Five Decades of Fear & Loathing
Atlas Has Shrugged:
Jerry Garcia
Friday, January 1st, 1971.
The Warehouse.
12:01 AM, New Orleans, LA.
[1]
The show had been, all in all, a pretty stand-out gig. The Grateful Dead had roared through a trance inducing version of "Morning Dew" that kicked in the LSD trips of scores of young concert-goers. Afterwards, they sailed effortlessly and seamlessly through a variety of acoustic, bluesy songs before once again roaring through "Mason's Children," "Me and my Uncle," and a particularly raucous “Hard to Handle" that left their indisposed audience in awe of the crashing choruses that sounded like chariots thundering out of Valhalla. A few old classics - "Long Black Limousine" and originals like "Black Peter" before closing out the show with the jug-band sounding "Cumberland Blues." Jerry smiled radiantly, his teeth shining among the sea of thick black facial hair. He was in his element - this was what brought the Dead alive. It had been a long day; they had been busted down on Bourbon Street and were now facing marijuana charges but were able to be bailed out of jail in time for their show at the Warehouse that night in downtown New Orleans.
After the show, the band retreated behind the stage as the audience milled about in an ever-present, lingering cloud of marijuana. Young women clad in tie-died dresses, their hair adorned with flowers, danced in circles while amateur musicians beat on drums. The acid trips began to plateau, and the crowds began to file out as New Year's Eve evolved into New Year’s morning. Behind stage, Jerry struck a match to light a cigarette as a local television camera grew circled in. A young female reporter, on assignment to cover the New Year's celebrations across the city, pushed a microphone into his face. "What do you think the 1970s will hold for America?" she asked. "It will be a decade of peace, magic, myth, bliss, celebration, and spirituality" replied Garcia.
Little did he know that night how wrong he'd be. But at the dawn of 1971, the Counter-Culture, though nearly fatally wounded by the incident at Altamont and the zeitgeist of stagnation that pervaded through the preceding year of 1970, still limped forwards into an uncertain future. The events of the last decade seemed far away. There was an extremely close presidential election that bared the odious scent of scandal. Then there was the death of John Kennedy, cut down by an assassin’s bullet in the prime of his life. There was the ever-present threat of nuclear war, most recently illustrated by the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the south, the black population had made itself heard while on the campuses a new generation of activists found their voices. In Vietnam, the best and brightest of a generation died face down in the muck in a quagmire that seemed without end. And at home, the cities were on fire as rioters raised hell on the streets in the face of rising unemployment, economic stagnation, and the listless lack of direction that seemed to bedevil the nation.
In fact, by 1971, it seemed the last bit dreams of the 1960s had died three years earlier with Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. The unexciting candidacy of Hubert Humphrey and the venomous rhetoric of George Wallace ensured that Richard Nixon would finally achieve his dream of winning the President in 1968, the sad final chapter of the tragedy that was Camelot. For the eternally optimistic like Jerry Garcia, there was an innate cause to hope. But to many of his contemporaries, such as the fractured Beatles or the hibernating Bob Dylan, the onset of the 1970s had little to offer besides more division, violence, and blight.
Saturday, January 2nd, 1971: 66 people are killed and a further 200 injured in a stampede at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland, after the conclusion of a match between the Rangers and Celtic football clubs. It is one of the worst human crushes in recent memory in the United Kingdom.
Sunday, January 3rd, 1971: The 92nd Congress convenes in Washington; Carl Albert is elected Speaker, while Mike Mansfield remains Senate Majority Leader. Democrats continue to hold majorities in both chambers.
Monday, January 4th, 1971: Gallup releases it’s first polling ahead of the 1972 presidential election.
Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 40%
(D) Generic Democrat: 34%
Undecided: 22%
Independent/Other: 4%
Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edward Kennedy: 41%
Edmund Muskie: 15%
George Wallace: 14%
Hubert Humphrey: 12%
George McGovern: 10%
Henry Jackson: 5%
Eugene McCarthy: 2%
Birch Bayh: 2%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Tuesday, January 5th, 1971: The Khmer Rouge goes on the offensive in Cambodia, seizing control of large swathes of the northwestern corner of the country. In response, the Lon Nol regime begins persecuting ethnic Vietnamese, claiming that North Vietnam is aiding the rebellion. This drives an increasingly large number of Vietnamese immigrants, particularly those working on the rural Palm Oil plantations, into the arms of the Khmer Rouge. While the radical, shadowy Maoist guerilla army’s leadership is predominately ethnically Khmer and distrusting of the communist regime in Hanoi, they none the less agree to cultivate more universal support within Cambodia as part of their efforts to seize power. This decision is reached over the begrudging objections of their enigmatic leader, Pol Pot, known to the cadres only as “Brother #1.”
Wednesday, January 6th, 1971: The Washington Post outlines the prospective presidential field ahead of the 1972 election; highlighted as the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination are Senators Muskie, Humphrey, and Jackson, while McGovern and outsiders like Governors Wallace and rather curiously, Iowa Senator Harold Hughes, are touted as dark horse contenders for the nomination. But it is clear through polling that the Democratic nomination belongs to Senator Kennedy, should he so choose to run. Despite the tarnishing scandal of Chappaquiddick, many Democrats look to the Senate’s “liberal lion” as the leading contender for the nomination.
Thursday, January 7th, 1971: Ahead of the upcoming elections in Honduras, President Oswaldo Lopez – who for seven years has ruled the country like a banana republic as a military dictator – announces that only the Liberal and National parties will be allowed to run a slate of candidates, effectively neutering the opposition’s ability to form a government as he prepares to transition out of office.
