davis is term-limited. …No run-off will be required, as Edwards received over 50% of the vote: former US Congressman Edwards won 54%, while state politician Robert G. Jones won 26%, and longtime state Secretary of State Wade O. Martin Jr. won 18%, with several minor candidates receiving the remaining 2%...

The New Orleans Tribune, 11/1/1975



L.B.J. BURIED IN HOMETOWN OF STONEWALL: Sanders, Humphrey & 1,000s of Others Attend, Pay Respects

– The Dallas Times Herald, 11/2/1975



…as way of honor the dearly departed President, here are some similarities Johnson shared with Abraham Lincoln, another great President:

1: Both men had birth years with the numbers 0, 1, 8, and 9 in them; Lincoln was born in 1809 and Johnson was born in 1908
2: Both men ultimately grew to a height of 6’4”
3: There are six letters in Lincoln and six in Johnson
4: There are 15 letters in ABRAHAMLINCOLN and LYNDONBJOHNSON
5: Both men had military experience (Lincoln served in the Illinois Militia, while Johnson served in the US Navy)
6: Both men won election to the House of Representatives in a year ending in ’46 (a first term for Lincoln, re-election for Johnson)
7: Both men won election to the US Presidency in a year ending in ’60 and won with under 50% of the vote
8: Both men entered the Presidency at the age of 52
9: Both men were outlived by their respective wives and by two children
10: Both men were the target of assassination plots (attempts in 1861, 1864, and 1865 for Lincoln; attempts in 1962 and 1963 for Johnson)
11: Presidential security was heavily criticized after each assassination for being too lax
12: Both men won the US Presidency by defeating an incumbent US Vice President (John C. Breckinridge for Lincoln, Richard Nixon for Johnson)
13: Both men served for roughly four years, their administrations ending in ’65
14: Both men were concerned with issues affecting African-Americans; Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 while Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1962
15: Both of their predecessors (Buchanan and Eisenhower) retired to Pennsylvania and died less than a decade after leaving the office of the Presidency
16: Both men and their successors conferred with a nationally known African-American Civil Rights leader. Lincoln and Johnson conferred with Frederick Douglass; Johnson and Sanders conferred with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
17: Johnson’s Vice President and both of Lincoln’s Vice Presidents served in the US Senate both before and after serving as Vice President
18: Both of their successors were primarily from the Appalachian region (Andrew Johnson was from Tennessee; Colonel Sanders was from Kentucky)
19: Both men died in Washington D.C. while holding an elected public office (Lincoln was holding the Presidency while Johnson was holding a US Senate seat)
20: Johnson was the second US President in U.S. history to issue interest-free money during a time of war. Lincoln was the first (Lincoln issued greenbacks to finance the U.S. Civil War, while Johnson issued interest-free money in connection to financially affording the Cuban War and to combat the Salad Oil Recession)
21: Both men died 2 months and 3 days after celebrating their birthday (Lincoln’s birthday was on February 12 and he died on April 15; Johnson’s birthday was on August 27, and he died on October 30).

With all those similarities, it’s no surprise that Johnson was, like Lincoln, also one of our most important national leaders….

The Houston Chronicle, opinion article, 11/2/1975



…Big developments in the political world tonight, as voters in two states spent the day and the night exercising their right to vote. Mississippi and Kentucky elected new Governors; Kentucky’s Republican Governor John Robsion Jr. was term-limited, as was Mississippi’s Democratic Governor Walter Nixon. In Mississippi, Democrat William Winter won over Republican Gil Carmichael. Kentucky, though, saw a historic election result by electing its first female Governor – Republican Mary Louise Foust defeated Democrat Wendell Ford by a narrow margin. Foust, age 66, who has served as Kentucky’s Lieutenant Governor since 1971 and who previously as a revenue clerk and CPA before election to the state legislature in 1969, is considered a political maverick. Foust herself considers herself, quote, “anti-establishment,” unquote…

– The Overmyer Network, 11/4/1975 broadcast



CONGRESSMAN J. J. PICKLE APPOINTED TO L.B.J. SENATE SEAT

…According to a source close to the Congressman, Pickle will likely run in the special election that will be held next November for the remaining two years of Johnson’s term…

The Dallas Morning News, 11/5/1975



PORTUGESE QUIT ANGOLA AS CIVIL WAR RAGES ON!

…after being present in the region for 400 years, Portugal has withdrawn from Angola, granting it independence despite the clear power void present in the troubled African nation… The power struggle between pro- and anti- communist groups in Angola began in July, following the Carnation Revolution and the end of the Angolan War of Independence that was fought between 1961 and 1974…

The New York Times, 11/11/1975



FRANCO IS DEAD IN MADRID AT 82: Juan Carlos to Take the Oath as King Within 48 Hours

…Generalissimo Francisco Franco died early today after 36 years of dictatorial rule over Spain…

– The New York Times, 11/20/1975



…The Farming Relief And Drought Prevention Bill has passed the US Senate, just before the start of Thanksgiving break for the nation’s Senator. The bill was one of the last bills to be worked on by the late Senator and former President Lyndon Johnson…

– The Overmyer Network, 11/22/1975



“Hey, Harland.”

“Josephine.”

“You, um, you sound well.”

“You’re complimenting me? That’s rare.”

[exhale] “I’m just trying being polite to you, you idiot.”

“Why? Something the matter?”

“No, nothing, I just wanted to say, um, congrats on that Jerusalem Summit thing going so well. It’s been over a month, and I keep hearing about it.”

“Oh. Uh, well it wasn’t that big a shindig.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Harland. I know, probably better than anyone, how good a seller you are. I like your latest product – chicken with a side order of peace.”

“Gee, eh, thank, Jo.”

“Yeah.”

“And since you’re giving out compliments today, I give you one – it’s nice to hear you talk like this. You know, you could really be a sweetheart when you wanted to. It’s why I married you, remember?”

“I remember. Both the good times and the bad.”

“Don’t start – ”

“I’m not. There were more good times than bad. It’s just the bad times seemed to have mostly shown up toward the end of things.”

“Now, don’t you play mind games with me, Jo, I know I messed us up. You played your part too, though.”

“I know. No hard feelings, though, right, Harland?”

“Sure, Jo. Sure.”

“Alright, well, I’ve got to go now. And best of luck with what you’re doing.”

“Alright, then. I’ll Talk to ya later, Josephine.”

“Goodbye.”

– Audio of telephone call between Josephine King and Colonel Sanders (recorded by Secret Service at a time of increased death threats being made against the former President), 11/23/1975



At the age of 81, Mao could not take it anymore. On November 24, the leader passed away in his sleep, his health finally having succumbed to the stress of living in hiding n the midst of heavy warfare between Lin Biao’s anti-détente forces and Deng Xiaoping’s “Third Way Front.” Mao’s avid followers, the New Red Guard, had called Mao a God. Now, Mao’s followers were becoming more desperate in their attacks as the cult of personality crumbled away through disillusionment and disorganization. Zhou Enlai, now the Premier of a China tearing itself apart, retreated to Baicheng, northern-central Manchuria, while Mao’s wife failed to garner more power as the Maoist faction of the war collapsed. In its wake, the Third Way Front expanded beyond the coastal spots into additional rural regions. Deng even won over Tibetans and the ethnic minorities of Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, plus a plurality of support among the Thai and Indochinese populations in the south. Lin Biao turned his attention to retaining his forces’ base in the south – a very fateful decision...

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



Following Portugal’s withdrawal from the region, East Timor announced its independence from Indonesia on November 28 [1975]. Learning that the nation of Indonesia was planning to invade the new 5,700-square-miles-large nation, Mondale sought to prevent another region from falling into a state of warfare, telling his Chief of Staff Richard Moe, “I learned from Ethiopia – intervene before the puck hits the ice, not long after.” Mondale called Indonesia’s Suharto to warn him “a coup brought you into power; another coup could take you out of power.” To save face, Suharto opted to ignore East Timor and instead claim that the nation needed to focus more on the Papuan separatist movement, which was having much less success than the East Timor movement had had…

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



On December 1st, the Chinese Civil War of 1975 finally reached its conclusion. Deng Xiaoping’s assault on Beijing blindsided Lin Biao and his cohorts preoccupied with the fighting going on in the southern provinces. In the mêlée, Lin was shot and killed attempting to board a train to flee; his unofficial successor was Chen Boda. Chen surrendered after a partaking in a futile standoff with the soldiers surrounding him for twenty minutes. In an impromptu ceremony, Zhou Enlai was stripped of the title of Premier in absentia, and Dengwas announced to be the new Premier of the People’s Republic of China. Zhou would pass away from cancer not long afterward.

Aware of the amount of blood shed in the past several decades, Xiaoping supporter Ye Jianying, a top military leader in the Third Way Front, convinced Xiaoping to promise rural development and respect for “both old and new ideas” to placate remaining rebels in the country’s southern and middle regions. Additionally, alongside offering amnesty to former Lin and Mao supporters, and allowing rival politicians to retain party membership (setting a precedent, that losing a power struggle would not end in physical harm), Deng’s first reformist project once in power was to rejuvenate the nation’s post-war economy via his “Five Modernizations Plan.” There were five points of the plan – strengthen agriculture, improve industry, bolster defense, enhance scientific inquiries, and establish diplomatic relations worldwide.

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



JOSEPHINE KING, EX-WIFE OF COLONEL SANDERS, DEAD AT 87

King was born October 2, 1888, in Gamble, Alabama (an ironic name given her famous husband’s open disdain for gambling)… King died yesterday morning at her home in Lexington, Kentucky. …King kept a low profile during the Sanders administration, agreeing to only one interview in 1973, in which she avoided discussing politics, stating “I’m not political and I believe it to be bad form to hold onto grudges. That gives you wrinkles, you know.” …Colonel Sanders has already commented on the passing of her former wife of 38 years: “Josephine was a good and dear friend to so many to the end. Jo was a loving and caring daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and woman who’ll be missed by so many folks, I tell ya.” …Services will be held at the Central Christian Church in Lexington…

jyOAz3e.png

[pic: imgur.com/jyOAz3e.png ]
Above: King in her younger years

– The Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky newspaper, 12/7/1975



BUSINESSMAN RAY KROC ANNOUNCES LONG-SHOT BID FOR G.O.P. NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT

…“If Sanders could just barely do it, then this’ll be a cakewalk for me!”

The New York Times, 12/8/1975



NEW CHAIRMAN DENG XIAOPING ANNOUNCES CHINA’S MARKETS ARE OPEN AGAIN TO WESTERN INVESTORS

Offers To Start With Restoration & Re-Opening Of Beijing’s K.F.C. Restaurant

The Washington Post, 12/14/1975



REPORT: K.F.C.’S MILDRED SANDERS “EAGERLY” IN TALKS WITH CHINA, KFC-BEIJING LIKELY TO RE-OPEN “SOON”

The Washington Post, 12/16/1975



“For me, money is not everything. I was more interested in doing good and helping people than lining my pockets with green paper. I tried as best as I could as President to do this, but think being outside government bureaucracy, I can do even more good. [snip] I’d like to read Bible verse 1 Timothy 6:17-to-19, if y’all will oblige. It reads: ‘Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly, provides us with everything to enjoy.’ This means that no amount of riches can save your soul; only loving your God can do that. Then it reads, ‘That they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate.’ ‘Rich in good works’ – that true wealth there, folks. And ‘ready to distribute’? That’s not only something I preach – it’s something I practice. If you can give to someone in any way, do it, and you’ll spread hope and goodness farther than you’d ever thought you could.”

– Colonel Sanders speaking at a Sunday church service in Florence, KY, Sunday 12/21/1975



REPORT: MONDALE RECONSIDERING ETHIOPIAN TROOP LEVELS

May Scale Back Operations, “Regroup” Soldiers Until After Talks With Generals “Become More Productive”

The New York Times, 12/22/1975



BATTLE FOR AIR TRAVEL?: With Yesterday’s Successful Launch Of The Tu-144, Also Called “The Soviet Concorde,” Is This The Start Of An “Air Race” Between The US And USSR?

– The National Review, late December issue, 1975



RIGHT AND READY

– Reagan ’76 Campaign slogan, first used in early January 1976



HANK HIBBARD, AFTER MUCH CONSIDERATION, DECLINES TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT

Senator Endorses Reagan Instead

– The Independent Recorder, Montana daily newspaper, 1/5/1976



Do You Support American Military Intervention in Ethiopia?
Yes: 44%
No: 39%
Not Sure: 17%

– Gallup Poll, 1/8/1976



SENATOR ROMNEY THROWS HAT INTO RING

The Detroit Free Press, 1/9/1976



THE STORY BEHIND JOAN MONDALE’S SURPRISE M.T.M. CAMEO

…Mrs. Mondale became the first-ever First Lady ever to appear in a TV Show last Saturday, in an extended cameo at the end of the last Saturday’s episode of Mary Tyler Moore Show…

The Hollywood Reporter, 1/12/1976



MONDALE CREDITS UNION STRENGTH FOR SOUND ECONOMY, DEFENDS ETHIOPIA CHOICE, IN TONIGHT’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

The Washington Post, 1/19/1976



Barry Goldwater took full advantage of Arizona’s recently-passed “Johnson rule” to run for both President and another term in the US Senate at the same time. Running on a platform of “rational conservative” policies in his third Presidential bid (after being a candidate in 1964 and 1972), the 67-year-old former Senate leader believed he had the experience, connections and support necessary to finally win the nomination. That last element, however, was still up for debate as the Republican primaries neared. Especially in the wake of other, newer, fresher candidates emerging from the right side of the party, threatening to steal Goldwater’s thunder. Governor Reagan, Congressman Crane, businessman Ray Kroc, and even a fellow Arizonan, Congressman John Bertrand Conlon joined a large field of Presidential hopefuls as the new year began… [14]

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition




US SENATOR JOHN L. LeFLORE DIES AT 72

The Decatur Daily, Alabama newspaper, 1/30/1976



In light of the growing health movement of the 1970s, KFC announced on January 31, 1976, that there would be a no-smoking policy imposed onto all of its restaurants. Such a move had been made a few months earlier by Burger King, after a smoking customer caused a young boy in one of the chain's locations to suffer an asthma attack, requiring an ambulance to take him to hospital. The incident was bad publicity for Burger King and began a public conversation over the extent of the public’s exposure to smoking.

– Josh Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



The McDonald’s Man: What Ray Kroc Would Do in the White House

by Ralph Novak

Most people have an uncle like Ray Kroc. He is a high school dropout from an old-country neighborhood in a Midwestern city, a self-made businessman who has tried his hand at a lot of things and failed at many of them. He is opinionated, full of platitudes, suspicious of government officials, college professor, labor unions and people he calls “the minorities.” The men he most admires are such people as Mayor Richard Daley, Barry Goldwater and never-say-die football coach George Allen. Most people’s uncles, however, did not found the worldwide chain of restaurants called McDonald’s, launching the drive-in, fast-food era that has changed the face of America, as well as its eating habits. And very few uncles are worth $500million, which is a conservative estimate of Kroc’s current holdings.


Kroc is running for President on an essentially self-financed campaign focused on “restoring American values to the cities,” defending “America’s reputation overseas,” and, most importantly for Kroc, heavily deregulating all American industries. Kroc complains that it’s hard to run a business these days without the government getting in the way. Asks Kroc, “Did you know that June,” referring to June Martino, McDonald’s current CEO, “has to keep our job applications at all the McDonald’s on file for a year, so the government will know we aren’t discriminating against minorities? The people in Congress are stupid blunderers who are going to destroy our system. They never met a payroll, and they should just stay out of the way.”

Kroc is still bitter about his
two best-known ventures into politics. In 1966, he ran for Governor of California and lost by a 10-percent margin despite a liberal third-party candidate siphoning votes away from the unpopular Democratic incumbent. In 1972 he donated $255,000 to Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. He doesn’t regret the contribution, he says, only the furor that arose afterward over its alleged connection to a minimum wage bill that would raise the minimum for teenage workers – the core of McDonald’s work force. Ultimately, the U.S. Congress wouldn’t accept the provision and labeled the entire bill “inflationary.” The critics called it “McDonald’s Veto.”

Kroc nonetheless is enjoying himself
on the campaign trail, believing that he can win New Hampshire due to divided opposition. “This is not a vanity project for me; Romney and Rockefeller are going to let me win on a plurality, just you wait and see,” he assures me.

[snip]

In October 1972, Kroc was flush enough to celebrate his 70th birthday by giving more than $7.5 million to charity, part of it to his own Kroc Foundation, which supports research in diabetes, arthritis and multiple sclerosis (Kroc is afflicted with the first two diseases, his only sister the last)

[snip]

When McDonald’s is criticized for catering to Americans’ addiction to junk food, Kroc still takes it personally. “What do all those nutritionists and college professors and those Nader types know?” he says. “How many jobs have they ever created?” He is offended, too, by the occasional community protest over the prospective construction of yet another McDonald’s.

“It’s true that it would be hard to start a business like McDonald’s today, with all the interference you’d get from the government and the unions,” Kroc ruminates. “
That is why I’m running for President, to remove all the unneeded red tape. I think this country could use a lot of things like investments into technology and mineral extraction, financial and tax incentive to hire American citizens for workers, and to sell American products in America. Because our economy and our country cannot stay stronger under another four years of Mondale.” [15]

People Magazine, 2/16/1976 issue




However, in February of the next year, The L.A. Times reported that a proposed joint American-Soviet Aries-Soyuz Test Project was being viewed favorably by the White House. According to the report, Mondale saw a two-nation space flight as a testament to the power of détente, and told the US Ambassador to the USSR that it could be a way for the Soviets to “carry some of the burden of going into space.” Describing space exploration as a “burden” incensed politicians on the left and the right and on both sides of the aisle. Several Republicans running for President jumped on the controversial wording, causing the White House Press Secretary to “clarify” how the President had simply given a “poorly worded” comment. That was not enough for some politicians like Ronald Reagan, who used the incident to claim Mondale was “giving in” to the Soviets, “practically forfeiting space” to “the other side” of the Cold War; he and other Republican presidential hopefuls criticizing Mondale’s unpassionate view of NASA soon began to lead early hypothetical polling, making it seem like our budget would play a role in the politics of the 1976 Presidential election…

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



“Senator, I admire you, truly I do, but you’ve already run for the nomination twice now and you’ve lost twice. How about you let others take a shot at the net, huh?”

“You’re one to talk. I’ve won four consecutive senate elections. You lost your bid for Governor in a landslide. How about you let the winners take the shots?”

– Exchange between Senator Barry Goldwater and Businessman Ray Kroc at the Republican Presidential Primary Debate in Manchester, NH, 2/24/1976



REAGAN LEADS GOP PACK, NEW POLL SHOWS

The Sacramento Union, 2/25/1976



GOVERNOR ZUMWALT ANNOUNCES PRIMARY CHALLENGE FOR THE PRESIDENCY

Claims Mondale “Mishandling” Foreign Issues And “Neglecting” Domestic Issues

The Northern Virginia Daily, 2/28/1976



SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] Covered in Chapter 15; IOTL, it’s still not concrete exactly how AIDS got out of Africa, but I think the restrictive air travel laws and the lingering fear of Cam Bombs (plus the POD being in 1932) very well could have minimized its ability to spread.
[2] This really happened ( https://www.godupdates.com/colonel-sanders-accepted-jesus-testimony/ ), albeit in 1967 when he was 77 IOTL!
[3] Bit from Torontoist article: https://torontoist.com/2015/12/historicist-a-finger-lickin-good-mississauga-colonel/
[4] The Algiers Accord was a real thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Algiers_Agreement
[5] Text taken directly from its OTL wiki article.
[6] Because Cuba is not Communist ITTL, the MPLA receives no support from them, meaning practically all of their foreign support is from the USSR, which only sent them 11,000 troops between 1975 and 1991 IOTL (compare that to the 40,000 MPLA soldiers they had in 1976), according to Wikipedia.
[7] Italicized part is from Ozersky’s OTL book: https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/books/colonel-sanders-the-amer...
[8] Quote found here: https://www.today.com/popculture/can-you-handle-truth-bob-ross-famous-curly-hair-was-t102398
[9] The Colonel really was on the Phil Donahue Show IOTL, but IOTL it was to discuss “Being 70 in the ’70s,” and it was in January 1975 (when the Colonel was…84 years old… :/ ): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1533588/
[10] Italicized parts are found here: https://www.whyislam.org/judaism/similarities/ so if there’s something off about it, hey, I’m just quoting the info I found on the subject; I mean no offense nor the spreading of misinformation :)
[11] Italicized parts are from here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2015/02/12/saturday-night-live-40th-anniversary/23291405/
[12] Info found in this interesting article: https://timeline.com/by-the-end-of-...ealized-the-validity-of-violence-4de177a8c87b and I read elsewhere that X was reconsidering his most extreme policies toward the end IOTL, but, unfortunately, I lost the source for that info; sorry…
[13] Did I get the terminology right for this bit, @DTF955Baseballfan and @BrainD ?
[15] This whole segment is basically an edited version of this one: https://people.com/archive/the-mc-donalds-man-what-ray-kroc-hath-wrought-around-the-world-vol-3-no-19/

[14] Speaking of which, ahead of the 1976 G.O.P. primaries, I made a preference poll!: https://www.strawpoll.me/18757068
 
Post 33
Post 33: Chapter 41

Chapter 41: March 1976 – December 1976

“Discipline is remembering what you want.”

– David Campbell



pB5RNze.png


[pic: imgur.com/pB5RNze ]
– Colonel Sanders personally attending the Grand (Re)Opening of the KFC-Beijing Restaurant, 3/3/1976



As most of the masses celebrated the end of the fighting, Deng Xiaoping and his newest allies, the military-minded Ye Jianying and the statesman Zhao Ziyang, worked to reign in the remaining rebels refusing to adjust to the new era, to a China open to the best ideas the world – including the West – had to offer. The needs of the victims of the 1975 Tangshen earthquake were among the first issues to be addressed, and Deng accepted any foreign aid they received, provided none of it was anti-communist in any way. The most serious concern, however, was accounting for all known nuclear materials. Less than 50 nuclear devices, mostly short-range, were constructed between the first testing of one in 1964 and the breakout of the war, and those numbers were likely that low due to Mao’s détente with the US. No side in the civil conflict wanted to inherit a radiation-filled landscape, but to be on the safe side, prior to his death, Zhou Enlai oversaw the lockdown of China’s sophisticated tunnel network between its land-based silos, and blackout (radio silence) of Ballistic missile submarine platforms. Nevertheless, once the dust settled, Deng and company discovered two missiles were unaccounted for.

On March 12, Deng found out what happened to them in the form of a nuclear scare, when remaining Biaoist extremists, led by General Li Zuopeng and Lieutenant General Liang Xingchu, occupied the capital of Inner Mongolia and threatened to detonate the weapons in Beijing. Under Liang’s orders, a nearby missile silo was seized in a demonstration of their seriousness. Their demands: the resignation of Deng and the reinstatement of the Cultural Revolution under a new anti-détente regime led by Li, among other things.

Deng chose to stall for time as Ye Jiangying organized a clandestine search for the two nuclear weapons, both of which were eventually discovered in the city’s northern district and disabled before they could detonate. Concurrently, Deng had the power to the missile silo be shut off, and the launch procedures disabled. Then came the counterassault that saw the deaths of dozens on both sides, including Liang and Li, plus 80% of both the “rebels” and “loyalists” inside the silo. The bloody details of the crisis’ conclusion was hidden from the media, and they not disclosed until 1999. Last year’s Hollywood film adaptation of the events does not do justice for the lives threatened and lost in the incident.

The Silo Incident solidified Deng’s position of power and helped quash additional hostile groups…

– Yu Changgen’s Zhou Enlai: A Political Life, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006



NEWLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS REVEAL TAIWAN ALMOST INVADED MAINLAND CHINA!

The Taiwan Times Reveals Truth Behind Taiwan’s Unsettling Silence During The 1975 P.R.C. Civil War

...the war plans are dated October 1975, and they detail how the Taiwanese government planned to capitalize on the chaos that was unfolding in the People’s Republic of China between warring factions of the country’s Communist party. The government believed the unrest was an opportunity to weaken the grip of communism on China overall, and at the start of the fighting greenlit the spreading of pro-Taiwan propaganda in the mainland nation’s southern provinces. By October, this seemed to be having little affect, soon leading to Taiwan’s leader at the time, Yen Chia-kan, approving a military operation that would have seen Taiwan soldiers invade the coastal cities of Quanzhou and Fuzhou in January 1976. The operation was rendered moot under the civil war officially coming to a close in December 1975. …the feasibility of the operation is questionable. Calling for an impressively large amount of troops, the plan would have only worked if the three warring factions on the mainland had stayed divided in the midst of such an invasion. As the Chinese people put aside their difference to combat the Japanese Empire during the 1930s and 1940s, history suggests that such an invasion would have likely failed. Regardless, the documents are a valuable look into the inner workings of the Taiwan government and military during that period of the Cold War…

– USA Today, 5/25/2015



…In the first primary of the year, Senator George Romney edged out a victory in New Hampshire. President Mondale won just over 85% of the vote in the Gravel state’s Democratic primary, with Governor Zumwalt coming in second with almost 10%. Roughly 5% going to Gravel, who is not a candidate for President, due to the work of a write-in campaign organized by local progressive political activists…

– CBS Evening News, 3/2/1976 broadcast



Rockefeller suffered from being out of office for four years, a lifetime in the world of politics; plus, he had not actually won or even run for a political office since his re-election to the Governor’s seat in 1962, 14 years prior. Additionally, the New Yorker was no longer in peak health… On March 9, the Rockefeller Republicans that had hoped to keep the party out of Conservative hands won the state of Vermont, but lost the more delegate-rich Massachusetts primary to the more moderate, center-of-the-aisle Senator George Romney of Michigan…

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



REAGAN WINS FLORIDA PRIMARY: Kroc In Close Second!

– The Houston Chronicle, 3/16/1976



Ray Kroc seemed poised to win the Illinois primary, which likely would have given his campaign significant momentum. But just days before the people of Illinois went to vote, both of Kroc’s ex-wives went to the news to share their experiences with Kroc’s “unrestrained” alcoholism and other “uncouth” character traits. Kroc claimed the charges were all lies, spun by bitter ex-spouses, but once the accusations hit the pavement, but did nothing but hurt the Kroc campaign…

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



…The big news of tonight: the Democratic and Republic Presidential Primaries held in Illinois, um, President Mondale has won over challenger Zumwalt, 79%-to-20%. On the Republican side, businessman Ray Kroc lost his birth state to Senator Romney. Despite leading in the state’s polling a month ago, Kroc likely lost due to him splitting the Conservative vote between himself and Governor Reagan, uh, along with colorful accusations that have recently been made against Kroc…

– NBC News, 3/23/1976 broadcast



REAGAN WINS NORTH CAROLINA G.O.P. PRIMARY

Mondale Also Wins Democratic Primary in N.C.; Zumwalt Gets Only 12%

The Chicago Tribune, 3/30/1976



…Reagan found himself managing to win donors over from former ally Barry Goldwater, who, during a stump speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, dubbed himself “Reagan light.” Goldwater’s cold relationship with the “religious right” led by evangelists Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, plus the Senator’s shift to more libertarian-leaning stances in recent years, and Reagan’s successful selling of the image of Goldwater being “used goods” for his previous two primary campaigns all worked against Goldwater. …The ages of the top four candidates led to the Chicago Tribune dubbing the primaries to be “the battle of the geezers.” Nevertheless, with Goldwater running at age 67, Rockefeller at almost 68, and Romney at almost 69, the 65-year-old Reagan was the youngest of the so-called geezers. ...Mayor Charles Evers of Mississippi largely ran to voice political issues he felt weren’t being discussed; perennial candidate Harold Stassen ran as well, but apart from a surprise favorite son victory in Minnesota was effectively a non-issue in the primaries...

– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1976, Atheneum Publishers, 1977



…We founded the Apple Computer Company In, uh, April 1976, a year after Paul Allen and I co-founded Microsoft. The economy high the country was riding on at the time really helped out the company in those fragile years, um, those first few years…

– Bill Gates, KNN interview, 1995



Vote For Elmo Zumwalt: The Choice Is E-Z!

– Zumwalt’76 slogan, first used c. early April 1976



ZUMWALT DEMANDS BETTER ASBESTOS STANDARDS IN D.C. TESTIMONY

…Having served in the US Navy for 35 years, decorated war hero Elmo Zumwalt had much to say… The Presidential candidate testified before the Senate Committee on the use of asbestos in Navy vessels and public housing. Zumwalt told the committee “As Governor, I was exposed to the consequences of inferior interior home products. Consumption of asbestos in the US reached over 800,000 tons three years ago, but what too few of us realize is how unhealthy this material can be. I’ve been to the hospitals, and I’ve seen the navy veterans, and the home owners, and there’s a clear correlation between exposure to asbestos and developing lung conditions, and even cancer.” Zumwalt’s claims are backed by several public health organizations and reports, and Zumwalt is eager for Congress to act. “I banned the stuff in my state,” the retired Admiral stated, “now it’s up to the feds to address this.”

The Washington Post, 4/5/1976



“CAN I GET SOME RAGE WITH THAT?”: The Collapse of the Ray Kroc Campaign?

…Despite winning his first primary contest last night – Kroc achieved a plurality of 38% in Wisconsin – the businessman is “outraged” at “grossly underperforming,” according to a source close to the campaign whom also told us that Kroc is “heavily considering” firing his campaign coordinator… Zumwalt, meanwhile, achieved 15% of the vote against President Mondale…

The New York Post, 4/7/1976



ETHIOPIA’S DERG REGIME RETREATS FROM KEY STRONGHOLD

SEhZIkZ.png


[pic: imgur.com/SEhZIkZ ]
Above: A Derg Army convoy, destroyed in Tigray province, northern Ethiopia

The communist Derg forces in control of Addis Ababa lost important strongholds in the nation’s northern provinces….

– The New York Times, 4/9/1976



SUPREME COURT JUSTICE HASTIE HOSPITALIZED, RECOVERING “NICELY” FROM HEART ATTACK

– The Washington Post, 4/14/1976



REPORT: US MILITARY AIDING ANTI-COMMUNIST FORCES IN WAR-TORN ANGOLA!

The New York Times exposé, 4/15/1976



GOVERNOR REAGAN CALLS US “STRATEGY” IN ANGOLA “RECKLESS”

The Los Angeles Times, 4/16/1976



(Cold Open on office of the New York Governor. Belushi is sitting behind a desk)

JANE CURTIN (as AIDE): “Mr. Biaggi?”

JOHN BELUSHI (as MARIO BIAGGI): “Yes, what is it?”

CURTIN: “Your appointments for today, sir. With New York Presidential primary just days away, a lot of conservative candidates from across the aisle value you and your open willingness to endorse one of them over Mondale.”

DAN AYKROYD (as RONALD REAGAN): “That’s right, buddy.”

BELUSHI: “Ronnie, so nice to see you.”

AYKROYD: “So nice to see an endorsement from you.”

BELUSHI: “Ooh, I don’t know, Gipper. How do I know you’re what’s best for America?”

AYKROYD: “Because I say so. And besides, you help me become President, Californians will no longer have to deal with me being their Governor!”

BELUSHI: “That sounds like a…hostage situation!”

CURTIN: “Oh no, you’ve said the trigger word.”

BELUSHI: “Hey! That’s their word, we have no right to use it!”

CURTIN: “I said ‘trigger,’ sir. ‘Trigger.’”

BELUSHI: “Trigger? You mean there’s a gun pointed at me? Where is he?!” (jumps onto desk, draws handgun from holster)” “I’m not scared of no punk!”

AYKROYD: “Uh, I think I’ll come back later, so…” (darts out the room)

CURTIN: “Just as well, there is another conservative Republican wanting to ask your endorsement.”

(Garrett Morris (as Charles Evers) enters office)

BELUSHI: “Ah! A burglar!” (fires gun, only for it to click) “Empty? Bah!” (jumps off of desk and rolls behind couch, resurfaces with musket in hand)

CURTIN (standing between Belushi and Morris): “No, no, no, no! Sir, this is Charles Evers, he’s the Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, who agrees with your fiscal policies!”

MORRIS: “Yeah, the only thing I’m stealing from you is some of your talking points.”

BELUSHI: (stands up, walks around to stand between Morris and couch) (calmly) “Oh, well in that case…” (re-aims gun), “give me back my talking points and nobody gets hurt!”

CURTIN: “Sir!”

BELUSHI: “Don’t you worry none, I’m an ex-cop, so I know what I’m doing.” (steps backward, trips over couch. Guns fires, debris falls on Belushi)

CURTIN: “Mr. Governor! Are you alright?”

BELUSHI: (stands up) “Oh please, I’ve battled robbers, murderers, journalists, shoutniks and many angry police horses. It’ll take much more than a hole in the ceiling to take me down!”

(whistling suddenly heard off-screen)

MORRIS: “What’s that?”

CURTIS: “Oh, I forgot! The President is still waiting upstairs to talk to you, sir!”

CHEVY CHASE (as WALTER MONDALE): “Oh, is this the way down?”

(Chase drops from top of set, seemingly through “hole” in “ceiling,” making a humorous pratfall onto the couch, knocking Belushi to the ground. Both Chase and Belushi land on the floor in a comical fashion)

CHASE: (sits up, faces camera) “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

– Saturday Night Live, comedy sketch, Saturday 4/17/1976



MONDALE, ROMNEY WINS RESPECTIVE PARTY PRIMARIES IN NEW YORK, CONNECTICUT

The Washington Post, 4/20/1976



PENNSYLVANIA’S PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES: ROMNEY & MONDALE PREVAIL

The Star Tribune, 4/27/1976



EVERS FOR PRESIDENT?

…Despite his miniscule gains in the primaries so far, Mayor Evers continues on, spreading his messages of equality and fairness… One positive aspect of his campaign is his high preference polling in Washington, D.C.; if they are any indication, Evers is poised to win the district’s caucus, which would make Evers the first African-American ever to win a primary contest of either major party…

The Chicago Defender, 4/30/1976



TONIGHT’S G.O.P. PRIMARIES: GOLDWATER GETS HOME STATE, REAGAN NABS TEXAS

The Arizona Republic, 5/1/1976



ROMNEY WINS INDIANA, REAGAN GETS GEORGIA, EVERS TAKES D.C. IN G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

The South Bend Tribune, 5/4/1976



Ray [Kroc] finally gave up and dropped out after losing the Indiana primary because he had become just too frustrated with the whole system. Okay, I had, too, but, you know, plus, the donors were looking away from him and toward Reagan, and funding was drying up. And Ray wasn’t going to pour all of our wealth down into a money pit. I wouldn’t let him. We weren’t going to get the nomination, and so that was that.

– Joan Kroc, KNN Interview, 1983



THE PERSISTANT: Why Are These Men Still Running?

…Representative John Bertrand Conlin of Arizona is not polling above 1%, and he received only 3% in his home state’s primary on May 1. However, Conlin defends his remaining in the race with the statement “anything could happen between now and November.” Most pundits believe he may be sticking around on the off-chance that the RNC becomes brokered, meaning no clear frontrunner for the nomination can be obtaining via the primaries. …Representative Phil Crane of Illinois hoped to be the leading voice of conservatism in the party of Lincoln, only to be overshadowed by Governor Reagan. Crane received only 4% of the vote in his home state’s primary held in March. Perhaps Crane is mimicking Conlin’s campaign, or maybe even vying for a position in a Republican administration come 1977, if the GOP wins in November, that is. …Nobody in the party seems to like former Governor Mike Stepovich. Apart from his home state of Alaska, where his favorite son campaign is actually outpolling Goldwater and Romney, but not Reagan, Stepovich is consistently ranked the most unfavorable of the candidates in poll after poll. Many Republicans blame him for the party losing the 1972 Presidential election, claiming he was an unenthusiastic running mate who was not a benefit to the national ticket. Nevertheless, Stepovich believes that his brand of “frontier politickin’” will appeal to former diehard Colonel Sanders supporters, and rake in enough libertarians and moderates to find a path forward to the nomination. …All these politicians have little chance of even having an impact on the races planned for the upcoming weeks. On the other hand, in the words of the Colonel himself just two days ago, “I’d rather see ten men shouting over each other than see some of those men shoutin’ and the rest of the men with their mouths gagged shut. You want to run, you have every right to. Go make your voice and ideas heard, and let the people decide if they like the cut of your jib.”

The Lincoln Journal Star, 5/9/1976



…in tonight’s Republican Presidential contests, California Governor Ronald Reagan won the state of Nebraska, while former Governor and former US Health Education and Welfare Secretary Nelson Rockefeller won the state of West Virginia. On the Democratic side of the aisle, President Mondale won both contests by wide margins against his challenger, Governor Zumwalt, who has not won any primaries so far…

– CBS Evening News, 5/11/1976 broadcast



…Reagan failed to win either Republican Presidential primary held tonight. Instead, Nelson Rockefeller carried Maryland, while Senator Romeny easily carried his home state of Michigan…

– ABC News, 5/18/1976 broadcast



STANFIELD WINS NEW TERM AS P.C.S GAIN 10 SEATS IN TONIGHT’S FEDERAL ELECTION

…Stanfield’s party a clear majority of seats over Paul Martin Sr. (Liberal), Ed Broadbent (Progressive Tomorrow), and Réal Caouette (Ralliement Créditiste)…

Le Journal de Montréal (translated), 5/19/1976



BUS CRASH KILLS 33 IN YUBA CITY [1]

Los Angeles Times, 5/21/1976




SECRETARY NADER DEMANDS PROBE OF MANUFACTURER OF CRASHED YUBA CITY BUS

The Washington Post, 5/23/1976



HYPOTHETICAL MATCHUP:

MONDALE: 45%
REAGAN: 49%
OTHER: 1%
UNDECIDED: 5%

– Gallup Poll, 5/25/1976



On May 25, the news was quick to cover Reagan “sweeping” another cluster of state primaries and caucuses. Arkansas, Nevada, Tennessee, and Louisiana all went to the Gipper as the opposition remained fractured – Idaho went to Romney; Kentucky went to the Bluegrass State’s favorite son candidate, popular former Governor John Robsion Jr.; in his last victory before giving up the ghost and dropping out on May 30, Rockefeller edged out Romney in Oregon…

– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1976, Atheneum Publishers, 1977



…it seems Reagan’s momentum is continuing on from last week’s primaries, as the California Governors has just been declared the winner of the Montana and North Dakota primaries, both by wide margins, while Senator Romney narrowly won tonight’s Rhode Island primary…

– The Overmyer Network, 6/1/1976 news broadcast



The idea of building Teton Dam in eastern Idaho originated from good intentions. The region had suffered droughts in the past, and damming the Teton River theoretically would both create a local reservoir and generate hydroelectric power. On the other hand, construction would disturb the local trout population and interrupt a section of land known for its pristine and unspoiled beauty.

After California’s Van Norman Dam system captured the nation’s attention when in partially collapsed in February 1971, environmental activists were quick to oppose the construction on Teton River, especially after Idaho’s Governor since January 1975, the Republican Jay S. Amyx, came out as a strong supporter of the dam. The first related controversy of his administration was the required environmental impact statement released one month into office, as the anti-dam crowd found it too vague and substandard. Construction continued on despite additional concerns being raised over the feasibility of damning that area due to minor earthquakes having occurred in the region over the years. Nevertheless, Amyx “could not deny providing water and electricity” to the people in the area, as he would later state. He also would not cancel a $39milion dollar contract. Additionally, injunctions and appeals tried and failed to impede construction criticized for being inadequate, and lawsuits made against the state government were dismissed.

The dam was completed in November 1975, and began being filled immediately. On June 3, just as the filling phase was nearing completion, a leak formed, which grew into a muddy stream before expanding into a powerful fall as the Teton Dam collapsed.

The failure of the dam was blamed on permeable soil and records of some seismic activity in the area being overlooked by the project’s geologists. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, but the disaster was not the worst one to hit the northwestern United States; amazingly, due to local awareness of the controversial dam, upon reports of the leak appearing, downstream residents were quick to voluntarily evacuate. Only four people – a fisher who drowned when the overflowing Teton River enveloped the boat he was on, two elderly women, and an environmental activist – were killed by the breach. Governor Amyx subsequently tried to boast that the incident had less casualties than the 1971 Van Norman Dam breach. This backfired severely for the governor, as it made him come off as insensitive. It also returned public attention to Reagan’s leadership during the 1971 breach, which likely benefited Reagan’s Presidential campaign in the GOP primaries held just days after the 1975 breach.

The Teton Dam collapse had far reaching consequences [snip]. Additionally, the collapse had an impact on the career of Linda Moulton Howe. Born in Boise, Idaho, in 1942, Howe was a beauty pageant contestant and winner of the 1963 Miss Idaho crown, who became involved in environmentalism in the early 1970s. The disaster’s closeness to home led to her returning to Idaho…

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



ODIN LANGDEN, GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA, DIES AT 63

The Chicago Tribune, 7/6/1976



On June 8, the final “Super-packed Tuesday” of the Republican primaries inflated Reagan’s delegate count. Reagan picked up South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, and his home state of California, while Reagan barely achieved victory in New Jersey. The biggest win of the night, however, was the Buckeye State choosing to vote for a favorite son of sorts, as Congressman John Ashbrook of Ohio achieved a plurality in his home state, giving the regional conservative his sole primary victory in 1976. …The rise of Reagan seemed to clearly demonstrate a call for a more conservative kind of Republicanism, a rejection of the moderate approach to national politics that was understandable after the defeat of Vice President Scranton four years earlier.…

– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1976, Atheneum Publishers, 1977



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[pic: imgur.com/VPLqn2H ]
Total Number of Delegates: 2259
Delegates Needed to Win: 1130

– clickopedia.co.usa



CALLING FOR PARTY UNITY OVER POSSIBLY BROKERED CONVENTION, COLONEL SANDERS ENDORSES REAGAN

– The Washington Post, 6/17/1976



I remember this one time, I want to say, like, maybe, June ’76, when the Colonel created this minor incident when he smacked a cigar right out of a politician’s hand. It was during this anti-smoking inside public areas crusade era going on with a lot of fast-food joints, and Congressman Ashbrook pulled out a pack while campaigning inside a KFC in, I think, Cleveland. The Colonel was scheduled for a photo-op with him, but when he tried to light up right after, the Colonel kind of overreacted. Some called him a control freak. Maybe he was just really, really passionate, though, you know?

– Elvis Ray Price, Colonel Sanders’ stepson, in a rare interview, 1994



On 16 June 1976, students from secondary schools across Soweto marched through the township toward the Orlando Stadium. They planned a peaceful procession and gathering to demonstrate their opposition to the government’s plan to change the medium of instruction in their schools from English to Afrikaans. Many of the students believed that this would be a carnivalesque [sic] occasion, filled with laughter… This was not to be. In the early hours of the morning, the South African Police began to gather at street corners scattered along the students’ route and began to challenge isolated groups of students. These early incidents gave rise to rumours of police violence, which ran through Soweto, and then erupted into fact… outside the Orlando West High School.

Here, a group of between thirty and fifty policemen confronted a large crowd of students. …a White policeman hurled what seemed to be a teargas shell – which released a cloud of smoke and gas – into the ground… a White policeman pulled
[ed] out his revolver… and fir[ed] it. As soon as the shot was fired other policemen also began firing. Soon, three children were dead, and in a matter of just a few hours, violence had spread across Soweto. AS the police attempted to restrict the students’ movements, and suppress their protest, large numbers of the youth began to resist… they picked up stones and threw them at the police, they used sticks to resist assaults, they set fire to a post office and the local administration office and, as the day progressed, they made makeshift Molotov cocktails from petrol, glass and rags. They ran from the police, taking advantage of their knowledge of backyards and alleyways; they evaded arrest, and turned the streets of Soweto into a battlefield.

…The violence spread, rapidly, to other sites and other townships across South Africa… In Soweto itself, students and their supporters set up an alternate structure of local governance, working in the gaps left by the withdrawal of the state’s bureaucracy from the township. These efforts provided the foundations for the development of an organized opposition within South Africa, which would link up with the exiled liberation movements and begin to organize a concerted challenge to apartheid rule.

The explosion of protest in Soweto thus reshaped South Africa’s politics and began the process that led to the end of the apartheid order and the creation of the new post-apartheid state.
[2]

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016




Biko’s movement gained popularity after the Soweto Uprising began, though white South Africans continued to support Nelson Mandela’s message favoring a “peaceful transition.” On this, Biko commented “he’s behaving because is already in jail. He has nothing left. We still have our live; we still have the ability to fight back!”

– clickopedia.co.usa/Steve_Biko



The Senator was impressed by how, even with the newspapers celebrating his accolades, citations and trophies strewn across the wall, the main offices maintained a sense humbleness. “He hasn’t even begun work on a Presidential Library, has he?” The Senator wonders.

Upon asking for a chance to meet with Father, he was informed “The Colonel just stepped out” of KFC headquarters in Florence [Kentucky], and the Senator was told he could be found inspecting one of our newest KFC outlets.

The Senator soon found himself following Father around the kitchen of a KFC located in Gillette, Wyoming. Following my giving of an update on Ollie’s Trolleys – Ol’ J.Y.B. Jr. was still not giving up the ghost, still thinking that an artisanal burger joint could bury the Wendyburger – the Senator finally got to Father’s ear.

“Colonel, I really think we could use your chicken dinner summit as a springboard for international achievements,” he explained his reason for being there while squeezing past the fryers. “I have a lot of connections due to my presence on the foreign affairs committee.”

“I have connections, too, though.”

Ducking to avoid a collision between himself and a worker carrying a tray of not-yet-fried pieces, the Senator continued “I can help you reach out to Israeli ministers Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman if you want.”

“Fine, sure. Whatever’ll help prevent the crazies from killin’ innocents over there,” Father approved of the proposed assistance.

“Now it won’t be an official D.C. thing, not emoluments or conflict of interests or anything like that, right?” I asked as a janitor wheeled by a cart for a last-minute clean-up in the back.

“No, no, just an unofficial helping out of a fellow American humanitarian.”

“Alright,” Father readied himself for the ribbon-cutting. As he approached the ceremony location, he added, “say, I don’t think I caught your name.”

“James, Mister President, James Carter, but most folk call me Jimmy.”

“Hold this for me, would you, Jimmy?” Father handed the Senator the case for the giant scissors, so Father could get to officially opening the restaurant.

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



REECE LEADS LABOR TO VICTORY; SET TO BECOME P.M. No. 19

Canberra – MP Eric Reece, the former Premier of Tasmania, has led his party to obtaining a clear majority in tonight’s federal election. Incumbent Prime Minister Sir John McEwen of the Country party has led Australia since his 1972 victory over incumbent Harold Holt, overseeing a Liberal coalition. McEwen, age 76, suffered in the weeks leading up to the election from health issues, along with continued criticisms of his leadership from inside the coalition. Voters had this to compare to the more energetic Reece – despite turning 67 yesterday – and unified campaign. …With this election, it seems that the “inevitable collapse” of the Liberal coalition leadership Reece once predicted may in fact come to pass…

The Australian, daily newspaper, 7/7/1976



Murphy managed to kick his gambling addiction thanks to veteran rehabilitation and addiction-combating programs set up during the third term of California Governor Pat Brown, followed by Governor Ronald Reagan’s April 1971 outlawing of all slot machines in California (a favor to the Religious Right that elected him to office), which bothered Murphy, as he disliked having to travel out of state to gamble. These factors helped Murphy to instead focus on getting out of debt, staring by appearing in numerous TV shows and, to a lesser extent, films, which also increased his fame. In 1976, he appeared in a critically-acclaimed, Emmy-award-winning episode of M.A.S.H. in which he plays a 50-year-old smuggler visiting the hospital who is soon revealed to be a Spanish Civil War veteran still suffering from “shell shock.”… [3]

– clickopedia.co.usa/Audie_Murphy




…Tonight, in the third and second-to-last night of the Democratic National Convention here in New York City, the allotment of presidential delegates was finalized. President won re-nomination with 95.3% of the total delegate count, with Governor Elmo Zumwalt of Virginia winning 3.9%, largely from protest delegates from Virginia, and from protest delegates from several other southern states. The remaining 0.8% of the delegates were scattered. …The allotment of Vice-Presidential delegates was a much smaller landslide in favor of Vice President Gravel. Gravel won the nomination over several more conservative undeclared candidates such as Senators Jimmy Carter and Scoop Jackson, and Governor Mario Biaggi. Nevertheless, Gravel won re-nomination with 78.8% of the total delegate count…

– CBS Evening News, 7/14/1976 broadcast



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– President Mondale and First Lady Joan at the 1976 DNC, 7/15/1976



CO-HOST: …This morning’s top news story surrounds the result of a referendum held in New Jersey. By a narrow margin, New Jersey voters have rejected a referendum that would legalize gambling in the Garden State’s shore towns of Cape May, Atlantic City, and Toms River.

[FOOTAGE PLAYS]

VOICE-OVER: The results come two years after a 1974 referendum asking the same question saw voted down by a wider margin. The Garden state’s coastal cities, once a favorite spot for R&B nightclubs, had been experiencing economic decline for years, with the post-Salad Oil Recession years of 1964 and 1965 being their worst. However, upon the implementation of New Jersey Governor McDermott’s campaign promise of an “Income Supplementation Dividend,” or “Negative Income Rebate,” the state has seen a drop in poverty rates. The economic situation may have also been aided by the state financing personal financing classes in public schools since 1972. There were other factors in state voters rejecting the legalizing of gambling, though – conservatives campaigning against “moral decay,” many pointing to former President Sanders for being, to paraphrase their own message, a man who became a success and never gambled. Furthermore, with the economy still going strong, the state ISD is allowing for more people to have expendable income, which is increasing the quality of life in New Jersey, especially for the people living in and around the cities of Cape May, Atlantic City, and Toms River…

– ABC’s Good Morning America, 7/19/1976 broadcast



…We have an update of the Yuba City Bus Disaster that shocked us all a couple of months ago: the bus’s manufacturer is fighting production criticisms by officially blaming the deaths on the bus driver…

– The Overmyer Network, 7/20/1976



MONDALE SIGNS ANTITRUST IMPROVEMENTS ACT INTO LAW

Associated Press, 7/27/1976



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[pic: imgur.com/f7bFXne ]
“Dammit, where the hell’s that waiter of ours?”
“Ronald, you do realize that if we’d gone to a McDonald’s like I had suggested, we’d be done eating by now, right?”
“Ah, shut up, Donny.”

– A(nother) (in)famous moment of Reagan showing his surly side, this time being caught on a “hot mic” during lunch with Senator Howard Baker (R-TN) and Congressman Donald Rumsfeld (R-IL), 8/1/1976



The hosting of the XXI Summer Olympics in Los Angeles had political ramifications, too. The American winners of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze made the people of California and the nation proud of themselves. California’s Governor, then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, milked the good feelings of accomplishment and American greatness for all they were worth on his 1976 campaign for the White House...

– Sports Illustrated, 2008 e-issue



U.S. JOINS U.K.-LED COALITION OF U.N. TROOPS IN UGANDA SEEKING TO OUST DICTATOR AMIN

The Washington Post, 8/12/1976



“I don’t think we have any business over there, upheaving far-away places without any understanding of how to settle things once the job is done. I said as much in the cabinet meetings, but my voice was in the minority even more so than usual.”

– Vice President Gravel, 8/14/1976



“The Vice President is racist for not wanting to save Black people from a butchering despot.”

– Malcolm X in radio interview, 8/15/1976



…Ronald Reagan held only a delegate plurality at the start of this convention. However, as the Reagan supporters cheering behind me indicate, the conservative Governor has since won over enough delegates from the suspended Ashbrook, Ray Kroc and even, to a lesser extent, Goldwater campaigns, in order to reach the number of delegates required to prevent the convention from going to a second ballot.”

– CBS Evening News, 8/17/1976



…Reagan considered William Scranton’s selection of Mike Stepovich to be “shortsighted,” “reactionary,” and “just plain dumb,” believing that Stepovich lacked the name recognition or voting record that would satisfy conservatives and win over independents; the Scranton/Stepovich also did not present itself as a regionally or ideological balanced ticket, either. On the other hand, Democrats had gone for a unity ticket just four years prior, and if reports were true, Mondale and Gravel were more often at odds and at each other’s throats than not. “I need a running mate I can run with and Vice President I can work with,” Reagan told the leaders of his vetting team.

Due these circumstances and parameter, the vetting process for prospective running mates was more extensive that it had been for Republicans in 1972, and 1964 and 1960 as well, for that matter. Reports indicated that candidates as ideological diverse as Paul Fannin, George Romney, and Ed Brooke were vetting. However, after lengthy background checks, weeks of internal poll testing, and several one-on-one interviews between the candidates and the nominee-in-waiting, Reagan’s once-large selection of options was reduced to just one name, a candidate that balanced out Reagan’s lack of military experience and bolstered his appeal in the majority-Democratic southern states. With Reagan believing that securing the south was key to winning the election, he finalized his decision…

– Ted White’s The Making of the President: 1976, Atheneum Publishers, 1977



“The need to defend our freedom-loving allies oversees requires a lucid and experienced team at the helm of the great guiding ship of liberty that is the Presidency of the greatest nation on Earth. With the nations of Angola, Ethiopia, and Uganda on the brink of falling to communist forces, we need a lucid and experienced team in the White House right now. That is why I have chosen the great Army General, the former Ambassador to Laos and the current Governor of South Carolina, William Westmoreland, to be my running mate.”

– Ronald Reagan, on the third night of the 1976 Republican National Convention (8/16-19/1976), 8/18/1976



GENERAL ELECTION MATCHUP:

MONDALE: 34%
REAGAN: 56%
OTHER: 1%
UNDECIDED: 9%

– Gallup Poll, 8/22/1976



The Naval deployment of fighter jets to the war-torn areas during the Ethiopia Intervention of 1975 was overseen by Colonel Frank Powell Sanders (1919-1997), who served as the U.S. Undersecretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 before becoming the U.S. Secretary of the Navy in 1974. His involvement led to a minor misunderstanding early on in the war effort when military officials referred to him as “Colonel Sanders,” causing reporters to falsely report that the former President was working for the military. The matter was quickly cleared up, but not before Colonel Harland Sanders heard of it; the former President laughed off the incident, and later met with the other Colonel Sanders in Washington, D.C. in August 1976.

– Josh Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



SENATE PASSES NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT ACT

The Washington Post, 8/26/1976



I was sent to Angola when I was 22. I ended up in Lobito, a wet, windy and muddy hub on the coastline, several clicks south of the capital of Luanda. Me and the rest of the Sea Bees there spent most of our time building up the ports and the airfields, paving the way for our men in uniform to come in a teach the locals how to shoot a frickin’ gun the right way.

– Harley Brown, 2014 interview



CBS’s M.A.S.H.: What To Expect For The Next Season

…According to a source close to the actor, Jamie Farr’s Maxwell Q. Klinger character may not appear as often as he has in prior seasons, as Farr preps for another role on ABC…

People Magazine, late August issue



“If you are elected President, how would you address homelessness in poverty-stricken parts of the country?”

“Well, in an economy as strong as ours, and in a country where anyone can pick themselves up by their own bootstraps and make something out of themselves, only those who want to be homeless are living on the streets.” [4]

– Exchange between a reporter and Ronald Reagan (a.k.a., the “Bootstraps Gaffe”), 9/1/1976




MARS MISSION A SUCCESS!: Unmanned Spacecraft “Aries 1” Lands On Martian Surface [5]

– The Houston Chronicle, 9/3/1976




TIMETABLE AND TOPICS FINALIZED AHEAD OF NEXT WEEK’S MONDALE-REAGAN DEBATE

The Baltimore Sun, 9/5/1976



Welcome Back, Kotter
was an American sitcom developed by former U.S. Department of Defense intern and future US Senator Gabe Kaplan. The series starred Kaplan as a sardonic wise-cracking high school teacher named Gabe Kotter who is put in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial class called “the Sweathogs” (played by John Travolta, Ron Palillo, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Bobby Hegyes and others) at the fictional James Buchanan High School in New York City. Contrasting Kotter’s flamboyant and positive Socratic teaching style is the more conservative and reserved fellow teacher Eugene Curtis (played by Jamie Farr of “M.A.S.H.” fame) of Midwestern origin, who does his best to maintain a by-the-book standard of teaching amid the antics of the Sweathogs and Curtis’ own peculiar habits. Both teachers try to reach their students through different means as a way of the series to explore how teachers can impact their students. In later seasons, the episodes additionally focused on the personal lives of the students, and how their relationships and socio-economic conditions affect their academic standing as well. Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the series originally aired on ABC, and ran from September 7 1976 to [snip] and helped launch the careers of Kaplan, Travolta and Hilton-Jacobs….

– clickopedia.co.usa/Welcome_Back,_Kotter/episodes



MONDALE: “Reagan would have us revert to the ways of the Turn of the Century, when the national economy depended on the whims of J. P. Morgan and the Rockefellers.”

[snip]

REAGAN: “I would return America to the front of the pack, because right now America is lagging behind the Soviets on the world stage. The Soviets are moving faster than us. They are winning the Cold War every time we let down our vigilance. We must not become complacent and reliant on others. We must stand strong on the world stage.”

[snip]

MONDALE: “I find it amazing that Governor Reagan thinks that social programs are bad for us at a time of unprecedented economic growth. Oil prices have stabilized since the oil shock of 1973, and social security is stronger than ever.”

[snip]

REAGAN: “Under a Reagan administration, not only will unions be left alone, but so will your paychecks. A vote for Reagan is a vote for lower taxes, a balanced budget, and a stronger American military.”

MODERATOR: “President Mondale, your reply?”

MONDALE: “Ladies and Gentlemen, my opponent promises to somehow increase military spending without raising taxes or cutting federal services, which is impossible. And we know it is impossible because we have seen how Reagan has governed California these last five or so years, where Reagan not only hollowed out statewide services, but he also gave tax cuts to the wealthy instead of to the lower and middle classes. He claimed that would lead to the wealthy helping the lower classes. The wealthy have not done so. But do you know who could help the lower classes in California? You could, Ronnie, so why aren’t you?”

REAGAN: “There goes another Democrat, pointing his finger at the closest Republican he can find.”

– Transcript of the First Mondale-Reagan Presidential debate, Wednesday, 9/15/1976



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– US Senator Richard Nixon watching the second 1976 Presidential election debate, 9/15/1976



GENERAL ELECTION MATCHUP:

MONDALE: 44%
REAGAN: 46%
OTHER: 1%
UNDECIDED: 9%

– Gallup Poll, 9/19/1976



Reagan fumbled in failed attacks to paint Mondale as weak on foreign affairs due to the US’s recent victories in Ethiopia, and in the US joining the UK government in its own intervention in Africa, attempting to oust Amin from Uganda. …On September 20, less than a week after the debate, Reagan mocked Mondale for opposing tobacco companies at a public function in Texas. The Mondale campaign took the opportunity to criticize Reagan, calling him “out of touch” with the anti-smoking movement of the past few years. On September 30, the Mondale campaign first aired the “Too Young To Die Like This” campaign ad depicting a young boy lying in a hospital dead and a nearby doctor describing the symptoms of lung cancer, followed by audio of Reagan’s pro-smoking comment “what’s wrong with a puff here and there?”

The ad, while having an impact on the election, also contributed to more Americans opposing smoking, especially smoking around children; to mothers prepping to vote, smoking was now a major issues, creating a “morality versus businesses” debate in congressional districts over the extent of public health laws…

– Gary C. Jacobson’s The Power and the Politics of Congressional Elections, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015



September 21, 1976: on this day in history, “Second City Television” (also called “SCTV,” for short) premiers on Global Television Network, a Canadian network of channels that, ironic given its title, was at the time a small regional network in Southern Ontario. However, the eventual success of SCTV helped the GTN to expand to all Canadian provinces by 1979. In the 1980s, SCTV’s expansion into American television led to it being dubbed “Canada’s Saturday Night,” referring to the rival sketch comedy series “Saturday Night Live” (also called “SNL,” for short).

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



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– Colonel Sanders inspecting a KFC kitchen, c. September 1976



THE “ME” DECADE AND THE THIRD GREAT AWAKENING

…Meanwhile, both fat cat parties on the Hill are torn over these two pools of thought, of communitarianism and individualism. The Fritz preaches communities and collaborative harmony among individual diverse groups – well, except for management – while the shrinking southern half of his party bats their eyes at the Gipper, praising the idea of a rugged frontier life, independent of government handouts, that paradoxically sees those same frontiersmen hold hands and helping each other out on their own while the upper classes go undisturbed by the needs of this mythical modern-day frontier…

– Tom Wolfe's famous "Me" Decade essay, published in New York magazine, 9/25/1976



Lieutenant Colonel Bo Gritz was not as courageous as he would have you believe. He was more focused on promoting a baseless image of himself than actually leading his men in the Special Forces. For example, in September ’76, when preparing in Gondar for one operation to take out Tafari Benti, one of the main leaders of the Derg, Gritz insisted we use helicopters to enter the area despite the fact that we knew from Indochina, and he should have known this, too, that choppers are too loud for stealth ops. Pretty obvious, actually. But he was adamant, so the higher-ups reassigned him to a royalist city in Oromia, in eastern Ethiopia, the more arid, drier section of the country, and we got the job done without him. Ironically, Gritz actually survived plenty of action over there, too, when the local Somalian population finally, eh, really started taking advantage of the civil war mostly tearing up the western and northern, uh, the wetter half of the country, later that year…

– Eric L. Haney, army counterterrorist specialist and Ethiopian Campaign veteran, 2005 interview



COPYRIGHT REFORM ACT SIGNED INTO LAW

The Washington Post, 9/30/1976



…Then there was this other soldier, John Hinckley Jr, who, having spent a lot of time practicing shooting with family-owned guns, signed up for the US military upon hearing great things about warfare from some army recruits. He was almost kicked out of boot camp for insubordination four times but ultimately made the cut, only to be one of the first American soldiers killed in the ousting of Amin. I was his CO, and I remember how Hinckley had this mad look in his eyes so much of the time. He loved the bloodshed and hated almost everything else about serving in the military. He was trigger-happy. He was killed when he chased an injured Amin loyalist around a corner, right into a trap, and he was gunned down.

– retired Gen. Max Cleland, describing an example of a “bad” soldier, KNN interview 2016



AMIN CAPTURED ALIVE!

After several stunning events, the Ugandan dictator has been overthrown and captured alive. The story so far: after UN-peacekeeping forces closed in on the despot’s location near the city of Gulu, Amin’s getaway plane took off, only for it to be hit and damaged by anti-aircraft weaponry as it passed over the Sudanese city of Juba, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Sudan. Currently, it is unclear if UK and Ugandan forces had permission to enter Sudanese territory, but local authorities were compliant as Sudan was part of the UK-lead anti-Amin Operation Drywater. Amin was shot and wounded attempting to flee from the wreckage, which killed both pilots. Amin, a heavyset former boxer, was sedated via a dart from a tranquilizer dart gun used by a Sudanese official. At the current time, it is mostly likely that Amin is to be returned to Uganda, where he will stand trial for the atrocities committed under his 5-years-long regime...

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 10/10/1976



…The Second Annual Chicken Dinner Summit received more attention than the first, and had a more impressive guest list. …One major speaker was Musa al-Sadr, a Lebanese-Iranian philosopher and Shia Muslim religious leader from a long line of distinguished clerics. Born and educated in Iran and belonging to Sadr family in Lebanon, his family claimed they could trace their ancestral roots all way back to prophet Muhammed. A towering figure in both Syria and Lebanon, his presence made observers wonder if his presence would convince said nations to develop more peaceful relations with Israel [6]. …In his own speech of the evening, the Colonel reflected on his ability to sell his chicken to people by “offer[ing] something they’d be interested in having.” As such, the Colonel suggested cooling tensions with Middle Eastern countries via trade deals, arguing “no matter how small, that connection can bring people together.” The Colonel also discussed the possibility of scientific advancements being worked on to benefit both countries – solar power, desert terraformation, and other forms of technology that could make people “come together through common ground.” The speaker after him, incumbent US Ambassador to Lebanon and peace activist Landrum Bolling of Indiana, praised the Colonel and called for the people of Israel, Palestine and Egypt to “raises their voices” in order to make their leaders aware of their wants, needs and concerns…

– Josh Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



MODERATOR: “…Why did it take so long for America to intervene in Ethiopia?”

MONDALE: “Because all leadership choices require an understanding of the situation before the right decision can be made. The region, the people, and the ways of the region and its people, those are all vital aspects. We did not immediately enter Ethiopia because strong leadership requires knowledge, learning about the situation first, because pragmatism does not mean ‘invade first, find a way out later.’ More so, we must aim for peace, not conquest, when warfare becomes a necessary evil. As such, I have to point out that Reagan has no plans for how to combat communist aggression other than to send in our men to kill or be killed, and on an actual battlefield such thinking is morally questionable and unquestionably irresponsible.”

[snip]

REAGAN: Well, one aspect of the Presidency that I think has been long-ignored in this election cycle for far too long is domestic policy, and of Mondale’s pushing and backing of irresponsible domestic policies. …We need to rethink our approach to immigration, as too many immigrants are a drain on the average American working man, worsening employment opportunities, raising the national debt, and raising crime rates… [snip]”

MONDALE: “I’ve heard the national debt be blamed for a lot of things, but not for illegal immigration before!” [7]

[snip]

MONDALE: “This election will determine whether or not Americans want a continuation of the policies of the last four years, policies like the protection of women’s rights, civil rights, and worker rights, which my opinion is not so enthusiastic for.”

REAGAN: “Now just a moment – ”

MODERATOR: “Mr. Governor, the President still has 50 seconds.”

REAGAN: “No, wait a minute, as Governor I – .”

MODERATOR: “Governor, you’ll have your turn to – .”

REAGAN: “No, I’m going to finish my thought now before the President continues telling lies! Do not interrupt me!”

[snip]

REAGAN “Um, with my closing remarks, I’d like to thank everyone for putting this debate event together, and to apologize for my talking out of turn before.”

– Transcript of the Second Mondale-Reagan Presidential debate, Wednesday, 10/20/1976



Once again, America is left without a debate between the running mates despite its potential to be a passionate shouting match the press and the public would enjoy. But at least yesterday’s mudslinging competition had an entertainment quality of its own, one akin to the Ancient Roman throwing of prisoners into lion dens, as Mighty Mondale tore Ron the Con a new one.

– Hunter S. Thompson, Tumbleweed Magazine article, 10/21/1976



“Mentally, I think Reagan may be very intelligent, but emotionally, he is clearly too unstable to be put in charge of America’s military and nuclear arsenal.”

– Former Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), 10/22/1976



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Above: Reagan, losing his temper, starts shouting at the moderators during the second Mondale-Reagan debate.

Mondale experienced a significant surge in the polls come October, as the support of anti-communist forces in Angola, and the more direct efforts in Uganda and Ethiopia began to finally bear fruit, and the President exceeded expectations in his second and final debate with Ronald Reagan. Additionally, Reagan failed to properly respond to post-debate claims that he and his conservative proposals – tax cuts for the upper classes and being more assertive in regards to the US’s interactions with the USSR – were “incredibly dangerous,” as the Vice President called them.

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



KAREN BLACK (as ANN WRABEL): “…and now, let us welcome to the stage the Presidential candidates, President Mondale and Governor Reagan.”

(cut to candidates at the podiums; Chase/Mondale is dressed like Dracula, while Aykroyd/Reagan pecks nervously at an arm bandage)

CHEVY CHASE (as WALTER MONDALE): “Good evening, I bid you all welcome. I must apologize for this getup, I mislabeled my calendar and thought today was Halloween.”

DAN AYKROYD (as RONALD REAGAN): “Ain’t a bloodsucker a bit on the nose there, Fritz? (pause) I must apologize for my own appearance, though – some fuzzy maniac, most likely a shoutnik, jumped out of the bushes and bit me the other day.”

CHEVY CHASE (as WALTER MONDALE): “Strange, a handsome man jumped out of the bushes and bit me the other day. I’ve had trouble with all the White House mirrors ever since.”

BLACK: “Well let’s get right to it, shall we? Mr. President, pundits have complained that while your policies are sound, your performance in the debates was unenthusiastic and lackluster, making your supporters fear you are not inspiring enough to win over undecided voters. Do you agree?”

CHASE: (monotone) “No, I do not disagree. I am a very interesting person, just ask the people I pay to tell say so. Sure, I may not engage in interesting activities like sunbathing and Italian food, but I am relatable. Like everyone else, I like music, dancing, and slaughtering farm animals for their sustenance. That last activity benefits farmers, by the way – I recently passed a farming insurance law that covers ‘acts of the undead’.”

JOHN BELUSHI (as SECOND MODERATOR): “Okay, next topic. Um, Governor Reagan, your demeanor in the last debate was also controversial, as it has bolstered claims that you are attempting to hide an aggressive personally. Care to explain yourself?”

AYKROYD: “Heh, heh, well, I’m an actor; that makes it okay for me to get so dramatic!” (begins scratching back of ear with foot (via fake foot prop held by opposite hand) “Anybody else really got a hankerin’ for raw meat?”

GARRETT MORRIS (as THIRD MODERATOR): “Back to President Mondale. Fritz, I’ll be blunt – why did you not intervene in Ethiopia until almost a year after the fighting began?”

CHASE: “Because it wasn’t politically beneficial, bwah, hah, hah – ah, no, I mean, because it wasn’t a major issue for me to capitalize on, ha ha – no, no, just the major issue part. ...my, what a lovely neck you have, sir.”

(cut to Morris, with a concerned look on his face, wrapping thick scarf around neck while holding up a cross with other hand)

AYKROYD: “Now, see, this is what the President does – he’s always complimenting people, only to suck the life out of your paychecks with taxes for things people don’t need like paved roads, public schools, hospitals…and dogcatchers,” (scratching arm) “and wolf hunters and…” (rubbing neck, fur now being visible around bandaged arm) “it is hot in here?”

CHASE: “Bwah, ha ha. Ah,” (seriously) “Don’t mess with me, Ronnie, or did you forget which one of us is friends with the unions?”

AYKROYD: “You don’t scare me. I ate garlic right before I came.”

CHASE: (hisses, vampirishly) “How about Hoffa, Reuther, Chávez, and Zombie Samuel Gompers. Do they scare you?”

(cut to Aykroyd, now disheveled and with fur ticking out from sleeves and shirt’s neck hole)

AYKROYD: (growls, werewolfishly)

BLACK: “Excuse me, gentlemen, but could we please stay on topic?”

AYKROYD: (shouts, angrily) “You lookin’ for a fight, sister?”

BLACK: “Let’s just skip to the closing statements. Mister President, you didn’t bark at me, so you first.”

CHASE: (slowly, flatly, and in monotone) “My fellow Americans, I will be blunt – I may be a creature of the night – by which I mean to say that D.C. politicians often pull all-nighters – and I might be a gloomy, wooden person… but at least I’m not that” (points to Reagan, now shirtless and snarling while foaming at the mouth)

BLACK: “As Governor Reagan, your closing statement?”

