Monday, May 10, 2010
test - good luck!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Thomas Kean
Nixon Doctrine
The Nixon Doctrine (also known as the Guam Doctrine) was put forth in a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969 by U.S. President Richard Nixon. He stated that the United States henceforth expected its allies to take care of their own military defense, but that the U.S. would aid in defense as requested. The Doctrine argued for the pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies.
In Nixon's own words (Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam November 3, 1969):[1]
- First, the United States will keep all of its treaty commitments.
- Second, we shall provide a shield if a nuclear power threatens the freedom of a nation allied with us or of a nation whose survival we consider vital to our security.
- Third, in cases involving other types of aggression, we shall furnish military and economic assistance when requested in accordance with our treaty commitments. But we shall look to the nation directly threatened to assume the primary responsibility of providing the manpower for its defense.
The doctrine was also applied by the Nixon administration in the Persian Gulf region, with military aid to Iran and Saudi Arabia, so that these U.S. allies could undertake the responsibility of ensuring peace and stability in the region.[2] According to author Michael Klare,[3] application of the Nixon Doctrine "opened the floodgates" of U.S. military aid to allies in the Persian Gulf, and helped set the stage for the Carter Doctrine and for the subsequent direct U.S. military involvement of the Gulf War and the Iraq War.
Carl Bernstein
EEOC Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
ERA
Although the Nineteenth Amendment had prohibited the denial of the right to vote because of a person's sex, Alice Paul, a suffragette leader, argued that this right alone would not end remaining vestiges of legal discrimination based upon sex.
OPEC
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Rosa Parks
Ngo Dinh Diem
March Against Death
Port Huron Statement
The Port Huron Statement challenged what it viewed as most Americans' complacency with the status quo, though it blamed much of such complacency upon the efforts of an entrenched power elite to maintain its status,
"The apathy here is, first subjective — the felt powerlessness of ordinary people, the resignation before the enormity of events. But subjective apathy is encouraged by the objective American situation — the actual structural separation of people from power, from relevant knowledge, from pinnacles of decision making. . . . The American political system is not the democratic model of which its glorifiers speak. In actuality it frustrates democracy by confusing the individual citizen, paralyzing policy discussion, and consolidating the irresponsible power of military and business interests."[11]
Although some critics have accused The Port Huron Statement of espousing Marxist beliefs,[12] the statement itself strongly condemned communism.
Henry Kissinger
A proponent of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a dominant role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with China, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. His role in the bombing of Cambodia and other American interventions abroad during this period remains controversial.
Kissinger is still a controversial figure today.[2] He was honored as the first recipient of the Ewald von Kleist Award of the Munich Conference on Security Policy and currently serves as the chairman of Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm. Kissinger was the "most frequent visitor" to the George W. Bush White House as an unofficial political adviser on Israel and the Middle East—including the Iraq WarBetty Friedan
Betty Friedan is a leading figure in the "Second Wave" of the U.S. Women's Movement, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is sometimes credited with sparking the "second wave" of feminism. Friedan co-founded National Organization for Women in 1966 which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men". She also wrote the book Our Wayward Sons.
In 1970, after stepping down as NOW's first president in 1969, Friedan organized the nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality on August 26, the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote. The national strike was successful beyond expectations in broadening the feminist movement. The New York City march alone attracted over 50,000 women.
Oliver North
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies.[1] It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States.[2] Most prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the movement emphasized racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests,[3] advance black values,[4].
"Black Power" expresses a range of political goals, from defense against racial oppression, to the establishment of separate social institutions and a self-sufficient economy (separatism). Not only did this "Black Power" movement encourage separatism, but it helped usher in black radical thought, and action against what was considered to be an elusive, yet visible higher power. The earliest known usage of the term is found in a 1954 book by Richard Wright titled Black Power.[5] New York politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. used the term on May 29, 1966 during a baccalaureate address at Howard University: "To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power."[6]
Peace with Honor
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
“The Problem with No Name”
The "Problem That Has No Name" was described by Friedan in the beginning of the book:
- "The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning [that is, a longing] that women suffered in the middle of the 20th century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries … she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question — 'Is this all?"
John Sirica
John Joseph Sirica (March 19, 1904–August 14, 1992) was the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he became famous for his role in the Watergate scandal. He rose to national prominence during the Watergate scandal when he ordered the President Richard Nixon to turn over his recordings of White House conversations.
