President Johnson is Dead: Turbulent Times in the New Frontier
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  President Johnson is Dead: Turbulent Times in the New Frontier
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Pyro
PyroTheFox
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« Reply #25 on: June 30, 2017, 06:16:25 PM »


President Johnson Signs the Occupational Opportunity Act into Law, July 4th 1961

  The Editor of the Monthly Review Press, Marxist Harry Braverman, remarked on the first days of the Johnson Administration in a pamphlet published in 1962. "The program espoused by the Democrats, all such fantastic conceptions: A guarantee of health services and the elimination of homelessness. Rectifying the lowest lows of bourgeois democracy. Historically deafened liberal publishers leaped to defend President Lyndon Johnson from the moment he stepped into office and appointed corporate insiders and Dixiecrats to his cabinet. McNamara, the President of Ford Motors, now became Commerce Secretary. Senator Fulbright, a shining champion of segregation, was now to dictate and appraise the merits of other nations."

  Accompanied by a Democratic Congress, the president had little trouble confirming each of his cabinet choices, and when his administration filled out, sought to build his presidential stature. "He craved admiration like none other I knew," Samuel Forrest stated in his 1980 interview. "Lyndon's ego drove him to seek a sort of greatness. For all of his misgivings, Eisenhower would undoubtedly be remembered for bettering the country, just as Truman and Roosevelt had. [Johnson] wanted that very same treatment for himself, and took any route to find it."

  From those first weeks in office, President Johnson met with several dozen Democratic Congressmen one after the next. He had full intent on delivering an electric shock to the party machine and re-awakening the New Deal Coalition which had long since rusted over. According to those who met with the president in this initial burst of activity, he maneuvered and organized his colleagues just as ably as he had done as Senate Leader. On ensuring Congress follow the will of the president, Connally was quoted in The Making of the President with the following statement. "If they had qualms with the policy, we would present it in a different tone. If they had an issue with the appropriations, we'd re-word it. If they stood against the president on some tepid moral standing, well, it comes down to whether or not you'd consider loyalty immoral."

  President Johnson submitted several substantial domestic proposals to Congress, beginning in March of 1961. Each of these initiatives intended to, without rustling the feathers of the amicable business class, combat poverty and provide more suitable conditions for those surviving on low or no income. The Occupational Opportunity Act of 1961, passed along partisan lines with no mutineers, funded the 'Jobs Corps' to contribute education and employment training for young adults. It also offered new college grants and the Work Study program for those in lower income brackets, and established VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) to recruit and refer volunteers interested in combating poverty to local organizations.

  Considering the present state of the economy, somewhat battered from a recent recession but stable overall, this has been deemed a "moderate" bill by legislative historians. As such, one may conclude that Johnson was merely dipping his toe in the water and had yet to jump in decisively. Within four months of its introduction, this first portion of Johnson's 'Great Society' was signed by the president and made into law. Passed alongside this first landmark legislative leap had been a massive $10 billion tax cut: reducing the top tax rate from 90% to 65%. This indicated an insurmountable truth iconic of American government in the 1960s: providing financial resources for these domestic programs would originate from existing programs, leading to initiatives like VISTA receiving only 1/10th of its recommended funding.

  Conservative Republicans lashed at the president's programs for their "excessive, inefficient cost", with some on the Goldwater end of the party lambasting these first moves as "pure socialistic in intention". A closer look revealed, however, that Johnson's proposals were hardly unfriendly to those businesses which had attended Johnson and Kennedy's plentiful fundraising dinners. Inland Steel and Texaco lobbied fiercely for the election of Johnson to the presidency, knowing full well what a Democratic administration would seek to accomplish. None of the programs championed by President Johnson in his tenure had an objective of granting basic economic needs to poor Americans, but rather would offer, "a hand up, and not a handout."

  The social and economic ills of the 1950s, made clear with a burgeoning movement for racial equality and an increasingly despondent labor force, pushed Democrats to address these issues, lest they lose legitimacy. Pair this with the enormously influential private sector, and one would receive precisely what Congress passed in 1961. In relation to forming a coherent solution for urban poverty, the president stated, "American business has a large stake in resolving the problems of urbanization. For cities are the place where the markets for the businessman's products are. Cities are the places where commerce and trade - manufacturing and distribution take place. Our cities have been built on a partnership between government and private business."

  From the span of 1961-62, President Johnson signed off on many more "tip-toe" measures, expanding federal bodies to be better-equipped to deal with ongoing welfare programs, public education, arts and humanities support and urban transportation. This enraged the conservative minority, which soon accused Johnson of expanding the federal government well beyond its reach, overstepping the rights of states. Essentially, they were correct. Much of the reform initiatives presented in the Great Society trampled the input of state governments: this had been especially true with VISTA. For now, to the benefit of the new incumbent, as Congress pushed to ratify these programs, press headlines shifted focus to foreign affairs.

Johnson SOTU: The Richest Nation on Earth Can Afford to Win the War on Poverty
The Chicago Tribune, January 31st, 1961

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin has now reached orbit. [...] The Soviets have launched the first man in space.
CBS News, April 12th, 1961
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Pyro
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« Reply #26 on: July 01, 2017, 06:23:01 PM »


Secretary of State J. William Fulbright, 1960s

  "Although the Johnson Administration was composed of the best and brightest men in politics at that point in time," Theodore White wrote, "let there be no doubt that (figurative) sparring was not an uncommon practice on Pennsylvania Avenue. On domestic affairs, from his first days in office, Johnson knew his plan front-and-back. It was not an easy affair influencing the president when it came to his Great Society project, and this mostly resulted in gratuitous shouting overheard throughout the West Wing. Of all accounted for in the White House, the Chief of Staff alone had managed to persuade Johnson in delaying introduction of his medical legislation. Congress only began debating the national insurance conundrum in 1963. [...] This new president took input sparingly, but listened to his advisers selectively on the business of foreign affairs."

  Lyndon Johnson understood the game of foreign policy, and apparently had discussed a great deal of it in meetings with outgoing President Eisenhower in the transitional period. These initiations set the foundation for Johnson's thinking moving forward, however it hardly set the basis for his overall strategy. The president, along with much of his country, grew unnerved over the expansion of Communism in the Caribbean. As covered prior, Johnson had little interest, and nothing to gain, in fanning the flames. After he announced the negation of a full embargo, the president faced a divided cabinet on how to proceed.

  State Secretary Fulbright consistently urged the president to move as one with the United Nations and NATO in pursuing an end to Communist influence in the Western Hemisphere. One of the few supporters of international law in the Johnson Cabinet, Fulbright would quickly find himself in the minority: outvoted by other interests in the room. The president did, according to the former senator in his later years, listen to each and every word he said, and carefully weighed his options in regards to state and foreign affairs. It was due in part to Fulbright's insistence that Johnson authorized the Growth Alliance in May 1961: an aid and volunteer program for Latin American institutions.

  A second, often louder, voice in the room would be the imposing Defense Secretary, Stuart Symington. The former Missourian senator and Air Force Secretary became the voice of the military sector to President Johnson. Symington continuously pressured the president for an increase to national defense spending as the means to catch up to the accelerating progress of the Soviet Union, to which, for the most part, Johnson agreed. When it came to matters of international relations, the president also relied on Gordon Blake, the Director of the National Security Agency, and Stephen Ailes, National Security Advisor.

  The only other figure ever holding any influence with Johnson's early foreign agenda had been the C.I.A. Director, Allen Dulles. Serving under Eisenhower since 1953, Dulles observed and cooperated in one of the most dramatic shifts in power to the military and security industries in American history. Moving far beyond Korea, the unbounded intelligence community sought clandestine ends to all foreign entities which may prove damaging to American interests. The TPAJAX Project in Iran and Operation PBSUCCESS in Guatemala, as revealed in now-declassified documentation, demonstrated the power of the United States intelligence apparatus. As the new president would be briefed, the U.S. had involved itself in these activities for decades, and had no intention of stopping.

  The C.I.A. now intended on pursuing a new project, this time in Cuba. As Dulles advised to President Johnson on January 28th, 1961, the intelligence community had recruited anti-Castro Cuban exiles and were presently training them for a covert mission to overthrow the Castro regime. Led by one Manuel Artime, Brigade 2506 would land on the island and, according to Dulles, the Cuban people would rise up against the Communist government and collectively coordinate a counter-revolution.