AYKROYD: (howls, leaps off stage and runs off screen)

BLACK: “That’ll do, I suppose. Well, that concludes tonight’s program and we apologize for this Presidential debate.”

– Saturday Night Live, comedy sketch, Saturday, 10/23/1976 [8]



“October was not at all a good month for the Gipper. The debates and the gaffes had cast him as an outdated, out-of-touch, mean grouch of a person, trying to pretend to be a friendly guy. Reports showed he was failing to win over independents while Mondale appealed to some on both sides of the aisle. A minor incident, I remember, occurred in Missouri, after the debate. Reagan was fiddling with his hearing aid when it fell out onto the stage he was on. He bent down to pick it up, lost his balance, and fell off the stage. He was alright, but the fumble certainly didn’t help us out in the polls, that’s for sure.”

– John Patrick Sears, political strategist for the Reagan’76 campaign, 2004 interview



POLL: MONDALE INCREASING LEAD OVER REAGAN

…Not only has Reagan’s conservative policies and anti-union actions taken while Governor come under scrutiny as of late, but with the economy healthy, Reagan’s temper being questioned, and the US military being viewed as increasingly successful abroad, voters are becoming more confident in the current administration’s abilities and attracted to the idea of a Ronald Reagan White House…

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/27/1976



As anti-Apartheid organizers took to the streets and expanded their underground network from Cape Town to Pretoria, the Bantustan (or region set aside for black South Africans) of Transkei declared independence, forming the Republic of Transkei. The Republic was a turning point in the anti-Apartheid movement despite this “free Black state,” as Time Magazine called it, had no international recognition, at least not at first…

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016



GENERAL ELECTION MATCHUP:

MONDALE: 51%
REAGAN: 44%
OTHER: 1%
UNDECIDED: 4%

– Gallup Poll, 11/1/1976



ANNOUNCER: “ABC New presents: ‘Political Spirit of ’76.’ This is the final chapter of this bicentennial election year. Tonight from ABC news election center in New York, “the results: election night.”

REISNER: “Good evening. I’m Harry Reisner at ABC election headquarters. With me are Barbara Walters and Howard K. Smith, and we’ll be here for as long as it takes to determine exactly what happened tonight. At the moment, in this first election of our third century, about two percent of the nation’s precincts have reported. In the popular vote, with about a million or a little bit more than a million votes counted, Walter Mondale is leading Ronald Reagan, 52% to 48%...”

– ABC Evening News, 11/2-3/1976 broadcast [11]



ANNOUNCER: "This is a CBS News special report – Campaign ’76! Election Night from CBS news election headquarters in New York. This portion is sponsored by the people of Ford Motor Company, on behalf of Ford and Lincoln-Mercury dealers. Ford wants to be the car company that’s right for you. And now, here is Walter Cronkite."

Walter CRONKITE: "Good evening from our CBS News election headquarters. At the current time, it is uncertain if this is going to be a long night or a short night for those waiting for the final election results to be declared. While polling suggests a clear win for Mondale will be tonight’s end-results, supporters of the Reagan campaign believe that their candidate will edge past the post before the night is over. The story that it is a very comfortable race for the incumbent President may be reflected in tonight’s turnout, as it appears that turn out tonight was higher than expected in some areas and lower than expected in other areas.

And for those of you who do you know, the Presidential race is coinciding with the races for 33 US Senate seats, all seats in the US House, and several gubernatorial seats. We will keep you informed tonight as to their developments as well.

In the Presidential election, however, eight states have already closed their polling place, and on the basis of our sample precincts in two of those states we can estimate who won them. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, CBS News estimates that Ronald Reagan will win in that state, defeating incumbent President Walter Mondale for Kentucky’s nine electoral votes. Looking at the final percentage estimates, we believe the results in Kentucky will be 53% for Reagan and 46% for Mondale. These results are not too surprising given that the Commonwealth has voted Republican in every Presidential election since 1956. Also, in the state of Indiana, our CBS News estimate is that Mondale will win there over Reagan by a margin of roughly 2%, a very narrow margin for a state that was favored Republican candidates in recent years...

– CBS News Election Night ’76 coverage, 11/2-3/1976 broadcast



SMITH: “…ABC can now confirm its projection from earlier, Kentucky and its nine electoral votes will go to Ronald Reagan. Winning the state by a margin 51% to 48%, the result is most likely due to the hard work done there by its Governor and two Senators, all of which are Republican. Uh, Barbara has a more significant result.”

WALTERS: “Well, I have the results from Indiana. ABC can now confirm that Indiana has gone to President Mondale. Reagan was initially leading in polls in the state, but it appears that African-Americans in Indiana have voted over 80% for Mondale, almost a record-breaking number, and one that was big enough to upset the expected result there. and deny Governor Reagan that state and its 13 electoral votes...”

[snip]

REISNER: “The Reagan campaign is not performing well in the western states, where several states that were called for, uh, for Scranton four years ago are now still too close to call… It seems the lower turnout is not benefitting the Regan campaign as the Governor’s campaign team had suggested to would, uh, earlir in the night.”

[snip]

SMITH: “…It seems Mondale won over Black voters, urban voters, and a majority of white voters, and it seems, even rural voters, too, in this race, and Reagan was outperformed in the South, but underperformed elsewhere…”

– ABC Evening News, 11/2-3/1976 broadcast [11]



WzntEvl.png


[pic: imgur.com/WzntEvl ]
Mondale/Gravel (D): 48,364,617 (58.1%)
Reagan/Westmoreland (R): 33,047,768 (39.7%)
All others: 1,831,362 (2.2%)
Total Votes Cast: 83,243,747 [9]

…Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho, Indiana, and Florida were among the closest states…Rejecting the GOP “double-conservative” Reagan/Westmoreland ticket, several moderate Republican electors sought to vote instead for a nonexistent Mathias ticket. Only one faithless elector actually managed to do so, voting for a Mathias/Aliberti ticket (making Representative Joan Aliberti the first Republican woman to win an electoral vote), and this did not alter the results of the election in the Electoral College…

– clickipedia.usa.org



…Reagan turned on the charm in the wake of accusations of hiding a brutish demeanor, and in an election with more dire issues, this would not have been such a major concern for voters at all. Had the Governor’s earlier criticisms of Mondale’s handling of foreign policy remained the primary issue, Reagan would be the President-Elect right now. Instead, Reagan’s campaign was falsely viewed as lacking substance, failed to woo in independents with his loyal convictions to conservative principles, and was erroneously seen being an unnecessary change of pace for a certain number of certain voters who are blissfully unaware of the dangers of Mondale’s liberalism. Reagan lost, but for the right reasons…

– The National Review, 11/3/1976 special edition



United States Senate election results, 1976
Date: November 2, 1976
Seats: 35 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT) (retiring)
Senate minority leader: Howard Baker (R-TN)
Seats before election: 52 (D), 47 (R), 1 (I)
Seats after election: 55 (D), 44 (R), 1 (I)
Seat change: D ^ 3, R v 3, 0 - I

Full List:
Alabama (special): incumbent appointee John J. Sparkman (D) over Jerome B. Couch (Prohibition)
Arizona: incumbent Barry Goldwater (R) over Dennis DeConcini (D) and Sam Grossman (Independent Democrat)
California: incumbent Richard Nixon (R) over George E. Brown (D) and David Wald (NM)
Connecticut: incumbent Antonina P. Uccello (R) over Gloria Schaffer (D)
Delaware: incumbent William Victor Roth Jr. (R) over Thomas C. Maloney (D)
Florida: incumbent Lawton Chiles (D) over Jack Eckerd (R) and John Grady (HIP)
Hawaii: Patsy Mink (D) over William F. Quinn (R); incumbent Hiram L. Fong (R) retired
Indiana: incumbent Vance Hartke (D) over Earl F. Landgrebe (R)
Maine: incumbent Edmund S. Muskie (D) over Robert A. G. Monks (R)
Maryland: John Sarbanes (D) over incumbent Rogers Clark Ballard Morton (R)
Massachusetts: incumbent Eunice Kennedy Shriver (D) over Michael S. Robertson (R)
Michigan: incumbent George W. Romney (R) over Donald Riegle (D)
Minnesota: incumbent Hubert Humphrey (D) over Gerald W. Brekke (R) and Paul Helm (I)
Mississippi: incumbent John C. Stennis (D) unopposed
Missouri: Jerry Litton (D) over John Danforth (R); incumbent Leonor Sullivan (D) retired
Montana: John Melcher (D) over Stanley C. Burger (R); incumbent Mike Mansfield (D) retired
Nebraska: incumbent Ted Sorensen (D) over John Y. McCollister (R)
Nevada: incumbent Paul Laxalt (R) over James David Santini (D)
New Jersey: incumbent Harrison A. Williams Jr. (D) over David A. Norcross (R)
New Mexico: incumbent Joseph Montoya (D) over Harrison Schmitt (R)
New York: incumbent Paul O’Dwyer (D) over James L. Buckley (Conservative) and William E. Miller (R)
North Dakota: incumbent Arthur Albert Link (D) over Robert Stroup (R)
Ohio: incumbent John Glenn (D) over Richard B. Kay (R)
Pennsylvania: Bill Green (D) over Elmer Greinert “Bud” Shuster (R); incumbent Hugh Scott (R) retired
Rhode Island: Robert Owens Tiernan (D) over Donald P. Ryan (R); incumbent John O. Pastore (D) retired
Tennessee: incumbent Albert Gore Sr. (D) over Bill Brock (R)
Texas (special): incumbent appointee J. J. Pickle (D) over George H. W. Bush (R) and Frank Tejeda (La Raza Unida)
Texas: incumbent Lloyd Bentsen (D) over Alan Steelman (R) and Pedro Vasquez (Socialist Workers/La Raza Unida)
Utah: incumbent Frank E. Moss (D) over Sherman P. Lloyd (R)
Vermont: incumbent Robert Theodore Stafford (R) over Scott Skinner (D) and Nancy Kaufman (Liberty Union)
Virginia: incumbent Harry F. Byrd (I) over Martin H. Perper (D)
Washington: incumbent Henry M. Jackson (D) over George M. Brown (R)
West Virginia: incumbent Robert C. Byrd (D) unopposed
Wisconsin: incumbent William Proxmire (D) over Stanley York (R)
Wyoming: incumbent John S. Wold (R) over Peter M. Jorgensen (D)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



...Tonight’s contest for control of the Senate featured a lopsided playing field on which Democrats needed to defend 24 seats while Republicans only had to defend ten seats. Thankfully for the Democrats, the rising popularity of their President carried on down-ballot enough for them to actually gain three more seats... The race for the Wyoming Senate seat, one of the narrowest of the night, has just been called for the incumbent Senator Wold…

The Overmyer Network, Election Night broadcast special, 11/2-3/1976



United States House of Representatives results, 1976
Date: November 2, 1976
Seats: All 437
Seats needed for majority: 218
New House majority leader: Morris K. Udall (D-AZ)
New House minority leader: Robert H. Michel (R-IL)
Last election: 212 (D), 225 (R)
Seats won: 233 (D), 204 (R)
Seat change: D ^ 21, R v 21

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



…In the congressional races, it is now official, Democrats have taken back the House, likely due to the improving economy and the rise on approval of President Mondale’s foreign policy record… …In Mississippi, Victoria Gray Adams, the Black female Democratic grassroots organizer, who famously quipped, quote, “vote, vote, vote your way out of poverty,” unquote, has narrowly won a congressional seat…

– CBS Evening News, 11/2/1976



United States Governor election results, 1976
Date: November 2, 1976
State governorship elections held: 14
Seats before: 32 (D), 18 (R)
Seats after: 33 (D), 17 (R)
Seat change: D ^ 1, R v 1

Full List:
Arkansas: incumbent David Pryor (D) over Leon Griffith (R)
Delaware: Joseph Biden (D) over Pete du Pont (R); incumbent Russell Peterson (R) was term-limited
Illinois: incumbent Paul Simon (D) over J. R. Thompson (R)
Indiana: Danny Lee Burton (R) over incumbent Robert L. Rock (D)
Missouri: Bill Bradley (D) over Harvey F. Euge (R) and Helen Savio (Independent); incumbent James W. Symington (D) lost re-nomination
Montana: incumbent Thomas Lee Judge (D) over Stanley G. Stephens (R)
New Hampshire: incumbent Malcolm McLane (D) over Walter R. Peterson Jr. (R)
North Carolina: Jim Hunt (D) over David Flaherty (R) and Herbert F. “Chub” Seawell Jr. (Country); incumbent Walter B. Jones Sr. (D) was term-limited
North Dakota: incumbent Aloha Pearl Taylor Brown Eagles (R) over Sophus Vernon Trom (D)
Rhode Island: incumbent J. Joseph Garrahy (D) over James Taft (R)
Utah: Vernon Bradford Romney (R) over incumbent K. Gunn McKay (D)
Vermont: Stella Hackel (D) over William G. Craig (R); incumbent Harry H. Cooley (D) retired
Washington: Julia Butler Hansen (D) over incumbent Arthur Fletcher (R)
West Virginia: Jay Rockefeller (D) over Cecil H. Underwood (R); incumbent Arch A. Moore Jr. (R) was term-limited

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



NATIONAL FOREST MANAGEMENT ACT GOES INTO AFFECT TODAY

– The Seattle Times, 11/15/1976



MONDALE SIGNS ANTITRUST IMPROVEMENTS BILL INTO LAW

– The Washington Post, 11/20/1976



HAILE SELASSIE I FLOWN TO LONDON, ENTERS HOSPITAL “IN CRITICAL CONDITION”

The Guardian, 12/1/1976



The years of overwork, presiding over the shifting economic conditions while combating politburo members opposed to his more liberal policies, combined with the geopolitical game of détente with the US and keeping the Warsaw Pact in check, had taken its toll on the Premier. At the age of 72, Kosygin had gone from being an energetic vessel of change and development with a vibrant personality to being tired, run down, and agitated by the quiet criticisms of Andropov and company. On 7 December 1976, Kosygin was reviewing documents in his inner office with his secretary when he suddenly grabbed his chest and slumped over in his seat. The secretary called for assistance, but the heart had already proven itself to be of the fatal variety. [10]

The International reaction was more positive than it had been for Kosygin’s two predecessors, with heads of state in both NATO and the Warsaw Pact commending his reformist policies.

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



Kosygin’s preferred successor was Nikolai Tikhonov, the balding 71-year-old former metallurgist-turned-Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. Tikhonov was one of the few moderates in the upper echelons of the politburo to maintain a convivial relationship with both Kosygin and the much more conservative Leonid Brezhnev. Upon Kosygin’s death, Brezhnev sought to become his successor, wanted to reverse Kosygin’s economic policies in addition to renewing focus on limiting cultural freedom, especially in the central Asian republics. Similarly, the 62-year-old Yuri Andropov, having been passed over for the top spot three times already and believing he was entitled to the job, also called for a turn to a more conservative premiership, and even suspected that the 1975 Chinese Civil War would inspire ethnic unrest among the USSR’s ethnic populations within its Turkestan republics.

The power void was filled within days, though, as Tikhonov swiftly moved to win over the conservative wing of the party, which was divided between Andropov and Brezhnev (the later of whom failed to effectively campaign for the job promotion due to his declining health). Upon securing his succession, Tikhonov made the more liberal-leaning Nikolai Podgorny his second-in-command; to placate the conservative party wing, Tikhonov kept Brezhnev and Andropov in their respective high-ranking positions (if out of his inner circle for most of his premiership), and promoted several other conservatives such as Vladimir Pavlovich Orlov and Mikhail Suslov.

– Victor Cherkashin’s Adamant: The Rulers of the USSR and the KGB, Basic Books, 2005



SECRETARY OF STATE PHILLEO NASH ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

The Washington Post, 12/7/1976



NASH OUT, CARTER IN AT STATE

…Incumbent US Secretary of State Philleo Nash, age 65, is retiring from politics overall, after 33 years of public service. …President Mondale today formally nominate Senator James “Jimmy” Carter of Georgia to succeed Nash. Given the fact that Democrats maintain majority control of the Senate, that chamber is expected to confirmed Carter's nomination. ...Carter’s work on the US Senate’s committees concerning foreign policy are considered to be “impressive” and “prove he is equipped for the job,” according to US Senator J. W. Davis (D-GA), supporting diplomatic intervention ahead of military intervention…

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin newspaper, 12/19/1976



RICHARD J. DALEY DEAD AT 74: Influential Mayor Led Chicago For 21 Years

The Boston Globe, 12/20/1976



bIbpWpr.png


[pic: imgur.com/bIbpWpr ]
– President Mondale and First Lady Joan stand in front of the White House Christmas Tree with Senator James Carter and his wife Rosalynn, 12/22/1976; Carter was rumored to be a leading candidate for Secretary of State at the time



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Because the Colonel’s road repair programs caused the Prestonburg Bus Disaster of 1958 to not happen (it was mentioned in that year’s chapter), there was no real movement to improve the safety features and designs of public buses afterwards like there was IOTL. As a result, this OTL accident is even more disastrous!
[2] Edited segment is pulled from here: https://books.google.com/books?id=u3xFDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=soweto+uprising&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwijmqnGr7blAhVqmuAKHbCCCEIQ6AEwAXoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
[3] While M.A.S.H. was still created in 1972 in OTL, the occasional script criticizing warfare conflicts with the studio’s attitude who want a more positive depiction of warfare, as the anti-war shock from Vietnam hasn’t really happened, though current engagements in Africa are controversial, but not as greatly as the Cuba War was ITTL.
[4] Apparently, Reagan really did say something like this, according to the 3:22 mark of this video (of Robin Williams speaking to congress in 1990): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOgbS9sedcc
[5] Essentially, this TL’s “Viking 2” mission
[6] According to this source: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/israels-relationship-with-shia-muslims/ , when Israel was first formed in 1948, “Shia Iran became the second Muslim country to befriend them under the Pahlvai dynasty; Along with Turkey and Albania, Israel made 3 solid non-Arab Muslim friends in its fledgling stages of independence… Shia Muslims are 20% of the global Muslim population,” and, most importantly for the context of this passage, “The Shias did not have such widespread an anti-Israel stance until the 1979 Islamic revolution [of OTL, although] Israel’s first hostility with a Shia leader was with the Alawite dominated government of Hafez Assad in 1973” but I don’t think such hostility would strongly impact this Summit even if it still happened ITTL.
[7] OTL quote Reagan said in the 10/21/1984 Reagan-Mondale presidential debate (found on YouTube video of said debate); here, Mondale says it (I would have had Mondale make the “young and in-experience” quip, but, eh, it’s been done many times before, so I went with something more original…).
[8] Happy Halloween, everyone!
[9] 2.1% more than OTL’s 81,531,584 total votes cast.
[10] According to Wikipedia, Kosygin survived a heart attack in December 1976, but here’s he has a higher position of power and overextends himself in that capacity enough for it to kill him ITTL.
[11] Italicized parts are from ABC's OTL broadcast of Election Night 1976, found on YouTube.

Unknown said:
Good update; what was the response to the Tangshan earthquake ITTL?
Mentioned at the beginning of this chapter :)
Thanks, @gap80 !
BrianD said:
If there are any inconsistencies from what I've posted, point them out and I'll clear them up.
1) Good idea
2) J Y Brown can make that move in 1976, right? Because ITTL at the moment, he's still working on Ollie's Trolleys, but based on what I've read about him, it's in this nature to cut his loses and ditch failing ideas, so, we'll see how that goes...
3) I'll look into it.
4) A possible answer: to keep things simple/simpler, let's keep that the same as OTL
Wendell said:
This is certainly the most interesting President Mondale scenario I've seen.
Thanks for the compliment!
Didn't see this posted but it seems appropriate...
M79 said:

Click to expand...
*surprised gasp* The Colonel would never support fascism! ...but I agree with the video's statement that this mod is "weird;" but it is an entertaining ASB-filled concept, I'll give it that...

Also:
Whoa, y'all were busy while I was away from my computer. Alrightythen...
1) Shoot, I'll change that to "both men had birth years with the numbers, 0, 1, 8 and 9 in them."
2) Great; I'll work on a short sketch for the next chapter with him as Biaggi, then. I'll admit that comedy is not my strong suit, but I want to make y'all chuckle, or, at the very least, smirk, so I'll put effort into it.
3) Good point; I'm looking up where and how they were stored and how they were transported and I'll cover that aspect in the next chapter.
4) Whoops, sorry, will fix. Also, I was thinking of him retiring at age 45 or so; given does that seem sound?
5) Cool, thanks
6) Should I mention Tony Pérez?
7) Oh, I get it - thank you for the clarification!
8) No, I misunderstood. So you're saying Farr could also be on Mr. Kotter if Kaplan's role is smaller.
9) I think Kaplan would be the main teacher, and Farr could be a second teacher/recurring character, a member of the staff since in the show we only really get to see the sweatshops with Kotter and no other teacher. Maybe Farr plays a more trying-to-be-serious teacher to contrast Kotter's teach-through-humor philosophy. That could work...
10) There were reindeer, crows, maybe some wolves, perhaps a dog at the beginning before the main character begins her quest. Hm...
11) In both OTL, and ATL Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme met Manson in 1967, at the start of him developing his "family." Here, she was among those killed in Brazil (huh. Guess I should have mentioned here at some point during those chapters. Whoops.)
Unknown said:
1) Good update;
2) BTW, wonder how the Chinese Civil War affects the response to the Tangshan earthquake...
3) Nice to see that the Colonel is still trying to make a difference...
1) Thanks! :)
2) I'll cover it in the next chapter! :)
3) Indeed!
DTF955Baseballfan said:
1) Yes, Tony Perez traded to the American League might work well since they have the designated hitter rule. He could play first, he just couldn't play 3rd anymore after an arm injury.
2) Please give the Reds of this era at least one World Series though. :) but, losing in 1975 does make a lot of sense.
3) Ask for Jamie Farr, yes if Gabe Kaplan is still the star Jamie Farr could be another teacher. I think he would want to be in a comedic role but what might work well is if he yes from Ohio and wanted to teach in the Inner City but just doesn't get these kids the way Kotter does because Kotter is from Brooklyn. So while Kotter is clearly the leader in his Civics and history classes, Farr could teach some other subject and the kids take advantage of him.

Another alternative is for him to be teacher 4 some of the kids who aren't in the remedial program.

Either way, yes, he could have a recurring role.
Click to expand...
1) Alrightythen!
2) We'll see how they do in '76, maybe...?
3) That dynamic could work!
DTF955Baseballfan said:
1) One other thought on the Reds. Sparky Anderson was on the hot seat given the amount of Talent on that team and the fact they had never won a World Series. Note that in our timeline he was fired after two second-place finishes after having won two straight series. I can see him taking the blame for the Reds loss even though the Tony Perez trade would be the reason, just like people have said that he was the key to the locker room and when he was traded after 1976 that's why they didn't do as well. Which is why I mentioned Perez to begin with.
A new manager might lead them to a World Series victory in 1976 and maybe use the bullpen last and starting pitchers more. Perhaps Tom Seaver goes as a free agent to the Reds because the Mets aren't wanting to spend as much on him before the 76 season.
Sparky can still be a Hall of Fame manager, he just follows the path of Tony LaRussa, who started with the White Sox and one one division but was then let go with his team near last place in 1986 before winding up with the Athletics and then the Cardinals.
2) I forgot to answer about Clemente. He could play till he was 45 as a part-time player, at least for the last couple of years, and a pinch hitter. That gives him 6 more seasons, till 1979.
Well he was too old and injured a bit too much to get to 4000 hits, he probably hangs on long enough to set the National League record for hits although Pete Rose would soon break it anyway. :)
Click to expand...
1) Interesting detail
2) Cool; thanks!
BrianD said:
In 1975, the Colonels would have to beat both the Red Sox AND the Yankees, both of whom were among the elite teams in baseball IRL during this time period.

I would have them beating the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. With Finley owning the Colonels, it's very likely TTL's Oakland A's have a very different history under different ownership.

I am curious as to what the MLB alignment is as of TTL's 1975, and I'm going to give my two cents based on what I've seen here.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
East Division

Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers

Louisville Colonels -- one of the two AL expansion teams in 1969. Owned by Charlie Finley, managed this season by Bill Virdon, the Colonels became the fastest expansion team to win a league pennant (seven seasons, one less than the 1969 New York Mets). The team had a potent offensive lineup led by RF Reggie Jackson (.260 batting average, 36 home runs, 109 runs batted in) and a solid lineup featuring C Gene Tenace (27 HR, 114 walks), LF Claudell Washington (.306 batting average), CF Bill North (.382 on-base percentage), 3B Sal Bando, designated hitter Hank Aaron (41 years old, playing in his final World Series in the twilight of his career) and a future Hall of Famer in 19-year-old shortstop Robin Yount. The Colonels also boasted a stellar pitching staff led by ace Vida Blue (21-11 record, 3.02 earned run average, 189 strikeouts in 276 1/3 innings pitched) and closer Rollie Fingers (2.89 ERA, 25 saves, 126 strikeouts in 118 innings pitched). The Colonels drew an average of 27,000 fans to 35,000-seat Fairgrounds Stadium, where the team would stay until moving to a downtown park in the 1990s.

The World Series berth energized the Colonels' fan base and made people see Louisville as a sports town that would support something besides basketball and a certain horse race on the first Saturday of each May. The festive atmosphere around town, however, took a downturn after The Courier-Journal reported that Finley was unwilling to pay Reggie Jackson's requested higher salary and would let the popular All-Star right fielder leave as a free agent after 1976. Jackson was on the trading block, and there was interest around baseball, especially in Baltimore, Los Angeles (from the Dodgers) and New York...both the Mets and the Yankees.


New York Yankees -- new owner George Steinbrenner, unhappy with a fourth-place finish, fired manager Dick Howser (the third manager of the season after Bill Virdon and Billy Martin), then brought back Martin as field manager and informed general manager Gabe Paul he was to get Reggie Jackson by any means necessary.

West Division
California Angels
Chicago White Sox
Kansas City Royals -- the Royals -- the other AL expansion team from 1969 -- won their second AL West title in three seasons and, as in 1973 (losing to Baltimore), they were denied a pennant.
Minnesota Twins
Oakland Athletics
Texas Rangers

NATIONAL LEAGUE
East Division

Chicago Cubs
Montreal Expos -- pure luck put Major League Baseball into Canada for the first time in history in 1969, just as it did ITTL.
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates -- the Pirates win yet another pennant and World Series, and Roberto Clemente adds to the lore of his Hall of Fame career.
St. Louis Cardinals

West Division
Atlanta Braves
Cincinnati Reds -- the Big Red Machine is denied a pennant yet again, but will 1976 be their year?
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres -- beat out Seattle for the second NL 1969 expansion team.
San Francisco Giants
Click to expand...
Yeah, this all sounds right. Great attention to detail!

No, the merger still occurs when it did IOTL (close, but just not enough butterflies to really change the date, methinks)
BrianD said:
Future baseball relocation/expansion candidates:

Buffalo -- interested in expansion
Denver -- interested in an AL (or NL) expansion team, or in relocation
Milwaukee -- trying to get the White Sox to move up north (not the North Side of Chicago, though)
Seattle -- actively pursuing an AL expansion team at this time
Tampa-St. Petersburg -- threw its hat in the expansion ring, despite not having a ballpark
Toronto -- rumored to be seeking the San Francisco Giants and an AL expansion team
Washington -- was in the running for an AL expansion team
Click to expand...
Interesting ideas; I'll keep them in mind!
FDRFan1943 said:
I really been enjoying this TL since I'm a Kentuckian.
Thank you; I'm really glad you are enjoying it!
AndyWho said:
Please let there NOT be a relocation of the Jazz to Utah. I don't mind the Mormon state having a pro-basketball team, but Jazz?
What's wrong with Jazz?
BrianD said:
But does that really sound any worse than "Indiana Nuggets"? :D
Both names are unique and memorable!
Ah well, to each their own, I suppose.
DTF955Baseballfan said:
The Athletics were apparently taken from Findlay in 1967 or 68 when he sold them and bought the Colonels. So they do not have a very different history, and have most of the same players in 1971-4.

Now, I can't see where come 1975, you could have Charlie Finley do what Bill Veeck did in our timeline in 77 and get free agents like Reggie Jackson to go to Louisville for 1 season because he can't afford any more.

But, the Royals will definitely be challenging them and the White Sox may already be in Milwaukee, who knows.
Also, the Yankees finished second in 1974 in our timeline but had a very down year in 1975 despite getting Catfish Hunter. They then won three straight pennants in 1976 through 1978. So you were right, this was just a very bad year for them.
Click to expand...
Well free agents are a bigger thing here because that court case from the late 1960s or early 1970s went differently due to the LBJ/Colonel-appointed judges (I'll check which chapter it was), so yeah, just may happen!
BrianD said:
Then I'll rewrite the piece. There remains the need to come up with a lineup and pitching staff that could beat out three dominant teams (REd Sox, Orioles, Yankees) for a division title and another potential dynasty (Royals) for a pennant. Reggie Jackson's free agency year was '76, and I doubt he'd turn down New York. So Oakland would need to trade him in order for him to play anywhere else in '75.
Maybe I should go back and look at the drafts for '69-'74, take the best of the Brewers players (remember, no Seattle Pilots in '69, and no team to move to Milwaukee in '70) and have the team go on one heckuva lucky streak in the draft for five or six years.
Do what you want, dude!
thekingsguard said:
So Indianapolis is kinda getting screwed in terms of all the sports teams and growth going to Louisville instead ITTL by the look of things.
Every state has their ups and downs, maybe things will turn around for them later on...
Ogrebear said:
Wow, that's a lot of sports data!
I have learnt a lot :)
My thoughts exactly!
DTF955Baseballfan said:
I like it. Remember it's 1975, you wrote 74, but it looks good. However there is one person you forgot.

With the up and coming third baseman in Buddy Bell, the Colonels may very well trade on money because a certain team in desperate need of a third baseman may very well be willing to take money for Bullpen pitcher who can't quite get it together for them but will in another year or so.

I mean the New York Mets traded for Jim fregosi, who was a shortstop who they tried to make a third baseman, in our timeline. So you could easily have the Colonels get Nolan Ryan.

Dwight Evans had an incredible arm. I think he would be in right field and florist in left, although maybe North and Center because he was really fast.
Click to expand...
You are such an informative baseball fan; I take my hat off to you, good sir!
BrianD said:
You're right...'75.

1974 Amateur Draft

1 Rick Sutcliffe, P

5 Steve Henderson, SS-3B

12 Jim Gantner, SS

22 Paul Molitor, SS


1975

2, Lee Smith, RP

5, Lou Whitaker, 2B



COLONELS POSTSEASON ROSTER, 1975

MANAGER: Al Dark

PITCHERS

STARTERS
Bert Blyleven
Jim Slaton
Dennis Lamp
Mike Flanagan
Nolan Ryan

RELIEVERS
Doc Medich
Ed Sprague
Randy Jones
Tom Murphy
Mike Marshall (set-up)
Goose Gossage (closer)

CATCHERS
Bob Boone
Mike Hargrove

INFIELDERS
Bill Madlock, 1B
Phil Garner, 2B
Johnnie LeMaster, SS
Buddy Bell, 3B
Don Money
John Vukovich
Mike Hegan

OUTFIELDERS
Dwight Evans, LF
Gorman Thomas, RF
Billy North, CF
Sixto Lezcano

DESIGNATED HITTER
Dave Kingman
Click to expand...
This and the other list are so detailed, I'm considering them canon!

You guys are so impressively invested in sorting out the detailed ramifications of this TL's effects on baseball. I'm blushing at the commitment, and I sincerely applaud y'all for it! Huzzah!
 
Post 34
Post 34: Chapter 42

Chapter 42: January 1977 – February 1978

“If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.”

– Matthew 5:44-48



“Vice President Gravel, Speaker Udall, Mr. Chief Justice, President Sanders, Vice President Humphrey, Vice President Scranton, Reverend, Clergymen, and all my fellow citizens: Today does not mark a personal or political victory, but a celebration of the best qualities of America. …The American people overseas and at home are working to break the bonds of mass misery both abroad and at home, from humid jungles to urban cities. No matter where they come from, the cries for freedom cannot ever go unanswered. …America is resilient. When push comes to shove, and disasters and emergencies occur, we all put our differences and prejudices aside to carry out our collective instinct to assist those around us who are suffering. This is the integrity of both the human spirit and the American way. …Not only do I accept the difficulties, obstacles, and adversities that I will face in the coming years, but I also welcome them with open arms. May God continue to bless the United States of America with pride, humility, toleration and freedom, and may He bless the rest of the world with such indispensable qualities of prosperity and greatness.”

– President Mondale’s second inauguration address, 1/20/1977



WALTER MONDALE’S ADMINISTRATION AT THE BEGINNING OF 1977

Cabinet:
Secretary of State: US Senator James Carter of Georgia (incumbent Philleo Nash retired)
Secretary of the Treasury: former Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs Robert Vincent Roosa of New York
Secretary of Defense: outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired US Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. of Washington, D.C
Attorney General: attorney and former Deputy Attorney General Ramsey Clark of Texas
Postmaster General: former US Senator Maurine Neuberger of Oregon
Secretary of the Interior: former state senator Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma
Secretary of Agriculture: outgoing Governor K. Gunn McKay of Utah (incumbent Ryan DeGreffenried Sr. retired)
Secretary of Commerce: US Congressman John Emerson Moss of California
Secretary of Labor: former Undersecretary of State Robert F. Kennedy Sr. of Virginia
Secretary of Health and Welfare: Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Albert Rossellini of Washington state
Secretary of Education: Governor Pierre Salinger of Massachusetts (incumbent F. Grant Sawyer resigned)
Secretary of Transportation: US Representative T. Ashton Thompson of Louisiana (incumbent Ralph Nader retired)

The President’s Executive Office:
White House Chief of Staff: Chief of Staff to Senator Mondale Richard Moe of Minnesota
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: former State Secretary of State Gloria Schaffer of Connecticut (incumbent Julia Butler Hansen retired)
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: former President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Harold F. Linder of New York
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: Columbia University political science professor Samuel P. Huntington of New York (incumbent Robert Dale Maxwell retired)
Chief National Security Advisor: attorney and assistant to the Secretary of Defense Togo D. West Jr. of North Carolina (incumbent Sam Huntington retired)
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: former First Lady of Florida Mary Call Darby Collins of Washington, D.C.
White House Communications Director: political activist and campaign organizer Sam W. Brown Jr. of California
White House Press Secretary: Press Secretary for Senator Kennedy-Shriver Mary Jo Kopechne of Massachusetts (incumbent Mac Kilduff retired)
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: businessman Alexander Buell “Sandy” Trowbridge III of New Jersey

– MondalePresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_members/1973



…in other news, former Secretary of Transportation Ralph Nader became the inaugural holder of the office of Administrator of the newly-formed Environmental Protection Agency, a federal agency meant to oversee the conservation of America’s ecosystems. At the swearing-in ceremony held earlier today, Mr. Nader said, quote, “There’s more than enough room on Earth for man and nature to co-exist,”…

– NBC News, 1/24/1977 broadcast



MONDALE ENDS FIRST WEEK OF NEW TERM WITH AMBITIOUS LEGISLATIVE AGENDA PUT FORWARD

Washington, DC – Emboldened by the Democratic and liberal gains in November’s election, President Mondale has announced several specific legislation endeavors this week, with the biggest ones concerning his planned massive tax overhaul and a shift in federal spending. On the 21st, Mondale said “The key to this nation's future is a healthy growing economy -- an economy that provides jobs and opportunities for all Americans, and not just profits for the rich. We will work to put limits on how much the doctors and the hospitals can gouge Medicare and Medicaid and the public. Nobody should have to pay $700 a day for a hospital room or $65 to walk into a doctor's office.”

In regards to social politics, the President vowed on the 22nd to further “enforce the civil rights laws so that women and minorities have a fair chance to get and keep a good job.” Additionally, Mondale called for legislation that will aim to “improve education for all children, and to strengthen families with nutrition programs and day care centers. As a member of the influential Finance Committee I fought for fairness and equity in our tax laws. I continued fighting in my first term and I will continue to fight in my second term.”

Mondale has also alluded to economic concerns brought up during his re-election campaign, saying on the 23rd, “We are going to give smaller, creative companies an even break instead of passing out all the goodies to the big corporations. Big business doesn't need public assistance. We are going to see to it that American exporters don't get shortchanged by other countries' unfair trading practices. We also are going to give family farmers a fighting chance against the giants of agribusiness, and bring the nation's governors and mayors together to forge a real partnership with the federal government to make this nation's cities good places to live.”

Finally, earlier today, Mondale re-confirmed that he retains his position that “we should help poorer nations stand on their own feet. Democracy will never grow in the soil of poverty, oppression, and despair. We have to attract the people of other countries with our values, instead of scaring them with our weapons.” Specifically, the President announced a very ambitious goal: a call for a “senate resolution to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.” [1]

The Washington Post, 1/27/1977




THE GREAT LAKES BLIZZARD OF 1977: The Deadly Cold That Surprised Millions 40 Years Ago Today

F2Wm3SH.png


[pic: imgur.com/F2Wm3SH ]
..If you didn’t experience it firsthand, you will never fully comprehend just how bad winter weather can get. Forty years ago this week, residents of the Niagara Region in southern Ontario and western New York (including the city of Buffalo) found themselves in the midst of one of the most infamous blizzards in either region’s history. A blizzard so intense that people literally froze to death in their vehicles because they couldn’t make it to safety. A blizzard so powerful that it created nine-metre snow drifts, completely burying cars and making snowmobiles the only possible means of transport for days, if not weeks

What makes the Blizzard of ’77 so unique is the fact that this storm did not by itself produce the copious amounts of snow that led to the aforementioned nine metre snow drifts famously photographed after the event.


…Succeeding but unrelated to another historic meteorological event – snow falling in Miami, for the first time in recorded history, on January 19 – the Blizzard of ’77 would likely not have happened at all if it were not for the anomalously cold conditions toward the last quarter of 1976; the average air temperature during the months of November and December, for example, was 6˚C colder than the climatological normal, breaking records that went back to the 1880s. Because of these cold temperatures, Lake Erie froze over completely by December 14th, 1976 – the earliest it had ever done so on record. …Now normally if a Great Lake freezes over, this reduces the likelihood of experiencing a significant snowfall downwind, as lake-effect snow no longer becomes a concern; moisture can no longer be readily picked up by the winds, hindering the development of lake effect snow squalls. But in this particular case, the Blizzard of ’77 largely happened because the lake froze over so early. Meteorological reports…indicate that up until the blizzard began…it had snowed every day since Christmas of 1976, leading to a whopping 150 cm of snow falling prior to the blizzard in January alone.

…Stranded motorists quite literally froze to death in their vehicles, as engines failed to ignite or ran out of gas. A state of emergency was declared in western New York by then-President
Walter Mondale, in collaboration with then-Governor of New York Mario Biaggi, while the Canadian Forces were sent out to assist in Canada. Without exaggeration, the only reliable means of transportation in the region became snowmobiles, which were used extensively by local police and RCMP in the Niagara Region to provide aid for as many as they could.

…Gradually, by February 1st, the winds diminished as the system departed …Slowly but surely, with the help of the Armed Forces and local police, people dug themselves out, although some report being trapped in their homes for weeks; perhaps unsurprisingly, the Niagara Region reported an 18 per cent increase in births in the fall of 1977 as a result! The final price tag for this event on both sides of the border is an estimated $300 million, and led to a total of twenty nine storm-related deaths in the Buffalo area, and at least two in Canada. …While it is clear that a very specific combination of anomalous conditions led to this extraordinary event, the Blizzard of ’77 highlights the importance of winter preparedness.
[2]

– theweathernetwrok.co.usa, 2017 article




MONDALE DECLARES I.S.F. VIRUS A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS AFTER TENTH B.L.U.T.A.G. AMERICAN DIES

The Los Angeles Times, 2/1/1977



NEW DEVELOPMENT IN THE “SECOND SPACE RACE”!: USSR’s Soyuz 24 Docks With Salyut 5 Space Station

...with the Soviets continuing their space station program, one wonders when the US will launch one of its own…

– The Houston Chronicle, 2/7/1977 broadcast



Atlas Shrugged
(TV miniseries)

Broadcast: February 1-8, 1977

[snip]

PRODUCTION
…Efforts to turn Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged” into a theatrical film began in the early 1960s but dragged on without progress for the rest of the decade. After several individuals attached to a proposed two-hours-long film withdrew from the project, Albert S. Ruddy approached Rand with a new and more comprehensive proposal of producing a two-and-a-hours-long film version of her book in 1972, but he refused to let her have final script approval.

Later that year, Henry and Michael Jaffe proposed to Rand that they produce a TV miniseries adaptation with her having final say over the script and 75% of the casting, but not over the set design, editing, or cinematography, though she would have a say in them all. After weeks of negotiations, she agreed to the deal after Rand was impressed by Jaffe’s handling of several prior productions for TV and film in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The negotiated plan for an 8-hour series to air on The Overmyer Network was greenlit in 1973. Screenwriter Stirling Silliphant and Ed Snider joined the crew in 1974. John Aglialoro, a TV technology investor, businessman, and entrepreneur, was signed on to co-produce later that year…

[snip]

CASTING
The miniseries featured a large ensemble cast, with the main roles of Dagny Taggart and Hank Reardon being portrayed by Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrooke, respectively. Richard Lynch played James Taggart and Arthur O’Connell played oil tycoon Ellis Wyatt. Lawrence Dobkin portrayed Wesley Mouch, with James Cromwell and Sorrell Booke appearing as two of the character’s supporters. Ronald N. Sobe portrayed scientist Quentin Daniels, while Stefan Gierasch played the elusive John Galt. Additionally, Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood, Will Geer, Ryan O’Neal and multiple B-list actors and actresses appear in smaller roles. Furthermore, after failing to have Colonel Sanders make a small appearance in the film due to scheduling conflicts, the cameo role went to US Senator Barry Goldwater instead; Goldwater was running for President at the time his single scene was filmed.

[snip]

RECEPTION
The first episode’s original air date was set for the spring of 1976, but due to rewrites meant to satisfy Rand, its release was delayed several times. The miniseries did not air until after the 1976 election; years later, US Senator Ron Paul alleged “had the series come out before the election, Reagan would have won,” a claim with which most scholars and psephologist disagree.

The series aired from February 1 to February 8, 1977. It received mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Rand blamed the harsh reviews on the aspects of the series that she no final say over, despite most the blame being directed towards her and her “inability to collaborate and listen to the professional opinions of others,” as one critic put it. Another critic at the time wrote that “nearly 30 years after The Fountainhead, Rand still doesn’t get that creative output requires more than just one person’s narrow and inexperienced vantage point being used for a project that is clearly out of their professional field.” Audiences overall found the series to be lackluster, with even openly conservative viewers finding the story “hard to follow” and the characters “uninspiring, unrelatable to the Average Joe, and self-absorbed,” as Variety magazine put it.

Contrary to popular belief, Rand was not arrested attempting to set fire to the T.O.N. primary studio in May 1977 – she was arrested for striking the assistant director in a public setting after beginning a heated argument with him over a more edit in the third episode. Rand was released without charges, only to sue the network for breach of contract a month later. However, Rand dropped the matter after being countersued for assault and battery, and for allegedly violating workplace pestering rules established in 1971, after the “Ms. Arkansas Wave” (the claim being that she “bullied” set directors and other crew members).

Rand passed away in 1982 having never again spoken to anyone involved in the series and refusing to talk about the miniseries in interviews…

[snip]

LEGACY
…In recent years, the miniseries has grown a small but noticeable “cult following” among wealthy libertarian-leaning celebrities who praise the themes of the series but are also critical of certain aspects of the writing, directing, and acting…

– clickopedia.co.usa, c. 2011



HAILE SELASSIE, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA, DIES IN LONDON HOSPITAL

Suffered Pneumonia and Heart Problems In Final Years On The Throne

The Guardian, 2/8/1977



The 84-year-old monarch left behind a nation tearing itself apart. His son, the new emperor, the 62-year-old Amha Selassie I, called for an end to the fighting with the promise of massive reform and a renewed focus on feeding the poor and providing basic needs to rural communities. Not all believed the new ruler would be a change of pace, a break from the years of there being a stark gap between Ethiopia’s haves and have-nots. More believed there would be no amnesty for their betrayal of the monarchy, and thus they continued to fight on, especially in the northern and eastern sections. But the new monarch persisted, as it was his father’s final wish that he “save Ethiopia.” Taking the dangerous trip to the frontlines outside of Jima on February 20th to re-announce his wish for a ceasefire, Amha Selassie I subsequently partook in a tour of the region’s less fortunate areas, shaking hands and conversing with village farmers and elders to prove himself to be a man of the people. The activities were captured on camera, and the film was spread across the nation’s war-torn spots over the next several days and weeks, while the new emperor hoped he could keep the nation together, to make it strong enough to outlive the memories of the bloodshed experienced by all within its borders.

Speaking of which, the Somalian natives of Ethiopia’s Ogaden region were becoming increasingly preferential to breaking off and joining the nation of Somalia, while diehard Derg followers saw an independent state born out of Ethiopia’s north would be better than staying under the Ethiopian throne…

– Saheed A. Adejumobi’s The History of Ethiopia, Greenwood Press, 2007



United States treasury bonds are reliable, low-risk investments. However, the yield, also known as the return, on the bonds in low, meaning investors do not invest in them unless they believe the economic future ahead of them will be less-than-desirable. Thus, nervous investors’ demand for bonds rises during times of uncertainty. …The US Treasury reported a drop in interest rates on the bonds, leading to an inverted treasury yield curve, on February 12, 1977…

– clickopedia.co.usa



HOUSE, SENATE AGREE TO “HISTORIC” SPENDING BILL

…After weeks of committee meetings, hearings, and cross-aisle discussions, a massive spending package meant to fund a plethora of programs – mainly ones concerning worker and family assistance – is set to pass in congress “within a few weeks”...

– The Washington Times, 2/14/1977



US, SOVIET LEADERS AGREE TO BEGIN NUCLEAR FREEZE TALKS THIS APRIL

…In the announcement, Mondale noted that, "In this, the nuclear age of doomsday weapons, we have to do everything in our power to ensure peace. The most awesome responsibility of the President is not only to keep us strong so that we don't invite attack, but to use all of our physical and moral strength to keep the peace and spare the world from holocaust." The President took the moment to reiterate his campaign pledge to “put this nation out front again in the effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons -- and the threat of doomsday blackmail. …It is imperative for us to sit down with the Russians and work out a mutual and verifiable freeze on nuclear weapons.” [1]

The Guardian, 15/2/1977




Social Services Benefit increases legislated by Congress accelerated sharply in the early 1970s, which when combined with projected economic conditions and a fully mature Social Security program caused concern about the program’s financial status. [3] This development led to House Republicans opposing House Democrats attempting to expand the program. However, with Democrats holding a majority in the House, President Mondale was successfully in increasing general benefits to 16 percent in February 1977.

– Gary C. Jacobson’s The Power and the Politics of Congressional Elections, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015



COLONEL SANDERS DONATES US$10MILLION TO SALVATION ARMY

The Advocate-Messenger, KY newspaper, 3/1/1977



NdQjZFz.png


[pic: imgur.com/NdQjZFz.png ]

– US Secretary of State Jimmy Carter, US Vice President Mike Gravel, and US President Walter Mondale (just out of frame) discussing foreign policy matters in the Oval Office, 3/3/1977



On March 7, 1977, Marley was involved in an accident while practicing on a stage in Kingston for a concert. According to the official report, a stagehand left an empty bucket of KFC on the side of the stage, which eventually tipped over onto a lever that caused the trapdoor to collapse, causing Marley to sprain his foot. Upon closer inspection at the hospital, doctors discovered cancer under one of the toe nail. Doctors quickly removed the cancerous part of the toe. Not wanting to disappoint fans, Marley performed on stage as was scheduled. Nevertheless, the partial amputation, done without Marley’s permission, negatively affected his short-term dancing abilities on stage, causing him to adopt a “hopping kick-dance” form of dance style to compensate.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Bob_Marley



Nikolai Tikhonov’s Premiership was short-lived as conservatives decided to rally around a single figure. In March 12, 1977, after only four months in power, the politburo waited until he was visiting relatives in his home city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Upon his attempt to return to the Kremlin, Brezhnev informed him he had been forced out of power, simply saying, “you’ve been forced into retirement, my friend.” Brezhnev then told Tikhonov that, while he had wanted to succeed him, his health was still in decline, and the politburo had chosen a man physically healthier, but even older than both Tikhonow and Brezhnev.

Soviet statesman and longtime Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was, at the age of 75, an experienced politician, beginning his career as an ardent Stalinist before losing influence under Khrushchev but regaining it under Shelepin. After limited influence under Inauri and Kosygin, Suslov allied with Andropov to oppose Kosygin’s forward-thinking programs. Suslov’s hardline orthodox attitude meant détente with the US had almost certainly come to a sudden end, drastically altering US-Soviet relations...

– Victor Cherkashin’s Adamant: The Rulers of the USSR and the KGB, Basic Books, 2005



Margaret was put in charge of the KFC delegation that went to Hong Kong. The British had been wary of doing business so geographically close to the Chinese maintain, but with the success of KFC outlets in neighboring Philippines and the Indochinese subcontinent, and Deng Xiaoping being even more friendly with western investors than his predecessor, Hong Kong officials finally welcomed us in.

Margaret oversaw not just the handling of the local meat itself, but the treatment of the animals, too. Whatever the chicken eats, whatever enters its stomach and its system, affects the taste of the meat. The same goes for its environment – chickens need running room to be healthy, as cramped corners lead to them pecking at each other and becoming less inclined to eat more, leading to scrawny, course meat on their bones. Thus, Margaret was adamant that the local chicken farmers provide each chicken a minimum of 15 square feet of foaming room, and at least 10 inches of roosting space per chicken.

Like with neighboring China, we adapted KFC’s façade to be more familiar to locals, and over time converted the menu to reflect local tastes. We soon added rice congee and egg custard tarts to the menu; we began offering Soy Sauce Chicken in 1985 and Duck Sauce Chicken in 1989.

…Because Hong Kong was still a British colony at the time, it was much easier to do business with them than the PRC. However, Margaret reported back to me that she picked up on “very sexist vibes” from the British, but less so during her 1976 trip to Shanghai. However, though that was just her experience; mine was actually quite the opposite, with the British treating with as an equal, while during my visit to Beijing in late 1974, Chinese businessmen only acknowledged my presence if we were in the presence of Mao’s wife. Regardless, both of us came to conclude that it was possible that the introduction of western cuisine and culture could lead to the introduction of modern western social views, would could considerably curtail what we saw was a high amount of sexism in Asia…

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



SENATOR KENNEDY-SHRIVER CALLS FOR HEALTHCARE COST REFORM

The Washington Post, 4/2/1977



On April 4, 1977, Grundy, Virginia suffered yet another major flood of the Levisa Fork River. Businesses were affected more so than houses. The state and federal governments were hailed for their immediate responding to the millions of dollars in damage. Grundy took decades to recover from the flood damage, but some economics have taken note to how the town’s economic strength and growth has still not returned to pre-1977 levels.

– weather.gov.usa, c. 2011



THE CASE FOR MEDICARE/MEDICAID PRICE CAPS

– Ted Kennedy’s op-ed in the Sacramento Union, Ted Kennedy’s newspaper, 4/8/1977



UJo4wvs.png


[pic: imgur.com/UJo4wvs.png ],

– cover of former US President Colonel Sanders’ mini-cookbook “Twenty Favorite Recipes,” first published c. April 1977



NARRATOR: For much of the ’70s, times were great in the United States. Marginalized groups were on their way; détente kept the thought of atomic holocaust at bay, for the most part; unions remained strong under the pro-labor administration of Walter Mondale. Despite warfare tearing up land far overseas and the fearful possibility of a US-Soviet nuclear exchange still lingering in the air, American pop culture concerned the nation’s splendor – Star Wars captivated audiences; American youth listened to lively, bass-based optimistic music derived from the soul, rock-n-roll and ambient rock tunes of the previous decades; the new wave of teenagers had expendable income and the roaring economy of the time gave them the ability to buy things like never before.

ROBERT REICH: It was like a more socially progressive version of the 1950s. You had people celebrating nuclear energy again. And you had the middle class being strong enough for a family of five to survive handsomely on one paycheck. But you also had women pursuing careers, going to college at a then-unprecedented rate. After many tumultuous years, things were finally going right for millions of Americans.

NARRATOR: And with the splendor came a renewed confidence in banks, and a huge increase in consumer good production…

– History Channel documentary “the Roarin’ ’70s,” 2002



The years of agricultural neglect under the pro-urban Kosygin years led to deplorable conditions for Soviet farmers nationwide – decaying roads, outdated machinery, under-rewarded laborers, and a ruined rural work culture plagued the countryside. Making matters worse was Suslov’s rejection of any assistance from any non-Western Pact nation, sparking international condemnation. Suslov’s hardline orthodox attitude also made him against change and opposed to Kosygin’s forward-thinking programs, leading to a decrease in the quality of life in more developed areas too. In fact, it seemed as if Suslov did not promote any specific alternatives to the reforms of Kosygin other than raising the budget of the Soviet military and space program…

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



…earlier today, President Mondale signed the Federal Campaign Spending Act into law, setting a cap on the amount of money that can be spent on federal campaigns. When it was a bill, it was narrowly approved after facing bipartisan opposition in both chambers of congress...

– ABC News, 4/27/1977 broadcast




[vid: youtube.com/watch?v=THHTOSxY3Ws ]
– KFC commercial, first aired 4/30/1977



WA GOV. JULIA HANSEN SIGNS “UNIVERSAL” HEALTH CARE INTO STATE LAW: State Joins MA, VT, Others In Unofficial Multistate “Healthcare Pact”

The Sacramento Union, 5/5/1977



...as the investigations into allegations of violating campaign finance laws continue to mount against him, Georgia Governor Bert Lance has resigned from office, effective immediately. The resignation comes only one week after Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor, a one George T. Smith, had died from pneumonia after visiting Washington, DC. In accordance with state law, the person next in line for Governor is the state Secretary of State. This means Georgia’s new Governor is 72-year-old Benjamin W. Fortson Jr., a Democrat. Fortson, who has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1928, has served as the Secretary of State of Georgia since 1946, and was involved in the Three Governors Controversy of 1947 and played a central role in finding superior storage for state archives…

– The Overmyer Network, 5/10/1977 broadcast



…In the national elections the nation of Israel held earlier today, the Likud party, led by Menachem Begin, has achieved victory by obtaining a hefty plurality of seats in the state’s Knesset, or legislative body. The election ends roughly thirty years of the opposing Labor party’s dominance in Israel’s national elections...

– BBC World News, 5/17/1977 report



In May 1977, the Sultan of Oman made a historic shift in diplomacy when he began the warming of relations with Israel. The sultan, Qaboos bin Said al Said (b. 1940) came to power in 1970 when he overthrew his paranoid and dictatorial father, quickly repealed many of his restrictive laws (which included bans on playing football, wearing sunglasses, and speaking to anyone for more than 15 minutes), and went to work decreasing his country’s infant mortality rate and illiteracy rate [4]. Qaboos distanced himself from his father even further by offering to host “the famous Colonel’s Chicken Peace Dinners” in 1976. In 1977, the Sultan offered to sign a bilateral agreement with Israel in on sharing water and helping each other improve water and road supplies, as Oman, a nation with a total land area of 119,500 square miles, had only 6 miles of paved roads in 1970 [4]. Momentum from the successful negotiations lead to further rumbling on other deals such as an education-based foreign exchange student program being set up in the near future. The success of Oman opening up to Israel was inspiring to Osama El-Baz (b. 1931), an important Egyptian diplomat during the late 1970s and a senior advisor to Egyptian Vice President Hosni, who believed that if Qaboos could place the chance for profit and political popularity on the global stage above religion, perhaps Sadat could as well.

– Martin van Creveld’s Defending Israel: A Controversial Plan Toward Peace, Thomas Dunne Books, 2004



But by 1977, the dream of overpowering KFC Inc. in the burger business had faded. KFC Inc.’s Wendy’s continued to be among the nation’s leading burger franchises, while Ollie’s offerings had found a home in the niche of exotic artisanal-yet-hearty foods. And John Y. Brown Jr. was not the type of businessman to keep his dingy tied to what he believed was just as good as a sinking ship. [5]

“You’ll be fine without me,” he assured Ollie, giving a speech he likely worked on to make it sound sincere.

“And what of your plan to make the Colonel rue the day he had you fired?” Ollie asked.

Brwon sighed, “I wanted to have my revenge, but that injustice happened – shoot – almost a decade ago. And you know what, if I stay hung up on yesterday, I’ll end up doing nothing today! We’ve turned quite a pretty penny over the past six years; turns out, that’s good enough for me.”

Brown then offered to sell his interest in Ollie’s Trolley to the Heublein Corporation, but Ollie wouldn’t have it. “I’ve always had the final say around here, and I always will. I won’t have some bigwig a$$#oles telling me how to run my own business. I’ll buy back your shares and then you can get out of my sight.” After completing the transaction, Ollie’s last comment to his disheartened former business partner was a curt “Now get out, traitor.”

“Don’t be like that, Ollie,” was Brown’s alleged reaction. But there was no use convincing Ol’ Gleichenhaus otherwise.

While Brown left to pursue other interests, Ollie stuck to what he did best – seasoning a third of a pound of lean beef with a blend of 32 spices for his delicious Ollieburgers… [6]

– proudsoutherner.co.usa/food/ollies-trolley/you-could-be-the-next-colonel-sanders




…After months of South Dakota’s Governor Reifel and Senator James Abourezk lobbying alongside Secretary of the Interior Fred Harris for an improvement on the quality of life on Native American reservations, President Mondale signs into law today the Native American Rights and Utilities Access Act, which extends previous civil rights legislation to apply to residents of Native American reservations, specifically in regards to access to things such as clean drinking water and education resources such as updated textbooks and other school supplies…

– NBC News, 5/29/1977 broadcast



Restauranteur-businessman John Y. Brown Jr. entered the world of sports in a big way when he purchased the Buffalo Braves [7] basketball team just prior to the 1977 season, affecting the careers of Moses Malone, Adrian Dantley and Dennis Johnson…

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[pic: imgur.com/Oziv2Pf. ]
Above: the Colonel reading about the June 4, 1977 NBA championships.

The Colonel’s attitude to Brown entering the world of sports management was one of indifference, and reportedly had to ask upon learning of it “Don’t we know him?”

“He tried to take over McDonald’s with our approval, Pop,” was the gist of his daughter Margaret’s reply.

“Oh yeah. Well, at least he ain’t bothering' us no more,” he concluded.

[snip] …The Jazz’s Gail Goodrich improved his stats… [snip] …Milwaukee Brewers were all set to enter the American League along with Washington, with Seattle and Toronto set to entering the A.L. as well…

– Joe Zagorski’s American Sports in the 1970s: A Most Important Decade, Critical Publishing, 2018 edition



WASHINGTON TO BECOME WINDY CITY’S FIRST BLACK MAYOR

…Harold Washington, an African-American politician who has served as a member of state congress since 1965, defeated Republican nominee Dennis H. Bloc by a 50% margin… …City councilman Wilson Frost, after agreeing to not run in tonight’s election, has served as interim mayor since Mayor Daley’s death late last year…

The Chicago Tribune, 6/7/1977



…Apart from Chicago’s Mayoral election, tonight saw another major political election in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, FL, where voters narrowly voted to repeal the county’s BLUTAG rights ordinance in the wake of weeks of singer Anita Bryant campaigning against the ordinance in her “Save Our Children” crusade…

– ABC News broadcast, 6/7/1977



The 37-spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission and Oklahoma-based country music singer Anita Bryant led a highly publicized campaign to repeal county ordinances protecting BLUTAGs from discrimination as the leader of a coalition named “Save Our Children”. The campaign was based on conservative Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation… The campaign marked the beginning of an organized opposition to gay rights that found support among many prominent figures such as Reverend Jerry Falwell. During her hateful crusade against the BLUTAG community, she espoused hateful rhetoric such as "As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children" and "If gays are granted rights, next we'll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards,” [8] that last bit being an oddly specific claim to make. Subsequently, people opposed to her words protested by boycotting the products Bryant was promoting, such as orange juice and Coca-Cola; she soon became the face of bigotry in the eyes millions of Americans. To this, Sal Mineo (1939-2018) famously stated “not everyone hates her – the makers of Pepsi must love her!”

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



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[pic: imgur.com/dutWlSn ]
– Colonel Sanders cameos in the film “Love at First Sight,” premiered 6/17/1977 [9]



…The rate of farmers joining unions steadily rose 5% between 1972 and 1978. While Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers union butted heads with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters over lettuce farms and grape farms, other unions such as the National Farmers Union filled the void, developing rural health systems and mobilizing their growing number of members to demand better treatment and legal protection – especially in the wake of the pro-labor victories of the 1976 congressional elections. Others still maintained focus on state-by-state immigration reform, often receiving the backing of the White House. …Overall, unions retained strong positions in the goings-on of the American workplace. …As union membership rose, income inequality decreased. …Union membership numbers reached an all-time high of 22,000,000 in the late 1970s. [10]

– clickopedia.co.usa/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States#The_1970s




I wanted to call in “KFC University,” or “KFCU” for short, but the Colonel thought that sounded too formal, too imposing and intimidating, so when we officially founded the “institution” it was named “KFC College.” Set to open in September of 1978, Mildred’s announcement of its creation met backlash from folks who compared it to the training facility of McDonald’s employees – Hamburger University, founded in 1961 [11]. Like Kroc’s campus, KFC College gave employees dozens upon dozens of hours of training over the course of three months. The Colonel would visit at the start, middle and end of the course to oversee progress and approve “graduation” of the students, but he also popped in on classes whenever he could. A brainchild of Maggie, the campus officially opened near Paducah, in western Kentucky. The location was chosen because, while still staying inside of Kentucky, it was closer to being in the middle of country, increasing employment opportunities in the region and lowering travel time and expenses for prospective employees out west.

– Dave Thomas’ Under the Colonel’s Wing, Mosaic Publishing, 1982



“WOMEN MARINES” FINALLY DISBANDED

…The members of the US Marine Corps Women’s Reserve will now be integrated into the regular Marine Corps, in compliance with the Equal Rights Amendment ratified two years ago. The move follows the Navy’s disbanding of the W.A.V.E.S. late last year...

The Los Angeles Times, 6/28/1977



…Secretary of State Carter was an unashamedly active promoter of Colonel Sanders’s Annual Chicken Dinner Summit, which he famously called a “Pieces for Peace” drive in July 1977...

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’70s, Basic Books NY, 2000, p. 298



Some major news coming in from the nation of Pakistan, where the Prime Minister, a one Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, has been overthrown in a military coup. The coup comes after months of social unrest and civil disobedience in Pakistan over allegations that Prime Minister, uh, Bhutto, had committed voter fraud to win the country’s general elections held back in March. We’ll have more information as the story develops… [SNIP] The new leader, and the new government in fact, uh, in Pakistan seems to now be of the military kind. The new leader, or at least the leader of the bloodless coup over there, is General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the Chief of Pakistan’s Army Staff, uh, um, who has announced that “free and fair elections” will be held in 90 days…

The Overmyer Network Special News Bulletin, 7/5/1977



“Homosexuality is a foreign plot cooked up by the Reds; it’s a form of sex segregation, as it separates the two genders so they can have even less in common, hindering reproduction levels in America. The Reds are trying to pull a long con, here!”

– political activist J. B. Stoner to a reporter, CBS News, 7/10/1977



THE JOHN AMOS SHOW: Interview: Amos Talks About Getting His Own TV Series

…Amos, who played Gordy Howard the Weatherman on MTM from 1970 to 1973, was also on Good Times from 1974 to 1976, but left that show over writing style conflicts. With his new series, Amos plans to address serious issues affecting African-Americans in today’s society and portray humorous situations. …“I want it to be a show that everyone can enjoy, but I’m not going to act like everything is all hunky-dory and white and black problems are one and the same.” …Amos admits that the “mission statement for this show will require a delicate balancing act and fun but careful writing, but that’s why we’ve got some of the best writers in Hollywood working on this.” …the John Amos Show will premier in September…

– People Magazine, mid-July issue



…Former Governor Bert Lance has been arrested over new charges uncovered during investigations… This development coming in the same week as Governor Mandel of Maryland being removed from office, in this reporter’s opinion, demonstrates the scope of corruption in American politics, and the need for serious reform to address it…

– Linda Ellerbee, NBC News’ Weekend program, Saturday 7/16/1977



The flood began on the night of July 19, 1977 when a stalled thunder storm system created flash floods that inundated the region around Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Roughly 12 inches of rain fell over the course of 24 hours. Due to the region having a history of flood problems dating back in 1889, flood control dams were constructed in the area beginning in 1938. Public outrage at the collapse of dams in California and Idaho is recent years led to the state’s Governor Martin P. Mullen calling for a re-examination of all of the state’s dams and flood control measures in late 1976. The statewide review led to repairs and improvements being done to several such features, including six dams in and close to the Johnstown area. Just weeks after the completion of these updates, the flood overran rivers but its deadly forces was held back by the improved control systems. Unfortunately, such measures were not enough to prevent the largest of the dams in question, the Laurel Run Dam of West Taylor Township, Cambria County, from failing. Over 101 million gallons of water overpowered the construction and enveloped the downriver community of Tanneryville. Fortunately, early warning systems put in place during Mullen’s re-examination endeavor allowed dozens to escape with their lives. Including the 12 people killed in Tanneryville, the total number of deaths in the Johnstown Flood of 1977 was 29.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Johnstown_Flood_of_1977



REPORTER: …the Department of the Interior is set to raise safety standards on the construction of river dams over recent concerns of both environmental and human health and safety activities. When asked, the department’s Undersecretary had this to say:

UNDERSECRETARY (in recording): “…we’re raising the level of scrutiny for newer and also older constructions. Just earlier today, for instance, we began a second review of Georgia’s Kelly Barnes Dam. Repairs are set to begin on a few minor concerns there within the month, and it should be better than ever before the start of the rain season later this year down there. We, uh, we are more than aware that safety is imperative when it comes to new, environmentally-conscious forms of energy. We will take no exceptions to this…”

– ABC News, 7/30/1977 report



The recent rise in Colorado Potato Beetle infestation has caught the attention of the department. The cause of their rising numbers is being investigated. In the meantime, the extent of the insects’ devastation to farms in the several western states will likely lead to a rise in the prices of domestically-grown tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes. The Department advises against illegal practices and advises all consumers to maintain awareness of the farms from which they acquire their products, even products from states and overseas areas not affected by this recent agricultural development.

– US Department of Agriculture Special Announcement, 7/31/1977



…The Huntsman Container Corporation’s containers deal with us was so financially profitable for them, they were soon successful enough to begin making containers and other products for other food chains like Burger Chef and Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips by, I’d say, the start of August 1977…

– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes interview, early 1992



MONDALE SIGNS SURFACE MINING CONTROL AND RECLAMATION BILL INTO LAW

The Washington Post, 8/3/1977



…After weeks of the conflict seemingly winding down in some parts of Ethiopia, in the face of monarchists showing a united front against pro-communist Derg forces in the south and central parts of the country, a major development is unfolding on the diplomatic side of things. With the support and assistance of elements of the United Nations, Emperor Amha Selassie I has called for secretary-general of the Eritrean Liberation Front Isaias Afwerki and Somalian President Siad Barre to agree to an armistice so the three leaders can sit down and negotiate terms for a peace treaty...

– CBS News report, 8/9/1977



10 August 1977: the comedic anthology film “Kentucky Fried Movie” premiers; while former US President Colonel Sanders had cameoed in independent films in the past, Sanders refused to cameo in this movie due to its script, which the Colonel reportedly called “perverse.”

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



STATE OF NEVADA POLICE INCIDENT REPORT

Case No.: 120416479

Date of Incident: 8/12/1977

Location: near border of Washoe People Reservation, Lake Tahoe/south of Pyramid Lake, Washoe County

Summary (Detail of Event/Actions Taken):

A pickup truck was pulled over for erratic driving. The First Officer noticed the driver, Sacramento resident Richard Trenton Chase, was drenched in blood, had a bucket with a bloodied liver in the back of the truck, and had a threatening look on his face. When asked, Chase stated the blood was cow’s blood. In compliance with the 1976 executive order issued by Governor Rex Bell Jr. concerning suspicious activities, the officer ordered the individual to step out of the vehicle in order for said officer to inspect if the blood was human or bovine. Chase complied. Upon noticing officer reach for his firearm in his holster, which, again, was in compliance with Governor Bell’s 1976 order in regards to suspicious behavior, Chase assaulted the officer, running to him and jumping onto him before attempting to bite him in the neck. In self-defense, the second officer immediately left their police vehicle and fired one warning shot into the air. Chase was unresponsive to this warning shot. This inaction on Chase’s part prompted the second officer to fire at Chase in order to stop him from continuing to assault the first officer. The officer fired once; the bullet hit Chase in the stomach and grazed the first officer’s arm. The second officer immediately requested backup, requesting an ambulance. Chase succumbed to his wound on route to the hospital.

Case Status: Pending. The two officers involved are to be questioned concerning a possible violation of protocol per an 8/13/1977 request from the Sacramento Police Department in California.

Additional Specifics: (see below)

– Nevada State Police Report, updated 8/15/1977



NEW AGENCY AIMS TO BETTER COORDINATE FEDERAL DISASTER RESPONSES

…Late last year, by executive order, President Mondale created the Overwhelming Disaster Emergency Response Coordination Agency, or “ODERCA,” to improve federal responses to crises such as hurricanes, forest fires, floods and other natural and man-made disasters that overwhelm local and state authorities, in response to years of oil spills and dam collapses capturing public attention. …The purpose of this new federal-level agency, which focuses on helping people during major incidents, is not to be confused with EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, which focuses on protecting the environment in general…

Associated Press, 8/23/1977



PAYMENT TO INTERNED JAPANESE-AMERICANS GETS MONDALE’S OK

By W. Dale Nelson

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Mondale today signed a bill into law that will provide $20,000 reparations to Japanese-American US citizens who were interned during World War II. Conceding that “no payment can make up for the injustice, the indignity, and the lost years.”

Roughly 250 survivors of the internment camps attended the signing ceremony, where Mondale described to the audience how “tens of thousands of our fellow Americans were forced to live in internment camps, and for not a matter of weeks or months, but for three long years.”

Strongly supported by US Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), US Representatives Patsy Mink (D-HI) and Norman Mineta (D-CA) (the latter of whom was interned at one of these camps alongside his family), and US Vice President Mike Gravel (D-AS), Japanese-American groups had been lobbying for reparations legislation for years. The bill, after its being proposed in 1971, was finally cleared by the US Senate in a narrow vote May 28 and was approved by the US House in a more comfortable vote on August 27.

The bill will provide a $20,000 tax-free payment to each of the 60,000 survivors of the approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were interned in several camps scattered across the US from 1942 to 1945. Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to internment camps after the nation of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December 1941. The attack plunged the United States into World War II, and created an era of paranoia, as suspicion that spies existed among the Japanese-American community flared calls to watch members of that community more closely.