Friday, January 8th, 1971: The SS Antilles, a French owned cruise ship, sinks off Mustique. There are no fatalities, though the ship is ultimately scuttled on some reefs and is severely damaged by fire after the successful evacuation of the crew and passengers. It is later dragged further out to sea and sunk after an investigation by British maritime officials.
Saturday, January 9th, 1971: American Airlines Flight 30 collides midair with a Cessna over Newark, New Jersey. The damaged airliner managed to make an emergency landing with no injuries, though the two men onboard the Cessna are killed in the crash.
Sunday, January 10th, 1971: 200 South Vietnamese paratroopers overrun a small Viet Cong encampment in Cambodia near the village of Mimot; 20 American POWs are rescued and borne away to safety by the South Vietnamese forces while American helicopter gunships circle above. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird hails the mission as a “pyrrhic success” and praises “the fierce determination of our allies” in the aftermath of the raid.
Monday, January 11th, 1971: Geoffrey Jackson, British Ambassador to Uruguay, is killed in a failed kidnapping by Marxist guerillas in the capital city of Montevideo. In response to the ambush and assassination of Jackson, Uruguayan President Jorge Areca declares a state of emergency and sends the army into the slums to root out suspected urban guerilla cells.
Tuesday, January 12th, 1971: All in the Family premiers in the 9:30 PM timeslot on CBS; the show will become the network’s biggest sitcom success of the decade, starring Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, and Rob Reiner. Despite initial poor reviews from most critics, the show quickly becomes a big hit with American audiences.
Wednesday, January 13th, 1971: Colonel Buzz Aldrin announces his retirement from the NASA program and will return to active duty in the Air Force after his legendary career as an astronaut. Despite the fame of being the first man to step upon the moon, Aldrin continues to insist that he will not seek other careers opportunities in Hollywood, corporate America, or politics despite a plethora of job offers.
Thursday, January 14th, 1971: The Haitian Chamber of Deputies votes unanimously (in the presence of armed, lingering militiamen known as Tonton Macoutes) to pass a constitutional amendment which allows President Francois Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) to appoint his 19-year-old son Jean-Claude as Vice President and heir.
Friday, January 15th, 1971: The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is opened after years of construction; the opening ceremony, attended by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Soviet head of state Nikolai Podgorny, showcases the dam as a billion dollar masterpiece of modern engineering.
Sunday, January 17th, 1971:The Baltimore Colts defeat the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 in Super Bowl V in Miami, which was won after the Colt’s scored a field goal with five seconds left in the game.
George McGovern
Sunday, January 18th, 1971.
KELO-TV Studios.
7:00 PM, Sioux Falls, SD.
Senator George McGovern knew how he was going to win the game, because he was the one who wrote the rules.
The Senator from South Dakota, one of the leading progressive voices in American politics, had after all been the chair of the famed “McGovern-Fraser” Committee which had reformed the presidential nomination process after the chaotic convention in Chicago in 1968. Gone were the days of party bosses and crooked political machines – McGovern had ushered in the era of the primary election as the ultimate means on electing convention delegates, promising that the “politics of sunshine” would illuminate the party and shine a light on the shady practices that had kept the powerful elites entrenched. But the Senator was not content to just democratize his own party and was entertaining far greater ambitions throughout the duration of Nixon’s first term.
As he stepped into the studio, his televised speech to be delivered within a matter of minutes, McGovern felt an overwhelming spirit of optimism. This was largely due to the fervent support of the youth, who rallied around McGovern as the most reliable messenger for their generation. Disillusioned by the horrors of the Vietnam and discontent with the lack of social and racial justice at home, the “long hairs” flocked to the Senator’s banner. In spite of his relatively low polling (he was only placing fifth according to Gallup), the Senator believed that his moment had arrived, and that even the full force of the Kennedy juggernaut could not stop him.
He stepped to the podium; there was polite, tepid, and quiet applause from the audience that had gathered to watch his historic announcement, though the real audience was at home, watching on television screens in their living rooms or at their local bar. Though the address he was due to deliver would only be broadcast throughout South Dakota on local television, the text of his speech was due to be printed as an op-ed in numerous major newspapers across the country. McGovern was initially hesitant to launch his campaign so early, but it was the convincing arguments of his campaign manager, a young lawyer by the name of Gary Hart, which compelled him to jump into the fray so early. As the studio fell silent, a single camera man motioned with his hands that the Senator was at last live. The Senator, with his wife and family joining Hart behind the cameras, watched on in pride as the South Dakota Senator began his prepared remarks.
Today I announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States. My wife, Eleanor and I have come home to South Dakota to make this announcement because here we shaped our basic political faith; here we were given the opportunity of public service. We are grateful to you for that opportunity and for your faith. We shall conduct this new effort to the honor of South Dakota, the nation, and ourselves.
You, my fellow South Dakotans, have not always agreed with my position on public issues. That was especially true in the early 1960’s when I stood almost alone in opposition to the sending of American troops to Southeast Asia. Despite these differences, you have rewarded my willingness to state my convictions freely and honestly. I anticipate the same fair hearing from citizens across the land. Thoughtful Americans understand that the highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one’s country deep enough to call her to a higher standard.
I seek the presidency because I believe deeply in the American promise and can no longer accept the diminishing of that promise. Our country began with a declaration of man’s rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.“ These liberating ideals gave such meaning and purpose to the new American nation that our forebears proclaimed, “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.“
There is no higher standard to which our nation can repair then to the ideals of our founding documents. So as a candidate for the presidency, I shall see to call America home to these principles that gave us birth. I have found no better blueprint for healing our troubled land than is contained in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But I find a nation drifting so far from those ideals as to almost lose its way.
I believe the people of this country are tired of the old rhetoric, the unmet promise, the image makers, and the practitioners of the expedient. The people are not centrist or liberal or conservative. Rather, they see a way out of the wilderness. But if we who seek their trust, trust them; if we try to invoke the “better angels of our nature,” the people will find their own way. We are the children of those who built a great and free nation. And we are no less than that. We must now decide whether our courage and imagination are equal to our talents. If they are, as I believe, then future generations will continue to love America, not simply because it is theirs, but for what it has become-for what, indeed, we at this moment have made it to be.”
Tuesday, January 20th, 1971: As President Nixon reaches the half-way mark through his term in office, the issue of his reelection is hotly debated in Washington. With McGovern’s campaign announcement formally setting the 1972 election in motion, there is increased speculation about other potential early entries into the race. Highlighting the new primary system implemented by the McGovern-Fraser Committee, the New York Times reports that Senators Birch Bayh (D-IN), Harold Hughes (D-IA) and William Proxmire (D-WI) are also in talks with aides about entering the race. The latter two Senators deny the reports entirely, while Senator Bayh states that he is “actively exploring” his options for 1972.
Wednesday, January 21st, 1971: Khmer Rouge militants launch a series of exploratory run-and-gun attacks on government forces within the capital city of Phnom Penh, a signal to the regime of Lon Nol that the communist guerilla movement’s reach within the country is growing. The following day, Khmer Rouge forces launch rocket and mortar attacks on the city’s airport.
Senator Richard Russell (D-GA) dies at the age of 73, forcing fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter, Governor of Georgia, to appoint a replacement. Leading the pack of potential replacements is former Governor Ernest Vandiver, who is the husband of Russell’s niece.
Thursday, January 22nd, 1971: President Nixon delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, in which he reaffirms his commitment to affecting a “peace with honor” in Southeast Asia and voices interest in reorganizing large swathes of the federal bureaucracy into three streamlined Departments, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Community Resources, and the Department of Human Services, as part of his “New Federalism” agenda.
Sunday, January 24th, 1971: 92 Guinean opponents of the leftist aligned regime of President Toure are sentenced to death for their role in supporting a failed Portuguese invasion and coup plot from the year earlier. A further 72 persons, including the Catholic Archbishop of Conkary, are sentenced to life in prison in the infamous Camp Boiro.
Monday, January 25th, 1971: Uganda’s military topples President Milton Obote in a coup while the left-leaning Ugandan President was abroad, resulting in army chief Idi Amin seizing power in his place. The coup is welcomed by Washington and London, who were distrustful of Obote due to his socialist leanings.
Tuesday, January 26th, 1971: President Nixon nominates former Congressman George H.W. Bush to serve as the next American Ambassador to the United Nations after Charles Yost resigns to take up an academic position at Columbia University.
Wednesday, January 27th, 1971: Charles Manson and three female followers (Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel) are convicted for their roles in the Tate-LaBianca murders in a Los Angeles Court.
Thursday, January 28th, 1971: The Citizens Committee to Draft John McKeithen for President is launched in New Orleans, Louisiana, by several prominent Louisiana lawmakers seeking to lure the state’s populist Governor into the race. Despite their initial entreaties, Governor McKeithen tells reporters that he is not presently interested in pursuing the Presidency.
As part of his confirmation hearings for the position of Treasury Secretary, John Connally tells the Senate Finance Committee that he is both committed to the President’s agenda of “New Federalism” and to implementing sweeping, unprecedented tax cuts. Despite some opposition from liberal Democrats, the Texan and one time LBJ ally has broad bipartisan support for his nomination.
End of January + February follow in next updates.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
[2] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain).
Atlas Has Shrugged:
Birch Bayh
Friday, January 29th, 1971.
Indiana State House.
12:00 PM, Indianapolis, IN.
[1]
The crowd had been warmed up by several local political figures, including Congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr., ahead of the Senator’s speech. As Jacobs left the podium after introducing the Senator, who watched on with his beaming wife Marvella, the Senator arose from his seat to give the speech he had been waiting for so long to deliver. The crowd was smaller than anticipated, and the Senator was saddened that his partner in the Senate, Vance Hartke, had declined to attend. It was widely rumored in Washington that his fellow Senator was also interested in the Democratic nomination, which did not anger Bayh so much as it did confuse him. After all, the other Indianan Senator was less known to the general public, was less liberal than the times demanded, and less inclined to take somewhat risky political stands. Regardless, Bayh choose not to resent Hartke’s decision, knowing that the crowd – as small as it turned out to be – would be bigger than his should he choose to dip his feet into the water.
A light rain fell from a cold winter sky, the snow on the capital grounds still fresh from the blizzard that had hit the week before. The Senator cleared his throat as cameras clicked and flashed around him, and across the Hoosier state, local television affiliates carried the Senators announcement. The crowd cheered for several seconds after the first sentence, then fell silent as the Senator continued with his speech.
“Today I am announcing my candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President in 1972.
In undertaking this effort, I look to the legacy of our late President John Kennedy, for inspiration. At a time of stagnation, we must let our cynicism give way to celebration. In a time of division, we mustn’t let our discord stand in the way to unity. In a time of hopelessness, we mustn’t let the light of hope be dimmed by the darkness of those who profit from our distrust, who thrive on our fears. We need a new politics for a new America, and I want to be a new kind of Democrat.
I think it’s time our party have a serious conversation about ending the war in Vietnam once and for all. I think it is time for our party to undertake a bold effort of electoral reform to make government truly accountable to the people it serves. I believe it’s time America returns from Nixon’s nightmare to Kennedy’s Camelot. And most importantly, I have an unyielding faith in the goodness of the American people. I believe that, when given good choices, Americans will always make the right decision. And right now to be truthful, America is simply short of good options. We can change that together!