  Dulles later refused to recollect on the specificity of that evening, but second-hand accounts recall the president, skeptical, inquiring as to the legitimacy of that claim. Dulles assured Johnson that his sources in Cuba were reliable, and when Artime landed, the Cubans would revolt en masse. Johnson questioned Dulles on the loyalty of those recruited exiles, and asked if they were being tracked to ensure there be no loose talk. Dulles told the president that the exiles had been trained sufficiently, dodging the question. The president paused and read over, once more, the materials handed to him by the director before throwing them back in Dulles' hands. Accounts vary as per Johnson's wording, but it had been along the lines of, "If you don't give me something worthy to wipe my ass within 48 hours, I want you out of here." This, essentially, is the origin of The Cuban Project.

"The award for Best Picture goes to... Alfred Hitchcock for 'Psycho'!"
Audrey Hepburn at the 33rd Academy Awards, ABC Television, April 17th, 1961

Johnson, Symington Seeks End to Hostilities in Laotian War, Ceasefire Accepted by Communists
The Washington Post, April 30th, 1961
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« Reply #27 on: July 02, 2017, 02:20:37 PM »


A Freedom Riders Bus Goes Up in Flames, May 1961

  "Lyndon had been president for just about four months before the ball of yarn first unraveled? Today we see one side exclaiming, exaggerating, the greatness that was our 35th, but his handling of domestic affairs ended up as bungled as his diplomatic endeavors. One, you have an intelligence community at war with itself over how to handle not only Cuba, but what was then a very possible coup in Paris. Two, an underfunded and flagrantly ignored space program. And three, an administration woefully unprepared to deal with the Negro activists." Republican Robert Finch of Arizona, then only known for serving as Nixon's campaign manager, provided this take of Johnson's first summer in a 1969 local radio interview. Finch's point of view was hardly uncommon for conservative, and even some moderate, Republicans of the era.

  On May 5th, Allen Dulles submitted his resignation letter to President Johnson. In an intense sequence of events, the president learned from Secretary Fulbright that the failed Algiers putsch, a military coup attempt against France's Charles De Gaulle, had had backing by the C.I.A. Fulbright had only learned about this from an article published in "L'Express" accusing the generals' plot of having direct backing by the United States' intelligence machine. Fulbright explained that he had no information whether or not Dulles' instructed his agents to pursue this objective, and an inflamed Johnson retorted that he did not authorize such an act. "Lyndon was not one to take insubordination lightly, as, in truth, no president should," John Connally remarked. "The hand of the American government had moved without the executive's consent. He had to place a phone call to De Gaulle and basically offer military support if he required it, which, as one would plainly imagine, he declined out of distrust. I will never quite understand the motive of Dulles in doing what he had done, but I have never seen a man submit a resignation letter so fast in my entire life."

  May 6th brought new troubling developments to the administration when news broke that the American spacecraft Mercury-Redstone 3 had failed to launch. An utterly embarrassing newsflash for the incumbency and the nation's scientific community, the craft's inability to ignite from the launching pad demonstrated stark contrast to the successful Soviet launch of the Vostok. As the scientists learned from further investigation, a number of minor, preventable variables had disrupted the launch. The rocket underwent testing for an additional three weeks before, at last, it experienced its auspicious run, manned by astronaut Alan Shepard, on May 22nd. The president ordered an assessment be conducted on why the space vessel did not meet its requirements, and in that process learned of the space program's meager budget in proportion to the magnitude of its goals. With the disruption of Mercury-Redstone fresh in their minds, Congress near-unanimously passed a measure doubling NASA's funding. However, the PR debacle had played out, and this served to, albeit unfairly, reinforce Johnson's original campaign line regarding Soviet advances in science far surpassing that of the United States.

  In 1960, the Supreme Court ruled in Boynton v. Virginia that racial segregation in public transportation violated the Interstate Commerce Act. This ruling explicitly avoided any Constitutional questions and did not set any parameters for how to enforce the decision. Thus began the initiative of the Freedom Riders: civil rights activists who rode interstate transit into Southern states in order to test the enforcement of Boynton. These men and women traveled on buses formerly designed with segregated seating, and made it a point to seat at least a single black rider in front (seats usually reserved for white passengers) and several interracial couples throughout. The Freedom Riders first embarked on May the 4th, and one of the first recorded incidents took place on May 14th.

  A Freedom Riders bus was blockaded, tires slashed, and then fire-bombed by Klansmen whilst making its way through Northeastern Alabama. Riders were fiercely beaten when they attempted to exit the smoking vehicle, all while highway patrolmen observed and did not lift a finger. Birmingham policemen Bull Connor and Tom Cook organized this violence and they had full intention to escalate as necessary. President Johnson, not without a plan in mind for this turn of events, instructed Attorney General Robert Hemphill to intervene in the matter to ensure the law be followed. Hemphill, personally wary of integration, nonetheless agreed with the president and proceeded to call Governor John Patterson (D-AL). The Attorney General voiced Johnson's displeasure with the governor's inaction on the matter, and warned that if the riders were threatened once more, the president would not hesitate to call on federal law enforcement. Governor Patterson, having absolutely no intention on aiding in the mission of the Freedom Riders, only stated that the activists were instigating violent action.

  Patterson refused to change his tone when a white mob attacked a group of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, beating them unconscious with bats and pipes as police watched on the sidelines. Reporters and photographers were also particularly targeted in the Montgomery mob. Local and state police, as tolerated by Governor Patterson, did nothing to stop the violence, and paramedics even refused to aid the wounded. President Johnson wasted no time in calling on the Alabama National Guard to protect all Freedom Riders present in the state. The guard arrived in time to disperse a growing mob outside of a Baptist church packed with riders and their supporters. Several speakers within the church, including Reverend Martin Luther King and Fred Shuttlesworth, expressed their relief with the president's call, yet warned that this was only the very start of a long journey for liberation.

Johnson: State Governments Must Adhere to Federal Law
Commerce Commission Has Issued De-Segregation Order

The Washington Post, May 24th, 1961

Johnson Embarks to Vienna to Meet with Khrushchev, Kennedy Hosts Sukarno in D.C.
The Los Angeles Times, June 3rd, 1961
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« Reply #28 on: July 03, 2017, 12:37:38 PM »


President Johnson Welcomed by First Deputy Chairman Alexei Kosygin in Vienna, June 4th, 1961

  Tensions between the U.S. and Russia had increased rapidly over the course of the Eisenhower presidency, and the Cold War rhetoric had only sharpened under Johnson. The president's purported gap in military spending and advancement between the two nations, a claim later debunked by financial records, had accomplished little aside drumming up fear. Continuous, albeit failed, attempts at toppling the present power in Cuba also put the Soviets on edge. The single most perplexing issue of the time had been Germany: a nation split in two.

  The German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, underwent a significant diminishing in its population over the last fifteen years as its people emigrated from East to West Berlin. Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of East Germany, worried of this development, fought to close the border between the two halves of Berlin. Khrushchev thereby sought to, as one objective in the Vienna Summit, to secure a separate East German peace treaty with the support of the United States. This arrangement, as Johnson understood, would not only violate the four-power agreement signed post-WWII, but could threaten the influence of the U.S. in Berlin.

  The United States president, following his introduction with Deputy Chairman Alexei Kosygin, greeted Khrushchev at his motorcade, and apparent from the get-go was the sheer size difference between these two men. Johnson, slim with a height of 6'4", towered over the portly, 5'3" Soviet leader. The Texan had actually met with Khrushchev in 1959 when the latter visited D.C., and Johnson, although hardly hitting it off with the premier, did not have as rough a time as Nixon did with the very same visit. Theodore White recalled in his biography, "Khrushchev mentioned he could hardly stand to listen to LBJ's speeches. Johnson replied that Khrushchev would be an excellent senator."

  When the stage was set, the two global leaders sat on opposing sides of a coffee table with an interpreter and their closest advisers. The entire engagement had been filmed. Khrushchev initially began with a broad, ideologically-driven, statement accusing the United States of ignoring the reality of Communist institutions and demanding these institutions be allowed to develop freely. Johnson, amiable as can be in these circumstances, retorted that Khrushchev and he had taken the long-winded trouble of making their way down to Vienna, and it would be a mistake to waste time on frivolous ideological digs. The Soviet leader, detecting a loss to his initiative, returned stating, "[Our desire is] to sign with the GDR. [...] This would not prejudice the interests of the United States, the UK or France. With Berlin there can be no compromise." Johnson swung back, declaring that the United States must maintain its position in Berlin for the security of the German people, and that a separate treaty twisted the balance of power in place. Khrushchev would soon go on with, "no force in the world would prevent the USSR from signing a peace treaty," yet Johnson stood firm, countering, "The force of the world most certainly will, if you make it so."