At the ceremony, Mondale added, “This bill has less to do with property than with honor, for here, with this, the United States government admits to a mistake and confesses to a wrong.″

Associated Press, 9/1/1977



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[pic: imgur.com/ro6GDwd.png ]

– KFC-Canada poster celebrating Colonel Sanders’ 87th birthday (September 9), first distributed c. late August 1977



…the Aries Program seemed to be falling behind the data-collecting progress of the USSR’s Soyuz and Salyut programs. …Working with the less-than-desirable budget led to the development of orbital space travel vehicles dubbed “shuttleplanes” that could be reused “more than twice” for manned or unmanned missions. Still sticking to his convictions and refusing to risk losing more American lives in space, Mondale greenlit the unmanned model for future orbital and lunar missions in August 1977…

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



At the age of 16, I “was trying to raise myself to be a black man in America” because I had this fitful interior struggle. I “was grappling with questions of racial identity, alienation and belonging[12] over being a half-Black, half-White American military brat with white parents and no real hometown or long-lasting friends. However, I was not the only member of my family to have so much drama. Mom and Dad argued many times, usually over liberal and conservative values or “how to raise the children.” By the time in was in High School, though, problems for them seemed to be beginning to cool. Mom had finally found a place for herself in government – working at the U.S. Department of Education, she strived to promote universal understanding, and in her position overseeing the organizing of foreign exchange student programs. I remember how she fought valiantly for additional funds in 1977 for the 1978 fiscal year. Father, meanwhile, was approaching 41, and was enjoying promotion to Rear Admiral, which was just short of being a full Admiral. He was content with his performance overseeing a part of American forces along the coast of Ethiopia. Near the end of that summer, Father took us all on a much-needed vacation to Havana, Cuba, where we basked in the sun on the beaches near the newly-built casinos. We even managed to witness a part of the early construction phase of the Havana Adventure Amusement Park, Cuba’s answer to Florida’s Disney World…

– Barack McCain’s Lessons From my Fathers, Sunrise Publishers, 1993



In early September of 1977, Landrum Bolling, an ardent activist for peace in the Middle East, former President of Earlham College, and unofficial channel between the US State Department and the PLO, left the Mondale administration to spend more time working on the third “Sanders Summit” in Jerusalem. Through his connections, several (albeit low-ranking) PLO members had finally agreed to attend the festivities out of goodwill, but declined to give any speeches…

– Martin van Creveld’s Defending Israel: A Controversial Plan Toward Peace, Thomas Dunne Books, 2004



Stephen Hillenburg was born on an army base in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1961. “My parents told me that over there they make snowmen out of tumbleweeds at Christmas,” he later recalled. His father, Kelly Hillenburg Jr., left the army shortly after Stephen was born, and relocated the family to California. However, as Kelly Hillenburg was in the aerospace industry his whole life, working for McDonnell-Douglas and Rockwell, the family again relocated to Ohio, where Stephen’s father worked as a draftsman for elements of the Apollo program. drafts technician – makes detailed technical drawings or plans for machinery, buildings, electronics, infrastructure, sections, etc. “He was very excited about that. He got to work on the space shuttle with Ed Rockwell, designing details in the interior such as cabinet, seat positions, small things but still important things,” Stephen recalls. Dad moved the family once more, from Ohio to Florida, in 1967, in order to complete a final assignment for NASA’s Apollo designs before entering early retirement in 1968. It was in Florida where Stephen’s love of the ocean blossomed and flourished.

Describing himself as “an ocean freak,” Stephen in his youth liked to explore tide pools, bringing home things that “should have been left there and that ended up dying and smelling really bad,” he says. “Still, I was fascinated by the ocean because of its mystery – it’s a separate world you can’t study alone or visit freely. I think my experience growing up along the coast, north and south of Cape Canaveral, really influenced my interest in the oceans and the creatures found in them.”

When it comes to his artistic abilities, Hillenburg confesses, “Grandma couldn’t afford to go to art school but was always drawing and painting and making tiny detailed finger puppets and Christmas ornaments. It dawned on me that I had artistic skill in the third grade, in 1970, when my art teacher was very complimentary of my drawing of an orange slice.” The teacher was also a peacenik who found another ne of Hillenburg’s drawings – one of two soldiers hugging – to be “wonderful [and] touching.” Stephen admits, “I just thought it was funny,” apparently unaware of American troop presence in Cambodia at the time.

Hillenburg’s interest in seafood, however, didn’t begin until the summer of 1976, when, during a family road trip to Washington, D.C., the Hillenburgs stopped over at Calabash, North Carolina, the Seafood Capital of the World, leaving a “long-lasting impression” on him. Later that year, Hillenburg visited Woodman’s of Essex in Boston, and enjoyed their Fried Clam and their Clambake To Go (a combination of lobster, clams, potatoes and corn), calling it “inspiring.”

In September 1977, at the age of 16, Stephen landed his first job, working as a fry cook at a local McDonald’s. “When I was real little, I would look in the windows and think, ‘Wow, this is the greatest job in the world, making food to make people happy.’ Actually having the job brought me down to Earth and into reality.” But apparently, Hillenburg was undaunted by the negative aspects of the occupation, as the teen-aged Stephen also ended up working at a lobster restaurant in Maine during the summers, its owner reminding him of a pirate via his strong Maine accent…

– The New York Times, 1999 article



September 13, 1977: on this day in history, the American television series “Soap” debuts on ABC. While the sitcom was intended to be a night-time parody of the daytime soap opera genre presented in a serial format, it maintained serious dramatic plot lines (terminal illness, prejudice, war, hostage crises, love triangles, dementia) alongside more melodramatic plot lines (demonic possession, alien abduction, time travel, sentient puppets). Additionally, several scandals pertaining to its content – coarse language, lewd behavior, and situations that conservative groups deemed subversive and suitable for television (though many of these elements are considered quite tame by today’s standards) – impeded the show’s ability to find sponsors, causing ABC to perennially threaten to cancel the series. Its inclusion in Season 1 of Jodie Dallas (portrayed by a young Billy Crystal) as the first openly gay major character in a syndicated TV series added to the show’s controversies, though it was praised years later for this and its addressing of BLUTAG issues...

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



MONDALE SIGNS MEDICARE PRICE LIMITS BILL INTO LAW

…The bill places limits on the amount a physician can charge patients for certain basic needs, such as staying in a hospital bed post-surgery, being driven to a hospital in an ambulance, and even simply visiting a doctor’s office…

The Washington Post, 9/19/1977



WALL STREET WONDERS: WHEN WILL RECESSION RETURN?

By James C. Warren

...recent actions taken by Wall Street investors suggest economic precariousness may arrive in the near future. “It’s the basic nature of capitalism: highs and lows. Good times come and go, and right now the economy has had a good time for almost 14 years – that’s an unprecedented length of growth,” says… Historic market patterns suggest a downturn may be “imminent,” warns businessman and former Ambassador Malcolm Forbes…

– The Chicago Sun-Times, 9/22/1977



In his capitalizing off of the midterm’s liberal legislative gains via getting several laws passed, President Mondale also oversaw a significant improvement in education, and signed into law legislation for a federal breakfast program and a federal day care centers program… On September 30, he signed into law a narrowly-passage bill that amended the US tax system to have more vertical equity, which conservative US Senator Hank Hibbard (R-MT) chastised as being “unnecessary,” and claimed the 1971 Negative Tax Income Rebate law was “more than enough for the poor,” a comment that would come back to haunt him in 1978…

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



The Armed Forces of National Liberation (in Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional, or “FALN”) was a Venezuelan guerilla group formed by the Communist Party of Venezuela to foment revolution against the democratically elected government… [13] …FALN’s membership numbers grew in the years succeeding the defeat of the communist regime in Cuba in 1965. At said war’s conclusion, many communist Cuban expatriates escaped persecution by fleeing to South and Central America. Reportedly over 1,000 Cubans found their way to Venezuela and over half of them joined the FALN, influencing their ideology and the group’s methods of attacks against the Venezuelan government. While such actions failed to change minds during the relatively decent years of the late 1960s, said actions increased in the 1970s as economic and political conditions began to decrease...

– clickopedia.co.usa



Now for the third summit, we got together a more impressive guest list, got a bigger venue in town, you know, more intimate setting and décor and al that sort of thing. It was starting to look like a real big shindig, so we changed our seating policy. You still have to pay a small entry fee if you wanted to attend, but on top of that, you also had to donate to some charity and prove you’d done it in exchange for a seat. I didn’t need the money, KFC didn’t need the money, but others out there, hungry children, for instance, they needed it, they still do, in fact…

The third summit went very well, I think. No major problems, everyone was civil. And it did a lot of good, I think – the delegates from Egypt were the same fellas who had a constructive talk with President Sadat soon afterward…

– Harland “The Colonel” Sanders, KNN interview, 2/9/1980



…My years of loyalty to Deng was rewarded on October 12, 1977, when Deng appointed fellow reformer Hu Yaobang third in command, and I second in command, making me Deng’s successor. In that same announcement given before the National Congress, Deng proclaimed that he would retire in 1987, after 12 years in charge. He also swore that “when it becomes obvious that it is necessary, I will not refuse the changing of ways if it means improving the way of the nation, the nature of the party, and the quality of the work and lives of the people.” Giving a fixed date like that was an unprecedented move that, while demonstrating his seriousness in calling for political reform, also confined Deng to work in a fixed timetable of sort – he now had ten years to complete his agenda for China…

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



In October 1977, in light of the Alaskan oil pipeline’s successful oil turnout, President Mondale signed a proclamation for a federal rebate for American residents and companies who purchased domestic oil instead of imported oil. This endeavor raised his popularity in northeastern states, as those states tend to be more reliable on foreign oil, and so their rebates were higher upon switching to domestic oil.

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’70s, Basic Books NY, 2000



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[pic: imgur.com/bfOO6pA. ]
– Governor Hammond with Vice President Gravel and several others at a political function in Washington D.C.; while some pundits criticized Gravel for his informal (i.e., tie-less) attire for the evening, the image of anti-establishment “rebellion” appealed to peaceniks and college students – his core base of political supporters; c. 10/20/1977



W.H.O. DECLARATION: SMALLPOX HAS BEEN ERADICATED!

Deadly Disease Finally Wiped Out Thanks to Modern Science!

The New York Times, 10/25/1977



COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT BECOMES LAW: Meant to Encourage Bank Activities In Low-Income Communities

The Washington Post, 10/28/1977



LEADERS OF THREE-SIDED ETHIOPIAN CONFLICT AGREE TO PEACE TREATY!

Geneva, SWITZERLAND – In a stunning development, the Emperor of Ethiopia, Amha Selassie I, has agreed to grant the break-away northern region of Eritrea independence in exchange for an open border and Ethiopian access to Eritrean seaports. Somalia’s President Said Barre has also agreed to end the Ogaden Warfront, and is set to use funds from his country’s treasury to officially purchase conquered Somali-majority land from Ethiopia. The Emperor of Ethiopia has admitted that the resolution “may rub many of my fellow countrymen the wrong way, but I would rather relinquish these slivers of land and let them be, than to continue to hold onto them and to spill the flesh of my fellow man over them. Through peace, Ethiopia and Eritrea and Somalia can grow strong and prosperous.” [14]

The Guardian, 10/29/1977




…In New Jersey, the Democratic nominee, state General Assemblyman James J. Florio was just been declared the winner of the Garden State’s gubernatorial election. Florio won over Republican nominee Raymond Bateman by a narrow margin… At 40, Florio will be their youngest Governor, um, in years, and he is also now set to become the state’s first-ever Italian-American Governor. Florio supports the state’s supplemented income law, supported legalizing gambling to generate revenue last year, and ran on a promise to clean up New Jersey’s most polluted and crime-riddled areas…

[snip]

…Tonight’s gubernatorial election in Virginia has finally concluded. With over 98% of the vote counted, we can now confirm that Republican nominee John N. Dalton has won the governorship by a 5% margin over Democratic nominee William Battle...

– ABC News, 11/8/1977 election night coverage



JOEY SECURES FOURTH TERM – BUT WITH ONLY 35% OF THE VOTE

…Incumbent Mayor Joey Periconi ran under the Republican banner in what was essentially a five-man race. …Periconi’s closest opponent was Harrison Jay Goldin, the city’s 41-year-old Comptroller and former state senate, who ran under the Democratic banner and received roughly 29% of the vote. …Also challenging Periconi was talk-radio show host and former one-term US Congressman Barry Farber (under the Conservative banner), who after being endorsed by Governor Biaggi saw a last-minute boost in the polls resulting in him obtaining roughly 18% of the vote; author and former city investigative commission member Edward N. Costikyan (under the Liberal banner), who received roughly 12% of the vote; and 69-year-old Italian immigrant former Republican State Assemblyman Vito P. Battista (under the new United Taxpayers Party), who won roughly 5% of the vote. All together, all the other candidates on the ballot received roughly 1% of the vote…

The New York Post, 11/8/1977



MILK MAKES MILESTONE BY MAJOR MARGIN: Local BLUTAG Activist Wins Election To Public Office In Near-Landslide

…last night’s election of the openly gay political activist Harvey Milk to city supervisor – he will be sworn in as a Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from the Fifth District in January – is an impressive milestone for the B.L.U.T.A.G. community. For them, the year began with singer-turned-activist Anita Bryant leading political attacks against their unconventional lifestyle in multiple counties, only for them to proclaim victory in other parts of the country this November. …The revelations brought about by the “outing” of former Presidential aide Walter Jenkins and subsequent counter-outings of 1969 proved “blutagism,” a broad term for various forms of “non-traditional” sexuality, is not a contemporary fad but a long-existing social phenomenon. …Conservative social and political organizations opposing the BLUTAG community, however, are not discouraged by Milk’s election, with Mrs. Bryant telling CBS last night that “real Americans is will not allow this depravity to get out of hand, because if homosexuality was the normal way God would have made Adam and Bruce.” [15] Concurrently, Mayor Moscone took a more unimposing position on Milk’s victory, congratulated Milk in a phone call and soon afterwards telling reporters “What’s more important here is not what he does at home but what he does at work – whether or not he’ll be good at this new job of his, that’s what.” …

The San Francisco Chronicle, 11/9/1977



Egyptian President Anwar Sadat startled the Arab World on November 9, 1977, by announcing to his nation’s parliament his intention to go to Jerusalem and speak before the Knesset. Arrived ten days later for a three-day visit, several observers credited the Third Annual “KFC Dinner” Summit for encouraging Sadat to seek a more peaceful path in the region. On November 19, Sadat met with Israeli Prime Minister Meacham Begin in Israel to seek a permanent peace settlement, setting the stage for bilateral agreements to be hopefully reached between Egypt and Israel in the months ahead. Fearing the move would lead to a grab for land without consideration for the PLO’s wants, the PLO also agreed to meet with Israel’s Defense Minister for a Non-Aggression Treaty to be negotiated and signed in 1978… [16]

– Martin van Creveld’s Defending Israel: A Controversial Plan Toward Peace, Thomas Dunne Books, 2004




…A local diabetic veteran was shot and killed by police officers earlier today after stealing insulin in an armed robbery of a local pharmacy that ended in the veteran shooting up the store, causing thousands of dollars in damages and injuries three customers hit by broken glass…

– KOAA-TV, Colorado Springs TV station, NBC, 11/21/1977 broadcast



“This violent incident should be an eye-opener to how flawed the American healthcare system truly is. Over the years, we have seen millions of decent Americans take to the streets to vocalize their concerns. But this young man, a veteran of the United States Army, chose to be undemocratic and unpatriotic in what he believed was his only option in a system so deadlocked it cannot even pass laws to ensure quality medicine and healthcare to its own constituents, including its own veterans. As such, I will introduce on Tuesday a strong hospital care reform bill… So such hatred for and disappointment in the healthcare ways of the greatest nation on Earth can never again reach such un-American heights. Thank you.”

– US Rep. Gary Hart, 11/22/1977



SENATOR JOHN L. MCCLELLAN DIES AT 81

– The Texarkana Gazette, 11/28/1977



I had just started working for Texas Commerce Bank’s branch manager at the new bank in Caracas, Venezuela [17], where I impressed the locals with my fluency in their language. I had just gotten off the phone with Columba, then my wife of only three years, when I heard unsettling commotion in the lobby. I went over and to my shock I saw masked men waving weapons around and ordering all of the money out of the vault. It was my responsibility to confront them, so I did. The attempt to stall for law enforcement to arrive did not exactly go as I had planned it to. Seeing me as a symbol of all they thought was wrong with capitalism, they decided to take me hostage...

– Activist and survivalist expert Jeb Bush’s Perseverance: A Survival Guide, 2016



“I'm sorry, Dorothy, but right now you only know as much as I do about all this.” I told her from the police station in Caracas.

“But you’re a former congressman, Dad” my daughter referred to the four non-consecutive (1967-1971, then 1973-1977) terms that I had spent on Capitol Hill. “Surely one of your connections can tell you something!”

I reiterated, “Only that the kidnappers, these communist F.A.L.N. fanatics, were last seen driving south of Caracas before the police lost them down some backroads.” I then reassured her, “We just have to wait until the ransom note.” Why else would they have kidnapped him?, I thought, he’s the son of an ex-Congressman and the brother of an MLB player, for Pete’s sake! [18]

– George H. W. Bush’s autobiography, 2015 edition




biGJEdy.png


[pic: imgur.com/biGJEdy. ]
– Jeb Bush in his mid-20s



Throughout the Sanders administration, the Colonel failed to oversee the passing of federal anti-lynching legislation, despite efforts being made. In 1977, though, with a large liberal majority in both chambers, Mondale used his high popularity and political capital to pass through congress the Lowenstein-Brooke Anti-Lynching Bill. On December 1, Mondale signed the bill into law, finally making lynching a federal crime in all US states and territories.

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1976, Centurion Publishers, 2023



I never told my captors who I was. They figured that out on their own, in a serendipitous manner – with a baseball card set one of them had. When they connected the dots, they started debating how much of a ransom they should demand from my old man. Then they started arguing how much. Then the more extremist members of the group began calling for my execution. That faction wanted to “make an example” out of me; specifically, they wanted to create “an example of what happens when American pig-dogs try to force the evil capitalism onto the world,” to quote the most passionate, and thus most terrifying, member of the group.

The shouting match, though, provided me with an opportunity for me to escape, and so took it. I pull the pen I had stored in my pants’ back pocket, quietly clicked the tip out, and stabbed it into the rope, thinking it could weaken what was confining me to a chair on the side of the room. The pen snapped, but the remains and the ink loosened up the rope a bit. I used the remains of the pen to loosen them up some more, and soon I felt a loop of fabric slip past my wrist. As quietly as I could, I freed my other hand, slumped down to the floor, untied my legs, and crawled along the wall to the room’s door. At that moment, I rounded the corner, spotted a door out, and hurried through it.

I was at least thirty feet away from their grisly jungle compound before I heard the commotion. One of them fired into the air in an act in intimidation, which worked, by the way. I stopped and turned around.

And then realized they couldn’t see me, not in all that brush.

The one, likely the leader, shouted in Spanish, “come back now and we won’t hurt you, American.”

Another said “But I thought we were gonna f#@k him up – ”

Callate!” the first one barked to interject.

I moved further into the jungle, despite the insects being feisty and the possibility of even feistier, larger animals coming around. But first things first – I needed to find help, a friendly way out of there. I was tired, I was worried, and I was thirsty, but I knew the local dialect. [SNIP] I soon found a water source and carefully followed it to a vast lake. There I quenched my thirst, and not too long afterward experienced the reason why you should never drink unpurified water.

One leafy bathroom break and another long walk later, I came by civilization, a tavern, where I drank some clean water, had my mosquito bites looked at, and was informed by friendly locals that I was in Camatagua, a village 50 miles or so south of Caracas. Finally, I knew where I was, and what direction I had to go in. I needed a ride, but too many hearing my request feared retribution from the F.A.L.N. – except for one man with a weathered face and blackened teeth, who showed me the hidden escape hatch built into the back of his truck. If we were ambushed, I would slip out the back.

Fortunately, the roving guerillas overlooked us, most likely because for the entirety of the trip, I sat under a thick tarp, the smell confirming that this disheveled-looking Good Samaritan owned some kind of livestock. By the time we reached the city, my shirt clung to my back like a sticker to scrapbook.

The city was bustling with police asking about “the kidnapped American.” They stopped the questioning once I told one officer who I was.

[snip]

The experience was frightening, but, in a strange way, I found the survivalist aspect of it to be quite exhilarating. It had a lasting effect on my relationship with nature, and the political issues of South America…

– Activist and survivalist expert Jeb Bush’s Perseverance: A Survival Guide, 2016



On December 6, 1977, another section of South Africa broke away – the Bantustan ethic region of Bophuthatswana declared independence, joining other Bantustans Verda and Transkei in mounting a form of strategy that would allow the Black natives to request foreign aid and diplomatic relations with other nations such as Israel and the United States. The strategy would also, potentially, make the South African government address them more directly is the nation did not wish to have uncooperative patches within its borders. While Transkei took up a decent portion of coast and Verda made up a small area near the northern border, Bophuthatswana consisted of eight tracts of land separated from one another by the rest of South Africa, making the defense of its borders a quite difficult task. Activist leaders such as Biko promoted “the three breakaways,” later arguing it added “headache and havoc to the days of the white man’s government.” Of course, riots in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein occurring almost daily as opposition to Apartheid only helped…

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016



SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: A Celebration Of The Prosperity Of The 1970s

Upon release on December 16, 1977, “Saturday Night Fever” quickly became the biggest dancing movie of all time, and propelled the Bee Gees and actor John Travolta into national stardom…

– Tumbleweed Magazine, Special 30-year-Anniversary Retrospective Issue, 2007



The December 19, 1977 Uganda General Elections, which followed the overthrow of Idi Amin the previous year, were the nation’s first general elections since the pre-independence general elections of 1962. The elections resulted in Interim President Paul Ssemogerere’s moderate Democratic Party winning over the Uganda People’s Congress. The UPC accused the DP of voter fraud, only for UN official who had observed the election proceedings to deny such wrongdoing. Political opposition to Ssemogerere, led by Paulo Muwanga, who accused the President of being British PM Dingle Foot’s “puppet,” continued for the rest of Ssemogerere’s time in office.

– clickopedia.co.usa/1977_Ugandan_General_Elections



Mondale and the Congress wrapped up 1977 by passing and signing into law the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act, a new and more detailed Clean Water Act, a Family Farmer Relief act meant to give small farms greater government assistance, and finally, the Urban Transportation Sanitation and Development Act, which was a result of multiple meetings with state and local leaders of numerous metropolitan areas in the US.

In retrospect, 1977 was a fairly easy year for Mondale – at least, when one compares it to the event that unfolded in 1978…

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



ERITREA CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE

enjGvPU.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/enjGvPU. ]
Above: a map showing what the horn of Africa now looks like, after last year’s controversial “partitioning” of Ethiopia that ended the 1974-1977 wars and transferred Ethiopian territory to Somalia in exchange for a “purchasing fee” and a 1-mile-deep demilitarized border zone on the Somalian side of the nations’ new border.

Associated Press, 1/1/1978



...We can now confirm reports, that a massacre of civilians has unfolded in the city of Multan, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The story seems to be that workers at the Multan Colony Textile Mills went on strike after the factory management refused to give workers a bonus after an increase in profits, and Pakistan’s leader, Muhamad Zia-ul-Haq, ordered troops to open fire on them to end the strike… Reports estimate the number of the dead is over one hundred, at the very least, and hundreds more have been injured in some way, shape, or form… Nationwide, the people of Pakistan, a nation currently under the control of a military dictatorship, are taking to the streets in outrage at the government’s disregard for the lives of the people. Trade Unions are even calling for worker strikes nationwide…

– BBC World News, 1/2/1978



…In other news, rising interest rates are giving businesses pause over their spending projections for the 1978 fiscal year, out of concerns for earnings and stock price values…

– CBS Evening News, 1/12/1978



“Yeah, that’d be great, but unfortunately, Colonel, this isn’t a social call.”

“Oh?”

“Colonel, the Defense Department’s urging me to send actual troops into Angola.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“We’re making progress, albeit at a snail’s pace. But they think we ourselves can get it done faster. I’m not sure, that’s why I’d like your opinion.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, Indochina’s full of jungle. So’s Angola.”

“Well it’s not just the land, which you really do need to study, and make sure the military know it, too, but it’s not just that. You need to know the people, which people you can trust, and which you can’t.”

“A lot of natives are resilient to even advisory troops down there, but even more directly, I just don’t like the image of American forces plowing down Black people. And on their own continent, no less.”

“Yeah, well, remember – if you disagree with them and they don’t like it, remind them that you are the president, and then go with what your gut and all the data tells you to do. You don’t want to dive into quicksand after being told it’s a gold mine.”

“That’s one way of putting, I guess.”

– Telephone conversation between Colonel Sanders and Walter Mondale, 1/12/1978



MONDALE PAINTS OPTIMISTIC PICTURE OF PROSPERITY IN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

…the President was light on foreign policy, only mentioning a planned withdrawal of troops from Ethiopia and not even mentioning the US’s support of anti-communist forces in Angola at all…

The Washington Times, 1/19/1978



POWERFUL BLIZZARD STRIKES OHIO VALLEY! MILLIONS HIT, OTHERS BRACING FOR IMPACT!

Mondale: “We Learned From Last Year’s Cold Front How To Better Handle These Crises”

…federal and state emergency agencies are already prepping for power outages and rescue operations…

The Los Angeles Times, 1/25/1978



…A joint resolution is similar to a bill in that both require the approval of both Chambers of Congress. A resolution passed by only one chamber, however, is not binding law, but instead a way of expressing the overall sentiment of the Senate on a certain issue. …On January 30, as Vice President Mike Gravel presided over the Senate, the chamber finally passed a resolution calling for the ending of the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Gravel beamed with pride when Speaker Udall oversaw the resolution’s passage in the House, making for a joint resolution that rejected the opinions of the War-Hawks on the Hill. Naturally, many hawkish politicians and political activists scowls in fury at this development, and swore to reverse it – “for the sake of the nation,” Senator Hibbard assured an ABC reporter on February 3rd…

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



HISTORIC I.R.A. PEACE TREATY SIGNED!

…the 1977-1978 Peace Accords over Northern Ireland may very well mark the end of the Troubles for good… The IRA had increased its violence over the UK’s involvement in the Cuba War and was inspired by the events of France in 1964 to increase their more violent and extremist practices, with 1966 being the most hostile year. Thankfully, the 1970s saw the UK government moderate on the issue of Northern Ireland over international pressure… Years of bilateral and multilateral discussions has culminated in this treaty…

The Boston Globe, 2/4/1978



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[pic: imgur.com/5srBVP8.png ]

– A painting of Colonel Sanders, painted c. February 1978



…In other news, the government of the southern African nation of Rhodesia has announced that it will accept multiracial democracy by the end of this year – a move that is likely an effort to quell riots in Rhodesia that the government fear will spill into an outright revolution similar to what appears to be unfolding in South Africa…

– BBC World News, 15/2/1978



PUBLISHER TED KENNEDY UNVEILS PLANS FOR NEW “K.N.N.” NETWORK

…newspaper magnate Ted Kennedy, owner of the Sacramento Union, tonight unveiled his plans for a 24-hour news channel dubbed “Kennedy News Network.” The ambitious endeavor is the brainchild of three influential members of the news/“info-tainment” industry: Kennedy, media executive Reese Schonfeld, and businessman Robert Edward Turner III… Turner, the CEO of Public Television Network (PTN), explained at the announcement, “This is a massive endeavor, we’ve hired a staff of at least 300.” An expensive move as well, a total of roughly $32 million has been poured into KNN’s launch, and the operation is expected to cost millions per month in order to operate… KNN is set to begin operating later this year…

– The Los Angeles Times, 2/22/1978



IS RINGO LEAVING THE BEATLES?!

…according to sources close to the legendary band, Ringo Starr’s the years of playing referee over the differing visions of John and Paul have “finally gotten to him.” The claims may explain the prominent use of Billy Preston, the unofficial “fifth Beatle,” on the bands most recent album – the band may be eyeing for a suitable “Replacement Ringo” of sorts…

The Sun, UK tabloid magazine, 26/2/1978



SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] Italicized parts pulled from OTL Mondale’84 campaign brochure: http://www.4president.org/brochures/1984/mondale1984brochure.htm
[2] Parts that are in italics are from the OTL article: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/blizzard-of-1977-meteorological-analysis-canada-niagara/78699
[3] Italicized bit from here: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v66n1/v66n1p1.html
[4] At least, according to Source 5 on Qaboos’s wiki article: https://books.google.com/books?id=f3pV457NIE4C
[5] Based on his OTL record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Y._Brown_Jr.#Business_ventures
[6] Just a quick update on this: https://bittersoutherner.com/ollies-trolley-worlds-greatest-hamburger
[7] So yeah, his unsuccessful revenge quest led to him entering the sports management world later than he did in OTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Y._Brown_Jr.#Basketball_ventures
[8] Whole segment is pulled from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Bryant#Anti-gay_rights_activism
[9] Video of actual scene found here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu8rcm
[10] Info obtained from passages (and graphs) found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States
[11] Real thing!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_University
[12] Italicized parts are from some article found through Ann Dunham’s wiki page, but I can’t find it now (I’ll keep looking, though! o_O )
[13] This opening bit is taken from its OTL wiki page…
[14] IOTL, Amha Selassie declined to become king even after the Derg offered the throne to him. This makes me think that either he was reluctant to rule or did not believe he would be accepted as ruler by the people. But ITTL, as was mentioned, his father made him promise to “save Ethiopia,” a vague enough request for Amha to do what he thinks is in the best interest of the country, not so much the monarchy.
[15] OTL quote: http://www.quotehd.com/quotes/anita-bryant-quote-if-homosexuality-was-the-normal-way-god-would-have-made-adam
[16] Sadat really did do this, and it really did cause the PLO to be open to talks out of fear of being left out of an agreement between just Egypt and Israel!!!
[17] Upon further research, I became unsure if I should make this bit a part of this TL as, according to this source: https://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20150611_2 , Bush only got the OTL job in Venezuela because of father’s prior position in the CIA, but in this TL, G.H.W.B. never got that job, making me wonder if Bush would have still gone to Venezuela here. I think the CIA connection, though, may have only been a part of it, as Jeb seems qualified for the position.
[18] I (very briefly) mentioned in July/August 1970 that George W. Bush plays for the Houston Astros.

The Southeast said:
The popular vote percentage is also remarkably close to OTL 1984's, I like that twist a lot, even if it may not have been deliberate.

Is Donald Rumsfeld a Democrat ITTL, or is that just a typo?

Just a typo. EDIT: fixed; good eye, dude!

BrianD said:
@gap80 , you okay with the following?

BASEBALL
World Series -- Cincinnati Reds over Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3

EXPANSION
Four new teams in Major League Baseball, two in the AL, two in the NL
The candidate cities:
* Buffalo
* Denver
* Milwaukee
* New Orleans
* Seattle
* Toronto
* Washington
Explored the idea but had no real chance -- Indianapolis, Miami, Norfolk, Portland, Tampa, Vancouver

(maybe the readers should help choose the four)

FOOTBALL
SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS SINCE THE 1970 MERGER
V (1971) - Baltimore Colts
VI (1972) - Dallas Cowboys
VII (1973) - Miami Dolphins
VIII (1974) - Pittsburgh Steelers
IX (1975) - Minnesota Vikings
X (1976) - Dallas Cowboys

EXPANSION
1976 - Seattle and Tampa Bay entered the NFL as its 27th and 28th franchises. The league rejected bids from the six surviving World Football League franchises (Birmingham Vulcans, Hawaiians, Memphis Southmen, Portland Storm, San Antonio Wings, Southern California Sun).

BASKETBALL
1976 NBA final - Phoenix Suns over Boston Celtics, 4 games to 3
1976 ABA final - Kentucky Colonels over New York Nets, 4 games to 2

1976-77 NBA ALIGNMENT
EASTERN CONFERENCE
ATLANTIC DIVISION - Boston Celtics, Buffalo Braves, New York Knicks, New York Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Bullets
CENTRAL DIVISION - Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, Spirits of St. Louis
WESTERN CONFERENCE
MIDWEST DIVISION - Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, Kansas City Kings, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Jazz, San Antonio Spurs
PACIFIC DIVISION - Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle SuperSonics

HOCKEY

1976 STANLEY CUP -- Montreal Canadiens d. Philadelphia Flyers 4 games to 0

SOCCER

NORTH AMERICAN SOCCER LEAGUE
Tampa Bay Rowdies beat the Minnesota Kicks 2-1 to win the Soccer Bowl. The league played the season with 20 teams, but two (Boston, Philadelphia) folded at season's end and three more announced relocations for the 1977 season (Miami to Fort Lauderdale, San Antonio to Honolulu, San Diego to Las Vegas).

Nevertheless, the NASL continued to explore potential expansion. A report leaked to the media named potential expansion sites through 1980:

* Anaheim
* Baltimore
* Boston
* Cincinnati
* Cleveland
* Denver
* Detroit
* Houston
* Kansas City
* Louisville
* Memphis
* Montreal
* Norfolk
* Pittsburgh
* San Francisco/Oakland
* Tulsa/Oklahoma City
* Philadelphia
* Phoenix
* San Diego
Click to expand...

Yes; this is all great, thanks a bunch!

BrianD said:
On a more serious note...

@gap80 how do you see the religious right developing ITTL?

Similar to OTL, though Reagan's defeat here will likely give its political leaders pause. IOTL, the Colonel was on friendly terms with some members of the religious right, but he's a little pre-occupied at the moment with KFC and the annual Chicken Dinner Summit, so we'll see how things develop on that front in the upcoming years/chapters...

DTF955Baseballfan said:
1) Boston would work, only because they don't have thec post-'75 letdown of OTL. But they need a few tweaks to make up 14 games int he standings.

2) Loved the first SNL skit, had me laughing out loud. The 2nd was good, I'm not one for scary movies s the Halloween theme wasn't as enjoyable but I still laughed. So, both were enjoyable.

3) Hinckley's end seemed very fitting.

4) Mondale beating Reagan that easily may force a move to the center by the GOP. I predict Howard Baker in '80 - I recall 1980 as the first election I started to follow and I really liked him, IIRC, but he dropped out early.

5) I don't think Gravel can win the primaries, I can see Jimmy Carter coming out on top. (Nice to see him in the Senate.) Or John Glenn.
Click to expand...

1) That all sounds right, great analysis

2) Thanks, I'm glad to hear (um, read) it!

3) Yep!

4) Maybe; after all, four years is a lifetime on Planet Politic - a lot can happen prior to the 1980 primaries...

5) We'll see...

AndyWho said:
Theoretically, renovating the Superdome to configure it to baseball isn't out of the question (as proposed by this site (under baseball hypothetical): http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/Superdome.html#diag)
Cool!

DTF955Baseballfan said:
Interesting, though I still think Washington is preferred. Or Denver, the A's almost moved there in 78. (Wouldn't happen TTL with Finley owning the Colonels instead.)

With Clemente living and yet DaveParker a future star in right, Richie Zisk is expendable - he could also replace Dwight Evans in right and is more their type of player, though you could see them, after failing to do it with all sluggers, daring to get a guy who could steal 40 bases a year in Fenway to lead off like Rivers. Or trade Rivers for a 2B or 3B.
Interesting stuff; your knowledge on this subject is practically encyclopedic!
Ogrebear said:
Good update there @gap80 - Mondale back again.

1) I really hope the Colonel’s Middle Eastern efforts can butterfly the Iranian Revolution- does the Shar like KFC? Perhaps the spotlight being in the region more makes Mondale pay more attention?

2) That dam collapse might put back Alt energy a bit if it’s considered risky making hydroelectric plants. Though Sanders mentioned solar so, maybe it balances out, esp if people remember windmills can make power.

3) Wonder if Tikhonov has a better relationship with China and the West? He’s likely to outlive the ‘old guard’ which us more stable for the USSR.

4) Revolution in South Africa and Amin deposed- could be good. Let’s see what slides in to replace those govt’s.
Click to expand...

1) According to the threads I've found on this site pertaining to that subject, by 1976 the situation was ripe for revolution as, by the end of his OTL rule, the Shah had lost all internal support by basically alienating all but the wealthiest members of his country over the years, so the s#!t is still going to hit the fan - the real question, then, is how it's do so...

2) Maybe!

3) We'll see...

4) I'll cover how things are coming along in both nations in the next chapter :)

FDRFan1943 said:
Does this have any effect on the Carollton Bus Crash that occurs in 1988?

Probably not directly, since this was the result of the driver not being familiar enough with the vehicle, while that 1988 crash was the result of a drunk driver. Still, the Colonel's temperance, the 1932 POD, and safer cars advocate Nader being in a higher position of power here could lead to butterflies that could see drunk driving levels differ from OTL by then.

Thanks you replying, y'all. I really appreciate the feedback! :)

DTF955Baseballfan said:
You're welcome. I wasn't totally sure about Zisk but thought he might be, I'm wrong on some stuff too. :) I did recall that Dave Parker played right and had a rifle arm himself (just not a canon :) ) so we would see Clemente in left his last few years - the '75 Pirates' outfield might not have anyone taking extra bases on them!

Willie Randolph might be a good 2nd baseman for Boston, to, rather than the Yankees. Their lineup is thus: Rivers, Randolph, Rice, Lynn, Cecil Cooper, Yaz, Fisk, 3B, and SS. But, boy, I was stunned how good the Red Sox' pitching staff was in 1976 given they were in Fenway for half their games! This might be a case where the Big Red Machine outslugs the Red Sox because they *aren't* built as much for Fenway, so while Fisk hits his famous home run in Game 5 to stave off elimination, and Boston then wins Game 6 as well, the Reds finally break through and win Game 7 at home.
Click to expand...
Duly noted!
SuperFrog said:
Fun to see Reagan lose in a landslide for once
I'm glad you enjoyed that!
 
Post 35
Post 35: Chapter 43

Chapter 43: March 1978 – November 1978

“Believe you can, and you’re halfway there”

– Teddy Roosevelt



FOUST CUTS RIBBON AT GRAND RE-OPENING OF REFURBISHED PLANT

…Governor Foust attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Huntsman Corporation’s massive newly-expanded and renovated plastics manufacturing plant in Campbell County during her promotion of her latest regulation bill... During the visit, Foust took the opportunity to also visit the elegant Beverly Hills Supper Club nearby for a photo-op with the prestigious clientele. The high-end club was the scene of a minor fire last year, leading to Foust also praising the raising of safety standards under Governors Sanders and Robsion… the state’s northernmost counties are relishing in the good fortune of this economy, but some locals are concerned that the statewide regulations enacted under the past four governors (Sanders, Combs, Robsion and Foust) will discourage the growth of native-Kentucky companies...

The Courier-Journal, 3/1/1978



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[pic: imgur.com/MoL6pjv.png ]

– Colonel Sanders' brief appearance in a KFC commercial, first aired 3/2/1978



It was inevitable. There were signs, but they were overlooked by most of the public. Wall Street insiders becoming more inclined to sell than to buy; earnings growth dropping dramatically as wages failed to match rising consumer prices leading to confident consumers buying on credit like the 1920s had never happened; and metals like gold and copper rising in value. After an unprecedented 14 years of growth, recession was bound to happen. And it did so rapidly.

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



EXTRA!: DOW PLUMMETS IN FIRST HOUR!: Markets In Disarray As Wall Street Is Gripped With Finances Crisis!

The New York Times, 3/4/1978



…Officer Smith witnessed Suspect Joseph Paul Franklin brandish a Ruger Model .44 caliber semi-automatic rifle amidst the panic overwhelming said local bank. Suspect did not acknowledge Smith’s order to lower said weapon and put his hands in the air, compelling Smith to shoot Franklin in the hand… Franklin is a listed suspect in the 12/17/1977 non-fatal shooting of an unarmed interracial couple in Cincinnati, Ohio… Franklin is currently maintaining his right to remain silent… It may be of interest to note that Franklin was arrested in close proximity to the whereabouts of media mogul Larry Flynt…

– Arrest report from local police, Lawrenceville GA, 3/5/1978



In some ways, the situation was very similar to the panic that had overwhelmed Wall Street 14 years prior, as the NYSE fell into disorder and the Dow dropped 400 points. For their part, the SEC reflected on their handling of stagflation, inflation, and price-and-wages freezes under the last two Presidents, and sought to intervene even further than in the past.

[snip]

On Capitol Hill, politicians had their fun accusing one another of being to blame for the recession. The White House, both indirectly and (informally) directly, claimed it on the long-term effects of the 1973 Oil Shock and on President Sanders’s alleged mishandling of the economy. Others pointed fingers at the Federal Reserve, the central banking system of the United States, for overlooking vital signs of a recession being on the way.

On March 5, in the Oval Office, Mondale sat down with all relevant members of his cabinet, league of advisors, and inner circle for an hours-long debate...

– John Kenneth Galbraith’s Prosperity Upended: The Causes and Effects of the 1978 Recession, Excelsior Publishers, 1993



“They’re saying excess spending’s what done it,” noted Attorney General Clark.

“That makes no sense,” noted Commerce Secretary Moss.

“But they’re saying it with confidence – that is the problem,” Clark replied.

Labor Secretary Kennedy was more reflective, and, contemplating the works of FDR, thought out loud “maybe we should launch some new ‘New Deal’ or something.”

Treasury Secretary Roosa disagreed with, “No, I think we need to call for a temporary tax increase to get country rolling again.”

“I thought of that, too,” the President spoke. “I’m very much inclined to raise taxes to solve this issue, but we’d have to do it fairly. [1] And even then, it may not encourage manufacturing and construction, let alone consumer spending.”

“It depends on the type of tax, I suppose,” Chief of Staff Moe encouraged his boss’s notion, “We hit the top classes, they’ll take it out on the lower classes. We can’t hit the lower classes, because they can’t afford it. That leaves the middle class.”

Mondale interjected with “Not unless we do a flat tax. Hit everyone across the board.”

“Do we go with a number, by bracket, or a percentage? 1% from someone on skid row differs greatly from 1% from someone in Manhattan,” asked Mary Collins, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

“Percentage, makes it the most fair and it gets everyone to pitch in,” suggested Chief Economic Policy Advisor Linder.

Mondale, ruminating the idea, quietly muttered, “I really should have seen this thing coming.”

Kennedy objected to the notion by saying “I think a tax hike on anyone right now would only hurt everyone.”

“I’d recommend slashing prices for the poor and middle, and raising taxes on the rich, but the rich would make sure we paid for it in November, if we even manage to pass such a thing to begin with,” Speaker Udall noted as we thought of which members of his party would and would not vote for such a bill.

A second issue then came into the conversation when the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, former businessman Sandy Trowbridge, reminded the assembly of men and women present of the crisis facing bankers now. “If we let the banks fail, their customers will get money back.”

Linder shook his head, “No, no, that can’t work like that – we have to bail them out.”

Moss added “ – and create a debt relief program for struggling homeowners and businesses facing bankruptcy.”

“But that’d make a huge government deficit!” Roosa proclaimed.

“Then we’ll have to slash taxes to stimulate growth to get rid of the deficit!” Kennedy got into Moss’s corner, “but leave the most essential programs like Medicare and Medicaid alone, I say.”

Roosa was again dismissive, “We’d never get out of the red before the end of our time here, and the Republicans will retake the White House lickety-split!”

“We have two years to prep for that,” Mondale said boldly, “But we need to address this problem now! Listen – I’ve listened to both sides, and the tax hikes are tempting. Raising taxes hurts short-term but helps long-term, but too many people are short-sighted. I like what Kennedy said, though, about major work programs, but I’d personally would be willing to go in the opposite direction and actually raise taxes.”

“The problem then becomes not which programs would see a cut in spending, but how to tell the American people that taxes are good for them.” Clark said flatly with a sprinkling of sarcasm, just enough to make the President aware of his criticism without offending him. Clark then leaned in with earnest. “Fritz, lowering taxes raises worker take-home pay, allowing them to put more of their money into the economy, which raises demands from businesses, which causes the economy to grow again.”

Mondale replied with a response that did not directly address the tax query at all: “Then we encourage spending and go about creating jobs. We need to stimulate the economy, so we’ll raise government spending for this year, cut back the next to shrink back the deficit, and we’ll also lower interest rates. That should do the trick. It might be slower, it might be tougher, it might even cost us a few seats in November, but I think it’ll help more people in the short run and in the long run.”

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



“I remember I had a harder time looking for work than my siblings… Prices for everything were going up and banks and management people were freaking out over the sudden downturn. People began acting like a hurricane was hitting all fifty states, it seemed.”

– Frank Morabito of Fort Wayne, IN in KNN anniversary special, 2008



Another step in warming relations between Israel and the P.L.O. was the historic March 11[, 1978] exchanging of an equal number of low-ranking prisoners between the two entities. Naturally, the agreement led to some – shall we call them the overly passionate? – being outraged. But the average Israeli and the average Palestinian wanted to live in peace, and so approved of what they viewed as something that could get them closer to living in that way.

– Martin van Creveld’s Defending Israel: A Controversial Plan Toward Peace, Thomas Dunne Books, 2004



IN DEFENSE OF WALL STREET

…the Free Market cannot be treated with libertarian ideology at all times without creating dangerous situations for the well-being of its users… However, even the humanitarian former President Colonel Sanders opposes the banks being bailed out, stating “There’s no such thing as a bank that’s too big to fail. That’s like sayin’ there’s no such thing as a three-legged chicken. Sure, you won’t see one often, but it can happen, it has happened, and it will happen again. And cuttin’ off the third leg don’t change the facts of the matter.” While the Colonel’s perseverance to his principles is admirable, the situation at hands calls for a more practical approach. And as bitter as it may sound, government intervention in the marketplace is a necessary evil to preserve consumer confidence at this moment of crisis...

– National Review, 3/7/1978 Special Report



“The causes of this recession were put into motion long before I entered office, but criticizing past mistakes will not improve current conditions. Making the rich pay their fair share of taxes like everybody else is this congress’s new obligation. It is clear that what the American people want from the Federal Reserve is monetary policies that make sense -- that help people buy houses and cars and home appliances. That place people -- millions of men and women -- back to work like FDR did, and retrain workers who were abandoned. That rebuild our nation's roads and bridges and dams and waterlines. These make up our nation's physical foundation, so they have to be sound. That tell government and business and labor that we have to work together to rebuild the nation's basic industries. We have to work together and stand together; there's no other way. That is why I am calling for legislation that will slash taxes to encourage spending and for a sit-down with the nation’s governors to work on public works projects to lower the unemployment rate, and to study this situation on a state-by-state basis... [2]

– President Mondale’s Special Address to the Nation, 3/9/1978




HOST: San Francisco’s city council just signed into law the most comprehensive BLUTAG rights bill in the nation ever, and the responses to it have been polarized. Phyllis Schlafly, you have said that this development is disgraceful, correct?

SCHLAFLY: Yes, it is an affront to God.

HOST: But what about the separation of Church and State?

SCHLAFLY: Separating Church and State is not the same as Church being ignored by State. We are an almost entirely Christian nation, and our laws need to reflect the wishes of all the people, not the wants of some people.

HOST: Which is why the law was passed, so BLUTAG people will be treated like all the rest of us.

SCHLAFLY: They are not like the rest of us, though, because they do not follow God’s will, and neither does this new law.

HOST: But what about the separation of Church and State?

Meet the Press interview, 3/28/1978



Mondale Talks Shop With the National Governor’s Association: Leaves “Optimistic” At “Hardhat Work” To Be Done To Combat Economic Crisis

The Washington Post, 4/7/1978



Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had served as Shah (King) of Iran since 1941, but it seemed his time as its head of state was coming to close one way or another. His perceived pandering to the US and western society was igniting opposition lead by the Ayatollah (leading Shia cleric) Ruhollah Khomeini, especially after the news of recession hitting the US led to fear that soon the economy ripples would soon hit Iran.

On April 10, 1978, the 58-year-old Shah of Iran was assassinated by an avid supporter of the Ayatollah Khomeini, claiming the Shah planned to “sell out” his country to the US and Israel. The assassination came a mere two days after the Shah had informally commented “That Begin is not that bad of a man,” a reference to Israel’s Menachem Begin. However, police reports indicate the murdering political extremist was planning the assassination for at least two weeks.

Across the seas and oceans, in the skies high above a much different desert landscape, Reza Pahlavi was flying shotgun in a Thunderbolt jet piloted by one of his fellow trainees at the US Air Force base in Lubbock, Texas. Reza, the Crown Prince of Iran, was wrapping up basic training and had been permitted to go on what he called “a bit of a joyride.” He would soon be given more serious things to do than go joyriding. Upon returning to zero altitude, Reza was informed that he had just inherited a nation of roughly 35 million people. He was 17-and-a-half years old.

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[pic: imgur.com/Adc7Fhb.png ]
Above: Reza in 1978; the new ruler refused to be “replaced” by a temporary regent upon becoming King at such a young age, believing he would be fully capable of governing the country with the help of advisors. After turning 18, the controversial dispute (which included claims of his mother being the true power behind the throne) was rendered moot.

The young prince, upon returning to Iran as its new Shah, quickly discovered that his father’s initial base of support was long gone due to years of alienating. To stay in power, Reza sought to turn the public against the Ayatollah Khomeini by cracking down on corruption and implementing basic public health and employment programs to combat early signs of recession. Like his father, the Shah Reza was accused of being an American puppet by his opponents, only for him to counteract by making proclamations that tightened the bonds between church and state in terms of respect to traditional values. Soon, the quality of life began improving nationwide thanks to the reforms, and Khomeini supporters began resorting to terrorist acts of rebellion. Encouraged by Khomeini’s call to demonstrate against “the puppet shah,” his followers began planting bombs in government offices and attacking government officials at regional offices, American and western embassies, and other places. Attempts to take American diplomats and workers failed after Reza doubled Iranian security forces in Tehran. Khomeini continued to lose ground as the year progressed, however, as many Iranians began to believe that the new leader was the change that Iran had so badly needed.

Shah Reza branded Khomeini a terrorist and a traitor, and ordered he stand trial despite advisors calling for his death. The new leader, perhaps inspired by his time in the United States, announced that he wanted to make Iran “the Switzerland of the middle east,” a financial and corporate hub for the region that would stay neutral in regards to major worldwide geopolitical issues. This appealed to neither pro-western nor anti-western members of the inner circle inherited from his father, but the King was adamant. According to the accounts of his eldest son, Reza “repeatedly had to explain to his advisors the amount of wealth had and prosperity experienced by both the people of Switzerland” to keep them from “even thinking of pulling off some sort of coup.”

Khomeini was finally dealt with in 1983, when…

– Michael Axworthy’s A History of Iran, Basic Books, 2008



For once, Mike [Gravel] and Walt [Mondale] agreed on something when Fritz cancelled production of the neutron bomb, a new weapon that had the potential to kill people with radiation while leaving buildings relatively intact. [3]

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994




The 1978 Georgian Massacre of April 14, 1978, began as a wave of demonstrations in response to Soviet Premier Suslov’s efforts to change language statuses in the Georgian SSR. The demonstrations primarily occurred in Tbilisi, the SSR’s capital, after it was made clear that Suslov intended to replace the region’s official language of Georgian with Russian. Several thousand demonstrators took to the streets in an obvious open expression of opposition to state policy. Suslov would not tolerate this “insubordination,” as he called it, and ordered in the military to “put down [a] potential uprising.” On April 15, members of the Soviet Army opened fire on a large collection of protestors, killing over 110 people and wounding roughly 350 more.

While the Soviet Pravda did not report the mass shooting, the story made its way outside of the Georgian SSR, first being reported in the United Kingdom and West Germany as a “massacre” before the event reached the US. The USSR received international condemnation and contributed to anti-Soviet sentiment in the SSRs of the Caucuses mountain region…

– clickopedia.co.usa



BOB MARLEY PLAYS FOR PEACE: Over 32,000 Attend the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica

The Daily Telegraph, 4/22/1978



SOLDIERS EXCHANGE GUNFIRE IN PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER SKIRMISH

…at least three soldiers were injured on both sides of the border in an incident concerning Pakistani citizens attempting to flee into Afghanistan…

The Guardian, 4/25/1978



…The specifics of “Mondale’s bill” dictated that taxes would be raised across the board for six months in order to address economic woes. Being open and honest about it seemed to be having a less-than-desirable affect, as more and more conservatives such as William F. Buckley and Congressman Phil Crane sought to use Fritz’s own words against him...

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



ROCKY TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR AGAIN DESPITE RECENT HEALTH SCARE

…The former Governor and H.E.W. Secretary has been in failing health since at least early 1977, according a former member of his inner circle. “He had to be put on blood thinners and a new diet, but he keeps refusing the doctor’s order for bed rest, and instead is increasingly defying him by increasing his schedule.” Others, including pundits, have pointed to how Rockefeller, at almost the age of 70, seems to have poor back and hands that regularly shake… [4]

– The New York Times, 5/1/1978




MONDALE PULLS TROOPS FROM ANGOLA AMID ECONOMIC WOES BACK HOME

The Boston Globe, 5/2/1978



ANGOLAN WITHDRAWAL IS A COLD-WAR FORFEITURE TO THE USSR!: Without U.S. Support, African Nation Is Doomed to A Communist Takeover

The New York Post, opinion article, 5/2/1978



…Earlier today, both chambers of congress established what is being called the Troublesome Assets Relief Program, or TARP, which is a new federal program that is meant to allow the US Treasury to bail out troubled banks. The legislation establishing the program also increases the FDIC’s limit on bank deposits in order for said banks to be able to tap federal funds needed to avoid bankruptcy…

– The Overmyer Network, 5/4/1978 broadcast



REP. RON PAUL DEFEATS SEVERAL OTHERS IN GOP SENATE PRIMARY

…The 1.5-term Congressman will continue to run for LBJ’s old seat on his small-government, anti-taxes campaign messages…

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5/6/1978



1% FLAT TAX CUT BILL PASSES SENATE, 52-48: Conservatives Outraged Over Wealthy Paying More

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[pic: https://imgur.com/RhI8cVC ]
Above: a visibly tired President Mondale addressing critical questions at a White House Press Briefing just prior to the vote; Mondale is expect to sign the bill into law as soon as possible.

...The Economic Modification and Stability bill is part of an omnibus economic stimulus package granting unemployment benefits to a large swath of struggling Americans, as well as tax write-offs for small businesses…

The Washington Post, 5/7/1978



On March 9, political strategist Jesse Helms won the Republican nomination for US Senate. His victory, and, subsequently, his campaign, was one of many to obtain strong endorsements from Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, William F. Buckley, and other members of the “Religious Right” movement. …The defeat of Ronald Reagan in 1976 convinced conservatives in the party that Americans were not yet familiar with the benefits of conservatism for them to be successful on the national stage. In their effort to build up such a familiarity, organizers began growing grassroots campaigns immediately afterward, and sought to bring new leadership to Washington come November 1978. …Their Republican opponents, whom differed from them by supporting limited “helping hand” welfare programs akin to the policies of Colonel Sanders, soon adopted a term for themselves: while leaders like Helms were conservative candidates and those like Ron Paul were libertarian candidates, people such as Jay Hammond and Frank X. McDermott were “Colonel Conservative” candidates. As for The Colonel himself, the former President was not as active in this election cycle as he had in previous years, likely due to him being preoccupied with peace talk efforts unfolding in the Middle East that year…

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

– Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) on Meet the Press, 5/22/1978 [5]



On May 28, 1978, a massive prison escape in northern Florida gave the Sunshine state’s unpopular Governor Louis A. “Skip” Bafalis the perfect opportunity to regain his popularity. Bafalis immediately organized the state police forces to finally push forward the “law and order” promises that he had made in 1970 and 1974. State troops patrolled the streets of all the nearby towns, leading to all 10 escaped convicts being captured within a week. The one that got the farthest away did so by stealing a boat in his attempt to flee to Cuba, not knowing of the island nation’s extradition policy. Another one, in a moment captured by local TV cameras, was shot in the knee and apprehended just two miles south of the Georgian border on June 20. The events caused Bafalis to appear on TV again and again. Complaints that the Governor was becoming too much of a spotlight hog and accusations that state and local police were too violent to the convicts failed to break down the newfound popularity of the Governor the media quickly (and, perhaps, appropriately) dubbed “Florida’s Gentleman Biaggi.”

– Meg Jacobs’ Pressure at the Polls: The Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s, 2016 net-book edition



CALGARY TO HOST 1984 WINTER OLYMPICS!

Calgary, Alberta, CANADA – Despite a late entry into the process, the Canadian city won the bid to host the 1984 games over Sarajevo, Yugoslavia; Gothenburg, Sweden; and several other cities, especially several American cities, who possibly sought to gain wealth from hosting the major event amid economic recession…

– The Daily Mirror, 18/5/1978



An early test of the [February 1978] peace treaty’s effectiveness came on May 24, when an oil tanker crashed into rocks at low tide and spilled several tons of oil into the sea. The people of both Ireland and Northern Ireland worked together to clean up the mess the spill left of the coastline of both political entities in a showing of peaceful cooperation that would have been likely unimaginable just a decade earlier...

– Andrew Marr’s Modern Britain: A History, Pan Macmillan Publishers, 2002 edition



VOTERS APPROVE PROP 13 IN LANDSLIDE

…capping the state’s real estate tax amount at 1% is expected to slash property taxes by 60% and relieve millions of Golden State property owners… Governor Reagan’s opposition to the Proposition will likely not help his re-election bid… “The Founding Fathers would be proud that their idea of limited taxation is still being upheld two-hundred years later,” says Howard Jarvis, the former US Congressman (1965-1971) who used the initiative process to create Proposition 13. However, opponents of the Proposition question the constitutionality of the law…

The Los Angeles Times, 6/6/1978



PRIMARY UPSET TESTS STRENGTHS OF GOP’S CONSERVATIVE FACTIONS

Helena, MT – Last night’s primary for the GOP nomination for Montana’s Class 2 Senate seat ended in an upset, as author and stock-and-commodity trader Larry R. Williams campaigned extensively to defeat controversial incumbent US Senator Hank Hibbard by a margin of 3.4%. Williams, 35, opposed Hibbard over concerns that the incumbent’s deeply conservative policies were hurtful to Montanans “at a time when the feds have to actually do something with the tax money we give them.” Williams also alleged Hibbard had failed to address statewide issues since his election in 1972, exclaiming “Montanans deserve an actual Senator on Capitol Hill” at a victory rally last night. Williams favors indexing tax brackets for inflation and other market indicators of his own creation, which he has promoted through his published books. The young writer’s win is also a victory for the “Colonel Conservative” faction of the GOP, which supports federal investments such as establishing public works programs to lower employment, while “Reagan Conservative” politicians like Hibbard supported tax cuts for the wealthy to incentivize businesses into hiring more workers…

– The New York Times, 6/7/1978



…On June 8, police raided Biko’s house to arrest him on what was later determined to trumped-up charges… Biko escaped apprehension when supporters began throwing rocks at the police officers as a distraction. Biko fled to the breakaway Bantu of Transkei to coordinate anti-Apartheid activism from a safer vantage point...

– clickopedia.co.usa/Steve_Biko



After the 1977 bilateral agreements with Egypt and Israel, multilateral agreements with Israel, Egypt, Syria, non-PLO representatives of Palestine, Iran, and Oman began in the summer of 1978.

[snip]

The objectives led to a proposed trade-off: in exchange for recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace, Israeli citizens and military would withdraw from occupied territories gained in the 1967 Sukkot War, with an addition of a formal assurance that Israel would not threaten the security of any of its border-sharing neighbors and visa-versa. “Unless one nation indisputably attacks first,” Begin was careful with the semantics of the language to avoid loopholes.

Anwar was intrigued by a notion that had arisen during the Chicken Dinner Summits, that Israeli investments in energy and technology could be profitable long-term. From this, the two men agreed that the proposed multilateral treaty would also include a stipulation that all signatory Arab states would have exclusive rights to Israeli markets ahead of other nations. The representatives of Jordan, Oman and Syria concurred.

– Harry Hurwitz and Yisrael Medad’s Peace In The Making: The Menachem Begin-Anwar El-Sadat Personal Correspondence, Gefen Publishing House, 2011



REPORT: Angola Veterans Suffering From Dengue Fever! [6]

– The Sacramento Union, 6/17/1978




The high number of conservative Republicans running against incumbent moderate Republicans gave the Democrats high hopes for November, as the conservative movement was failing to find a foothold in the Democratic party outside of the south, where only some notable conservative Democrats remained by this point in time…

– Gary C. Jacobson’s The Power and the Politics of Congressional Elections, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015



…In 1956, Elvis Presley getting a polio vaccination on national TV raised immunization levels in the US from 0.6% to 80% in just 6 months. Now, the King is calling for American everywhere to take note of another health issue, and donate to several organizations and medical and charitable organizations aiming at treating Angolan War soldiers suffering from Dengue Fever, a tropical disease spread by mosquitos for which there is no known cure. Mr. Presley is reportedly working with Jerry Lewis of Jerry’s Kids to promote this cause, and the King is urging people to donate to places such as the CDC, the National Institute of Allergy and Infestious Diseases, and other medical and Veteran-related organizations to combat what Elvis is calling a, quote, “major health crisis hurting my fellow veterans,” unquote…

– NBC News, 6/29/1978 broadcast



LAST AMERICAN TROOPS EXIT ETHIOPIA

– The New York Times, 7/1/1978



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[pic: https://imgur.com/Lc8wC3M ]
– Norman Rockwell (left) and Colonel Sanders (right), c. early July 1978



ELECTION ’78: ANTHONY BEATS REECE

Canberra – Concerns over the extent that the US’s economic recession will impact the Australian economy had spurred the National Country party into obtaining a majority in tonight’s general elections, making Doug Anthony the next Prime Minister. Anthony, 48, has been in parliament since 1957… After entering office less than two years ago, outgoing Prime Minister Eric Reece, 68, failed to unite the Labor party over several budget and agrarian bills and policy proposals…

The Canberra Times, Australian newspaper, 7/7/1978



FRENCH SCIENTISTS MAKE BREAKTHROUGH IN ISFV RESEARCH

…people in five U.S. states and two French provinces have already died from the effects of the Immunity System Failure Virus…

Associated Press, 7/11/1978



...The December 1970 talks with President Arias, Vice President Torrijos, US Secretary of State Curtis and the US Ambassador to Panama saw the outline of an agreement… that the US would hand over control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians after a 15-year transition period starting in 1979 in exchange for U.S. preference in Panamanian markets via trade deal. …Conservatives in the U.S., already hurt by the drop in representation that follow the 1970 midterms, openly opposed the talks, with Senator Cotton claiming “giving them our canal would be an insult to the Americans who built it.” Governor-elect of California Ronald Reagan added to the opposition by stating “We built it, we own it, it’s ours!” [7] In 1978, however, the tune had changed to a more accepting one, as more Americans and politicians began to see the trade-off as both a maintaining of American dominance in regards to economic opportunity in the region and the preserving of the freedom and liberty of the locals…

– Ashley Carse’s Beyond the Big Ditch: Politics, Ecology, and Infrastructure at the Panama Canal, MIT Press, 2014



On 18 July, Nelson Mandela celebrated his sixtieth birthday in his prison cell. Unbeknownst to him, the prison collected over 10,000 birthday cards sent to him by anti-Apartheid activists in Britain. The UN Special Committee on Apartheid marked the anniversary with further condemnation of the South African government. Across the city of Pretoria, activists led worker strikes and hunger strikes outside of government offices, causing hundreds to experience police brutality. Police also responded to the “domestic crisis” by launching additional raids on suspected activist supporters of Steve Biko, who still remained “at large,” coordinating “the Great Struggle” from the friendly territory of Transkei... [8]

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016




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– Norman Rockwell’s painting of Colonel Sanders, painted c. June 1978 and unveiled 7/20/1978



MARKETS RECOVERING SLOWER THAN EXPECTED, 3RD QUARTER LIKELY TO UNDERPERFORM

The Wall Street Journal, 7/21/1978



GOVERNOR DICK LAMM IN HOT WATER OVER NEW TAX HIKE PROPOSAL

The Denver Post, 7/22/1978



SOVIETS FACING FINANCIAL CRISIS OF THEIR OWN

…With its many oil reserves being used up quicker than expected after decades of production, oil and gasoline in the U.S.S.R. now costs 84% more than it had as early as the late 1960s, and oil is not the only resource climbing in price. Basic commodities are feeling the effects of the Soviet Union’s economic system, which, due to being bogged down by bureaucratic red tape since its conception, cannot respond sufficiently to the fast-changing and flexible complexities of the modern economic world. As such, the Soviet people are facing worker alienation and a lack of economic innovation that is much more severe than what Americans are currently experiencing…

– The Wall Street Journal, 7/26/1978



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[pic: imgur.com/Ui9je0o.png ]

– Colonel Sanders campaigning for Republican candidates for Kentucky’s U.S. House seats, 7/27/1978



HANOI OPENS ITS FIRST K.F.C.

…In Vietnam’s south, the city Saigon already has five within city limits, makes for a total of nine KFC outlets in the southeast Asian country…

– The Louisville Times, 7/29/1978



POPE PAUL VI HAS DIED: Church Leader Suffered Heart Attack At Age 80

9-Day Mourning Period With Body Lying In State Begins Tomorrow

The Baltimore Sun, newspaper, 8/6/1978



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[pic: https://imgur.com/aS6qUM3 ]
The charismatic Pedro Luis Boitel (b. 1931), a poet and dissident who opposed both Batista and Castro during the 1960s before joining Cuba’s Chamber of Representatives in 1970, revived interest in the fledgling Stability Party. The last-minute fear of instability led to a surge in support for said party as well, allowing them to surpass the New Authority Party, but not the conservative party in the July round of voting.

Established moderate Andres Rivero Aguero (1905-1996), the Prime Minister of Cuba from 1957 to 1958 who was elected President in 1958 but was denied the position, returned to national politics under the Conservative Party banner.

Retired Army General Eulogio Cantillo (1911-1978) of the New Authority Party, who would die one month after the August round, was criticized for being an active early supporter of Castro, damaging the prospects of the party that many early (pre-1978) polls and pundits projected would win over 50% of the vote in the July round.

[snip]

The energetic campaign of Boitel overwhelmed the milquetoast Aguero in the nation’s first runoff election… The results meant a shift in foreign policy away from what Boitel called “blind loyalty” to the US without favoring socialism either, instead favoring a new “Cuban direction,” which some described as populism nationalism, though Boitel called it “passionate patriotism.”…

– clickopedia.co.cuba/1978_general_election/English_translation



NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE

Directed by John Landis

Screenplay by Harold Ramos, Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller

Starring John Belushi, Donald Sutherland

Before National Lampoon’s Animal House, no one ever had the guts to make an honest movie about college life. From Good News to Love Story, from Campus Confidential to the Paper Chase, Hollywood has chosen to regard the campus as a haven for earnest young lovers, gung-ho jocks, inspirational professors and tortured class losers. Animal House, a riotous farce set at fictional Faber College in 1962, presents quite another picture… At its best it perfectly expresses the fears and loathings [sic] of kids who came of age in the late ’60s; at its worst Animal House revels in abject silliness. The hilarious highs easily compensate for the puerile lows…

– Frank Rich’s film review for Time Magazine, 8/14/1978 [9]



…I’m standing outside a movie theater in Denver, Colorado, where a group of activists are picketing the theater and calling for a boycott of the recently-released movie “Animal House.” The film is a risqué comedy depicting the more negative potential aspects of college life. The people behind me are outraged over depictions in the film that say are degrading to women, most notably a scene where a woman passes out in front of a man with whom she was about to, um, have a moment of intimacy, and the young man momentarily seriously considers, uh, forcing himself onto her, until a shoulder angel talks him out of it. Another scene depicts a 14-year-old in another adult situation. The movie, according to the boycotters, also makes light of underage, eh, relations, and various levels of sexual pestering…

– news correspondent, CBS News, 8/19/1978 broadcast



LT. GOV. HAZEL HEATH, PROUDLY “COLONEL CONSERVATIVE,” WINS PRIMARY ELECTION IN U.S. SENATE BID

…Heath chose to run for the Senate instead of for Governor due to the popularity of leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Lowell Thomas Jr., who won the nomination tonight by a wide margin. Also in tonight’s gubernatorial races, first-term Congressman Bill Clinton won the Democratic nomination amidst claims that he is “not Alaskan enough,” as he moved to the state less than a decade ago after being inspired to do so by the career of Vice President Gravel…

– The Fairbanks News-Miner, 8/22/1978



JAMES HOWARD MEREDITH: A NEW VOICE FOR THE SENATE

Who is James Meredith?: Born in June 25, 1933 in Mississippi, Meredith is an American politician, Civil Rights Movement figure, writer, political commentator, and Air Force Veteran. He served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1960 before becoming one of the first Black students to attend Jackson State University. In 1963, in the midst of the Cuban War, Meredith put his education on hold to re-enlist, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain. In 1967, soon after graduating from JSU, Meredith ran for U.S. House seat from New York against Adam Clayton Powell, then ran for the Republican nomination for a US Senate in his native Mississippi in 1972. This past June, Meredith won the primary for the GOP nomination by a 4% margin over Congressman Thad Cochran.

What does he stand for?: Meredith stands for “Colonel conservatism.” He wants to simplify America’s domestic program systems, bring for an era of racil reconciliation, and tax break on small businesses to help re-stimulate the economy…

– “Meredith For Senate” pamphlet, first printed and circulated around Mississippi 8/23/1978



As US Secretary of State Jimmy Carter continued his visits, the dictatorial regime began to show signs of coming to an end through more peaceful avenues than previously thought possible. …Ernesto Geisel’s tenure oversaw the oversaw the abertura (“opening up”) of the country to others, the liberalizing of Brazil, the formation of a new Constitution in 1978. Taking some of the suggestions given by the US State Department, Geisel also re-implemented Brazil’s Electoral College in time to hold a new election in 1980... [10]

– Boris Faustino and Sergio Fausto’s Brazil: A Nation's History, Cambridge University Press, 1999 (Second Edition, 2014)




…In other news, Maryland’s state Supreme Court has ruled that, due to the incumbent Governor Marvin Mandel being sentenced to an additional year of jail without parole, he will be unable to carry out the duties of the office for the rest of his term. As a result, the court also ruled in favor of Blair Lee, the state’s acting Governor for almost a year now, who argued that he should officially become full governor in light of Mandel’s newest legal adversity. As Acting Governor, Lee has sought to distance himself from Mandel by appointing special prosecutors to every state department in order to, quote, “root out any and all other scandals now instead of later,” unquote…

– NBC News, 8/23/1978 broadcast



With the boycotts leading to her sponsors dropping her, and her funds subsequently drying up, Bryant decided to jump into politics at a time when the budding “religious right” movement was trying to vindicate and rebuild themselves in the wake of their Presidential candidate, former monkey handler Ronald Reagan, losing in a landslide in 1976.