Here in Indiana, in America’s industrial heartland and agricultural breadbasket, we see the ultimate cross-section of American life. Good, hard working people, struggling to get ahead and desiring nothing more than to leave a better country for their children are being left behind. Well, maybe that’s alright in Nixon’s America, but in the real America, we leave nobody behind!
And that is why I am running for President. We cannot leave more Americans behind in the pursuit of values contrary to those of our founding fathers. My candidacy will be a rejection of the politics of greed and sleaze. It will be a candidacy that seeks to inspire, that seeks to rekindle, and that seeks to renew. So I ask for your support and your vote, and I ask that you keep your prayers with me as we undergo this great effort. Thank You, God Bless You, and God Bless America!”
Saturday, January 30th, 1971: Governor James Carter of Georgia makes waves in Washington when he appoints 39-year-old State Senator Sam Nunn to the empty Senate seat of the late Richard Russell. The decision to appoint Nunn, a more moderate southern Democrat representing a newer generation of leaders in the deep south, over former Governor Ernest Vandiver comes as a shock to many political observers.
Sunday, January 31st, 1971: Apollo 14, the third manned American mission to the moon, is launched with great fanfare from Cape Canaveral. Manned by Edgar Mitchell, Stuart Roosa, and Alan Shepard, the mission is expected to land on the lunar surface where they will spend their time engaging in various scientific exercises and experiments before returning to Earth in the lunar capsule.
Monday, February 1st, 1971: Ugandan military leader Idi Amin outlaws the Uganda People’s Congress, the political party of exiled President Milton Obote, and subsequently fires every government official in the country and replaces them with loyal military officers. Amin also suspends parliament and assumes the office of President extralegally, with Britain and Washington recognizing his new regime immediately to Obote’s supporters displeasure.
Wednesday, February 3rd, 1971: A second round of Khmer Rouge incursions into the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh ends with the United States embassy coming under mortar fire. The second attack on the city startles both the regime of Lon Nol, the nation’s President who just the year earlier had driven Prince Sihanouk from power, as well as National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger.
Friday, February 5th, 1971: Apollo 14 successfully lands on the moon. Stepping onto the moon, Alan Sheppard declared “it’s been a long way, but we’re here” as the NASA control room erupted into spontaneous celebration. The astronauts plan to conduct a variety of scientific experiments during their short time on the lunar surface, before making their return to earth in the coming week.
Saturday, February 6th, 1971: British soldier Robert Curtis is killed in Belfast by nationalist militants, making him the first military casualty in Northern Ireland during the period that would come to be known as “The Troubles.”
Sunday, February 7th, 1971: A referendum in Switzerland results in male voters casting their ballots 65-35% in favor of amending the constitution to extend suffrage to women. Switzerland was the last country in Europe to deny women the right to vote as of 1971.
Monday, February 8th, 1971: Operation Lam Son 719 is launched by the ARVN’s First Division, clandestinely crossing the border with Laos to attack Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military installations that had been constructed in the neighboring neutral country along the Ho Chi Minh trail.
Tuesday, February 9th, 1971: A 6.5 magnitude earthquake originating from the Sierra Madre Fault rocks California, killing 64 and rattling much of southern California. Governor Reagan declares a state of emergency in response to the quake.
Wednesday, February 10th, 1971: President Nixon’s Oval Office taping system is installed by Secret Service agents; Nixon’s decision to begin taping his phone conversations through a voice activated system is kept a closely guarded secret even within the confines of the West Wing. The President was inspired to use a taping system by his predecessor Lyndon Johnson, and justified its purpose by telling Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, his assistant Lawrence Higby, and aide Alexander Butterfield that it was for the historical record. Only the President, his three aides, and a handful of Secret Service agents who helped install the system are aware of its existence.
Thursday, February 11th, 1971: Thursday, February 11th, 1971: John Connally is sworn in as Secretary of the Treasury after being confirmed by a 71-24 vote in the Senate. The previous Treasury Secretary David Kennedy is in turn going to continue serving in the administration as Ambassador to NATO, where the previous Ambassador Robert Ellsworth was shuffled out in preparation for a possible return to Congress.
Friday, February 12th, 1971: The six member nations of the European Economic Community approve a plan to establish a common currency in the coming years.
Saturday, February 13th, 1971: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union releases details of the Five Year Plan that had begun on New Years Day; the plan calls for the Soviet government to raise the standard of living faced by the average Soviet citizen, and puts a particular focus on producing consumer goods and growing trade relations with non-communist nations.
Sunday, February 14th, 1971: A group of Belgian farmers, angered by the European Economic Community’s agricultural pricing policies, manage to sneak three cows into the EEC headquarters in Brussels and lead them into the middle of a meeting between the member state’s Agriculture ministers. The interruption is a noticeable indication of a severe security lapse at the building, and while the protesters are herded out with their cattle in tow without incident, the protest is a reminder that there is still strong continental opposition to further European integration.
Quote from: The Nixon Tapes (C) 2015.
HENRY KISSINGER: The situation in Cambodia is getting increasingly untenable, Mr. President. The attack on Phnom Penh shows Lon Nol’s military cannot hold the tide against the rebels. If Cambodia falls, the Viet Cong are going to have further options open to them if they want to push into the South. Their operational ability will greatly increase if they can commit hit and run attacks in South Vietnam with relative safety and impunity.
RICHARD NIXON: So we’re gonna have to go into Cambodia then, right Henry?