  With no progress being made in regards to the Berlin issue, the two moved on to Laos. It took the president several attempts before his opponent put aside Germany and, the moment he did, Johnson made sure the topic was not brought up again. In regards to Laos, under Eisenhower the United States played a direct role in backing a corrupt royalist government as a means to deter the Communist Pathet Lao, supported heavily by North Vietnam. Several million dollars had been siphoned to this effort, and Johnson did not fancy the notion of reducing involvement. He and Secretary Symington worked on an April ceasefire deal in order to buy time to assess over the situation, but by the time of the summit , the agreement had been broken by Pathet Lao forces and fighting resumed.

  President Johnson worked to convince Khrushchev that nothing could be accomplished in the region, for either side, unless he receive a commitment from the premier that the Soviet Union would end supply lines to the guerrilla forces. The Soviet leader, perhaps more so than Johnson had, feared the development of a proxy war between the superpowers in Laos. Still, he asserted that only due to the efforts of the United States in that region over the past ten years was Laos in such a state of turmoil. The president would not, as he did allow himself to do in regards to the Batista regime in Cuba, relent that his country played any meaningful or substantial role in propping up either side in the conflict. The two eventually settled on a neutrality agreement: each power backing off from Laos and, therefore, allowing the future of the region to be determined by the Laotians themselves. It is of note that this agreement was non-binding.
 
  The conference extended through the next morning as President Johnson and Premier Khrushchev worked on a final detail. Detente. Although each figure disagreed enormously on ideology, philosophy and the direction of the planet, they did manage to find common ground (following several hours of contentious debate) in the assertion that mutually assured destruction would end without a winner. This move would serve to set off anger from hardliners on each end of the spectrum, infuriating Secretary Symington, Stephen Ailes, and the Joint Chiefs on the American end while deepening divides on the Politburo. However, the Test Ban Treaty (TBT) of 1961, drafted and signed at the Vienna Summit, became the first meaningful move to cut down on the nuclear arms race in its prohibition of thermonuclear detonation tests.

   The summit came to a close that afternoon. For President Johnson, as John Connally later espoused, "Vienna lent a dose of unmitigated victory. A sense of satisfaction he hadn't had since the election." Premier Nikita Khrushchev left despondent. Frustrated in his failing to secure a solid answer on Berlin, Khruschev re-tooled his tactics. Ulbricht ordered the border closed on August 12th and his forces immediately installed barbed wire entanglements along the city's dividing line. Neither side won out on the Berlin issue, yet the closing of the border would, for the time being, cool tensions and remove the threat of military intervention.

BERLIN WALL: Reds Seal Off East Berlin to Block Refugees
Forces Threaten to Fire on Protesting Crowds

The New York Herald Tribune, August 14th, 1961

Sam Taliaferrero Rayburn (1882-1961): A Giant Remembered
The Washington Post, November 17th, 1961
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Jaguar4life
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« Reply #29 on: July 03, 2017, 03:47:00 PM »

Johnson doesn't have the charm JFK had
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Kingpoleon
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« Reply #30 on: July 04, 2017, 12:35:50 AM »

Byron White, Ramsey Clark, Cyrus Vance, and Roswell Gilpatric(who had ties to Symington) strike me as the best options to become CIA Director. Will one of them replace Dulles, or somebody else?

Anyway, it is interesting to note how Symington, himself a through-and-through supporter/protege of Truman, is now helping to back and shape Johnson's policies.
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« Reply #31 on: July 04, 2017, 12:24:10 PM »

Byron White, Ramsey Clark, Cyrus Vance, and Roswell Gilpatric(who had ties to Symington) strike me as the best options to become CIA Director. Will one of them replace Dulles, or somebody else?

Anyway, it is interesting to note how Symington, himself a through-and-through supporter/protege of Truman, is now helping to back and shape Johnson's policies.

One of the next updates will have a segment about the next CIA Director =)
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« Reply #32 on: July 04, 2017, 12:56:24 PM »


Johnson Introduces Landmark Civil Rights Bill, August 1962

  Through the first half of 1962, the incumbency increased pressure on Congress to pass further legislative measures in order to reinforce the Great Society. Those aiding the president religiously surveyed Gallup polling in swing states to determine if the Democratic majority had been in any danger as the midterm elections drew near: these results proved, for the most part, unreliable and inconclusive. President Johnson and his allies in the Senate passed seventeen measures from January to October of 1962 with goals stretching from immigration reform to environmental regulation. It took a single slip on this road to crumble away any hope of further progression.

  Following several months of grueling work and repetitious compromise, the House of Representatives, in September of 1962, passed a landmark civil rights bill. Having been drawn up in several varieties, with input from labor unions, activists, business owners and other varied interests, the process took quite a bit of steam from Johnson's political capital. The first version of the bill compiled a striking down of the segregationist Jim Crow laws and radically reshaped the definition of "discrimination" as known in present law. The Yea presence in the House just barely had the collective voice to push away those which sought to whittle down the bill's substance. Without the guidance of Speaker Rayburn, Johnson, even with the amount of influence he possessed in Congress, struggled to ensure the basis of the bill remain for the final vote.

  The House version of the bill passed, 255 to 165. The Senate proved a far greater obstacle as conservatives from both parties launched an assault. Smacked away were provisions guaranteeing an enforcement of equal rights in private institutions, and put in its place was one which would extend the life of the ongoing Civil Rights Commission. The president held a significant grudge for those who damaged the credibility of his bill, although that mattered little against the intensifying Constitutional argument playing out in the Senate. Senator Goldwater declared that the House bill was a dire threat to the liberties of black Americans, and then Senators Jennings (D-WV) and Hickenlooper (R-IA) voiced their displeasure with the measure.

  The Senate amendments, carried out in the autumn of 1962, struck down the "Title III" protection for peaceful protesters and eliminated the clause relating to racial discrimination in employment. As for what remained, the bill still encompassed a sweeping change in its interpretation of fair voter registration, racial segregation in schools and established equal access for publicly owned facilities. A reinvigorated Southern Bloc filibustered the moment the bill reached the floor. Senator Richard Russell (D-GA) led this effort, proclaiming, "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our states." The stall, accompanied by Senators Goldwater and John Tower (R-TX), lasted 101 days.

  Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) introduced a revised, compromise version of the legislation which held even fewer means to enforce its stated goal of thwarting mass racial segregation. At last, this brought on enough Republican votes to call for an end to debate and lead the legislative body to a vote. The Civil Rights Act, albeit hobbled and tattered, passed 68-32. The House approved of the measure and President Johnson signed the bill on July 2nd of 1963. Some civil rights leaders and participants in the movement applauded the president's leadership in focusing in on their issues. However a sense of agitation regarding the whittling down of the bill left much of the black community outraged.

  "President Johnson worked ages for a shot at ending the injustices for blacks," John Connally remarked, "yet it never truly materialized as he stood breathing. That Senate was a disgrace, and (Majority Leader) Mansfield should have given more. King was glad to see us at work for it, and he promoted the president for it - to a skeptical crowd - over and again." The reality of the matter is, is despite the fact Johnson rigorously sought worked at marking an improvement for the course of civil rights, his head was elsewhere. Just as the House bill passed, the president had been in the midst of a series of problematic engagements overseas.

Civil Rights Overshadows The Great Society: Priority Indicated by Senate Leaders
The Southern School News, October 3rd, 1962

CIVIL RIGHTS: Leaders Decry Democrats' Compromise on Jim Crow
The Chicago Tribune, February 2nd, 1963
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« Reply #33 on: July 05, 2017, 08:26:54 PM »


"The Hmong", Photograph Attributed July 20th, 1962

  Khrushchev conscientiously observed the actions taken by the United States on the world stage following the Vienna Summit. He held little trust for the incumbency and had the utmost expectation that he, and the deals he assisted in crafting, would be deceived. The KGB collected various intelligence quips from the U.S in this period, and it revealed mere pieces of a larger puzzle being played in Cuba. The Soviets held the instinct that, as per the course, the present administration would act no different in granting further rights to the C.I.A., and as a result, it would seek the overthrow of Fidel Castro. However, Khrushchev struggled in attaining any validation: beyond the fact that Johnson continuously authorized more stringent means to persist in the embargo on Cuba.

  Khrushchev was seeking any initiative from the Johnson Administration that indicated invasion, as this would spur the notion that Cuba was in clear and present danger. A military exercise aimed at the Caribbean could only serve to increase Soviet influence on the island. However, once Allen Dulles resigned, the dependable aggressiveness of the Eisenhower years seemed to carry away. President Johnson had chosen State Department actor Paul Nitze to replace Dulles as director of the C.I.A. Alongside Deputy Director Cyrus Roberts Vance, Nitze spearheaded a long-term endeavor called The Cuban Project: a series of tactics intended to completely annihilate the legitimacy of the Cuban government.