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After talks with state political leaders, Anita decided to give electoral politics a try, quoting a line quickly becoming one often spouted by misinformed newcomers: “If the Colonel could do it, so can I!” Bryant ran for an open congressional seat in a deeply conservative section of her native state of Oklahoma, where she capitalized on her reputation as “a leader of the fight to preserve family values,” as she called it. Pledging to combat “militant homosexuality” [11], she won the nomination with ease, making her election in November an inevitability…

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



…The Papal conclave in Vatican City has just announced that Cardinal Albino Luciani, the Patriarch of Venice, has been elected to be the Catholic Church’s new Pope… Apparently, he will take the name of “John Paul” to honor both his predecessor Pope John XXIII, and that pope’s predecessor, Pope Paul VI…

The Overmyer Network, 8/26/1978 broadcast



…In early September [1978], the first class of KFC College students walked through those doors and began taking classes training them in the fast-food industry. …The teachers are called the Colonel’s Scholars, and they’re all certified teachers and experienced members of the KFC family…

– Dave Thomas’ Under the Colonel’s Wing, Mosaic Publishing, 1982



Elena [Ceausescu] ran Romania like it was her own personal fiefdom. She considered the masses to be “rats” and privately referred to them as such. And she let her cronies pursue an unchecked reign of terror across Romania. To stay in power and generate revenue, Elena began allowing any sort of character, from drug lords to corrupt politicians to mafia members, to use Romania as their own private bank (for a fee, of course) in 1973. By 1978, Elena had developed a vanity cult around herself, and in doing so spent much of her country’s G.D.P. on herself each year, purchasing lavish expenses, twice-renovating the Presidential Palace, one of the largest buildings on Earth at the time, and creating a security apparatus that was so intrusive that it is estimated that over ten percent of the country’s population were informants, [12] most of which were gossiping housewives-turned-snitches who kept their oppressive fingers on the pulse of their respective neighborhoods. Thousands “disappeared” between 1971 and 1978 due to their inquisitiveness. Women also suffered under the wrath of Elena due to her banning of makeup and making abortion a capital offense, famously explaining to it be a matter of justice: “a life for a life.”

Her hold on power began to slip away in 1977, when coal miners went on strike in the Jiu Valley. In one of the largest assembly of dissatisfied workers since the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, 35,000 workers stop working on August 1. Elena refused to send a negotiating team as suggested by most members of the Communist Party at first. Instead, the police opening fire on the strikers. Talk of resistance began to form as the dozens of dead workers made many rethink their allegiance to the state. Demonstration against her began sprouting up that next year, and increased each time someone became a martyr. By September 1978, thousands across the country were ready for change...

– Vladimir Tismaneanu’s Stalinism For All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Third Edition, 2023



…tonight’s most prominent primaries where in Florida and Minnesota. In the Sunshine State, Jack Eckerd, the preferred choice of the popular incumbent Governor Bafalis, won the Republican nomination with ease. In Minnesota, voters selected a unique matchup, as a conservative Democrat will face off against a liberal Republican in November. The popular incumbent Senator Bob Short won the Democratic nomination, while former Governor Harold Stassen won the GOP nomination unopposed...

– CBS report, 9/12/1978



A major test of the new King’s leadership skills arrived on September 16, 1978, when a 7.4-scale earthquake struck Iran. The ground was felt shaking in Iran, where the Shah was at the time it struck. The death toll ranged between 15,000 and 25,000 from its effects. Shah Reza immediately responded by accepting any international aide offered, and personally travelling to the areas effected the worst – including the town of Tabas, which was ravaged due to its proximity to the quake’s epicenter and was the location of a majority of the deaths – to personally oversee the distributing of food and medical assistance.

[snip]

The reign of the new Shah would feature campaigns for human rights and basic utilities, with most Iranians growing to support him, save for some conservative extremists living in sparse desert areas away from most urban clusters. Anti-monarchy violence would still sprouts up every now and again – the one in 1983 being the most infamous – but enough people in the nation were kept content enough for the rhetoric to not grow into a major movement, at least not like the kind seen in the late 1970s…

– Michael Axworthy’s A History of Iran, Basic Books, 2008



[snip] A second trade-off was soon formed: Jerusalem would remain the capital of Israel in exchange for Palestinians being permitted to visit holy sites within its borders without harassment. Even allowing non-military security guards to accompanying Palestinian citizens into Jerusalem upon request was agreed to, “if we can keep the PLO and non-PLO leaders of the Palestinian people at the table,” Begin noted in his diary. While the PLO was still willing to negotiate despite repeatedly threatening to walk out, the PLO’s ally, Syria, was beginning to decrease their enthusiasm for the proposed multilateral peace treaty.

Begin and Anwar soon came upon a possible solution to the PLO’s demands: in exchange for the PLO amending their charter so it would acknowledge Israel’s right to exist “in some form or another,” Israel would formally acknowledge the existence of Palestine the state (but not the right of the PLO to control it). However, the Israeli government, at least under Begin, would still informally consider the PLO a terrorist organization for being founded with the intent to promote armed struggle and violence against Israeli civilians, and would refuse to increase peaceful relations with Palestine any further until dropping the violence and extremism portions of their mission statement.

It helped that not all Palestinians supported the PLO, especially as the effects of the Chicken Dinner Summits began to work against the organization’s anti-Israeli propaganda. The possibility of losing power frightened enough members of the organization for them to agree to the deal.

The men assembled in the American city of Atlanta, Georgia, the capital of the home state of the US Secretary of State Jimmy Carter, to make the accord official with pen, paper and witnesses…

– Harry Hurwitz and Yisrael Medad’s Peace In The Making: The Menachem Begin-Anwar El-Sadat Personal Correspondence, Gefen Publishing House, 2011



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– newspaper covering the culmination of the 1977-1978 Sadat-Carter-Begin peace talks, 9/25/1978



“AN OUTRAGEOUS BETRAYAL!”: THE ATLANTA PEACE TREATY OUTRAGES POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS HARDLINERS ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST

…thankfully, it appears that most political leaders are discouraging violence and are condemning attacks…

The Boston Globe, 9/26/1978



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– The Indian Express, reporting on Libya and Sudan’s reactions to the “Chicken Dinner” Peace Treaty, 9/27/1978



REPORT: SITUATION IN PAKISTAN WORSENING

…as the people’s freedoms are limited or even revoked, many are deciding to flee a nation they are starting to no longer recognize…

The Guardian, 27/9/1978



POPE JOHN PAUL HAS DIED!: Led The Catholic Church For Only 33 Days

The Guardian, 28/9/1978



The fourth Annual Chicken Dinner Summit in Jerusalem was one of much jubilation. Discussions on Israeli-Arab-Christian relations were relaxed and peaceful, as there was much to celebrate that year. Most of the speakers praised the actions taken by world leaders, especially the “big four” of Egypt’s Sadat, Israel’s Begin, Secretary Carter, and my dad, to ensure peace between several Middle Eastern lands.

[snip] Another speaker at the summit was boxer Mohammad Ali. Ali was welcomed due to his anti-war views, which caught national attention in the early 1960s, back when he was still known as Cassius Clay. During the Cuban War, the US Armed Forces lowered its test standards, leading to Ali being listed as Class 1-A (as in available for military service) in 1962 despite his dyslexia inhibiting his writing and spelling in tests. Ali responded in 1963 by declaring himself a conscientious objector and subsequently became an ally of the shoutnik/peacenik movement. At the 1978 Summit, Ali would reiterate the sentiments he expressed 15 years earlier, that “war is against the teachings of the Qu’ran…We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger.” [13]

Ali’s opposition to being drafted came at a time when opposition to American troop presence in Cuba was on the rise. Soon, college students, the Nation of Islam, multiple celebrities and high-profile activities, fellow boxers, Malcolm X, and his coach Angelo Dundee and Sugar Ray Robinson, were in his corner, as the threat of being arrested and fined for refusing to be drafted became a real possibility for the rising star boxer. The NY State Athletic Commission even threatened to suspend his boxing license, just six months before his planned matchup against Sonny Liston. The conflict was resolved in late 1963, when several lawyers defended Ali’s right to object, and he was granted a medical deferral for dyslexia upon retaking the writing and spelling as the standards had been changed yet again between his initial listing and his open refusal. “Too many others were not so lucky to find a legal loophole like I did,” Ali reminded us 1978, “In 1963, I merely nearly lost my chance to go up against Sonny Liston in 1964, but too many others lost their lives while I was kicking Liston’s rear.”

Ali’s incident led to a New York state court ruling that religion was a valid excuse to refuse being drafted in 1965, but Father’s administration rendered the situation moot by making the military all-volunteer by the time he left office – an act for which Ali praised Father. To return the favor, Ali gladly spoke at the summit, where he indirectly admonished the PLO by saying “Islam is a religion of peace [that] does not promote terrorism or killing people …certain…followers who cause…destruction…are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims.” Despite the controversial speech, Ali praised leaders on all sides of the issue by calling for such pro-peace actions to continue on, saying “political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam” for the promotion of peace [13].

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



WORK PROGRAMS TAKING LONGR THAN EXPECTED TO START

– The Wall Street Journal, 10/9/1978



…In other news, South Africa’s parliament elected a new State President earlier tonight. A largely ceremonial position, the winner by a landslide was the former Prime Minister for twelve years, Prime Minister B. J. Vorster. The fact that Vorster is an ardent supporter of Apartheid could very likely mean that the nation’s crisis over the segregation system will continue under his eyes if not worsen, as the nation’s dominant political party, the ruling majority National Party, stands by its refusal to end Apartheid or to even reform the government’s ways of handling and treating Black South Africans…

– BBC World News, 10/10/1978



REPORT: KENTUCKIANS STRUGGLING TO RECOVER FROM RECESSION

…Eastern Kentucky is starting to slip back into its old self of out-of-business stores… Over 70% of Kentucky residents disapprove of Mondale’s decision to raise taxes to combat the recession; it is no too surprising, then, that his approval rating in the state is at an all-time low… As Governor Foust travels the state, swearing to pass legislation to “fix this pronto,” calls for a Kentuckian version of a monthly dividend program, similar to the ones found in New Jersey or Alaska, are gaining prominence across Kentucky…

Associated Press, 10/11/1978



GA DEMOCRATS MAY PULL OFF AN UPSET WITH THEIR DARK HORSE CANDIDATE

With the Democrats embroiled in scandals, there is a real possibility that a Republican – specifically, local politician Rodney M. Cook – may finally win the Governor’s seat on November 7. Cook’s main opponent, though, is not like the other Democrats appearing in the news.

This fall’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee is Atlanta’s own Dr. John Skandalakis. [14] In his first bid for public office, the 58-year-old neophyte initially entered the race to bring attention to a single-issue – the need for a complete reform of that state’s entire medical system. His life story of moving from Greece to become a respected physician won over liberal voters. Upon seeing his numbers gain traction, Skandalakis expanded to platform to better housing, and promoting small businesses. He also has called “simplifying as much paperwork as responsibly possible.” In a stunning development, Skandalakis defeated George Busbee and Harry Geisinger in the Democratic primary earlier this year due to the latter two joining Bert Lance in having scandals ruin their reputation. (How ironic – Skandalakis almost has the very word “scandal” in his name, but the man himself seems to have no scandals, or even controversies, of which to speak).

[SNIP] …With this in mind, Skandalakis could in fact win just enough voters to deprive Cook of the governorship…

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion article, 10/12/1978



…today on Capitol Hill, President Mondale signed a bill into law which will allow the home-brewing of beer in the United States, reversing a federal law on the books since 1919. Regulation of the brewing, though, will devolve to the state level… former President Harland “Colonel” Sanders has already voiced strong opposition to the move on moral grounds, but Mondale is defending his decision to sign the bill, noting that it will likely end accidents and crimes connected to illegal home-brewing…

– ABC News, 10/14/1978 broadcast



When the second Papal Conclave of 1978 elected Karol Jozef Wojtyla [on October 16] to become Pope – taking the name John Paul II to honor his predecessor – it sent shockwaves through the religious and geopolitical worlds. …The first non-Italian to serve as pope since Pope Adrian VI serve from 1522 to 1523 brought hope to the people of his native Poland, who were struggling under Communist rule…

Time Magazine, 2008



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– Sports Illustrated issue covering the Yankees winning the October 10-17, 1978 World Series, late September 2018 issue



MONDALE CALLS FOR NEW MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR STIMULUS PACKAGE TO BOOST ECONOMY

…Mondale and the majority Democrats in both the House and the Senate are pushing against opposing Republicans and conservative Democrats on a second proposed massive omnibus meant to boost the nation’s employment levels… With the package, the President is also seeking the creation of more Federal Hiring Programs to fix “our broken state-to-state system of planning and contracting infrastructure projects.” Mondale believes that simplifying construction developments and road repair paperwork practices will improve employment conditions on both fronts…

The Washington Post, 10/20/1978



U.S.S.R. FEELING AFFECTS OF U.S.-BASED RECESSION AMID FARMING CRISIS OF ITS OWN MAKING

…While the 1975 US-Soviet grain deal helps the Russians keep their economy roaring for a while, Premier Suslov’s mishandling of his country’s agricultural practices will only worsen as the conditions facing rural Russians becomes more dire – especially was winter nears…

The Daily Mail, 26/10/1978



LEADING MIDDLE-EASTERN LEADERS SADAT, BEGIN, AND CARTER SHARE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR HISTORIC PEACE TREATY

…while both Sadat and Begin credited US Secretary of State James Carter and former US President Colonel Sanders for their roles in bringing about peace talks in their respective speeches, rules state that no more than three people can share a Nobel Prize. ...Colonel Sanders reportedly supported Carter's name being put into consideration instead of his own. ...Each recipient gave praise to the Colonel in their respective speeches... The former President received a special citation for his contributions…

The Guardian, 27/10/1978



“It’s an injustice, a darn shame, that the Colonel won’t get the credit he's due. But I’ve spoken to him, and he told me he’s already honored to have played a part. That wouldn’t be enough for me, but it is for him.”

– Richard Nixon, 10/27/1978



REAGAN-BURTON MATCHUP LIKELY TO BE NAILBITER

…polls show a slim majority of Californians favor Burton… Former Governor Brown claims “Californians are fed up with Reagan saying ‘I told you so,’ claiming he warned America had large social programs put a strain on the economy, when thousands of Californians now need those programs more than ever to get by.” …Reagan’s critics claim his rhetoric does not reflect his actions… Additionally, Reagan promised to not run for a third term only to break that promise early last year…

The Sacramento Union, 10/29/1978



Even after the signing of the 1978 Atlanta Treaty, The Colonel declined to actively campaign for any candidates, making some question if his health was in decline. The truth, however, was that he had friends and acquaintances he respected on both sides of the conservative schism. For example, he was on friendly terms with both Jerry Falwell and Barry Goldwater. Basically, the Colonel wanted to play a more uniting role in the party if the party wanted him involved…

– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015



United States Senate election results, 1978
Date: November 7, 1978
Seats: 33 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Howard Baker (R-TN)
Senate minority leader: Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Seats before election: 44 (R), 55 (D), 1 (I)
Seats after election: 52 (R), 46 (D), 2 (I)
Seat change: R ^ 8, D v 9, I ^ 1

Full List:
Alabama: incumbent appointee John Sparkman (Democratic) over Jerome B. Couch (Prohibition)
Alaska: Hazel P. Heath (R) over incumbent Eben Hopson (D)
Arkansas: Jim Guy Tucker (D) over Tom Kelly (R) and John G. Black (I); incumbent appointee Kaneaster Hodges Jr. (D) retired
Colorado: William L. Armstrong (R) over Floyd Haskell (D); incumbent Gordon L. Allott (R) retired
Delaware: incumbent J. Caleb Boggs (R) vs Emily Womach (D)
Georgia: incumbent Sam Nunn (D) vs Fletcher Thompson (R)
Idaho: George Vernon Hansen (R) over incumbent Richard H. Stallings (D)
Illinois: incumbent Charles Percy (R) over Alex Seith (D)
Iowa: Roger Jespen (R) over incumbent Dick Clark (D)
Kansas: Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R) over William R. Roy (D); incumbent James B. Pearson (R) retired
Kentucky: incumbent Lawrence W. Wetherby (D) over Louie Nunn (R)
Louisiana: incumbent Jack P. F. Gremillion Sr. (D) over Woody Jenkins (Independent)
Maine: William Cohen (R) over incumbent William Hathaway (D)
Massachusetts: incumbent Ed Brooke (R) over Paul Tsongas (D)
Michigan: incumbent Robert Griffin (R) over Carl Levin (D)
Minnesota: incumbent Bob Short (D) over Harold Stassen (R), Brian Coyle (Natural Mind) & Leonard J. Richards (I)
Mississippi: James H. Meredith (R) over Maurice Dantin (D); incumbent James Eastland (D) retired
Montana: Larry Williams (R) over Paul G. Hatfield (D); incumbent Henry S. “Hank” Hibbard (R) lost re-nomination
Nebraska: incumbent Orrin Hatch (R) vs J. James Exon (D)
New Hampshire: inconclusive; Carman C. Chimento (I) appointed and rematch held later between Gordon J. Humphrey (R) and Thomas J. McIntyre (D); incumbent Harrison Reed Thyng (R) retired
New Jersey: incumbent Clifford P. Case (R) over Ray “Buttercup” Rollinson (D)
New Mexico: incumbent Roberto Mondragon (D) over Pete Domencini (R)
North Carolina: incumbent Terry Sanford (D) over George Wimbish (R)
Oklahoma: incumbent Bud Wilkinson (R) over David L. Boren (D)
Oregon: incumbent Mark Hatfield (R) over Vernon Cook (D)
Rhode Island: incumbent Claiborne Pell (D) over James G. Reynolds (R)
South Carolina: incumbent Strom Thurmond (R) over Charles D. Ravenel (D)
South Dakota: Larry Pressler (R) over Don Barnett (D); incumbent James Abourezk (D) retired
Tennessee: incumbent Howard Baker (R) over Joseph L. Evins (D)
Texas: Ron Paul (R) over incumbent J. J. Pickle (D), Wingate Hezekiah Lucas (Big) and Luis A. Diaz de Leon (La Raza Unida)
Virginia: Richard Dudley Obenshain (R) over incumbent John Otho Marsh Jr. (D)
West Virginia: incumbent Jennings Randolph (D) vs Arch Moore Jr. (R)
Wyoming: incumbent Gale W. McGee (D) vs Alan K. Simpson (R)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



United States House of Representatives results, 1978
Date: November 7, 1978
Seats: All 435
Seats needed for majority: 218
New House majority leader: Morris K. Udall (D-AZ)
New House minority leader: Robert H. Michel (R-IL)
Last election: 233 (D), 202 (R)
Seats won: 218 (D), 217 (R)
Seat change: D v 15, R ^ 15

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



ANITA BRYANT WINS CONGRESSIONAL SEAT BY TIGHTER-THAN-EXPECTED MARGIN

– The Oklahoma Daily, 11/7/1978



United States Governor election results, 1978
Date: November 7, 1978
State governorship elections held: 36
Seats before: 33 (D), 17 (R), 0 (I)
Seats after: 29 (D), 20 (R), 1 (I)
Seat change: D v 4, R ^ 3, I ^ 1

Full list:
Alabama: Elvin McCary (R) over Melba Till Allen (D); incumbent Jeremiah Denton (R) was term-limited
Alaska: Bill Clinton (D) over Lowell Thomas Jr. (R), Don Wright (I) and Mike Colletta (Alaska Libertarian Party); incumbent Jay Hammond (R) retired
Arizona: incumbent Sam Steiger (R) over Jack Ross (D)
Arkansas: Orval Faubus (D) over Lynn Lowe (R) and Nancy Pearl Johnson Hall (Independent); incumbent David Pryor (D) retired
California: Phillip Burton (D) over incumbent Ronald Reagan (R)
Colorado: Bill Daniels (R) over incumbent Dick Lamm (D), Roy Peister (Tea) and Earl Dodge (Prohibition)
Connecticut: incumbent Ella T. Grasso (D) over Ronald Sarasin (R)
Florida: Jack Eckerd (R) over Buddy McKay (D); incumbent Louis A. Bafalis (R) retired
Georgia: John Skandalakis (D) over Rodney M. Cook (R) and J. B. Stoner (Independent); incumbent Benjamin W. Fortson Jr. (D) retired
Hawaii: Alema Leota (Independent) over Frank Fasi (D) and John R. Leopold (R); incumbent Thomas Ponce Gill (D) retired
Idaho: incumbent Jay S. Amyx (R) over John V. Evans (D)
Illinois: incumbent Paul Simon (D) over David C. O’Neal (R)
Iowa: Chuck Grassley (R) over Jerome D. Fitzgerald (D); incumbent Armour Boot (D) retired
Kansas: incumbent Robert Frederick Bennett (R) over John W. Carlin (D) and Frank W. Shelton Jr. (American)
Maine: Linwood E. Palmer Jr. (R) over Joseph Brennan (D); incumbent Peter N. Kyros (D) retired
Maryland: incumbent F. P. Blair Lee III (D) over John Glenn Beall Jr. (R)
Massachusetts: incumbent Michael Dukakis (D) over Lou Nickinello (R)
Michigan: Soapy Williams (D) over William Milliken (R); incumbent Martha Griffiths (D) retired
Minnesota: Coya Knutson (D) over incumbent Clark MacGregor (R) and Richard Pedersen (American)
Nebraska: Charles Thone (R) over Gerald T. Whelan (D); incumbent J. James Exon (D) retired
Nevada: incumbent Rex Bell Jr. (R) over Robert E. Rose (D)
New Hampshire: incumbent Malcolm McLane (D) over Mabel Everett (R)
New Mexico: Joe Skeen (R) over Bruce King (D); Jerry Apodaca (D) was term-limited
New York: incumbent Mario Biaggi (Conservative) over Hugh Carey (D), Nelson Rockefeller (R) and Mary Jane Tobin (I)
Ohio: Jim Rhodes (R) over Dick Celeste (D); incumbent Buz Lukens (R) retired
Oklahoma: George Nigh (D) over Ron Shotts (R); incumbent David Hall (D) was term-limited
Oregon: Victor Atiyeh (R) over incumbent Edith Green (D)
Pennsylvania: Milton Shapp (D) over Dick Thornburgh (R); incumbent Martin P. Mullen (D) was term-limited
Rhode Island: Lincoln Almond (R) over Thomas Ross DiLuglio (D) and Joseph A. Doorley (I); incumbent J. Joseph Garrahy (D) retired
South Carolina: Richard Riley (D) over Edward Lunn Young (R); incumbent William Westmoreland (R) was term-limited
South Dakota: incumbent Benjamin “Ben” (Lone Feather) Reifel (R) over Roger D. McKellips (D)
Tennessee: Jake Butcher (D) over Hubert David Patty (R); incumbent Lamar Alexander (R) was term-limited
Texas: Bill Clements (R) over incumbent Frances Farenthold (D) and Mario Compean (La Raza Unida)
Vermont: incumbent Stella B. Hackel (D) over Walter L. Kennedy (R) and Earl S. Gardner (Liberty Union)
Wisconsin: incumbent Bronson La Follette (D) over Lee S. Dreyfus (R)
Wyoming: incumbent Thyra Thomson (R) over Edgar Herschler (D)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



CLINTON WINS GOVERNOR’S SEAT IN UPSET

…Congressman Clinton most likely won in an upset by appealing to conservatives and independents with his “third way” policy proposals and his outgoing personality, youth energy and charisma. Meanwhile, the more bookworm-like Thomas failed to win over enough Alaskans outside of the Republican primary pool of voters…

– The Anchorage Daily News, 11/7/1978



BURTON VICTORY MAY MEAN TROUBLE FOR THE G.O.P. IN CALIFORNIA

…California voters ultimately rejected Reagan’s claims that his trickle-down economics were sure to improve the economy. In one of the biggest Democratic victories of the night, Congressman Burton won on a campaign promoting “human-centered” policies …Another item on the Golden State’s ballot last night was the anti-BLUTAG proposal that was the Briggs Initiative, which was also defeated by a wide margin…

The Sacramento Bee, 11/8/1978



The victory of several candidates such as Victor Atiyeh and Hazel Heath who touted the label “Colonel Conservative” hinted at the start of a potential “Colonelization” of the G.O.P. in the late 1970s. …The candidates ran on platforms advocating deregulation except in regards to certain health and safety standards, a cautious interventionist foreign policy, and an acceptance of gradual social change. …The U.S. House results created a precarious situation where any death or resignation, and subsequent special election, could interrupt the speakership by tipping the majority back the Republicans, upset the balance of power in the chamber in mid-session...

– Gary C. Jacobson’s The Power and the Politics of Congressional Elections, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015



CORRESPONDENT: “while police have declined to release the name of the man arrested at City Hall earlier today, rumors are circulating that the man in question is none other than Daniel James White, a local politician who resigned from the city’s Board of Supervisors roughly three weeks ago. There are also unsubstantiated claims that the reason another local politician, board member Carol Ruth Silver, was driven away from City Hall behind me in an ambulance is because she was wounded in an attack of some sort. To tell us more, here is a man who work in the building, who claims to have seen what happened. Sir, in your own word, could you please tell us what you saw?”

JANITOR: “Well I was making my rounds when I see White walk over to the Mayor’s office, but Moscone was busy talking to these inspectors inside. With all the dams falling apart on TV, Moscone thought it was a good idea to get the building inspected, see if it could withstand earthquakes and shi-uh, stuff like that. And White went crazy mad, sort of a public meltdown I guess. He wanted to see him. So he pulls out this revolver, see? And he starts firing it through the door to try to get it open. Now that’s when Silver and Feinstein – eh, this other board member over there – they hear all this and they run over. I wave to get, trying to tell them to get down, but too late! White sees Silver and she shoots her! Got her in the shoulder, I think she’ll live but I’m not a doctor. Anyway, Silver’s grabbin’ the spot and Feinstein’s just freakin’ out, she’s trembling, petrified on the floor out of sight from White, so White goes back to trying to open the door. I guess someone called the cops around then, because soon security was shouting a him to drop his weapon, and they basically had a hostage crisis until one of the guards caps White right in the ass. Square in the butt cheek. I think he’ll live, but, again, I’m not a doctor. So he’s down for a sec, but it’s just enough of a sec for the guards to get the drop on him. I tell you, for shootin’ up the place, he won’t be seen around here again!”

– Channel 5 KPIX-TV, 11/27/1978 broadcast



SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] Mondale said that he would raise taxes “fairly,” and suggested they would be higher for the weathly in his speech at the 1984 DNC IOTL.
[2] These italicized parts are pulled from the OTL Mondale’84 campaign brochure: http://www.4president.org/brochures/1984/mondale1984brochure.htm
[3] An OTL weapon!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb
[4] OTL! To use a quote (from On His Own Terms: The Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith) that I found on some other thread on this site but can’t locate at the moment, “By early 1977, it was becoming increasingly obvious to the people of his cabinet that his health was failing – has to be put on blood thinners and a new diet, but refuses the doctor’s oder for bed rest, increase defying him by increasing his schedule. Stoically tries to conceal clear signs on angina pain, also had a stooped back and shaking hands.”
[5] OTL quote, though it was spoken years later IOTL.
[6] According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever#Epidemiology), Angola has a “history of epidemic dengue”; if we sent troops into that country without properly preparing for the diseases found within, it’s possible that some of them would catch it; thankfully, it can only be spread by mosquitos and not through contact with though who have it.
[7] Passage re-stated from one of the 1970 Chapters
[8] Relevant details about OTL developments found here, in case anyone’s interested: https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/nelson-mandela-timeline-1970-1979
[9] This is an OTL review: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946996,00.html. I think the movie would still be set in 1962 because the writers’ depiction of the character Neidermeyer matches the anti-war sentiment of TTL’s 1962.
[10] Yeah, I’m not an expert on Brazilian politics, but I think that, in his new position as Secretary of State, Carter would try to do something about the situation down there, and that his action plus internal reactions to an alternate economic situation, the international peace movement, and other butterflies would change this about down there, yes?
[11] I’m not even making up that phrase, she really did use it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anita_Bryant_Story
[12] From here: https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/21/elena-ceausescu/
[13] Italicized bits are OTL Mohammad Ali quotes, according to his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
[14] This obscure guy: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10029-009-0612-0

Also, it seems somebody made a TV Tropes page for this TL: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/KentuckyFriedPolitics I'm honored!

NHobson said:
With Harold Washington getting elected mayor six years earlier, Chicago city politics are going to be even nastier than they were IOTL. He might not have enough allies on the city council to keep his vetoes from being overturned. Which means it would be that shithead Vrdolyak who would be de facto running the city.
Oof, good point; I'll cover that in 1979 or so.


DTF955Baseballfan said:
In 1977, Rod Crew needed 8 more hits to reach .400 on the year, he'd have been the first player since 1941 to do so. Did he get it? With 2 extra teams, that's 20 more pitchers, but those pitchers are mostly in the N.L. and I doubt that we could get him that many more, it's already an expansion year in the A.L..

George Brett is a different case. Unlike Carew, who played the whole season and would win the A.L. MVP for carrying the Twins, Brett was injured part of the time and therefore only needed 5 more hits, as he got the required number of plate appearances to qualify for the batting crown and hit .390 but only had 445 official at-bats (where he didn't walk, get hit by a pitch, etc.)

1980 is not an expansion year, and the 20 extra pitchers - who OTL would have been borderline major leaguers - haven't had a chance to get the coatching to become really good yet. They have also spread more through the majors.

His OTL 1980 game log if you need a date for anything (he actually had a bit of a slump early, but after May... wow!)

Therefore, I suggest that with 2 extra teams, Brett should hit .400 in 1980, the first one since Ted Williams. And that Carew might have hit about .390 or .391 in TTL's 1977. And with Kansas City, of course, he is such an iconic Royal.
Click to expand...

Interesting!

CapitalistHippie said:
Weird thought: I wonder if a version of the Colonel Sanders dating simulator exists ITTL

Well, there's this thing IOTL...: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1313881651/grand-old-academy-a-satirical-dating-sim

Unknown said:
Yeah, she was, @gap80; IMO, the name Anwar would not have gone over well post-9/11 in Texas (even though I don't look Middle Eastern). She voted for Democrats as president (except for McGovern--she didn't vote for him because he dropped Eagleton from the ticket (1)) and did not like Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush at all (and she would have hated President Trump (2))...

(1) IMO, Eagleton should have come clean to McGovern about his mental issues; yeah, he wouldn't be picked, but that would have been the right thing to do...
(2) Trump was inaugurated on what would have been her 69th birthday (she was born on January 20th, 1948)...

My deepest condolences and most sincere sympathies. When my grandmother died last year, and when a close friend of mine died in 2015, the following quote (I don't remember where I heard it) really helped: "don't frown because it's over; smile because it happened," that you got to spend whatever time you had with them, and that that time was good. Hold onto that, it'll get easier.

Unknown said:
Was the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire butterflied away (it occurred in May of 1977 IOTL; my mom went to that club a lot in the 1970s (1))? My mom has always said that the corner of Kentucky where the Supper Club was built was a corrupt area (maybe Colonel Sanders cracks down on fire code enforcement in the 1950s when he's governor)...

Good update, BTW; wonder what event occurs in 1978...

(1) She lived in Kentucky for much of the 1970s before moving to Corpus; she passed away three years ago, sadly...

Good detail to cover, I should have mentioned it; yeah, I think your idea of higher safety standards being put in place sounds good - I'll cover the club and the region (and how the state's been under Governors Robsion and now Foust) and what else will occurs in this TL's 1978 in the next chapter. :) That's cool that your mom lived in that area. My sincere condolences on her passing :cryingface:

BrianD said:
For @gap80 's approval...

A PARTIAL LIST OF 1977 CHAMPIONS IN PROFESSIONAL AND COLLEGIATE SPORTS
FOOTBALL
NFL
SUPER BOWL XI -- Oakland Raiders 33, Minnesota Vikings 24
NCAA
DIVISION I
Associated Press (media poll) -- Pittsburgh Panthers
United Press International (coaches poll) -- Pittsburgh Panthers, Maryland Terrapins

BASKETBALL
NBA
FINALS -- Portland Trail Blazers over Kentucky Colonels, 4 games to 2
* The Colonels surprised most of the so-called experts by winning the Eastern Conference, sweeping past Philadelphia in the conference semifnals and beating another ex-ABA team, the New York Nets (still playing with Julius Erving, who was in his last contract year with the team and on his way out) in the conference finals. But Bill Walton and the Blazers outplayed Moses Malone and the Colonels in six games to win the first post-merger NBA title.
NCAA
DIVISION I
NATIONAL CHAMPION -- North Carolina

BASEBALL
WORLD SERIES -- New York Yankees over Los Angeles Dodgers, 4 games to 3
* George Steinbrenner's money finally got him that World Series trophy he coveted. Reggie Jackson, who came to New York via free agency, won Series Most Valuable Player honors. The '77 season was the inspiration for Sparky Lyle's controversial book, The Bronx Zoo.
** Baseball added four expansion teams for the first time since 1969 -- Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays in the American League, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Senators in the National League. (New Orleans was encouraged to either have the Superdome renovated for baseball or build a baseball-only stadium for the next round of expansion, which insiders said wouldn't come for at least another 10 years).
* The Louisville Colonels finished fourth in the AL East
Click to expand...

I like this very much! Very plausible and enjoyable!

Unknown said:
BTW, the Blizzard of 1978 occurred on my mom's 30th birthday, canceling whatever plans she had; she decided to move south that evening, and settled in Corpus Christi, Texas, where I was born in October of 1981 (two days after Anwar Sadat was assassinated; my mom was a fan of his, and wanted to name me Anwar, but my dad (luckily) was against it)...

That's a fun anecdote; and I don't see a Colonel Sanders Presidency butterflying away the weather in 1978, so you most likely do exist in this TL! As for Anwar, well, we'll see how the annual Chicken Dinner Summit influences his diplomatic endeavors in the region and if that effects what's written on your birthday cake... Again, my deepest sympathies on your mother's passing :teary:; sounds like she was an amazing person (a Midwesterner in Texas invested in Middle Eastern affairs is quite interesting!).

AndyWho said:
1) Why? What did NOLA ever do to you?:'(x'D

2) I don't recall if this was as the plan as OTL, but if Hu can keep his post, I wonder if this will change the fate of Tiananmen in due time.

3) So Ted Kennedy is the new Ted Turner in terms of cable news? Interesting.

4) Interesting story with Jeb

5) On second thought, if they do move to New Orleans after losing the Jazz, this would be a fair compromise. Plus, a new incentive on an arena for the city.

6) Damn, such a long con for an ideology that is younger than being gay :closedeyesmile:

7) A shame that Bhutto couldn't be saved and Pakistan not be sent to the Stone Age under Zia...

8) Overall, great post
Click to expand...

1) I believe Gentleman Biaggi requested it...

2) I don't believe it was, it'll be interesting if I find any info on that, though...

3) Thanks!

4) Thank you!

5) Alrightythen, nice!

6) Yep! :D

7) We'll see how things unfold over there...

8) Thanks!

DTF955Baseballfan said:
1) Really cool; I wonder how Ted Kennedy having KNN based, I presume, on the West Coast impacts Ted Turner. He'll still be rich (Turner Broadcasting System will see to that) but not superrich. (Fun fact: When he first bought the Braves in 1977, he asked a player who wore number 17 to change his name on the uniform to "Channel" to give TBS free advertising.) Hew may start CNN but it won't have near the clout since it's not even first among the 24 hour new networks.

2) I recall 1978's blizzard really well, we had lots of snow in '77 but I don't think the blizzard hit us quite as much then, 1978 was huge, though. Here is a good video, even some broadcasting from 1:40 in the video from our family's favorite radio station.

3) Speaking of sports, is Muhammed Ali still boxing? Without the Vietnam stuff he's probably fought a few more times without the layoff, meaning he might have retired by now.

4) I wonder how Barack McCain will develop politically; it'll be interesting. Perhaps because of needing to start his own path rather than try to please both his mom and dad - who are quite different - he will be the politician known as a maverick like John was in OTL's 2008.

5) Nice to see Havana developing. Probably too poor to ever be a major league city - just like San Juan or Monterrey - but it could have a AAA team there someday, or at least AA.

6) Exciting to see John Amios get a show.

7) You put all 4 teams in the A.L., I'm sure that's a typo. (I can empathize, I typed "A.L." just now) Seattle would make sense in the A.L. with Toronto balancing out the West Coast and Canada, and in TTL Milwaukee was always an N.L. city so they'd go in the N.L. West and Washington in the N.L. East.
Click to expand...

1) IOTL, Ted Turner and Reese Schofield began forming CNN in 1977/1978. Here, the two partner up with the better-connected Ted Kennedy for more funding opportunities, leading to the project being called "Kennedy News Network" instead of "Cable News Network."

2) Interesting video

3) Oh yeah, I should cover what he's up to - I'll do that in the next chapter.

4) Very possible!

5) Sure!

6) Thanks

7) Yeah, that seems to be an oversight/a typo. Good eye, thanks for spotting that!
 
Post 36
Post 36: Chapter 44

Chapter 44: December 1978 – June 1979

“We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.”

– MLK (OTL)



After the crash but before the next session of Congress could be sworn in, Mondale rushed to stabilize the still-struggling economy by passing a series of rushed bills meant to regulate employment practices and Wall Street manipulations. Willing to try anything to reduce economic inequality, Mondale even backed a bill being workshopped on in the House that sought to tie an employer’s tax breaks to either his worker’s wages or the company’s success, but even members of his own party opposed the notion as it would have given the federal government far too much control of the markets. The bill died in committee in December 1978. The legislation’s idea did find better success at the state and local levels in 1979 and 1980, though.

By the end of the year, Mondale gave even more liberties to the Justice Department, allowing Attorney General Ramsey Clark’s department to launch a campaign against employers who violated workplace safety laws or sought to refuse payment to workers in the midst of economic concerns. The Democratic administration’s strict regulations led to an increase in businesses attempting to use sweatshops overseas, largely in South America and parts of India. Labor Secretary Kennedy wanted Mondale to threaten them into submission, but Fritz and Clark believed that would only worsen the situation. Instead, Mondale sought to increase tax breaks for companies who kept a majority of their labor forces within American borders. Of course, this did not solve the complicated problem...

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



INSIDE: THE SCOOP ON THE WHO: A Look At the Band And Their Record-Setting Concert Attendees

Exclusive Interview With Keith Moon And His Vision For The Who

– Tumbleweed Magazine, 12/7/1978 special issue



…By December, the US’s economic recession was finally being felt in full across Western Europe, upsetting prices and markets most especially in France and the United Kingdom… In China, many feared latching their economy onto the US’s had been a grave mistake, but Chairman Deng stayed the course, understanding it is the nature of economies to grow and shrink like the rise and fall of the tides…

– Andrew Marr’s Modern Britain: A History, Pan Macmillan Publishers, 2002 edition



…The state’s economic woes only added to the White House’s concerns… As 1978 came to a close, the USSR’s stockpile finally became larger than the US’s. Suslov’s bellicose view of the US-USSR relations, though, made many Soviets uneasy as well…

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



…The development of the microprocessor was pivotal in making computer systems more efficient, smaller in size, and cheaper in price… Bell Labs’ work on the microprocessor began in the 1960s… The economic prosperity of the 1970s – President Colonel Sanders’ support of small and small-but-growing businesses combined with the Space Race continuing on long after the Moon Landing – made fertile ground for tech companies to grow and compete with one another. Motorola was one such company, competing with Bell for a superior microprocessor, with Motorola’s most significant 32-bit design being released in 1978 [1].

– clickopedia.co.usa/microprocessor



Unfortunately for Mondale the rest of the Democrats, while the economy recovered in four months (one month after taxes were curbed, not slashed as initially expected, to stimulate growth), the unemployment rate failed to significantly drop until mid-December, at which point the economy truly began to considerably recover…

– Gary C. Jacobson’s The Power and the Politics of Congressional Elections, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015



IRAN’S SHAH REZA SIGNS NON-AGGRESSION TREATY WITH ISRAEL

…The Shah proclaimed “we have many shared enemies – poverty, disease, and hunger are a menace to Iran and Israel. Working together to combat these plagues is a far more glorious mission than destroying our fellow man.”…

The New York Times, 12/12/1978



H8NK235.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/H8NK235 ]
– Christmas-themed KFC advertisement, c. 1978



1978 ended with the then-44-year-old Roberto Clemente announcing his retirement from the game to focus more on his humanitarian aid efforts and charity work, while Lyman Bostock’s California Angels teammates finally convinced him to not use the free agency rules to switch to another team due to conflicts that had risen between Bostock and the coach in early November…

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



…a French tanker has exploded at the Gulf Oil terminal at Bantry, Ireland. At least ten are dead, but the number of people unaccounted for remains high at over 50…

– BBC World News, 1/8/1979



9 January 1979: On this day in history, the “Music for UNICEF” Concert is held at the UN General Assembly to raise money for UNICEF, as part of the organization declaring 1979 to be “the Year of the Child” earlier in the month; performers include the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Paul McCartney, Jim Croci, ABBA and Earth-Wind-Fire; a soundtrack album and music video collection are later released.

– onthisday.co.uk



VIOLET CUMMINGS, SISTER OF COLONEL SANDERS, DIES AT 83

…while not a particularly outspoken or vocal member of the Sanders family like her oldest brother and his children, the camera-shy Violet was a beloved mother, sibling, aunt, and wife, who is remembered as being a friend to anyone she met…

– The New York Times, obituary column, 1/14/1979 [2]



“This past year has been challenging for all of us, and it has become clear that the state of our union can be assisted or inhibited by the natural ebb and flow of a cherished commodity, the free market system. The economy can be merciless when recession strikes, and the effects are felt long after it is over. The freedom to exchange goods without federal control of the production and supply of goods allows for the free exchanging of ideas and opportunities. Times when our ability to relish in this possibility becomes limited always test us. Our wisdom, our skills, our values, and the strength of our resolve are put into question. But the need to come together to lift each other out of hard times always shines through the darkness. Our nation has stayed strong during worse crises, it did remain strong during last year’s recession, and it will remain strong in future crises.”

– Walter Mondale’s State of the Union address, 1/23/1979



In January 1979, [Deputy President pro tempore of the Senate Richard] Nixon met with the new Senate leaders – Majority leader Howard Baker, majority whip and retiring fellow Californian Tom Kuchel, and President pro tempore of the Senate Milton Young – to discuss how to best challenge the unacceptable” policies and legislation proposals of President Mondale. From his perch at the top of the Republican Party hierarchy, Nixon had praised the administration’s foreign policy, and wanted to maintain his influence over that aspect of the GOP’s actions in the Senate…

– Bob Halderman’s The Haldeman Diaries: Three Decades of Tough Decisions and Tricky Dick, Barnes & Noble Press, 1994



MUSLIM EXTREMISTS KILLED TRYING TO STORM JORDAN’S ROYAL PALACE IN HOSTAGE ATTEMPT

The Guardian, 26/1/1979



E.P.A. DIRECTOR NADER LAUNCHES PROBE INTO NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS ACROSS THE EAST COAST

nwqGiaG.png


Above: Ralph Nader speaking to reporters

...Nader explained “the mistreatment of the reactor cores or any mishandling of radioactive materials can be disastrous. Even if there is a slight chance of human error, it is too great of a chance.” Nader also criticized the lines of communication between officials connected to nuclear power plants…

– The New York Times, 1/27/1979



“EVERYONE SHOULD DRAW”: JOAN MONDALE’S ART POLICIES ANGER TRADITIONALISTS

…it has become a yearly tradition for reporters to assemble at the White House in January to see what new works of art the First Lady, affectionately dubbed “Joan of Art,” has added to the grounds, either purchased through charities or borrowed from museums. Rather than promote her personal favorites like her predecessor Claudia Sanders, Joan uses the White House to showcase all forms of art, from immaculate European sculptures to classic American paintings to the latest popular visual fads. This embracing of both and new is worrisome, however, to supporters of established “fined art,” who fear Joan’s promotion of less-than-high art lowers standards and will in turn lower support for art programs among state government. This year’s collection of art is receiving more scrutiny than usual, possibly due to the nation still recovering from the effects of recession. “It’s bad enough that there’s this Bob Ross fellow on TV now, but every time Joan redecorate the White House, she denotes high-quality art instead of elevating it, and it makes states even more willing to reduce funding for school art programs – especially when funds tighten like they did last year,” says an anonymous member of the D.C. art scene. Joan has defended her critics in the past, though – such as for praising Japanese art at a banquet in 1973 and for her bold support for the ERA in 1975 – and is doing the same now. Yesterday, Joan told this reporter, “Art is an essential outlet for creativity. It is a right that belongs to everyone, and I mean everyone – not just the elite, and not just the professionally trained. Everyone should draw, because everyone has the right to express themselves.”

People Magazine, 1/28/1979



Bob was surprised by the success of him hosting PBS’s “The Magic of Oil Painting.” After Bob renamed it “The Joy of Painting” in January 1979 (out of worries of Christian activists accusing him of promoting Satanism and witchcraft for using “magic” in the name), he took a promotion tour that took him from Anchorage to San Diego to Boston. He was blown away by the revelation that the program had become a hit coast-to-coast after just four years of hosting. He was even more blown away by the sheer number of hearts touched by his melodious narration and comforting images…

oh3mPwa.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/oh3mPwa ]
Above: Bob in a promotional image

– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014



The month of January 1979, when averaged out over the contiguous United States, was the coldest month in the US since at least 1880, with a mean temperature of 21.90 °F (or −5.61 °C), versus a 1895-to-1974 mean of 29.99 °F (or −1.12 °C). This statistic contributed to theories of “global cooling” at the time. Additionally, the month of January 1979 reached a maximum temperature of 31.90 °F (or −0.06 °C), which is the coldest temperature on record for any month and the only occasion when the area-averaged contiguous US mean maximum has ever been recorded falling below freezing

– National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Contiguous U.S. Temperature, January statistics



GOP SENATORS DEMAND SNL APOLOGIZE FOR SKETCH “INSULTING” COLONEL SANDERS

…the sketch in questions begins with a voice-over stating “everyone thinks they know Colonel Sanders is the lovable chicken seller-turned-President with a heart of gold, but that’s not how he got the leaders of the Middle East to get along.” The sketch then shows The Colonel (portrayed by John Belushi) physically assaulting said leaders (such as Garrett Morris as el-Sadat), striking them with his cane and making mafia-like threats (“The last man who went against me found the head of his favorite camel in his bed”). Sanders/Belushi essentially intimidates the heads of state into meeting for peace talks. …SNL is defending the sketch, with producer Lorne Michaels telling one of our reporters “We all know The Colonel didn’t actually do that. That is the joke. The fact that these Senators either can’t understand the joke or are too sensitive to laugh at a harmless skit really reflect more poorly on them than it does on us.”…

The Los Angeles Times, 2/2/1979



Emperor Amha knew he was unpopular. By February 1979, however, he concluded that he was so unpopular that the country would not be able to move on under his reign. As such, Amha “the Reluctant Ruler” Selassie began preparing his 25-year-old son, the more ambitious Zera Yacob Amha Selassie (b. 17/8/1953), or Zera Yacob, for short, to take over the throne someday – and someday soon, relatively-speaking…

– Saheed A. Adejumobi’s The History of Ethiopia, Greenwood Press, 2007



SID VICIOUS DIED HOURS AFTER LEAVING FORCED DETOX PROGRAM, BANDMATES REVEAL

…the bassist rocker’s demise demonstrates a major flaw in our current responses to recreational drugs. Forcing addicts to go through detoxification programs does not work because the withdrawal is not at their own volition. Thus, it is not surprising that Vicious sought out heroin as soon as he was released – because being denied access to it is not the same as being able to access it and having the strength to say “no” to it…

The Los Angeles Times, 2/8/1979



SUPREME COURT COMPOSITION ON FEBRUARY 14, 1979

Chief Justice (since March 1971): Frank Minis Johnson Jr. (R-AL, centrist) – succeeded Earl Warren – appointee: Sanders
Associate Justice Seat 1 (since November 1971): William Henry Hastie Jr. (D-PA, conservative) – succeeded Hugo Black – appointee: Sanders
Associate Justice Seat 2 (since November 1967): Edward Hirsch Levi (R-IL, centrist) – succeeded Abe Fortas – appointee: Sanders
Associate Justice Seat 3 (since October 1962): Sarah Tilghman Hughes (D-TX, liberal) – succeeded Felix Frankfurter – appointee: Johnson
Associate Justice Seat 4 (since June 1974): William Joseph Nealon Jr. (I-PA, liberal) – succeeded William O. Douglas – appointee: Mondale
Associate Justice Seat 5 (since November 1971): Sylvia Bacon (R-DC, centrist) – succeeded John M. Harlan II – appointee: Sanders
Associate Justice Seat 6 (since October 1958): Potter Stewart (R-MI, centrist) – succeeded Harold Hitz Burton – appointee: Eisenhower
Associate Justice Seat 7 (since April 1973): Miles Welton Lord (I-MN, liberal) – succeeded Tom C. Clark – appointee: Mondale
Associate Justice Seat 8 (since October 1956): William Joseph Brennan Jr. (D-NJ, liberal) – succeeded Sherman “Shay” Minton – appointee: Eisenhower

– thesupremecourt.co.usa/court_compositions/by_date/month/1978



JUSTICE HASTIE DIES AT 74

…In his final years, William Hastie, the sole African-American to serve as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was in poor health after surviving a heart attack in 1976…

– The Washington Post, 2/15/1979



18 February 1979: On this day in history, the Sahara Desert experiences snow for roughly 30 minutes; the region would not experience snow again until 2020

– onthisday.co.uk



MONDALE NOMINATES HIGGINBOTHAM, AFRICAN-AMERICAN JUDGE, FOR VACANT SUPREME COURT SEAT

NeWR4t7.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/NeWR4t7 ]
The Post and Courier, South Carolina newspaper, 2/21/1979



MARDI GRAS ’79 IS BACK ON! NOPD Union, Management Agree To New CBA

– The Opelousas Daily World, Louisiana newspaper, 2/22/1979



LIBERAL PARTY LEADERSHIP ELECTION RESULTS: JEAN CHRETIEN BEATS THE ODDS

Ottawa Civic Center, ON – The Liberal Party has a new leader in the form of 45-year-old Jean Chretien. Incumbent leader Paul Martin Sr, 75, is retiring after leading the party through two general elections. Chretien, 45, has served in Parliament for Saint-Maurice since 1969, winning his first election as a member of the anti-Hellyer faction of the party. The less successful candidates have all congratulated Chretien for his victory in a showing of party unity. Pierre Trudeau, an MP-turned-University Chancellor who dropped out after a poor showing in the first ballot, gave the most enthusiastic endorsement of Chretien. Lincoln Alexander, an African-Canadian leadership candidate who has served in Parliament for Hamilton West since 1969, and whose leadership candidacy received a small but active and passionate group of supporters, also endorsed Chretien. Alexander was soon followed by Gene Whelan, 54, a MP since 1962; initial frontrunners John Turner and Donald Stovel Macdonald, both of whom underperformed; as well as fellow MPs Allan Joseph MacEachen, Lloyd Axworthy, and Herb Gray. MPs such as Pierre de Bane, however, declined to endorse Chretien “until he’s proven he is worthy of the post.”

The Ottawa Sun, 2/25/1979



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– The totality phase of the total solar eclipse of February 26, 1979, as it was seen in Bozeman, Montana, 2/26/1979; hundreds flocked to the Pacific Northwest during the weekend prior to be able to view the eclipse on Monday morning, but due to overcast skies in the region, the entire path of totality was not directly observable after totality passed through Portland, Oregon shortly after sunrise (maximum at 8:14 am PST, 2/26/1979); it would be the last total solar eclipse to visible from the continental US until 2017



CONSUMER PRICE INDEX SHOW COSTS DROPPING AS MARKET HEALTH IMPROVES

The Wall Street Journal, 2/27/1979



MAYOR MAUROY WINS THIRD 7-YEAR TERM FOR SOCIALISTS

Paris – In tonight’s Presidential runoff, Francois Mitterrand's preferred successor Pierre Mauroy, the 50-year-old Minister and former Mayor of Lille, defeated Republican party nominee Michel Jean-Pierre Debré in one of the closest elections in modern French history, with the incumbent ultimately winning by a margin of 2.1%. …On February 14, Mauroy and Debré came in first and second place, respectively, in the first round of voting, defeating all other major and minor candidates: Valery Giscard d’Estaing (MRP), Jean Royer (Conservative), Arlette Laguiller (Workers’), Rene Dumont (Reform), Jacques Duclos (French Communist Party (PCF)), and Gaston Defferre (French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO)), and Bertrand Renouvin (New Royalist Action)…

Les Echos, French newspaper, 2/28/1979



FBI DIRECTOR SULLIVAN STEPPING DOWN

…William Sullivan pledged to serve for “no more than ten” years when he began his tenure as FBI Director in late 1969… President Mondale will likely select Sullivan’s preferred successor, Deputy Director William Felt Sr. to become the bureau’s new leader…

The Washington Times, 3/1/1979



SCOTLAND TO IMPLEMENT ASSEMBLY AFTER DEVOLUTION REFERENDUM; 45% of Scotland’s Electorate Backed Proposal

The Daily Telegraph, UK newspaper, 3/3/1979



PENMANSHIEL TUNNEL CLOSED FOR REPAIRS; HM Railway Inspectorate Orders Ground Be “Stabilized” Before Excavation-And-Rebuilding Efforts Resume

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 3/7/1979



The 1978 Crash deteriorated American confidence in the federal government’s ability regulate the economy and businesses, with Republicans claiming that the “strangulation” of parts of the economy lead to it. Mondale’s attempts to pass laws regulate the economy were successful in 1978, but after losing the Senate in that November’s midterms, further efforts were seriously impeded. In March 1979, Senate Republicans opposed the most left-leaning parts of the 1979 Omnibus Appropriations Act and the 1979 Fraudulence Discovery and Resolution Act, causing their passing to be delayed for months.

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’80s, Basic Books NY, 2003



SENATE REPUBLICANS MORE HOSTILE THAN USUAL TO SUPREME COURT NOMINEE

…Judge Higginbotham is facing scrutiny over his alleged “radical” social policy views amid extended Senate hearings…

– The Washington Post, 3/11/1979



The 6-foot-5 51-year-old Judge has a commanding presence in the Oval Office. The President skipped the pleasantries of such a meeting and cut right to the chase. Mondale asked Higginbotham is he “wanted to be spared the headache” of the Senate hearings and have his name withdrawn from consideration. The judge refused. With his commitment to social justice unbending, Higginbotham was determined to fight, overcome the odds, and work to pursue the end of bigotry and prejudices in the nation he loved, to see those who are invisible and hear the pleas of the voiceless and forgotten. [3] “If I can fight through them, I can fight for us,” Higginbotham explained to Mondale.

– Jimmy Breslin’s Higginbotham: A Matter of Freedom: A Biography, Freedom Publishing, 1999



MONDALE DEFENDS LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, DERIDES “THE SENATE’S HATCHET JOB” AND TOUTS LEON’S EXPERIENCE

The Pittsburgh Courier, 3/16/1979



…In other news, several individuals have come forward claiming that during last year’s massive prison escape in the Sunshine state, former Florida Governor Louis Bafalis ordered state officers to ignore habeus corpus and other laws pertaining to individual freedom when necessary to apprehend escaped convicts. The claims may lead to the state justice department investigating Bafalis, who just left office with high approval ratings…

– The Overmyer Network, 3/17/1979



“I can’t stop cops from individually pushing the limitations of their badges regardless of the orders of their superiors. Florida’s boys in blue are heroes, if not overly enthusiastic heroes.”

– former Governor Louis Bafalis (R-FL), 3/19/1979



“Louie’s got a good head on his shoulders.”

– Governor Mario Biaggi (D-NY), 3/20/1979



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– Colonel Sanders greets supporters outside after making a surprise visit to a KFC outlet in South Bend, IN, 3/21/1979



UNEMPLOYMENT RATES DROPPING SLOWER THAN EXPECTED THIS QUARTER

The Wall Street Journal, 3/22/1979



10 YEARS AFTER APOLLO: What We Learned From Landing On The Moon – And What May Come Next

– Time Magazine, March 1979 issue



A NATIONAL TREAT: The Australian Chicken War And Its Aftermath

Chicken Treat was founded in 1976 in Perth, where it primarily offered B.B.Q. chicken and served as a “native alternative” to K.F.C.; by 1979, the restaurant had grown into a franchise, as it gained popularity across the continent. Its main native rival was the more established and larger roasted chicken restaurant chain Red Rooster, which was also founded Perth, but in 1972. Red Rooster also more diverse, serving burger and fish-based products as well as its flagship roasts. Red Rooster also began franchising in 1977, in the wake of the number of KFC outlets in Australia rising to 50 in 1976. The founders of both chicken chains believed this surge in KFCs indicated an untapped market, and decided to “answer the call for a chicken chain founded by Australians and for Australians.” KFC responded by allocating ad funds to Australia, starting another well-known Australian “bird war” of sorts.

– Western Australian Business News, Australian newspaper, special anniversary issue, 2006



SENATE CONFIRMS HIGGINBOTHAM FOR US SUPREME COURT SEAT, 52-48, AFTER LENGTHY HEARINGS

The Washington Post, 3/30/1979



NASA Director Harold Brown promoted Ismail Akbay in April 1979 due to his impressive resume. Born in 1930, Akbay received a B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Tennessee before becoming employed at NASA. After working impressively on the Apollo Saturn V-S1C Rocket, and taking charge of the engine aspects of proposed Apollo-Soyuz Rendezvous Mission that was scrapped once the belligerent Suslov rose to power in the Soviet Union, Akbay was part of the team that monitored Voyager 1’s visit to Jupiter in March…

[snip] …the Aries Program seemed to be falling behind the data-collecting progress of the USSR’s Soyuz and Salyut programs. …Working with the less-than-desirable budget led to the development of orbital space travel vehicles dubbed “shuttleplanes” that could be reused “more than twice” for manned or unmanned missions. Still sticking to his convictions and refusing to risk losing more American lives in space, Mondale greenlit the unmanned model for future orbital and lunar missions in August 1977…

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



The Soviet Union’s reputation on the world stage worsened further in the aftermath of the Sverdlovsk Anthrax Leak. The death of at least 100 people from a fatal slipup at a bio-warfare laboratory was not covered up sufficiently, as the scope of the disaster was too great to contain. Upon the disaster hitting the west’s front pages, the UN admonished the work being done in Sverdlovsk, as it violated the conditions of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972, an offshoot of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. More importantly, it made more Soviet citizens worry about their government’s capabilities and hidden motives…

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



HIRING INCENTIVES TO RESTORE EMPLYOMENT ACT PASSES WITH EASE

The Washington Post, 4/4/1979



GOVERNOR BURTON PUSHES FOR STRONGER HOUSING, LABOR, EMPLOYMENT LAWS

Sacramento, CA – Phillip Burton has certainly been a busy Governor. His administration, already overseeing legislation concerning medical and health care and boosting infrastructure funding to improve road safety and decrease unemployment, is expanding to issues affecting housing and labor, focusing on easing accessibility to “the bare essentials and decent rights entitled to every single American,” the Governor said in a speech today. “In this free society of ours the consent and the support of the people is essential and is the top priority of the Government that the people elected to work for the people,” the Governor added…

– The Sacramento Bee, 4/5/1979



Members of the Arab have yet again voiced opposition to last year’s historic multilateral peace treaty. In Uganda, Libyan expeditionary forces allied with the growing anti-treaty faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization have laid siege to the independent nation’s capital of Kampala, setting off car bombs and taking a group of hotel employees hostage. The leader of this terroristic act of aggression is vowing to, quote, “liberate Uganda from the claws of imperialism,” unquote.

– BBC World News, 10/4/1979 broadcast



RESIDENTS SWEAR TO REBUILD AFTER TWISTER KILLS OVER 40

…the communities of Wichita Falls, TX, are still reeling from the effects of a deadly tornado that touched down yesterday and left a path of devastating destruction in its wake…

The Los Angeles Times, 4/11/1979



SENATOR PAUL FILIBUSTERS LATEST BUDGET PROPOSAL, CALLING IT “TOO UNRULY”: “In These Times We Cannot Afford More Tax-And-Spend Irresponsibility”

The Washington Post, 4/14/1979



15 April 1979: On this day in history, the Great Montenegrin Earthquake, which had a moment magnitude of 6.9, devastated the Yugoslavian republic of Montenegro; it was also felt along the Albanian coastline, and in all six of Yugoslavia’s regional capitals (Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Skopje, Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana); over 90 aftershocks followed the main earthquake, the strongest of which struck over a month later on 24 May and had a magnitude of 6.3M; the earthquake resulted in thousands of buildings being damaged, 133 people dying (99 in Montenegro, 32 in Albania, and 2 in Croatia), and roughly 1,000 people being injured; the extent of property damage resulted in several major restoration projects being launched along Yugoslavia’s coastline, with the cities of Budva and Kotor being extensively redeveloped.

– onthisday.co.uk



…competition for comedic talent made the start of the ’80s a “golden era” for budding young jokesters. In a larger framing, the subsequent competition for higher ratings also made the time a “golden era” for comedy itself, as it encouraged everyone to try to make others laugh. With the chaos of the modern world and everyday struggles, people still wanted to laugh, and together, SNL and CSTV delivered…

– James A. Miller and Tom Shales’ The Comedy Wars: SNL vs. CSTV, Vanguard Publishing, 2016 edition



Mondale’s efforts to reel in the economic disarray finally breached the conservative and pro-business opposition in the Senate by handing in a less ambitious budget for the next fiscal year, and a watered-down appropriations bill, the latter of which became the Consolidated Appropriations Act of April 1979.

– John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Crash of ’78: The Causes and Consequences, Lion’s Corner Publications, 2001



…In 1979, the Houston Rockets drafted Larry Bird…

– Joe Zagorski’s American Sports in the 1970s: A Most Important Decade, Critical Publishing, 2018 edition



…After days of martial law and multiple deaths, the Ugandan military has apprehended the leader of the anti-treaty terrorists, and at the moment, it seems the followers of this extremist group have fled the country…

– BBC World News, 27/4/1979 broadcast



In the midst of his country’s region of Montenegro still recovering from the 7.0 earthquake of April 15, Grand Marshal Tito, Yugoslavia’s almost-87-year-old ruler sought medical attention. He was suffering from poor circulation in his legs, and found his home nation’s facilities to be insufficient. Specifically, he was outraged at suggestions that his legs be amputated. Instead, Tito traveled to Addis Ababa in late April, where Yugoslavia’s well-established student program with Ethiopia had led to the development of hospitals for the Yugoslavian doctors [4]. Upon returning home in May, Tito ordered the development of new hospitals and medical schools in all of the nation’s provinces: “I want us to have the best hospitals on this continent!”

Hospital, though, were the least of Yugoslavia’s concerns. The nation’s fruitful economy of the 1970s was giving way to the ripple effects of the 1978 recession. Even though Yugoslavia’s factories were hit less than other parts of Europe due to them being less centralized than they would have been in other socialist nations, growth halted; inflation and unemployment were soon on the rise. The worst came when the government’s decision to borrow large quantities of capital from the West to grow funds through exports hit a fatal snag once the recession decreased demand for Yugoslavian imports, thus creating a huge debt crisis for the nation as the decade came to a close…

– Leslie Benson’s Yugoslavia: A Concise History, Palgrave Publishers, 2001



“GRINDING IT OUT: THE MAKING OF MCDONALD’S”: A Review of Ray Kroc’s Auto-Biography

…one of the giants of the fast-food industry pens his diverse life story with the same wit and charm that made him a millionaire success story…

– The New York Times book review, 5/1/1979



A.G. CLARK MAY BE STEPPING DOWN

…anonymous sources close to Clark claims that he and Mondale do not “see eye to eye on how far to prosecute big business” for allegedly worsening the effects that last year's recession has had on the businesses and personal finances of thousands of Americans…

The Washington Post, 5/2/1979



The ’80s were highly prosperous for Indonesians. I like to think it had something to do with Suharto becoming more welcoming to western investors. In 1979, Suharto allowed KFC to “plant their flag,” as he called it, in the capital city of Jakarta. We opened despite conservative hardliners seeing us as a symbol of imperialism, because, since it had already happened time and again, we were certain that the quality of life in the country would only improve once good-intentioned capitalism worked its finger-lickin’ magic on the local, then region, then national economies.

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[pic: imgur.com/1QtonKL.png ]

[snip]

…Father’s relations with the members and factions of the GOP was not unconditionally cordial. Sanders locked horns with the best and the worst of them, from Nelson Rockefeller to Jesse Helms. ...During his presidency, he was on good term with most in the GOP House Leadership, including top spot holder Halleck, and kept contact with many of them longer after they had retired from political office... On the Senate side of thing, he was on friendly terms with Everett Dirksen, and mourned his death in 1969. …Father liked Senator Barry Goldwater’s rambunctious outspokenness and adherence to his ideals, and the two worked well together to partner on legislation to benefit Arizona and environmental issues. For this reason, Father met with Goldwater in 1971 to try and convince him to wait until 1976 or even 1980 to run for President, instead of challenging VP Scranton for the 1972 GOP nomination for President. Father believed that challenging Scranton – and losing, as Sanders correctly believed he would – would kill Goldwater’s chances of succeeding in any future Presidential runs, as it would be a direct and open defiance of the rest of the party’s leaders…

…Father also got along well with Eisenhower, and reportedly bonded with Mondale, despite the age difference between him and Fritz, due to their shared love of cooking (him as both a love and a profession, Mondale as a simple hobby to relieve stress, but both as a way on bonding with friends and family; the two even swapped recipes from time to time, mainly for appetizers and desserts such as pies, especially during Thanksgiving and the wintery holidays).

…Father also enthusiastically supported War Hero Jeremiah Denton’s run for Governor in 1974, but kept a low profile on most political topics during the late 1980s…

– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997



…In other geopolitical news, Denmark granted limited autonomy to Greenland earlier today, granting the region its own Parliament in the administrative capital of Nuuk…

– BBC World News, 5/5/1979 broadcast



…Calls for another general election began to grow in 1979, a time of record unemployment as the phenomenon of deindustrialization saw the nation’s manufacturing industries seemingly head to a close. Observers began to call the British economy “the ‘sick man’ of Western Europe” as inflation also rose in the long-term wake of the 1978 recession…

– Kenneth O. Morgan’s Putting Our Foots Down: The Days of Michael And The Years of Dingle, Guardian publications, 2011



IS GRAVEL TOO SOFT ON NATIONAL SECURITY TO WIN IN 1980?

…The Vice President is showing clear signs that he will run for his party’s nomination next year, but enthusiasm for his brand of policies may not have enough appeal for a general election… …Gravel’s open animosity to Mondale is making Democratic leaders nervous of his expected Presidential campaign, as many of them believe his confrontational personality may be too divisive to maintain party unity in the autumn campaign of next year’s race…

The Chicago Tribune, 5/9/1979



CRONKITE: “It seems that, with the nations of the Middle-East agreeing to a historic non-aggression treaty last year, former President Colonel Sanders is moving on to other endeavors. After hosting annual peace summits in Jerusalem since 1975, the Colonel has now announced his intention to work on a cookbook.”

SANDERS (in interview footage): “I wrote a small cookbook in 1961 to promote Kentucky Fried Chicken, but it was a short, quickly-put-out thing. This is going to be much bigger and even more helpful of a book.”

CRONKITE (in interview footage): “Isn’t writing a cookbook a step down from contributing to peace talks?”

SANDERS (in interview footage): “Not at all, Walt. Those talks were to promote people putting down their weapons and picking up some food to feed their families. I think it’d be hypno-critical of me to tell people to eat, and not also tell them how to eat well. Now, I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks. Most of those cookbooks don’t even tell you how to get a steak ready, how to bake biscuits or an apple pie. [5] This one will give you the basics and the very best of America’s many, many dishes.

CRONKITE (in interview footage): “So will it only cover American cooking.”

SANDERS (in interview footage): “Ah, no. I’ve tried cooking from everywhere, and I want this book to be for everyone. So it’ll cover the basics for everyone. Basic breakfast dishes, how to make bread, soup, eggs, how to prep meat and veggies, and in the different styles of lots of different cultures. That’s the thing about us – we all eat bread, meat and greens. We all look forward to dessert. And of course, I’m going to add my personal favorite dishes to the mix, too.”

CRONKITE (in interview footage): “In the book, will you finally reveal the eleven secret herbs and spices used in your KFC chicken?”

SANDERS (in interview footage): “Walter, if I can keep my trap shut about classified government information for these past 14 years, I can certainly keep my trap shut over something even more important than all of that stuff put together.”

– CBS News report, 5/12/1979 [6]



THE DALITARKIN CONSEQUENCE

Genre: TV drama film

Release date: May 16, 1979

[snip]

Plot:

In the distant future, Earth’s gravity has begun to accelerate, leading to the world’s government to agree to a plan to evacuate the planet and relocate as much of Earth’s population as possible to Mars. Terraformation of the Red Planet soon begins, but heated debates rages on how many people can be relocated before Earth can no longer sustain human life. Some countries produce a lottery system, while others decide to not accept those that the government considers “worthy of passage.”

Ten generations later, the Earth itself is nearing its end as it is increasingly losing its stability and is becoming flatter, like a squished-down ball, making gravity considerably heavier and producing environmental disasters that have killed “billions” of people. Millions have already being evacuated to colonies on Mars, but “hundreds of thousands more” have little hope of escaping the planet’s imminent destruction.

In the dilapidating ruins of an unnamed city, Skio, a wealthy descendant of the scientists who spearheaded awareness of the physics-shattering phenomenon ten generations ago is looking for his ex-girlfriend, Fain, in the hope of making amends before they depart on separate ships and will be physically apart for the three months the trip to Mars will last. Skio finds her volunteering at an emergency shelter, but Fain reveals that she wants to stay behind for as long as possible to help those deemed “unworthy of passage,” arguing their economic stations have unfairly condemned them to death. After a long and intense philosophical argument, Fain shows Skio the extent of poverty in the area, and the still-burning remains of locals’ last attempt to build their own Mars-bound spaceship. After considering the situation, Skio suggests threatening to stay behind to bring attention to the problem, arguing that his powerful connections would not allow a notable descendent of the evacuation program be left behind due to PR concerns.

However, after remote-meeting with several leading program members, including top-ranking individuals such as “the nation’s Chief Commander,” Skio and Fain are convinced that nothing can be done about those left behind due to the lack of time and materials needed to evacuate the remaining inhabitants of Earth, prompting Fain tearfully leave. However, as they depart and head to their shuttles, the one poverty-stricken person shown earlier in the film tries to attack and possibly rape Fain, but she manages to knock him unconscious, enabling her to get onboard.

