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University Daily Kansan Monday, Dec. 14, 1964
U.S. Elections Voted Top News Story
Perhaps once a decade comes a news day such as last October 15: editors juggled headlines about the Kremlin power shakeup, the British election, the Chinese bomb, the Walter Jenkins resignation, and the World Series.
THE NUMBER ONE NEWS story of 1964, however, was more than a one-day affair—the U.S. campaign and election.From the winter Republican primaries to the post-election realignments, the gaudy spectacle of the U.S. political processes captured the interest and often the fears of the American people.
The electorate chose between two men and between two divergent outlooks on American domestic and foreign policy. Russia, Britain, China -maybe even baseball -will be affected by that decision.
The election also raised the question of whether our political structure is changing from a moderate consensus to a liberal-conservative alignment. The answer may provide us with the top news story of some future year.
SOMEWHAT THE same thing happened in Moscow, where the
ruling Communists retired aging Nikita Khrushchev in favor of two more dynamic young men. Russia's recent history indicates a power struggle and consequent realignment may result from the number two story too.
The datelines this year for civil rights news were scattered throughout the country, from tiny Philadelphia, Miss., to sprawling Philadelphia, Penn. This was the year of action in the passage of a sweeping civil rights act, of violence in murders of civil rights advocates and in big-city riots, and maybe of answers to the soul-searing social crisis.
Action there was in Viet Nam also, and violence too, but at year's end the answers were still missing. Three U.S. presidents, and as many Viet Nam governments, have fought against an elusive enemy that seemed to appear and disappear in the time it took to say, "Negotiate or expand?" Those were the alternatives to the year's fourth story.
NUMBER FIVE ON THE list of events in 1964 was the entry of Communist China into the world nuclear club. The impact was slight at first — as small as
the warhead the Chinese exploded—but the implications for the future weighed heavy on the minds of those searching for peace amidst the temptations of nuclear war.
Other news judged important in 1964:
6. The British government changed hands for the first time in 13 years.
7. The Sino-Soviet gap, widened early in the year, showed signs of a possible mending when Chou En-Lai conferred with the new Russian leaders in Moscow.
8. THE WARREN COMMISSION made public the results of its nine-month investigation on the assassination of President Kennedy.
Lyndon B. Johnson
9. Violence in the Congo's civil war brought death to whites and blacks alike in a country thus far unable to govern itself.
10. The Supreme Court ruled that both houses of state legislatures must be apportioned by population.
11. Animosities in Cyprus caused strained relations between Greece and Turkey, with East-West overtones in the background.
12. Space developments included a Ranger 7 rocket sending 15 minutes of vivid photographs of the moon's surface, and three Russian cosmonauts orbiting the world in the first passenger spaceship.
13. AN EARTHQUAKE devastated parts of Alaska, and sent shock waves as far south as New Orleans.
14. The Ecumenical Council continued to liberalize the policies of the Roman Catholic Church.
15. The U.S. and Russia lined up as chief protagonists in the dispute over payment of special dues for United Nations peacekeeping missions.
— Fred Frailey and Margaret Hughes
Lyndon Johnson Named 'Man of the Year'
The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, was selected as the Man of the Year. While most people probably will remember him as the man who won the American presidency by a record majority, the enactment of the poverty bill, the tax cut, and the 1964 civil rights bill were major accomplishments in the year following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His handling of international affairs, particularly the Gulf of Tonkin incident, also stands out.
Mao Tse-tung
VOTED FOR SECOND place was Charles de Gaulle, the president of France, who is the prime force behind the break-up in European and American unity. He has stubbornly blocked further interdependence among the strong European states, and has increased his influence, if not power, in Southeast Asia and Latin America, France's diplomatic recognition of Red China, and De Gaulle's recent trip into
Latin America are examples.
In an ironic tie for third place are the two powers in the USSR —Red China struggle, Mao Tse-tung and Leonid Brezhnev. One of the prime forces behind the ouster of Nikita Khrushchev, Brezhnev is now the first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. As the main power in Russia, he will be watched by the leaders of the states throughout the world.
AS THE LEADER OF COMUNIST China, Mao Tse-tung has been instrumental in changing China from a backward nation to a more progressive state which this year entered into the growing nuclear family. Probably the prime irritant in the ideological struggle in Communism, his thoughts and actions influence the leaders of the nonaligned bloc of nations in particular. The rising Red Star is one of the chief catalytic agents in international relations today.