  As the Soviets searched for overt threats to their sphere, as for instance evidence of assassination attempts on Castro, Nitze launched "destruction operations." U.S. proxy forces in Cuba subtly rendered oil and sugar refineries irreparable in what the local press dubbed, in defense, "momentary workplace mismanagement". More so, throughout the span of 1962, two railroad bridges in Havana collapsed and the roof of a strategically significant industrial facility caved in. Castro accused Western forces of sabotaging the island's economy and infrastructure, though the clean sweep orchestrated by intelligence apparatus ensured there be no loose ends. Due in part to efforts by the United States, the Cuban economy sharply declined in this period, leading to a hastening amount of refugees fleeing the island for work in other countries.

  To a far greater extent than Cuba, focus on the international stage centered in the small, landlocked country of Laos, where a civil war had been raging for nine years. Negotiations at the Vienna Summit ended with a non-binding agreement that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union would directly furnish operations in the conflict. Johnson had no intention to abide by this agreement, and historians mostly come to a consensus in that this move was played as a means to rid himself of any outside presence on the opposing side (this did not come to pass).

  The Royalist faction of Laos was governed by Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma. Souvanna had visited the White House twice when Johnson was in office and as such, the president trusted him to lead an on-the-ground effort with American support. Military operations were carried out, from the start of the war, by the tactless authoritarian Defense Minister, Phoumi Nosavan. Aside Phoumi had been one of the leading figures in the Royal Lao Army, Vang Pao. These three men spearheaded the (initially) 50,000-strong army: boosted later with involvement from South Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, and, as one may imagine, the United States.

  Those opposing the royalists were the Pathet Lao: a Communist movement seeking national liberation and the toppling of Western imperialism. Prince Souphanouvong and Kaysone Phomvihane led the effort of the Lao's People's Revolutionary Party, as then guided further by North Vietnam with direct assistance by General Vơ Nguyên Giáp. China and the Soviet Union preferred and supported, militarily and financially, this side of the war. This conflict was not only viewed internationally as a proxy war between the superpowers (which led to the Vienna Summit's agreement), but served to play into Eisenhower's "domino theory" regarding the expansion of Communism in Asia.

  Johnson, Symington and the Joint Chiefs agreed with Eisenhower's assessment. The new administration, as early as May of 1961, pushed the C.I.A. to concentrate more heavily on this particular development. As the truce expired and fighting resumed in June of that year, President Johnson approved of doubling funds for the fledgling Royal Lao Army, equipping 18,000 of C.I.A.-trained guerrilla forces, and further training upwards of 30,000 for stand-by. In December, these forces narrowed in on the strategically necessary town of Luang Namtha and captured it, tepidly retaining its existing holdings for the following year with assistance from American Special Forces. A period of stalemate lasted for the majority of 1962.

  On September 25th, news broke that the Pathet Lao had engaged in genocide against the Hmong people of the region. Reports provided numbers reaching as high as 130,000 or more, shattering hopes of a steadied, negotiated peace. The U.S. Ambassador to Laos, Leonard S. Unger, called the developments, "an intolerable, systematic crime against the ethnic Hmong tribesmen," and urged action be taken as soon as possible.

  President Johnson conducted a televised address in order to discuss the issue. Less than twenty-four hours following the statement released by Unger, the president took it upon himself to introduce the Laotian conflict to the American public: most of whom had never heard of the country. He declared, "We cannot condone this wretched activity taking place in the Communist stranglehold on Laos. I have witnessed in my lifetime what has occurred when this nation refuses to act as an ethnic minority is systematically targeted and killed. [...] Aided by incorrigible aggressors, the people of Laos stand under attack. As Americans, gatekeepers of freedom, we have a moral commitment to ensure our international obligation is met. We are not going to withdraw from that effort, and decency will prevail."
  
U.N. General Sec. Denounces Pathet Lao Genocide; Proposes Steps to Peace in Region
The New York Times, September 29th, 1962

Congress Passes Resolution Granting Presidential War Powers
Johnson Organizes F-100 Air Strikes Against Pethet Lao

The Washington Post, October 2nd, 1962
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« Reply #34 on: July 06, 2017, 08:55:43 PM »

1962 Congressional Elections  

Senate
Democratic: 69 (+6)
Republican: 31 (-6)

House
Democratic: 262 (+2)
Republican: 174 (-5)
Independent: 1 (+1)


 Senate Leadership

Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
Sen. Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL)


 House of Representatives Leadership

Speaker John McCormack (D-MA)
Minority Leader Charles Halleck (R-IN)

  The steps toward the Great Society proved, if one takes the midterm elections at face value, fairly popular with the American public. Studies demonstrated that far more influential in their vote than the domestic achievements had been foreign policy. Johnson was viewed favorably as a worthwhile match-up to the perceived aggressive behavior of Khrushchev and the Soviet Union. Although faced with the disappointing results of Castro remaining in power and the concrete wall under construction in Berlin, voters approved of the president's handling of the country more so than they disapproved. With publicized engagement in Laos just beginning, reported profusely as a humanitarian measure, Democrats received a slight boost from otherwise favorable numbers.

  One significant drawback as a direct result of Congress' focus on Civil Rights in the autumn of 1962 had been a resounding lack of enthusiasm from Southern Democrats. The backlash had not been severe enough for the opposing party to perform any stronger than was typical, but publications certainly remarked the odd absence of unanimity usually present in the re-election of Democrats in the Deep South. A handful of incumbent senators were rumored to have considered switching to the Republican column, but talk of this dissipated as the Laotian conflict took headlines.

  Federal races of note included the neck-and-neck deadlock in Alabama, in which Republican challenger James D. Martin lost by a mere two percentage points to the incumbent Democrat. Martin ran a fierce, anti-Great Society message which caught the ear of disjointed conservatives throughout the state. His reluctance in pursuing the all-important issues of segregation and states' rights came to his detriment, and ultimately, according to local historians, cost him the seat. A sign of this unrest, the Republican Party chose to field a candidate in Georgia as well. One E. Ralph Ivey (R-GA) lost in a landslide to Senator Herman Talmadge (D-GA) 11-88%, but managed to stir up enough coverage to cause a slight worry for the Georgia Democrats.

   Democrats picked up a plethora of swing seats in the upper house, including in Idaho where Democratic Representative Gracie Pfost defeated the incumbent Senator Len Jordan. Jordan had been appointed to complete the term of the recently deceased Henry Dworshak, and served three months prior to his electoral loss. Senator-elect Pfost would come to be known rather quickly for her promotion of fair housing and rent control, and as such would find herself allied with the Federal Housing Administration. For the first time since 1949, both senators from the Gem State were solidly Democratic.

   The president, partially as a means to rid himself of an albatross, suggested to his vice president that it would be splendid idea to field a family member in the Massachusetts Special Election. John Kennedy had been most definitely ill-at-ease with the notion that some wildcard like frontrunner Edward McCormack (Incumbent MA Attorney General) or Endicott Peabody (Member of MA Governor's Council) would succeed him. Though the primary bout took its toll on each of the participants, its winner and that of the general race turned out to be Robert F. Kennedy with a margin of victory of well over 15%.

  Seemingly an eternal stronghold for the Republican Party, the state of California ended Election Day, 1962, with GOP victories across the board. Each of the swing House districts leaned Republican, as did the Senate race featuring the 53-46 victory for incumbent Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA). This remained consistent in the governor's race, when the one and only Richard Nixon, former senator and presidential candidate, managed to defeat, in a razor-thin margin, Democratic Governor Pat Brown. Out of each of the elections featured on November 6th, President Johnson watched this one with the most fascination, and, even with the overall tide turning in the Democrats' favor, groaned when his old foe reared his head back into the political realm. Robert Finch recalled, "That night was the comeback America needed - and the only story printed in the papers on Wednesday."