An undetermined amount of time later, Earth is “flattening” just as the last of the evacuation ships leave its gravitational pull; some can’t withstand the strain and explode, but most don’t. The audience then sees the would-be rapist from before, has been left behind among thousands of others as the planet speeds up even faster. On Mars, Fain and Skio are watching Earth flatten on a large screen. Fain describes to Skio the moments experienced by those left behind, which is interspersed with the events occurring to the rapist. The gravitational pull pins him to the ground, the sun seemingly passes by quickly, over and over again, hurting his eyes. His body is stretched, “like being pulled on and apart by a thousand arms,” his brain suffers an aneurysm (suggested by blood leaking out of his ears, then nose, then eyes), he “can’t think any more,” then “can’t even feel,” and then he and everything else flattens and torn is apart as the whole planet completely flattens and disintegrates.

Some of the debris from Earth’s implosion gathers momentum and crashes into Mars’ weak atmosphere, hitting some of the colonies, including the one that Fain and Skio are at, but the damage is considered “light,” and it is addressed and amended. The people on Mars stare out into the black void to where Earth would be, humanity now facing an uncertain future as they’ll now struggle to survive and restart on an only slightly terraformed Mars. Fain is just happy she and Skio at least tried to save more people, though both are uncertain how so many will survive with such limited resources on Mars. They then listen to the Colony Director give a reassuring speech about humanity’s ability to adapt and overcome.

Just before the credits roll, we see an exterior shot of the colony’s “energy tank” to reveal it was damaged by the “debris shower” from earlier; the engine sputters and shuts down just before the film cuts to black.

Reception:

The film essentially broke even at the box office despite its limited release. The film also received mixed reviews, with some critics alleging it was “too dark” and others claiming the main characters were “neither likeable nor relatable.” However, the “dreary” and “depressing” film was praised for its special effects, and currently has a small but strong cult following.

– mediarchives.co.usa



INSIDE: REV. JERRY BROWN ON CHARITY WORK IN SOUTH AMERICA

[snip] The Reverend continued, “Not even an attack on my life last year for criticizing the government of Argentina while working in Buenos Aires could deterred me from doing the best I can do for my fellow man. I encourage everyone who can make a difference, no matter how small, to do so. The downtrodden do not ever forget the kindness they receive.” …

– People Magazine, late May 1979 issue



GOP INTRODUCES “REGULATIONS FLEXIBILITY” BILL IN THE HOUSE

– The Washington Post, 5/28/1979



After Mondale privately threatened to fire Clark and replace him with Labor Secretary Robert F. Kennedy to be the new Attorney General, Clark reluctantly agreed to launch a series of investigations into the roles that certain major banks and Wall Street corporations played in the immediate aftermath of the 1978 economic crash. …Congressman Larry McDonald (D-LA) criticized the action and claimed the administration of scapegoating, famously saying on May 29, “Yeah, that’s it, give the people the blood they’re calling for.” …With support from and the backing of Kennedy, Clark also sought to root out lingering corruption that, according to polling, was soiling the reputation of unions overall nationwide…

– Rick Perlstein’s Majestic Melees: The Trials and Crises of the Fritz Mondale Presidency, Simon & Schuster, 2019



FRANK EUGENE CORDER

Born May 26, 1956 in Perry Point, Maryland, Corder dropped out of high school to join the US Army in October 1974, and originally trained as a mechanic before being deployed to Angola. He returned to the US in July 1978, having been discharged in June of that year, shortly after rising from the rank of Private First Class to the rank of Specialist. Corder had stayed in the US Army three year longer than initially planned. He passed away at the age of 23 from Dengue Fever, a disease that many of his fellow troops contracted prior to returning from active service in Angola.

The Aegis, local newspaper for Harford County, Maryland, obituary section, 5/30/1979



But it wasn’t just the militants worsening things for ol’ Suslov. Even peaceful men contributed to his problems. On June 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II traveled to Poland for a nine-day stay. The historic visit emboldened Polish nationalism, and the man’s rhetoric fanned the still-flickering embers of rebellious sentiment into a flame of activism, creating another rise in pro-democracy/anti-communism actions that were even more passionate and organized then the ones that overwhelmed Poland in 1968.

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



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[pic: https://imgur.com/JmXHNnF ]

– Former President Harland D. “Colonel” Sanders is spotted participating in a march in front of Kentucky’s capitol building in protest of cuts Governor Foust made to state social programs earlier that week, 6/7/1979



The 1979 European elections held from June 7 to June 10 of that year, were parliamentary elections held across all 9 (at the time) European Community member states. They were the first European elections to be held, allowing citizens to elect 410 MEPs to the European Parliament, and also the first international election in history. Seats in the Parliament had been allocated to the states according to population, and in some cases were divided into constituencies, but members sat according to political groups... [8]

– clickopedia.co.usa




CAM BOMB KILLS 2 AT US EMBASSY IN DAMASCUS

– The Washington Post, 6/11/1979



EXTRA!: THE BEATLES SPLIT UP AS RINGO CALLS IT QUITS!

…fed up with trying to work with Paul and John amid internal fighting over creative differences, Ringo Starr’s departure has led to Paul McCartney and John Lennon agreeing to go their separate ways as well… it is currently unknown what is going on with George Harrison, a.k.a. the Quiet Beatle, who has characteristically made no public comments over this turn of events...

The Daily Mirror, 12/6/1979



…Gravel convinced Mondale to sign a directive for secret aid to be sent to the governments of nations that had signed onto the 1978 Atlanta Treaty in the face of rising hostility from "anti-treaty terror groups"…

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



At the close of my high school experience, I had a choice to make. Do I follow my father into the Navy, continuing on the family’s military tradition, or do I follow my mother into academia and go to law school. Or do I go to the one first and the other one second? Or do I chart my own course? The end of high school was a time for reflection, to analyze my interests and my skills, and determine what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Preparing to grab my diploma on graduation day, I still wasn’t sure what I would do.

At the high school on Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi, I had stumbled upon one of the well-kept secrets about black people: that most of us weren’t interested in revolt; that most of us were tired of thinking about race all the time; that if we preferred to keep to ourselves it was mainly because that was the easiest way to stop thinking about it, easier than spending all your time being mad or trying to guess whatever it was that white folks were thinking about you.” [9] Maybe it was the military atmosphere, but it highlighted a truth about life – that your situation depended on where you started. Grow up in Compton and survival becomes a revolutionary act. You get to college and your family is still back there rooting for you. They’re happy to see you escape; there’s no question of betrayal. But I hadn’t grown up in Compton. [10] I had grown up in Arlington and Hawaii and Biloxi. I had nothing to escape from except my own inner doubt. [10]

My anguish over the ideal assumptions of youth giving way to the harsh realities of the world we realize we’ve lived in all along led to me having long socio-political conversations with my high school friends. At each new school I would chose my friends carefully, and at Keesler I found myself joining a small sliver of the Black students who were, as they liked to say, “awake and aware.” Here is where I began to really study the concept of individuality in a world of labels like rank, age, and color. That kind of thinking was new to me. In the military, there is a “group-think” mentality. That your unit – your country, your cohorts, your family – come before you. Teenage me latched onto the idea of individuality, and my mother was more supportive of it than Father. As were my new friends.

One of them, the son of a low-level serviceman who spent his days cleaning bird droppings off the runways, was two years older than me, and was a vehement critic of the way of thing. “The minority assimilates into the dominant culture, not the other way around. Only white culture can be neutral and objective. Only white culture can be nonracial, willing to adopt the occasional exotic into its ranks,” one time in 1977, he sarcastically announced before adding, “Like you, right?” and looked at me. I had not yet told them that I was not adopted. I was too tired of making the correction and hoped they’d figure it out on their own, but hadn’t.

“No, damn it!” I bellowed, “I’m half-white on my mother’s side!” And, like many times before, I boasted that I was in the unique positon of having two Dads, my biological father living far-away in Kenya and my “real” father, the Rear Admiral.

“But you agree that only white culture has individuals, right?”

“How are you even a military brat?”

“I mean outside the military, Barack! The world is much smaller than you think it is!” He rebutted.

There was truth in his rant. And as the years went by I would realize something unfortunate. We, the half-breeds and the college-degreed, take a survey of the situation and think to ourselves, “Why should we get lumped in with the losers if we don’t have to?” We become only so grateful to lose ourselves in the crowd, America’s happy, faceless marketplace; and we’re never so outraged as when a cabbie drives past us or the woman in the elevator clutches her purse, not so much because we’re bothered by the fact that such indignities are what less fortunate coloreds have to put up with every single day of their lives – although that’s what we tell ourselves – but because we’re wearing a Brooks Brothers suit and speak impeccable English and yet have somehow been mistaken for an ordinary n*@@er. We don’t think we are Black, we think, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m an individual!” [11]

[snip]

While overseeing the actions of his men, Father was a fierce force, but at home he not your typical military father, cold and distance. He learned to turn off the part of your brain that makes you keep your defenses up, and he would interact with me and my little half-sister. He encouraged my following in his footsteps. On the other hand, Mother made excellent counterarguments to starting my adulthood in the military. During our brief time living on the Air Force Base in Djibouti in 1976, Mother taught me to disdain the blend of ignorance and arrogance that too often characterized Americans abroad. But the time she spent interacting with the locals, and witnessing the dead and dying in the military hospitals, made her realize the chasm that separated the life chances of an American from those of a Somalian or an Ethiopian. She knew which side of the divide she wanted her child to be on. I was an American, she decided, and my true life lay in America, not oversees, risking my life, possibly dying in a third-world land instead of making the world a better place from the comfort of America’s borders. [12]

But I could not agree to that. Not yet. Maybe it was the fear of social interaction outweighing the fear of being shot down by enemy fire. Maybe it as my adoration for my Father the caring War Hero’s calls for me to be a pilot like him outweighing my friend’s calls for me to be an individual above all other labels. Whichever, the fact remained that in June 1979, I was unwilling to make the choice my mother wanted me to take.

That summer, I visited the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado and spent three days doing nothing except walk from one end of the town to the other. Like a tourist, I watched the range of human possibility on display, trying to trace out my future in the lives of the people I saw, looking for some opening through which I could reenter [13] that place in my mind where I had been in my early youth, that place in which I felt safe, secure and certain of who I was.

When the answer was never more complicated than the simple reply of “I am Barack.”

– Barack McCain’s Lessons From my Fathers, Sunrise Publishers, 1993 [7]




[vid: youtube /watch?v=Q0Fda0l3_3w ]

– KFC Commercial (its opening sequence possibly being a reference to the Colonel's involvement in recent developments in the Middle East), first aired 6/21/1979



22 June 1979: On this day in history, the sci-fi horror film “Alien,” directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O’Bannon, received a wide release, having already premiered on 25 May, on the opening night of the fourth Seattle International Film Festival; it will be released in the UK on 6 September, and go on receive critical acclaim, box-office success, and an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, plus three Saturn Awards and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation; the success of the film would launch the “Alien” franchise and be a boon to the career of lead actress Sigourney Weaver…

– onthisday.co.uk



“Recently there was a big Kentucky Fried Chicken promotion held in Gainesville, Florida. One of our franchisees was a graduate of the University of Florida. He wanted to get me in the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, but they couldn’t initiate me unless I was enrolled in a college. So they set up a special course for me. It was a three-day course in marketing. So while I was enrolled as a student there in Gainesville I got elected and initiated into the Pi Kappa Alpha. I guess I’m the only seventh-grade dropout in the country who ever belonged to a college fraternity.”

– Harland Sanders’ The Colonel’s Cook Book, published late 1979 [14]



FRESHMAN REP LAMBASTED FOR “HURTFUL” RACIST COMMENTS

…John James Hoellen Jr. (b. 1914), a former Republican Chicago Alderman from 1947 to 1975 best known for opposing public housing on the claim that they will become “vertical slums,” is facing backlash for being caught on camera using rhetoric describing African-Americans as being “primitive [people who] enjoy the sun and the mud.” Many of his constituents and fellow lawmakers are calling on Hoellen to apologize for the comments, claiming they are “hurtful and morally wrong,” says US Rep. Yvonne Burke (D-CA). Hoellen, who opposes interracial relationships and the BLUTAG-American community, has not commented on the incident as of the time of this being printed…

The Washington Post, 6/27/1979 [15]



THE BERLIN AIRLIFT

Genre(s): action/warfare/military/WWII

Released: June 28, 1979

Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)

[snip]

Premise:

The film follows the chronology of the 1948-1949 Berlin Airlift and the events leading up to it. One of the first major international crises of the Cold War, the event was in response to the Soviet Union blocking rail, road, and canal access to the sections of the post-WWII city of Berlin, Germany that were under the occupation of the Western Allies. To help though surrounded by the USSR’s blockade, US and British air forces flew planes over the city over 250,000 times. These planes dropped what turned out to be several thousands tons of necessities such as fuel and food nearly every day from June 1948 until the USSR lifted the blockade in May 1949; for safe measure, the airlifts continued until September 1949, just in case.

Cast:

George Chamberlain portrayed Lucius D. Clay, the senior officer of the US Army who orchestrated the Berlin Airlift; Paul Newman was originally set to portray Clay but had to withdraw from the project amid scheduling conflicts.

Fess Parker, who typically portrayed American leadership figures, most notably Davy Crockett in the 1950s, was cast as Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky, the Soviet General who led Soviet responses to the Berlin airlift; he is depicted as being level-headed (rejecting one officer’s suggestion of firing “warning shots” at the US and UK planes), but ignorant, as he believes the airlift will fail.

James Mason portrayed Brian Robertson, 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge, the senior British Army officer who convinced Clay to oversee airlift operations instead of Clay’s proposal of forcing convoys through the roadblocks, which would have been “bloody” and could have potentially escalated the crisis into warfare with the USSR; he is presented as clashing with Clay over leading organization and mobilization efforts.

John Fiedler portrayed Robert A. Lovett, the US Under Secretary of State who oversaw the strategizing and logistics of the Berlin Airlift and worked with military personnel to smooth out all details; Lovett is presented as an energetic workaholic serving under Secretary of State George Marshall.

E. G. Marshall portrayed George Marshall, the US Secretary of State enthusiastic for the airlift but inhibited by his poor health

Rutger Hauer, Faye Dunaway, and child star Hubert Fahow portrayed “all that’s left” of a German family struggling to survive in Berlin in the wake of WWII; at the beginning of the film, Hauer’s character, who “somewhat sat out” the war due to being a leg amputee, blames the US for “going too far” to secure victory in the war, but after the airlift leads to him obtain medicine to help his ill son, concedes “they’re not all bad.”

Edward Herrmann, who had received accolades (including an Emmy) for his portrayal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1974 made-for-TV movie “Eleanor and Franklin,” portrayed him again here.

Several veteran actors, including George C. Scott, Keenan Wynn, Annette Funicello, Leon Ames, Alan Hewitt, William Windom, and George Voskovec all appeared in the film as well, all portraying smaller roles.

Reception:

The film received generally positive reviews and was a financial success at the box office.

– mediarchives.co.usa



QCbAx6S.png


[pic: imgur.com/QCbAx6S.png ]

– Colonel Sanders presenting a KFC regional manager with an award, 6/29/1979



“I won’t be running for President next year. I don’t agree with many of the Vice President Gravel’s policies, I don’t think they are popular enough to win in a general election, but don’t think it’s right to deny him the chance to prove me wrong. Besides, this is already a pretty tough job, and dividing my time between it and the campaign trail would only impede my endeavors in both tasks.”

– Secretary of State Jimmy Carter, 6/30/1979



SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S)
[1] 1 year earlier than OTL due to the aforementioned technological advancements made during the 14 years between recessions ITTL.
[2] OTL, as found here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176685300/violet-catherine-cummings
[3] Paraphrase of line found in Higginbotham’s NYT obituary column: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/15/us/a-leon-higginbotham-jr-federal-judge-is-dead-at-70.html
[4] OTL, by the way: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Broz_Tito#Non-Alignment
[5] OTL Quote!
[6] Segment written because IOTL the Colonel wrote a cookbook/semi-autobiography in 1966 and a more in-depth autobiography in 1974. ITTL, he still wrote the 1974 one (though it’s much more in-depth here), but was busy being President in 1966, and so never wrote a second book (In retrospect, perhaps I should have had included him writing a mini-cookbook to promote KFC between leaving office in 1959 and running for another in 1964 in one of the earlier chapters. Whoops… oh well!).
[7] Italicized parts are pulled from various pages of Barack’s OTL autobiography: https://books.google.com/books?id=HRCHJp-V0QUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=barack+obama+autobiography+book&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks
[8] The passage that is in italics was directly pulled from this election's wikipedia article
[9] These italicized parts were pulled from Barack's OTL autobiography: https://books.google.com/books?id=HRCHJp-V0QUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=barack+obama+autobiography+book&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks, Page 98
[10] Ibid., Page 99
[11] Ibid., Page 100
[12] Ibid., Page 47
[13] Ibid., Page 122
[14] Quote from page 15 of his OTL 1966 book, “The Autobiography of the Original Celebrity Chef”
[15] Guy made some pretty messed up comments IOTL, which can be found on his wiki page


Also, some polls for the 1979-1980 Presidential election season:

The Democratic Primaries: https://www.strawpoll.me/18958938

The Republican Primaries: https://www.strawpoll.me/18973785




Here’s a breakdown of the Democratic candidates (7):

Maurice Robert “Mike” Gravel was born on May 13, 1930 in Springfield, MA to French-Canadian immigrants. After serving in the US Army's Counterintelligence Corps, he worked as a taxi driver in NYC before moving to Alaska in 1956, where he quickly found work in real estate. After two unsuccessful bids for public office, he served in the state House (1963-1967), and served as its Speaker (1965-1967). In 1966, a good year for anti-war Democrats, Gravel won election to the US House. He briefly ran for President in early 1968 before successfully running for a second House term later that year. After winning a special election in late 1969, Gravel entered the US Senate in January 1970. After running for President again in 1972, Gravel became the running mate of his party’s Presidential nominee, a moderate, who sought to unite the party. After nearly eight years of serving as VP, Gravel is indisputably the “darling” of the progressive wing of the party in this race, and due to his current occupation is the presumed frontrunner. However, the potential strength of some more moderate opponent could make his third race for the nomination be more like a real competition than a coronation. This is due to Gravel’s icy relations with Mondale and other moderate Democrats, a situation which some argue threatens to alienate voters outside of Gravel’s base; on the other hand, Gravel believes primary voters are more weary of Mondale’s “milquetoast” governing style than of his habit of “always choosing to stand by principles and values than resigning to ‘going with the flow,’” and as a result is, at the very least, comfortable with his presumed odds. Gravel is running on improving relations with the USSR and the PRC to “prevent more regions of the world from falling to proxy wars” and advancing denuclearization, and on supporting making federal social programs “more efficient and helpful.”

Ernest Frederick “Fritz” Hollings was born on January 1, 1922 in Charleston, SC. A medal-winning US Army veteran who fought in WWII, Hollings is considered to be a career politician, having continually held public offices for the past 30 years. Hollings began his career by serving in the state House (1949-1954) and as its Speaker (1951-1954). He then served as Lieutenant Governor (1955-1959) and then as Governor (1959-1963), where he improved his state’s education system and promoted industries moving there. After US Sen. Johnston died in office in 1965, Hollings successfully ran to complete his term via special election. Hollings won re-election in 1968 and 1974, and is allowed to run for both re-election and the White House in 1980. Hollings is a conservative but has a history of being praised for bipartisanism. He is known for heading several fact-finding tours on hunger and poverty as a leading member of the US Senate Select Committee on Hunger and Human Needs. Hollings could face scrutiny from the party’s left for opposing legislation to admit more refugees from Asia and Cuba during the late 1960s, but he believes his conservatism, bipartisan record, and focus on “kitchen table issues” will earn him support from Republicans in the general election – provided that he wins over moderates and wins his party’s nomination first.

Henry Martin “Scoop” Jackson was born on May 31, 1912 in Everett, WA. A Norwegian-American like Mondale, he has been serving in the US Senate since 1953, after previously serving in the US House (1941-1953). Jackson is a moderate aligned with the President and supported Civil Rights legislation and environmental protection during the 1960s and 1970s. Derided by some as “the Senator from Boeing” for backing military spending on weapons systems and military contracts for Boeing, Jackson is arguably best known for his support of higher military spending, national defense, and military contractors. This clear hawkishness, combined with his support for Japanese internment camps during WWII (and even opposing Japanese-Americans being allowed to return to their homes along the west coast once the war was over) may be detriments to his campaign. Due to these concerns, Jackson is focusing more on social issues such as equality and social welfare programs. Jackson is also downplaying the “law and order” rhetoric he is known to use due him believing that those talking points contributed to Reagan’s landslide loss four years ago. Nevertheless, this “cold war warrior” cares greatly about maintaining an anti-communist stance more professional and less openly-aggressive than McDonald’s but more ambitious than Nixon’s. He wants to reverse Mondale’s “inroads with the Soviets,” though he is currently running on his championing of social welfare programs and labor unions in order to win voters over from Gravel.

Lawrence Patton “Larry” McDonald was born on April 1, 1935 in Atlanta, Georgia. After working as a flight surgeon in the US Navy at a base in Iceland, McDonald married a local Icelander and had 3 children with her – Tryggvi, Callie, and Mary. McDonald began to practice medicine after his discharge, but soon increased his focus on politics, resulting in his wife divorcing him (McDonald would remarry in 1975, resulting in him becoming the father of two more children). McDonald was elected to the US Representatives from northern Georgia since 1972, a good year for Democrats, and won re-election in 1974, 1976, and 1980; he is retiring to focus on this Presidential run. Often described as a modern-day McCarthyist for his very strongly anti-communist rhetoric often teetering on the edge of paranoia (often wearing a bulletproof vest and maintaining fallout shelters at his home and primary campaign headquarters certainly help to bolster this description), McDonald is of the most conservative voting records in the US Congress. Being the former Chair of the John Birch Society, McDonald is a firm supporter of several JBS ideas. He is calling for steep cuts in government spending and foreign aid programs, calling “the Johnson-Sanders welfare state…a disaster”; abolishing the federal income tax; less regulations on pharmaceutical drugs but more restrictions on recreational drugs; impeaching the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for abuse of power; abolishing several federal election laws; pulling the US out of the UN; and undoing almost all of the post-New Deal welfare and regulatory state. Interestingly, though, McDonald supports adding more statues of historic African-American figures to places around Capitol Hill. Deeply conservative both fiscally and conservatively, McDonald does not shy away from being called a populist, and believes he can re-energize “old bases” in the party and secure the South in the Electoral College come November 1980. McDonald also believes America needs to be stronger on the world stage, supporting military action over détente to “keep our enemies in line” at home and abroad, saying recently that “Scoop and Mike are just two sides of the same rotten apple threatening to spoil the bunch that is the Democratic party. One is in cahoots with big business, the other is a talentless shoutnik who’d be glad to see the Soviets take over America.”

Walter Louis Nixon Jr. was born on December 16, 1928 in Biloxi, Mississippi. Nixon began his career in law by entering private practice in 1952; after serving in the US Air Force from 1953 to 1955, he re-entered private practice and garnered local prominence for defending three shoutniks arrested for draft-card burning in a 1964 case. He was a potential nominee for a US District Court seat if President Lyndon Johnson had won re-election. Nixon left private practice in 1971, when, after presiding over two closely-followed state corruption cases in 1969 and 1970, was drafted by Biloxi Democrats to run for Governor. He was elected to said office in 1971 and served from 1972 to 1976 due to being constitutionally limited to a single term. During his time in office, Nixon cracked down on wasteful spending, opposed nepotism in state appointments, and sought to combat recreational drug use among the state’s youth. Nixon has thrown his hat into the race due to his disapproval of Vice President Gravel’s policies being “unacceptably left-wing,” adding “I’m the only candidate in this race with an encyclopedic understanding of our national laws.” Mum on most social issues outside of opposing anything he deemed to be harmful to children, Nixon is running for President with a campaign style that is similar to that of former President Sanders, who is fairly popular in the American South. Nixon himself seems to be portraying himself as another version of The Colonel due to that former President focusing on “family values” as well. In his announcement speech, Nixon proclaimed “Self-evident truths of our nation must be preserves for future generations,” demonstrating his intention to take up a moderate-to-conservative lane in this race. However, his opponents may be quick to question where exactly he stands on certain fiscal and foreign policy issues.

Robert Earl “Bob” Short was born on July 20, 1917 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A US Navy veteran who fought in WWII, Short entered the world of business after unsuccessfully running for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1946. He started out in trucking before building up a freight carrier company and then shifting into sports management. Short owned the NBA Lakers (1957-1965), then the NFL Oilers (1969-1974) after failing to outbid comedian Bob Hope for the MLB Senators team in 1969. However, Short managed the Senators from 1974 to 1977 after Hope grew frustrated with management duties and sold them; Short subsequently moved the team to his native Minnesota, then sold them to local Minnesotan businessman so Short could run for the US Senate. These actions led to Short quipping “I’ve dealt with Senators before, I can deal with them again” on the night of his 1978 election victory. A moderate, Short is close friends with fellow Senator Humphrey; having worked on Humphrey’s 1968 and 1972 Presidential campaigns, Short is hoping to win his endorsement. Short is running for President on a pro-life, pro-business platform emphasizing his monetary success with the Lakers, Oilers, and Senators. However, his opponents are already questioning his handling of players’ rights and negotiations for said teams, alleging he put profit ahead of players; Short denies these allegations.

Elmo Russell Zumwalt Jr. was born on November 29, 1920 in San Francisco, California. Both of his parents were country doctors, with his mother being Jewish and from Vermont. Zumwalt was raised as a Christian and originally planned to follow in his parent’s footsteps and become a doctor, but in 1939, with the threat of war looming, he joined the US Navy. Zumwalt ended up serving in WWII, in the Korean War, in the Cuba War, and in the Indochina Wars (where he contributed to naval actions during the 1967 invasion of Hanoi). He received the rank of Admiral in 1970; later that same year, President Sanders nominated him to be Chief of Naval Operation (1970-1972). Zumwalt retired from the military in January 1973 and settled in Virginia, where he had officially resided since 1970. Critical of state political regulations on businesses and medical services, Zumwalt ran for and was elected Governor of Virginia in 1973 and served from 1974 to 1978. Highly critical of Mondale’s leadership during the 1973 Oil Crisis, Zumwalt challenged Mondale for the 1976 Democratic nomination; he competed in most of the primaries, and while he won none of them, he received as much as 20% in some of them, resulting in him receiving 3.9% of the total delegate count at that year’s convention. Since then, Zumwalt has continued to call for stronger consumer protection laws after witnessing how asbestos has affected US Navy Veterans and Virginia citizens, resulting in him banning its use in Virginia in 1975. Running for President again, Zumwalt believes in maintaining a “firm hand abroad and a soft hand at home,” and seems to be aiming to be a moderate “compromise” candidate between southern candidates and northern candidates, and between conservative candidates and the progressive Gravel.



And here’s a breakdown of the Republican candidates (19):

A. Lamar Alexander Jr. was born on July 3, 1940 in Maryville, Tennessee to middle-class Scotch-Irish educators. After serving as the editor of his law school’s newspaper, Alexander worked as a legislative assistant for US Sen. Howard Baker (R-TN) from 1967 until leaving in 1970 due to disagreeing with Baker’s “aggressive [and] confrontational” approach to the Ms. Arkansas scandal. Alexander subsequently worked on several successful Republican campaigns in Tennessee in 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973. Alexander then utilized the political connections that he had made during these victories to mount a successful campaign for Governor of Tennessee in 1974. He supervised a fairly conservative administration while in office (1975-1979), cutting taxes and deregulating the state’s education system. Constitutionally limited to a single term, Alexander is now mounting a Presidential campaign that is emphasizing his youth, energy, charisma, gubernatorial tenure, “D.C. outsider” status, and “humble roots.” A defender of the nuclear energy, oil, and gas industries, Alexander believes that the US Department of the Interior should be decentralized to grant local and statewide governments the freedom to monitor ecological habitats more efficiently. He also supports tax cuts in the form of replacing several current taxes for “more fair” flat taxes. Making his candidacy official at the age of 39, he is the youngest candidate in the race.

John Milan Ashbrook was born on September 21, 1928 in Johnstown, OH to US Rep. William Ashbrook (1867-1940, R-OH). After graduating from law school, he became the publisher of his late father’s former newspaper. Ashbrook then worked with political strategist F. Clifton White from the Young Republicans during the early 1950s before Ashbrook served in the state House (1957-1961). Ashbrook was then elected to the US House of Representatives in 1960. His seat, which he has held continuously since 1961, is the same seat his father held from 1907 to 1921 and again from 1935 until his death. John Ashbrook is now running for President on a “consistently conservative” platform; his campaign is already being supported by political commentator William F. Buckley Jr. due to them sharing the same right-wing positions on budget deficits, environmental protection, wage and price controls, and relations with the USSR and the PRC. In his announcement speech, Ashbrook indicated the style of his campaign by proclaiming “We have to change course. It doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate, because the Democratic party is the party of drugs, disasters, and détente. And Americans sick and tired of all three of those things.”

Howard Henry Baker Jr. was born on November 15, 1925 in Huntsville, Tennessee to US Rep. Howard Baker Sr. (1902-1964, R-TN), who served in the House from 1951 until his death. After serving in the US Navy during WWII, Baker began to law practice in 1949, but did not enter politics until 1964 (a fairly good year for Republicans), when he won a special election to the US Senate. Known for brokering compromises and maintaining civility during tense discussions in D.C., Baker easily won re-election in 1966, 1972, and 1978. Popular among his colleagues, Baker has been the US Senate Majority Leader since 1971. Now running for President on a moderate campaign, he is touting his reputation for negotiation and honesty in the hopes of appealing to middle-class and suburban voters tired of the alleged “instability” of the past nearly eight years to Democratic rule. Baker also wants to “chip away” at the stigma surrounding alcohol, due to his wife, Joy, being a recovered alcoholic.

Edward William “Ed” Brooke III was born on October 26, 1919 in Washington, D.C., but moved to Massachusetts after serving in the US Army during WWII, where he met his current wife, Remigia. After reinvigorating the Boston Finance Commission in the late 1950s, Brooke served as state Attorney General (1963-1967), where he developed a reputation for combating organizing crime and government corruption. This success led to him winning election to the US Senate in 1966, 1972, and 1978. Brooke’s Presidential candidacy has already been endorsed by Nelson Rockefeller, which could be a liability or an asset in the upcoming contests, pending local attitudes and how much weight it even carries. Having co-authored the Lowenstein-Brooke Bill of 1977 that finally made lynching a federal crime, Brooke is running on a moderate platform supportive of labor, health regulations, easing access to higher education, civil rights, voting rights, cutting down on wasteful federal government spending in favor of a “small but still helpful” federal government, and détente. Brooke’s rhetoric and masterful debate skills are closer to being inspiring than controversial, in stark contrast to the divisive performance of Reagan’s during the 1976 debates. Brooke is one of two African-American candidates in this race.

Danny Lee “Dan” Burton was born on June 21, 1938 in Indianapolis, IN. After working as a real estate broker and as an insurance agent, he served in the state House (1966-1968), in the state Senate (1968-1976) and as Governor (since 1977). Burton has decided against running for a second gubernatorial term to run for President instead. Calling himself a D.C. outsider, Burton has been consistently conservative throughout his career, except for his support for bailouts for large farms and agricultural businesses hurt by the 1978 economic downturn. Blaming Mondale for the recession, Burton is calling for greater federal accountability with rhetoric similar to Reagan’s. However, he is already facing scrutiny for supporting Bahrain’s monarchy, praising Pakistan's dictator, calling former US Secretary of State Nash a “dumbass,” and using the governor’s official helicopter to travel to a 1977 golf tournament. Burton rebuts the controversies as being greatly exaggerated, and counters claims that he is too inexperienced for the Presidency by touting his ability to balance the budget in every year of his governorship thus far.

Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. was born on July 15, 1924 in Mobile, AL and has made a career in the military. After developing the highly-praised “Haystack Concept” naval attack strategy in 1957, Denton became a Naval aviator during the Cuba War, where he was shot down and taken prisoner in the last year of the war and was liberated after 11 months of torture. Despite his war wounds, he returned in active duty in time for participate in the 1967 fall of Hanoi. After publishing his best-selling autobiography in 1973, Denton was drafted into running for Governor in 1974. He won, and served from 1975 to 1979. Now running for President on his military and governing experiences, critics call him a “Reagan 2.0,” despite Denton being closer to the center than Reagan.

Robert Joseph “Bob” Dole was born on July 22, 1963 in Russell, KS. While serving in the Army during WWII, Dole suffered life-threatening wounds from a German shell, resulting in permanent limited mobility in his right arm. Returning home a decorated Army captain, Dole became an attorney, then launched a successful career in the state House (1951-1953), as County Attorney of Russell County (1953-1961) and in the US House (1961-1969), where he voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1962 and in favor of war efforts in Cuba and Indochina. Since becoming a US Senator from Kansas in 1969, Dole was served as Chair of the Republican National Committee, and as a ranking member of the Senate’s Agriculture and Finance Committees. He is now running for both a third Senate term and for the White House. If his brief run for President in 1976 is any indication, Dole may have an image problem, with voters finding him too bland. However, Dole sees this as a good thing, as he believes that, after four years and the failure of the Reagan nomination, voters are looking for a “Return to Normalcy” kind of candidate. A rural conservative who is not as far to the right as Reagan, some say that Dole’s best bet is to adhere to blue-collar workers and to try his best to benefit from this season’s early primaries being held in states with large rural populations. Dole’s focus on healthcare for veterans and the disabled could also help his bid.

Aloha Pearl Taylor Browne Eagles was born on November 8, 1916 in Duluth, MN. After attending nursing school, Aloha (who pronounced her first name with a silent “H,” as in “a-LO-a”) moved with her husband to Fargo, North Dakota, where Aloha was both a beloved homemaker and an active participant in local public service programs (she was best known by locals for baking cookies for public events). She served North Dakota’s state House of Representatives from 1967 to 1973, where she supported women’s rights by attempting to liberalize the state’s abortion laws. In 1969, she authored a bill to legalize abortion “in cases of rape, incest, of if the mother’s health was endangered” that narrowly failed to pass in 1969 and again in 1971, with each attempt resulting in Eagles receiving abusive phone calls, hate mail, and even death threats. Elected Governor on a conservative campaign the focused entirely of fiscal restraint and was fueled by state GOP efforts to combat post-Arkwave claims of sexism, Eagles returned to the abortion issue in 1973 by working with Democrats to narrowly pass the bill. She spent the remainder of her first term supporting tax cuts and deregulation to win back disillusioned Republicans; she signed into law a bill that prohibited “the sale of volatile solvents” such as those being used for “glue-sniffing” by young North Dakotans in 1974, and oversaw the construction of a women's prison in the state (which brought in more jobs and improved her support among voters concerned about “law and order”) in 1975. In 1976, she successfully ran for re-election in what was a bad year for Republicans elsewhere; Eagles credits her surprise re-election victory to “never straying” from her principles. She supported the ERA and more libertarian policies during her second term. Now running for President on her record of supporting social services, law enforcement, family values (which she argues includes “legal and safe abortion when needed”), vocational rehab programs, and protecting religious freedom, her candidacy could appeal to feminists on the left, while her success in improving North Dakota’s agriculture sector and employment rates could win over workers on the right.

Barry Morris Goldwater was born on January 2, 1909 in Phoenix, in what was Arizona Territory at the time. He was raised Episcopalian and has Jewish descent on his father’s side. Goldwater helped manage his family’s department store before serving in the US Army Air Force during WWII. He then was elected to the Phoenix City Council in 1949, and served from 1950 to 1952. Being praised for building up the local Republican party resulted in his first election to the US Senate in 1952; he won re-election in 1958, 1964, 1970, and 1976. Despite supporting desegregation, civil rights, and racial equality, and voting in favor of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, Goldwater did not support the 1962 Civil Rights Act due to his concerns that it would lead to an unconstitutional overreach of the federal government. He ran for President in 1964, but after losing his bid for the GOP nomination, worked closely with the Sanders administration to keep the federal government “in check.” After the death of Everett Dirksen in 1969, Goldwater was tapped to serve as Senate party leader, until he stepped down from the position in late 1971 to unsuccessfully challenge VP Scranton for the Presidential nomination 1972. Locked horns with moderates in this contest lead to him losing popularity in the party and may have hurt his third campaign for the Presidency in 1976. Nevertheless, these three runs may have substantially contributed to conservative and libertarian political movements in the US. Running once again for the Presidency, Goldwater has gradually shifted from being a staunch conservative to taking up a more libertarian space in the race, openly opposing the ascendant Religious Right movement on the grounds of separating church and state, and even supporting environmental protection at the federal level.

Jay Sterner Hammond was born on July 21, 1922 in Troy, NY. After serving in the Marines as a fighter pilot during WWII, he moved to Alaska and worked as a bush pilot. More than a decade later, he entered local politics; he served in the state House (1959-1965) and in the state Senate (1967-1971); he was first elected as an Independent, then join the Republican party in 1960. Hammond was elected Governor in 1970 and won re-election in a landslide in 1974. Now running for President, he is touting his gubernatorial record of overseeing the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund, several landmark environmental protection laws, leading the state through the 1973 oil crisis, and taking swift action he took in the early weeks of the 1978 recession to minimize its affects in his state. Identifying as a “Colonel Conservative,” he is running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, and stands out among the candidates by strongly supporting anti-pollution laws and by renewing the call for implementing the Federal Assistance Dividend pushed by Colonel Sanders in 1965.

Paul Dominique Laxalt was born on August 2, 1922 in Reno, NV to Basque immigrants from the French Pyrenees; his father was a shepherd while his mother opened and operated her own restaurant. After serving as a US Army medic at the Battle of Leyte during WWII, Laxalt graduated from law school and became a successful district attorney and lawyer. Laxalt then entered politics, serving as the District Attorney of Ormsby County (1951-1955) and then as Lieutenant Governor from 1963 until his election to the US Senate in 1964, a good year for Republicans; Laxalt won re-election in 1970 and 1976. In office, Laxalt supported purging members of the John Birch Society from the GOP, promoted casino development, and backed protecting scenic waterways from runoff pollution. A defender of Reagan in 1976 and a friend and ally of Goldwater, Laxalt is now heading a “friendly” campaign for the White House, hoping to win over undecided voters with his oratory skills and middle-class appeal. Touting his roughly 16 years in the US Senate, Laxalt supports the notion of low taxes and lowering spending habits (except for the military), and libertarian-to-conservative proposals that may appeal to western voters and to the people of New Hampshire, an early primary state.

Donald Edgar “Buz” Lukens was born on February 11, 1931 in Harveysburg, OH. After serving in the Air Force in the 1950s, he entered politics; he eventually served as President of the national Young Republicans in the early 1960s before serving in the US House (1967-1971) and then as Governor (1971-1979). Due to his success at lowering unemployment and reforming the state’s tax system, Reagan considered choosing him to be his running mate in 1976. Modeling himself as a champion of the factory worker, Lukens is now running for President with a focus on winning over blue-collar workers, a strategy that is similar to one that was pursued by Ray Kroc roughly four years ago. Lukens is anti-immigration on the grounds of protecting US jobs. He is also a self-proclaimed champion of “moral correctness.” Lukens claims that his saving of American factory jobs and his successful negotiating of international business deals during his time as Governor to bring more businesses to the Buckeye State “more than qualify” him for the oval office.

James Howard Meredith was born on June 25, 1933 in Kosciusko, MS. He is an African-American with English Canadian, Scots, and Choctaw heritage. Meredith served in the US Air Force from 1951 to 1960, but returned to serve his country during the Cuba War. Moving to NYC in the mid-1960s, Meredith became a writer and political adviser for local conservative politicians. After unsuccessfully running for congress in 1969, Meredith moved back to Mississippi and ran for the US senate in 1972, winning the Republican nomination and losing in a surprisingly narrower-than-expected margin, which convinced him to run again in 1978, which was a good year for Republicans overall. Winning the 1978 election and entering office in January 1979, Meredith has quickly developed a reputation for bluntly and directly addressing critics and for confronting and challenging members of both parties for racist comments. He is also becoming well known for being hard to pin down on the political spectrum, as he is willing to work with either party to pass libertarian, moderate, and conservative works of legislation. Meredith has now launched a “maverick” Presidential campaign that espouses both conservative ideals and bipartisanship to appeal to conservative voters that typically vote for Democrats.

Ronald Ernest Paul was born on August 20, 1935 in Pittsburgh, PA. He earned a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1961 and subsequently served as a flight surgeon for the US Air Force during the Cuba War, an experience that cemented his anti-war views. After said war, Paul and his wife relocated to Texas, where he ran a private OB/GYN practice. Researching politics in his spare time, he became increasingly critical of President Mondale ending the Gold Standard, and in 1977 announced he was running for the US Senate. Winning the GOP nomination in an upset, he warned that Mondale’s policies would bring about economic disaster; the 1978 recession beginning weeks before the election helped Paul win the race by a 12-point margin. Now running for President, Paul’s critics call him an inexperienced political neophyte who “got lucky,” while others call him a populist outsider and a rising star with grassroots support. Paul’s supporters claim he can connect well with suburban voters, while critics admonish his lack of legislative accomplishments. And both his supporters and opponents, plus undecided voters, seem to be impressed by how the man has ascended so quickly from being a baby-delivering doctor to being a Senator and now a serious Presidential candidate.

George Wilcken Romney was born on July 8, 1907 in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico to American citizens, thus making him eligible for the Presidency. He worked in the automobile industry after moving to Detroit in 1939 and entered politics in 1961. Romney quickly went from being a wealthy businessman to being the Governor of Michigan. After holding that office from 1963 to 1971, he was elected to the US Senate in 1970, and re-elected in 1976 after narrowly failing to win the GOP presidential nomination earlier that same year. As Governor, he overhauled the state's financial and revenue structure, greatly expanded the size of the state’s government, and introduced the state’s first state income tax. Romney also strongly supported the Civil Rights movement; he helped by desegregating suburbs and increasing housing production for the poor. He is now running for President again, and on a platform similar to the moderate centrist one that he ran on four years ago. If he can pulled it off, his being devoutly Mormon could appeal to both the Religious Right and religious minority groups.

John Harbin Rousselot was born on November 1, 1927 in Los Angeles, CA. Starting out as an insurance agent during the 1950s, Rousselot also was an author and public relations consultant before successfully running for Congress in 1960. He was previously a delegate to the 1956 Republican National Convention, and a member of the executive committee of the CA-GOP State Central Committee (1956-1957). Staunchly conservative, he has served in the US House since 1961, and considers himself to be a “survivor” of Democratic “machinations,” as he has repeatedly won re-election despite redistricting due to focusing on local issues every general election season. His candidacy has been endorsed by fellow US Rep. and former NFL player Bill McColl, but it has also been endorsed by John Birch Society members Edwin Walker and Billy James Hargis.

Harold Edward Stassen was born on April 13, 1907 in West St. Paul, MN. After serving as District Attorney of Dakota County (1935-1939), he was elected Governor in 1938, 1940, and 1942, but resigned in 1943 to serve in the military during WWII. Stassen is a moderate critical of nuclear energy safety who has ran for President six times before – the closest attempt being in 1948. Becoming the GOP nominee for US Senate in 1978 marked his first primary win in 36 years. Despite narrowly losing that election, this perennial candidate alleges that his presence in that general election introduced him to a new generation of voters and increased voter turnout. While still a longshot candidate, Stassen believes that “things are different this time around,” and that this is the closest he’s been in decades to winning the GOP nomination for President.

Antonina P. “Ann” Uccello was born on May 19, 1922 in Hartford, CT. Beginning her career in the business sector, she was serving as a department store executive when she ran for city council in 1963. Serving from 1963 to 1967, she was elected Mayor of Hartford in 1967, and served from 1967 to 1971. She narrowly lost a run for the US Senate in 1970, but she was appointed to that same US Senate seat following the death of incumbent Tom Dodd (D) in 1971. In office since then, Uccello has shown herself to be a moderate with a focus on fiscal policies instead of social ones. Nevertheless, her Presidential platform focuses on her championing of better housing, job training, and protecting children from lead paint, among other social issues.

William Childs Westmoreland was born on March 26, 1914 in Saxon, SC. After four decades in the US Army, Westmoreland has an extensive military history. Overseeing action in WWII and being both praised and derided for his controversial methods during the Cuba War, he was promoted to General in early 1964, and was sent to Laos in 1965 to oversee “search and destroy” missions to decimate the Pathet Lao. His contributions to the 1967 Invasion of Hanoi led to media speculation that he would run for President in 1968 if President Sanders declined to do so. Instead, Westmoreland served as the US ambassador to Cambodia from April 1968 to January 1973, where he helped to modernize that country’s military and develop its international relations as well. After retiring from the Army in early 1974, Westmoreland was elected Governor of South Carolina in November of that same year. As Governor, he focused on improving the state’s education standards and aggressively cracking down on crime. Rising focus on law-and-order resulted in Reagan tapping Westmoreland to be his running mate four years ago. Prohibited by term limits from running for re-election in 1978, Westmoreland believes his experience in both the military and politics makes him “more than qualified” for the Presidency.

DracoLazarus said:
@gap80 I don't think Mitterand would have a 3rd term, if only because there is a two-term limit in the Constitution of the 5th republic.
I believe another name of the Socialist Party would end up succeeding him - maybe Laurent Fabius or Lionel Jospin ?
Shoot, you're right; I'll change that to Pierre Mauroy, since Fabius is only 32 in February 1979 and Jospin's not prominent enough IOTL/ITTL for it to be feasible.
 
Post 37
Post 37: Chapter 45

Chapter 45: July 1979 – January 1980

“Education is worth a whole lot. Just think – with enough education and brains the average man would make a good lawyer – and so would the average lawyer.”

– Gracie Allen



1980 was most likely Nixon’s last chance to run for President. Days before the 1981 inauguration, he would turn 68. Several elements favored a run – his reputation as a persuasive wheeler-dealer among Republican donors, his impressive resume, and his consistently moderate voting record – but there were two primary elements that made Tricky Dick turn down the opportunity: his power in the Senate, and, mostly importantly, his wife.

Nixon had more freedom behind the scenes, where he influenced foreign policy and legislation by maintaining his position as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Meanwhile, Mrs. Nixon was reluctant to face another campaign, as Pat had witnessed and shared the praise and vilification her husband had received over the years without having established an independent public identity for herself. Although she supported him in his career, she feared another "1960" [1] would unfold in 1980, especially if put up against a Democrat who was stronger than Gravel.

After running for public office in 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1970, and 1976, Nixon announced on July 7, 1979, that he would not be launching an eleventh one in 1980.

– Bob Halderman’s The Haldeman Diaries: Three Decades of Tough Decisions and Tricky Dick, Barnes & Noble Press, 1994



HOUSE TO VOTE ON ECONOMIC REGULATION BILL NEXT MONTH

The Washington Post, 7/10/1979



Chrysler’s troubles began back in the 1960s when the company tried to expand both with the United States and worldwide in an attempt to catch up to its main competitors. …The fear of millions of jobs being lost, along with resurgent German and Japanese auto industries, had many concerned. A series of economic downturns – the Salad Oil Recession of 1963, the Oil Shock of 1973, and the Crash of 1978 – worsened conditions by creating a chain reaction as many consumers cut back on the purchase of big-ticket items such as cars, while those who were in the market for new ones simply went to Chrysler’s Japanese and German competitors…This contributed to falling sales at the automaker.

While its
domestic competitors, Ford and General Motors, were affected by these economic interruptions as well, they were much larger companies and were better able to withstand a fall in sales compared to Chrysler. Another element separating Chrysler from its competitors was how it would actually produce automobiles – on speculation, rather than building the cars as the orders were received by the dealers. This system led to an inventory build-up on Chrysler lots. With massive amounts of unsold cars and dropping sales, many credit-rating agencies downgraded the company’s debt. This led to analysts worrying that the company’s working capital could drop to $600 million, violating its credit agreement with 180 banks, and putting the company in default.

Another consequence of Chrysler going under concerned national security. In 1977, Chrysler was awarded the contract to build the M-1 Abrams tank. Since the 1960s, NATO had been looking for a tank that could replace its older models. The fear was that if Chrysler went under, the national security of the country would be compromised by the loss of a manufacturer for tanks, trucks and other vehicles. At the height of the Cold War, it was thought the country had to be ready for anything

Meanwhile, domestically, throughout the 1960s, the quality of American cars had declined sharply. Many consumers felt that the Japanese and the Germans made better-quality cars. This was one reason why so many stopped buying American cars. The potential bankruptcy of Chrysler was a wake-up call for the auto industry. It either had to start producing more reliable, better-quality cars or it would continue to face major declines in sales

All of these factors forced the company to heavily
consider lobbying both Congress and the White House for a $1.5 billion loan to stay in business and protect millions of jobs. [2]

But then I came into the picture.

– Lee Iacocca (with William Novak)’s Iacocca: An Autobiography, Bantam Books, 1984



THE CASE AGAINST A FEDERAL BAILOUT: What Iacocca Must Do To Preserve Our Free Market System

…while we understand that Chrysler’s situation is dire [3], the recovering economy and growing oversees markets of China and the Middle East give pause to the hopeless rhetoric spoken by some members of the Chrysler family who believe government intervention is the only option left for them.

However, we cannot stress enough how bailing our Chrysler would undermine the nation’s free-enterprise system. Thousands of businesses of every size went bankrupt in the immediate aftermath of the 1978 Crash – why should $13billion corporation that is Chrysler be the benefit of perceived favoritism from the federal government?

Additionally, we must point out that federal loan would create a dangerous precedence if successful – producers of obsolete products will demand to be given the same level of fairness, as will less-than-honest businesses ruined by general management incompetence and not by the economy’s natural ups and downs.

Instead, an infusion of capital – a favorable bank loan or loan guarantee – could ward off bankruptcy. The use of local and national banks untainted by government control would be a more responsible way of handling the company’s ongoing economic windfall.

If the company conceded to its anti-capitalism faction, and even worse, if subsequently the government conceded to the demands of lobbyists, and a bailout did commence, another question will most assuredly arise – why not sooner? Why did so many Americans lose work if government control of the markets was available? And that method of thinking leads to unwanted products and services. Honest small businesses would be at an unfair disadvantage as mismanaged larger companies are essentially subsidized by the feds. This is not the free market system, but outright socialism!

The specter of failure has always worked to keep companies from making poor decisions so they can survive and thrive. It is this fear of failure, of bankruptcy, that allows for competent and hardworking people – and the businesses they run – to succeed in this great nation of ours.

If Chrysler has to fail for the preservation of our economic freedom, then so be it!

– National Review special issue, 7/12/1979 article [4]



The company had a host of internal problems compounding the issue, mainly from bad management in previous years by executives who did not plan ahead or spend for adequate factory modernization. I pointed these issues out, sought to address and fix them, and that required being permitted time to resurrect Chrysler as a truly competitive business enterprise. I had to install a new management team that consisted mostly of former executives of Ford Motor Co., where I had served as president until a year prior. [5] Then we sold off the parts of the company making the least amount of money and began to pinch every penny, from materials for products to expenses used in shipping and handling… We doubled-down on our most successful products and launched a media campaign to promote their sales… My biggest gamble during that period was slashing salaries by 10% for all employees across the whole company, which united both workers and managers against me. Out of desperation, I promised them that if Chrysler was not in the clear by the end of 1980, I would reinstate the prior salaries and resign from the company. That just made me work harder...

– Lee Iacocca (with William Novak)’s Iacocca: An Autobiography, Bantam Books, 1984



On July 12, Congress approved of a military aid package for Nicaragua’s President Somoza, after a rise in hostile actions against that government instigated by the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front. However, the aid came only after Mondale had managed to pressure the Somoza government into “cutting back” on the corruption overwhelming the nation, which was causing support for the SNLF to begin with. Mondale also threatened to withhold further aid if corruption levels did not drop further in Nicaragua. ...This development came after months of sour relations between the US and Nicaraguan governments...

– Joseph Walker Barr’s The Mulling Minnesotan: Mondale’s Military Moments, Borders Books, 1994



Collective rebellion is a very special occurrence. There is no centralized leadership, there is no timed mobilizing or coordinating of campaigns or events, there is only, at its core, a shared goal of triumphing over a common enemy. It takes a certain type of monstrosity to infuriate just about every single person against you, but that is what was happening in Romania at the close of the 1970s, as the Woman Dictator continued to alienate the masses. Derided by the people of Romania, whom gave her the nickname “The Warsaw Pact’s b*tch,” the ruthless tyrant Elena Ceausescu, after eight years in power, was overstaying her welcome.

Even certain parts of the Communist Party, the military, and the wealthy were incensed by her selfishness, and were privately demanding that she assume the responsibilities that come with being in charge. Her refusing to acknowledge them led to her subordinates requesting intervention from Russia’s politburo. Unfortunately, the USSR’s Mikhail Suslov believed that conditions of life in Romania to be greatly exaggerated, and refused to oust Ceausescu. Suslov believed that a foreign intervention would aggravate the masses and worsen the situation, telling his inner circle that "if troops are introduced, that will mean a catastrophe. I think that we all share the unanimous opinion here that there can be no discussion of any introduction of troops.” [6] Suslov instead suggested the troubled party members “work with her more.” Evidently, this advice did not work, as several members of the Romanian Communist party were purged, and either exiled or executed for publicly given reasons.

Ironically, the deaths of even upper-class members of society would benefit the anti-Eleni movement by uniting, if not temporarily, all the classes of the nation. Riots overwhelmed administrative offices and entire towns fought against the dictators allies, many of which could soon be found hanging from trees outside of the rebelling neighborhoods.

In the nation’s capital of Bucharest, Eleni refused to believe that entire towns were in revolt, claiming reports were unfounded or exaggerated. This helped strengthen the causes of the rebels. The only thing standing between them and the changing of the guard that they desired was the ardent loyalists of the state military, and, much more seriously, the possibility of Soviet intervention…

– Vladimir Tismaneanu’s Stalinism For All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Third Edition, 2023



PAUL: “It’s too ironic that big corporations, who think that government handouts make people lazy, often want the government to give them money to create jobs. If I was President, no hoity-toity fat cat operation will be given special privileges over the workers and consumers vital to their success.”

INTERVIEWER: “With that rhetoric, you sound like a presidential candidate. Are you planning on running for the nomination next year?”

PAUL: “I’ll let you know.”

– US Senator Ron Paul interview for Tumbleweed Magazine, mid-July 1979 issue



In mid-1979, with Congress still being off for summer break, which was scheduled to begin on July 8 and end on August 3 [7], the fiercely far-right hard-c conservative Republican Senator Richard Obenshain of Virginia began work on finding sponsors for an immigration bill meant to maintain legal immigration flow but heighten measurements for managing illegal immigration flow. Concurrently, Obenshain began shoring up support for a related bill meant to “heighten the judicial process directed toward” illegal immigrants already within US borders. The proposed legislation was popular and unpopular on both sides of the aisle. Thanks to backers such as Senators William Saxbe (R-OH) and Henry Bellmon (R-OK) claimed that the bills would lower the unemployment rate, albeit through a convoluted explanation that blamed immigrant labor for the 1978 recession.

– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015



“The President is willing to support a federal bailout of Chrysler on the condition that the company keeps operations within American borders and hires American citizens in order to minimize unemployment levels.”

– The White Press Secretary at an official briefing, 8/1/1979



LqPhJVF.png


[pic: imgur / LqPhJVF ]
– Slogan of Mike Gravel’s 1980 Presidential campaign, officially launched 8/2/1979



“Time to Truly Make This the Land of the Free”

– Slogan of Ron Paul’s 1980 Presidential campaign, officially launched 8/5/1979



WALL STREET TO THE RESCUE?: Banks Renewing Investments As Chrysler Rehires Engineers, Designers, And Fiscal Experts In An Effort To Avoid Bankruptcy

– The Associated Press, 8/9/1979



INTERVIEWER: Alright, moving on to the late ’70s, now… Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album was released on August 10, 1979. Some have claimed that a bit of your Reeflex [8] Rock style of music can be heard in a few of the songs. How true are these claims?

TOMMY CHONG: Eh, probably very true, man. I hung out with the little man a few times when he was growing up. I think I was the one who gave him his first Mary Jane, taught him to puff away all his angst. He was a troubled dude, but he was alright. So, yeah, I probably had an influence on his music, but then again, everybody knew Michael, and I wasn’t the only maker of Reeflex Rock music, you know, so… yeah… what was the question?

– usarightnow.co.usa/culture/interview, 2014



U.A.W. FORMS TEMPORARY ALLIANCES WITH BANKS, MANAGEMENT IN MASSIVE MOVE TO SAVE CHRYSLER

– The Los Angeles Business Journal, 8/11/1979



PRESIDENT EAGLES, ANYONE?: With The Apt Slogan “Let Freedom Soar,” North Dakota Governor Seeks To Be Our First Female President

The Chicago Tribune, 8/12/1979



Upon Monty Python’s Life of Brian being released on August 17, 1979, religious organizations were quick to denounce the film for alleged blasphemy… The phenomenon sprouted up in the United States as well, where prominent member of that country’s “Religious Right” political movement such as Jerry Falwell and U.S. Representative Anita Bryant condemning the film for “ridiculing” parts of the bible, “most heinously [for] belittling Christ’s Crucifixion.” …In New York, nuns and even rabbis picketed screenings. …In the American South, former US President Colonel Sanders joined the voices deriding the film, but only to agree that the film should not be promoted out of fear of the film “corrupting and compromising the faith of impressionable youngin’s.” While it is not clear if the Colonel actually saw the film, his call for its opponents to “stop harassing the adults willingly going to see it” nevertheless led to some social conservatives criticizing the former President…

– Wayne Klein’s A Brief History of Blasphemy, The Southwold Orwell Press, 1990



“…With the company expecting to get out of the red this fiscal year due to this fiscal quarter revealing an uptick in the Chrysler’s financial conditions, Walter, it appears everyone here can breathe a sigh of relief as things are starting to get better…”

– Financial correspondent for CBS News, 8/18/1979



Yeah, I remember where I was when it happened. I had just turned 25, and I had been living in L.A., for two years, and I had just gotten a job working for the alternative newspaper The L.A. Reader. I was heading off to work – I had, basically, just started my drive, in fact – when I heard the report on the car radio…

– Cartoonist and activist Matt Groening, 2009 KNN interview



EXTRA! NUCLEAR POWER PLANT INCIDENT HITS OREGON!

…Air raid sirens within a ten-mile radius of the Trojan Nuclear Plant in northern Oregon have been blaring since 6:15 this morning, but not because of an air raid. Instead, the sirens are warning the residents of Rainier to evacuate their homes over the concern of radiation fallout stemming from an unclear disaster that has occurred at the plant… While no concrete information is available at this time, most reports from the area claim that the plant’s steam tubes cracked prematurely. Similarly, we are also being informed that the plant suffered a steam generator tube leak of radioactive water. A third claim is that a transfer of cooling pool elements from the reactor vessel went awry due to outdated or uninspected safety features. A fourth claim is that there was a minor earthquake that compromised the plant’s allegedly-poorly-made construction. Whatever the reason behind it, the most visible evidence of a major incident unfolding is the unsettling sight of steam escaping from the sides of the plant’s cooling towers. …The Trojan Nuclear Power Plant has been plagued by environmental opposition since construction began in 1970 and continued on after it began operations in May 1976… The plant, located in Rainier, Columbia County, Oregon sits on the southern bank of the Columbia River that makes up part of the Washington-Oregon state border… All residents are being told to distance themselves from the area, which is slowly emptying Rainier as state officials continue to assess this crisis…

The Sacramento Union, Saturday 8/19/1979



xaujrQb.png


[pic: imgur.com/xaujrQb.png ]
– The iconic image of the 499-foot-tall cooling tower of the Trojan Nuclear Plant Collapsing, 8/19/1979



Below: The plant’s cooling tower prior to its collapse in the “Trojan Tower Disaster” of August 19, 1979.

PXQ4Baw.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/PXQ4Baw ]
When radiation leaked out of the plant, the EPA was eight months into a 50-state probe of nuclear plant. The Trojan Plant’s problems had been inspected one month previously and had been given a passing grade. A second, impromptu inspection revealed both elements that had been overlooked and elements that had been concealed from inspectors. Concurrent with the subsequent federal investigation and lawsuit, thousands of local residents banded together to organize a class-action lawsuit against Portland General Electric and the individuals blamed for the environmental disaster that befell both northern Oregon and southern Washington. The disaster was also a test of EPA Director Ralph Nader’s leadership skills…

[snip]

Below: A clean-up crew works on removing radiological contamination from a condemned grade school building in Rainier, Oregon.

bJ7y151.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/bJ7y151 ]
As the extent of radioactive fallout became more apparent [9], Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh and Washington Governor Julia Butler Hansen each declared a state of emergency for multiple counties in their respective states. Further evacuees were advised to avoid contact with anyone other than emergency and medical personnel until they could be tested for radiation poisoning. Others were advised to stay indoors with the doors and windows shut. People were frightened as the rest of the country looked on in horror.

The President had to respond. After calling for a thorough investigation into the disaster, Mondale sought to quell public fears by personally flying to Portland, Oregon, roughly 50 miles south and upwind of the site, and setting up a photo-op with Governor Hansen and other officials on the 21st. Throughout the whole endeavor, however, Mondale was genuinely frightened of what the effects this calamity would have on the country. In a rare showing of amiability, or at least of understanding, between the two, both Gravel and Mondale met with members of the press at the White House later that day. While the friendliness certainly did not last, its brief existence demonstrated how disasters that can affect all can often bring out the best in all.

Well, at least in most. In the post-Trojan American landscape, nuclear experts became bitterly disappointed by misguided crowds who began demanding that all nuclear plants be permanently shut down. Many supporters of the nuclear industry were quick to point out how nuclear energy is very low carbon and essentially renewable, and that without it, American consumer would have to rely more on oil and coal. This turn of events would work against the goals of environmentalists, as solar technology was still in its infancy. Mondale agreed with their assessment, and responded by approving funding for federal and private-company-led research into using Thorium, a metallic chemical element that was potentially less dangerous, as an energy source.

New Ideas For Old Problems: The Walter Mondale Presidency, Borderless Books Publishing, 2004



ACTIVISTS AND OURAGED CITIZENS ARE CONVERGING ON D.C. IN MASSIVE DROVES

…Thousands of Americans are demanding immediate medical aid for Oregonians and safer nuclear procedures… Federal legislators returned from summer break on August 8 [7]

The Washington Post, 8/23/1979



CONSERVATION, NUCLEAR ENEGRY HANDLING REFORM BILLS TO BE INTRODUCED IN HOUSE “IMMEDIATELY”

The Washington Post, 8/28/1979



FOOT DOES IT AGAIN!: PM Leads Labour to Third Consecutive Victory

…After defeating Enoch Powell in 1973 and Edward Heath in the 1975 snap election, PM Sir. Dingle M. Foot has led the Labour party to victory of Edward Heath of the Conservative Party and David Steel of the Liberal Party. While Labour lost seats, they maintained a clear majority... …The most impressive performance of the night was that of the newly formed Moralist party headed by Christian conservative “moral crusader” activist Mary Whitehouse. The party won 6.5% of the popular vote and 1 seat in parliament, sending Whitehouse to parliament. Whitehouse’s campaign was divisive for its inflammatory and hurtful anti-BLUTAGO and anti-non-Christian platforms, prompting her opponents to call her the Anita Bryant of the United Kingdom… her candidacy was likely aided by her active criticism of the supposedly anti-Christian film “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” in the final days leading up to the elections…

The Guardian, 29/8/1979



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[pic: imgur.com/fl7JvhG ]
– Richard Pryor appears in KFC Employee Instructional Training video, filmed in June and began being used at KFC College in early September 1979



“Ready For This” "Trusted"
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[pic: imgur / 9nybNPq ]
– Slogans used by the Ed Brooke 1980 Presidential campaign, officially launched 9/2/1979



“Working For You!”

– Slogan used by the Howard Baker 1980 Presidential campaign, officially launched 9/5/1979



On September 6, 1979, a Cam Bomb planted under a bridge in Tel-Aviv almost killed the US Ambassador of Israel. The device was timed, but heavier-than-usual traffic delayed the Ambassador’s motorcade’s planned schedule, and the bomb denoted before the motorcade arrived at the bridge. While the bridge was heavily damaged, only two people – two Palestinian merchants – were killed. The CIA traced the bomb backed to a cell affiliated with members of the “anti-treaty” faction of the P.L.O. The incident soured relations between the US and PLO even further, but not between the US and the Palestinian people, who condemned the attack as the reason behind supporting the peace treaty to begin with…

– Cynthia Ann Watson’s Our National Security: A Reference Handbook, 2008



THE MAN WHO WOULD BE THE COLONEL

Premiered: September 7, 1979
Genre (s): action-dramedy-adventure
Directed by: Michael Ritchie
Written by: Winston Groom

Cast:
Joe Flynn as Harland “Colonel” Sanders
Jessica Lange as Claudia Sanders to
Vanessa Redgrave as Josephine Sanders
See Full List Here

Synopsis:
Harland David Sanders leads a life of ups and downs from 1930s to 1950, long before he became “The Colonel.” From his landing a job at a gas station via chance encounter, to his discovery of the pressure fryer's potential culinary uses, Sanders must overcome obstacle after obstacle in his quest for success. However, the years are also filled with family drama – from the end of his first marriage and the start of his second marriage in a love triangle for the ages, to the birth of the careers and families of his three dynamic children.

Trivia Facts:
Trivia Fact No. 1: Actor Joe Flynn (1924-1991) survived a heart attack half-way through filming the movie, his second major heart ailment after surviving a bigger heart attack in 1974.

Trivia Fact No. 2: The real-life Colonel Sanders gave the film a lukewarm review in a late 1979 interview (link here), in which he explained that, while he approved of Flynn depicting “me as this optimistic larger-than-life character who never gives up trying to help people, since I think that’s pretty accurate,” he found other people presented in the film to be portrayed “very inaccurately.” Regardless, the Colonel enjoyed the “balance [between] fun and seriousness” found in the script and commended Flynn’s acting, “even if [Flynn]’s impression of my voice was a bit off.”

www.mediarchives.co.usa/The_Dawn_of_The_Colonel



“Scoop Jackson knew he had some amends to make. Specifically, he had to make up with Patsy Mink, the congresswomen who had damaged his 1972 bid. Since the 1976 elections, Mink was now a fellow senator. Scoop met with her days before he made his Presidential run official on September 10 – and in his announcement speech, he focused heavily on the need to support, protect and expand upon social equality and social welfare programs. The ‘law and order’ rhetoric was used sparingly, but he still strongly emphasized our need for higher military spending. He wanted to defend freedom lovers everywhere from totalitarianism... [snip] …He also called for better environmentalist practices, and stronger support for labor unions, making him ideologically closer to Mondale than to Gravel.”

– Paul Wolfowitz, 2018 interview



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[pic: https://imgur.com/309TicP ] [10]
– Left to Right: Colonel Sanders, Jerry Falwell, Doug Oldham, and Connie Smith, 9/12/1979




I remember when The Colonel got into trouble with his more liberal supporters after he was spotted hanging out with Reverend Falwell at a country music festival. At first we thought nothing of it, but soon enough we had young people calling for their peers to boycott our franchises. Not just KFC, but Wendy’s and our barbeque chains and, well, everything belonging to Finger Lickin’ Good, Inc.; we were shocked at people’s reactions to a simple music festival. When it became so significant that sales were being affected by the negative media attention, the Colonel felt that he had to go on TV and settle things out, because the thing was that the Colonel had never outright endorsed the Religious Right, nor its major players. In fact, toward the end of his life, the Colonel was becoming increasingly apolitical…

– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes interview, early 1992



“There’s nothing wrong with being friendly to people who disagree with you on things. It’s how adults behave. Y’all have to get along because refusing to recognize the right of others to have their opinions because they differ from your own is childish and unproductive. Life is like a road. And most roads aren’t straight, most roads require you to turn your wheel to the right or the left from time to time. And just because I enjoy the Reverend’s company does not mean that I have to be everything he says, and vice-versa.”

– Colonel Sanders defending his “acquaintanceship” with Rev. Falwell on Meet the Press, 9/19/1979



“I for one am very angry at the Colonel backstabbing the Reverend. How can he say he’s a man of God and then not stand up for Falwell? I man, he's not the only politician I - but - ya know, I’m tellin’ ya, it just makes my blood boil!”

– Mark David Chapman, 24-year-old security guard at Castle Memorial Hospital in Kailua, Hawaii; response was part of an “on-the-street” interviews segment of a news report on the 1979 Sanders-Falwell controversy, CBS News, 9/20/1979



NUCLEAR SAFETY, RESEARCH, AND DEVELOPMENT BILL ADVANCING THROUGH SENATE

…as protestors and activists continue to line the streets of D.C. over the perceived mismanagement of nuclear power plant safety in light of Oregon’s Trojan Tower Disaster, federal legislators are keen to address and reform how nuclear energy is processed and handled…

– The Washington Post, 9/21/1979



ARIES 7 MISSION SENDS SECOND BLACK MAN TO SPACE

…Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. of Pennsylvania, age 36, made history earlier today by becoming only the second African-American in history to go into outer space…

The Houston Chronicle, 9/23/1979



“In Your Guts, You Know The Rest Are Nuts” “Still the Best Man for the Job”

– Slogans used by the Barry Goldwater 1980 Presidential campaign, officially launched 9/26/1979



YANKEES PITCHER AND EX-BEAUTY QUEEN FILE PAPERS IN “NASTY” DIVORCE

…Former beauty pageant and Miss New York 1975 Mary Theresa Hinterberger, 25, and New York Yankees pitcher Donald Trump, 33, are calling it quits after almost four years of marriage. The couple met in late 1975, shortly after Hinterberger became Miss New York and were married in January 1976. Sources close to Hinterberger claim Trump has been “unfaithful and controlling,” with the couple reportedly fighting over Hinterberger’s desire to pursue a career in the energy industry in Texas [11]. Sources close to Trump, however, claim Hinterberger wants to “abandon” Trump and their two children, Donald Jr. (b. 1976) and Eric (b. 1978) to “sleep with half of the men in Texas and just tease the other half,” according to an anonymous associate of Trump...

– The Hollywood Reporter, 9/27/1979



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– Colonel Sanders appearing on the Jim Bakker Show, 9/28/1979



“The Best Choice”

– Slogan of the Buz Lukens 1980 Presidential campaign, officially launched 9/29/1979



“Tested And Proven” “Let’s Vanquish Our Enemies…Together” “For The Home of the Brave”

– Slogans of the Jeremiah Denton 1980 presidential campaign, officially launched 9/30/1979



ANCHOR: “Earlier today, President Mondale signed into law the Federal Campaigns Resources Act, which regulates and limits political campaign spending and fundraising, including the disclosure of contributions exceeding certain amounts pending said contributions’ sources.”

MONDALE (in footage): “President Theodore Roosevelt called for campaign finance reform all the way back in 1905, and now we are answering that call with this major work of legislation.”

The Overmyer Network, 10/1/1979


“RETURN TO RATIONALITY”: Harold Stassen Starts Seventh White House Bid With More Clout Than Usual

…The former Governor last held public office in 1943, but his surprise grabbing of the GOP nomination for a US Senate seat last year has made the politician relevant again…

– The St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10/2/1979



Mike was always running around. He liked to be energetic; he had to be energetic, he said. There were so many things to be done in just a day for each of us. There were so many times when we wouldn’t see other – when we couldn’t really sit down and at least speak for a little while – for days at a time.

At first I didn’t notice anything, or even suspect anything, but then the evidence began to show. Mike got sloppy. Telephone calls at unusual hours were soon followed by the smell of someone else’s perfume. Sometimes I would ask him more than once about his schedule for the next day, and he’d give me different answers each time. Finally I confronted him on it on an early October night at 1 Observatory Circle, when we were finally alone together.

We were in the bedroom, still not yet out of the clothes we’d worn to a fundraiser for nuclear radiation and cancer treatment that night, when I asked about his betrayal of our vows in a straightforward way: “So who is she, Mike?”

“Who’s who, Rita?”

“The woman you’ve been sleeping with,” I replied.

He paused for a moment and then tried to brush it off with “Oh, you’re just fooling around, aren’t you? Quit it, honey, will ya? I’m not in the mood for it.”

“Don’t toy with me, Mike. I know what you’re doing!”

“What are you talking about?”

But I didn’t let up. I was determined to keep on going until I got an answer out of him.

“Rita, are you seriously trying to ruin the one time we have the night to each other?”

I believe I responded with “We have to talk about this now, Mike.”

“What do you want from me?” he asked.

“The truth!” I shouted at him.

“You want the truth? Fine! I’ve been seeing Coya.”

“Coya?”

“Yeah, Coya Knutson, the Governor of Minnesota. And I’ve been seeing Ella Grasso, Governor of Connecticut. And Senator Patsy Mink. And Eunice Kennedy-Shriver. I’ve even met with our frickin’ Postmaster General, Maurine Neuberger. I’ve been trying to get endorsements and support, and everyone – male and female – have been giving me the runaround!”

I was about to cut him off but he continued. “No, no, no, Rita, you need to know what I’m doing behind your back. I’m keeping the war-hawks from running this administration. I’m trying to keep the Republicans, and the conservative Democrats, off my back. I’m trying to shore up support for next year’s run amid all these establishment cronies always being one step ahead, all falling behind that damn Scoop bastard. I’m trying to get nominated so I can keep this country on the right track, but not enough people are interested in helping me with that!” He finally paused.

“Are you finished?”

“No… but my stomach is,” and he rushed to the bathroom to vomit. After a moment of hesitation, I put my anger to the side and handed him a towel. He groaned in pain, “Damn flu.” He pointed to the pills on the shelf and I handed them to him. He finished, “So, with all of that… and all of… this… how can I even have an affair?”

After cleaning himself up a bit, he sat down on the floor next to the bed. I sat next to him.

“What am I going to do with you?” I said in a sympathetic tone as I slipped my fingers through his greying hair, and started to play with the more curly locks that wouldn’t stay put. I was flattening some locks in the back when I finally noticing a pink smear on the inside of his collar.

I pulled on his shirt, nearly breaking the fabric, and swung the collar around to his face, shoving it nearly breaking right into his face so he could see indisputably see it. “Then explain this,” I inquired.

“Ah crap.” I swore he said this, quietly, in a resigned tone.

"She was there! At the fundraiser!" My anger returned swiftly. Sarcastically, I said, “Oh, but with all of your so-so important Vice Presidential responsibilities and all, how did you even have time for an affair?” I then shouted out, “I know how – you just had to get rid of loving me to fit it into your busy little f@#king schedule!” I slapped him hard across the face and left the room, leaving him there on the floor. In those moments I felt sadness and betrayal, anger and disappointment; I did not care at all for his flu, or for his latest Presidential bid.

I don’t have to point out that we did not spend the rest of the night together, yes? [12]

– Rita Martin Gravel’s memoir, Through My Eyes, Simon & Schuster, 1995




MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

…the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1979 to Mother Teresa for her anti-poverty work…

The New York Times, 10/17/1979



Goldwater’s 1980 Presidential bid was upended before the Senator even made it official when he gave a controversial speech at the 1979 Chicken Dinner Summit in Jerusalem. In the first chicken-centered gathering of regional, religious and world leaders since 1978 Atlanta Treaty, Goldwater spoke for four minutes to a room of over 700 guests. In his speech, Goldwater proclaimed “There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. For example, the religious factions that are growing throughout the political party I am a part of back in the United States are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent, and it cannot happen without suppressing and silencing others.” [13]

The comments were outrageous to the guests hailing from countries with religious-based governments, but as usual, the Colonel managed to keep the peace, preventing what at the time was the closest a C.D.S.I.J. got to experiencing a walkout of several guests. The blowback was even more intense back in D.C., where even moderates criticized the Senator’s description of the Religious Right. Privately, the Colonel was “disappointed” by Goldwater’s rhetoric.

Over the following days and weeks, Goldwater saw his level of hate mail (including death threats) spike and his support in early Presidential polls plummet. For the first time, Goldwater was entering the Republican primaries without a clear path to victory. He was no longer welcomed by the conservative faction; younger and first-time candidates such as Senator Paul and Governor Eagles took up the libertarian lane; and moderates favored less controversial Senators like Baker and Brooke…

– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015



The end of the 1970s was tense. Economically, the unemployment rate was dropping, but not as quickly as the Mondale administration was hoping it would. Diplomatically, US-Soviet relations were back to being frigid, as Suslov perceived any offerings of comradery to be attempts to subvert his nation and weaken his rule. Culturally, the Reeflex Rock style of music was rising in popularity as economic conditions rose; people began to use it to either celebrate what they had or ignore what they did not via escapism, creating controversy over the value of the style and the subculture surrounding it. And politically, American conservatism being divided into factions led to things becoming rather unpredictable in the Democratic and Republican parties…

– Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership In Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, 2018



The private residence of the Mondale White House slowly became colder and quieter as one by one the three Mondale children moved out to enter college. Ted went off to Minnesota U in 1975 but was sure to spend the major holidays with his family.

Eleanor was more distant, though, going to St. Lawrence U in New York in 1978 and only dropping in from time to time. Even then, she mostly would check in on the Presidential Pets, both of which were hers – Digger the Dog, whom had been with the family since 1971 when he was just a puppy, [14] and the frequently-ridden pony given to Eleanor as a birthday gift by Labor Secretary Robert Kennedy and his wife Ethel [15]. Always a wild card, Eleanor chose to reinvent herself in New York; she seemed to want some space and to separate her identity from her father’s.

The youngest William, left for Minnesota U the next year. In his first semester, he told the college newspaper that he had “grown to dislike” having to “share [his] father with the rest of the world,” and was further to the left than his father, too. “Sometimes I even agree with Gravel over Dad.” William also explained that his father “had hoped that [he and his sister] would learn to understand his point of view. Dad believes that gradual change is necessary because sudden change creates a cultural shock and subsequently leads to a cultural backlash and a reversal of said policy. That’s what my Dad believes, but I disagree with that. I think if it’s a good sudden change, and you get people to understand that about it, then society will embrace it, not reject it. But you’ll never know if you don’t try it out first.”

– Clinton J. Hill’s Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with the Secret Service, Simon & Schuster, 2016



MONDALE SIGNS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION PROCEDURES ACT INTO LAW

The Washington Post, 10/24/1979



SANDINISTAS TAKE CONTROL OF KEY PORTS IN NICARAGUA AS SOMOZA GOVERNMENT LOSES GROUND, SUPPORT

…The violence is intensifying as both group seek control of this Central American country…

Associated Press, 10/28/1979



“I got everyone involved to make sacrifices. Suppliers, dealers, lenders, union workers, they penny-pinched without cutting corners and made wise investments based on consumer trends. Lee himself even cut his salary to just a dollar a year to show how much he cared about turning the company around. And slowly, a gradual turnaround for Chrysler happened – without opening the floodgates to the federal overreach and oppression that would have happened had Lee given up and ask for a federal bailout.”

– Ron Paul praising Lee Iacocca’s handling of the Chrysler bankruptcy crisis of 1979, 1992 interview



The state’s August 7, 1979 Republican primary saw Mayor Charles Evers of Fayette defeat businessman Leon Bramlett, making Evers the rirst-ever African-American gubernatorial nominee of a major political party I Mississippi. On August 28, 1979, the Democratic gubernatorial runoff election resulted in Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Gandy winning over state Attorney General Albioun Fernando “A. F.” Summer by a narrow margin, after both had defeated former state congressman Cliff Finch in the primary on August 7 (Summer would later win election to the US House in 1980, but died less than a year into the term). This made Gandy the first woman ever to be the gubernatorial nominee of a major party in Mississippi.

These primary results caught national attention for their historical significance, but also brought many social conservatives who gathered around the independent candidacy of populist businessman John Arthur Eaves Sr.; while not openly racist, his vague support for traditional values – and, possibly, his being the only white man on the ballot in November, made him develop enough support among voters to be a major player in the election. At one point, Gallup polls even showed him in the lead.

On November 7, though, Gandy won 50.1% of the vote. Eaves came close to second place but ultimately received 24.7% to Evers’ 25.2%%...

– Jere Nash and Andy Taggart’s Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power: 1962-2004, University Press of Mississippi, 2010



John Bayne Breckinridge experienced chest pains on July 29, exactly one month after winning the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He 65-year-old four-term US Congressman was discovered to have experienced a minor heart attack, and he subsequently took a week off of the campaign trail. This health scare worried his donors as that week damaged his polling against Governor Foust. As a result, Breckinridge used the incident to his advantage by shifting his campaign’s focus to healthcare, once saying “I’ve fully recovered from a heart issue because I have a job with good insurance, but not all Kentuckians can say the same - but I think they should be able to.” The shift away from economic concerns came at a time when the economy was improving.

In November, though, Foust could not overcome her unpopularity over her handling of taxes. …while Breckinridge defeated Foust for the Governor’s seat, Democrat Martha Layne Osborne defeated Republican Harold “Hal” Rogers for the Lieutenant Governor’s seat…

– Lowell Harrison and James Klotter’s A History of Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 1997



“A New America: An America For All”

– Slogan of US Senator James H. Meredith’s 1980 presidential campaign, officially launched 12/12/1979



The first debate of the 1980 Presidential race was actually held in 1979, at the County Civil Center in Anderson, South Carolina, weeks away from that state’s primary, on November 15th. The state’s selection by the Republican National Committee aimed to highlight the value of early southern primaries, as southern delegates had complained of not receiving enough attention from the candidates – other than Reagan – in 1976. Despite this primary field ultimately having a larger-than-usual number of candidates, only six officially in the race participated – Lamar Alexander, Howard Baker, Ed Brooke, Jeremiah Denton, Aloha Eagles, and Harold Stassen. The declination of the state’s former Governor, William Westmoreland, to join the debate, was later seen as insulting to the people who had set up the entire affair. Nevertheless, the audience and the moderates welcomed the attendees to a 95-minute debate on foreign and domestic policies.

Baker, Brooke and Denton answered questions expertly, or with enthusiasm for their campaign messages, while the other three opponents, most notably Alexander and Stassen, seemed to struggle. Most of the candidates seemed to focus more on Gravel than on Mondale, with Denton warning that a Gravel Presidency would usher in an era of “weakness and appeasement” on the world stage

Each candidate brought something different to the table. Denton touted his military and governing background. Baker highlighted his legislative leadership, and Brooke offered a more moderate way forward. Alexander came to the defense of nuclear energy, emphasizing no less than three times that the Trojan Tower Disaster was a “random, isolated, and totally avoidable” incident. After members of the audience booed her for being an early supporter of the E.R.A., Eagles stood her ground and refused to apologize for doing “the right thing,” a phrase that rubbed many viewers the wrong way.

In regards to fiscal responsibility, only Brooke gave an affirmative when asked if he would raise taxes “if necessary to balance the budget,” separating himself ideologically from his fellow candidates and receiving jeers from some audience members. Baker replied to the same question by adding that “We've got to get over the temptation to think that we have no growth before us. I believe in growth, and I believe that we've got to reiterate our belief that we can create new wealth." He also claimed to be the only candidate who had successfully started his own business [16], a rather obvious attempt to compare himself to former President Colonel Sanders.

For foreign policy, Denton was the most bellicose in regards to the USSR, saying “the era of détente was valiant while it lasted, but now we must address the nation’s need to be prepared for action, for swift and forceful retaliation, if there ever comes such a time for such action.” Stassen had the least speaking time, but his presence renewed real interest in him for the first time in decades.

Some post-debate reviews complained that there were too many candidates on the stage, depriving viewers of having sufficient time to really understand each one. Focus groups praised the debating style of Brooke above all the other candidates, as the sole African-American on the stage, maintained an aura of sophisticated professionalism. Brooke was rewarded for it via an uptick in media attention, donations, and volunteers immediately after the debate.

– Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President: 1980, Atheneum Publishers, 1981




[vid: youtube.com/watch?v=TsH1SG7G05c ]
– Newsreel on the 1979 Mecca Siege, which lasted from November 20 to December 4



…On November 21, false radio reports from supporters of the Ayatollah Khomeini claimed that the American military had overtaken the Grand Mosque in Mecca. In outrage, a misinformed mob in Pakistan attacked the US Embassy in Islamabad, set it on fire, and killed four Americans on and one Pakistani. The incident soured US-Pakistan relations even further... [17]

– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017




“The Best Man for the Best America”

– Slogan of Bob Dole’s 1980 presidential campaign, officially launched 11/24/1979



“Let’s Make The ’80s A New And Better Decade” “Putting People First”

– Slogans from Jay Hammond’s 1980 presidential campaign, officially launched 11/27/1979



LESTER MADDOX OPENS NEW RESTAURANT

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– Associated Press, 12/3/1979



TERRORISTS REPEBELLED FROM MECCA AFTER INTENSE, DEADLY FIGHTING

The New York Times, 12/4/1979



Many fools think this attack on Mecca was an act of retaliation for the concessions made with the Peace Treaty the traitorous leaders signed last year, but it is more than that! This day of reckoning is just a drop of what my brethren can do!

With the call of “Allahu Akbar,” the Grand Mosque Seizure began with glory. A group of 400 Juhayman al-Otaybi militants occupied Mecca’s Masjid al-Haram [the holiest place in Islam], and even if Juhayman was or was not who he claimed to be, it is undeniable that his cause was sound. For too long the West has controlled our governments.

These champions rejected every aspect of the Atlanta agreement, from it recognizing the existence of Jerusalem to it complying with the UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967, which refers to “the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security.” What ridiculousness! They were right to reject the West Bank Resolution – of having Israeli settlers not wanting to leave the area pay taxes to both nation-states and follow the laws of both nation-states, but have religious freedom within their designated communities, despite it yielding some favorable results in recent months. How absurd!

But now their admirable cause has been suppressed by Western Forces, its hand confining our necks tightening its grip. And there is one man to blame for this – the man who began the process that led to the Atlanta Treaty to begin with.

– Osama bin Laden’s private journal, 12/4/1979 entry



FORMER KENTUCKY DERBY WINNER DERIDES COLONEL SANDERS

In an interview on his career since winning the 1965 Kentucky Derby, professional equestrian Sirhan Bishara Sirhan went on a tangent to slam the former President and his annual Chicken Dinner Summits in Jerusalem. In the interview, Sirhan, 35, claimed the Colonel’s involvement in last year’s landmark peace treaty between Israel and several other Middle Eastern nation was responsible for the treaty being “too oppressive to Palestine” and “too rewarding” to Israel…

– The Advocate Messenger, Kentucky newspaper, 12/6/1979



RACE FOR GOVERNOR: FITZMORRIS BEATS MOUTON

…the 58-year-old Lieutenant Governor since 1972 defeated his opponent, 50-year-old State Senator and fellow Democrat Edgar Gonzague “Sonny” Mouton Jr., by a margin of approximately 5.1%...

– The Beauregard Daily News, Louisiana daily newspaper, 12/8/1979



“Reeflex Rock was kinda like a precursor to Disco, I guess, only better. Still, I think Disco gets a bum rap for being too care-free, lighthearted, you know, but at a time like then, you know, the stock market had crash and everything, and in the post-recession music scene, people needed something lighthearted. If it makes smiles, if it makes people get an urge to dance, where’s the harm? Hell, I even performed a couple of disco titles during that time. A lot of covers, a lot of original ones. I’m not proud of all the songs – in fact, in fact I think I was high when I recorded most of them – uh, but the point is I think Disco wasn’t as bad as people say it was, man. It just needed a lot more guitar, I think, yeah…”

– Tommy Chong, in an interview for Tumbleweed Magazine, 2018 issue



They finally released me after six years, two months and 18 days. I have the Attorney General Bobby Kennedy to thank for that; he was the one who listened to Zappa and Chavez and got me an appeal. Under Governor Reagan, I was a political prisoner, but under Burton and Bobby I became a free man again. And I wasn’t going to screw that up.

– Richard “Cheech” Marin, KNN interview, 2012



MONDALE VETOES IMMIGRATION REDUCTION BILL

– The Washington Post, 12/13/1979



REPORT: SUSLOV’S FOREIGN POLICY PLANS: UPDATE

…Suslov has doubled down on his urge for a Moon base to be established by 1987 despite Soviet military strength remaining poor due to outdated weaponry and ICBM systems. …To summarize: despite the USSR’s funneling of weapons and other supplies to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, to the Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq regime in Pakistan, and to the anti-monarchist militias in rural Iran, the USSR does not have the means to successfully wage an outright invasion of any of these nation. However, troop mobilizations and an increase in exercise maneuvers promote the theory of Soviet plans to send “assisting” troops to one, some, or all of these nations…

– CIA Internal memo, 12/15/1979



“Win With Westmoreland”

– Slogan of the William Westmoreland 1980 presidential campaign, officially launched 12/18/1979



“I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks. Most of those cookbooks don’t even tell you how to get a steak ready, how to bake biscuits or an apple pie. The food I’ve liked in my time is American country cookin’. But in this book I’m going to try something new. I’m going to tell how I grew up and at the same time tell you how you can have the kind of food I grew up on. When I tell you how to get food ready for eating, I won’t use just a cold mathematical formula to help you put it on your table. I’ll be telling you how to prepare it like a man who’s talking to you right over your kitchen stove. My list of American country food you won’t find in fancy cookbooks. I’ve dug into my own favorite recipes and I’ve also come up with a few of the most delicious dishes this country has ever invented – after I’ve figured them out in my own way. There won’t be hundreds of them, but even a few are worth more than all the imported recipes with unpronounceable names put together. …I’m making room in these pages for real old-time American country and farm cooking before it’s forgotten.”

– Harland Sanders’ The Colonel’s Cook Book, published late 1979 [18]



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[pic: imgur.com/jSgEbd2.png ]
– Colonel Sanders’ Christmas album, republished for December 1979



The party was torn over the concept of a one-child policy. We needed to curb our overpopulation crisis as our cities were beginning to fill back up in the wake of the 1975 Civil War. The opening of relations to America led to American sociology experts cautioning us against such a policy, claiming it would ruin the nation in the long-term. Traditionally, Chinese parents prefer having sons, and will procreate until they have at least one. To force couples to stop after just one, and that one being a daughter, would dishearten couples, and possibly make the people question traditional values such as marriage and children. So, one of us suggested prohibiting parents from having any more children after having one son. This idea was rejected on the grounds that it would create favoritism, and would likely have the opposite effect of creating more female than male citizens in the long run. There was also more to it than that. Regulating births would mean needing to ensure women were not having more children, meaning we would have to force women to learn how to use contraceptives, or even force them to have abortions. And we didn’t need any more discontent from the masses. Furthermore, the result of one child for every two parents would lead to a smaller workplace and an imbalance between young and elderly citizens.

The question then became “what other options do we possibly have.” After Deng Xiaoping’s advisors spoke with American businessmen, and subsequently studied American history, the administration found an answer. Deng agreed – instead of having Han Chinese suffocating on the coastal cities, the party would promote families moving out west, to the Xiaoping and Tibet regions of China, where “the only things out there is beautiful mountains, fertile soil, plenty of sun and rain, and absolutely nothing else at all.”

– Bo Yibo’s The Dragon and The Eagle: Chinese and American Dances, Daggers and Dinners, English translation, 1998



By December, I had let my drug problem get completely out of control. At that point, I was so paranoid Kuhn – um, the fifth Commissioner of Baseball after Gene Zuckert retired – that he Kuhn knew about my drug abuse that that December I’d spend up a night, staring out his front window while holding a shotgun out of fear that Kuhn would come to my house a fire me [19]. I couldn’t let him take away baseball from me, and in my drugged-out state, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’ll never forget that night. It was past 7:00 A.M., but the sun wasn’t out yet, because, y’know, winter, and I saw that man. I didn’t see he was walking his dog. Instead I saw him as Kuhn. He had the same build and a similar coat, and I got jumpy. I walked out the front door, I fired and I shot him. When I went over and saw it wasn’t him, I called the police, and I stayed in my house until I was convinced to come out again. Yeah, 1980 was a bad year for me, but, you know what? I’m just glad I’m a terrible shot and I only got the man in his right shoulder…

– Darrell Porter, 2001 interview



THE COLONEL DENOUNCES ANTI-IMMIGRATION BILL, SAYS HE’S “ASHAMED” AT THE BEHAVIOR OF HIS FELLOW REPUBLICANS

– The Chicago Tribune, 1/4/1980



FIVE CANDIDATES MADE THEIR CASES AT LAST NIGHT’S G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

…Apart from a moment of hostility between Lukens and Hammond over what environmentalism means for workers, the night was a calm and professional examination of how five of the candidate stack up against one another… Denton, Lukens, Paul, Brooke, and Hammond each offered different ideas for the new decade, suggesting the G.O.P. could go forward in many different directions, both in this election and beyond. Denton is a fiscally moderate war-hawk with socially conservative stances that are not as religious in nature as the social policies offered by Lukens, the pugnacious Ohioan running on a more conservative platform overall, and is a strong supporter of more restrictive immigration policies. On the opposite side of these two are Hammond and Brooke, who promote more moderate policies. Hammond may be even further to the left than Brooke, though, as Hammond supports tighter anti-pollution laws, and is attempting to return the Federal Assistance Dividend proposal to the national discussion. And in a third “lane” is the libertarian-leaning Senator Paul, who agrees with Vice President Gravel’s anti-war foreign policy, but supports huge tax cuts and the removal of several federal services…

The Boston Globe, 1/6/1980



63 MEMBERS OF MECCA SEIGE EXEUTED IN SAUDI ARABIA

– The New York Post, 1/9/1980



ONCOLOGISTS FEAR “MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS” OVER TROJAN TOWER RADIATION LEAKAGE

…Experts on cancer and radiation poisoning are collaborating with C.D.C. and E.P.A. officials to monitors the health of citizens who were close to the nuclear plant when its tower collapsed. …investigations are still underway as to what exactly caused the tower collapse, though law officials have ruled out an act of sabotage such as a Cam Bomb…

The Denver Post, 1/10/1980



FMR. GOV. BAFALIS EXONERATED IN ABUSE OF POWER CASE

…the court judge ruled in favor of the accused due to a lack of non-circumstantial evidence…

The Tampa Bay Times, Florida newspaper, 1/11/1980



The January 1980 Canadian federal election was held on January 13, 1980, to elect the House of Commons of Canada. The election resulted in the defeat of the Conservative Party after over 10 years in power under Prime Minister Robert Stanfield of Nova Scotia. Jean Chretien of Quebec led the Liberal Party to power, albeit with only a plurality of seats and a 3% margin of victory in the popular vote. Chretien won over Stanfield as well as Ed Broadbent of the Progressive Tomorrow Party, with other parties and candidates obtaining negligible amounts of votes. Chretien became Prime Minister on January 26, 1980, and the age of 45.

– clickopedia.co.can



On 15 January 1980, Brazil hosted its freest and most democratic election in what felt like an eternity for many. Tancredo Neves (PMDB) won the election over Paulo Maluf (PDS), 32.1% to 67.9%...

– Boris Faustino and Sergio Fausto’s, Brazil: A Nation’s History, Cambridge University Press, 1999 (Second Edition, 2014)



…In today’s Finnish Presidential election, Mauno Koivisto of the Social Democratic was elected Finland’s newest President, the nation’s ninth overall. The incumbent President, Urho Kakkonen of the Centre Party, retired due to poor health, which has become very noticeable in recent years, especially after a fall in December 1978...

– BBC World News, 16/1/1980 broadcast



CONSERVATIVES FAIL TO OVERRIDE MONDALE’S VETO ON CONTROVERSIAL IMMIGRATION BILL (AGAIN): GOP, Democrats Divided

The Washington Post, 1/21/1980



“See, honey? I told you we don’t need so many security folk crowdin’ us. Just look at this crowd here! None of these folks would – ”

– Colonel Sanders, 1/28/1980



ANNOUNCER: Attention! This is a Breaking News Bulletin!

ANCHOR: Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just learned that former President Colonel Sanders has been shot. The Colonel was in New York City on a book tour to promote his new cookbook when the event occurred. As the Colonel was shaking the hands of supporters outside of a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan, a man moved through the crowd and fired a gun. We do not yet know what kind of gun and we do not yet know who this man is, but we know that he fired at least once while shouting something before the crowd subdued him. We also know that the Colonel was rushed into a car and driven away, most likely to a nearby hospital. We will keep you updated on which hospital he has been taken to, and on the seriousness of his condition. Please stayed tuned as this is developing story…

– CBS Morning News, 1/28/1980 broadcast



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized parts are from sources 31, 32, and 7 on her Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Nixon#Her_husband's_campaigns—1960,_1962_and_1968
[2] Italicized passages are from here: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/chrysler-bailout.asp
[3] But not as dire as OTL, as the 1970s were more prosperous ITTL and there was no Iranian Revolution to worsen things even further!
[4] Points and style stem from here: https://www.thenation.com/article/september-7-1979-chrysler-asks-the-us-government-for-a-bailout/
[5] Italicized parts are found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1979/11/04/the-bottom-line-details-of-the-chrysler-bailout/a7175793-ac11-4b4f-bbce-3cfbf620f77c/
[6] Italicized part is from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Suslov#Later_life_and_death
[7] OTL 1979 US congressional calendar found here: https://history.house.gov/Institution/Session-Dates/90-99/
[8] Short for Reefer-Love-Sex Rock, as mentioned previously (as in way back in June 1964)
[9] Full disclosure, I’m not an expert on radiological contamination specifications. But if I was to rate this disaster on OTL’s seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale (founded in 1990), it would be a point-six: worse than Three Mile Island (a point-five), but certainly not as bad as the Kyshtym Disaster (a point-six), so it’d just barely count as a point-six, I guess.
[10] Picture was found here: https://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/from-the-archives-the-rev-jerry-falwell-sr/collection_3bb1a9ee-3584-11e7-8c9e-9fe63895484a.html#13
[11] What she did IOTL according to her Wikipedia article.
[12] Gravel admitted in an interview that his first marriage ended because he was unfaithful (quote: “I’d been a womanizer”): https://web.archive.org/web/20081010150630/http://newyork.metromix.com/events/article/q-and-a-mike/492923/content
[13] OTL quote from 1981: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater#Address_on_religious_factions_(1981)
[14] The 1983 NYT article “Understanding Mondale”: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/19/magazine/understanding-mondale.html
[15] Eleanor was a horse-rider according to her OTL NYT obituary.
[16] OTL quote found here: https://www.ourcampaigns.com/EventDetail.html?EventID=61
[17] Apparently an OTL thing, according to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979 (see November section)
[18] Quote from the Introduction of his OTL 1966 book, “The Autobiography of the Original Celebrity Chef”
[19] Based on the following passage found on Darrell Porter’s Wikipedia article: “Porter told the Associated Press that during the winter of 1979–1980, he became paranoid, and he was convinced that baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn—who was known to be tough on drug use—knew about his drug abuse. Porter said he believed that Kuhn was trying to sneak into his house and planned to ban him from baseball for life. Porter found himself sitting up at night in the dark watching out the front window, waiting for Kuhn to approach while clutching billiard balls and a shotgun.” So…yeah…

E.T.A. for the Next Chapter: no later than December 12!

Igeo654 said:
I just checked the polls and considering that Scoop probably wouldn't live through his first term, it baffles me as to how or why he ended up as the top of his poll. Also kinda disappointed. I was hoping that Ron Paul would win the Repub nom poll so that we could see how his Libertarian/Randian views would affect things in the 80s.

Maybe people are voting based on what the people of 1980 would know about these candidates?
Well Ron Paul is in second place in the polls - that's really good for someone who just got into the Senate, and will definitely influence things one way or another.

DTF955Baseballfan said:
Aloha scoop Jackson wins, maybe people hope a younger feeling good you might not have had much of a chance can make it and then become president.

Or, maybe they saw the results before they voted and some voted for Jackson because Gravel didn't seem like he could win.

You know, Jackson could pick Carter as his vice president to balance the ticket which would be interesting.

By the way did you see my comment in Sports what-ifs thread on an idea for this TL?
Click to expand...

What would Carter think of Scoop's hawkishness?

Oh, sorry, no I didn't see it. Link, please?

Ogrebear said:
Does Reefer Rock have any effect on reggae?

Their similar, but Reflex has a more American vibe to it (heavier use of guitar, for instance)

Unknown said:
With regards to LGBT rights ITTL, some interesting facts to point out here from OTL: the first state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in all forms of employment, housing, credit, education and public accommodations was not California but...Wisconsin, of all states (given its Progressive history, though, it might not be a surprise--in fact, during the 1950s, when Laverne and Shirley and Happy Days were set in, Milwaukee had a Socialist Party mayor (1); keep in mind that this was during the Red Scare period), in 1982, way before gay rights became a big issue...

And Minnesota was the first state to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity in housing, insurance, goods/services, contracts, health benefits, hospital visitation rights, and employment...in 1993 (over a decade before gender identity started being the issue it is today)...

That's interesting, methinks...
Click to expand...
Yes, very! Good to know!

Unknown said:
And the Trojan Tower disaster reminds me a little of the Fermi plant disaster in @dartingfog's TL How We Lost Detroit...

It is sort of inspired by that (and more so the power plant from the Simpsons, which is based on the Trojan Power Plant), but don't worry, we won't lose Oregon ITTL (though in Astoria and Portland (both roughly 50 miles away from the site), people are freaking out and, fearing safety, many are debating moving away)!

Bookmark1995 said:
Wisconsin reflects the schizophrenia of Middle American politics. It has produced some of the most liberal politicians in America (La Follette and Russ Feingold) and some of the most conservative politicians (Joe McCarthy and Scott Walker).
Very astute observation - also good to know!

Unknown said:
And the situation in the Northwest won't be helped at all when a certain volcano erupts in May of 1980...
Indeed! Washington's Governor Julia Butler Hansen will certainly have her hands full - all while she considers running for re-election in 1980, too!
 
Post 38
Post 38: Chapter 46


Chapter 46: January 1980 – July 1980

“There are no accidents… there is only some purpose that we haven’t yet understood.”

– Deepak Chopra



“Oh boy, I don’t like the looks of this,” The Colonel thought as he slowly opened his eyes and saw nothing but white. A bright, warm, pleasant light filled his vision. “What happened?” He said out loud.

“You were shot,” a voice ended the silence. It came from The Colonel’s side. As he turned his head, away from the bright light, which the Colonel now realized was just the sun dancing in through a window, he also began to hear the sounds of monitors beeping and people shuffling around nearby. As he took in the area, he looked around more carefully, and then realized that he was in a hospital room. He felt a firm bed beneath him through the open part of the standard hospital gown. He noticed Claudia and I sitting solemnly next to him and an unknown figure nearby. Secret Servicemen were standing near the door. He sat up, clearing his throat. Quickly, Claudia carefully handed him some water. His throat dry, it felt more refreshing than usual.

The doctor sat down next to him and gave my father the low-down. “The would-be assassin fired two bullets. One grazed the underside of your arm, the other was slowed by your body fat, Colonel, and it went clean through you. It missed all of your vital organs.”

“And my non-vital organs?” Father was quick to grab hold of the situation.

“They’ll be fine, but they’re not the main issue.”

Father looked at him with befuddlement in his eyes.

“Sir, I’ll be blunt. After we treated your wounds we ran tests on, well, everything, including your blood sugar levels. We then talked with your wife and the results just came back in. Colonel, you’re in the earliest stages of Type 2 diabetes.” [1]

Father went silent for a moment. “What does that mean, doc? How serious is ‘earliest’?”

“Well, there’s no cure for diabetes, but studies have shown that for some cases the conditions can be reversed, or at the least slowed. With dieting and weight loss, you could even get your blood sugar levels back down to a normal level, but you still won’t be cured of it.” [2]

“How long have I got, then? I mean, after doing all of that?”

The doctor informed him, “Most men in their 50s can live for another 10, 15, even 20 years with the disease. But men in their 70s…usually between 5 and 10 years. But that’s if the blood sugar level remain high. Cut them down and you can live longer.” [3]

“Doc, I’m 89, I’ve already lived longer,” Father remarked. After a pause, he sighed, “This really salts my melon.”

Finally I spoke up to tell Father that now was no time for levity. “C’mon, Dad, we’ve stared death in the face before, remember? Back in ’26, doc, a bridge we were on collapsed and we both survived the fall to the creek below. Dad, we’re Sanders men. If we’re one thing, we’re resilient.”

“This is all my damn fault,” Claudia finally said something, “All the signs were right there in front of our faces. You’ve been more exhausted than usual, and more reluctant to eat - even when filming commercials. Last month was the first time I ever saw him actually use a spit bucket, Doctor! And while on a promotional trip last year, you had that fainting spell, remember Harland? You collapsed in your seat! But we’d had a long day, so we thought nothing of it! But those are the symptoms: fatigue, loss of appetite, easily bruised. Okay, I haven’t spotted the last one, but – ”

“Claudia, honey! Let me know when it’s my turn to wig out!” Father called out to her. “Please?” He sighed, “If it was my time to go, then that would be that. But I don’t think it’s my time to go just yet, because there is still much for me to do. I’ve got to get trim, for one. I’ve got to make sure those radicals overseas don’t try to fry up the world. And another thing I got to do is find the somb*tch who shot me – and thank him for getting me to a hospital. Without this unplanned checkup, I wouldn’t know I was so close to the end. But now, Claudia? Now we can push back my deadline to, heck, to who-even-knows-when!”

Claudia smirked in disbelief at her husband’s optimism. “How are you taking this better than me?”

“Because you can’t help the world if you’re buried in it, and I ain’t plannin’ on preppin’ for a burial plot just yet,” was his response. “Wait a minute,” he thought for a second before realizing his need to ask, “Just who did try to rub me out anyway?”

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



NARRATOR: “Osama bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957, in Saudi Arabia, to a Saudi construction company-owning millionaire father from Yemen and a middle-class mother from Syria. At King Abdulaziz University, he was an increasingly religious students who took judo classes in his spare time.”

[PHOTO MONTAGE SHOWN]

0uhqI9w.png


[pic: imgur.com/0uhqI9w.png ]
CAPTION: bin Laden at the age of 22

NARRATOR: “Upon graduating with a degree in civil engineering in 1979, the young bin Laden joined a group of Islamic radicals in Iran in opposition to that nation’s leader, the Shah Reza Pahlavi, who had just risen to the throne while in his teens.”

HISTORIAN 1: “Osama and his cohorts believed that the young Shah was a puppet of the U.S. and Europe, just like the previous Shah, but after the Mecca Siege, he began to study the bigger picture, he began to think more about the U.S. than about Iran.”

NARRATOR: “bin Laden’s opposition to western influence in the Middle East was highlighted by his known outrage at the landmark 1978 Atlanta Peace Treaty. Signed by several Middle Eastern countries to end hostilities in the region, bin Laden blamed former US President Harland David “Colonel” Sanders for the treaty, as the former head of state’s annual Chicken Dinner Summits was what brought several key members of the negotiating process into contact with one another.

HISTORIAN 2: “On January 2[, 1980], bin Laden flew to New York City, purchased a gun, and bought a train ticket for Louisville, Kentucky. When he showed up there, he found out the Colonel had just published a cookbook and was touring the northeast as part of a book tour. Bin Laden then took a second train to get to Boston, and got close to the Colonel on January 7, but failed to get close to the former President.

NARRATOR: “After nearly a month of following Colonel Sanders across New England, 22-year-old would-be assassin Osama bin Laden finally got close enough, and fired two shots before being subdued by members of the shocked crowd…”

[AUDIAL FOOTAGE OF INCIDENT PLAYED]

– Narration from Episode 5 of the BBC Documentary Series “Would-Be: A Look at Unsuccessful Heroes and Villains,” aired 2/3/2003



ALLEGED COLONEL SHOOTER IS A SAUDI CITIZEN

…Saudi Arabia “will have to answer for this, as this guy is one of theirs,” New York Gov. Mario Biaggi said. “Their government has to address this because this guy is the product of how they fail to address dangerous radicals over there.” The suspect that shot and injured former President Harland “Colonel” Sanders and two bystanders in New York City on Monday was an official Saudi Arabian citizen, officials said Tuesday. Several law enforcement sources identified the gunman as a 22 year old man named Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, or Osama bin Laden for short.

While two bystanders received minor flesh wounds and were released later the same day of the shooing, the Colonel had to undergo surgery at a nearby hospital. The Colonel is expected to survive his injuries, hospital authorities said. The Sanders family commended the doctor’s work to reporters yesterday. “I couldn’t be prouder of our E.R. team,” also said the hospital’s head director yesterday.

The Secret Service, on the other hand, is being criticized for allowing Mr. bin Laden to get so close to the President in the first place. Secret Service Director H. Stuart Knight noted “The servicemen followed the instructions given to them by the former President and respected his order to be given space at the function despite it breaking standard protocols and procedures. The Colonel has opposed such safety measurements for years.” He added that the secret servicemen regularly practice for emergency events and “prevented the situation from being worse.”

President Mondale reportedly spoke to Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, according to the White House Press Secretary. “The King has expressed his sincere sympathies to those hurt by the actions of Mr. bin Laden, and that the Saudi people are, quote, ‘incensed by the barbaric action of this militant extremist. Mr. bin Laden does not in any way represent the feelings that the Saudi people have toward the Colonel or to Americans in general. The Saudi people love America and KFC, and wish the Colonel a full recovery’ unquote.”

The CIA and FBI are conducting full investigations into the matter, with Director Felt urging Saudi officials to cooperate with both agencies. Bin Laden reportedly had no prior criminal record, and came from a wealthy and well-connected family, which made former Senator Hibbard note early yesterday that “this [expletive] must have been really sick in the head, really brainwashed by whatever cult he’s in, to give up all he had and to go and do something so heinous as this.”

The Sacramento Union, 1/31/1980



“I remember how the crowd waiting outside the hospital erupted in celebration when the Colonel walked into view from his room's balcony and waved to the congregation of supporters below. It really lifted a lot of spirits… [snip] I remember how much The Colonel hated hospitals, sitting around with tubes stuck in him, or anxiously waiting for the doctor or nurse to finally come over to him and tell him what was going on. And now he had to take up all these exercises – with tubes still in him for some of them. He had to get his strength up before they could let him leave. It seems he had to take a break from living in order to keep on living. Heh. ‘The human body is like a car,’ I once told him, ‘you sometimes have to make a pit stop to keep on driving.’ So he improvised! The Colonel had nurses bring over a private phone so he could still call people. He ended up spending hours in that hospital doing business and calling grandkids and great-grandkids while trying to fight back the diabetes. Keeping up-to-date with the goings-on of KFC kept him determined to return to work and address any concerns or issues the company had here or there. In February, the Colonel’s 21-year-old great-grandson, Harland Sanders the fourth, gave him another family-based reason to keep on going – Harland Number 4 was going to propose to his girlfriend, and wanted he his great-grandpa at the wedding.

– Pete Harman, 60 Minutes Interview, early 1996



KPp7W6V.png


[pic: imgur.com/KPp7W6V.png ]

– Colonel Sanders finally leaving the New York hospital, albeit in a wheelchair per hospital policy, 2/2/1980; the hospital insisted he leave in a gown instead of in his iconic white cotton suit, making for a very rare occurrence in which the public saw him wearing something other than his famous attire (though, out of respect for the former President, most major networks did not cover this aspect of his exit from the hospital)



AT LEAST TWO DOZEN KILLED IN MALFUNCTIONED ROCKET EXPLOSION IN USSR

…The Baikonur Cosmodrome space launch facility located in the Kazakhstan Soviet of the USSR was the scene of a destructive incident in which a manned rocket failed to lift off, and instead erupted into a fireball on the launch base. All three cosmonauts on board the Soyuz 42, which planned to travel to the lunar surface and thus become the second Soviet spacecraft to do so, were killed in the explosion…

– The Guardian, 2/3/1980



…Premier Suslov was never entirely convinced that the Soyuz 42 Disaster was not an act of American sabotage. This suspicion may have contributed to the actions he took later on down the line…

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



ABSCAM INVESTIGATION ROCKS WASHINGTON, D.C.


[vid: youtube.com/watch?v=qjF9ka9CXyU ]
– NBC News Special Report, 2/4/1980 broadcast



A DOVE SINGS HIS SONG, BUT WHO IS HIS AUDIENCE?: Gravel’s Fight Against Scoop, Jeremiah, and the D.C. Warhawks

vFjA2wN.png


[pic: imgur.com/vFjA2wN.png ]
Springfield, MA – Last year, when Mike Gravel officially launched his long-planned campaign for the Presidency in his childhood home town, the Vice President’s speech focused almost entirely on his domestic policy passion projects: The ceasing of America’s military contributing to warfare overseas and instead dedicate more federals funds to domestic programs to improve the quality of life nationwide. A ballot initiative with the Federal Government, dubbed a “National Initiative,” to allow voting citizens to introduce, and then vote for or against legislation, policies, and other federal elements. Reforming the government’s environmental policies, energy policies, taxation policies, and transparency. Expanding healthcare so all can afford it, as “healthy living is a right, not a privilege.” And of course, the end of American Intervention oversees.
[snip]
Despite Jackson declining to do so, Gravel still wants to debate his biggest opponent. Gravel says he would start by discussing something on which both men may actually find common ground: Income versus Expendable Income – what you have after paying for rent, healthcare, childcare, utility bills, he believes, should be more than it is now. “All of Chrysler’s employees suffered pay cuts last year. Pay losses lead to more family members working, which raises the odds of them going into debt via home equity loans, instead of getting into college. We need a more constructive form of capitalism to replace our currently destructive version of capitalism.” Gravel’s wording may rub Scoop the wrong way, but Gravel brushes off such concerns. “I’m passionate because I care.”
[snip]
Mostly, though, the man is “frightened” by the two men – he insists we add “alleged” in front of the word “frontrunners” – challenging him this year, Jeremiah Denton (R-AL) and Scoop Jackson (D-WA), as both favor increasing military activities overseas. “Has everyone forgotten about the Cuban War? About the high casualty count, the blood spilled on both sides?” Gravel opposes sending American troops to engage in troubled regions. Unfortunately for him, Gallup poll after Gallup poll confirm that currently between 58% and 65% of American voters approve of military intervention in general, and 71% to 79% support the military.
One more hound biting at the heels of his surprisingly “outsider”-like campaign is historic precedence – no sitting VP has been elected President since Martin Van Buren did so in 1836. That was 144 years ago. When told of this, Gravel said to this reporter “Better late than never, I suppose!”…

Associated Press, 2/5/1980



The trial of John Wayne Gacy of Cook County, IL, by far KFC’s most notorious former employee, began on February 6, 1980. Gacy was arrested for and charged with the murder of 22 teenage boys and young men between the years 1972 and 1977, the most grisly of these murders being that of 17-year-old Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer was from Milwaukee but had fled his home due to his parents fighting over his alcohol abuse and aloof personality. After hitchhiking south, Dahmer entered Gacy’s home town. Police allege Gacy lured Dahmer into his home and killed him during a struggle in the living room that caused a bookend to break through a window. The commotion and a neighbor informing local police of suspicious activity on the premises led to an officer spotting blood on the couch inside the home near the broken window. Gacy was soon arrested after a search warrant led to the discovery of the victim’s bodies in Gacy’s crawl space.

The trial became a focus point for anti-BLUTAG organizations. Gacy spending hundreds of hours with psychiatrists to determine if he was mentally competent enough to even stand trial convinced some anti-Blutag activists that blutagism was a sign of mental illness. Congressperson Anita Bryant (R-OK) pointed to the trial as verifying her claims of the BLUTAG community being “rife with rapists.” This only encouraged BLUTAGs to increase their activism to “prove [them] wrong.” BLUTAG supporters nationwide, including major celebrities and Tumbleweed Magazine CEO Bernard Sanders [4] came to our defense as well.

– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019



GOVERNOR KNUTSON SIGNS “ALL-INCLUSIVE” HEALTH CARE BILL INTO LAW

...While Knutson was not particularly supportive of the bill, several state legislators, led by State Senator Alice Tripp, convinced Knutson that the bill would benefit state residents by pointing to the success of similar state legislation passed in Massachusetts, Vermont, and other states over the past several years. In Massachusetts, for example, healthcare reform in 1973 led to an increase in people’s health, which encouraged others to move there, and those additional consumers contributed to Massachusetts pulling out of its years-long debt crisis by October 1978…

– The Duluth News Tribune, Minnesota newspaper, 2/11/1980



The last debate before the New Hampshire primary, held on February 19, was a pivotal moment in the Denton campaign. The former Governor presented himself as a moderate hawk with some appeal to the religious right for his social conservatism, causing him to win endorsements from several evangelical leaders despite being a Roman Catholic. At the beginning of the debate, Denton took a swipe at Senator Paul, the libertarian darling from Texas, by explaining “Ron has no legislative history, no legislative success. Every bill he’s worked on since entering the Senate thirteen months ago has gone nowhere.” Paul countered by claiming “special interests and the ruling class will use every trick in the book to oppose bold initiatives meant to restore the power to the people. But as President, I’d be at a better position to abolish the Income Tax and the Federal Reserve.” [5]

[snip]

Baker’s statements focused on his talking points, though many of them were almost exact copies of those of his fellow candidates. Baker stated that he, as President, would “restrain government spending, balance the federal budget, enact a production-oriented energy policy, provide incentives to increase savings, capital investment and productivity, and cut out excessive government regulations.” [6] He claimed “You have to know Washington to change Washington. You have to know congress to deal with it effectively and get it to respond to Presidential initiatives. You have to know how to bring people together, how to reconcile special interests with the common interest,” [6] which was similar to a notion Senator Paul had stated 20 minutes earlier.

After Hammond and Stassen criticized the nuclear energy industry, Baker opposed creating “even more federal red tape” for the industry, and instead supported the “maximum domestic production of oil, gas, coal, solar, and as much nuclear energy as we can safely produce [and] new investment in research and development for the fuels of the future.” [6] Baker then gave a comment that seemed to try to appeal to the youth population, which was a large part of Paul’s grassroots support: “America’s young people – the living future of our country – must have the best education, the best employment training, the best of everything we can give them.” [6] However, he later received criticism from pundits for then adding that “All Americans need relief from high taxes [and] the less fortunate need a fair chance to work, to provide for themselves and contribute to a growing national economy.” [6] The comment came off as being insensitive to disabled, infirm, and elderly Americans unable to work. Baker also differed from Lamar Alexander of fiscal policy, as the latter believed “local land trusts would be a better way to protect ecology [sic],” along with “opening the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas leasing[7]. As a result of these multiple controversies, Baker’s polling numbers dropped considerably.
[snip]
Alexander, Eagles, and Paul praised Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca for his efforts to avoid a government bailout of said multimillion-dollar company during that year.
[snip]
Brooke, running on a platform that was socially liberal and fiscally moderate, was poised to benefit the most from certain states that allowed registered Democrats to vote in Republican primaries, and this cross-party appealed to voters who focused more on winning in November than nominating an ideal ticket.

Lukens, contrastingly, was the candidate of most members of the religious right due to his “fire-and-brimstone” type of rhetoric; his biggest supporters seemed to completely ignore his moderate-to-conservative-with-a-splash-of-maverick-liberalism governorship record, and his former-beauty-pageant-winner wife. However, Alexander, a moderate-to-conservative friend of Denton, also appeal to the religious right, making some leaders of that party faction fear the two candidates would cancel each other out in the weeks ahead…

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



OSAMA BIN LADEN’S TRIAL SPECIFICS STILL UNCERTAIN AMID INTERNATIONAL LAW DEBATE

…The would-be killer is demanding to be sent back to his native country of Saudi Arabia to stand trial, but New York prosecutors argue he will stand trial in the Empire State… Research is being done on historic precedence for this case...

– The Washington Post, 2/20/1980



In February, Trump used his free agency abilities to transfer from the Yankees to the Phillies after getting into a heated argument with Manager Dick Howser two months prior. In a 1982 interview, he explained “I’ve always loved Philly. You know, I went to school in Penny...slivania - I mean Pennsi...vania - I mean Pennsylvania. Yeah. Yeah, Pennsylvania. The Wharton School of Business at Penny... at Penn U. I went there for two years before signing onto the Yankees. I was really smart there. I got the best grades. As, Bs, A-Bs, lots of the best grades, the best. So, you know, it’s good to be coming back here, I’m glad to see they take me on this close to the, uh, the big game in October, and I hope to play it in, it should be fun.”

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



…We have just received confirmation… yes, it seems Vice President Gravel has won the Democratic Presidential primary in New Hampshire. The race was a tight margin of five percent between Gravel and Senator Jackson, but after weeks of travelling through the state, the winner, once again, is Vice President Gravel… On the Republican side, though, the margin of victory is even narrower. [snip] …We can now confirm that, by a plurality, Denton has defied expectations to win the state in an upset over initial favorite Ed Brooke. Denton’s blue-collar talking points seems to have tapped into enough voters without college degrees to upset Brooke’s middle-to-upper class appeal. The result is most likely a disappointment to the Ed Brooke campaign, which came in third place, just two points behind Senator Paul. Speaking of which, tonight was a very good night for the Texas Senator, who previously was polling in fourth place nationally, behind Brooke, Denton, and Baker. This unexpectedly strong showing is most definitely a boost to his campaign as well, and the results overall change the dynamics of the primary composition for sure…

– The Overmyer Network, 2/26/1980 broadcast



…Earlier today, the voters of Massachusetts and Vermont voted in their Republican and Democratic Presidential primaries. The results demonstrate the region’s backing of liberal states in both parties. For instance, in the Republican Party, Ed Brooke won both states by narrow margin, giving his campaign the boost it most likely needed to stay competitive in the race. The victories are historic in that they mark the first time that an African-American has won a Presidential primary. On the Democratic side of things, Vice President Gravel barely held onto both states as well, but challenger Scoop Jackson’s momentum shows no signs of slowing down any time soon...

– NBC News, 3/4/1980 broadcast



MCDONALD: The McCarthy Of Our Times?

…the four-term Representative and former member of the John Birch Society has espoused controversial claims ever since his election to a Congressional district from northern Georgia in 1972, running out of fear that, amid détente warming US-Soviet relations, American was “suffering from insufficient anticommunist zeal.” McDonald and Gravel are on polar opposites of the same party. While Gravel opposes military involvement overseas, McDonald espouses more extreme views: a philosophy of steep cuts in government spending and foreign aid programs; abolishing the income tax; and undoing almost all the post-New Deal welfare and regulatory state.

[snip]

At times called a “Fascist” or a “McCarthyist” by even his fellow Democrats, McDonald believes America is in a state of war: “It’s an economic war, it’s a war of subversion, it’s a war of espionage, it’s a war of ideas, and it’s a war of terrorism, and it’s a war of infiltration.”

With his loyal wife Kathy McDonald, the Congressman was developed a grassroots movement in the Deep South among conservative, blue-collar, low-educated, and rural voters. “Larry went knocking door to door, talking to people... focused on getting information out to the average American. They[’]re painted as wackos, but they’re not—they’re very good patriotic Americans,” Kathy once told the hosts of “Meet the Press.”

McDonald’s sense of besiegement, however, has bled into his personal life. “He often wears a bulletproof vest,” his brother told the Atlanta Constitution. “He keeps significant assets in silver, and has stocked purified drinking water and dehydrated food in his living room.” Another curious tidbit of information concerning McDonald’s personal life that may appeal to evangelical and socially conservative primary voters is that McDonald, a teetotaler, “also reportedly abstains—at least some of the time—from other pleasures of the flesh.” “We’re at war,” his ex-wife said the future congressman once told her, according to the Atlanta Constitution, “and people do not make love in wartime.”

A major controversy for McDonald is his role in an “alternative” medicine scandal. In 1976, McDonald became embroiled in a nasty lawsuit filed by the wife of a former patient, who claimed McDonald had hastened her husband’s death. Throughout the 1970s, McDonald advocated the use of laetrile, an extract derived from apricot and peach pits, delivered via injection, as a cure for cancer. (McDonald discontinued his medical practice upon election to Congress.) In 1963, the FDA had said laetrile had no medical value and was potentially poisonous to users, forbidding its interstate sale. But that did little to deter its boosters, many of whom were affiliated with the Birch Society. McDonald was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in the malpractice suit. Yet he faced no consequences when, in October 1976, an Atlanta Constitution reporter conducted an undercover investigation and found that one of McDonald’s closest confidants, a fellow Georgia physician, was requesting that patients seeking laetrile treatment make their checks out to the Larry McDonald for Congress campaign.

Then there was the potential gun-running scandal. By 1977, there were multiple news reports that McDonald—who said he personally owned about 200 firearms—was the subject of active grand jury proceedings over potential felony weapons registration violations. According to Atlanta Constitution, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms launched an investigation into whether McDonald in 1974 had induced terminally ill, laetrile-using patients to sign “stacks” of federal firearm purchase forms in their own names, obscuring the true owner of the guns: McDonald.


While McDonald admitted to having “quite a few firearms,” he called the reports “lies and deception.” The former John Birch Society member plans to win the nomination by sweeping the Deep Southern states in order to deadlock the convention into choosing him over Gravel and Gravel’s biggest challenger, Senator Scoop Jackson, who McDonald believes “is not nearly conservative enough to keep America safe.” [8]

[snip]

The Sacramento Union, 3/5/1980



MCDONALD CLAIMS GRAVEL “COULD BE” A SOVIET AGENT

...in his bid for President, the controversial Congressman has gathered a small but loyal regional base of supporters, many of whom are former supporters of the once-prominent conservative Heritage and Independence Party of the 1960s… McDonald’s claims that the Vice President is a “Russian Mole” joins a colorful list of other controversies from the conservative Georgian, who in the past seven years:

- kept a framed portrait of Spanish Dictator Francisco Franco in his office

- opposed subsidized school lunches and all federal funding for education

- argued for the complete loosening of gun laws and the deportation of “illegal aliens”

- decried the welfare state’s “road to totalitarianism”
[8]

[snip]

The New York Post, 3/7/1980



CRONKITE: “In South Carolina, Senator Fritz Hollings won over Mike Gravel in tonight’s Democratic Presidential primary. The candidate’s win is most likely the result of his home state advantage, and the fact that Senator Scoop Jackson was not on the state’s ballot. We now turn to the Republican race, where former Governor Jeremiah Denton has won over Senator Paul and Senator Brooke, will former Governor Westmoreland coming in fourth place. We now take you live to the Westmoreland political headquarters, where the former Governor is already addressing a crowd of supporters.”

WESTMORELAND: “This defeat is disappointing, but it is not worth surrendering this campaign over. We will see how well we do on the eleventh, and the eighteenth, and the twenty-fifth, and we will continue to fight this good fight will into April, then May, then June, and then on to the convention and into November and into the White House!”

– CBS Evening News, 3/8/1980 broadcast



GOLDWATER DEFENDS PAUL, CLAIMS CAMPAIGN COVERAGE IS BIASED

qn4iIuX.png


[pic: imgur.com/qn4iIuX.png ]
Above: Barry Goldwater and his wife Peggy attending a political function earlier this year

…NBC apologized last week to the Paul campaign for making the candidate “feel unheard” in their recent coverage of the Presidential campaign, but his supporters are still critical of the “big four” media sources (NBC, ABC, CBS, TON)…

The Arizona Republic, 3/9/1980



…On the [European] Continent, while economic market conditions continue to improve under the watchful eyes of Prime Minister Foot, times are worsening for the workers of France and Portugal, with many becoming jobless and/or homeless, and other suffering from fear as crime rates climb. Behind the iron curtain, the situation becomes more dire every day for the people of places such as Poland and Romania...

– BBC World News “market watch” segment, 10/3/1980 report



March 11, 1980 saw primaries for both parties be held in three states. It was a breakout momentum for Denton, who not only easily secured his home state of Alabama, but Florida and Georgia as well, even with Florida’s former Governor Bafalis actively campaigning for his “good friend” Buz Lukens. The night was disappointing for national and establishment Democrats, however, when Congressman McDonald "eeked" out a win in Alabama and anther with Georgia. Jackson won Florida, though – evidently, his “Strong At Home” messaging appealed to Cuban War veterans and their families much more so than McDonald’s race-baiting and fearmongering techniques. Scoop’s first win came on an underwhelming night, but nevertheless demonstrated his ability to win states outside of his home region.

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1980, Centurion Publishers, 2019



WESTMORELAND ENDS PRESIDENTIAL BID, CITES FUNDING WOES FOR EXIT

The Post And Courier, South Carolina newspaper, 3/12/1980



GACY SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING 23

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 3/14/1980



…With reports confirming that US Congressman John Slack Jr. of West Virginia has died, the US House of Representatives is now split exactly even between the Republican and Democratic parties, 217 to 217, with Mr. Slack’s seat remaining vacant until a special election determines his successor, which is scheduled to be held on July 30… Mo Udall continues to be the House Speaker …

– CBS News, 3/17/1980 report



GRAVEL, BROOKE WIN RESPECTIVE PARTY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES

...these election results are a boon to two left-leaning politicians with deep ties to Massachusetts...

– The Boston Globe, 3/19/1980



“I am bitterly disappointed in this administration turning its back on Grenada after this Maurice Bishop’s successful coup in March of last year. He is not the people’s choice for that island, and quite frankly, we need to do something about that! The people of the Caribbean have the right to be free!”

– Jeremiah Denton in Queens, New York, 3/20/1980



BIAGGI, RUNNING FOR SENATE, ENDORSES SCOOP AT CAMPAIGN RALLY

...Biaggi continued, "our next President needs to understand the realities of global geopolitics. Someone who acknowledges the 'war' aspect of 'The Cold War,' someone who will be brave enough to stand up for America on the world stage. And someone who will not bring a flower to a fistfight, or a picket sign to a gunfight"...

– The New York Post, 3/21/1980



…well, tonight is a big night for the world of politics, and for women everywhere. Aloha Eagles, the outgoing Governor of North Dakota, won the Republican primary in Connecticut a few moments ago. Analysts are reporting she bested US Senator Ron Paul of Texas and US Senator Ed Brooke of Massachusetts by appealing to suburban voters with her calls for equal rights and lower taxes, and by an increase in women heading to the polls. She, uh, Eagles is the preferred choice among libertarian-leaning voters after Senator Paul, says a recent Gallup Poll. Well, Eagles has certainly made history tonight, now let’s see how far she can go with the momentum from this occasion.

On the Democratic side of tonight's Presidential primary contests, US Senator Scoop Jackson of Washington state unexpectedly won over Vice President Gravel in both Connecticut and New York, which we reported earlier tonight as having voted for Governor, uh, for former Governor Denton in the Republican primaries…

– NBC’s WMAQ-TV, Chicago, IL, 3/25/1980



CBS RESPONDS TO DALLAS CONTROVERSY

...the CBS drama series "Dallas" ended its third season last week on a cliffhanger, in which J.R. Ewing, a character that audiences love to hate, is shot by an unknown assailant. The episode soon led to the studio receiving hundreds of fan letters in the mail deriding the episode as being "inappropriate" and "too soon," as the episode aired less than two months after former President Colonel Sanders was almost assassinated. ..."the episode was planned months in advance, and we apologize for any perceived insensitivity. That was not at all our intention," the writer of the episode, Rena Down, explains... However, other fans responded to the episode more positively, praising the cliffhanger and defending it as being a "natural conclusion" to the season after many episodes building up to it...

– The Hollywood Reporter, 3/27/1980



StmULwg.png


[pic: imgur.com/StmULwg.png ]
– Margaret Sanders (left) celebrates her 70th birthday with her father (center) and sister Mildred (right) at a party held near the University of Louisville Hospital in Kentucky, where her father was staying at the time for diabetes-related treatment, 3/29/1980



…for those of you just tuning in for tonight’s primary election updates, the final results are as follows: On the Republican side, Dole won Kansas and Paul won Wisconsin; for the Democrats, Gravel’s campaign caught a break with the anti-war state of Wisconsin, while Jackson won Kansas…

– CBS News, 4/1/1980



TONIGHT’S LOUISIANA PRIMARY RESULTS: LUKENS FOR G.O.P., WALT NIXON FOR DEMS: Both Victories Considered Upsets

The Indianapolis Star, 4/5/1980



April 7, 1980: The global eradiation of smallpox, achieved last year, is certified by the World Health Organization

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



After only a few weeks, though, Chretien had already lost support among his own party. The 1973 Oil Shock and the ripple effects of the 1978 recession had caused Stanfield to attempt to prohibit the amount of oil the rich province of Alberta could sell to American corporations, via nationalization, via Petro-Canada, via legislation introduced in 1974 and again in 1979. Each time, Alberta, led by politicians such as its future Premier Joe Clark, and others, opposed the efforts, and each failed to be implemented despite rising inflation in the western provinces. Chretien’s efforts to impose similar tariffs on exports from the Maritime Provinces in the wake of a national debt crisis cut into his party’s support in said provinces. Nationally, his approval rating plummeted to 40%, and, unfortunately for Chrétien, Progressive Conservatives could smell the blood in the water.

– Richard Johnston’s The Canadian Party System: An Analytic History, UBC Press, 2017



FORMER KENTUCKY DERBY WINNER SPENDS $4MILLION ON NEW PRO-PALESTINE LOBBYING GROUP

…Sirhan B Sirhan is turning to politics in response to his agitation with America’s relationships with the country in the Middle East. Sirhan is a critic of the 1978 Atlanta Treaty, and received criticism earlier this year when he allegedly “joked” that the assassination attempt on former President Colonel Sanders was “justified,” prompting the FBI and the Secret Service to visit his 40-acre Kentucky ranch. Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant, wants to use his fortune to support political candidates that support “the nation of Palestine and its people”…

– The Washington Post, 4/12/1980



Fearing his death was imminent, Grand Marshall Tito became more active in obtaining national unity among Yugoslavia’s various ethnicities and cultures. He began by calling for rural development, as part of the internal tensions stemmed from an uneven quality of life among each region. Yugoslavia leadership believed that socialism was constantly in peril, and the regime was in danger, because of subversive activities, and under Tito reinvesting into regional development programs throughout the 1980s, liberalizing trends contributed to the conceived importance of monitoring individual freedom in Yugoslavia. This belief was heightened by the introduction of market elements to the economy, consumerism, freedom to work abroad and political devolution from the center to the republics created high expectation for further freedoms among certain segments of society[9].

Furthermore, Tito oversaw the economy being decentralized further to better distribute control among the regions, which proved to be especially popular among Bosnians and Croats, as many Yugoslavia regional leaders saw the central government as responsible for the downturn’s worse effects on the country. The International Monetary Fund also assisted the country in April 1980 when it, in the name of financial rectitude, stepped in and prodded the Yugoslav authorities to slow growth, restrict credit, cut social expenditures, and devalue the dinar [10] for a two-year period in order to reduce the national deficit and pay off foreign debt. Tito also increased trade with other Non-Aligned nations in Asia, Africa, and South America.

– Leslie Benson’s Yugoslavia: A Concise History, Palgrave Publishers, 2001



OFFICER 1: Did you try to assassinate Tommy Chong?

CHAPMAN: I already said so.

OFFICER 2: We just need it for the record, sir.

CHAPMAN: Yes, I wanted to kill the immoral son-of-a-bitch. He’s a menace to Christianity.

OFFICER 1: And you thought killing him was the best solution?

CHAPMAN: Don’t get me wrong, I mean, his music is good, but I am just outraged at the level of disrespect he’s given to people like Jerry Falwell and Billy Graham, and to religion in general. Christians most of the time. I kept hearing him at concerts making jokes about Falwell, calling him a “fat f@#ker” and s#!t like that. I couldn’t stand it!

OFFICER 1: Was your attempt on his life planned or more of a spur-of-the-moment type thing?

CHAPMAN: Well, I was thinking of doing something about the injustice back in September, after the Colonel turned his back on Falwell –

OFFICER 2: You mean Colonel Sanders?

OFFICER 1: You were planned to kill him, too?

CHAPMAN: No, no, I was just thinking, thinking, about how much it angered me –

OFFICER 1: – Angered you enough to want to kill him?

CHAPMAN: No! Angry enough to think of all the other people who’ve turned their backs on the one true faith. I’d never shoot Colonel Sanders – I love that man’s chicken. Yeah, his action pissed me off, sure, but not as much as other politicians. He isn’t the only politician I hate and Chong isn't the only musician I hate. I mean, if, for example, mind you, for example, if, say, someone like Barry Goldwater or one of the Beatles had decided to visit Hawaii, I may have gone after one of them - maybe! Maybe not. But no, instead, another b@st@rd, Tommy Chong, decided to drop on in. I saw it as a sign. I saw it as God’s will. [11] It was an opportunity, and I took it.

– Audio recording of local police interrogating Hawaii resident Mark David Chapman after being arrested for concealing a weapon and attempted illegal entry, outside a Chong concert in Honolulu, HI, 4/15/1980; Chapman would later be sentenced to two years of psychiatric treatment and five years in prison for attempted murder



As 1980 progressed, the South African government began losing support among white South Africans. Paradoxically, the violence was radicalizing other whites who failed to understand the true starters of the situation, and blamed the revolutionary chaos on those fighting for their rights instead of on the true culprits, the enforcers of Apartheid. …As Biko continued to organize operations in Botswana, he was joined by Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, a then-35-year-old militant who was a teacher at Morris Isaacson when the Soweto Uprising began. Together, they oversaw operations against Apartheid increase in size, severity, and variety…

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016



DENTON, JACKSON WIN RESPECTIVE PARTY PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARIES

The Huntsville Times, Alabama Newspaper, 4/22/1980



“Uh, I actually think we’ve set up a very energetic grassroots organizations down here. I think this campaign’s policies and proposals are going to win over the people in my home state because they’re policies and proposals that everyone can agree on. Everyone wants maximum freedom, uh, and everyone hates a government that bosses them around. We have people working in every corner of Texas because this a mobilized and well-organized campaign that can appeal to farmers, ranchers, city folk, country folk, uh, I mean, uh, you name ’em, and they’ll say that limited government involvement in your life is the best way to go about running a country.”

– Ron Paul appearing on a segment of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” 4/27/1980



…In the Lone Star State, US Senator Ron Paul has fought hard to win over the voters that elected him to the Senate less than two years ago. Tonight, the arduous campaigning has paid off for him, as he has won the delegate-rich Texas Republican Primary by a 2% margin. The victory has shifted the composition of the race, as Paul is now in second place in the delegate count, behind Denton but ahead of the once-frontrunner Ed Brooke of Massachusetts… Meanwhile, Senator Scoop Jackson has won the Texas Democratic Primary by a comfortable margin…

– CBS Evening News, 5/3/1980 broadcast



The May 6, 1980 gave pundits further uncertainty. The Republican Party saw each state vote for a different candidate: Jeremiah Denton narrowly won Indiana, Buz Lukens barely won North Carolina, Lamar Alexander easily won his home state of Tennessee, and Meredith won DC in a landslide. Tennessee was the most-watched of the four, as it was the make-or-break contest for both the Alexander and Baker campaigns. At 39, the spritely former Governor traversed his home state in what has since become his iconic look – a red-and-black plaid shirt and jeans – to win over enough voters to defeat Denton and Paul, while Baker finished in fifth place. Disappointed, Baker bowed out and returned to his duties as the leader of the Senate majority.

Meanwhile, the Democrats saw Vice President Mike Gravel make a comeback with victories in Indiana, North Carolina (which was largely credited to the surrogate campaigning done by liberal US Senator Nick Galifianakis), and DC, with his main challenger, US Senator Scoop Jackson of Washington, only winning the state of Tennessee...

– Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President: 1980, Atheneum Publishers, 1981


GOVERNOR BURTON ENDS WHITE HOUSE BID

...the Governor is unlikely to attempt a last-minute entry into this year's governor's race, given that the Republic primary for Governor of Indiana is set for Tuesday the 13th, six days from now... "It is possible that he may run for Governor in 1984, or for a US Senate seat in a few years, but at the moment, it seems his best bet is for a Republican to win in November and for him to then get a position in that administration come 1981," says one former member of the Burton'80 campaign...

The Indianapolis Star, 5/7/1980



DOLE DROPS OUT, WILL RUN FOR RE-ELECTION TO THE SENATE

The Wichita Eagle, Kansas newspaper, 5/8/1980



…Tonight, Scoop Jackson won the Democratic primary in Nebraska while Mike Gravel won the contest held in Maryland. Republicans, meanwhile, have voted for Jerry Denton in Nebraska, and for Ed Brooke in Maryland…

– The Overmyer Network, 5/13/1980 broadcast



It seemed to be that most conservatives, even “Colonel Conservatives,” began to rally around the moderate-to-conservative frontrunner, and soon candidates such as the once-promising Paul Laxalt began to feel the effects of running low on cash, support, and options. Buckling under the pressure of Denton’s diverse attacks, libertarian-leaning candidates such as Aloha Eagles and even the once-imposing Barry Goldwater began to lose momentum.

– Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President: 1980, Atheneum Publishers, 1981



VOLCANO EXPLODES! Mount St. Helens Turns Into Killer!

Inside: First Pictures of Momentous Washington State Eruption

…Mount St. Helens exploded in volcanic fury Sunday, unleashing massive mudflows, floods and other land-changing forces, eliminating Washington’s nearby Spirit Lake and sending an ash cloud adrift that is expected to travel as far as Wyoming… Governor Julia Butler Hansen has declared a state of emergency while federal emergency services are working to evacuate anyone within the “danger zone” as the intense heat seers a 15-miles wide arc around the mountain’s north flank…

The Oregonian, 5/18/1980



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[pic: imgur.com/YoT3C4s.png ]
Above: St. Helens erupting

The deadly environmental disaster that was St. Helens’ Eruption shifted focus back to the primary plank of the Jay Hammond campaign – environmentalism. Suddenly, Hammond was receiving the attention his campaign needed, and two days after the catastrophe, Hammond won the GOP Presidential primary in Oregon. Oregon Democrats also voted for Gravel, while Michigan voted for Denton in the GOP Primary and Jackson in the Democratic primary…

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1980, Centurion Publishers, 2019



GOVERNOR HANSEN CALLS FOR “COMMUNITY UNITY” AS STATE REELS FROM VOLCANO ERUPTION

The Seattle Times, 5/19/1980



I remember how just a few months later, Mount St. Helens blew up. May, did that scare the cr@p out of people. But even before then, Oregonians were debating just how safe they were. Government officials had called for an evacuation zone of only, like, a 20-mile radius around the plant, but two major cities – Portland and Astoria – were just 50 miles away or so. And so a lot of people debated the merits of moving away from those cities. Paranoia set in. Doubt over how much the government was telling people began to be a thing. And this was a rarity back then – because, back then, most people always believed what the government said. But a lot of people feared for their lives, their families, and the volcano just made things worse. Oregon went to pieces as more and more people fled, it seemed. I remember seeing Governor Atiyeh TV – he seemed to just be running back and forth all the time, going between the radiation zone and the two cities, trying to get everyone to calm down. But him doing that – and Washington’s governor doing the same, going on TV with this frantic, tired look on her face, and everything – it made a lot of people think there really was a problem – otherwise the two governors wouldn’t be running around so much! So yeah, not a good time to live in the northwest.

– Cartoonist and environmental activist Matt Groening, 2009 KNN interview



…In May 1980, Dukakis finally managed to passes a heavy tax reform bill that was detrimental to the state’s rich and upper middle class in order to pay off the commonwealth’s rising debt. The law stipulated that it would cease to be upon the debt being paid and the state economy leaving the red. Dukakis made many enemies by doing this, which would hurt him politically in the short run, but the law proved to be just what the Bay State needed. By late 1982, the economy had grown so strong due to the bill and the national recovery that it was actually doing better than it had been in its prosperous WW2-era days...

– Michelle Lansing’s The Duke of Massachusetts: Politics And Policies In The Commonwealth Under Governor Michael Dukakis, Summit Books, 2019



…Tonight, the candidates for President faced off against one another in four states… In the Republican primaries, Denton won Arkansas and Kentucky, while Ron Paul won Idaho and Nevada… In the Democratic primaries, Senator Scoop Jackson won all four states…

– CBS Evening News, 5/27/1980



LAXALT BOWS OUT OF PRESIDENTIAL RACE AFTER LOSING HOME STATE PRIMARY: Cites Lack Of Funds As Main Reason

– The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 5/28/1980



June 3 was the last primary election date, and it was a big night – 9 primaries were held for both parties. Paul and Denton were the only two candidates left who could win outright, while the rest of field were hoping for a brokered convention to come out on top; the same was true for the Democratic primaries, as only Gravel and Jackson had a shot at winning the nomination outright. Denton and Gravel won the delegate rich state of California, but in Montana, Republican voters went for Paul, while state delegates for the Democratic National Convention remained uncommitted. New Jersey, Gravel’s support for a federal aid dividend similar to the Garden State’s “rebate” dividend program, while Ed Brooke won the state with 40% of the vote, the last gasp for air of a deflating Presidential campaign. Paul and Jackson won New Mexico, while Denton and Jackson won Ohio, causing the Buckeye state’s former Governor, Buz Lukens, to finally drop out of the race. Gravel’s campaign gained momentum going into the night, and showed he still had support among party members, but still not among the party’s elite, by narrowly winning a majority in Rhode Island and South Dakota. Paul did the same in both states. Finally, West Virginians voted for Paul and Jackson.

– Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President: 1980, Atheneum Publishers, 1981


1980 Democratic Primaries
CJheNrA.png


[pic: imgur.com/CJheNrA.png ]
Note: info-box above lists the candidates by delegate distribution (see below)
[snip]
Total Number of Delegates: 3,315
Delegates Needed to Win: 1,658
Delegate Distribution on the First (and Only) Ballot:
Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson: 1,894 (57.2%)
Maurice R. "Mike" Gravel: 1,171 (35.5%)
Walter Nixon: 115 (3.5%)
Larry McDonald: 96 (2.9%)
All Others: 39 (1.2%)

– clickopedia.co.usa



1980 Republican Primaries
oZ1WHP8.png


[pic: imgur.com/oZ1WHP8.png ]
Popular vote:
Jeremiah A. "Jer" Denton: 4,819,912 (37.5%)
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul: 3,714,775 (28.9%)
Edward W. "Ed" Brooke III: 1,351,294 (10.5%)
Donald Edgar "Buz" Lukens: 1,055,736 (8.2%)
A. Lamar Alexander Jr.: 657,372 (5.1%)
Aloha Pearl Taylor Browne Eagles: 618,991 (4.7%)
Howard Henry Baker Jr.: 324,561 (2.5%)
Harold Edward Stassen: 116,784 (0.9%)
Jay Sterner Hammond: 90,953 (0.7%)
James Howard Meredith: 40,551 (0.3%)
Uncommitted: 15,024 (0.1%)
All others: 14,479 (0.1%)
Total: 12,850,432

– clickopedia.co.usa



…US Senator Harold E. Stassen, age 73, was a formidable candidate for the first time in decades thanks to his successful Senate bid four years prior. Unfortunately for him, the party had moved to the right considerably since his previous formidable bid in 1948, making his liberal stances a hard sell in practically all of the primaries where he managed to get his name on the ballot. Due to this change in political dynamics, Stassen only won one primary - the one held in his home state of Minnesota - in the long run...
[snip]
...US Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, running for President for the fourth time, and as a “conservative-light” candidate, performed even worse than Stassen, as he failed to even win his home state in the crowded field of candidates. Stassen later remarked that he performed better due to being less "aggressive and pompuos" than Goldwater during primary debates, forums, and town hall events…
[snip]
...McDonald exited the DNC in a bitter mood. Not only had he failed to win the Democratic nomination, but it was too late to jump back into the race for his Congressional seat. He considered running in the general election, but ultimately concluded that running as an independent or on a party created at the last minute would be just as ineffective as running on the no-longer-relevant H. I. Party line. Instead, McDonald returned to Georgia to prepare for a bid for the US Senate in 1982...

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1980, Centurion Publishers, 2019



The Americans’ Trojan Tower Disaster spooked Soviet officials into inspecting the quality of their own nuclear plants. Publicly, though, the opposite seemed to have happened – Soviet officials practically laughed at the plant failure, claiming the corruption of capitalism had caused plant management in America to put profit ahead of people and proclaiming Soviet Nuclear Plants to be the best. But the officials were behind closed doors concerns over the decay of their own plants. At the Kremlin, however, whether through sheer ignorance or a sincere belief that the Soviet nuclear capabilities were unmatched and without the possibility of incident after the measurements put into place after the Kyshtym Disaster of 1957, the need to maintain and update the USSR’s power plants was ignored by Premier Suslov. Until June 1980.

The city of Aktau rests on the very edge of the Caspian Sea, in western Kazakhstan. A planned camp for oil industry workers, the streets are organized by three-digit numbers instead by regular name addresses. In 1973, Aktau’s BN-350 FBR nuclear power plant went online to produce the local plutonium for power and for desalination of the city’s fresh water supply via a sodium-cooled fast reactor, making it the only land-based nuclear-heated desalination unit in the world. While not that large or even that powerful – blackouts were an occasional issue – the plant had gone without incident, and there was even talk of building a second plant nearby. The events of June 11, 1980 changed all that.

The biggest disadvantage to having such a reactor on the edge of the largest lake in the world is that sodium produces sodium hydroxide and hydrogen (and hydrogen, burns when it makes contact with air) when it makes contact with water. Sodium’s chemical reactivity requires special precautions to avoid fires, such as long thermal response times, and a separation of the radioactive sodium found in the primary sodium system and the water and steam of the power plant. After performing no inspections of the BN-350 for two years, Soviet inspectors decided to perform a safety test on the reactor core. The outdated machinery, however, failed to handle the safety test’s sudden shutdown of energy, inadvertently extending exposure of radioactive sodium to the water supply near the reactor core. The subsequent chemical reaction ruptured the core, creating a huge fireball to the shock and horror of the plant’s workers and inspectors. The explosion could be heard from several miles away.

38Id23E.png


[pic: imgur.com/38Id23E.png ]
Above: the BN-350, prior to the Aktau Disaster

The Aktau Disaster was later determined to have been a Number Seven – the most severe ranking – on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the first (and as of the writing of the book, the only) Number Seven-rated nuclear event in history. However, most Russians remember the actions taken in its aftermath more so than was the disaster itself.

Aktau’s rather isolated location in sparsely-populated Central Asia was both a blessing and a curse, as it minimize the deaths and the chaos of the city’s evacuation, but it also prevented additional assistance from arriving from the closest cities for nearly an hour. The destruction of the desalination plant cut off several nearby cities from clean drinking water for weeks. Radiation ended up killing millions of animals that lived in the Caspian Sea, with large piles of fish washing up on its shores as far away as Baku. The radioactive fallout that spread out over the lands north of Aktau was blamed for the higher cancer rates and genetic mutations found in said regions for years.

Overall, Soviet officials handled containment issues much poorer than Americans had handled their own. Suslov’s attempts to downplay the event only made things worse. The lack of information released to the public combined with sub-par cleanup strategies and the true extent of the damaged only being revealed slowly over the next several months angered Russians for being left in the dark during a major national crisis [12], and absolutely outraged the local Kazakhs, fueling anti-Soviet sentiments in the Kazakh Soviet.

The one silver lining was that the subsequent nationwide nuclear safety and maintenance reforms led to officials preventing another type of incident from occurring in Balakovo, Saratov Oblast, at the Balakov Nuclear Power Plant. Then again, the Balakov Incident did convince many citizens that Aktau was not an isolated incident like the authorities kept declaring…

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



Stanfield’s sudden return to 21 Sussex Avenue was unexpected but understandable. Chretien’s inability to unite his party over unpopular but necessary economic measures had constricted market capabilities in the short term, seemingly making things worse, and this turn of events made voters yearn for the PC party. With another election underway, nostalgic feelings for Stanfield’s aura of “stability, sanity and security” – his best-remembered campaign slogan – set into the voters’ minds. After only roughly six months in office, Chretien’s Liberal Party lost to Stanfield on June 14, 1980. Ed Broadbent of the Progressive Tomorrow party, the only other noteworthy party at the time, underperformed.

– Richard Johnston’s The Canadian Party System: An Analytic History, UBC Press, 2017



SUPREME COURT RULING: CORPORATIONS THEMSELVES DON’T HAVE RIGHTS

…In the landmark Central Hudson Gas & Electric Co. court case, the US Supreme Court decided 7-2 that there is no authority in the U.S. Constitution that provides “personhood” rights to corporations... The judges in the ruling’s majority were Chief Justice Frank Minis Johnson, and Associate Justices A. Leon Higginbotham, Sarah Hughes, William Nealon, Sylvia Bacon, Miles Lord, and Walter Brennan. The other two justices, Ed Levi and Potter Stewart, made up the ruling’s dissent...

The Washington Post, 6/20/1980



UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DOWN 1% FROM LAST YEAR’S HIGH OF 8.2% [13]

The Wall Street Journal, 7/1/1980




In early July, likely days after Lamar Alexander had just 40 on July 3, Denton called Alexander to his campaign headquarters in Mobile, Alabama. The Presidential-nominee-in-waiting had big news for his fellow ex-governor. “Lamar,” Denton said, “I’ve worn out this carpet pacing back and forth over this decision. I’ve thought about it from every angle, and I have made my decision. Before anyone else, I want you to be my running mate.”

Curious, Alexander simply responded with “Why?”

Denton explained. “Because I like you both as a politician and as a friend.” The two men had befriended each other in January 1975, when both of them began their terms as the Governor of their respective home states. “I want to pick you because during the last eight years the whole country got to see what happens when you pick for running mate a guy from a different party faction who doesn’t like you. I’m not going to pick some deeply liberal or deeply conservative Republican to try and follow that ‘unite the party’ bull. I mean, who are the deep conservatives gonna vote for but us anyway? They’re not going to vote for Scoop, not with the welfare-state-loving Democrat label attached to him. And don’t let Brooke fool you – Rocky’s boys are a non-issue. No, Lamar, I’m going to pick someone I know will be in my corner. Someone I honestly do respect because I can trust him – I mean, I can trust you, can’t I?”

“Of course, Jer,” Alexander said, “Of course,” a smile spread from Alexander’s one ear to the other as the two men shook on it.

However, friendship and trust were not the only factors present. While a Denton-Alexander ticket clearly lacked geographic variety – Tennessee and Alabama were southern states that shared a border – Denton, of rather his campaign, was interested in assuring they would have the votes of the religious right faction of the party, whom had rallied around mainly Alexander during his time in the primaries. Denton’s campaign may have also figured that Alexander’s youth and energy could win over some of the young Republican voters who had rallied behind Paul during the primaries. Thus, to a certain extent, Alexander was chosen to maintain party unity after all.

– Robert Woodward and Stuart I. Rochester’s Honor Bound: The Life And Careers of Jeremiah Denton, Freedom Publishers, 2015



DENTON PICKS FMR GOV. ALEXANDER FOR RUNNING MATE

The New York Times, 7/7/1980



…and as the temperature reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Indianapolis, the Weather Advisory continues to be in place as this continues to be one of the hottest summers on record, so again, we caution everyone going outside to keep themselves safe and protected, drink plenty of water and…

– Weather Forecast update on WJHL-TV, 7/15/1980



…In South Africa, anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela is being treated for wounds after being severely beaten by guards at the Robben Island prison. The confessed perpetrators of the attack blame Mandela for the breakdown of society in several parts of the country where state officials are being continuously overwhelmed by revolution. …According to multiple sources, The South African government is in crisis as polls show a gradual increase in support for dismantling the nation’s divisive Apartheid system...

– BBC, 16/7/1980



“The next decade will be one of dignity and duty, not Democrat disarray.”

– Jeremiah Denton, 7/16/1980



RNC MAKES DENTON/ALEXANDER TICKET OFFICIAL: Platform Pledges Conservative And Libertarian Points, Environmental Protection

…the platform features some concessions to the Ron Paul campaign that came within striking distance of defeating Denton in the primaries such as a significant cut in taxes and deregulation of certain industries… …Keynote Speaker Jay Hammond called for “a less hectic, more prosperous” decade… most of the convention speakers gave praise to former President Colonel Sanders, who declined to attend the festivities due to health concerns…

– The Detroit News, 7/17/1980, the last day of the 1980 RNC (July 14-17, 1980)



…we’ve yet to see who Jackson will pick to be his running mate, but sources close to the Jackson campaign have claimed the pick will be announced before the Democratic National Convention that will begin on August 11…

– CBS News, 7/18/1980



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[pic: imgur.com/bKUGKje.png ]

– Colonel Sanders inspecting a KFC outlet's kitchen to ensure quality control , c. 7/19/1980



MODERATOR BILL MONROE: Do you think Jackson will pick Secretary of State Jimmy Carter to be his running mate?

ANALYST ROBERT BECKEL: It is a possibility, though there are other people he could pick if he aims to win over the Southern voter. Terry Sanford, Jerry Litton, or even Walter Nixon. Carter may be too uneasy with Jackson’s hawkishness, but then again, just as easily, he may not be.

REPORTER LINDA ELLERBEE: Well I think if he picks Carter there’ll be a lack of diversity on the ticket. He needs to win over the progressives still bitter at the Vice President losing the nomination, with many saying Walter Nixon acted as a spoiler in many primaries, so maybe not Nixon. I think Scoop should pick a more left-leaning politician to keep the party together come November.

BECKEL: I don’t know, Jackson’s been pretty consistent with his message that moderation is the best way forward. He might double-down on that message with someone such as, say, Senator John Glenn of Ohio, or Senator Bob Short of Minnesota, or even Senator Malcolm McLane of New Hampshire. I would suggest that Senator Bob Casey may be vetted at some point, too, but he’s running for re-election right now, so I would be very surprised if he was selected; it's a possible pick, but I doubt it. If I was a betting man, I wouldn't put my money on Casey.

ELLERBEE: Well, hold on, Casey could win over Catholic voters that may be inclined to vote for Denton, who, if he wins, will be our first-ever Catholic President. If this is on his mind, Scoop could consider a religiously or even an ethnically different running mate or Casey or some other Democratic high-profile Catholic politician. It could energize his campaign. Someone like Congressman Herman Badillo. Or, you know, maybe Milton Shapp – he’d be the Democratic Party’s first-ever Jewish running mate.

MONROE: Interesting. Lots of optics and options to consider here. Who else would you suggest for a more diverse ticket, Ms. Ellerbee?

ELLERBEE: Off the top of my head, I think he could pick Patsy Mink to make amends with her and the Progressives, but I suppose if Robert’s right and he does intend to double down and go with a more right-leaning or centrist candidate, I can see Scoop deciding to pick a diverse person closer to his own ideology with the selection of Senator Daniel Inouye.

MONROE: Oh yes, Inouye, I interviewed him not too long ago. Very interesting politician, and with a very inspiring backstory, to boot. Let’s see, what other names have been floated around recently? Robert?

BECKEL: Well, uh, several, uh, African-American politicians, moderate and progressive, have been suggested – Congressman Matthew G. Carter of New Jersey, D.C. Mayor Clifford Alexander, for example.

MONROE: Yes, and most recently, if I recall them correctly, the names of US Senators John Sarbanes, Edmund Muskie, and Nick Galifianakis have been floated as well… [14]

– Meet the Press, 7/22/1980




NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] IOTL, the Colonel was diagnosed with diabetes in June 1980: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1980/11/06/Colonel-Sanders-hospitalized/6085342334800/. According to two sources on his wikipedia article, the Colonel was also diagnosed with acute leukemia in June 1980. The Colonel likely had Type 2 diabetes, as people with that type have a 20% chance of developing leukemia: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120605121658.htm. Thus, the Colonel most likely got leukemia from the diabetes. But since the diabetes is detected six months earlier than it was IOTL, it gets treated early enough for the Colonel to avoid getting leukemia in June 1980!
[2] Source: https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/can-you-reverse-type-2-diabetes
[3] Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317477.php
[4] OTL Video of Bernie Sanders defending members of the LGBTQ+ community wanting to serve in the US military in 1995!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFlQ6fU4GM
[5] From here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ron_Paul#Legislation
[6] Quote from here: www.4president.org/brochures/1980/howardbaker1980brochure.htm
[7] Italicized parts found here: https://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Lamar_Alexander.htm
[8] Source: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/02/larry-mcdonald-communists-deep-state-222726
[9] Italicized part is from here (many thanks again, @Damian0358): http://www.balkanalysis.com/blog/2018/02/05/archival-documents-reveal-late-yugoslav-strategic-thinking-on-the-special-war/
[10] Italicized part is from here (many thanks, @Damian0358): https://www.tmcrew.org/news/nato/germany_usa.htm
[11] Chapman used the same defense for assassinating Lennon – that it was “the will of God” – in OTL.
[12] In fact, Gorbachev once said in an interview that he considered the Soviet government’s handling of Chernobyl to be a catalyst that led to the fall of the USSR IOTL (I just need to find which interview that was…)
[13] OTL, the unemployment rate in the US hit 7.8% in July 1980, the highest in 4 years at that point in time.
[14] Does anyone have any thoughts on who he should pick to be his running mate? Anyone, any thoughts at all?

(Additional note: I'm posting this today because I'm busy tomorrow)

Unknown said:
Does the Claudine Longet-Spider Sabich shooting case still occur here? (More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_Longet) Andy Williams (who was married and had three children with her, but they had divorced by this time) did support her during the trial (one of the few things people criticize him for--by all appearances, he was a nice guy IRL, as well as an excellent musician, and "Moon River" and "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" will still be listened to for as long as there is music, IMO)...
This has probably been butterflied away. Also, an interesting bit: since RFK wasn't assassinated ITTL, Claudine's son isn't named after him; hey, maybe he's named Harland instead!

Expect the next chapter to be posted within the next two weeks, and thanks for reading, everyone!
 
Post 39
Post 39: Chapter 47

Chapter 47: July 1980 – January 1981

“Slavery is an evil of colossal magnitude and I am utterly averse to the admission of slavery into the Missouri Territories. It being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.”

– John Adams



Denton entered the US Naval Academy in 1943, and graduated in 1946, in the same class as future US Secretary of State Jimmy Carter. He is credited with developing the revolutionary “Haystack Concept,” a naval attack strategy, in 1957. At the start of the Cuban War, Denton served as a US Naval Aviator. In January 1964, 39-year-old Denton was shot down over western Cuba. Due to the successful POW escape led by future US Navy Admiral John McCain on the mainland several weeks earlier, Denton was immediately taken to the better-guarded Isle of Pines, an island used by Communist Cubans mainly for holding and torturing POWs. Denton is best known from this period of his life for the 1964 televised press conference in which he was forced to participate as an American POW by his Communist Cuban captors. He used the opportunity to send a distress message confirming for the first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured on the Isle of Pines. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out "T-O-R-T-U-R-E". He was also questioned about his support for the U.S. war effort in Cuba, to which he replied: "I don't know what is happening, but whatever the position of my government is, I support it fully. Whatever the position of my government, I believe in it, yes sir. I am a member of that government, and it is my job to support it, and I will as long as I live. [1] In September 1964, after leading a failed revolt against the island guards, Denton was tortured further with sleep deprivation, starvation, and being placed in solitary confinement – forced to stand in a hole dug into the ground for days on end. Eleven months after Denton was captured, the Communist Cuban government collapsed; a week later, he and the other prisoners were liberated from the island.

After recovering from war wounds, Denton returned to active military service in less than a year, and participated in the unsuccessful 1966 and successful 1967 invasions of North Vietnam. By 1968, he had been promoted to captain and had been awarded the Navy Cross. Following bombing missions over Laos in 1968, and over Cambodia from 1968 to February 1971, Denton was assigned to the Commander of Naval Air Forces’ Atlantic Fleet, becoming the commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk. Denton retired from the military at age 49 in early 1974 with the rank of Rear Admiral, having participated in the Cuban War and all three Indonesian Wars.

In 1973, Denton’s autobiography “When Hell Was In Session” was published; it was on the New York Times’ Bestseller list for several weeks, and its circulation in Alabama benefited Denton’s successful bid for governor of that state in 1974. The book was made into an NBC movie of the week in 1975, starring Hal Holbrook as Denton.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Jeremiah_Denton_(simplified_mode)



After Howard Baker ended his campaign, I joined the staff of Lamar Alexander (who pledged to stay in the race until the convention), roughly six years after working on his successful bid for governor. With [my husband] George [Stanley Clinton] returning from scoring music for the 1980 Dabney Coleman film “Pray TV” to look after [our 5-year-old son] Bill and [our 3-year-old daughter] Savannah [Paris Clinton, named after two cities in Tennessee], I oversaw coordination for the Appalachian division of the Denton/Alexander campaign. We zig-zagged across Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania…

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



“We moved Microsoft from Albuquerque to Washington in January 1979. The company headquarters was in Bellevue, a safe distance away from both the Trojan Power Plant and Mount St. Helens, a pair of disasters locals now call “The Helen and Troy Kablamos,” or something like that. Maybe. I mean, to be honest, we never really paid that much to the regional colloquialisms. We focused instead on contributing however we could to the post-disaster cleanup. To encourage other regional entrepreneurs, for instance, I personally pledged roughly $250,000 to Oregon’s cleanup task force fund. At the time, I couldn’t do any more than that. I was only 25 – and I wouldn’t make my first million until I was 26. And Paul [Allen] was not any richer than me at the time, either.” [2]

– Bill Gates, KNN interview with Bill Gates and Kent Allen, 9/1/1995




MONDALE SIGNS THORIUM ENERGY INNOVATION BILL INTO LAW

The Washington Post, 7/27/1980



JOHN G. HUTCHINSON WINS SPECIAL ELECTION; HOUSE TO STAY IN DEMOCRAT HANDS

…Representative John M. Slack Jr. (D-WV) died in March from a heart attack, creating an even split in the House…

The Washington Post, 7/30/1980



The 1980 Summer Olympics ended on August 3. The higher number of Soviet victories dampened American spirits, but lifted those of the USSR’s citizens and government officials, as they came at a time of very low morale. Many Americans chucked the victories up to the Soviets’ home turf advantage, while others looked at the events from an optimistic viewpoint. Under Suslov, this was the warmest that US-USSR relations had gotten – instead of negotiations or meetings in stiffy boards rooms, both nations allowed Americans to participate in the games held in Kiev. Even more pundits were quick to remind everyone of the higher number of medals won by American athletes during the 1980 Winter Olympics held at the US’s Lake Placid in February 1980. …Once again, South Africa had been banned from the Olympics due to international condemnation of their continuation of Apartheid…

– Sports Illustrated, 2016 e-issue



“TOO LATE FOR THE PRIMARIES BUT NOT TOO LATE FOR OHIO”: Lukens Lands Factory Deal

…The manufacturing agreement with Brazil will provide “hundreds of thousands” of jobs for northern Ohio in a victory that clearly demonstrates the Governor’s ability to handle international diplomacy to bring jobs back to the Buckeye State…

– The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio newspaper, 8/8/1980



…As the dissipating Hurricane Allen dispersed this June and July’s heat, we can now see how destructive this summer’s heat truly was. The weather proved fatal to at least 1,000 people and cost the US billions of dollars in drought-related agricultural damage…

– NBC News, 8/10/1980 report



POLAND’S SOLIDARITY GROUP STARTS MAJOR SHIPYARD STRIKE IN GDANSK

…officials claim that Iron Curtain tensions are not on the rise, but reports of increased mobilization of guardsmen and soldiers along the Communist side of the Berlin Wall argue otherwise…

Der Spiegel, left-leaning West Germany newspaper, 8/11/1980



[vid: youtube.com/watch?v=2N8Vob9DpqA ]
– The first KFC commercial to be filmed after the January 1980 attempt on the Colonel’s life (due to him still recovering, he remains seated during his scenes), first aired 8/12/1980



JACKSON ANNOUNCES MODERATE JAKE BUTCHER FOR RUNNING MATE

…the selection of Jake Butcher, the Governor of Tennessee since January 1979, may be an attempt to nullify Denton’s selection of Lamar Alexander – both running mates appeal to the South and are under the age of 45…

The Washington Post, 8/14/1980



“The progressives and doves were jointly pissed. Not only was to ticket too hawkish center-leaning for their taste, but so was the final party platform. Mike Gravel led the outrage at the DNC by causing a stir with a lukewarm endorsement on the last day of the Convention. Never once referring to Jackson by name, Gravel called for ‘pen-before-sword’ foreign policy and ‘putting people for politics.’ I remember how he told the convention audience and, uh, ‘the people watching this at home or listening to this on the radio – I implore all of you, vote or vote in the candidate that you yourselves have determined to be the best candidate for the job.’ Yeah. Several supporters of Gravel such as Congressman Ron Dellums and former US Ambassador to Canada Phil Hoff were caught on camera leaving the Convention hours early right after that.”

– Joe Trippi, floor manager at the 1980 DNC, 1995 interview



“I don’t trust Denton because you just can’t tell about this guy. He’s the kind of hawk that if you rubbed him the wrong way today, you could have tanks in your front yard tomorrow. Jackson, though, him I do trust.” [3]

– US Senator Harold Hughes (D-IA) defending Scoop Jackson’s selection of Jake Butcher for running mate, Meet the Press interview, 8/16/1980




JACKSON: 40%

DENTON: 39%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 21%

– Gallup poll, 8/20/1980



“FORWARD AND FOR ALL!”: Fmr. Gov. Phil Hoff “Progressive” Presidential Bid

…Hoff, 56, claims the current ticket is not focused enough on “bread-and-butter” issues such as healthcare and both urban and rural development, and claims that the highly popular nationwide Negative Income Tax Rebate law “does not go far enough to eliminate unfair inequality” in the US… …Hoff previously served as the Governor of Vermont from 1963 to 1973. After unsuccessfully running for President in 1972, he served as the US Ambassador to Canada from 1973 to 1979, stepping down to join a Democratic think tank in Washington, D.C. Hoff intend to attempt to appear on the ballot in all 50 states on a brand-new “Progressive” Party ticket. This will be the fourth version of a Presidential “Progressive” party ticket in US history, the first three being in the Presidential elections of 1912, 1924, and 1948…

The New York Times, 8/21/1980



KAREN GRAMMER & JOHN W. SMITH

Assistant newspaper editor Karen Grammer of Colorado Springs married Buckhorn Petroleum geologist of Fort Collins today at St. Mary’s Church in Fort Collins after two years of dating. Karen’s brother, noted actor Kelsey Grammer, gave her away at the altar...

– The Fort Collins Coloradoan, celebrations section, 8/26/1980



…East Germans join the Poles and Romanians in rebelling against Communist rule, causing the threat of Soviet military intervention in those lands to continue to grow…

– BBC World News, 8/30/1980 report



KY GOVERNOR J.B. BRECKINRIDGE DIES, LIKELY HEART ATTACK, AGE 66

…Lieutenant Governor Martha Layne Osborne is set to become Kentucky’s second female Governor…

The Washington Post, 8/31/1980



JACKSON: 42%

DENTON: 37%

HOFF: 1%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 20%

– Gallup poll, 9/1/1980



SPECIAL RACE FOR GOVERNOR SET FOR NEXT YEAR

…A special election for governor has been set for November 3rd, 1981… Per Article III, Section 18 of the Kentucky state Constitution, when a governor had more than two years left of their term at the time of their vacating the office, a special is held for the remaining two years. This last happened in 1900. [4]

The Louisville Times, 9/2/1980




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[pic: imgur.com/qVPywwA ]
– Colonel Harland Sanders eats a slice of cake as he celebrates his 90th birthday in a citywide celebration held in Louisville; the Colonel commented the cake tasted “funny” due to it being a special "diabetic cake" that contained much less fats and sugar than typical cakes, 9/9/1980



…Hoff’s third-party candidacy won the support of some previous Gravel backers such as former Congressman Allard K. Lowenstein, Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey, Congressman Will Hensley, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, Congressman Ron Dellums, and, most notably, two other Vermonters – outgoing Governor Stella Hackel and former Congressman William H. Meyer, the latter of the two launching an active surrogate campaign in the Green Mountain State. Dellums, meanwhile, worked to form a coalition of progressive supporters and financial backers, and reached out to progressive members of the African-American, Hispanic immigrant, labor union, and college student communities that had supported Mike Gravel back in 1968, 1972 and early 1980…

– Steven J. Rosenstone and Edward H. Lazarus’ Third Parties in America: Citizens Responding to Major Party Failures, Princeton University Press, 1992 (Second Edition)



HOFF RECRUITS REPUBLICAN PETE MCCLOSKEY TO SERVE AS RUNNING MATE

…With the selection, Hoff explains “this is a bipartisan effort to make the major parties acknowledge that Americans are not content with perpetual warfare, with our boys in uniform coming home in boxes or as broken shadows of their former selves. Americans want their tax dollars to be spent on access to better healthcare and education and upward mobility, not on tanks and jets and nuclear bomb-carrying submarines.” McCloskey is not running for re-election this year, as he declined to run in order to seek the GOP nomination for the US Senate Seat being vacated by retiring incumbent Senator Thomas Kuchel (R-CA). McCloskey lost that race – one of many primaries held on June 4 – to political activist Maureen Reagan by a narrow margin…

The Burlington Free Press, Vermont newspaper, 9/15/1980



Dellums was Hoff’s first choice for running mate, but the African-American declined because he believed he would be more helpful to “their common cause” if he ran for re-election to Congress and worked as a surrogate in California. Through his efforts, Dellums convinced actors Harry Belafonte and Peter Duel, Congresswomen Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Barbara Jordan, and even political activist Malcolm X to join the list of Hoff/McCloskey endorsers. Tumbleweed Magazine founder Bern Sanders was the media face friendliest to the campaign, his magazine formally endorsing them and helping to raise credibility, functions, and donations for the ticket.

By the end of September, however, Hoff was having trouble getting on some state ballots. He managed to appear under the Progressive banner in 38 states. In seven more, he ran as an independent. In California, he was the Natural Mind nominee; in Texas, his name was found under the banner of the La Raza Unida Party; and in all others, he ran a write-in campaign. This ad hoc coalition of left-wing and left-leaning parties led to news pundits dubbing it the “far-left coalition” that conservative L. Brent Bozell Jr. called “backers of big government, a welfare state, and various communistic and socialistic” philosophies.

[snip]

In an extensive interview for Tumbleweed Magazine, Hoff explained that he believed he could win the election outright. “It’s an uphill climb, but it’s not impossible.” Being more realistic, he suggested that it was more likely that the ticket “could pick up enough Electoral College votes to send the election to the House, where one of two compromises will happen. Either we’ll force the leading candidate into making concessions, or we’ll convince the House to vote for us instead.”

– Steven J. Rosenstone and Edward H. Lazarus’ Third Parties in America: Citizens Responding to Major Party Failures, Princeton University Press, 1992 (Second Edition)



TONIGHT’S BLANKET PRIMARY RESULTS: EVANS AND HANSEN TO ADVANCE TO NOVEMBER

…former Governor Daniel J. Evans came in first place, while incumbent Governor Julia Butler Hansen barely won the second-place position over Republican County Executive John D. Spellman…

– The Yakima Herald-Republic, Washington state newspaper, 9/16/1980



Economic conditions in western Europe had recovered by mid-1980, while they remained stagnant in some soviets of the USSR, and worsened in other soviets. Anti-communist sentiments began to grow in the Baltic Soviets of the USSR as Suslov failed to address regional needs. Economic concerns combined with the threat of cultural Russification eroding away their language, culture, and identity led to student protests in Tallinn. Estonia’s youth soon began to mimic the actions of Poland’s own adolescents in that they began rebelling against their oppressors.

– John Kenneth Galbraith’s Prosperity Upended: The Causes and Effects of the 1978 Recession, Excelsior Publishers, 1993



EXPERIENCED, RELIABLE, FEARLESS

– Jackson/Butcher campaign slogan, c. early-to-mid September 1980



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

JACKSON: 46%

DENTON: 36%

HOFF: 2%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 16%

– Gallup poll, 9/17/1980



FDIC REGULATORS RAID ALL UNITED AMERICAN BANK OFFICES IN MASSIVE BANK FRAUD INVESTIGATION

The Tennessean, 9/18/1980



EXTRA! BUTCHER A PART OF BANK FRAUD QUERY, FBI REVEALS

…FBI Director Felt today revealed that a federal investigation into Butcher’s banking business practices has been ongoing since before he became Governor [5]. Felt says Butcher is officially a “person of interest” regarding his connections not only to unsecured loans, forged loan documents, and bank fraud that occurred between 1974 and 1978, but also his gubernatorial campaign’s use of finances in 1978, and his personal staff’s use of taxpayer money since his ascension to the governorship. “Federal offices are also working with state authorities to understand Butcher’s role in all this.”

…Butcher began acquiring banks twelve years ago, culminating in his controlling of 39% of Knoxville’s total banking reserves by 1974. As President of the United American Bank, Butcher became a millionaire and is one of the wealthiest governors in the country, complete with a mansion and two houseboats...

– The Washington Post, 9/20/1980



Butcher had not been properly vetted by the Jackson campaign due to his last-minute selection. In the weeks leading up to the DNC, Jackson was certain that Carter would eventually accept his offer for running mate. When Carter unexpectedly did not, Jackson was torn between Senator Daniel Inouye and Governor Walter Nixon. Shortly before the DNC, Jackson’s campaign began to consider Butcher due to his youth, geographic location, and – most tellingly – his wealth and connections to wealthy donors across the South.

Timothy Kraft, Jackson’s campaign manager, explained years later that “The FBI learned about our selection the same time as everyone else. They visited our headquarters the next day, but failed to contact anyone close to Scoop until the day he was officially nominated. And even then, the evidence was all circumstantial at the time, and, quite foolishly, I’ll admit, when asked about it the day after becoming the official Second Man Of The Ticket, we believed his claims that he had nothing to do with any it. It was a monumental misjudging of character that really damaged Jackson’s standing in the polls.”

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1980, Centurion Publishers, 2019



BUTCHER OUT, CARTER IN: Scandalous Running Mate Axed from ticket; Scoop picks Jimmy Carter As Replacement

8fkZetZ.png


[pic: imgur.com/8fkZetZ ]
Above: Governor Butcher at a press event yesterday in which he claimed “I’m innocent, or else I wouldn’t be on this ticket.”

…at a press conference today, Senator Scoop Jackson, the Democratic nominee for President, announced that Governor Jake Butcher will no longer be his party’s candidate for Vice President. “It has come to our attention that Governor Butcher has not been honest, neither with this campaign, nor with the people of Tennessee. This sort of behavior cannot be tolerated and it will not be accepted by this campaign.” Likely still wanting to win over southern voters, Jackson has convinced Secretary of State Jimmy Carter to replace Butcher on the national ticket… It is worthy of note that Jackson opposes détente, while Carter supports it – the Secretary’s pick may be Scoop’s attempt to nullify the campaign of the pro-détente third-party candidate Phil Hoff… Some Democratic voters, however, are concerned that the scandal surrounding Butcher will damage Jackson’s image of being a wise and competent leader…

– The Associated Press, 2/24/1980



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

DENTON: 44%

JACKSON: 38%

HOFF: 3%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 15%

– Gallup poll, 9/25/1980



TWO YEAR AFTER THE ATLANTA TREATY: How Long Will Peace Last?

…Despite the relatively slight rise in what has been dubbed "anti-treaty extremism," Israeli relations with her neighbors are still stronger than ever before…

– Time Magazine, special 9/25/1980 issue



26 September 1980: A hidden pipe bomb detonates at the 1980 Oktoberfest in Munich, killing 12 people and injured 195 more. Initial rumors of the explosion being some sort of Soviet attack, due to it occurring at a time of raised Cold War tensions, creates panic in the city and leads to a small riot at a nearby police station, in which two more people are injured. The situation cools after authorities determine that 21-year-old Gundolf Kohler, a right-wing Neo-Nazi killed at the scene, was the perpetrator of the attack.

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



“Scoop Jackson does not care about Black people.”

– Malcolm X on Meet the Press, 9/29/1980



“Contrary to the claims Mr. X made yesterday, the past twenty years have been a better time for African-Americans than any other time in history. In 1960, 55% of all Black people lived under the poverty line. By 1970, that number dropped to more than half of that – 21% – and now, thanks to legislation supported by Mr. Jackson, and legislation worked on by Mr. Jackson, that number is down to just 14%. A 41-point drop in 20 years proves that Scoop Jackson cares about all Americans, and that’s why he has my support – let’s keep working on that rate until it reaches zero.” [6]

– African-American US Senator George L. Brown (D-CO) endorsing Jackson/Carter over Hoff/McCloskey, 9/30/1980




KALAS: …It’s game 1 of the National League Championship Series, and it’s the Houston Astros versus the Philadelphia Phillies…

[snip]

MUSSER: …And, uh…Uh-oh, looks like we’ve got a shouting match going on between two players.

McCARVER: Yes, I believe that’s players Don Trump of the Phillies and George Bush of the Astros down there. Probably arguing over the ref's call before, the Don seemed angry at that. Yep, they’re making unprofessional gestures to one another now and – whoa! – Trump just punched Bush in the face but Bush isn’t taking it, he’s got Trump in a chokehold!

KALAS: The other teammates are trying to pull them apart now, but – oh! – Trump just pummeled Bush to the ground. Oof!

McCARVER: Bush just punched Trump in the face! And the remaining teammates are rushing the field!

MUSSER: This is not professional behavior at all, folks, but it sure is entertainment.

KALAS: Trump just got socked in the jaw by, who was that? Oh, it’s a dog pile! The Astros and the Phillies are re-enacting a Spaghetti Western bar fight down there! All they need is a few chairs and bunch of bottles lined in front a bar mirror!

[snip]

KALAS: Well it seems the managers and the references have broken it up down there.

McCARVER: …and it looks like, yes, yep, both Trump and Bush are out of here, they’ve just been rejected from the game for misconduct!

MUSSER: Man, look at Trump go, he’s shouting like nobody’s business while Bush has this sad pouty face. Very querulous.

McCARVER: Still using that new-word-a-day calendar of yours, huh?

KALAS: The coaches had to do it, Andy. This is baseball, not wrestling.

[snip]

KALAS: …The Phillies lose, the Houstons win, the total score is 7-to-2…

– WPHL-TV’s announcers Harry Kalas, Andy Musser, Richie Ashburn and Tim McCarver, 10/8/1980 transcript



“We totally would have won if they’d kept me in the game. It would have been tremendous.”

– Donny Trump, 1981 interview



…Dad attended the Sixth Annual Chicken Dinner Summit, explaining when he arrived that “I just had to get my health in order – I’d already made reservations here and I don’t like cancellin’ things.” The peace treaty had been signed two years ago, but Dad insisted the summit continue to be held annually, even long after his death, in order to maintain peace in the region by keeping the lines of communication between different groups open… …Dad said that his near brush with death and the revelation that his days were truly numbered did not give him pause, instead, he insisted “new breath of life has entered these old bones of mine.” He would do as much as he could with whatever time he had left, and he began by visiting KFC locations much more frequently...

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



WHO IS FEULING THE DENTON CAMPAIGN?

…many Denton backers either supported or opposed the Cuban War. Both peaceniks and veterans, however, have done much growing up in the past 16 years. Most of them have become parents with children of their own, and their wish for their family to be safe and their paychecks to be heavy has led to many becoming reactionary conservatives, rejecting high taxes for financial security and national defense. It is debatable, however, whether or not the wars of the 1960s produced more liberal or conservative voters, as polls suggest an even division in both veteran and non-veteran voters born between 1937 and 1950. On one hand, this particular generation of voters – the Americans that came of age in the turbulent decades of the 1950s and 1960s – the War Babies and the Baby Boomers – historically have had liberal tendencies. On the other hand, the peaceniks and shoutniks are now in their 30s. They are beginning to have families of their own, and many are suffering health issues connected to the drugs and free love they once supported in the 1960s. In response, many have turned on the left-leaning ideas of their youth and are embracing the realistic objectives of Denton’s conservative campaign…

– Time Magazine article, early October issue



66n52FN.png


[pic: imgur.com/66n52FN ]
…the Saudi Arabian government is cooperating with the American justice system persecuting this Saudi Arabian citizen [7] to the fullest extent of the law…

– KNN, 10/10/1980 broadcast on the trial of Osama bin Laden



DENTON, JACKSON AGREE TO LET HOFF JOIN DEBATE STAGE

– The Washington Post, 10/11/1980



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

DENTON: 43%

JACKSON: 39%

HOFF: 4%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 14%

– Gallup poll, 10/12/1980



JACKSON: “When we have something we feel strongly about — and in this case it is civil liberties and freedom and what this nation was founded upon, that we should do something to implement international law — and it is international law now, the right to leave a country freely and return freely — that we should put that issue of principle on the table knowing that the Russians are not going to agree to it.” [8]

MODERATOR 1: “Former Ambassador Hoff, your rebuttal?”

HOFF: “Scoopy, it’s counterproductive to entice opponents. The Russian people are not the enemy here, the Russian people suffer the more we poke our sticks at the bear that is the Soviet government. Under a Hoff administration, the only big stick we’d use would be an olive branch and an ink pen to establish peaceful resolutions. I would slash our military’s budget. American blood would be spilled overseas no more under a Hoff Presidency. Because it is appalling that every single American generation seen casualties. That every family reunion has at least one relative that couldn’t make it not because he’s busy at work or transportation is difficult, but because he was hit by a bullet or a bomb in a war that could have been avoided if both governments had reached for pens instead of swords.”

JACKSON: “May I respond to that?”

MODERATOR 2: “You may.”

JACKSON: “I appreciate your sentiments, Phil, but we have to reasonable – we’re politicians after all, not magicians. We all want to put the brakes on the arms race...we all want to achieve arms control...but to those who say we must take risks for peace by cutting the meat from our military muscle, I say you are unwittingly risking war. [9]

HOFF: “No, putting a war-hawk in the White House is risking war.”

JACKSON: “I'm not a hawk and I'm not a dove. I just don't want my country to be a pigeon." [10]

[snip]

DENTON: “A man does a lot of praying in an enemy prison. Prayer, even more than sheer thought, is the firmest anchor during the most trying of times. The Declaration of Independence has established certain moral confines, and governs in a manner consistent with the spirit under which our nation was founded: Love God; love thy neighbor as thyself. I will continue to uphold these principles as President as I have throughout my entire life and career.” [11]

MODERATOR 1: “Governor Denton, what do you say about concerns that your religious rhetoric will compromise this nation’s long-standing belief in and practice of the separation of Church and State?”

DENTON: “I say that you can have both elements in the same room without having to have the two combined. They are both powerful and important parts of this country, and that’s seen by our national symbols. For example, our coin bears the inscription: In God We Trust. And our Bible reassures us: The Lord is just and merciful. The trust the President to do the right thing, and so it is important that he is of a religion that supports morality. Is that not allowed? No! A person of God is always required to reside in government, for with the Lord thence our protector, whom or what shall we fear?” [11]

HOFF: “Prayer does not remove radiation poisoning – ”

MODERATOR 1: “Mister Ambassador, please do not interrupt – ”

DENTON: “It’s alright, I was finished anyway.”

HOFF: “May I rebuttal?”

MODERATOR 2: “Yes.”

HOFF: “Prayer may spiritually help the people displaced in Oregon, and it may comfort the widows and orphans that exist in every single state. But you treat radiation with medicine, not the Good Book. And you prevent families from losing their loved ones by assuring peace, not by launching warfare under the assumption that God is on your side.”

– Transcript snippets of the Denton-Jackson-Hoff Presidential debate, 10/14/1980



To the query “Who won last night’s debate?”:

DENTON: 47%

JACKSON: 42%

HOFF: 11%

– Gallup poll, 10/12/1980



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

DENTON: 46%

JACKSON: 40%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 14%

– NBC poll, 10/18/1980



“The pollsters are not including Hoff in many of their polls because Hoff has the support of many prominent Black progressives. They hate him because he doesn’t hate Black. Ergo, these pollsters are being racist and oppressive.”

– African-American two-term Congressman Percy Ellis Sutton (D-NY), The Overmyer Network interview, 10/19/1980



…Game Six concluded the 1980 World Series on October 21. In the end, the Houston Astros (NL) defeated the Kansas City Royals (AL), 5 to 4…

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

DENTON: 46%

JACKSON: 41%

HOFF: 5%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 8%

– NBC poll, 10/21/1980



…Turning now to sports-related news, Jack Ramsey, the head coach of the Portland trailblazers, is leading the effort of several members of several NBA teams in a relief drive in Oregon to raise funds for those displaced by last year’s Trojan Tower Disaster and are still destitute and struggling to return to the ways of their pre-disaster lives. The decontamination process for the region includes removing trees, grass and the top inch of soil [12], to say nothing of the homes, streets and businesses that must be sanitized before it is safe for them to be used again. The entre process will take at least another ten months at the current rate of available volunteers and resources, but Mr. Ramsey believes that that time can be cut in half if the NBA’s effort bears fruit. Ramsey joins many celebrities and people of influence who have contributed to cleanup efforts such as millionaire media moguls Bern Sanders and Ted Kennedy, plus dozens of Hollywood celebrities….

– KNN, 10/22/1980 broadcast



DENTON AND JACKSON AGREE TO DEBATE WITHOUT HOFF: Both Campaigns Cite Hoff’s Low Polling For His Exclusion

The Sacramento Union, 10/23/1980



HOST: Denton’s standing in the polls is making the Presidential race highly favorable for Republicans down-ballot, so let’s talk about those races for a moment. Which races for Governor and for the US Senate are the ones we should be watching on November 4?

GUEST PANELIST 1: Well, going alphabetically, the Senate race in Alabama is a bit of a microcosm of the Presidential race in reverse, as the incumbent Senator running for re-election is a Republican in a state that, on one hand, is majority-Democrat, but on the other hand, is the home state Governor Denton, and so it’s not surprising that polls show it is going to be tight race against the incumbent and the Democrat challenging him.

HOST: So is that the closest Senate race this year?

GUEST PANELIST 1: No, that would be the one in South Dakota between first-time Senator McGovern and Republican challenger Frank Farrar. Farrar is one of many Republicans, though, that hope to ride on Denton’s coattails into the US Senate. The second-closest Senate race, I’d have to say, is most likely going to be the one in North Carolina, where Earl Ruth is challenging Democratic incumbent Nick Galifianakis. And another two Senate races we should watch closely are the one in Alaska, where one of the most vulnerable and poorly-approved members of the Senate chamber, Clark Gruening, is trying to fight off Republican opponent Frank Murkowski, and the one in Georgia, where longtime incumbent Democrat John William Davis is facing a well-funded Republican challenger.

HOST: So how many seats do you think the Republicans will pick up when all is said and done?

GUEST PANELIST 1: I’d say anywhere between 1 and 4, and given that the Republicans already control the Senate, this means the GOP will most likely widen their majority in that chamber. On the Congressional side of things, the composition also heavily favors the Republicans, so the GOP may actually be able to win back that chamber as well. Right now, Democrats hold a majority of just one seat, so even a net victory of one Republican seat is all they need, but they will very likely win a net gain of more than just one.

HOST: Interesting, thank you for that input. Now, how about the governorships?

GUEST PANELIST 2: Yep.

HOST: Which candidates are most likely to win and lose, and which race are the closest?

GUEST PANELIST 2: Well, first of all, thanks for having me on the show, and second of all, as most states hold gubernatorial elections during midterm years, there’s only thirteen gubernatorial elections this year. So, let’s go in alphabetical order. In Arkansas, incumbent conservative Democrat Orval Faubus is still popular and is expected to coast to another term. In Delaware, 38-year-old Governor Biden will likely win a second term amid opposition being divided between a Republican Party nominee and a Conservative Party nominee. In Illinois, Republican John Anderson and Democrat Neil Hartigan are running neck and neck; the same could be said about Indiana’s contest between Republican Dan Quayle and democrat John Hillenbrand, except Quayle has the edge due to him effectively hitching his wagon to Denton’s. That can very likely push him over the top and win.

HOST: Hm.

GUEST PANELIST 2: Now, Democrats might be able to gain control of the governor’s seat in Missouri with their rising star and former basketball star Bill Bradley. They might also be able to hold onto the governorship in Montana, too. In New Hampshire, polls suggest that the race between Democrat Tom Wingate and Republican Walter Peterson is basically dead-even. North Carolina is interesting as well, because, like their Senate race, a Democratic incumbent is being confronted by GOP nominee running a very negative campaign featuring more mud being thrown than at a demolition derby. This contrasts greatly this the next race on this list here, the one in North Dakota, where Democrat Ruth Meiers and Republican Ernie Sands are running to replace the retiring incumbent Governor and former Presidential candidate Aloha Pearl Taylor Brown Eagles. In Utah, Republican incumbent Vernon Romney is in all likelihood going to win re-election in a landslide, while in Vermont, the race between Jer Diamond, Democrat, and Rick Snelling, Republican, is pretty much neck-and-neck, but due to Denton polling well in the state, Snelling could pull off a win there. In Washington state, incumbent Governor Julia Hansen, who’s a Democrat, is facing off against Republican Dan Evans, who has been highly critical of her leadership skills during the Trojan Tower Disaster and 1978 economic crash. And finally, in West Virginia, incumbent Democratic Governor Jay Rockefeller is leading Republican challenger Arch Moore by roughly 4% in most polls. So all in all, as you can see by this chart right here, Democrats can either break even, or lose as many as 5 governorships on November 4.

– NBC Roundtable discussion, 10/24/1980 broadcast



CHRETIEN’S BACK: PC Blowout Gives Liberals Clear Majority

…in what turned out to be a chaotic year with three general elections, Jean Chretien seems to have learned from the mistakes he made earlier in the year… After only worsening economic conditions in the last several months, outgoing PM Robert Stanfield is stepped down from leading the PCs… …having decisively defeated the Progressive Conservatives and the Tommorrowists earlier tonight, Chretien is expected to return to the Prime Minister’s office at 24 Sussex Avenue on November 2nd…

The Ottawa Sun, 10/25/1980



…Osama bin Laden, the would-be assassin of former President Colonel Sanders, has been found guilty of attempted murder and has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison… Due to the nature of bin Laden’s citizenship, this case will most definitely set a precedence for international justice laws…

– KNN, 10/26/1980



“Covering The Osama Trial and those radiation cleanup efforts in Oregon really helped put us on the map. I don’t think money alone would have done it. Did help, though.”

– Ted Kennedy, 1993 interview



DENTON: “More than 20 years ago, the leader of Russia looked at us and proclaimed ‘we will bury you!’ This was not a joke but a threat, a threat that must be answered in the form of a greater investment in the protection and preservation of our fellow countrymen and our fellow freedom-lovers from the scourge of oppression and harm.”

MODERATOR 1: “Thank you, Governor Denton. Senator Jackson, do you have a rebuttal?”

JACKSON: “Yes, yes I do. I agree with the Governor’s statements, but something that I think Jeremiah has overlooked is that mere preservation is not enough. A people also need the freedom to thrive, not just to survive, and that means ensuring the rights of all people to do what they want to do with their lives. That is why I support government programs that ensure the equal treatment of tenants, job applicants, and students, and the like, regardless of people’s color, gender, and affiliations. As Governor, Denton was not a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, and by the end of his term, less women and African-Americans could be found in the workforce of Alabama than before.”

DENTON: “Now hold on there, Scoop. Those statistics were the cause of President Mondale’s handling of the economy, after the liberal Democrats mishandled the job market so badly that companies in every state had to lay off workers.”

[snip]

JACKSON: "Most Americans -- whether black, white or brown -- are hard-working wage-earners struggling to make ends meet, to get their kids through school, to acquire a decent home in a decent neighborhood, to clothe their families, to be respected as decent citizens, and to live out their lives with a measure of dignity that everywhere seems more difficult to attain these days. And if we can send people to the moon, then we can definitely send aid to those who need it. Now, when it comes to nuclear power, we have to be more careful with this technology, because when treated carefully, it is very beneficial. Any fool can bring about clean air by shutting down the economy and going fishing. It's fine for people who have made it to say we won't have any more economic growth. How about the poor, the unemployed, the underfed, the kids that are going hungry? What about the youngsters coming out of school who can't find a job? We have an obligation to them. I say we must have both -- a clean environment and a healthy economy." [10]

DENTON: “I agree. The nation is only as strong as the collection strength of its individuals. But our shared desire is precisely why I oppose Senator Jackson’s domestic agenda – because we cannot encumber their strength with the weights of even more federal red tape and regulating.” [11]

– Transcript snippets of the Denton-Jackson Presidential debate, 10/28/1980




POLLS: DENTON “WON” LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE, MOST SEEM TO AGREE

The New York Times, 10/28/1980



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

DENTON: 48%

JACKSON: 41%

HOFF: 5%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 6%

– Gallup poll, 10/29/1980



GREATER, STRONGER, BETTER

– Jackson/Carter campaign slogan, c. October 1980



RETURN TO GLORY. RETURN TO GREATNESS.

– Denton/Alexander campaign slogan, c. October 1980



LONG-SHOT PROGRESSIVE INCREASING CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES AS ELECTION NEARS

…As the Vermont native increases his number of stump speeches in the final days of the campaign, polls show him at 7%, with Jackson trailing Denton by roughly less than 7%...

– The Chicago Tribune, 10/31/1980



…The latest US employment report shows that – after the December 1978 peak of 12.4%, and plateauing at 11.6% from January to April of 1979 – the US unemployment rate has slowly and steadily dropped down to its current rate of just 7.5%...

The Wall Street Journal, 11/1/1980



“The economy and the American people cannot afford another four years of Democratic rule.”

– Jeremiah Denton at a campaign stop in Rockford, Illinois, 11/2/1980



PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE POLL:

DENTON: 49%

JACKSON: 42%

HOFF: 5%

OTHER/UNDECIDED: 4%

– Gallup poll, 10/18/1980



UawxU1t.png


[pic: imgur, UawxU1t ]
All other votes: 449,851 (0.5%)

Total votes cast: 89,970,065

[snip]

...The margin of victory was under 5% in several states. For example, in the ten closest states – Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Oregon, California, Ohio, Maine, and Massachusetts, in that order – the margin of victory was less than 2.5%...

– clickopedia.co.usa



…Democrats were torn over why their candidate lost. Many pointed to the Butcher Banking Scandal, while many party leaders attempted to place the blame at the feet of Phil Hoff, claiming he had worked as a spoiler in several states in spite of exit polls showing that Hoff had also won over many liberal Republican voters due to having McCloskey for running mate. Hoff himself, meanwhile, blamed Jackson being “not liberal enough for a liberal nation” for his defeat, and also claimed the Democratic nominee was not “exciting” enough of a candidate to win over voters. Hoff supporters went further to claim that Hoff’s ultimate performance was a “success” in that he won over the state of Vermont and won over 5% of the vote in Massachusetts, Maine, Oregon, Alaska, Washington, California and Illinois. In Washington, D.C., by then over 60% Black, Hoff’s endorsements from several prominent African-Americans led to him winning and impressive 21%, versus Denton’s 20% and Jackson’s 59%. To progressive Democrats and Hoff supporters, these results highlighted the need for Democrats to adapt more a progressive party platform in 1984...

– historian Jeff Greenfield’s How Everything Changed: The Effects of 1980, Centurion Publishers, 2019



United States Senate election results, 1980

Date: November 4, 1980
Seats: 36 of 100
Seats needed for majority: 51
Senate majority leader: Howard Baker (R-TN)
Senate minority leader: Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Seats before election: 52 (R), 46 (D), 2 (I)
Seats after election: 54 (R), 45 (D), 1 (I)
Seat change: R ^ 2, D v 1, I v 1

Full List:
Alabama: Walter Flowers (D) over incumbent James D. Martin (R) and Emory M. Folmar (Conservative)
Alaska: Frank Murkowski (R) over incumbent Clark Gruening (D)
Arizona: incumbent Paul Fannin (R) over Bill Schulz (D)
Arkansas: incumbent J. William Fulbright (D) over William Clark (R)
California: Maureen Reagan (R) over Tom Hayden (D/Natural Mind) and David Bergland (Liberty); incumbent Kuchel (R) lost re-nomination
Colorado: incumbent George L. Brown (D) over Mary E. Buchanan (R) and Earl Higgerson (Statesman)
Connecticut: Chris Dodd (D) over James L. Buckley (R); incumbent Abraham Ribicoff (D) retired
Florida: Paula Hawkins (R) over Bill Gunter (D); incumbent William Cato Cramer Sr. (R) lost re-nomination
Georgia: Mack Mattingly (R) over incumbent John William Davis (D)
Hawaii: incumbent Daniel Inouye (D) over Cooper Brown (R)
Idaho: incumbent Frank Church (D) over Steve Symms (R) and Larry Fullmer (Freedom)
Illinois: Alan J. Dixon (D) over David C. O’Neal (R); incumbent Adlai Stevenson (D) retired
Indiana: incumbent Richard Lugar (R) over Adam Benjamin Jr. (D)
Iowa: incumbent Harold Hughes (D) over James Leach (R)
Kansas: incumbent Bob Dole (R) over John Simpson (D)
Kentucky: incumbent Thruston Morton (R) over Wendell H. Ford (D)
Louisiana: incumbent Russell B. Long (D) over deLesseps Story “Toni” Morrison Jr. (D), Woody Jenkins (D) and Jerry Bardwell (R)
Maryland: incumbent Charles Mathias Jr. (R) over Edward T. Conroy (D)
Missouri: incumbent Thomas B. Curtis (R) over Robert Anton Young III (D)
Nevada: incumbent Barbara Vucanovich (R) over Mary Gojack (D)
New Hampshire: incumbent Norris Cotton (R) over John A. Durken (D)
New Hampshire (special): Wesley Powell (R) over Norman D’Amours (D) and incumbent Carmen C. Chimento (I)
New Mexico (special): Pedro “Pete” Jiménez (D) over Manuel Lujan (R); incumbent appointee Mary Coon Walters (D) retired
New York: Mario Biaggi (D) over incumbent Jacob K. Javits (R) and Bess Myerson (Natural Mind)
North Carolina: incumbent Nick Galifianakis (D) over Earl Baker Ruth (R)
North Dakota: Mark Andrews (R) over Kent Johanneson (D); incumbent Milton Young (R) retired
Ohio: incumbent William B. Saxbe (R) over Mary Rose Oakar (D) and John E. Powers (I)
Oklahoma: Marvin Henry “Mickey” Edwards (R) over Andrew Coats (D), Billy Joe Clegg (Conservative) & Charles R. Nesbitt (I); incumbent Henry Bellmon (R) retired
Oregon: John R. Dellenback (R) over Ted Kulongoski (D); incumbent Tom McCall (R) retired
Pennsylvania: incumbent Bob Casey Sr. (D) over Arlen Specter (R)
South Carolina: incumbent Fritz Hollings (D) over Marshall T. Mays (R)
South Dakota: Frank Farrar (R) over incumbent George McGovern (D)
Utah: incumbent Jake Garn (R) over Dan Berman (D)
Vermont: incumbent George Aiken (R) over Stella Hackel (Progressive) and Pete Diamondstone (Liberty Union)
Washington: Catherine Dean May (R) over Allen Byron Swift (D); incumbent Daniel J. Evans (R) retired
Wisconsin: incumbent Roman R. Blenski (R) over Lynn Ellsworth Stalbaum (D)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



KSWczQY.png


[pic: imgur.com/KSWczQY ]

…Javits’ attempts to downplay the obvious seriousness of his Lou Gehrig’s disease diagnosis proved unpopular and allowed Biaggi to effectively run on the slogan “Biaggi: The Honest One”… Biaggi became one of only two Democrats - both conservative - to defeat a Republican incumbent in the US Senate that night...

– clickopedia.co.usa



United States House of Representatives results, 1980

Date: November 4, 1980
Seats: All 435
Seats needed for majority: 218
New House majority leader: Robert H. Michel (R-IL)
New House minority leader: Morris K. Udall (D-AZ) (retiring)
Last election: 217 (R), 218 (D)
Seats won: 239 (R), 196 (D)
Seat change: R ^ 22, D v 22

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



VICTORIA GRAY ADAMS WINS HOUSE SEAT!

…Adams, 54, will be the first African-American congresswoman elected from Mississippi… Adams, a longtime Democratic political activist, ran a successful grassroots campaign on the slogan “vote, vote, vote your way out of poverty”… Of the few Democratic gains of the night, Adams was one of the most left-leaning of the victors...

The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi newspaper, 11/4/1980



United States Governor election results, 1980

Date: November 4, 1980
State governorship elections held: 13
Seats before: 29 (D), 20 (R), 1 (I)
Seats after: 26 (D), 23 (R), 1 (I)
Seat change: D v 3, R ^ 3, I - 1

Full list:
Arkansas: incumbent Orval Faubus (D) over Frank D. White (R)
Delaware: incumbent Joseph Biden (D) over Andrew Foltz (R) and George Cripps (Conservative)
Illinois: John B. Anderson (R) over Neil F. Hartigan (D); incumbent Paul Simon (D) retired
Indiana: Dan Quayle (R) over John A. Hillenbrand (D); incumbent Danny Lee Burton (R) retired
Missouri: incumbent Bill Bradley (D) over Bill Phelps (R)
Montana: Martin J. “Red” Beckman (D) over Jack Ramirez (R); incumbent Thomas Lee Judge (D) retired
New Hampshire: Walter Rutherford Peterson Jr. (R) over Thomas B. Wingate (D); incumbent Malcolm McLane (D) retired
North Carolina: incumbent Jim Hunt (D) over Jesse Helms (R)
North Dakota: Ruth Meiers (D) over Ernest Sands (R); incumbent Aloha Pearl Taylor Brown Eagles (R) retired
Utah: incumbent Vernon Bradford Romney (R) over David S. King (D)
Vermont: Richard A. Snelling (R) over M. Jerome Diamond (D), Daniel E. Woodward (I) and Bruce Cullen (I); incumbent Stella B. Hackel (D) retired
Washington: Daniel J. Evans (R) over incumbent Julia Butler Hansen (D)
West Virginia: incumbent Jay Rockefeller (D) over Arch A. Moore Jr. (R) and Jack Kelley (I)

– knowledgepolitics.co.usa



RHODE ISLAND VOTERS PASS REFERENDUM APPROVING “FREE AND UNIVERSAL” HEALTH CARE REFORM LAW

The Boston Globe, 11/5/1980



SMALL FIRE INJURES 7 AT THE STRIP’S MGM GRAND HOTEL AND CASINO

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, 11/21/1980



1 December 1980: KNN, America’s first 24-hour news channel, covering “all the news, all the time,” unveils its official logo

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[pic: imgur.com/2iQI98T ]

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



Divorce is tricky business. You have to determine what is in who’s best interest – and how your children will handle it. I gave Mike the courtesy of waiting until after the Presidential election, and then separated from him in December 1980. We finally signed divorce papers in September 1981...

– Rita Martin Gravel’s memoir, Through My Eyes, Simon & Schuster, 1995



THE 1980s: THE DENTON DECADE?

…Denton will become the first President elected from the Deep South since Zachary Taylor was elected President from Louisiana in 1848, and Lamar Alexander will, at the age of 40, become the young person to begin serving as Vice President since John C. Breckenridge entered the office in 1860…

– Time Magazine, mid-December 1980 issue



TENNESSEE GOVERNOR JAKE BUTCHER INDICTED OVER CONNECTIONS TO BANK FRAUD; State Legislators Nearing Impeachment Decision

– The Chicago Tribune, 12/18/1980



DENTON VISITS WHITE HOUSE, MEETS WITH MONDALE: Sources Say Transition Talks Are “Amicable” As Inauguration Nears

The Washington Post, 12/20/1980



“I think it’s important for us to remember how the African-American vote was divided in this race. African-Americans typically prefer the Democratic nominee over what that party did for them eighteen years ago, but Hoff won over many of them by talking about the issues they are concerned about now. And the Republican party won a decent portion of the African-American vote, too. My point is that African-Americans refuse be lumped into one category and vote en mass for the one party every time. I think Ed [Brooke] and I are proof that the Republican Party are winning over African-American voters.”

– US Senator James Meredith, 12/21/1980 interview



The Five Best and Worst Aspects of the Walter Mondale Presidency

The Best Aspects


1 Labor Union Strength – Mondale was the “dream” President of the unions as such organizations expanding in size and increased their voice in industrial decisions. Also, Mondale’s Attorney Generals worked diligently to punish violators of workplace safety laws

2 Foreign Affairs – Intervention was much more successful in Uganda and Ethiopia than in Angola, while his Secretary of State oversaw multi-party peace talks in the Middle East

3 Economic Inequality Reduction – Mondale tried to tie a boss’s salary to his company’s success, but found better success at this at the state level, and only prior to 1978.

4 Emergency Relief – federal organizations and departments swiftly went to work addressing multiple disasters in his second term.

5 Basic Needs Expansion – From health care to Social Security, Mondale took a moderate-to-liberal approach. His founding of an "Education Corps" to attract bright and dedicated young people to teaching careers, and help the teachers already in the classroom to sharpen their skills [13] was a game-changer.

The Worst Aspects

1 The Crash of ’78 – The drop in consumer confidence ushered in questions over the administration’s spending habits.

2 Budget Concerns – the runaway cost of welfare programs put the country in the red, which led to a reactionary affect in the 1980 election.

3 Business Regulations - subjectively “suffocating” business regulations increased sweatshops overseas, largely in South America and parts of India, as major corporations expanded clandestine methods for keeping expenses down and profits up, especially following the 1978 recession.

4 Attacks on NASA – disliking the idea of risking human lives, there were no new moon landings scheduled during the Mondale years, prompting the agency to focus more on unmanned missions at a time when the US-USSR Space Race was still going.

5 Political Infighting – public feuding between Mondale and his Vice President weakened the Democratic Party

– The President Walter F. Mondale National Historic Site website, c. 2025



With Speaker Mo Udall retiring, the Democratic Party’s new (minority) leader became Hale Boggs of Louisiana, with Congressman Nick Begich of Alaska becoming party’s new whip. …In the House GOP, the moderate Speaker-in-waiting Robert Michel successful repelled a leadership challenge from conservative and fellow Illinoisan Congressman Phil Crane. The Congressman chosen to be the new GOP whip was a much newer House member. Joseph John Polonko Jr., born July 24, 1939, was an Army Captain who was shot in the legs during the Cuban War in 1964. Turning to politics, Polonko was elected a Freeholder in his native New Jersey 1967, and then was elected to the US House in 1970…

– Gary C. Jacobson’s The Power and the Politics of Congressional Elections, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015



…we have just confirmed that Wesley Powell, the Republican freshman Senator and former Governor of New Hampshire, passed away last night from a sudden illness. He was 65 years old. Powell died just three days after being sworn into the US Senate to serve a term he had won this past November; this makes him one of the short-serving Senators in US history. …New Hampshire will likely hold a new special election for his seat this November for the remainder of his term…

– ABC Morning News, 1/7/1981



"Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, President Sanders, Vice President Alexander, Vice President Gravel, Speaker Udall, Reverend Moomaw, and my fellow citizens: …The time has come for the elimination of suppressive taxes and for Americans to finally benefit from the taxes they pay. A time for strong leadership on the world stage and in congress. As we enter a new era, we look at ourselves and the way we live, and look at how our fellow man lives oversees. And we see that all nations and civilizations share a universal truth – that the family is the engine that drives civilization. Throughout history, those cultures that have failed to found their rules and attitudes of society on the central importance of the family unit have decayed and disintegrated. [11] The next four, maybe eight years in this country are going to see hard work from only our factory workers and farmers no more – we are going to see hard work from this Capital Building, and from our military, and, I assure you, from a certain white house right down the road over that-a-ways. …Founded on faith in God, the United States has been blessed as no other nation. [11] And as we move forward in this decade, it is our duty and responsibility to share the freedoms that we are blessed with here to all the people of the world who wish to be free like us. Thank you all, God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America!”