Sirica's involvement in the case began when he presided over the trial of the Watergate burglars. He did not believe the claim that they had acted alone, and persuaded or coerced them to implicate the men who had arranged the break-in. For his role in Watergate the judge was named TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1973.
He was nicknamed "Maximum John" for giving defendants the maximum sentence guidelines allowed.
Mark Felt - Deep Throat
was an agent of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation who retired in 1973 as the Bureau's Associate Director. After denying his involvement with reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein for 30 years, Felt revealed himself on May 31, 2005, to be the Watergate scandal's whistleblower, "Deep Throat."
Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters in Washington, D.C. During the early investigation of the Watergate scandal (1972–74), and shortly after the death of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in May 1972, Felt was the Bureau's Associate Director, the second-ranking post in the FBI. While Associate Director, Felt provided Washington Post reporter Woodward with critical leads on the story that eventually saw the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. In 1980, Felt was convicted of the felony of violating the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground Organization, by ordering FBI agents to search their homes as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a $7,000 fine but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal. In 2006, he published an update of his 1979 autobiography, The FBI Pyramid. His last book, written with John O'Connor, is titled A G-Man's Life.
Felt's leaks to Woodward spurred the investigations that led to Nixon's resignation.Joan Baez
"Mother's Little Helper," - Valium
Valium, the drug that revolutionized the treatment of anxiety and became a cultural icon, is 40 years old this year.
The drug owes its success to the stubborn streak of chemist Leo Sternbach, who refused to quit after his boss at Hoffmann-La Roche ended a project to develop a tranquilizer to compete with a rival company's drug.
Sternbach tested one last version and in just a day, he got results: The compound made animals relaxed and limp.
Sternbach had made the discovery that led to Valium. Approved for use in 1963, it became the country's most prescribed drug from 1969 to 1982.
"It had no unpleasant side effects. It gave you a feeling of well-being," Sternbach, 95, said. "Only when the sales figures came in, then I realized how important it was."
The Roche Group, Hoffman-La Roche's parent, sold nearly 2.3-billion pills stamped with the trademark "V" at its 1978 peak.
While its name was derived from the Latin word for being strong, Valium soon picked up nicknames: "Executive Excedrin," for its use by the corporate jet set, and "Mother's Little Helper," after the title of a Rolling Stones tune about an overstressed housewife who "goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper."
Kent State University
The Kent State shootings – also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre – occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.[5]The protest, originally called to protest the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, had morphed into a protest against the presence of the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State campus.
George Wallace
"Blowin' in the Wind"
"Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan and released on his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Although it has been described as a protest song, it poses a series of questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" has been described as "impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind".[1]
In 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Saturday Night Massacre
A lot more to it, really: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre
On October 20, 1973, at the height of the Watergate scandal, an event called the "Saturday Night Massacre" took place at the hands of sitting president Richard Nixon. He ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Cox had denied President Nixon's request that instead of turning over recorded conversations he accept summarizations of the Watergate tapes. Rather than execute this order, Richardson resigned his position from the Justice Department in protest. When Assistant Attorney General William Ruckelshaus refused to comply with President Nixon's request, Nixon fired him, although Ruckelshaus had already written a letter of resignation. The order to fire Cox was ultimately carried out by Solicitor General Robert Bork, but much damage had been done. In the immediate aftermath of the event, Richardson and Ruckelshaus held a live, televised press conference in which Richardson declared, "At stake, in the final analysis, is the very integrity of the governmental processes I came to the Department of Justice to help restore."
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Shah Pahlavi
EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
Monday, May 3, 2010
All the Presidents Men
Fragging
In the U.S. military, fragging refers to the act of attacking a superior officer with a fragmentation grenade.[1] The term originated in the Vietnam War and was most commonly used to mean assassination of an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit, often by means of a fragmentation grenade, hence the term. Although the term is derived from the grenade, the act was more commonly committed with firearms during combat in Vietnam.
Though not necessarily true, the reason for choosing a fragmentation grenade is to avoid culpability for the killing. The grenade can be thrown in the heat of battle and soldiers can claim that the grenade mistakingly landed too close to the person they "accidentally" killed. Unlike killing with a firearm, death by a shrapnel grenade cannot be readily traced to anyone, with ballistics forensics or otherwise. The grenade itself is detroyed in the explosion, and the resulting shrapnel shows no traceable characteristics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging