Vietnam marks a fretful year
A year of turmoil abroad and at home; a year of new conquests in space and the Great Society; a year marked with both militant protest and vigorous support for the administration in two major issues—the war in Viet Nam and the fight for civil rights—that was 1965.
The other stories in the "top five" were;
The war in Viet Nam, which reaped the lion's share of headlines in 1965, was the top story of 1965, in the opinion of Daily Kansan editorial writers.
- The Johnson administration's bundle of "Great Society" legislation;
- The continuing civil rights struggle;
- The space race;
- Student demonstrations.
IN THE PAST YEAR, the war in Viet Nam changed rapidly from an internal conflict with a few American "advisers" working with South Vietnamese troops to a war in which American men and resources were a major factor in battles against the Viet Cong.
In January, President Johnson ordered American planes to fly into North Viet Nam in retaliation to a Viet Cong guerrilla attack on an American air base at Pleiku.
In July, the President announced a major build-up of U.S. commitment in Viet Nam in the form of increased troop strength. By next spring, 250,000 to 300,000 American men will be fighting the Viet Cong.
BUT THE PRESIDENT was not giving all his attention to the war in Southeast Asia. He signed bill after bill in his drive toward the Great Society. The passage of the medicare bill and a $1.3 billion program of federal aid to education led the list, but Johnson's satisfaction seemed equally great as Congress sent him bills for the creation of a National Foundation for the Arts and Humanities and a Department of Housing and Urban Renewal, for the gradual repeal of some excise taxes and for conservation, development of national resources, revision of immigration laws and beautification of the American countryside.
ANOTHER PIECE OF legislation Johnson had asked for, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, came at a time when the civil rights battle was being intensified as rapidly as American involvement in Viet Nam. Demonstrations and marches in Alabama were scarred by the murders of three civil rights workers—Unitarian minister James Reeb, Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels and Detroit housewife Mrs. Viola Liuzzo.
The subsequent trials and acquittals of those accused of the murders generated national misgivings. One judicial victory was the conviction of three Klansmen under an 1870 federal statute which makes it a crime to conspire to deprive men of their civil rights.
In Los Angeles, a riot in the Watts district left some residents dead and blocks of the City of Angels in shambles, striking a chord of fear in many Americans who had not before understood the depth of the Negro's frustration and hatred.
The U.S. and Russia renewed their space contest in 1965. In a continuing game of one-upmanship, first Russia and then the U.S. sent astronauts on prolonged orbital flights and space walks.
The U.S. beat the Russians in making the first change in orbital course when Grissom and Young changed the course of the "Molly Brown" three times before landing in the Atlantic Ocean. This week, four American astronauts plan the first rendezvous in space.
THE U.S. CLAIMED the most significant strides in global communications and planetary study this year. Mariner IV relayed the first close-up pictures of Mars and Ranger IX successfully relayed the most detailed pictures of the moon's surface ever seen by scientists.
The orbiting of the Early Bird communications satellite in April made the dream of instant global communication a reality.
ACTIVE PROTEST OR counter-protest cropped up across the nation as students rallied, marched and picketed to express their opinions on the civil rights struggle and U.S. involvement in Viet Nam.
Beginning with the "free speech" demonstrations at Berkeley, students and non-students across the country have been on the picket line almost continually through the year, except for a quiet summer.
By far the major interest of the demonstrators was the war in Viet Nam, which sparked a series of protests and counter-protests against U.S. involvement there.
The demonstrators against the war—dubbed "Viet-niks" by some of their critics, urged burning of draft cards, flooding of draft boards with conscientious objector declarations, teach-ins and a march on Washington in late November.
A MOVEMENT of counterprotest among students supporting U.S. actions in Viet Nam quickly opposed the Vietmiks. Their actions demonstrated that, apparently, the majority of Americans support the U.S. position in Viet Nam.
The other news stories that ranked in the top 20 were:
- KASHMIR—open warfare erupted between India and Pakistan over the state of Kashmir; Red China threatened to intervene and massed troops on the India-Tibet border.
- VATICAN COUNCIL—the spirit of agiornamento inaugurated by Pope John XXIII was observed for four years by prelates of the Roman Catholic church during Vatican Council sessions. After four years of serious examination, major decrees (religious liberty, absolution of the Jews for Christ's crucifixion) and a strengthening of the progressive Church elements, the council closed on Dec. 8. Pope Paul VI announced that he will start beatification proceedings for the late Pope John.
- DEATH OF SIR Winston Churchill—In January, the death of the grand old man of England, who stirred the entire world during World War II with his stentorian oratory and left a legacy of majestic "Churchillian prose," left the world a bit poorer without his imposing presence.
- INDEPENDENCE IN RHODESIA: Unwilling to soften his white-supremist colonial regime and agree to guaranteed control of Rhodesia by its four million black population, Prime Minister Ian Smith
declared his country's withdrawal from the British Commonwealth, fell under world-wide economic sanctions and international obloquy.
- THE BIG BLACKOUT: For 12 long hours on Nov.9,30 million residents of the northeastern U.S.lived in darkness when the Canadian-U.S.electric power connection broke.
- CRISIS IN THE Dominican Republic—When rebel fighting erupted in Santo Domingo in an attempt to return ousted President Juan Bosch to power, the President ordered U.S. troops into the area “to protect the safety of the 2,000 Americans there” and stave off another Cuba.
- NEW YORK MAYORALITY election: In what was an apparent symbol of renewed Republican vigor, John V. Lindsay took New York City away from Democratic rule for the first time since 1941.
- COUP IN INDONESIA: President Sukarno's precarious power in the strife-torn country was shaken again in October when a Communist-inspired group headed by B. K. Aidit, leader of the Indonesian Communist Party, attempted to unseat Sukarno. The attempt failed.
- FRANCIS X. MORRISSEY—Morrissey, a long-time Kennedy political backer, was appointed to a life-time federal judgeship by the President and brought embarrassment to both the Kennedys and LBJ when an investigation of his past revealed that he was ill-qualified for the job and had been inconsistent in detailing his judicial experience. Ted Kennedy, in an emotional speech, requested that the nomination be returned to committee, where it quietly faded away.
- REAPPORTIONMENT—as the states struggled with the problem of reapportioning both houses of their legislature on a population basis, the Senate defeated by a seven-vote margin the Dirksen amendment, which would have allowed a basis other than population to be used in apportioning one house in each state.
- POPE PAUL—for the first time in history, a Roman Catholic pontiff visited the United States and spoke to the United Nations General Assembly in a plea for peace.
- FRENCH ELECTIONS—French President Charles de Gaulle failed to win a majority of the vote in a bid for re-election, forcing him into a run-off election against Socialist Francois Mitterrand.
- CUBA—Fidel Castro, beset with troubles in his island empire, decided to let refugees leave Cuba for the United States.
- HURRICANE BETSY—the tropical storm battered Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi; southern Louisiana was threatened when the storm sank a barge filled with deadly chlorine gas which could have killed thousands.
- PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION—the year began with the spectacle of the inauguration of President Lyndon B. Johnson to his first full term in the office since becoming President after John F. Kennedy's assassination.
— Karen Lambert, Walt Blackledge
Issues of 89th continue into 1966
It is time again to take out our crystal ball and make some rather "iffy" predictions about what the year 1966 will have in store for us.
A safe assumption is that the issues which confronted the 89th Congress will crop up again and again in 1966. Many laws passed by that Congress, proclaimed the most productive Congress ever, must undergo substantial changes and amendments to make them workable. The issues included housing, health, schools, poverty, environment pollution, immigration reform, and regional and big-city maladies.
EVERETT DIRKSEN, Republican senator from Illinois, attributed the 89th's success to the "power of an idea whose time has come." Proposals which had been gaining strength for many years made their way into the books.
But, this may have happened
too fast. Bungling and red tape are showing up everywhere. One example is the anti-poverty program. Operation Head Start, the most talked-about phase of the program, is being called "Operation Dead Stop" by many. Too much was expected from the original appropriation. Workers in the program have found themselves too entangled in money problems and bureaucratic red tape to accomplish anything near the earlier expectations.
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CIVIL RIGHTS leaders show no sign of decreasing their use of the demonstration. And President Johnson plans an even stronger push in this area in 1966. He already has announced plans to ask Congress for legislation "to prevent injustice to Negroes at the hands of all-white juries." His aim is to make the jury box, which he calls the cornerstone of our
new startE safeF Elim-moz
judicial system, "the sacred domain of justice under law." He also plans to ask the civil rights commission to develop a firm foundation of facts from which local and state governments can work in building a school system devoid of racial discrimination.
The Viet Nam war, an issue for many years now, will prove to be an even more crucial issue in 1966. The increase in the draft, accompanied by predictions of increased air strikes on the Ho Chi Minh trail, point to the inevitable fact that the war is destined to grow bigger and more dangerous before hopes of peace can have much justification.
THE AMERICAN government claims to be ready for discussions on the basis of the 1954 settlement at Geneva, but Hanoi does not share this inclination. North Vietnamese
president, Ho Chi Minh, has continually reiterated his preconditions to peace talks. These include the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the acceptance of the Viet Cong's program for communization of South Viet Nam.
IN ANSWER, SECRETARY of State Dean Rusk has declared the U.S. purpose in Viet Nam to be one of saving South Viet Nam, not the American image. In a recent article in
Time, he said, "There has not been and there is not now any indication from Hanoi that they are prepared to accept the self-determination and independent existence of their neighbors as free countries." Under the circumstances, peace negotiations seem very unlikely.
Janet Hamilton
Daily Kansan
Tuesday, December 14, 1965
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