– Jeremiah Denton, 1/20/1981


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[pic: https://imgur.com/Usbzb07.png ]
Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr., the 38th President of the United States of America



JEREMIAH DENTON’S ADMINISTRATION AT THE START OF 1981

Cabinet:
Secretary of State: former Governor Donald Edgar “Buz” Lukens (R-OH)
Secretary of the Treasury: former Undersecretary of the Treasury Thelma Stovall (R-KY)
Undersecretary of the Treasury: banker and former C.O.O. of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board Preston Martin (R-DC)
Secretary of Defense: retired US Navy Admiral John Sidney “Jack” McCain Jr. (I-HI)
Attorney General: Providence Mayor Vincent Albert “Buddy” Cianci Jr. (R-RI)
Postmaster General: incumbent Postmaster General William F. Bolger (D-WI)
Secretary of the Interior: former Governor Jay Hammond (R-AK)
Secretary of Agriculture: US Representative Richard Roudebush (R-IN)
Secretary of Commerce: banker and former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Alfred Hayes Jr. (I-NY)
Secretary of Labor: former White House Chief Domestic Policy Advisor Whitney Young (R-KY)
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: retiring US Representative Robert John Cornell (D-WI)
Secretary of Transportation: outgoing US Senator James D. Martin (R-AL)

Cabinet-Level Positions:
Director of Central Intelligence (the CIA): former US Representative and former RNC Chairperson George H. W. Bush (R-TX)
Director of the Federal Bureau of Information (FBI): incumbent Director William Mark Felt Sr. (D-ID)
US Trade Representative (TR): US Representative and former car salesman Hugh Gallen (R-NH)
Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA): US Representatives Thomas Beverley Evans Jr. (R-DE)
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): former Administrator of the National Roadways Safety Administration, former Secretary of Transportation, and incumbent EPA Administrator Ralph Nader (I-CT)

The President’s Executive Office:
White House Chief of Staff: former White House Counsel and political strategist F. Clifton “Cliff” White (R-NY)
Deputy White House Chief of Staff: political organizer Paul Michael Weyrich (R-WI)
White House Counsel: political organizer and 1980 GOP nominee for Governor of North Carolina Jesse Helms (R-NC)
Counselor to the President: former RNC Chairperson Mary Louise Smith (R-IA)
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: professor of surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine and political activist Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson (R-MA)
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: banker and former Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Paul Adolph Volcker Jr. (D-NJ)
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: retired US Army Colonel and former advisor to California Governor Ronald Reagan Louis O. Giuffrida (R-CA)
Chief National Security Advisor: retired US Air Force General and former US Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis Emerson LeMay (R-OH)
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: former Governor Crawford Fairbanks Parker (R-IN)
White House Communications Director: political activist and GOP nominee for a US Congressional seat in 1978 and 1980 Newton Gingrich (R-GA)
White House Press Secretary: journalist and syndicated columnist for The Washington Times Donald Lambro (R-MA)

Other Notable Members:
Solicitor General (representative of the Federal Government before the US Supreme Court): Dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School Rex Edwin Lee (R-UT)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: US Army Major General John Kirk Singlaub (R-CA)
Federal Reserve Chairman: academic heterodox economist and political theorist Murray Newton Rothbard (R-NY)
NASA Director: incumbent Director Harold Brown (D-NY)

Notable US Ambassadors (in alphabetical order):
To China: former state party chair, former Undersecretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and former Undersecretary of Defense Caspar Willard Weinberger (R-CA)
To France: diplomat Joan Margaret Clark (I-NJ)
To Indonesia: former Ambassador to Ghana Shirley Temple Black (R-CA)
To Iran: former Ambassador to Malta Lowell Bruce Laingen (I-MN)
To Ireland: former Boston Mayor John L. Saltonstall Jr. (R-MA)
To Mexico: former US Representative and political activist Benjamin “Boxcar Ben” Fernandez (R-CA)
To Nicaragua: former US Representative Bert Nettles (R-AL)
To Turkey: diplomat, professor, geopolitical theorist and former Ambassador to Sir Lanka and the Maldives Robert Strausz-Hupé (R-DC)
To the UK: outgoing US Representative J. Herbert Burke (R-FL)
To the UN: outgoing Counselor of the US State Department on European Affairs and former US Ambassador to Finland Rozanne Lejeanne Ridgway (R-MN)
To the USSR: foreign policy analyst and Georgetown University professor Earl Cedric Ravenal (R-DC)
To Yugoslavia: former US Congressman and former Administrator of the Small Business Administration Marshall Joyner Parker (R-SC)

– DentonPresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_members/1981



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Italicized parts are directly from Denton’s Wikipedia article
[2] Mentioned here: https://www.inc.com/business-insider/when-billionaires-made-their-first-million.html
[3] Italicized parts of quote found in “Kim McQuaid’s The Anxious Years, 1989, p. 245”
[4] Found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Kentucky#cite_ref-70
[5] Pulled from wiki: “Knoxville federal and state bank investigators had long suspected that Butcher was engaged in unlawful banking practices [prior to rumors that began to circulate in 1982].” (Tapped Out, Time magazine, February 28, 1983)
[6] Similar to OTL results created by the Great Society programs according to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society#cite_note-50 and, more directly, https://web.archive.org/web/20090116143323/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=372
[7] Legal!: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/nyregion/growing-body-of-law-allows-prosecution-of-foreign-citizens-on-us-soil.html
[8] OTL Scoop Jackson quote
[9] Ibid., found here: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_M._Jackson
[10] Italicized parts are from OTL: http://www.4president.org/brochures/scoopjackson1972brochure.htm
[11] Italicized parts are from OTL: https://www.azquotes.com/author/32983-Jeremiah_Denton
[12] According to this page on decontaminating irradiated parks: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-4-431-55558-2_11
[13] Italicized bits from here: http://www.4president.org/brochures/1984/mondale1984brochure.htm

farmerted555 said:
Next thing you know, Richard Ramirez kills Henry Lee Lucas.
Hmm, now there's an idea...
President Roosevelt said:
Not gonna lie, I'd like Scoop picking Jimmy Carter. He's a southerner, populist, could bring the religious vote, reliable for advice especially foreign affairs as he is the SecState, he needs a good relationship unlike Mondale and Gravel which I think that Carter could give, and I think he would be good as the Republican nominees are both southern thus using Carter as a bullet against them.

But it depends on you @gap80
Thank you very much for the input! It is greatly appreciated!

DTF955Baseballfan said:
How badly is Portland impacted by the number of people leaving, I wonder. Do Paul Allen and Bill Gates, from somewhat nearby Seattle, get involved to try to help the area? Do the Trail Blazers of the NBA consider a move? Perhaps Allen - who owned them and the Seattle Seahawks at the time of his death - invests in them early to keep them around, though I don't know if he'd have much money in 1980.

The Kennedy News Network, being closer to the accident, may get their first major breakthrough covering it, just as ABC's NIghtline put several people on the map with the hostage crsisis. Or, one could argue that TTL Nightline starts in order to cover the nuclear accident.

Good points - I'll cover them in the next chapter!
Ogrebear said:
1) Nice chapter there @gap80

2) Very glad the Colonel is still alive! Wonder if he’d like a trip to sort out South Africa?

3) American and Soviet nuclear disasters so close together, plus St Helens on top of that? Environmental concerns should be very high this election indeed.

4) Has PM Foot made any moves re leaving NATO and disarmament, or is the still strong Cold War tempering his hand?

That’s one hot summer!
Click to expand...
1) Thanks!

2) Great idea!

3) Indeed!

4) Still in NATO due to concerns over Suslov's bellicose/anti-detente reign.
AndyWho said:
I may think that the Colonel may be a star for this TL, but I don't think he could have turned back the clock. That was his 90th birthday, not 70th
Dude, it's his daughter's birthday.

Anyhoo, here's the next chapter's E.T.A.: soon!
 
Post 40
Post 40: Chapter 48

Chapter 48: February 1981 – December 1981

“Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.”

– Stephen King



Denton laid out an ambitious agenda before his inner circle, a collection of diverse lawmakers, policy pros and wheeler-dealers from across the political spectrum. Leading State was the bulldog-ish and brash Buz Lukens, but Denton made history by selecting the battle-worn Thelma Stovall for Treasury – the highest-ranking position ever given to a woman at the time. In fact, Denton’s administration had a fair number of female workers; the most notable one, though, may have been the African-American neophyte Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson, Denton’s Chief Domestic Policy Advisor. Jefferson would later recant how during White House meetings “[Labor Secretary] Whitney Young kept me from being the only Black in Denton’s inner circle, and counselor Mary Louise Smith kept me from being the only woman in Denton’s inner circle, but I was still the only Black woman in said inner circle. White house Counsel Jesse Helms didn’t makes things easy for me. Every time we found ourselves in the same room, he would behave most unprofessionally, sneering at my presence, quietly signing offense songs as if to taunt me, and other putdowns and forms of borderline workplace pestering that had no place anywhere, especially the White House.” Helms led the conservative voice, while Jefferson joined the liberals vying for the President ear…

…Denton wanted to bring America back to the prosperity of the 1950s, even if that meant bringing in supporters deemed by others to be too radical for the White House. As the harsh realities of the Presidency sank in, Denton found himself quickly learning which ideologies worked and which did not. Nevertheless, Denton was determined to keep Communism at bay, but also “crazy domestic heads” who he believed endangered personal freedoms. In one cabinet meeting, Denton proclaimed “I support the so-called Triple-R Front, the “Radical” Religious Right, because teen hoodlums do nothing to help the economy, the military, our even their families! Too many teens are just underage bums!” He exclaimed before ranting about the decline in “family values” in the states.

“Is he always like this?” Jefferson once asked WH Chief of Staff and political strategist Cliff White.

White replied simply, “He found God in a Cuban POW camp. What do you think?”

But Denton also had an effervescent interest in foreign affairs. He believed it was one’s onus to protect one’s country, especially if one is the President. He told his first Secretary of Defense, Jack McCain, that under his administration, “Our military will never slummock!”...

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



Under Denton, the US Defense Department began to study the possibility of intervention in communist-leaning nations such as Myanmar, Indonesia, and Mozambique. Angola, however, topped the list. Ever since President Mondale had quietly withdrawn troops in 1978, after three years and no progress, warhawks urged the new President to “finish the intervention we started.” However, Defense Secretary McCain believed in would be more beneficial to keep focus on the developments in the Soviet Union itself, rather than on “minor” third-world nations that, in his view, posed no risk to either the nation’s security or the Domino Effect.

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



The rise of Japan being hailed as this “economic miracle” for expanding its GDP and maintaining prosperity in the post-“Crash of ’78” world economy gave me pause. I decided we had to study what was keeping them so well-off to figure how they were outpacing us of customer satisfaction, safety and sales… In early 1981, to keep American markets from being flooded with foreign cars, we decided to adopt the Japanese method of “lean production,” and applied it to factories to dredge up ideas on how to improve the cars – improves that would cover the Big Four: the cars needed to be fast, sexy, safe, and affordable.

– Lee Iacocca (with William Novak)’s Iacocca: An Autobiography, Bantam Books, 1984



The early 1980s saw John Y. Brown Jr. attempt one more endeavor to make a name for himself in the fast-food industry. In contrast to his experience with McDonald’s, KFC, and Ollie’s Trolleys – in which he attempted to control another person’s passion projects – Brown founded his own food venture, which he called “JYB Chicken.” Found in January 1981, the JYBC chain was meant to rival both KFC and Chick-fill-A in the fried chicken market, but the effort faced trouble from the beginning. Not only did Brown fail to stand out above competitors, but his food was considered to be of low quality – even by fast-food standards – and, arguably more heinously for the customers, overcharged. Once again, Brown’s care for only potential profits yielded him none. Several lawsuits over alleged violations of worker rights culminated in Brown closing all JYB Chicken locations by the end of 1984 to pay off fines and court fees.

From then on, Brown stuck strictly to sports and politics, dabbling in several basketball and football teams alongside serving on political panels as a news guest on the Overmyer Network during the next several Kentucky elections…

– e-article “John Y. Brown Jr.: A Case For Quality,” insiderlousiville.com, 2012



Washington sought to develop allies on the city council to keep his vetoes from being overturned. Alderman Edward Vrdolyak attempted to de facto run the city during Washington’s first term by founding a coalition of 28 like-minded aldermen who opposed Washington’s appointments. Fortunately, the group often lacked the 30 votes needed to override mayoral vetoes, allowing Washington to pass legislation to increase trash pickup, expand police responsibilities, and establish “Communication Meetings” between local police stations and the communities they protected in order to lower police brutality incidents. In the 1979 elections, supporters of Washington concentrated on the 29 “opponents of change” by leading a grassroots collection of progressive and moderate Democrats and Democratic candidates supportive of Washington. On election night, a more friendly city council was voted in, clearing out many of Vrdolyak’s allies and leaving him with a coalition of just 11 anti-Washington aldermen. Washington spent much of his second term working with the city school board to lower school violence and raise test scores in low-income areas…

– Gary Rivlin’s Fire on The Prairie: Chicago’s Harold Washington, Henry Holt & Company Publishing, 1992



Foot took a moderate approach to Ireland, walking what he called “the delicate tightrope” established by the treaties, negotiations and resolutions passed during the 1970s. He credited the efforts of US Senator Kennedy-Shriver as being instrumental in normalizing relations with Ireland in 1981 and 1982. …The United Kingdom was certainly not the “sick man” of Western Europe any longer by the start of the 1980s. Income per head and expendable income were on the rise, and, subsequently, consumer spending was rising as well, making the ’80s out to be a rather materialistic time in UK history. The coal industry died with an unenthusiastic whimper as North Sea gas and oil, export revenues, and early investments in wind and solar power yielded suitable results and made for acceptable replacements. However, trade union power and the nationalization of several industries was inhibiting growth, and inflation was beginning to rise by the end of 1982. Gradual tax hikes and Foot’s increasingly left-leaning positioning on social issues angered former moderate supporters and led to an overall drop in his popularity within the Labour party...

– Kenneth O. Morgan’s Putting Our Foots Down: The Days of Michael And The Years of Dingle, Guardian publications, 2011



ELTON JOHN, FLAMBOYANT SINGER OF “ROCKET MAN,” “TINY DANCER” AND OTHER HITS, DIES AT 33

…According to Bernard Taupin, the writer of John’s famous songs and a friend of the late singer and prominent member of the BLUTAGO community, John possibly overdosed on cocaine, a drug that John one overdosed on in 1975 [1]

– The New York Times, 2/12/1981



“This loss of life should not go into the records of history without leaving an impression. Mr. John is being buried today because of dangerous narcotics that are too harmful and unsuitable for average citizens to obtainment. These drugs – marijuana, cocaine and the like – are the new alcohol, tobacco and opium. They are the new vices of modern America. And if we do nothing about them, then the deaths of Mr. Jon and the all other souls taken from us by these dangerous narcotics will be in vein.”

– President Denton, 2/15/1981



HOUSE APPROVES OF PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT: Denton To Sign It Into Law “Soon” [2]

The Washington Times, 2/26/1981




SANDERS PRAISES DENTON’S CABINET, SAYS HE EXPECTS “GREAT THINGS” FROM THEM

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[pic: imgur.com / wxHDd9R ]
Above: Colonel Sanders in an interview last year

...with the final nominees of Denton's cabinet being approved this week, the former President supports Denton's compilation of "diverse" and "professional" individuals...

The Birmingham Post-Herald, Alabama newspaper, 2/2/1981



DENTON ANNOUNCES FEDERAL PAYROLL REDUCTION INTENT FOR OVER 60,000 EMPLOYEES BY THE END OF 1982

…the decision comes as Denton attempts to “reign in the irresponsible spending habits” of the Mondale administration with budget cut packages and a planned tax “readjustment” bill…

The Chicago Tribune, 3/6/1981



It is debatable whether or not Denton was truly fiscally moderate at heart. His tenure as governor was more conservative-leaning, while his Presidency was more to the center. An often-overlooked explanation is the quiet behind-the-scenes power of House Speaker Michel. With a mix of grace, humor and battle-tested bravery,” [3] Michel spearheaded bipartisan deficit-reduction bills with genuine respect for his fellow lawmakers that effectively translated into collaborative work efforts. …Another example of Michel’s powerful influence was the deregulation of radio programming that occurred in 1981. The FCC ceased enforcing the Fairness Doctrine, devolving it into a guideline of sorts, allowing one-sided radio stations to form as the years went by…

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



COLONEL SANDERS VISITS CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, GIVES CALL PEACEFUL END TO APARTHEID

…Upon arriving in Cape Town, Sanders explained that he had discussed the anti-Apartheid warfare with several experts on both sides of the issue in order to “fully understand” situation. “Well folks, because I don’t want to give any of y’all diabetes, I won’t sugarcoat it. The situation ravaging South Africa is dire, and everyone who can do something about it has the responsibility to get hoppin’ like a frog on a hot plate and go do it,” he explained for entering the House of Assembly building. When Colonel Sanders spoke before an almost-full House of Assembly, he demanded the nation’s white-led government negotiate with rioters in order to end the increasingly unpopular Apartheid system “quickly and peacefully.” …When asked about his continuous activism at the age of 91, the Colonel explained, “I’ve got no idea when I am going to retire. Whenever they pick me up and take me to the funeral home, I guess. Sitting in a rocker never appealed to me, and golf or fishing isn’t as much fun as working.” He also humorously stated “I don’t fear that a man will wear out as quickly as he will rust out.” [4]

N0eMmCD.png


[pic: imgur.com/N0eMmCD.png ]
The Colonel, outside the airport at Cape Town

The Daily Telegraph, 14/3/1981



CONGRESS SIGNS OFF ON AID INITIATIVE

…based on a successful program he established while Governor, President Denton has gotten Congress to agree to establish an international aid initiative to allow donors to use space available on military cargo planes to transport humanitarian goods and agricultural equipment to countries in need [5]

The Houston Chronicle, 3/16/1981



The level of public hostility toward government appears to have been particularly high during the ’twenties and the ’fifties – the two decades in this century when corporate political hegemony was most secure. [6] Under President Denton, history repeated the trend a third time in a way not seen under Colonel Sanders, most likely on account of Denton leaving more aspects of the economy to his more business-friendly cabinet members, while Sanders had engaged in some aspects of the economy – most notably when it came to fair wages. …Denton’s economic advisors seemed to fail to remember that the New Deal was due to the idea of a self-regulating market failing in 1929 worse than the Reagan ’76 campaign and the Ford Edsel unveiling combined.

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



US SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JACK MCCAIN IS DEAD AT AGE 70

The Washington Post, 3/22/1981



DENTON REVERSES MONDALE’S THORIUM ENERGY POLICY

…despite continued fears of nuclear meltdowns, the Denton administration has cut federal funding for research into the use of Thorium as a safer nuclear-based energy source…

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 3/28/1981



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– Colonel Sanders making a brief cameo in the Jerry Lewis film “Hardly Working”; filmed in 1979, the film was released in Europe in 1980 but not in the United States until 4/3/1981



DENTON SIGNS PASSES ABSTINENCE EDUCATION BILL INTO LAW

…After its introduction in January, followed by a smooth bicameral committee consideration and scheduling period in February, and floor presentations in each chamber last month, Denton signed into law one of the biggest pieces of legislation worked on in his first 100 days…

The Washington Post, 4/5/1981



In Botswana, Abram O. Tiro continued to coordinate operations with Steve Biko. On the side, however, the teacher-activist also began working with local leaders in Namibia over possible public works projects for Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Major water transportation and railroad projects seemed impossible at a time of war, but the ideas nevertheless stayed with both Tiro and Biko…

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016



SCIENTISTS FIND RADIATION LEVELS HIGH ALONG IRAN’S CAPSIAN SEA COAST: Suslov Swears “It Is Our Duty To Help Iran”

– The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union, USSR news agency, 4/15/1981 announcement



HOST: …Also today on Capitol Hill, President Denton signed a bill into law that will deregulate the American beer industry by making it legal for American sellers to sell hops, malt, and yeast to American home brewers, which has been prohibited at the federal level since 1920 as a lasting legacy of the nation’s Prohibition era… When asked for his opinion on the passage of the bill, former President Sanders had this to say:

SANDERS (in footage): “I ain’t for it. You can’t legislate morality, but you can influence it with legislation. And this here bill will only encourage more folk to take to makin’ the vice on their own. And liquor is already dangerous without inexperienced folks blowin’ off their faces with backyard stills.”

HOST: The Colonel reportedly talked to Senator Nixon soon afterwards, who then was seen visiting the White House. Tellingly, just minutes ago, the White House Press Secretary told reporters that the President is now considering pushing for an amendment to the bill that will require safety features to be in place prior to home brewery commencing…

– The Overmyer Network’s Political Parlay, 4/20/1981 broadcast



…Crazy news item here, just in from the Caribbean Island of Dominica, where apparently, a group of white supremacists have been arrested for attempting to overthrow that country’s Government. And get this – the leader of this band of neo-Nazis is Don Black, the current Grand Wizard of the KKK. Now this story is ridiculous. Apparently, Black and eight others traveled from Louisiana to Dominica on a boat full ammo – we’re talking autos, semi-autos, rifles, dynamite – and a Nazi flag. But Dominican and American officials got wind of their plan because someone they had approached told the cops about them, and when they got into port, they immediately were arrested…

– WDRC-AM’s 4/27/1981 radio broadcast



“The President would like to thank law enforcement for their quick action during this situation, and the people of Dominica’s law enforcement offices. They were very helpful in our efforts to prevent what very could have become a very terrible turn of events.”

– White House Press Secretary Don Lambro, 4/27/1981



With President Denton “distracted” by legislation, Suslov believed, the Soviet Premier invested money, weapons and agents into assisting pro-Ayatollah Khomeini rebel armies in Iran. Maybe it was meant to distract hardliners in the Soviet military from Suslov’s poor handling of Romania and other Warsaw Pact members. Maybe it was meant to renew a national sense of the USSR’s conquest capabilities. Either way, Suslov believed that Iran was vulnerable to Soviet influence. In April 1981, Suslov announced that he would be sending aid to Iran, claiming that radiation from Aktau spreading into Iran required Soviet troop deployment to Iran’s northern coast. Additional claims that the Shah was performing human rights violations against supporters of the Ayatollah muddied the waters, though, and maybe that was the point of it. Regardless, the “aid” reached the Ayatollah’s followers in Iran in earnest…

– Victor Cherkashin’s Adamant: The Rulers of the USSR and the KGB, Basic Books, 2005



In his memoirs, the unofficial leader of the mass uprising during the start of the 1980s, the 25-year-old pastor Laszlo Tokes of the western city of Timisoara explains how after Suslov tried to remove Eleni from power to quell the riots, she refused to stepdown and the rioters refused to stay under the yolk of the USSR. “We knew what would happen if we accepted a changing of the guard. We would return to starving for days instead of for weeks. We’d have to watch what we said and thought aloud only most of the time instead of all of the time. But the revolution had given each of us a taste of freedom, of voicing our complaints as loudly as we could, and we were not going to give it up so easily.”

Suslov responded by sending Red Army tanks into Romania, entering the country to both remove Eleni and to suppress the riots. “But the Romanian people,” Tokes writes, “whether urban or rural, mountain folk or plains dwellers, Transylvanian or Wallachian – even most of the Romanian military, with many of its commanding officers being trained by Soviet Union – all fought back with everything they had. Even after Elena fled from the lavish Presidential Palace, the fighting against Soviet Troops continued, now Eleni’s replacement, who we called ‘Suslov’s latest puppet.’”

– Vladimir Tismaneanu’s Stalinism For All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Third Edition, 2023



“With this legislation, we are taking the first steps necessary to get rid of harmful drugs. Not the clean, over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs, but the dangerous and deadly drugs that our nation’s young are foolishly using for recreational purposes. These recreational drugs – the recreadrugs – can ruin our children’s lives and tear families apart. They are an enemy of sorts in that they are weakening our nation. And when an enemy threatens you, you declare war on that enemy. Recreadrugs are the enemy, and this is our declaration of war. …I support the start of a nationwide campaign to stop our children from taking narcotics, to nip this problem in the bud. We have to educate our young on the dangers of smoking weed, pot, crack, cocaine, and all the other junk out there, so when someone tries to get them to take some, not only will they just say no, but they’ll know why to just say no. With strong anti-drug programs and efforts nationwide, when our children think of drugs, they’ll think ‘No, and here’s why’.”

– President Denton upon signing the Drug Abuse Prevention bill into law, 4/28/1981



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– President Denton is presented with a “Tax Ax” while celebrating the passing of the 1981 Tax Reform Act, 4/28/1981



…In regards to economic policy, within his first 100 days Denton worked with congress and economic advisors such as Murray Rothbard to establish a 1981 budget meant to produce a budget surplus within a year. To contextualize what this means, remember that 1973 was the last time the budget was a surplus, not a deficit, as Mondale’s investments into social programs raised the national debt, especially after the 1978 economic crash occurred. Denton seeks to reverse this by cutting taxes in order to raise consumer spending, which should increase manufacturing and lower employment. Budget cuts to several federal departments means that state governments will be picking up the slack, and have more responsibility for the effectiveness of state-centric services. …The current deficit is 3.4 percent of the national GDP, while the US public debt counts for over 25 percent of the nation’s GDP…

The New York Times, 4/29/1981



THIS SUMMER’S BREAK-OUT STARS: LAWRENCE HILTON-JACOBS AND DENZEL WASHINGTON; Interviews: Rising Fame And Expanding Role Possibilities For Blacks In Hollywood!

Jet, weekly magazine, early September 1981 issue



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[pic: imgur.com/yQCIhue.png ]
Above: Dad, with me in the background (I’ve always had the same style of glasses – if Dad can keep the suit, I can keep the glasses!)

I had been running the Finger Lickin’ Good Inc. Corporation since 1964. After fifteen years, I decided to scale back my involvement. The company was doing better than ever in 1981. Younger Americans, both liberal and conservative, were returning to the 30-years-old franchise; whatever they thought of Dad’s policies, they could all agree that his chicken was the best. Of course, Dad was a bit confused as to why I’d scale back my workload. I explained “I want to focus exclusively on our KFC restaurant chains and leave the ‘big umbrella’ stuff to a younger and more energetic go-getter.”

“Who do you have in mind?” he asked.

“I want to keep it in the family. That’s why I’m getting the board of directors to go for Lee Cummings.”

Lee Cummings was a nephew of Dad and the operator of KFC-Midwest (operations from Ohio to Minnesota) since 1963. He was the one who created a special “Lip-Smackin’ Good” Alternate Recipe based on “Lee’s Secret Recipe” that he offered exclusively in Midwest KFC outlets. While the Alternate Recipe never caught on, he kept it on the menu “in case it’s too ahead of its time,” he argued. Overweight and greying, he looked the part of someone old enough to know his way around the business but still young enough to be open to fresh new ideas.

“I remember how he would occasionally come with me during my road trips, back when I would drive from place to place selling my chicken at four cents a bird,” Dad revealed. “Around ’54 or so, I believe.”

“Really? I don’t remember that.”

“Heh, well, ya never asked,” he smiled [7]. After showing him my plans to reorganize the executive teams for the KFC outlets in the US and to improve the quality of KFCs in Mexico by working with smaller local chicken farms, Dad gave it all his blessing of approval.

Below: Lee in 1984
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– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000



Denton picking Alexander to be his running mate changed the dynamic of the President-VP relationship. Typically, the President and Vice President were rarely on friendly terms at the start of their shared terms, and by the end of their time together would be at each other’s throats. In 1928, for example, Calvin Coolidge, a typically silent man, went out of his way to discourage that year’s RNC from re-nominating VP Dawes for a second term. …VP Alexander had more power and influence than any VP since Nixon. Several Alexander-led initiatives such as allowing prayer in public schools if students called for it were supported by both Alexander and Denton. Unlike Eisenhower’s infamous 1960 criticism of his VP, Denton appreciated Alexander’s own ideas and experience as Governor. As a result, Alexander would always sit in on cabinet meetings, and worked as an unofficial advisor of sorts for the President on both foreign and domestic issues.

– Jules Witcover’s The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power, Colonial Press, 2014



In May 1981, the Denton administration defunded both food stamps and WIC. They said the programs were vestigial due to the alleged success of the Negative Income Tax, but it cut off thousands of people, entire families, from food they badly needed. One of the first big names to step up the plate and decide to do something about it was Jeff Bridges, who was already a two-time Academy Award nominee by this point in time.

– Jim McGovern, 2009 interview



…Support for South Africa’s Apartheid was collapsing, and with it, the political careers of longtime anti-apartheid activists such as Helen Suzman and Harry Schwarz rose to national prominence. Suzman and Schwarz, both members of South African Parliament, proved instrumental in orchestrating the first of several meetings and negotiations between Prime Minister Botha, State President Marais Viljoen, Steve Biko, and Nelson Mandela, which lasted from 1981 to…

– Julian Brown’s The Road to Soweto: Resistance & Revolution in Post-Soweto South Africa, Jacana Publishers, 2016



US AMBASSADOR TO THE UN: SUSLOV’S REIGN IS “BARBARIC,” SAYS THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE DESERVE BETTER

New York City, NY – US Ambassador to the UN George H. W. Bush, the father of Astros pitcher George W. Bush, has called out the Soviet Union for its military combatting of mostly-peaceful anti-communist rebellions rising in prominence across several Warsaw Pact nations such as Romania, Poland, and Estonia. Ambassador Bush condemned the behavior, only for the Soviet Ambassador to the UN to cry “hypocrite,” and accused the United States of ousting “peaceful regimes” in Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In light of this claim that the dictatorship of Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, and the Pol Pot were “peaceful,” Bush shouted back “That’s a dirty rotten lie and everyone here knows it, even you!” The UN Secretary-General worked as a referee in cooling the situation…

– The Washington Post, 5/30/1981



THE COLONEL IS NOW OUR LONGEST-LIVED PRESIDENT

...Former President Harland “Colonel” Sanders today became 90 years and 248 days old, surpassing John Adam’s record as America’s longest-lived President… The Colonel claims he has “a second secret” that, unlike the one regarding certain herbs and spices, he is allowed to disclose. He claims the secret to living so long despite having served for eight years in one of the most stressful occupations on the planet is routine and staying active. Every day, former President Sanders rises at 4:30 AM and works a 14-hour day. “Farm-work makes a man or an invalid out of you,” he explains that he has taken to tending to the chickens on the farms owned by the KFC Corporation, officially entitled “Finger-Lickin’ Good Inc.,” across Kentucky, as well as to touring nationally and internationally to promote his world-famous chicken. He former President will also work as an unofficial goodwill ambassador when asked.

The Colonel sticks to not only an active daily schedule, but to a hearty-yet-healthy diet. For breakfast, he gulps down cornbread, cottage cheese, and sorghum molasses – “the same diet I had as a boy,” he recalls – but nevertheless keeps a watchful eye on his blood sugar levels. “I got my diabetes back into its corner, not I’m just gonna try and keep it there until I’ve done all I can possibly do. Then it’s my time to go, not before.” [8]

– The Lexington Herald-Tribune, 6/4/1981




DENTON SENDING “ADVISORY TROOPS” TO IRAN

The New York Times, 6/12/1981



Suslov was clearly funding the increase in pro-Khomeini cam bombs going off across Iran. The Soviets claimed that any detection of Soviet troops in the country were not there to train an anti-Western rebel army in an ad hoc enemy-of-thine-enemy alliance between the Soviets and the Ayatollah Khomeini, but to assist the locals to addressing nuclear fallout cleanup. The lie was not only insulting to the people who truly were suffering from radiation poising in the Turkestani soviets, but only worsened Russia’s standing on the world stage. Even with all of this considered, Denton would sit idly by and do nothing. He soon mirrored Suslov in sending in American forces “to also help the Shah remove radiation from area.”

The proxy war began quickly, with the most rural parts of the country seeing the heaviest of fighting between US-backed monarchist forces and USSR-backed conservative forces…

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



With warfare breaking out overseas distracting many Americans, President Denton quietly signed into law a tax “readjustment” bill that lowered the marginal income tax on the highest incomes from 70-to-90 percent to 50-to-70 percent. America’s middle class shared the brunt of this, but when asked about it, Denton replied by claiming ‘this will actually benefit them in the long term by creating rapid growth and more jobs as more money is freed up.” The claim that the rich would be compelled to give back to society, though, did not mesh with the fact that they already were giving back to society before via the 70-to-90% taxes. This fact, coupled with the fact that wealthy Americans had greater influence over where their money goes via fundraising and lobbyists, gave many Americans pause. Denton experienced a 5-point dip in his approval ratings for the next two weeks...

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



JUSTICE POTTER STEWART ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM SUPREME COURT

“I want to spend more time with my grandchildren while I’m still in good health.”

The Washington Post, 6/18/1981



Welcome Back, Kotter
was an American television series created by Gabe Kaplan that ran for five seasons, from September 1976 to June 1981. It followed a teacher named Gabriel Kotter as he attempts to educate a group of low-grade students called “the Sweathogs” with humor and understanding. The series was controversial in its first season for highlighting New York City’s education issues and for the more violent aspects of the show’s characters, as the city also suffering from a rise in violence and crime at the time. Kaplan defended these elements, deciding that these aspects of society needed to be portrayed in order for them to be addressed, and believed doing this via comedy was the best way to do so. [snip] The series’ second season included a 1978 crossover episode with characters from “Barney Miller,” a show that was also owned by ABC, despite Woodman (not present in said episode) once mentioning watching the show in Season One. The same episode also featured characters from the ABC TV show “Soap.” In said episode, the audience learns that Soap’s Danny is now a police officer working as an understudy of sorts for Barney Miller’s “Wojo” character, who inspects a burglary at Welcome Back, Kotter’s James Buchanan High School. [snip] Season 4 ended with actor John Travolta leaving the show; his character subsequently drops out of school at the start of the next season, and he makes some appearances afterward. [snip] The start of Season 5 saw the remaining Sweathogs having to repeat the twelfth grade; despite Kotter’s best efforts, their grades only improved from “F-“ to “F.” Despondent, Kotter considers quitting teaching, but, in a twist, is convinced to keep working by Woodman. [snip] The series ended with Arnold Horshack marrying Mary Johnson (a character introduced in Season 4), Juan Epstein becoming a cop’s apprentice (the character appearing sporadically in Barney Miller’s final three seasons, which aired from 1981 to 1984), and Freddie Washington receiving a college basketball scholarship from Seattle. The final scene is of Mr. Kotter saying goodbye to his students and closing up his classroom.

www.mediarchives.co.usa/TV/Welcome_Back,_Kotter



After serving as a member of thru National Assembly from 1956 to 1962, Jean-Marie Le Pen directed the unsuccessful 1965 Presidential campaign of right-wing politician Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour before founding a law firm and working in the music industry. In 1972, Le Pen ran for President on his own newly-formed party, the National Front (NF); he came in 7th place with just under 1%. His brand of nativism began to gain a small group of supporters following the 1978 recession, which Le Pen blamed squarely on Mitterrand. In the February 1979 election, the National Front won enough of the vote for him to be sent back to the National Assembly. There, Le Pen focused heavily on immigration, criticizing the EEC and, later, the European Union, and advocated for “traditional” French culture and values. The “law and order” platform of the National Front led to US Senator Mario Biaggi (D-NY) initially supporting Le Pen in May 1981, only to distance himself from Le Pen less than a month later due to political backlash in the states. Nevertheless, Le Pen’s calls for policies that would lower unemployment and eliminate poverty earned him a small-but-loyal following by the start of the 1980s. As a result, in France’s 21 June 1981 elections, The National Front achieved several victories in local and municipal elections, particularly in the south and east of France...

– Jonathan Marcus’ Le Pen: The Impact of The National Front on French Politics, Second Edition, New York University Press, 1999



Over in East Germany, the secret police went from being everywhere to being everywhere and then some. Figures followed anybody who acted even slightly unusual, and the number of people with minds of their own who disappeared rose. There was no way at all to fix, or to even voice opinion on, the horrible labor conditions that seemed to only worsen each year. Only the rich and/or well-connected could actually do anything, and even then, unless they were at the very top, there were limitations as to what one can actually do. Everyone else destitution and starving.

We had nothing. Thus, we had nothing left to lose.

What began as a fight on the docks at Rostock on July 3rd quickly grew into a campaign of following the figures who followed others, and “disappearing” those who would have others disappear. Soon the people trapped in East Berlin joined the list of those rebelling against Soviet oppression.

– Hester Vaizey’s Born in the GDR: Living in the Shadow of the Wall, Oxford University Press, 2016



Firstly, In order for foreign intervention to work, it must obtain the backing of a native organization – a major political party, a tribe, any influential authority that’s respected by the locals. Look at American intervention in Grenada, for example. Back in mid-July ’81, our Armed Forces executed a high-intensity, quick operation that was unrelated to major cultural or ethnic differences there. They simply went in, ousted the President they didn’t like, and quickly replaced him with a more US-friendly government. Uncle Sam felt secure, and Premier Suslov was outraged that his country couldn’t even keep an ally on an island nation not even a quarter the size of Rhode Island.

Secondly, only if the disruption of the incumbent political structure by violent force is legitimate can it be justified, because in these kind of cases – Grenada, Indochina, and the like – the American military isn’t defending America. Sure, the CIA and the USAF can make it look like an indigenous civil war is going on, if that’ll help, but the US will still provide our allies there with our First World expenses: intel, communications, logistics, medics, air support, and then let the people we are backing reach their own city gates. We let the local troops take the lead in victory parades. Let them have it – the defeat of the enemy is enough for the American war hawks. Especially since afterwards, the US controls the regime by giving ’em firepower, aide, and propaganda to promote, heh, their new leaders. That’s how it went down in places like Grenada and such.

– Anti-war activist David Cline, The Overmyer Network’s Political Parlay, 1999 broadcast



DOMINICAN COUP CONSPIRATORS GET 7 YEARS FOR WEAPONS SMUGGLING, OTHER VIOLATIONS

The Star-News, North Carolina newspaper, 7/23/1981



LEOTA CONVICTED: State Senate Finds Governor Guilty In impeachment Scandal, Removing Him From Office

Honolulu – Weeks of investigations into months of scandals have culminated in the state legislators removing Independent Governor Alema Leota from office. After the House formally impeached Leota of abuse of power and obstruction of justice last month, the Senate returned from Summer Break to vote to convict…

So likely ends the short but colorful political career Alema Leota. Born to Samoan immigrants, Leota allegedly headed Hawaii’s organized crime during the late 1960s. In 1974, Leota was acquitted of federal tax conspiracy charges. Two years later, Leota embarked on a self-described “crusade” against state corruption, vehemently denying criminal connections and claiming criminal organizations had the cooperation of the incumbent government (ironic, as this very thing has unfolded over the past three years). Upon election to the state senate on a “nonpartisan” banner, Leota defeated two controversial and gaffe-prone candidates to become Hawaii’s first Independent Governor...

…In another twist, though, the “smoking gun” that led to the fateful investigations against Leota was instead connected to nepotism, staff members’ connections to organized crime, and, most concretely, attempts to hide an improper use of campaign funds in 1978 to refurbish the governor’s office… Lieutenant Governor Tokio Ige is to succeed Leota immediately…

– The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7/25/1981



HAPPY BRITAIN GREETS OUR NEW PRINCESS
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…Over 750 million people worldwide tuned in to watch the royal wedding between Charles Prince of Wales and Lady Sarah Spencer [9]

The Daily Express, 29/7/1981



MLB STRIKE ENDS WITH PYRRHIC VICTORY FOR OWNERS

…The owner’s attempts to curb the extent of free agency was achieved with a compromise of restricting players from free agency until after two years [10] of major league service, but the victory came at the cost of losing the support of fans who blamed the owners for the strike in the first place. Labor leaders nationwide supported the players after the MLB Players Association voted unanimously to strike on May 29 over the owners’ attempts to challenge the free agency rules upheld in a federal court case twelve years ago…

– The Philadelphia Daily News, 7/31/1981



August 1, 1981: the music video television channel MTV is launched in the United States as music videos began growing in prominence in the record industry, with music artists such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Duran Duran, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper becoming major early utilizers of the channel’s potential.

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



…In response to no less than 50,000 people, including women and children, taking to the streets over food rations shortages in Lodz, Poland, Suslov finally sent in the Red Army on August 7th. For the third time in history, the USSR had invaded Poland. The Solidarity trade union, with its millions of members, defied the Polish government’s subsequent “emergency measures” such as martial law, raids, mass arrests and other crackdowns. As Solidarity members continued the broad, often non-violent social movement, they began to gain more sympathy from citizens across the rest of Europe…

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



REPORT: DENTON CUTTING O.D.E.R.C.A. AND E.P.A. BUDGETS TO CANCEL TO NATION’S DEFICIT

…the move may impede the effectiveness of these emergency services, which most pundits agreed proved invaluable in the immediate aftermath of the “Helen and Trojan” disasters that struck the American northwest in 1979 and 1980…

The Wall Street Journal, 8/12/1981



Since 1973, Libya had claimed the Gulf of Sidra of the central coast of the country to be entirely within their territorial waters despite international law arguing otherwise. This led to Libyan forces confronting other nations over the despite several times; the US had to minor run-ins in 1973 and 1980. While largely ignored under President Mondale, President Denton was more belligerent, and increased U.S. Air Force flights and operations in the region to indicate that the US would no longer tolerate the nation’s disregard for international agreements.

On August 19, Libyan Air Force responded by shooting down two US Air Force planes (of the combat air patrol variety), the Libyans on duty claiming later they believed they were being attacked. Being hit prompted the two planes (each carrying two officers) to fire back, injuring both vehicles. The damaged taken to their own planes, though, forced all four pilots to eject from their seats, to be picked up by the US Air Force. However, likely due to lingering anger over Atlanta Treaty, one Libyan pilot shot at the parachutes, killing two of the four men and injuring the other two.

In D.C., White House Press Secretary Donald Lambro attempted to calm reporters by reminding them of ongoing search-and-rescue operations to recover the downed officers and that the President was meeting with his new Secretary of Defense, William Westmoreland, along with Counselor to the President Mary Louise Smith and Chief National Security Advisor Curtis Emerson LeMay.

“This means war!” Westmoreland predicted, “Gaddafi’s been trying our patience long enough, and this time, he’s gone too far.”

Smith, the least militant of the four, instead offered “I think we should demand Libya punish the pilot, have him apologize, step down from, be court-martialed, something along those lines.”

LeMay disagreed, “Are you nuts? They killed two Americans – you can’t say ‘sorry’ to something as heinous as that.”

Playing defense, Smith said “A declaration of war over two deaths is much of an overreaction and its will just lead to more deaths.”

Around this time, a new report came in from our diplomats in Sirte, where the injured Libyan pilots had been taken. “An eye for an eye was made, Mary,” Denton confirmed, “Two of the Libyan pilots just croaked from the sluggers we gave ’em.”

While Denton later confessed that he secretly agreed with Westmoreland that the Libyans had “been let them off easy” from the incident, the “Sidra Showdown” (as the media called it) only worsened US-Libyan connections…

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



The 1981 strike returned to headline news months later when an investigation linked pitcher Donald Trump to an alleged scheme to work with other free-agency players to avoid competitive bidding for their services and to instead jointly negotiate with team owners for them. This is the textbook definition of an illegal practice known as “baseball collusion.” Upon the story breaking, Trump was quick to deny the story, swearing loyalty to the Phillies and infamously shouting “there was no collusion” several times at a gathering of reporters on August 20th. Trump’s claims, however, did not mesh with confessions from two other free agency players and three assistant coaches that had supported management during the strike that revealed that Trump sought to join the Yankees through a “package deal” of sorts. The MLBPA immediately filed collusion charges against Trump and four of the six others for violating the 1980 season’s collective bargaining agreement. The MLBPA won the cases, leading to owner fines being collected and the two free agency players being banned from the game for two seasons. Trump, though, was banned for five. In light of this, Trump announced that he was permanently retiring from Major League Baseball in order to pursue “other interests” that he did not wish to disclose at the time…

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



…In the Middle East, an Israeli design company has unveiled a new oil pump design that may prove to be far superior to current models. The pump design is the result of the company collaborating with power and energy companies in Egypt for a, quote, “mutually beneficial” harnessing of the regions fuel. The pump technology is being sold at a special discount for all “signatory nations,” that’s all nations to have signed the multi-lateral peace treaty, also known as the Atlanta Peace Treaty, back in ’78…

– Peter Jennings, ABC World News Tonight, 8/28/1981



…The start of September marks the start of the school year, and this school year, high school students in several states are to be taught a subject new to their schools’ health class curricula – abstinence education. In accordance with the federal law passed with the support of President Denton, state legislatures are to respond to parents concerned over pre-marital sex by having teachers educate their students how to not indulge in the adult activity…

– NBC News report, 9/1/1981



Horshack!
was an American TV series that ran from 1981 to 1983. A spinoff of “Welcome Back, Kotter,” the series centered around the character Arnold Horshack (played by Ron Polillo), who becomes the “man of the house” after his mother disappears in South America while trying to find a(nother) husband to help her raise her four children. The series followed Horshack navigate the responsibilities of raising three siblings while becoming an adult in New York City. As such, episodes showed Horshack mature as the series progressed, as he learns the details of the adult world through humorous mishaps while keeping his siblings out of trouble and trying to start a family of his own with Mary Johnson, another character from “Welcome Back, Kotter” (though here, Mary was recast and played by Kate Mulgrew). Several actors and characters from “Welcome Back, Kotter” had multiple cameos throughout the series. Horshack! premiered on September 3, 1981 and ended in May 1983 after two complete seasons aired.

[snip]

Controversies:

1: Episode 4 of Season 2, which first aired on October 5, 1982, received praise and criticisms for its plot. It involved Horshack reprimanding his younger brother for bullying a recently “outed” fellow freshman at James Buchanan High School. While lauded by many (especially after Polillo officially “left the closet” in 1986), the episode led to a conservative backlash that mirrored the one that overwhelmed the TV series “Soap,” and after several sponsors withdrew from the series over the following months, the series was not renewed for a third season.

www.mediarchives.co.usa/TV/Horshack!



DENTON TO SEND FINANCIAL AID AND ADVISORS TO MEXICO

…With Mexico still struggling with the effects of the Crash of ’78, President Denton announced “for the sake of both of our economies, and in the vein of President Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, we must help our neighbors to the south fend off not only inflation and other economic despairs, but also the scourge that is the drug dealers that are plaguing parts of Mexico as of late.”

– The El Paso Times, 9/3/1981



“Aww, he just wants to stem the flow of immigration, man. He thinks that if Mexico’s getting along better, there won’t be any more Mexicans becoming Mexican-Americans.”

– Musician and activist Cheech Marin, 9/4/1981



HERBERT ALLAN FOGEL JOINS SUPREME COURT BENCH TODAY

…after several weeks of considerations and subsequent Senate hearings, Fogel was given a 68-32 approval vote in August… the 52-year-old self-described “somewhat conservative” Republican was appointed Justice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President Colonel Sanders in December 1971…

The Washington Post, 9/5/1981



Jack would be disheveled, depressed and have trouble sleeping after moments of tension and anxiety. He would lose weight when his health was in decline; his cheeks would look a bit deflated, and he’d look skinnier. Taking steroids to combat back pain inflated his face with puffiness while also weakening his bones, and possibly worsening the Addison’s disease. He was a complete mess and a shadow of his former self – until he started regularly using marijuana. A friend of a friend, though Ted’s California connections, re-introduced Jack to Mary Jane at the start of the 1980s, when the legality of recreational drugs – dubbed recreadrugs by President Denton – was becoming a big political talking point. Jack figured “Why not? I’m not in elective politics anymore.” Indeed, since losing the 1968 election, “Gentleman Jack” had, apart from joining a few D.C. think tank discussions from time to time, retired to his den at the family compound to compose books upon books concerning American history and politics. And with their three children grown, Jackie did not object to Jack using marijuana. “If it gets Dr. Feelgood away from him, I’ll tolerate it,” she told me once.

eCELs4x.png


[ pic: https://imgur.com/eCELs4x.png ]
Above: Jack, weary-eyed and white-haired by his mid-60s, smoking a blunt to relieve him of his Addison's disease and back pain, c. September 1981.

– Harris Wofford Jr.’s autobiography Don’t Speak American With Just English Words: My Life In Washington, Simon & Schuster, 1999



CHICKEN DINNER SUMMIT ’81 CONCLUSIONS: New Trade Deals For Israel And Jordan; Iraqi Religious Leaders Receive Warm Welcome; Warring Lebanon Factions Agree to “Nation Over Party” As Negotiations Resume

The Morning Star, UK newspaper, post-C.D.S.J. analysis, 9/23/1981



…Under President Denton, the tax code was simplified yet again, changing the tax bracket system from nine brackets to six...

– Anne Meagher Northup’s Chicken and Politickin’: the Rise of Colonel Sanders and Rational Conservatism in the Republican Party, 2015



GOVERNOR McCARY IS DEAD AT 74!

Montgomery, AL – Elvin Columbus McCary, our Governor since 1979, has passed away, most likely from natural causes, at the age of 74. The Anniston-native real estate businessman-turned-politician had run for public office numerous times since 1946, but was elected Governor in 1978 at the age of 71 by modeling his campaign off of the populist and energetic campaigns that Colonel Sanders ran on in 1964 and 1968, creating an air of nostalgia and optimism as Election Day near. McCary was often described as being “frank” and “full of candor.” He leaves behind two daughters and two ex-wives.

McCary’s successor to the office of governor is the Democratic Lieutenant Governor, Charles Woods, a WWII veteran businessman and broadcaster known for being the survivor of a terrible fire in 1944 that left his face and hands permanently disfigured. His election to Lieutenant Governor was considered a fluke, and his ascension to the governor’s seat two days before his 62nd birthday is in the same vein. Politically-speaking, though, Woods and McCary agreed on several issues, and thus it is likely that Woods will continue many of McCary’s policies.

– The Alexander City Outlook, Alabama newspaper, 9/28/1981



…earlier today, President Denton signed a bill into law that will amend the 1973 Immigration and Nationality Act to provide preferential treatment in the admission of stateless, orphaned, or refugee children and their families, and of children born overseas to at least one parent of American citizenship and their families. While the bill was criticized by conservative Republican Senator Dick Obenshain of Virginia, Denton spoke in defense of it today by explaining, quote, “it will help keep families together and help keep children safe,” unquote…

– ABC News, 10/1/1981



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[pic: imgur.com / 7qOevRn.png ]

– US Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) looks through the telescopic sight on a dart gun displayed by the CIA Director to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence activities in Cuba during the early 1960s, 10/2/1981



“SOAP” SHOW GIVES EMPOWERING MESSAGE FOR BLUTAGS IN LATEST EPISODE

…Ron Palillo of “Welcome Back, Kotter” fame cameoed in the latest episode of the satirical dramedy series “Soap,” which is currently airing its fifth and final season… In a pivotal scene, Palillo’s character, Sal Vadore, declines the advances of Jodie Dallas, portrayed by Billy Crystal, and explains “being gay together doesn’t mean being gay… together,” and explains “You’re not my type.” Upon voicing frustration over being undecided over what his sexual preferences are, Dallas exclaims “What am I?” To this, Vadore answers “You’re you.” While explaining to Dallas – and, by extension, the audience – what it means to be bisexual, the episode also promotes the notion of not letting anyone define you and who you are…

The San Francisco Chronicle, opinion article, 10/3/1981



EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT ANWAR SADAT ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT!

…Amid rising political tension, Sadat has announced that he will step down from power and resign from the office of the Presidency in December. The subsequent vacancy of the office will trigger a new election, which will be held in January. …The announcement comes at a time when Sadat is very unpopular within Egypt despite his improving of the economy. Sadat caused a stir in his home country and across the Middle East by opening relations to Israel in 1977; many of his critics point to him being praised by western leaders as proof that Sadat is “too west-loving” for Egypt, or at least for Egypt’s conservatives and radicals who have opposed Sadat ever since the 1977 and 1978 peace talks…

The Columbus Evening Dispatch, 10/4/1981



…Sanders has always preferred to bypass the news media in order to stay on his chosen message. That is why he hosted his own cable access show in the late 1970s, alongside his own talk radio show and, in retrospect, his own media empire. [11] In early 1981, Sanders took advantage of President Denton’s reform of America’s radio programming laws that stipulated equal airtime for both sides of disputes. In October of that year, shortly after turning 40, Sanders expanded his base of influence by founding Tumbleweed Radio, a platform for discussing the political and cultural issues of the day with an unashamedly progressive-leaning bias...

– Michael O’Connor’s Bern Sanders: The Biography of a Multimillionaire (Democratic) Socialist Maverick, Greenwood Press, 2009



FEDERAL ELECTION RESULTS: Manfred Cross To Become 21st Prime Minister

…after defeating challengers Bill Hayden and Bob Hawke to become the new leader of the Labor party in January, Manfred Cross has soundly bested incumbent Prime Minister Doug Anthony…

The Daily Telegraph, Australian newspaper, 10/23/1981



REFORMS LIKELY BEHIND CAMDEN’S SLOW RISE IN LIFE QUALITY: Mayor Optimistic City Will Be “NJ’s Philadelphia” in 10 Years

…the state’s income aid dividend system for all adult residents has led to an increase in business activities, community events, and innovation. Universities such as Rutgers and Princeton have seen an uptick in grades as students can afford supplies and better living quarters near campus. Real estate and housing industries are still performing well after initially booming in the mid-1970s as more and more people move in to capitalize on the dividend law. …However, elderly residents complain of highschoolers “loafing around” as many teenagers decide to forego both college and employment. “This allegedly free money is allowing these hoodlums to spend their time cookin’ trouble with their good-for-nothin’ idle hands,” observes one Morristown resident concerned over the work ethic of the next generation of New Jersey residents…

Newsweek, weekly magazine publication, late October issue



In the 1981 World Series, the Phillies won the Pennant over the Yankees 4-to-3, and Mike Schmidt was rightly named M.V.P….

– John Helyar’s Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, Ballantine Books, 1994



VERE BIRD BECOMES PRIME MINISTER OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

…while the Caribbean island nation was granted independent status, the Queen is still technically its head of state…

The Guardian, 1/11/1981



KENTUCKY GOVERNOR WINS SPECIAL ELECTION

sJRGti1.png


[pic: https://imgur.com/sJRGti1.png ]
Above: Martha Osborne upon becoming Governor in 1980

…Democratic incumbent Martha Layne Hall Osborne won a special gubernatorial election to complete the remaining two years of deceased Governor Breckinridge’s 1979-1983 term… Osborne, who previously served as Lieutenant Governor from 1979 to 1980, won over Republican nominee Thurman Jerome Hamlin by a comfortable margin…

The Washington Times, 11/3/1981



JIM-FLO’S HARD WORK PAYS OFF, WINS RE-ELECTION IN SQUEAKER

…The embattled incumbent Democratic Governor James Joseph "Jim" Florio, 44, won over Republican challenger Walter H. Jones by a 1.5% margin, with all other gubernatorial candidate winning a combined total of 0.7% of the total vote… Florio faced a difficult job in his first term – he had to improve the post-Crash of ’78 economy and lower the crime rate. He controversially raised taxes in his first year to cover more state-level services and several “community development” programs to lower violence in both urban and rural areas. Fortunately for his re-election campaign, those taxes saw results in the form of lowered crime rates and greater services, allowing him to repeal most of said tax hike bill late last year…

The Trentonian, New Jersey newspaper, 11/3/1981



HISTORY IN THE MAKING: Harrison Wilson Jr. Becomes First African-American Elected Governor in U.S. History

…Wilson, 56, worked as an educator and as a college basketball coach before serving as the second President of Norfolk State University from 1975 until earlier this year, during which time the university’s student body numbers and funding increased tremendously. As a Democrat, Wilson ran as a political outsider in his party’s primary, and as a moderate in the general. His campaign called for greater cooperation between all political factions to give the people of Virginia a “topnotch state government that works and works well,” saying last month in a speech on government responsibility, “We must continue to broaden our horizons in all we do in Richmond. We need to raise the bar for ourselves, set higher goals and work for excellence. All the people of this state deserve nothing less than representing ourselves at the highest level of effort” [12]. Wilson defeated the GOP nominee, state Attorney General Marshall Coleman, by a almost-1-percent margin that verged on the cusp of requiring a recount in some counties. While Coleman himself has conceded, some of Coleman’s supporters have not received the election’s results so graciously – already police have reported acts of violence – mainly vandalism – breaking out in several communities…

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/3/1981



WHAT LAST NIGHT’S ELECTIONS MEAN FOR DENTON AND AMERICA

…New York City went for a rising political star in the form of 39-year-old Carol Bellamy. With an impressive resume – a former Peace Corp worker, an anti-war activist, a former state senator, and the President of the New York City Council – Bellamy won yesterday’s mayoral election on the Democratic and Liberal tickets. Bellamy’s election over Republican nominee Roy M. Goodman and Conservative nominee Barry Farber to succeed retiring four-term Mayor Joey Pericone, a Liberal Republican, may bring a tumultuous era in city politics to a close, and be the beginning of a new era.

Riding a wave of youth voters who oppose the conservative streaks of Denton, Cuomo, and Biaggi, Bellamy campaigned on a “Gravel-lite” platform that included making college more affordable and improving the mental health and women’s physical health programs of the city.

[snip]

...While the Democratic victories in Virginia and New Jersey are not god signs for the GOP as the 1982 midterms near, their campaigns do indicate that Americans do approve of the President’s “wars” on recreadrugs and high taxes. New Jersey’s Governor Florio won re-election by lowering taxes, while Wilson became the Democratic nominee for Governor by defeating Lieutenant Governor Chuck Robb, the son-in-law of deceased President Lyndon Johnson, after rumors concerning Robb’s alleged use of cocaine at parties in Virginia Beach caused him to lose support in the weeks before the primary…

The New York Times, 11/4/1981



BACK TO SPACE! NASA Returns to Manned Missions With Start of Year-Long Twin Study!

…the launch of the first manned space mission approved under new President Denton is a rebuke of the unmanned years of President Mondale, and its mission is arguably NASA’s most ambitious biology-related study to date. Astronauts Janet and Marion Dietrich are identical twin sisters born in 1926… With Janet aboard the space shuttle “Dauntless,” and Marion grounded in Texas, NASA will monitor the physical characteristics of both 55-year-old sisters for the next six months to determine how space travel affects the human body… If completed, Janet will spend more time in space consecutively and continuously than any other person in history...

– The Tampa Bay Times, 11/12/1981



“A FRAGILE RESOLUTION”: Peace Treaty Finally Signed In Lebanon; Civil Discourse Dissipating

…the annual Chicken Dinners seem to have done it again! After weeks of negotiations, overseen by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, began anew in September, the multiple warring sides – pro-West, pro-Soviet, Christian, and Muslim groups – have signed a non-aggression treaty that stipulates are signatory groups will respect the existence and customs of each other, and provides for a more equal distribution of power in the country. The agreement also calls for amnesty for all political crimes committed prior to the treaty’s enactment. …With the breakthrough made and the deal reached, militias are shutting down operations and people across Lebanon are beginning to celebrate in the streets…

– The Guardian, 24/11/1981



The decade saw a thinning of the saturated markets of the fast-food industry. Red Barn and Sambo’s declines culminated in the former falling to only 200 locations nationwide (though management claims they will “bounce back” soon) and the notorious latter declaring bankruptcy in November 1981 and shutting down all locations within the next year.

However, several new faces did emerge onto the fast-food stage. Most notably, Chi-Chi’s, the Mexico-and-salsa-themed restaurant chain founded in 1975, has become a major competitor of Glen Bell’s “Taco Bell” franchise since expanding operations and marketing strategies in the early 1980s.

Nation’s Restaurant News trade publication, end-of-the-decade review, late December 1989 issue



REPORT CLAIMS AMERICAN WARSHIPS “STRATEGICALLY MANEUVERING” OFF LIBYAN COAST AS US-LIBYAN TENSIONS RISE

La Repubblica, Italian newspaper, 12/9/1981



…the conflict engulfing Iran grew in intensity as 1981 came to a close. However, while Iranians despised his father, the people of Iran largely favored the reign of Shah Reza Pahlavi. He was seen as fair, and, while a bit naïve and idealistic, his intentions were backed by actions. His public works and food distribution policies were immensely popular with the people, and so the main fight was with radicals who hoped that they could scare the populace into submission – that repeatedly “cam bombing” major community centers would make the people turn their backs on their young ruler…

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



END-OF-THE-YEAR REVIEW

[snip]

Number of locations:

Total: 7,039 in 45 countries [13]

Per Region:

Africa (3 countries): 31 (Djibouti: 6, Egypt: 17, Ethiopia: 8)

Asia (7 countries): 157 (China: 52, Indonesia: 3, Japan 14, Malaysia: 32, Philippines: 24, South Korea 20, Vietnam: 12)

Caribbean/Central America/South America (10 countries): 162 (Bahamas: 3, Barbados: 6, Costa Rica: 12, Cuba: 30, Dominica: 14, Dominican Republic: 21, Ecuador: 35, Panama: 21, Trinidad and Tobago: 12, Venezuela: 8)

Europe (11 countries): 523 (Belgium 15, Denmark 23, France 34, Italy 21, Ireland: 39, Netherlands: 33, Norway 17, Portugal 30, Spain: 11, United Kingdom: 263, West Germany: 37)

Middle East (9 countries): 136 (Bahrain: 14, Israel: 7, Jordan: 4, Kuwait: 22, Oman: 35, Qatar: 23, Saudi Arabia: 16, Syria: 4, United Arab Emirates: 11)

North America (3 countries): 5,729 (Canada: 528, Mexico: 276, United States: 4,925)

Oceania (2 countries): 301 (Australia: 259, New Zealand: 42)

Note: we are retaining the policy of not doing business in war-torn locations. As such, plans to expand into Iran, South Africa and other locations are still on hold amid ongoing warfare and hostilities.

[snip]

Overview Of Latest Sales Report: Quality Rates Steady; Sales Rates Still Rising Among New Locations, Steady Among Old Ones.

– KFC internal report, 12/19/1981



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[pic: imgur.com/NMn1R0O.png ]
– Colonel Sanders, c. December 26, 1981; in his later years, the Colonel became increasingly religious, and read passages from his Bible every night before going to sleep



…As anti-Moscow sentiment spread in Estonia, Romania, and Poland, the same was occurring in the Central Asian soviets of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Each Soviet spoke a distinct language that nevertheless could be partial understood by their neighbors. Uzbekistani and Turkmen had similarities to each other, but less so with Kyrgyz and Kazakh, to say nothing of Tajiki [14]. While the groups were divided by their Turkic languages’ differences, they found themselves in agreement over the belief that life under Soviet rule could be tolerated no longer. The Aktau Disaster contaminating the Caspian and Aral Seas was contributing to draught and radiation poisoning plaguing Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. In December 1981, leaders from these three soviets gathered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to discuss an idea: to unite the five soviets into a single united nation, joined by the shared religion, goals, and – due to Russian control of their ways of life for over sixty years – the ability for most people of each soviet to speak the same language (Russian) declare independence from the Soviet Union. They agreed that a united front was the best course of action until independence was achieved, as the defeat of the Hungarians in 156 and the perceived defeat of Poland and Romania soon enough made the leaders believe that their soviets could not fight Moscow separately. They soon began working out the details…

– Ke Wang’s Turkestanis Unite!: The Rise And Execution of An Idea, Cambridge University Press, 2013



In 1981, Deng announced four cities – Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Guilin – were culturally important enough for them to undergo massive historic and cultural preservation efforts, focusing on restoring buildings and repairing infrastructure to make these cities more appealing to overseas investors. Subsequently, Deng decided that, as Han Chinese citizens were needed in order for expansion into the PRC’s westernmost regions to work, the poorest living in these cities were encouraged to “go west” and free up space in the urban areas – as soon as the Chinese government “relocated” the locals…

– Li Song and Julia Garnett’s Unlikely Partners: China And Its Relations With the US During The Years of Deng And Yibo, Harvard University Press, 2017



For the generation of Americans who came of age during the ’80s, changes to daily life came in the form of communication and information-sharing technology. The computer was quickly coming onto the scene and companies such as Motorola and Microsoft led the charge. Inventors such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs capitalized on the entrepreneurial funding programs that were founded under President Sanders to promote their products, transforming the way that major companies communicated and compiled data by the end of the decade…

– Joy Lisi Rankin’s Computers: A People’s History of the Information Machine, Westview Press, 2018



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Sadly OTL, according to Wikipedia
[2] OTL, this bill became law in December 1980
[3] Quote found here: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/bob-michel-dies-former-gop-house-leader-234936
[4] OTL quotes!
[5] He got a bill concerning this passed in the Senate IOTL: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/browse?sponsor=403397
[6] Italicized sentence is a quote from David Vogel’s treatise “Why Businessmen Distrust Their State: The Political consciousness of American Corporate Executives” (I had to read it for grad school back in 2017).
[7] Lee who? This guy: https://www.limaohio.com/features/lifestyle/256051/lees-famous-recipe
[8] Italicized parts are from here: fgbt.org/Testimonies/colonel-sanders-story.html
[9] Prince Charles actually dated Diana Spencer’s older sister first IOTL!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Sarah_McCorquodale#Diana,_Princess_of_Wales
[10] 6 years in OTL
[11] Italicized segments are from a passage found here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/26/ive-reported-bernie-sanders-years-free-press-cant-give-him-what-he-wants/
[12] Italicized bits of this quote are OTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Wilson_Jr.#Career
[13] In 1983, there were roughly 5,800 KFC locations in 55 countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_KFC#cite_note-globalstores1983-70
[14] Well, at least, according to this: https://www.quora.com/Can-people-of-Turkey-understand-or-speak-other-Turkic-languages-like-Turkmen-Azerbaijani-Kyrgyz-Uzbek-Uyghur-Kazakh-etc

Happy Boxing Day, everbody!

Frank Hart said:
Mostly good, but...

From what I heard, it is Kazakh and Kyrgyz that are really similar. Not so much between Uzbek and Turkmen (different branches of Turkic). Tajik is not even a Turkic language.

Also, take a look at the 1989 Kazakh SSR Census. Kazakhs barely outnumber Russians by a margin of 307 thousand (6.535 million vs. 6.228 million), and Turkic peoples only number 7.565 million against 7.306 million East Slavs. I don't exactly see all of Kazakhstan wanting to leave Russia, not the north at least (what happened in Aktau would likely swerve the south out of Russia).
Click to expand...
Excellent observations, thank you very much for pointing them out! I'll cover these and the situation unfolding over there in better detail in the next chapter!

Igeo654 said:
I fully insist and expect that Carol Bellamy will be in in the running for the Democratic Nominee come 1988.
Alrightythen!
DTF955Baseballfan said:
Lots of fun stuff.

Timi9ng of the strike in baseball can still include a tentative settlement till the real one kicks in, but more importantly, this is dated before Johnny Bench's injury. He had one of his best seasons in '81, and the Reds OTL had the best winning percentage but lost by 1/2 games to the Dodgers in the first half and 1 1/2 to the Astros in the 2nd half. Here, even if they are further back when it begins, they can probably win the division. And then the PHillies beat them in the NLCS before going on to win the World Series.

I love what you did with Welcome Back Kotter - a B rney Miller crossover is lots of fun. I love Epstein becoming a policeman - I think all of their futures sound good, and the spinoff - which I believe was considered OTL - was fun, too. Would I have watched it? At the start, I was dropping quite a few shows from my lineup as I had more homework in Junior High, by choice, but would have at least sporadically watched it. Probably checking the TV Guide each week to see if it sounded interesting.

Denton will hopefully fight AIDS effectively. If he learns early it's transmitted through blood, he might actually use that to attack drugs because of tainted needles.

Is Sarah Spencer Diana's sister?

FFree agency after 2 ful years of major league service now - wow. You've eliminated arbitration now and maybe laid some groundwork for having there not be a strike in 1994. And I wonder if Trump took the fall but was in league with some owners, who might have tried to work with replacement players.

The 1982 NFL strike is around the corner for next year. I presume the nFL has been mostly the same? With same or similar Super Bowls. Did Warren Moon, with a slightly better racial atmosphere, get drafted as a quarterback or did he still have to go to Edmonton and win 5 Grey XCups before coming back to the NFL - well, USFL first.

Hmmm, I wonder if Trump will try to work in TTL's USFL - not enough money quite yet to own a team now, but that might actually help as they would start smaller.
Click to expand...
Glad to see you liked the Kotter ideas!
Good idea with Denton!
Yep, IOTL Prince Charles dated Sarah before dating and marrying Diana!

The NFL's history been mostly the same as OTL so far. Except I guess for Warren Moon. With the 1970s lacking any the racial tension of OTL, it's make sense that he gets drafted as a quarterback.
Trump can simply get "a small loan of a million dollars" from his dad if he decides to build up anything. I imagine he'd want to construct some major sports stadium somewhere. IOTL, he got NYC's Wollman Rink renovated at a quicker pace and lower cost than it was taking before he got the project. Maybe something like that happens here but for some sports stadium?

I'm glad you are enjoying this TL! Thanks!

Ogrebear said:
I hope the 7)’s hendonistic culture has died off somewhat and folk like Freddie Mercury don’t fall victim to AltAIDS. Does NASA have a space station? No Star Trek II yet?
I'll cover Freddie and Star Trek in the next update! NASA's getting a higher budget under Denton, so we'll see how things turn out for them, too!

BrianD said:
What a world, where Donald John Trump and George Walker Bush are athletic and talented enough to play Major League Baseball...
Indeed!
ajm8888 said:
All I will say, I am curious to see what happens in Japan with their economic miracle...
Alrightythen!
DTF955Baseballfan said:
I sure hope the Phillies win a pennant sometime - they haven't won since 1950 and never won a World Series till 1980. The Athletics did win several, last in 1930, when they were in PHilly.

Of course, TTL they might not have Steve Carlton due to free agency and either his not being traded from the Cardinals or being traded and made a free agent the next year.

I do want to see MIke Schmidt won one; maybe next year. This was his peak, and if there's no baseball strike next year he would hit over 50 home runs. (This year he hit 48 and he hit 31 in about 105 games in 1981, and missed the middle two months which are the hottest and best for offense normally.) But, Schmidt might not have been drafted by the PHillies for all we know.

Then again if they have them they started out 34-21 before the strike OTL, or somethingclose, so they may have had a better chance in 1981 than they had in 1980. The last 4 games of that NLZCS all went extra innings, clearly the Astros could have won. And the Expos were kind of far back but won the 2nd half and the vidision round. (ANd could have lost to the Cardinals in the 2nd half.)

Or, there might not be a strike, especially if Sanders is still around. Like I said in Completed Game, 1981 was more easily avoidab le, it was just harder to find a reason to have someone mediate it. If Sanders lives longer - and he doens't die yet unlike OTL in late '80 - he could be called on.

Did Brett end up hitting .400?

It is fun to see Trump and Bush both pro baseball players.

I hate domes (and Astroturf but you couldn't avoid it as much in the '80s) but love those unusual Astros uniforms. I'm not qite purist enough to say "If a cow won't eat it I won't play on it" (DIck Allen) but I do prefer baseball be outdoors (or at least a retractable roof).

You really put a lot of work into the 20 years from 1960-1980 in the timeline. I can see why the next update is TBD - you deserve a break :) (Plus it's near Christmas and the new year and I imagine you will be quite busy then.)
Click to expand...
Good baseball info here
Thanks - I took the past several days off to relax over the Holidays and recharge my batteries. I hope your holiday season was a great one! :)

CapitalistHippie said:
No Hoff is from Vermont while McCloskey is from CA.

Though the wikibox here says Hoff is from CA so I get why you’re confused.

D'oh! That is so embarrassing, my apologies, I will fix that ASAP!

EDIT: FIXED IT!

Ogrebear said:
Good update!

The Bush vs Trump baseball brawl was very amusing.

No Reagan 80's should be very interesting. Much smaller Republican swing than OTL?

Glad the Chicken Dinners are continuing- hope the Sanders family stays invested even once the Colonels gone. How many KFC's in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria etc now?

Hows pop culture reacting to the start of the 80's and the hippies/shoutniks growing up?
Click to expand...
Thank you!

I thought so too!

Yep!

I've list the digits in this chapter for ya!

I've mention what it is like at the start of the decade in this chapter, too!
 
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