  
Senators Elected in 1962 (Class 3)
Lister Hill (D-AL): Democratic Hold w/ 50%
Ernest (D-AK): Democratic Hold w/ 59%
Carl Hayden (D-AZ): Democratic Hold w/ 56%
Oren Harris (D-AR): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
Thomas H. Kuchel (R-CA): Republican Hold w/ 53%
John A. Carroll (D-CO): Democratic Hold w/ 49%
Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-CT): Democratic Gain w/ 52%
George A. Smathers (D-FL): Democratic Hold w/ 65%
Herman E. Talmadge (D-GA): Democratic Hold w/ 88%
Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Frank Church (D-ID): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Gracie Pfost (D-ID) SP: Democratic Gain w/ 51%
Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Birch Bayh (D-IN): Democratic Gain w/ 50%
Bourke B. Hickenlooper (R-IA): Republican Hold w/ 52%
Frank Carlson (R-KS): Republican Hold w/ 61%
James B. Pearson (R-KS) SP: Republican Hold w/ 55%
Thruston B. Morton (R-KY): Republican Hold w/ 51%
Russell B. Long (D-LA): Democratic Hold w/ 70%
Daniel B. Brewster (D-MD): Democratic Gain w/ 60%
Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 60%
Edward V. Long (D-MO): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Warren E. Hearnes (D-MO) SP: Democratic Hold w/ 56%
Alan Bible (D-NV): Democratic Hold w/ 63%
Norris Cotton (R-NH): Republican Hold w/ 60%
Thomas J. Mcintyre (D-NH) SP: Democratic Gain w/ 53%
Jacob K. Javitz (R-NY): Republican Hold w/ 55%
Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (D-NC): Democratic Hold w/ 57%
Milton R. Young (R-ND): Republican Hold w/ 59%
Frank J. Lausche (D-OH): Democratic Hold w/ 62%
A.S. Mike Monroney (D-OK): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Wayne Morse (D-OR): Democratic Hold w/ 55%
Joseph S. Clark (D-PA): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Olin B. Johnston (D-SC): Democratic Hold w/ 54%
George S. McGovern (D-SD): Democratic Gain w/ 51%
Wallace F. Bennett (R-UT): Republican Hold w/ 52%
George D. Aiken (R-VT): Republican Hold w/ 66%
Warren G. Magnuson (D-WA): Democratic Hold w/ 53%
Gaylord Nelson (D-WI): Democratic Gain w/ 53%
Milward Simpson (R-WY) SP: Republican Gain w/ 56%
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« Reply #35 on: July 08, 2017, 03:05:20 PM »


Refugee Scene from Critically-Acclaimed Film, "Air Raids At Dawn", 1973

  With the United States rushing headlong into the Laotian conflict, an inflamed Khrushchev would be forced to dramatically increase arms transport to their unceremonious allies, the Pathet Lao. Much of the U.S. budget once planned for new health programs and educational services now, gradually at first, transferred into this new international conflict. With air strikes announced in the region, the American military now played a definitive role in Laos, one which could no longer be considered conducted in secret. The Joint Chiefs actively coordinated U.S. involvement with the president, as the C.I.A. dedicated the bulk of its resources to Cuba.

  By the start of 1963, although not officially a declared war between the two superpowers, soldiers aided and supported heavily by the Soviets now fought soldiers trained, equipped and funded by the Americans. The North Vietnamese fought full-throttle in Laos, and their invading forces took the brunt of the blow from American bombs. The remnants of the Royal Lao Army was reorganized, following the "disappearance" of Gen. Phoumi Nosavan, with direction of American ambassadors in Thailand, South Vietnam and Laos.

  Johnson's Operation Wolf, conceived in '62, sought to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, thereby staving off the North Vietnamese from assisting militarily or otherwise in the objective of the Pathet Lao. The U.S. Air Force conducted repeated raids on the Laotian panhandle, killing all life, Communist or not, in the drop zone. Operation Wolf, at first one of several large-scale endeavors, evolved into the chief strategy for the region once evidence of Vietnamese intervention became clear. Historians have argued that this started a new phase to the Laotian War in which the North Vietnamese, or more specifically, the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, were targeted as equals to the Pathet Lao.

  "It was not easy to see straight," stated John Connally in The Making of the President. "Lyndon felt as though he needed an ally in the Governor's Mansion, and lent his veteran state staff in the gubernatorial race in order to help us win out Don Yarborough. From January [to November] I had immense difficulty reaching out to Lyndon. I've heard the speculation over the years, how he refused to hear out his cabinet in totality and dove in Laos alone, but I am not one to speculate. I knew our president, and he always, always carried blueprints - six years in advance."

  Secretary Fulbright resigned on October 30th. Fulbright held deep disagreements with President Johnson's Laotian strategy from the start, although he hoped that he would have success in reasoning with the Commander-in-Chief, as he claimed to have accomplished in regards to Cuba two years prior. The State Secretary understood the pressure placed on Johnson by the defense sector, but urged reconciliation with the United Nations before moving forward with ground troops. Fulbright later stated that he knew American allies had no interest in the region and, barring U.N. assistance, the conflict could lead the United States down, as he stated, a "rabbit hole to hell". Johnson brushed him off in a fit of anger. When the president proceeded to call for the first several thousand troops on October 28th, the writing was on the wall.

 The president now met with his advisory team on a daily basis, and presented ample time for the Joint Chiefs, Stephen Ailes and Gordon Blake to voice their support for increased interventionist tactics. Symington pushed for fiercer action in the immediate, and the topic of nuclear weapons, as revealed in the Defense Secretary's memoirs, arose now and then. Johnson declined to consider embarking this path, recognizing the danger of allocating even limited nuclear tactics, especially against Soviet-aided soldiers. The president also brought on-board the calculative mind of Commerce Secretary Robert McNamara in order to find a worthwhile path to victory in Laos with minimal American casualties. Albeit diverse with brilliant minds and decades of military experience, this advisory board no longer possessed a voice to critique military engagement.

5 Americans Killed, 71 Injured in Laos
Pathet Lao Launches Offensive in Demilitarized Zone, Threatens South Vietnam

The Los Angeles Times, February 8th, 1963

"Today I have stood, where Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. [...] Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say - segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Governor George Wallace (D-AL), Inauguration Ceremony, January 14th, 1963
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« Reply #36 on: July 08, 2017, 03:07:13 PM »

What's going on with Vice President Kennedy?
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« Reply #37 on: July 08, 2017, 04:00:34 PM »

What's going on with Vice President Kennedy?

Much like how LBJ was treated under Kennedy, the vice president is essentially being excluded from the administration. Kennedy is meeting dignitaries of other countries, traveling for diplomatic purposes, etc. For this point, in 1963, he is aware of what is happening with Laos, but is kept in the dark for most of the conflict's details.
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« Reply #38 on: July 09, 2017, 02:57:21 PM »
« Edited: July 09, 2017, 03:01:53 PM by Pyro »


Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, June 11th, 1963

  "Lyndon Johnson won a short reprieve when he blew out the candles on his 55th Birthday. With rising strain in Southeast Asia, our American sons traveled down to those points of Red Terror and fought with our latest arms as to protect the cause of liberty. At home, civil rights once again on the brink as Governor Wallace declares war on integration. [...] The president balances each issue with care in his final months." This segment had been near the conclusion of Lehman's L.B.J., and solemnly carried the tale of Johnson's last year in office.

  Laos escalated fast. With the input of Secretary Symington and recently inducted State Secretary Roswell Gilpatric in mind, the president authorized increased attention to curbing the rise of the Laotian Communists. Bogged down in the mountainous region, the war simply see-sawed without either side holding a concise initiative. The Soviet machinery utilized by the Pathet Lao matched pit-for-pat the advanced weaponry held by American soldiers in the region. B-52s rained bombs down on the Southern tip of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, effectively cutting off supply routes for many of the Pathet Lao. Estimates of civilian casualties, by the summer of 1963, easily outnumbered that of the Korean War in its first year.

  Tensions rose further when nine unarmed Buddhists, under the direction of the South Vietnamese Army, were fired upon and murdered. President Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic, presided over a region with an estimated 80% Buddhist population and this method of adding fuel to an already burning fire did little to save his reputation. Diem, an ally of the U.S., supported the royalists government in Laos following direct involvement by President Johnson in the region. This demonstration not only served to de-legitimize the governance of Diem, but in turn damaged the reputation of the Americans next door. Following the shootings, Diem countered that Northern Vietnamese Communists had perpetrated the firing, yet did nothing to calm the provoked population. On June 11th, 1963, Thích Quảng Duc, a Mahayana Buddhist monk, set himself ablaze and perished at a busy Saigon intersection in protest of Diem's policies.

   President Johnson held a fair amount of heated debates with Governor George Wallace of Alabama in this final year of his tenure, and only assured the governor that the civil rights legislation would pull through, and any refusal to comply would only lead to embarrassment. Unwilling to allow the mandate for integration, Wallace attempted to block the entrance to the University of Alabama in order to prevent two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from entering. The university, with police assistance, searched vehemently for excuses to deny the students, yet this debate ended with a federal district judge's interference. Primarily for political showmanship, Governor Wallace then made the calculated choice to stand at the front door to the university's Foster Auditorium.