HENRY KISSINGER: It appears so, Mr. President. We risk the destruction of South Vietnam’s stability –
MELVIN LAIRD: Not to mention the morale of our forces in South Vietnam, but invading Cambodia again will not –
HENRY KISSINGER: Indeed, the morale of our forces is endangered as well. If the government of the Khmer Republic is this weak, and the recent incidents in Phnom Penh have proven that, then we are going to have to step in and solve this situation ourselves Mr. President.
MELVIN LAIRD: Mr. Kissinger, with all due respect, the operations we conducted last year in Cambodia were –
HENRY KISSINGER: Successful! They were successful, Secretary Laird!
MELVIN LAIRD: We were not able to root out their main base of operations, we’ve only recovered 20 of our men total, and we have failed to eradicate –
HENRY KISSINGER: With all due respect, Mr. Secretary, is that so much a failure of the strategy or is that just the failure of the Pentagon to implement that strategy?
RICHARD NIXON: Henry, we’re preparing to reequip the Cambodians, but what’s the, uh, the situation with the ability of their armed forces? I have not seen any guarantees that they will be able to protect or even use what we are giving them. I’d be more, uh, I’d have more peace of mind if, if uh, if our guys were in charge of the –
MELVIN LAIRD: Mr. President, we’re prohibited by law from using our own men in –
RICHARD NIXON: I know that already, Mel. I’m just stating that I think we’d be better off that way - we certainly don’t need more Senate meddling in our affairs, of course, but –
H.R. HALDEMAN: The House defeated the Cooper-Church amendment only after we pulled back last time. Sending them in again would result in a backlash that won’t help us next year, and Cooper and Church will be able to muster the votes this time.
RICHARD NIXON: So how do we go about this?
HENRY KISSINGER: We…well, we don’t go about this. You understand me?
RICHARD NIXON: I understand completely…
Tuesday, February 16th, 1971: The Washington Post reports that President Nixon will propose sweeping changes to the healthcare system to Congress in the coming days; the White House downplays these reports but does confirm that the President intends to submit several legislative proposals in the coming weeks as part of his campaign to streamline the federal bureaucracy. Despite his private disdain for the California Governor, Nixon finds an unexpected ally and spokesperson for his “New Federalism” agenda in the form of Ronald Reagan, who pitches Nixon’s plans to merge federal departments and agencies in an appearance on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show on NBC.
Wednesday, February 17th, 1971: Despite strong polling and swirling rumors, Senator Kennedy (D-MA) states that he isn’t “actively considering a run at this time” during an interview with CBS’s Walter Cronkite, but he doesn’t explicitly rule out running for President either. “I think it’s way too early” said Kennedy, “my first priority is serving my constituents.”
Thursday, February 18th, 1971: President Nixon proposes Congress pass legislation that would require all employers to pay 65% of their employees’ health insurance premiums; despite opposition from many of the conservative Republicans in Congress, Nixon is hopeful that Democrats will be supportive of the plan which he claims will dramatically increase access to medical care for all Americans while also driving down spending on programs like Medicare.
Friday, February 19th, 1971: Riots break out across East Pakistan as protesters take to the streets to call for greater autonomy.
Sunday, February 21st, 1971: 123 people are killed in nineteen different storms that raged across the Deep South, with most of the fatalities being related to falling trees or tornadoes. The town of Inverness, Mississippi, is hardest hit by the storm, enduring the most casualties.
Monday, February 22nd, 1971: Pakistani President Yahya Khan is reported by journalists to have said “if we kill three million of them, the rest will eat out of our hands” regarding protests by the Bengali minority in East Pakistan demanding autonomy or independence.
Tuesday, February 23rd, 1971: Do Cao Tri, a South Vietnamese general tasked with leading covert operations in Laos against the Viet Cong and NVA, is killed alongside several ARVN personnel and a French journalist in a helicopter crash.
Friday, February 26th, 1971: The Senate votes 89-5 to confirm George H.W. Bush as the next Ambassador to the United Nations. He is subsequently sworn into this position in early March.
Saturday, February 27th, 1971: Gallup releases new polling on the 1972 presidential race.
Gallup: 1,000 Registered Voters (Nationwide).
(R) Richard Nixon: 42%
(D) Generic Democrat: 33%
Undecided: 21%
Independent/Other: 4%
Gallup: 1,000 Democratic Voters (Nationwide).
Edward Kennedy: 31%
Hubert Humphrey: 16%
Edmund Muskie: 15%
George Wallace: 15%
George McGovern: 12%
Henry Jackson: 3%
Birch Bayh: 3%
John McKeithen: 3%
Eugene McCarthy: 1%
Harold Hughes: 1%
Vance Hartke: 1%
Sunday, February 28th, 1971: Stuntman Evel Knievel jumps 19 cars on a motorcycle ahead of a stockcar race in Ontario, California, setting a new world record in the process.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
Atlas Has Shrugged:
Monday, March 1st, 1971: A bomb rips through a men’s bathroom in the Capital Building at 1:52 AM, resulting in over $300,000 worth of damage but causing no fatalities or injuries. Leftist or anti-war militants are suspected to be behind the blast. The FBI begins an immediate investigation into the bombing.
Tuesday, March 2nd, 1971: Protesting Bengali students in the East Pakistani city of Dhaka tear down the flag of Pakistan and raise the flag of the proposed nation of Bangladesh; this event, though so seemingly minor, sparks the beginning of the Bangladesh War of Independence.
Wednesday, March 3rd, 1971: The People’s Republic of China launches their second satellite into space; the successful mission is hailed by the ruling Communist Party of China as the latest demonstration of the Maoist regime’s advances in science and technological development.
