A decade of tragedy, success
It's been a mad ten years—almost beyond description. It's been ten years full of giants taking giant steps for better or worse in almost every field.
JFK—man of decade
Bv VIKI HYSTEN
The editorial writers of the Kansan have voted on the most important news figures of the 1960's, and their vote as giant among giants was the late John F. Kennedy, youngest man to hold the position of U.S. president, symbol of courage, change and conviction, immortalized by his assassination Nov. 22, 1963. His death was mourned throughout the world.
The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., black civil rights leader killed in April, 1968 by a white assassin, ranks number two. Dr. King was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and an advocate of nonviolence. His death touched off riots in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities.
In third place is one of the most controversial figures in White House history—Lyndon Baines Johnson. After Kennedy was assassinated Johnson found himself in the position of 35th president. Through his presidency Johnson was to face a number of trials. Among them were Vietnam, poverty in the United States, and increasing racial conflicts between blacks and whites.
The astronauts—Soviet and American—rank fourth. Their aspirations were climaxed July 20, 1969, when an American, Neal Armstrong, became the first man to walk on the moon.
The fifth-ranking news figure of the decade is the late Ho Chi Minh. As president of Vietnam he restored a sense of nationhood to his country and instilled such a fighting spirit in the North Vietnamese that for almost a decade they have withstood the mighty blows of the most powerful industrial nation on earth.
The austere and dignified Charles de Gaulle, former premier of France, ranks sixth among the news figures. During the decade De Gaulle withdrew the French from Algeria, upset NATO's military organization, continued to re-arrange things for a European unity with France as its leader, repeatedly blocked Great Britain's admission to the Common Market, gave France a place among the nuclear powers despite American and Soviet objections, and in 1969 stepped down from offence rather than face defeat at the polls.
In seventh place is Red China's Mao Tse-tung, chairman of the Chinese Community party, initiator of the "Great Leap Forward" to purge the party; and the spark
Robert Francis Kennedy, trying for the presidency in June 1968, had just won the California Democratic primary. Before the day was over, another symbol of youth and vigor lay dead, a bullet in his brain. Kennedy caused excitement wherever he went and was gathering a large political following. He was voted eighth among the newsmakers.
behind the great cultural revolution in Red China.
The late Pope John, who initiated liberalizing moves taken by his successor, Pope Paul, was voted ninth among the giants. Pope Paul called Roman Catholic leaders from throughout the world for the first Ecumenical Council since 1869.
Voted tenth was Alexander Dubeck, former head of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party. Dubeck was named as the man who "brought a national spirit to flower and became his country's hero." Because Dubeck gave his people free speech and voice in politics, Soviets invaded his country with troops and tanks and later expelled him from the Communist party.
Others who received several votes were Richard M. Nixon, Leonid Brezshnev, Soviet leader responsible for the military invasion of Czechoslovakia, and Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet premier, ousted from office in 1964.
Vietnam war top story
The war in Vietnam has been voted the top news story of the 1960's by Kansan editorial writers.
The students considered the involvement of the United States in Vietnam, progressing from advisors in the early sixties to a troop strength of 548,000 this year and a casualty count of 300,000, to be the major event of the decade.
The combined American and Soviet space programs were put together to place in the number two position. These programs started with Sputnik and culminated with the moon landings of July and November.
The third top story of the decade was that of civil rights. All of the freedom marches, sit-ins, riots and legislative enactments were included.
The assassination of a president was rated by the editorial writers as the fourth story of the decade. John F. Kennedy's death and the events that followed constituted one of the major news stories of the decade.
Student protest across the United States and the manner in
Dec. 17
1969 KANSAN 7
The decade could be called a decade of death because the assassination of Robert Kennedy ranked as number eight and brought the number of assassination stories in the top ten to three.
which many of the protests were handled was the fifth rated news story of the 1960's.
Another assassination was listed in the top ten stories The death of Martin Luther King in Memphis was rated the number six story.
The seventh ranked story was that of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Dr. Christian Barnard made medical history with his heart transplant operations in South Africa. This story was number nine in the voting.
Alexander Dubeek's liberal policies in Czechoslovakia and the resulting intervention by the Russian Army was voted the eleventh top story.
The tenth story was that of the Six-Day War in the Mid-East and the concern felt for this situation by the United Nations.
China's detonation of the Hbomb brought the realization of the people that nuclear weapons
The thirteenth rated story was that of the building and the later closing of the Berlin Wall. The controversy within the Catholic Church which had many priests and members differing with some of the Pope's rulings was the fourteenth ranked story.
The nineteenth ranked story of the decade was the U-2 incident in which Francis Gary Powers' plane was shot down over Russia and helped kill the Paris summit talks.
had spread to China. This story rated the number 12 spot on the top stories of the decade.
The continuing tensions between Russia and Red China was rated by the Kansan editorial writers as the number 17 story and they voted the story of Biafra's civil war with Nigeria into the number 18 spot.