  The president somewhat miscalculated the feigned determination by Wallace and, without informing the governor, issued an order federalizing the Alabama National Guard. Johnson ordered the Guard be dispatched and remove, by any means, the governor from the doorway. George Wallace was raised and forcibly pulled from the university grounds by guardsmen. The Alabaman Press published dozens of stories on this incident the following morning, all calling for demonstrations against the intrusion by the federal government. Johnson expected this circus to conclude as the Freedom Rides did, with clear intervention closing the curtains. However with Wallace in the picture, those calling for a reinforced segregation now had a leader: one who had just had his rights, and those of his state, violated.

  On July 3rd, following the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Johnson spoke before a joint-session of Congress and urged this be merely the start, not the end, of ensuring the Constitutional rights of all men, regardless of color or race, be accounted for. As he stated, "Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact." Though L.B.J. would not live to see its inception, a bill meant to double-down on voting rights protections would later be introduced by a Texas House Democrat with intent inspiration from Johnson.

Alabama Church Explosions -- Birmingham Bombs Kill Negro Children Across State, Injures Hundreds
The San Francisco Chronicle, September 15th, 1963

Activists Led By Dr. King Call for Civil Rights March in Alabama
Governor Wallace Issues Third Curfew, Order Add'l Police to Quell Riots

The Hartford Courant, September 17th, 1963
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« Reply #39 on: July 10, 2017, 08:13:55 PM »


Crater Left by One of the Alabama Church Bombs, September 15th, 1963

  Speaking to the press reaction, and the tide in general, following the Alabama Church Bombings, Press Secretary Bill Moyers gave the following take captured in The Making of the President. "Thunder. It was thunder." Moyers explains in his piece that the outcry from the networks had been so severe so quickly that it caught the administration off guard: a rare occurrence under the guidance of the micromanaging Lyndon Johnson. The president himself released a statement shortly following 11:00 a.m. on September 15th in which he condemned the church attacks, utilizing striking phrases such as "unspeakable terror" and "Klansman bombings". Public reaction, especially in and around D.C., demanded more.

 A state-sponsored study conducted in 1965 revealed that Birmingham had been one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States. The piercing determination of those most outspoken in favor of keeping it as such had later been designated as the chief cause of the climate leading up to the bombings. The growth of the Ku Klux Klan in response to the rising interest in civil rights had been remarkable. The United Klans of America, an Alabaman chapter of the Nativist terror operation, orchestrated the church bombings in order to, as several of the perpetrators claimed, act in extreme defiance of President Johnson, the mandated integration of public facilities, and the federal government's overall role in enforcing an end to segregation.

  Klan members whom had based their regiment in Birmingham planted dynamite in twelve churches all throughout Northern Alabama: reaching as far as the First Baptist in Decatur to the Community Church in Tuscaloosa. Timed dynamite bombs detonated early morning on Sunday, September 15th. Half of those religious buildings attacked were, at the time of explosion, empty. The remainder were either conducting services or Sunday School. Those who lost their lives were mostly unidentifiable as a result of the intensity of the blasts, but conservative estimates had those injured at 1,342 and those lives lost at 140.

   The ensuing race riots erupted within hours, and Governor Wallace did little to remedy the worsening situation aside from calling upon state police to intervene. Fires erupted throughout those affected cities and towns with white-owned businesses and automobiles swiftly becoming targets for enraged youth. Dr. Martin Luther King and Civil Rights strategist and organizer Bayard Rustin leading the present movement for equality expressed outrage at the sequence of events, yet urged a refrain from violent backlash as such may only provoke further terror. On the following night, Rustin and fellow organizer A. Philip Randolph began working toward a nonviolent March on Alabama to peacefully express the call for civil rights. Dr. King announced the project publicly shortly thereafter.

   Short-term consequences of the Church Bombings varied in the weeks succeeding the initial shock, with each side feeling vilified in their root cause. Hard-right conservatives and states' rights fanatics put forth the notion that it had been due to the Civil Right Act and federally mandated de-segregation that the Klan first considered planting dynamite. Civil rights proponents and those on the Left whom had spoken out following the attacks placed responsibility on the shoulders of the state and federal government: exclaiming that years of inaction lead to, yet another, racially-motivated act of terror.

  Southern Democratic incumbents, not all but most, did not alter their stances on the segregation issue. Senator John Sparkman (D-AL) released a statement expressing disgust at the bombing itself, but refused to go beyond this. Governor Wallace was revealed to have stated in a New York Times interview earlier that September that blocking integration would require, "a few first-class funerals." Sensing a plausible moment of opportunity, a handful of Republicans eligible for re-election in 1964 leaped to lambaste the Dixiecrats for refusing to call on the persecution of those responsible. This contingent included Governor Nixon who criticized the Democrats' failure to provide serious civil rights reform and protections. Sick at the prospect of facing re-energized opposition in Congress, as well as a loss of the black voting population in '64, the president struck back and sought to turn this from a 'party issue' to a 'national issue'.

White House Strengthens FBI Investigation, Orders Crackdown on Alabama United Klans
Johnson: "Malefaction and disregard for human life must not, and cannot, be condoned in the United States"

The New York Times, September 19th, 1963
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« Reply #40 on: July 12, 2017, 12:24:19 PM »


Buddhist Demonstration in Saigon, October, 1963

  A shaken and uneasy Alabaman population braced for the worst when the president declared a substantial increase in resources toward the end-goal of eliminating the UKA, if not the national KKK. Governor Wallace, perhaps due to a feeling of persecution or mistreatment himself, expressed indignation when Johnson's announcement aired. The governor demanded the federal government not intervene in the matter, and that any dealing with terror suspects in Alabama was centrally a state issue. Senators Sparkman and Hill, each Democrats from the region, sided squarely with Wallace, leading to what amounted to a standoff. Taking heed of the advice of his staff, including Paul Nitze who as history would foretell recommended the president take a quieter approach, the president drew back.

  In lieu of the strained climate and suspicious of F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover's trustworthiness in taking the investigation in earnest, Johnson instead authorized the C.I.A. conduct an internal operation. Nitze's C.I.A. earned a reputation within the White House for its secrecy in Cuba and the president entrusted the intelligence body as such. The director insisted that his agency was not meant to interfere with domestic affairs and that moving ahead with the exercise may cause a ripple effect in administrations to come, yet the president instructed he move ahead.

  Starting from October 2nd, Operation Flicker rooted itself in local Alabama communities in order to gain leads into KKK plots, leading voices and any future terror activity. The federal agents thwarted five subsequent plots against integration, including one intercepted school bus detonation. Eleven suspects of malicious activity were apprehended between October and November: this group included Robert Edward Chambliss, later convicted of conspiring in the Church Bombings. This methodology, revealed in the memoirs of FBI agent John Patrick, exasperated Director Hoover. Patrick wrote, "The director deeply disliked President Johnson, called him a 'f-ing snake'. I think he feared that LBJ was in bed with Civil Rights Communists like Martin King and the like. When the CIA started trampling in on our investigation, that only worsened things. [The C.I.A.] agents wanted the hell out of Alabama from the moment they arrived, and my friends there agreed the president was going too far."

  In Southeast Asia, President Johnson meticulously observed the progress of South Vietnamese demonstrations as they threatened the political practice of Diem. The corrupt government lashed out in accumulating fashions against the Buddhist majority in private whilst disparaging the efforts of their opponents in public. Diem's sister-in-law, the infamous Madame Nhu, in a move calling far back to Marie Antoinette, proclaimed that she would enjoy seeing further "barbecues" of Buddhists. As written in Bernd Greiner's Optics Without Sense: America's Vietnam, "The U.S. government, indeterminate to the righteousness of supporting Diem, wavered in turn. The Defense sector, with Symington at its head, alongside the C.I.A. backed uprooting the Ngo family." Greiner proceeds, stating, "Johnson's rigidity in his belief that Diem had been a rock in Vietnam went unchallenged by Ambassador Henry Byroade. Secretary McNamara, upon return from Vietnam in October, recommended holding out financial and political support yet allow for the government to remain as is. On October 18th, General Tran Thien Khiem was discovered dead. Hours later, Duong Van Mihn the same."

  These two aforementioned figures spearheaded a plan to oust President Diem with backing by select soldiers of the ARVN, or the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. With the generals mysteriously slain, and those close to the plot hesitant to take full command of the operation, the demoralized soldiers backed away from any relation to the conspiracy. Ngo Dinh Can, a younger sibling to Diem, took control of the greater army machine on October 29th and ordered the executions of several dozen believed to have played a substantial role in the plot. Murmurs arose of a full-fledged uprising then and there, but none materialized. Diem's official statement regarding the attempt of the generals to seize power and the related executions concluded that Communist infiltration was the direct source. This remark transpired without American involvement and as one versed in historical fact would know, was totally baseless.

  The struggle between combatants in Laos were magnified by Diem's latest atrocities and the aggressiveness of the Pathet Lao no longer appeared to be curtained by the ongoing flood of air strikes as the administration had expected. In the midst of his fixation with solving the puzzle of Southeast Asia and maintaining a semblance of sanity at home, Johnson emerged distant to his family. The First Lady had an active role in designing the conservation measures proposed by Secretary Udall and was known as a smiling face in an otherwise grim White House, yet in private, as Ladybird Johnson would state in her countless interviews that she felt as though, "[Lyndon]'s health was no richer here. We felt such joy in [1961: specifically at the height of Great Society legislation]."

  As the story goes, President Johnson packed his bags and set out for a grand return to his home state, landing first on November 21st for several scheduled events in Houston and San Antonio. The endeavor would perform a three-pronged purpose. The trip would reduce the splitting tension for the First Family and take the president back to a place of comfort, it would act as a chance for Johnson to meet with his friend Governor John Connally and plan ahead for his re-election, and it would drum up essential campaign and party contributions early in the game. The Texas crowds were more than thrilled to catch a glimpse of the president along his way from meeting to meeting. President Johnson's speech in Arlington, TX, attended in immense numbers, would go on to be one of his most critically acclaimed.

Johnson: "There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem.
NBC Coverage of Lyndon Johnson's Arlington Speech, November 21st, 1963

"The president is slated to speak tomorrow in Dallas apace with Governor Connally to a convention of delegates. The First Lady shall be issuing an address of her own that afternoon."
WFAA Broadcast, November 21st, 1963
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« Reply #41 on: July 16, 2017, 12:04:19 PM »


The Kennedys Arrive in Dallas, November 22nd, 1963

  Lyndon Johnson's life was cut suddenly short the afternoon of November 22nd from apparent sniper fire in an open motorcade in Dallas. The news cycle captured, moment-by-moment, the shock of the president's sudden death. The vehicle containing the president, along with his entourage, arrived at Parkland Memorial Hospital ten minutes before Johnson had been pronounced dead. John Connally suffered three entry wounds, although with none fatal he would go on to undergo intensive surgery followed by several months of recovery.

  Across the world, networks broke their daily schedules to carry on with coverage of the assassination. Those countries visited by the president played audio reflections from those who had known Johnson. American streets were completely vacant that day as the nation intently observed the uninterrupted programming. Nikita Khrushchev stated that the death of the president was a tragedy, and that although the two shared countless disagreements, "I shall always keep the memory of my meetings with him." Other world leaders expressed similar sentiments.

  Two suspects were taken into custody following the shots fired. First, a depository worker named Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of delivering sniper fire from a building along the motorcade route. Oswald was discovered and arrested inside the Texas Theater when a ticket clerk phoned police. A second accused shooter, Thomas Gerald Cherry, was simultaneously arrested by federal agents. Cherry had been found ducking inside his '62 Rambler Classic, laying on top of a Carcano infantry rifle: apparently with the hope of hiding the weapon. Each man was brought in to the local county jail. Interrogation would follow.

 Rushed on-board Air Force One with his spouse, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was now, by the law of succession, the next rightful President of the United States. He painstakingly placed his hand on a copy of Saint Joseph Sunday Missal (A copy of the Bible had not been on the plane) and repeated the words uttered by District Judge Sarah Hughes. At 2:27 p.m., the Oath of Office was thereby conducted, and Kennedy now officially wore the title of president.

  The press readied themselves for an entirely new brand of president. Although they had enjoyed his public appearances over the past several years, the networks' talking heads repeatedly talked down the vice president, exclaiming that his political and social inexperience served only as a detriment to the Johnson Administration. The public wondered if Kennedy would carry on Johnson's policies, and, should he seek to accomplish just that, if his lack of a substantial congressional resume doomed any domestic agenda whilst in the crib. An unaccredited congressman is cited in The Making of the President with the November 22nd quote, "The Great Society has died with Lyndon Johnson."

  Air Force One, landing in Washington at about 5:00 p.m., had its passenger compartment door open to a sea of floodlights and reporters. The casket exited first, followed directly by an emotionless Lady Bird Johnson. Minutes later, John Kennedy, accompanied by his wife Jacqueline, approached an impromptu podium encircled by microphones, and proceeded to put forth his first public remarks as president.

  "What has occurred today is an unspeakable act: for the nation and the world. We all feel the sorrow bared by Mrs. Johnson and her family. I will work to the greatest of my ability to protect the legacy of President Johnson. In this objective, I humbly ask for your support."
 
"International Grief: The World Pauses in Recognition of Pres. Johnson Funeral
The Washington Post, November 25th, 1963
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Gass3268
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« Reply #42 on: July 16, 2017, 01:12:07 PM »

This version of Johnson is a top-5 President.
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« Reply #43 on: July 18, 2017, 06:00:17 PM »


John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 36th President of the United States  

Chapter Two: Ask Not: A Tale of Confidence in Rain

  John Kennedy expressed hope three short years ago that he may, one day, come to find himself in the White House. The once Massachusetts senator built up a program of domestic and foreign security during his '60 run, one he believed would carry him to the general, yet lost his rising notoriety to the winner of that election: Lyndon Johnson. Coming to an agreement that the Republican ticket could only be successfully thwarted with their North-South alliance, Johnson and Kennedy worked in crafting the pragmatic strategy which brought down the Nixon Campaign of 1960. Close aides to Senator Kennedy reflected on his, would-be apparent, foolhardy hope in playing a meaningful role in the Johnson Administration when he was selected as the vice presidential nominee. The exact minute that the final vote tally ended as it did, any symbiotic relationship between the two figures vanished. When all was said and done, Johnson was president, and Kennedy was not.

  In the weeks ahead, Kennedy swiftly learned that President Johnson had no intention of including him in any matters of national security, be it the Soviets, Cuba, or, when it too became a crucial tipping point, Laos. Lending an olive branch, the president did allow Kennedy to speak on his behalf when it came to domestic matters. This was most apparent during the mid-stage of the Freedom Riders ordeal, when Kennedy toiled alongside Attorney General Hemphill in order to protect the vulnerable riders. The vice president directly encountered a handful of riders in this tumultuous period, and assured them that the administration would seek to find an end to the violence.

  Vice President Kennedy, initially somewhat of a foreign policy hawk, gradually shifted his view in his tenure. He expressly urged the president take a harder line against Khrushchev, especially as tensions in Cuba escalated in 1961. Kennedy wished to attend the Vienna Summit, but, possibly fearing the vice president's inexperience would damage the credibility present in the visit, Johnson instead welcomed Indonesian President Sukarno to Washington to meet with his second-in-command. Kennedy held deep resentment for this move, yet conducted himself in a proper manner and retained relations with the hot-headed Sukarno. The vice president requested minute-by-minute updates of the Vienna Summit and found himself relieved when he heard news of Khrushchev's acceptance of the Partial Test Ban Treaty at the event's closing. As the Berlin issue cooled down in turn, Kennedy, although perturbed with the construction of a concrete wall, may have come to the realization that avoiding potential conflict was indeed a natural scenario.

  Insofar as Laos and Vietnam, Kennedy had been completely, intentionally, left in the dark by L.B.J. By the time Kennedy took the Oath of Office, he had extremely rudimentary understanding and insight into the actions of the C.I.A. overseas. All he knew, according to those historians well-studied in the transitional period in 1963, was that the U.S. was dedicated in securing a safe haven for the Hmong in Laos, and that the overall goal likely included protecting the legitimate government in Laos. Kennedy was briefed extensively on foreign affairs shortly after Johnson's assassination, and, left with a cabinet and an intelligence community filled to the brim with staunch interventionists, read into the recent history of the region.

  President Kennedy, prior to his address before Congress on November 27th, reached out to former Secretary Fulbright as a means to gain an insight into the lead-up of the ongoing, full-throttled American intervention in Laos. This phone conversation, recalled in subsequent decades by Fulbright, "acted as clarification." Precise details as to the substance of the communication remains unknown, however the secretary likely shed light on U.S. involvement prior to September 25th: that of the C.I.A. and the distribution of American financial support. The new president also discovered, as we understand from now-declassified sources, that the numbers of Hmong vanquished in the genocide were dramatically over-estimated: Ambassador Unger's "sure count" exceeded reality by roughly one hundred thousand. According to Fulbright, President Johnson's War in Laos began in earnest in 1961, if not far sooner, and the genocide may have been simply been his casus belli.