Barry Goldwater, the losing 1964 Republican presidential candidate, and Harold Wilson, the winning Labor Party candidate in Britain, tied for fifth place. Since his election as prime minister, he has become Great Britain's voice on the world stage. His instigation of the nationalization of the steel industry was his first major step. Important too was that he was held up in parliament in this action. His energetic actions to reverse the
trend of Britain's balance of payments deficits and to stabilize the pound were important.
IN THE UNITED STATES, Barry Goldwater gave conservatives what they considered their first real conservative candidate in many years. While conservatives were overjoyed at his candidacy, he instilled fear and apprehension into the hearts of many in the world. Despite the fact that his views were upheld by more than 25 million American voters, he was swept under by the greatest presidential majority in history.
In seventh place is the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who tied with John F. Kennedy for first place in last year's voting. The leader of the Negro civil rights movement, King has continued to exercise restraint and endurance in leading the Negro's struggle for equality. The relative peacefulness of this change in social thought is due in great part to his impressive influence.
FINISHING HIS FIRST full year in the Catholic church's highest office, Pope Paul was selected for eighth place. Although somewhat less effective than his predecessor, Pope John, Pope Paul has made innovations in the Catholic church which are history-making. His two trips, one to the Holy Land and one to India, are significant and symbolize the ecumenical movement which also saw the revision of the mass and the exoneration of the Jews as being guilty of deicide.
In tenth place was the ousted Soviet Communist party first secretary and Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev. Prior to his ouster, Khrushchev was the most influential figure in one of the world's most powerful countries. In his time, the United States and Russia moved closer together than since World War II.
— Greg Swartz
Topless Suits,
Uniqueness, even to the point of grotesqueness, marked 1964 fads, fashions, and activities.
NECKLINES plunged lower and lower and lower, until soon designers of swim suits decided to omit the formality of even claiming a neckline. The result—the topless bathing suit "strap."
Whispers rustled the leaves of scandal as several daring young playgirls boldly stepped onto the beaches in California and Chicago with the bare-bosomed creations. And there were murmurings that American morals had gone down the drain with last year's Easter hat.
A rash of singing groups from the foggy isles introduced a new way of life for millions of American teen-agers. "Beatlemania"
has since been studied sociologically, psychologically, and "teen-agically" to determine the magnetism that four shaggy-mopped boys have for the younger generation.
"RINGO" has become a household word, wall-paper has taken the quality of being more easily obtainable from fan magazines than from authorized dealers, and even the male intellectuals on our college campuses take their cue for hair fashions from the million-dollar performers.
Student travel was in vogue again. There were more "Americans in Paris" in July than Parisiennes. In fact, every Parisienne who could afford it left the tourist mad-house for those "out-of-the-way" places that
Dog, Beatles Mark '64
Americans can't find because they are looking so hard.
IT WAS MORE fashionable this year to "sit-down" than to stand up.
The rash of jokes and fads that follow the election crowds were again in evidence.
Middle-aged ladies in gold skirts, with large gold bows in their hair, sold vials of that priceless substance, $ \mathrm{A u H_{2} O}. $ And the other side was noted for its buttons crying "Let's Bury Barry," and "All the way with LBJ."
NEW DANCES WERE introduced via the White House, as President Johnson's younger daughter was known from coast to coast and internationally as being the master of the "frug" and the "Watusi."
Surfing seemed to be the "in" sport. From the surfing groups on the West Coast the thrill of riding a "curl" swept east until the Midwesterners could get the same thrill by riding down a "cool" sidewalk on a slab of wood nailed to two roller-skates, accompanied by a new pop-tune, "Sidewalk Surfin'."
MEN'S SHIRTS CHANGED colors—from the wild plaids of 1963 to muted yellows, pinks, and blues. These shirts, when
Women's legs grew more and more mystical as they began to appear plaid, spotted, textured, flowered, and paisley. Skirts were still short, but a threat came from the designers on the Continent that the length soon would go down.
worn with matching printed ties and handkerchiefs, marked the debonair man.
Americans had more leisure and to consume it they turned to giant films, and giant books, both of doubtful cultural value.
YET JUST AS THE SHIFT, the twist, and the Edsel passed from the American scene, so will the Beatles, the surfers, and the topless bathing suits — maybe those tops will turn up on the men.
- Bobbetta Bartelt