President Nixon's political comeback and his successful race for the presidency was rated by the Kansan editorial writers as the number 20 story in the top 20 stories of the decade.
John F. Kennedy's election and inauguration was the fifteenth ranked story and the nuclear test ban treaty which brought an end to nuclear testing in the atmosphere was number 16.
A lighter look...
A President of the United States lifted his dog by the ears in the face of protests from a sympathetic nation, four Cockneys grew their hair long and led a host of ecstatic youth into Sgt. Pepperland, one bare-breasted woman played a New York cello recital and drew less than rave notices, Liz divorced Eddie and married Richard.
America watched it all during the Sixties—laughed and wept and scorned it all with an abandon born in escape from the turbulent, insoluble world about them.
Elvis Presley was released from the Army to the cheers of bobbysoxers and fan magazine publishers and the decade was under way. Government by grandfather was going out and an enviable young aristocrat named Kennedy entered the White House.
"Give me your hand," he asked and the nation responded with vigor, if not to his politics then to his private life. First lady Jackie changed her dress style and American fashion rushed to accommodate.
Presidential daughter Caroline rode her pony, Macaroni, around the White House lawn. She dipped in the Italian surf with her mother as photographers recorded the event with telephoto lenses.
The whimical decade impinged on the American conscious via the magic of medialand; the windup dolls that did satirical things and the executive coloring books, Vince Edward's hairy charm on "Ben Casey," college students whiling away their time pushing hospital beds to marathon distances (a group of UCLA undergrads rolled a bowling ball all the way to Stanford).
Folk singers and hootenannies became the new mass sport—no matter that you couldn't sing. Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, the New Christy Minstrels, and Pete Seeger led the way for a generation of guitar drummers.
People were warned that they shouldn't walk in the jungle at night because that was when the elephants were jumping out of trees. The fourdoor Moby Grape hit the joke market, too, and humor rose to a new height of absurdity.
Overseas, Christine Keeler jumped in and out of some prominent British beds and Louisiana's Sen. Allen Ellender rapped the concept of aid to emerging Africa before citizens of emerging African states.
Then came topless bathing suits and, later, topless restaurants and bars. The Beatles made longhair a word palatable to youth with their oohing that "she was just seventeen/, you know what I mean/and the way she looked was way beyond compare..."
The miniskirt was introduced to torment male gawkers who stumbled on sidewalks and drove into utility poles when their attention was directed toward a young pair of legs.
Daughters of the American Revolution sold little vials of amber colored liquid for which the formula was AuH20.
"Camp" and the Big American Putdown became popular; Mrs. Miller's off-beat, off-key songs and Batman's roundabout methods of analysis showed that even television could laugh at itself (while it laughed at the viewers).
Even the miniwoman made news. Twiggy, 17 years old, 90 pounds, 31-22-32, made $120 per hour modeling clothes for women who hoped they'd never look like her and for women who already did.
Haight-Ashbury was the place and Hippies were the people that kicked off a wave of psychedelia and middle class hysteria over the low moral capacity of American youth.
Yes, it was a crazy-quilt decade, and its final year was no different.
The flying nun got pregnant, a swimming pool became a father, and bras were replaced by bosom makeup.
The astronauts got sued for praying and cursed for cursing. Miamians rallied for decency and Aquarians rallied for pot.
It was a beautiful year—1969.
Nobody really got shook when Sally Fields, television's lady of the church, announced that she was expecting. After all, nuns are mortals and the church has been liberalized anyway.
So it's not so hard to envision a nun as a mother. Well, how about a swimming pool as a father? It happened in Sidney, Australia, where the courts decided that a 15-year-old girl had been impregnated by male sperm in the water of the Municipal Swimming Pool. Nine months after the incident the pool became the father of a baby boy. A genuine first for 1969!
One thing that won't be seen as much in the 1970's is the brassiere. The age of containment is over. Thousands of women bounced down the streets of San Francisco Aug. 1, shouting "Ban the Bra., and waving odd-shaped white pennants in the air."
But who needs bras, or even blouses for that matter, when the bosom is beautiful. And now, in 1969, with the development of boson makeup, every girl can look like an air-brushed beauty from the glossy pages of Playboy.
1969 was the year the public tried to bury Paul McCartney alive. The Beatle found that he couldn't get out of being dead simply by claiming that he was alive—at least not when the evidence was stacked against him.
And then there was the Woodstock Music Festival, where the drug generation proved their sainthood by staying away from each other's throats for three whole days.
It was the year that The Doors retreated to the Caribbean after singer Jim Morrison had exposed himself at a Miami rock concert and failed to arouse anything except anger. Jackie Gleason and Anita Bryant then organized a "Down with Obscenity Rally" at the Orange Bowl, and 30,000 people sat around being decent.
But maybe the funniest thing, that happened on the way to 1970 was the humor of Vice-President Spiro Agnew. It was he who philosophized, "Sometimes you feel like a three-pound hen trying to lay a four-pound egg. No matter how it comes out, it hurts."
Now that's funny.