Thursday, March 4th, 1971: Pakistani President Yahya Khan dissolves the National Assembly hours ahead of the inauguration of a new government that was to be led by the Bengali dominated Awami League; Khan’s actions are partly motivated by politics, as the coalition agreement between the Awami League and the Pakistani People’s Party stipulated that the outgoing Prime Minister Bhutto replace Khan as head of state. Finding the agreement unacceptable, Khan’s decision to void the result of the elections held in December results in rioting across East Pakistan.
Friday, March 5th, 1971: Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, aged 51, marries Margaret Sinclair, aged 22, at a private ceremony in Vancouver.
Saturday, March 6th, 1971: In response to greater unrest in East Pakistan, President Yahya Khan places the province under martial law. Despite troops being deployed to the streets, angry protesters continue to demand that the President resign and allow the Awami League dominated government to take office.
Sunday, March 7th, 1971: Before a crowd of two million supporters crowded into a stadium in Dhaka, Awami League leader Sheikh Rujibur Rahman delivers a brief speech calling on the masses to take up arms in support of his party, and voicing support for the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan at the end of his remarks.
Monday, March 8th, 1971: “The Fight of the Century” between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier takes place in Madison Square Garden. Frazier beats Ali after fifteen rounds. The internationally viewed fight was preceded by a circus life atmosphere in which tickets were highly priced and celebrities ranging from Woody Allen to Frank Sinatra were amongst those in the audience. “The fight was tremendous” said Donald Trump, a 25-year-old real estate developer who dabbles in Broadway promotion, “it was a yuge thing, you should’ve seen it in person.”
Tuesday, March 9th, 1971: An organization known as “the Citizen’s Committee to Investigate the FBI” stages a successful break-in at an FBI office in Reading, Pennsylvania in the early hours of the morning, in which several documents were taken. The militant burglars successfully timed the break-in with the Frazier-Ali fight, successfully deducing the night watchman would be distracted.
Wednesday, March 10th, 1971: John Gorton resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the Liberal Party after losing an internal no confidence vote in his leadership. He is succeeded as party leader and Prime Minister by William MacMahon.
The Senate votes 94-1 to ratify the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which would lower the voting age to 18. The amendment is sent to the states for ratification.
Thursday, March 11th, 1971: At a meeting of the Committee to Re-elect the President (“CREEP”), President Nixon authorizes his campaign to appropriate $250,000 dollars in donated funds for the purposes of gathering intelligence about political opponents. This is the genesis of the White House “plumbers’ squad.”
Friday, March 12th, 1971: Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel is compelled by the Turkish armed forces to resign in face of a potential military coup. Described as “a coup by memorandum,” the incident is widely viewed in Ankara and Istanbul as a demonstration of the military’s authority over the country.
Ted Kennedy
Saturday, March 13th, 1971.
The Kennedy Compound.
11:45 AM, Palm Beach, FL.
[1]
There was a considerable amount of blood in the water in the first two years after the 1968 election; the conundrum for the surviving Kennedy brother was that he was unsure if it were Nixon’s or his own. In the wake of Chappaquiddick, the Massachusetts Senator went over a few hours from being one of the President’s biggest fears to one of his easiest targets. Though few were willing to permanently write-off the career of the innately ambitious scion of one of America’s most legendary political dynasties, there was little excitement for the scandalized Senator outside of the Democratic Party’s northeastern base, which yearned for a revival of “Camelot.” Yet Kennedy was none the less the Democratic frontrunner for months until he finally took himself out of the race, popular among the most devoted members of the party as a fierce stalwart of American liberalism.
For those few dreamers who still eyed 1972 with some sense of promise (most of whom happened to share the surname “Kennedy”), the first half of 1971 would be judgement day for their last surviving prince’s career. Tainted by Chappaquiddick, Kennedy’s position as Senate Minority Whip was facing a test in the form of Senator Robert Carlyle Byrd of West Virginia. The Dixiecrat who had once filibustered the Civil Rights Act was an odd fit for such a position considering the increasingly liberal direction of the party, though over the course of the proceeding years he had largely moderated his segregationist views and strengthened his relations with his progressive colleagues.
On a breezy spring morning, Kennedy arrived from Washington at his family’s estate in Palm Beach, where he was joined by his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, aide Paul Kirk, family adviser Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and DNC Chairman Larry O’Brien over the coming days. There would be women, booze, and strategy sessions a-plenty. But mostly women and booze. On the morning of Saturday, March 13th, the four men sat down in the grassy yard overlooking the seawall and beach, the cool ocean breeze blowing through the palm trees as the men bantered lightly under a blistering summer sun. But the elephant in the room couldn’t be ignored.
“Look, I can get this passed” Teddy began, eying each of his four companions with a solemn, resolved expression of purpose that fooled the masses but not the men present, continuing: “Byrd can’t get the votes. They won’t let a, er, a segregationist take that position. That won’t happen. I can sense the mood there.”
“Don’t be too apathetic, Ted. Byrd’s been working real hard. I thought he just wanted Appropriations. But he’s just like you - he wants it all, Ted!” O’Brien’s warning was not simply the result of some juicy political intel; it was common sense, apparent to all but Kennedy.
“I know my turf, Larry, I know what Byrd’s hatching in January. Don’t worry about it. If we panic, if we legitimize Byrd’s challenge and make this an actual contest rather than a cloakroom gossip game, then we’ll be in trouble. We’re gonna make 1971 our year. The year of the Kennedys.”
“Ted,” Sargent beseeched, “you can’t be talking about the year after 1971, right?”
“Not today, not anymore. I meant it when I said no.”
“Good” affirmed Sargent, “you’re making a smart decision, in the long term at least.”
“The polls were saying otherwise” shot back Kennedy, who had only come to his decision to sit out ’72 reluctantly.