"Ignorance and misinformation can handicap the progress of a city or a company, but they can, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicap this country’s security. In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America’s leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason — or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem."
'World Affairs' Segment from President John Kennedy's 1963 Address Before Joint Session of Congress, November 27th, 1963
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Jaguar4life
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« Reply #44 on: July 18, 2017, 09:32:28 PM »

Does Kennedy still have the affair with Marilyn Monroe?
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« Reply #45 on: July 19, 2017, 02:05:35 PM »

Does Kennedy still have the affair with Marilyn Monroe?

"Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice President" just didn't have the same ring to it.
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« Reply #46 on: July 21, 2017, 07:42:26 PM »


The President and First Lady Attend the Formal Funeral for Lyndon Johnson

  When Kennedy issued his first congressional address as president, the country endured somewhat of a culture shock. This new man entering the White House did not have any semblance of a resemblance to their president of the prior years. Everyone had grown so accustomed to the thick Texan accent, the abrasive personality, the plain-talk method of speaking, and more than anything, the seclusion of Johnson. Here and now, to have a young and mild-mannered, Harvard-learned Bostonian speaking on behalf of the Executive Branch provoked a mixed reaction: some vocally criticizing the president for his stark differences.

  Regardless of this phenomenon, following the trauma of the assassination, all were glad to hear the comfort of a presidential figure once more. Kennedy's speech, borrowing elements of Johnson's initial platform, sought to assure the public that he, as well as the nation, must press onward. He proclaimed that the Johnson-era domestic programs must come to full fruition, remarking that legislation like the Occupational Opportunity Act merely represented an infantile stage of development. From this point, the president introduced several new concepts that Johnson merely touched upon in his time, including affordable housing for the poor and the start of a new healthcare project.

  With the technicalities remaining ambiguous, Kennedy did not include any specific citations into the culprits of the shooting, nor of their motives. He did make a solid case, however, that the sort of manic hatred that drove a man, much less two or more, to go forth and kill a president of the United States ought to be addressed. As one of the hottest points of tension in 1963 had been civil rights, some certainly held an inkling that a maniacal segregationist may have taken part in the crime. Therefore, when Kennedy briefly spoke to cleansing us "of all prejudice," the press took this as a sign that this new president was no softer on the race issue than his predecessor.

  As per securing justice in the aftermath of the brutal slaying of President Johnson, the investigation ensured a serious and tumultuous hurdle on the afternoon of November 25th, 1963. Thomas Gerald Cherry, one of the investigation's chief culprits, was found dead in his county jail cell. The cause of death was deemed cyanide: an apparent suicide. Those county guards relented their failure to have "thoroughly" searched Cherry following his capture, meaning he well may have hidden a capsule containing the poison. Cherry's suicide, plastered all across the press, ruffled the feathers of the investigating team as well as the present administration. Only one suspect remained alive.

  President Kennedy sent out an executive order regarding the safe and observant treatment of Lee Harvey Oswald on the evening of November 25th. The second perpetrator was transported from the Dallas police station to Hutchins State Jail via an armored vehicle in private: barred from reporters and crowds. Attorney General Hemphill focused an immense amount of brain power toward this goal, and, as assisted by federal guards, he succeeding in moving Oswald to a secure facility.

Kennedy Administration Orders Commission on Johnson Assassination
Trial Preparations Begin for Lee H. Oswald

The New York Times, December 3rd, 1963

"Governor Wallace has announced the conclusion of his state investigation into the Johnson Assassination. He has revealed that, and I quote, 'no ties whatsoever' exist between the recently self-immolated suspect, Alabama resident Thomas Cherry, and the infamous United Klans."
NBC News, December 14th, 1963
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« Reply #47 on: July 22, 2017, 05:01:48 PM »


Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOMM) Meeting, January, 1964

  During this intermediary period in mid winter, with the Oswald Trial struggling to find impartial jurors, the president began to pursue a transformation of the sitting administration officials. Kennedy believed, as opponents of Lyndon Johnson relentlessly insisted, that his predecessor had less so been guiding his foreign and domestic policy teams than they had been guiding him. Observing this play out over the course of the L.B.J. incumbency led Kennedy to bring into the fold several new faces.

  Members of Johnson's upper echelon, aside from Hemphill and Udall - and to a lesser extent McNamara and Symington - distrusted Kennedy with the reigns of the Executive Branch. They, too, understood that this feeling was mutual in totality, yet none apart from the isolated Chief of Staff, Walter Jenkins, resigned before 1964. President Kennedy replaced Jenkins with his friend and campaign ally, Kenneth O'Donnell, with whom he would work closely on numerous endeavors in the transitional period and beyond. With O'Donnell in command, disgruntled Johnson-ites nicknamed the incoming leadership "the Irish mob," disparaging the reputation of the new administration before truly getting its feet wet.

  In domestic affairs, John Kennedy retained the bulk of the existing team which assisted in crafting the image of the Great Society and learned immensely from Johnson's dealings with Congress. The president hired two additional senior consultants to work on future proposals, Robert Sargent Shriver and, his brother, Edward M. Kennedy. These two led an effort to expand the scope of VISTA as one of their first initiatives. The VISTA budget, as well as a slew of other Johnson programs, nearly doubled in following budget negotiations. Robert McNamara, returned to working exclusively within the Department of Commerce, proudly announced on December 28th that American GDP reached a point higher than any in the past five years, and, more so, reported unemployment fell to 4.1%: down from 6.9% when Johnson first took office.

  Close aides to the president reflected on Kennedy's indisposition in regards to the then-present state foreign affairs. As insisted by defense aide James Collins in biographer Robert Dallek's A Life in Turn: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1993, "Jack was sick to his stomach at the thought of sending a continuous loop of soldiers to die in the mountains of Laos, and refused to consider any further activities in Vietnam. He allowed the C.I.A. to move ahead in the Cuban Project and did not escalate in the Diem conundrum, but Johnson's decision to instigate military action in Laos deeply left the president disconcerted. Johnson enclosed himself in such a damned bubble that he very well may have gone on to drop a warhead on Ho Chi Minh City."

  Sitting in the Oval Office for less than two months, President Kennedy was unwilling to turn tide with too much expedience. He took Fulbright's commentary with a healthy dose of skepticism, yet read further into the situation in his first smatter of national security meetings. He caught on swiftly to the mood. The Joint Chiefs asserted their confidence in maintaining troops in the region, if not pressing into Vietnam entirely. As Gordon Blake, as per his tendency, stressed the need for increased strikes along the DMZ, he had been interrupted by one of several new voices in the room.

  General David Shoup, on-boarded by President Kennedy in December, retorted that morale for the opposition exceeded any expectation American personnel had assumed. The Pathet Lao, in addition to the North Vietnamese, believed in their cause of liberation, and dropping streams of bombs would only serve to legitimize their belief that the U.S. fought for colonization. O'Donnell inquired as to the purpose of escalating troop movement along the DMZ if the occupation had already cut off the transport of artillery. Blake struggled to answer. President Kennedy motioned, stating that as long as the North Vietnamese are cut off from infiltrating South Vietnam, there shall be no further discussion of American military involvement of the region.

  From the early weeks of 1964, the conflict remained a stalemate in Laos. Left with few alternatives other than abandonment or total war, Kennedy authorized an amplification of C.I.A. embroilment in the region, happy to see the same men who had crippled the economy of Cuba running new operations in Southeast Asia. Ambassador Unger was fired in early January for "improper conduct" and speedily interchanged with another. The amount of American soldiers in Laos remained stable, hovering around 23,000, and the president contemplated gradual disengagement if diplomacy proved a viable option.

Sen. Goldwater: Yes, I Am Running
The Southern Courier, January 6th, 1964

"You asked for it! For the ninth time this morning! The Beatles with their chart topper hit, 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'!
WCBS FM Radio Broadcast, January 9th, 1964
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Jaguar4life
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« Reply #48 on: July 22, 2017, 05:41:15 PM »

President Kennedy meets the Beatles!!
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« Reply #49 on: July 23, 2017, 06:59:48 AM »

Somewhat surprised you're portraying Kennedy as being to the left of Johnson. Given Jack's relative conservatism in the Senate, I wouldn't have been surprised if his years at the helm were seen as a long list of wasted opportunities for America's progressives. This is still very early though. Fantastic work!
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