"Ted, you wouldn’t win. You can’t run now, anyway. We lost Jack and Bobby to our enemies. We can’t lose you to our supposed friends-“
“The polls are saying otherwise, though. Can you believe that after all that I’m at-“
“Ted” interjected Schlesinger, “God threw you a miracle. Don’t waste it now. Lay low. Work smart, not hard, and most of all, not recklessly.”
“I’m not reconsidering anything, jeez, hear me out;” Kennedy’s words revealed a sense of desperation, as if he were begging them to allow him to reverse his non-candidacy announcement. “It’s not like it was now or never I guess.”
“That’s what Jack and Bobby would’ve told you.“
“And the old man” added Shriver.
“I sit this out, I’m going to be sidelined until 1980” bemoaned Kennedy.
“This is what you do.” Paul Kirk’s confidence was made transparent in the strength of his voice, which strung together crafted the image of the gritty Washington fixer well beyond Kirk’s 32 years, though his youthful appearance betrayed this immediately.
“We work hard, but we lay low. Byrd won’t be a problem, and if he becomes one, we make way for him. No big deal. Reuther and you have been working for years to pass a healthcare reform package. This can be your moment, with or without the job as Whip…it’d be easier as Whip, obviously-"
“Well ‘er, uh, no sh**t wise guy!” interjected Kennedy, a comment Kirk had already trained himself to ignore.
“You get the votes together. You pass the bill. You put the ball in Nixon’s court, and you let the public decide. If he vetoes it against the will of the public, your stock goes up, you get in. He vetoes it, the public applauds, you stay put, lose nothing, and lay low. If he signs it, you become the biggest star in the Senate and Nixon puts himself on the way to reelection. And that gives you 1976.”
“Worst case scenario, Paul. The bill meets fierce opposition, the Dixiecrats buckle, Byrd becomes a problem. Humphrey will be hand wringing, and McGovern will say it won’t go far enough. We’ll have to water it down, but Nixon and Scott would deliver the votes. Then Nixon vetoes it anyway?”
“Why’d he do that?”
“He’s an odd fellow.” A historian and public intellectual, Schlesinger’s poignant observation was taken far more seriously than his joke had intended to be. But it rang true to those present.
“So he vetoes it. We’re down for the count in 1972. But at the very least, it’ll give me a cause to fight for and a good enough reason to be out there without being out there. We’ll er uh, we’ll keep them all waiting. We’ll keep them wondering. If the mood is right, it’ll propel us. If the mood is wrong, we live anther day. I think we’re done here for now. We’ll fondle the details later, but right now let’s fondle er uh….something else.”
The men agreed to adjourn, keeping both the subject matter of the meeting and their….other minor indiscretions quiet; no, it was a simple fishing trip. No politics, no girls. Just clean, relaxing fun in Florida. The secrecy pact did not have to be verbalized to be understood and was formalized by the shaking of hands and the patting of backs.
Unfortunately for them, the Cuban in the van outside had been an active listener and a silent participant in their meeting. He had worked hard to gain the grounds crew’s trust, and he worked harder the day he planted the bugs. But now he had completed his mission, he snuffed out his cigarette, and paused to review the tape.
Sunday, March 14th, 1971: On NBC’s Meet the Press, Louisiana Governor John McKeithen acknowledges the growing support for a draft McKeithen movement but continues to insist that he is not actively weighing a presidential bid himself. The Louisiana Governor also makes waves when he criticizes his potential rival George Wallace, describing him as “a regional phenomenon” who could “never unite this party.”
Monday, March 15th, 1971: The State Department revises a 21-year-old travel ban prohibiting Americans from visiting the People’s Republic of China; despite the reversal of the State Department’s policies, the regime of Mao Zedong in Peking remains incredibly selective when it comes to admitting Americans into the People’s Republic, accepting only three out of every one thousand visa applications from the United States.
John McKeithen
Wednesday, March 17th, 1971.
The Napoleon House Restaurant.
12:45 PM, New Orleans, LA.
[2]
The Napoleon House was a freshly minted officially recognized historic landmark in New Orleans, still operating as a well-beloved restaurant. Its upper floors, mostly vacant offices, provided the perfect hideaway for the impending political conclave. Some of the bigwigs of Louisiana’s steamy political machine had gathered, but the guest of honor was running late.
Former First Lady Blanche Long stared at the gumbo in her bowl, politely waiting for the arrival of the Governor before she took a single bite. Across the room, newspaper publisher Sam Hanna smoked a Marlboro, dropping his ashes carelessly across the wooden floor as he impatiently paced around the room. The young Gus Weill and State Senator Billy Boles engaged in idle conversation, holding off on the topic at hand until the meeting got underway. All the while, State Senator Sixty Rayburn read the Times-Picayune, glancing out the window to Royal Street below, where a brass band happily played a slow, rickety, and distinctly New Orleans version of “Shine On Harvest Moon” to a crowd of tourists and locals alike.
At last, a lone black Cadillac pulled up to the building, and Rayburn watched as the Governor was whisked inside by three state troopers, almost completely unnoticed by the gathered crowd outside. Neither was he noticed by the patrons inside, who continued with their meals and conversations on the first floor below. As soon as the Governor disappeared from sight from downstairs on the street, the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs was heard by all present. Blanche gave a sigh of relief, ready to eat, but even more delighted that the meeting of such importance was finally about to occur.
“How are y'all?” asked Governor McKeithen as he entered the room while the State Troopers took up posts outside the room. He bent down to greet Blanche, the political matriarch of the Louisiana Democratic Party, with a familiar kiss and moved forward to heartily shake the hand of Gus Weill, his longtime assistant and trusted former campaign aide. Moving across the room to greet Boles, Rayburn, and Hanna, the Governor shook their hands with the same amount of vigor as he did for Weill, before finally taking his seat at the round table in the room, followed quickly by the others.
“So let’s get down to business here” said McKeithen, “what’s this business about me running for President about and how many times will I have to say no to you all?”
“Govanah” Hanna addressed McKeithen, “this ain’t flattery. We frankly don’t need to flatter you, we go back a good ways.”
“Well, you got my attention Sam with this free lunch. Whatever you’ve got to sell me, I’m all ears. At least until my plate’s empty…well, Sixty, what exactly is this about?” The Governor turned towards the State Senator with the realization that the rumored draft effort was considerably more serious than he had initially estimated.
Well connected to the Democratic National Committee and House Minority leader Hale Boggs, Blanche Long spoke up. “The party is fixing on voting for the McGovern proposals and it’s going to be changing everything. The way we pick nominees will never, ever, be the same. You don’t have to win-”
“Well, there we have it, I don’t have to win. I’ll be a favorite son again?” interrupted McKeithen.
“…you don’t have to win them all” Blanche continued. “But if you get a small chunk here, a small chunk here, a big chunk there, and so on, well…this is going to correlate to delegates."
“A lot of delegates” interjected Weil from the other side of the table.
“JJ, you might not outright win the nomination. But you can take enough delegates with you to the convention and stop McGovern. He engineered all of these changes to the party structure to enhance his own ambitions. For the sake of the party, we need you to run” Blanche implored him, seeming confident in her predictions of electoral chaos.
“And who will fund such an endeavor? Aint nobody outside of this state actually knows who I am!” McKeithen responded in exasperation and shock that such a proposal was actually truly being debated before him.
“We got friends in the oil fields…the guys running the wells and the guys running the boardrooms” responded Senator Boles.
“And” Weill added, “we got Russell and Boggs on our side. Big names.”
“Say I run” McKeithen quizzed Weill, “say I actually jump in. Say I pull third or fourth in a few states and place behind Wallace in the south. Say I come in third or fourth even in the delegate count. I can swing it for Muskie, or Humphrey, or Jackson. Alright. But why me? You can’t find another favorite son? One a little less busy than me?”
“JJ, I’m a newspaper man. I know public opinion, and I’d like to think that I know what they think and what they want. Well, folks around here want two things: a president they can trust and a nominee they know can win. And JJ, and no offense, Mrs. Long, I know you don’t mean it that way, but you’re selling JJ short here. He can win…we can win! We can do this. We can win the nomination, and then we can even win the White House. This isn’t just about stopping McGovern. We can stop Nixon too!” Sam Hanna’s words sunk into McKeithen, as they did to everyone else in the room.
“He’s right.” Blanche broke the silence. “You can win. And you will win. You ought to do this, Governor. We need you. The party needs you.” Finally, Rayburn spoke up: “Don’t worry about the money, we’ll get it for you. You won’t be short on funds. If you go ahead with this, we can make it happen.”
Another long pause filled the room. The silence wasn’t haunting, nor deafening. It was the silence of a man making a choice. Not a reasoned choice, but an impulse choice. Finally, McKeithen spoke.
“Well” he declared, “I guess I’m ‘runnin for President. Won’t ‘cha help me?”
Thursday, March 18th, 1971: Former New York Governor and 1944 and 1948 Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey dies at the age of 68; Dewey was discovered deceased in a Miami hotel room after playing a round of golf, the victim of an apparent heart attack.
Saturday, March 20th, 1971: An early, prototype unmanned drone is deployed over China’s top secret Lop Nur nuclear test site. The mission is successful in gathering the necessary intelligence, but the drone crashes. This is the fourth and final attempt at such a mission, and the unmanned drone program ends afterwards when it is determined that the Chinese military managed to recover the crashed drone after it plummeted from the sky over Yunnan province.
Tuesday, March 23rd, 1971: The Washington Post reports on the widespread FBI surveillance of American citizens dating back to 1957, using documents that had been seized by the Citizen’s Committee to Investigate the FBI earlier in the month as evidence of such programs.
Wednesday, March 24th, 1971: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and several other East Pakistani political figures and independence activists are arrested by the Pakistani military in several pre-dawn raids inside their own homes. The arrests are the opening stage of Operation Searchlight, the Pakistani government’s plan to put down unrest in East Pakistan once and for all. The next day, the Pakistani army kills 45 student demonstrators demanding Rahman's release at a protest that devolved into a riot.
Friday, March 26th, 1971: The leaders of the Awami League declare East Pakistan’s independence as Bangladesh. India, Pakistan’s neighboring rival nation, immediately indicates to Washington that they are prepared to recognize Bangladesh’s independence even at the cost of war with Pakistan.
Saturday, March 27th, 1971: Over 10,000 people are reported dead in East Pakistan as the Pakistani military moves to crush the separatist rebellion in what rebels have declared to be Bangladesh. Most of the casualties have been killed by the military during the sporadic fighting that has taken place since the launch of Operation Searchlight. The Indian government formally protests the alleged human rights abuses before the United Nations.
[1] Taken from Wikipedia Commons (Public Domain)
[2] Taken from 64 Parishes (Official Portrait - Public Domain)
YPestis25:
Oh I'll be following this closely! Giving me flashbacks to our 1972 Fear and Loathing Election Game. Welcome back Sanchez.
Atlas Has Shrugged:
Quote from: YPestis25 on August 19, 2023, 01:13:15 PM
Oh I'll be following this closely! Giving me flashbacks to our 1972 Fear and Loathing Election Game. Welcome back Sanchez.
That was the best game ever!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page